Shine at the Shrine

A few days ago we had the opportunity to go on a little prayer walk around our neighborhood. Our contacts took us to the dam.It is absolutely beautiful up there. We then hiked up this little hill and arrived at this shrine:

We were told that the parents in this neighborhood send their children up to this shrine to have sex and become pregnant.  However, for the past few months they have been sending teams up there to pray and a few weeks ago they were talking with people in the village and they have stopped sending their kids up there, because the shrine has “LOST IT’S POWER.”

While we were up there I couldn’t help but have this feeling that this was a place where INNOCENSE had been LOST, I was overcome with grief for all the young girls, who are now mothers. I  prayed that the cycle would end.  A lot of women enter the sex industry in Thailand because of the abuse they endured as children. When does it stop? We began to pray for the people in this village that they would come to know Christ who is Healer, Restorer, and Lover of our souls. We prayed that they would have an encounter with the Living God, who is the giver of life, and that they would learn to love their daughters as Christ loved the Church.  The Lord urges us in Song of Solomon several times “that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases” (2:7, 3:5, 8:4). This is for our own good! The young men now have this desire and their fathers urge them to pursue it, not knowing the damage they are doing to their body and souls. The daughters now carry this huge responsibility of being a mother, and perhaps even feelings of shame.  They are growing up too fast. Bangla Road will not look different until the daughters of Thailand are seen as women of Worth. Christ thought them worthy, and died for them, we think they are worthy too, and we will fight for them!

Cool note: Another group went up to prayer walk the next day, and one of the beds was broken. Sin is losing its power!  

Less is More

The Lord Sustains. I should just end the blog right here. But for your sake and for God's glory I will continue. :-)

We've been in Thailand for about a week now, and what a week it's been. Our days are filled with prayer walking/doing chores around SHE,worship,and ministering to girls on Bangla Road; or working on the land (more about that later), worship, and interceding for our teammates as they go and make friends with the bar girls.Our days end at about 1 or 2 am and for me begin around 7:30 or 8. For those of you who do not know me, I like getting around 8-9 hours a sleep a night, and people around me like it when I've gotten that amount of sleep too. :-)  I get less sleep here than I do at home, but yet wake up more refreshed; because the Lord Sustains.

We are so blessed here at SHE to have Thai cooks prepare meals for us during the weekdays. We are learning to live in community to make sure that everyone gets enough. So I may not always put as much rice in my bowl as I want, however I am always satisfied by the end of the meal.

I am eating less than I do at home, but I am not hungry. The Lord Sustains.


Lastly, one of my favorite songs is "Set a Fire" by United Pursuit Band.
"Set a fire down in my soul, that I can't contain, that I can't control. I want more of you, God."
That has been a prayer of mine for this trip, that there would be less Karina, and more of Jesus.

And here's the really cool part, He's answering it! I find myself praying over people and situations and it's totally the Spirit speaking through me. I don't know what some of the things my students have gone through or are going through, but the Lord does and He uses His Spirit in me to encourage the students He has intrusted to me. Such a blessing. Oh may I be in constant communication with Him, and be completely obedient to Him. May I be His humble servant completely led by His Spirit.

Nightmares in Istanbul

I have read and researched human trafficking, I have walked and ministered in red light districts, but nothing has made me more aware of the tragedy more than what I am about to tell you. 

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to have lunch with a very dear friend, who had just gotten back from Europe. She had been traveling all over the EU because of her career. Her first stop was in Istanbul, Turkey. We talked a lot about all of her adventures, especially the very insane ones that occurred in that city. My ears perked up when she began to tell me that her hotel was right next to a BROTHEL. She told me that one night she heard someone screaming. She ran to peek at what was going on. All she saw was a girl wearing an itty bitty tube top and high heels. She called one of her guy friends to help, to do something. They decided to call security at the front desk. Security was very hesitant to get involved, but because of their insistency security came to investigate. All the while, my friend hears this rustling going on in the room next to her. She overhears the conversation security has with the "gentleman" next door. He tells security that he bought the girl from the brothel next door, that she was "BOUGHT and PAID FOR". That when she screamed, he started CHOKING her. What did security do? They dragged her away.

Needless to say, I could not bear to finish my lunch. My heart was broken in so many ways. I can only imagine this girl's story. She was probably trafficked to this brothel. Her life is a living Hell. If she was not abused by the hotel security for causing them "trouble with the Americans" she was most definitely beaten and abused by the brothel owners, for screaming; if not murdered.

So many emotions ran through me, but the strongest one was anger. Who does this western "John" think he is, to buy a person, for his own sick pleasure to abuse as he wants? To choke her for not submitting to him? This was not how people were intended to be.

In Genesis, it says that God created male and female. He created us differently, but equally. Scripture states that a wife is to submit to her husband. This does NOT mean that all women need to submit to all men. I feel like, a lot of times men have this mindset to rule over women, and this has been testified to be true by men in the book "The Johns" which explores "why men who buy sex, do what they do.' Sin and Satan, are at work in distorting God's word in the minds of millions of men all over the world.

The more I encounter the "John's" the more I am drawn to pray for them. My anger at them does no good. They don't know me, they can't feel my anger. However, my God hears my prayers, and He wants to work in these guys. In His timing they will feel my prayers. They will come to know the God who sent His one and only Son so that their sins can be BOUGHT and PAID FOR.

When the men stop buying sex, women will stop being sold for sex. Please join with me and praying for the sex tourists all over the world. That they will be see the depravity of their sins and turn from it. Pray for their REDEMPTION that instead of buying sex they will become abolitionists!

Dead Religion

Anger. That's what I felt on Monday. That anger turned into bitterness and sadness. Who do people think they are anyways...?

It's very hard to put in words what I experienced Monday, so bear with me. It started like any other regular Monday. I love Mondays. Monday is Wellhouse day. I get to be the hands and feet of Jesus as we go into the darkest places in Birmingham and be a light for Him, by ministering to women on the street, truckers, and anyone God brings are way.

Outreach was going really well. We got to minister with some truckers. They all confessed to be believers in Christ. One man said that he was real religious, but didn't really want to be prayed for. hmm. That just didn't really sit right with me. Well, we prayed for him anyways and went to share with other truckers. We share with them about the ministry, how we want to help get girls off the streets, and also pray with the truckers.

It was during this time we saw a girl, and she was angry. I haven't seen anything like her anger before. She said that she wasn't a prostitute, but was angry at us because we were keeping her from her customers.hmm. She yelled at us some more and then walked away.

We then went to a gas station nearby to see if we could talk to any of their patrons and pray for them. It was very quiet, too quiet. You don't understand, usually the gas station is happenin. People wanting prayer and what not. Well as you know, it's always quiet before a storm.

We walked back over to the truck stop and that's when we saw it. Not 1 but 2 transactions go down. The same angry lady from before got into the "religious" man's truck. The audacity. I was angry. I will not repeat some of the thoughts I had toward that man. I did want to take back my prayers "for safety on the road" though. I felt like He was laughing in God's face. I mean this was an older man, did he not have any children of his own? And where was God? Did we not just pray His presence on to the lot? Had we not claimed it as Holy Ground? Why did He not intercede as we had seen him do countless times before? 

All I could think about was Psalm 37 the psalm I had read countless times the day before. Then the Lord led me to Ezekiel 33:11 today, nearly a week later which reads, "As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! turn form your evil ways!" So I pray for this trucker. That he may feel guilt and shame over his encounter that it will turn him to his knees for forgiveness. Oh, may he turn from his dead religion to a life giving relationship!

Ask the Lord!

When I was in college I had to read a book called "The Great Omission" by Dallas Willard. In the book he talks about how there aren't "disciples" of Jesus. That in this day of information we go to the internet instead of going to Christ for help. He says that, "In our culture, and among Christians as well, Jesus Christ is automatically disassociated from brilliance or intellectual capacity.  Not one in a thousand will spontaneously think of him in conjunction with words such as "well informed," "brilliant" or "smart." He goes on to say, "But can we seriously imagine that Jesus could be Lord if he were not smart? If he were divine, would he be dumb?"

I had a major problem with this part of the book, because I had no idea where he was coming from. So I asked my friends at the time who they thought were the wisest/smartest people to walk the earth, and after some digging around on Facebook, I found their answers. A lot of people had said that Jesus was both the smartest and wisest person. Others said that Einstein, or Aristotle had been the Smartest and King Solomon the wisest; but that's beside the point.

I am saying all that to say, Jesus is the smartest and wisest person to walk on the earth, because, well He created it. :-) The creature isn't smarter than the Master is he?

So why is it that we, (me and you) hardly ever go to Him for advice? On the Race, and then in Nicaragua this Summer, we asked the Lord about anything and everything. We asked Him what road we should go down on, where to go for ministry, what we should do that day, who we should take to. And He responded and we saw some crazy things happen. People being lost, and praying their way to their location. We prayed which way to go and that led us to meeting new friends.

Then I come home, and everything changes. I begin to rely on my own understanding instead of His. I start to ask my friends and family for advice, and not Jesus- who knows what is best for me.(I'm not saying that you shouldn't ask your friends, the Holy Spirit works through them. I just think you should ask the Lord first and see it confirmed through what your friends say.) I mean, I got all caught up in going places that I hadn't even asked the Lord if I SHOULD go, that's why I'm not in Thailand right now. I didn't have a peace about going, because I hadn't sought the Lord, it was my wish to go not His. Even though sometimes I am discouraged by the decision I made, I see why the Lord has called me home for this season in my life.

The other day I was lost and I felt the Spirit tell me to stop and pray for directions, even though I had experienced His guidance before, I didn't have the faith to ask, and I just gave up and went home. What a missed opportunity to see the Spirit work.

This is an awkward time in my life. I need the Lord for all kinds of advice! Not only to ask Him the big stuff like, "Where should I live?  What should I drive? Should I volunteer at this place or that one? How much money should I give to this charity?  Where to go on a mission trip?  If I should go at this time? Who should I date? If I should date?"

I also need Him for the little things. "What should I read today? Who needs prayer? Do I need to call someone and check up on them? I have a few minutes before I have to be at work, how will they be most glorifying to You, Lord?" I want to be led by the Spirit in everything I do.

That is what I've been learning the past few months. How important it is to really ask the Lord before I make any decision no matter how big or small. He delights in that. We are His children after all. What good father when his child comes to him for advice says, "go away, you're bothering me" or "I don't know" or " I don't care." No good father says that. God, the Father who is infinitely good wouldn't say that either. He is delighted when His children come to Him for advice.

So this is my challenge to you, whoever you are. Ask the Lord, or ATL as the cool kids call it; and be amazed.