safe return home...

A huge thank you to all of you who have been praying for me this past month! I am so grateful to have been able to go on this trip. It has really been a dream trip, as I thought it would be. I have learned so much, and do feel changed by what I have seen and heard.

My heart feels heavy for what I have witnessed and the stories I have heard:

for the little children that beg on the streets,

for the people that live on the dumps,

for the women who line the streets waiting for customers,

for those who are raped again and again and again every night under the guise of prostitution.

(yes, some may 'choose', but even that choice is largely due to economic reasons so it is not really a choice).

for those who continue to fear for their survival, hand to mouth being far less than terminology,

for those who are traumatized by the war that raged

No, the stories are not new, and are not rare

Yet I feel very alive, and very grateful.

These voices, these faces, these stories, propel me

into a greater thirst for our GOD to come

for a KINGDOM come that is love, peace, joy...true freedom, wholeness, and intimacy.

into a deeper belief & conviction that change is possible

for corrupt systems, gender discrimination, oppressive working conditions, perpetual destructive cycles

into a thankfulness

for the many organizations and people that are going after, loving and stopping for the one.

into a refreshing relief

for the fact that change is not all up to me ;)

There are a couple themes from the organizations I met with that I

have come to see as ESSENTIAL:

• worship worship WORSHIP. "worship is what is changing the systems, the structures, the patterns at play". ~worship leader/social worker in Pattaya. In response to my question about the roots of trafficking, and my guess in the strong economic pull, the WV Cambodia Trauma Recovery Project Director, replied: "Yes, economic....but it is the enemy that wants to destroy these girls. This war needs supernatural intervention. We pray. I see the Lord's intervention whenever these girls stand up with confidence in court."

• reintegration with the community is the goal if possible: building the best institutional care (shelters, housing, etc), is only steps to reintegrating the individual. 'Center life is the last resort'.
• education: literacy, unformal education, as well job training is essential for the individual to be empowered to make changes, see hope for the future, and step into new possibilities for providing for themselves
• holistic care: providing a variety of services such as counseling, childcare, transportation to and from home and job site, small-business loans for parents/families so they can provide for their children after leaving a shelter, school supplies, scholarships, life skill classes, etc.
• individualized: each case is different, and thus care of each individual needs to look different and be catered to that person's needs
• quality not quantity of care
• peer education: whether street youth, or women who used to work on the streets, many are going back to their communities and talking with their peers or the younger children about the risks of following the same path, as well as the other opportunities available.
• follow-up: staff follow up with the individual after they 'leave the program', some for 10 months, some for 2 years, some for 10 years, it will depend on the individual and obviously the age. Follow up is essential so the person is supported and can really stabilize in their new environment. An individual can also be empowered through follow-up to impact their own community and in turn help to stop the cycles.
• income generation/job opportunities: a huge variety of income generating projects have been developed for a range of ages and backgrounds, from: making cards, jewelry, artisan goods, clothing (designing, sewing, and screen-printing), beauty salons, restaurants, cafes, bakeries, car mechanical work. People in these jobs can learn the soft skills, as well as a variety of skills from customer service to the actual 'hard skill'of cooking to painting nails.
• staff care: staff directly involved meet with outside counselors in addition to regular supervision with inside staff, staff meetings that are life-giving, nourishing, and increase staff connectness and sense of being part of a cohesive whole.

I look forward to seeing how I can integrate these themes into my own work. I am full of stories, ideas, thoughts...and right now, sleepiness. Yet I am home. Thanks for journeying with me.

now, for cambodia...

ANGKOR WAT...

Like many who go to Cambodia, I followed the tourist trail and visited the famous Angkor Wat temples. Their trees that have penetrated the ancient temple walls are known to many, even angelina jolie and her movie 'tomb raider'.

PHNOM PENH....

My mind is buzzing. Ive been here since last Friday and its been great to catch up with my dear friend Kara, meet with various organizations, and learn more about the history and culture of Cambodia. Kara is volunteering as a leadership resident for an organization called Harpswell, which provides girls from rural villages the opportunity to go to university. Their passion and dedication to learn is very inspiring! She is also teaching at a university, attending mainly by students from wealthy privileged families. Wednesday I will teach 3 of her social studies classes, on sex trafficking!


Phnom Penh is a city that has been in the process of restoring itself from being a 'ghost town' during the years of the Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) to around 2 million people! Unfortunately in the past years, the booming construction projects have meant eviction notices for thousands living in slums, some coming home to their whole community being burned down. I witnessed one of these former sites on Monday, as I walked around with Steve from Servants of Asia's Urban Poor. He pointed out to me the new buildings that are constructed, as well as empty plots where families used to live under tarp roofs supported by bamboo poles. Around the corner is their Justees store where guys in recovery from drugs are silk-screening t-shirts with social justice quotes. Click on the link to see more & order t-shirts!

Since 1/4 of the population was either killed or died due to malnutrition or disease during the terrible genocide led by Pol Pot, there is no one in Cambodia left unaffected. Near the center of town, is Tuol Seng, or S-21, the Phnom Penh High School turned prison by the Khmer Rouge. It is a horrific and eery place, with makeshift brick cells constructed in old classrooms, chalkboards still lining the walls. Former torture devices are left on broken beds, and pictures of inmates stare hauntily back at you. Between 17,000-20,000 people were jailed and brutally tortured here in the 4 years of the Khmer Rouge.

Now, PP is a bustling city with motorcycles and tuks tuks packing the streets. It is said that Cambodia has more NGO's then any other country in the world (for better & worse). Fair trade opportunities seem to be all around, with quite a few income generating projects from t-shirt companies, to salons, to coffee shops (Ive been enjoying the food & coffee from as many as I can!)

However, corruption & bribery still abound. I met with International Justice Mission today, who told me that after the Khmer Rouge, only 7 lawyers remained in the entire country, since so many professionals were killed. Now, government officials, police, teachers, etc get paid an average of $40/month. Bribery is thus quite the temptation, if not common practice. Enforcing justice is a problem to say the least. However, IJM persistently trains police and speaks with government officials, in addition to rescuing victims and connecting them to aftercare services.

I also got to visit Daughters of Cambodia today, eat in their delicious cafe, get another pedicure at their salon, buy some beautiful organic naturally-died & fair trade clothing made by the girls, and talk for a couple hours with one of their staff! It is another very impressive and holistic enterprise that opens its door to people who choose to leave the sex industry. Right now they have about 90 girls and 10 guys working in their various businesses.

This week I will also meet with:

• Hagar International (thursday)
  
• World Vision (friday)
  

I am quite excited to learn from these organizations--ideas are already popping in my brain! I have admired what they are doing from afar, and it is a privilege to meet with their staff and learn first hand.

final days with iris thailand team

The last weekend with the team included:
Worship night at Tamar, on one of the main nightlife streets,

followed with passing out more roses to the working girls up and down the street, passing many a caucasian male along the way...

We also hosted a large community block party at the Crossing (a skateboard park/youth hang-out) for the youth as well as kids from Hand to Hand preschool. After a roasted pig, many balloon-stomping games, bubbles, face-painting, & praying for some people. One woman we had been praying for, experienced a powerful and visible freedom from a lot of fear and anxiety. She went from coughing intensely to, as we transitioned to praying for more of the Holy Spirit, joy spreading across her face and beginning to laugh heartily and freely. Her laughter was contagious and we all ended in a fit of laughter. This led us easily into starting a prayer tunnel in the middle of the street!


And:

• worshipped at a Thai church service that opens its doors to many of the women and ladyboys that Tamar meets in the bars. I got to sit in the back and pray with 3 'ladyboys', and joyfully witness the Father's love enwrap them, literally hugging themselves and smiling in the new warmth they felt.
• lunch meeting with Patricia King where we got to hear some of her heart for the children who are trafficked there from Cambodia, leading them to open a safe house.
• prayed for each other! As a team, we took turns, blessing and praying over each other. Beautiful and encouraging words. I am so grateful to have been apart of this team and look forward to hearing how God continues to guide Iris in starting a Thailand base. Many encouraged Iris to in the north where many of the girls come from--get to the root.
  

May God move the mountains and, as they say, open the Heavens!

pattaya: prostitution expected

The past couple of days in Pattaya have been joyously packed, visiting various organizations and participating in their outreaches. Here is a snipet...

The first night we walked along the main strips, from 'walking street' along 'beach road' where hundreds of women lined the benches waiting for customers. I guessed we saw about 1000 women that first night, and I thought that was immense. In fact, there are 20,000 people working in prostitution in this city. Seeing numerous faces, 20,000 starts to lose its distance.

A missionary we talked to, said that he met a 13 year old girl on beach road a couple months ago. He asked her how old she was, 'sixteen', and looked nervously back at what turned out to be her parents. Her parents were selling her out.

Yesterday we joined up with United Christian Ministries (all the local Christian orgs come together EVERY week to worship and pray for each other. beautiful.) Afterwards we had lunch atTamar's restaurant, which is one of their income generating projects for women exiting prostitution. They also have a bakery, a salon, card-making business, jewelry, and English-classes.

Tamar's salon was next, which is right on one of the main strips with bars all around. Even at 2pm in the afternoon, girls were sitting outside the nearby bars, some dancing in the streets, as I got a pedicure. The two bars next to us are 'ladyboy' bars, or transgender. I chatted with a woman who used to be a man at the next door bar. In asking her about her clients: "some of them are good, some are bad" she told me. She's from the north of Thailand, as most of them are. They come to work, mostly 'voluntarily'. They are free to go but feel there is no other economic option for them. Some are divorced and have kids to provide for

back home.

After salon time, we split up to do outreach with Tamar, Yonnie and I went with a Thai Tamar staff who used to work in the 'business'. She has been out for 6yrs and is soon back to her home village to work with children and women. We gave roses to three women who were

working in a bar. It was around 5pm, so business was slow and we were able to buy drinks for the girls and sit and chat with them for about 40 minutes. It was very different from outreach with Nightlight were we had to watch the girls dance and then try and talk with them over blaring music. One of the girls, spoke English pretty well. She had an American boyfriend for about 6 years, he's 68 now and is a retired teacher. He recently had a stroke so his family, wife and children, came over from the US to care for him and bring him home. She said they treated her well, as he had, even though she was his Thai mistress.

That night we also briefly walked around an area known for child prostitution and sweatshops (24/7 tailors). Child prostitution is very hidden, some areas are completely blocked off. So we didnt see any children. However numerous small family-run tailor factories were open and running. We prayed through the streets and for a building that a missionary family is thinking about buying to provide a play area and activities for the children.

Thursday morning, we entered into a different world...Thai jails. We handed out sandwiches and water and tried our best to chat through the bars, but mainly using hand signals as the ones I 'spoke' to we're mainly Cambodian. They come to work in Thailand, the girls in the bars, the men in construction. Many apparently come knowing there is a risk that they will work and then their employers will report them and will get deported unpaid. Since tiny food portions are distributed twice a day, unless people have family in the area and can bring food, the inmates go hungry. So, the local Jail Ministry does what the police allows them to...gives out food and water.

Its a privilege to be here. There are so many more stories, and photos. But hopefully this gives a taste.

Bangkok: praying in bars & hosting a block party for the homeless & prostitutes

It's crazy that I just left Seattle a week ago today! A lot has happened as seems to be the case. Myself and 15 others have been in Bangkok, first staying at a YWAM base, and now at a hostel in central Bangkok. The first couple of days we're fairly restful, with good chunks of time in the afternoon to rest and get over jetlag begin adjusting our eyes to the many sights and sounds of bangkok! We've had the delight of enjoying thai food, including 'chicken on a stick' as depicted in the photo.

Worship & prayer are definitely centerpieces to our ‘work’ here. We worship together at some point every day and have been seriously blessing (& surprising!) various missionaries and staff we meet through prophetic prayer. Yesterday, a long-time staff at Nightlight thanked us after our time of worship and prayer together. They usually pray for an hour before going out to the bars. She said usually she’s ready to give more to volunteers then to receive, and ready to get out there to the bars. But tonight, “I’m experiencing such blessing being prayed for and soaking in the presence of God during this worship time, that I don’t want to leave! I’m so blessed by this time and you all!”


We’ve worshipped in the middle of a park, prayed with Thai women waiting for customers in the broad daylight where every block they are waiting to be picked up and taken to the many hourly motels, prayed last night in bars where women were dancing for white foreign customers, and tonight prayed for healing at a community block party we helped put on! Much to the amazement of all, a number of people were physically healed and we got to feed around 300 people! A number of bad knees & backs, one elderly woman’s sight was almost fully restored, and about 5 deaf people got some if not all of their hearing back! It was beautiful to watch their faces change as they either started to hear or see for the first time, beginning to blink their eyes anew without glasses or start making sounds and shocked by the noise of it. One man described warmth he felt rising in his chest upwards to eventually reach his ears—and pop! His ears were opened! The two ladies in the photo with me were completely deaf and began to hear for the first time!

For those who know me, this is definitely not my ‘usual’ mode of operation—worship and prayer. But I am oh so grateful.

Seeing the older white men walking hand in hand with young Thai girls has been just as disturbing as I thought it would be. Selling sex is insanely prevalent and expected. In some neighborhoods, it is Thai women servicing Thai men. Other blocks or areas there are ‘lady boys’ waiting for men, and then there are the redlight districts that are flooded with foreigners. Some of these districts are for Western men, with Thai girls dancing on the stages—like the one we visited last night. At this hotel, a couple men were eyeing our two tables of 20 mainly white women who were about to go out to the bars that night to meet the girls. One American even came up and asked if we were working (in other words, working as prostitutes).

(This photo is the jewelry made by the women at Nightlight. I can't post photos online, but can show you when I get home!)

I’ve got much more to say about this prostitution-filled world. But this is the taste for now. Thank you and please keep praying. Today we visit a couple of churches, and Monday head to Pattaya.