Outreach Stories

Outreach nights at Patong beach are frequently both the most difficult, and the most eye-opening circumstances I find myself encountering. Our evenings start with prayer, then worship on the way to the beach to prepare ourselves, ensuring we head into serving with a Christ-centered and humble mindset. The goal of these evenings is to bring God’s light and love to the darkness at Patong Beach.

As we are not trained individuals, us students do not interact with the women working on the street, rather, we do a prayer walk. A couple weeks ago we had Kathy Klassen lead us in a Holy Spirit week in which she taught us about who the Holy Spirit is, and the different ways in which he works. That week before we went to the red light district, we participated in listening prayer in small groups. As it was Valentine’s day, we were handing out roses to women on the street, and we prayed to see who God wanted us to give a flower and start a conversation with. The words that my group got were “circus plane” and I got an image of a curly haired mother with sunglasses in a crowded area. So, we headed to Patong, and walked along Bangla Road, praying and keeping our eyes out for the people that the Holy Spirit has placed on our hearts. We reached the end of the street, and I had given out all but one of my roses to different women along the road. I kept my last rose for the woman God had placed on my heart, trusting that if I hadn’t met her on the street I would later meet her on the beach.

At the end of the street, right before where we were to cross over to the beach, we saw a clown, and guess what he was making? That’s right, a balloon airplane for a little boy! I honestly held doubt that we would find our “circus airplane” person as it seemed so absurd, but God likes to prove me wrong and squash my doubts. I grabbed a friend, and together we went up and talked to the clown. Unfortunately, they were Thai and thus there was a language barrier as they didn’t understand English, but they were able to understand that we were Christians, that God loved them and that we were praying for them. I don’t know how God will use that interaction, but I ask that you’d keep this clown in your prayers!

Once we reached the beach and joined the rest of the JSEM students in worship, a crowd began to gather and listen, some even sang along to familiar songs! About a half hour passed and I saw her, a mother walked up with her daughter and she had sunglasses and curly hair. I approached them to give her the rose and started a conversation, we talked for about ten minutes and I was able to explain our purpose for the prayer and worship night and a summary of how God brought me to Thailand. After this, I went to worship with my peers again and at the end of singing Reckless Love by Cory Ashbury, the daughter walked up to me crying and gave me a hug and a flower necklace her and her mom had bought for me from a beach vendor. I hugged her and inquired as to why she was crying and bought me the necklace, and she explained that as she was sitting and listening to the music she experienced a strong feeling that she had never felt before!

This little girl explained to me that she felt a strong sense of love that was very overwhelming, and she didn’t know what to do about it. I then was able to pray for her and her mom right there on the beach and explain that it was the love of God that she felt, and that he loves her very much. I gave her some resources and my contact information so she could contact me if she had any more questions. Please keep this mother and daughter in your prayers as well!

This type of outreach is definitely out of my comfort zone and can be scary because I don’t have much experience! However, my mentors and teachers are great at pushing me out of my comfort zone, and outreach nights are always eye-opening to the amazingly creative ways that God works.

Going forward into the next couple of weeks here are some more things you can be praying for:

• wisdom for our great teacher Tim this week as he continues to lead us through a study of the Old and New Testament
• guidance as team members discern what God’s plan is for them after JSEM
• protection through spiritual warfare
• FFI and the vocational training students
• effective outreach, and for the people we’ve been able to share the gospel with

Thank you for your support!

“To belong to Jesus is to embrace the nations with Him.”

-William Carey