God of truth

The rest of this week has been hardcore in my opinion. What do I mean by that? I mean that I feel like I am all over the place. I feel overflowing in joy one minute and then the next I feel extremely sad. It's crazy the spiritual climate here. The darkness over this place is overwhelming at times, but then God blows me away showing me the authority that He has and I have because He is in me.

Our God is truth. Our God is real. He is loving. He wants a relationship. What does this mean? It means more than just you or me talking...it means letting Him speak to us as well. Our God is real and I've known that, but I see it more and more by looking at these Thai people's faces. I see that they don't have this truth. I see that they are lost and deceived. You can see this in their faces.

Wednesday during the day we met up with Emmie (wongen kafe ywamer) to talk about everything that we've been thinking/feeling/praying about the whole Red Light District nights. During this time my heart was breaking for these girls who don't know the REAL God. The God of truth. For me, one of my biggest things is being real. I can't stand pretending to be okay. I have an extremely hard time when people aren't real with me either. Most of you know I'm a very straight-forward kind of person so for me when we're not being real with where we're at it drives me insane. It drives me nuts for a good reason though. I can't stand when people are like 'God and I are doing great' when really they are mad at God. We have a gracious, caring, loving, and real God He wants us to be REAL WITH HIM. He wants us to tell Him how we're feeling. He knows what we're thinking and feeling anyway. Why not be real and tell Him where we're at? He is a God who meets us in those places. He doesn't want to come into a place He isn't invited. God wants us to invite Him into our lives. He's a God who pursues us, but desires to be pursued as well.

When I was thinking about this entire facade the prostitutes put on...it broke me. When they don't think anyone is watching them you can see the hopelessness in their eyes. But, when they see people they have this 'face' they put on. They put this entire face on because they must 'keep face' because that's what Buddhist's do. They don't show that they're unhappy, etc. When really I know these girls are destroyed. These women are hurting. They are in pain...but they sit there pretending to be okay. The sit there flirting with the nasty older men. They put on this entire act. What if they knew my God, our God, was a real God? What if they knew that He wanted them to be real? What if they knew that God desired to be real with them? What if these girls knew that God wanted to set them free from this fake world they live in? What if the knew what freedom looked like?!?! What would that street look like if all of these girls knew that? What if they knew that God wanted to heal them, love them, care for them, be with them, provide for them??!? What if they knew this?!?! God blows me away with his fullness and wholeness. At the same time God's heart breaks for these girls, but at the same time He is a just God. What an amazing God we serve.

Wednesday night 7 of us went back to the Red Light District in Chiang Mai. Tony, Jacqui, and I didn't go into the main part. We stayed outside the street and walked around while praying the entire time for Megan, Saul, Jenifer, and Will. They were down the main street of bars (prostitution) praying. Emmie told us that it would be best to have people interceding while people were walking down the district. Every time I pray for this God fires me up. He has an amazing way of breaking my heart for these girls, yet giving me the confidence and authority I need, in Him.

I absolutely love partnering with God in this. He gives me the authority because of Jesus Christ. This I definitely don't deserve and will never understand why He loves me this much...but He does...so I'm going to work with it. I feel humbled all the time that I can make a difference. Why in the world does he want to use me??? Who knows!! But he does! Such an amazing blessing. God is ripping down walls there. He IS working. There are things being moved in the spiritual world, but the physical world as well. God is good.

We've done other things as well this week. Monday and Tuesday night we went out to the night market right down the street and set up a free nail painting booth. It was a lot of fun serving the girls and getting to talk to random people. We had a girls night here at wongen kafe Thursday night.  A ton of people came out. We did facials, hair, nails, and I of course made them bracelets. It's been amazing showing Thai people how we love through our actions.  Yesterday we had worship with the Salem, Oregon DTS team that's working at The Centre as well. We only have one more week here in Chiang Mai. Next Saturday we're off to an orphanage for 2-3 weeks. The other Thailand team from LA will be arriving here Monday. It'll be amazing seeing my Swiss Germans.

Keep me in your prayers please. I need it!