i met God beneath the neon

Sawasdee Khrap!
Now I know what you're thinking, HOLY TEXT BATMAN! Sorry i've not any photos these last few posts, it's not working for some reason. But i promise to bring back tons of pictures yeah?

Alright so, brief update followed by an extensive testimony so buckle up. = )
We're still in Bangkok, Thailand and ministering here. Since my last update, we've been working in the slums, with the elderly, at churches, in the red light district, and at a college ministry. It's been amazing to see what God is up to here and i hope i can put some of it into words for you.
We split up the teams and Chelsea and I's team leaves for Indonesia on thursday. Please be praying for safe travels and a gentle culture shift as we go. Also, a team member was really sick and couldn't make it to Bangkok but is meeting us in Indo (recovered). That can potentially be a sticky situation so please be praying for her as well. Thank you, now onto the good stuff = )


We did ministry with Rak Teh (Thai for - love %100) last night. We went into the red light district and talked to men dressed as men that sell themselves to men. It wasn't the violent crash of awareness that Soi Cowboy was in my DTS (a huge shady section of town with hundreds of bars, "shows", "massage parlors" and brothels, as well as thousands of women selling themselves. You couldn't look anywhere, there was porn happening any place your eyes tried to find solace.) Soi Cowboy was amazing and changed me a lot but it also really shook me up and i'm glad we didn't put the students through it. I don't think most of them could've handled it.
This area was in Pat Pong (another large sketchy area, but not as visible) and was most of the prostitution where we were was a little more hush hush. It was all really chill until we turned down one little street and stumbled into the thick of it. Bars and brothels everywhere (HOTm@le, Banana Massage parlor, Bunny Boys Lounge, etcetera), all of the employees dressed in matching clothes corresponding to the they places they worked from. As we walked, we were called out to "Sawasdee khrap farang la!" ("Hey handsome foreigners") and every now and then and hand would reach out and softly grab our arms. It was dark there, beneath the neon. It was disturbing but not disgusting. It was intense but that's not what the Lord seemed to be preoccupied with. If I ever someone in God's image it was then. How could i be repulsed at someone whom God loves passionately enough to die for them? They weren't evil, they were people. Was it wrong? absolutely. Injust? without a doubt. Broken people do broken things. I won't talk myself up here either, I wasn't burning with holy compassion, I was swallowing anger and disgust as fast as I possibly could. God had given me a glimpse thus far but I did not want to talk to them. Not at all. However, being a snow white "farang" (foreigner) in Asia didn't help me much as in Asia, the paler you are, the more beautiful you are (which is normally such a cool thing...). So seconds into my eternal dialogue with a God, i was interrupted by Pi-Thui, our translator pulled me aside (and yes, her name sounds just like the spitting sound in cartoons when spoken aloud). She said that two of the boys wanted to talk to me . I turned to see two men around the age of 20ish smiling at me. We exchanged names (Bol and Ho...and Sam) and an awkward lingering handshake, heh heh. And then, we talked. "How long have you worked in Bangkok? do you have brothers and sisters? where in Thailand are you from? what's your favorite thai food? do you like bangkok? do you like working here? are you a buddhist? have you ever met a christian before? what do you think of them?"
They'd both been there for 2 years and hated Bangkok. They were from Isaan, an area in Northeast Thailand known for being well below the poverty line. Many young men and women from Isaan and other poor areas of the country are pressured into this business when the family's rice farm is no longer making enough money because of tariffs on rice in California! Parents hear of a neighbor's daughter working at a restaurant in the city that bought her family a new house and send their children to do the same. (A two sentence of summary of economic exploitation). These two might have been here for that reason or maybe not. They both hated working there. Neither of them liked having sex with men at all either They both had sisters they loved dearly and both loved Som Yum ( a spicy clear soup that basically ignites every antrum of your body with a blazing fire scooped from the deepest flames of infernal hell... but it's good). In fact they loved the stuff so much, they wanted to one day open a restaurant and make it to watch farang like me cry tears of fire. They were both buddhist and had never met a christian before. They asked what i was doing there? I told them, I love thailand, I love God, God loves Thailand, why not go to Thailand. They asked to know more so we shared everything we could. We talked for about 40 minutes or so and then prayed for them, for God to bless them abundantly and for Him to reveal His love to them. We told them we couldn't wait to eat at their restaurant the next time we came through Bangkok and left. This is just a little of last night's happenings.

I pray as you read this, you hear my heart. I don't wanna expose the gory details of the sinful world we live in, nor even paint a picture of the sex industry in Southern Asia, these people are exploited enough as is. And I don't intend at all to overlook sin, sin is huge, it's wrong and bad and will land you in Hell without Jesus. Homosexuality is one of them. But I did get a glimpse of the heart of a loving God last night. Graham Cooke put it this way. "We do not serve a God who's obsessed about our sin, He's obsessed with us. God doesn't get disillusioned with us because He never had any illusions about us in the first place. We all get so caught up on "Judgement"! Right now, we're in a season of prophetic grace, we're in between judgements, one in which the wrath of God was poured out on Christ and payed for us (delivering us from what? judgement) and one when God cleanses this world and takes us home. Until then, there is no judgement. There's discipline, God's loving smack upside the head to get us on the right track to deeper revelations of His amazing character. If we don't respond to it, it stores up, disciplines collect and, if you're really stupid, turn into chastisement. In which case, God pummels the crap out of you (spiritual crap, not literal) to make you holy. But there isn't judgement, no not yet. That's why God put us "in Christ" (Colossians 2). He put us in the one place where He couldn't love us any more or any less."
I pray this encourages you. Last night in the fog of electric lamps and synthetic love, i was caught in a flood of hope and i was soaked. So it's my prayer, that this is a drink of water for you, that the Lord would refresh you for His ridiculous goodness.
I don't know anyone more faithful.
If you have any questions, comments, or you hate my guts for what i just wrote, please feel free to send it to me.
I love you and miss you, I long to see you again soon. pray for me as i pray for you.
-Samuel