Well we our trip is coming frighteningly close to being over soon, which is crazy because it feels like we have hardly been here!  We don’t have much time either, so I apologize in advance if this post is a little short. 

I am not sure how much Brittany O. told you about the date we set but the girl wound up not coming. It was heartbreaking but we decided to go get her a birthday card and stop by her bar to drop it off later that night. I couldn’t be more happy that we did. When we showed up she instantly ran out to us an apologized for not showing up. We could all tell she was extremely relieved that we were there. She looked different then normal and I think we all instantly noticed it. She looked sad and didn’t greet us with her usual bubbly personality and you could tell she had taken little to no time to get ready for the night. She explained that she did not show up to our date because her father, who had been in poor health for quite sometime, passed away that morning. She had to come into work because apparently they were low on staff and desperately needed her. 

Wow. Just writing it makes it really sink in again for a second time. What do you say in a situation like that? And how do you show Christ’s love and compassion? Essentially we just gave her her birthday card and gave her a few hugs before bidding her goodbye. Before we left she initiated us exchanging numbers and said she would call us today if she needed anything. We are hoping and praying that we get to see her. If all of you could be in prayer for her that would mean the world to us. She is such a sweet girl with an amazing spirit and working in the bars is not exactly the best way to find a good emotional support system. If there was ever a time where Christ could move in her life it is now. 

I think one of the hardest things we had to do as a team on this trip was walk away from her and say goodnight. Our prayers have been with her every second since we have left though. 

The rest of the night on Bangla was actually really good! ( Or as good as Bangla can get I guess) Brittany O. and I were able to see the girl that we played Janga with at the Moulan Rouge bar again. When we walked up her face completely lit up and she ran out of the bar to come give us both hugs. She was kind of busy working due to the fact that there were a lot of men there, but she still found some time to play a lot of games with us. We weren’t able to say goodnight to her because she got called away by another group. If you could all just keep her in your prayers that would be amazing. She has only been working in the bars for a month now but it is a month too long. I hope to maybe see her again tonight. 

Anyway that’s really all I’ve got to say. At least I covered the bare minimum important stuff. We miss you all but God is doing some incredible things here! Thank you for keeping us and the girls in your prayers!

Love, 

 Anna 

Well this is the second time that I have had to type this blog because we had a blackout and apparently the outlet that my computer was plugged in has stopped working since then. Anyway, yesterday was another day of moving dirt and bar ministry. We went out to the land where the new SHE buildings are being built and our goal was to level out the ground by the lake. It was a very large task at hand, but we managed to at lease make a dent in the huge mountain of dirt (lol). While David, Kara and I were out at the land, Anna and Britnie prayer walked Bangla road where we would be ministering at night.( It is mandatory that at least two members of every team prayer walk before going out to the bars.) We had huge successes in both of the bars that we visited, and we even managed to get a date with one of the girls(who ended up not showing up), but we will visit that part of our story later. In one of the bars that we had previously visited, we had so much fun! The whole staff at the bar was engaged in conversation with us. The bar owner’s daughter played games with a couple of us, while another girl and a lady boy played another game with us-(which David is getting pretty good at, I might add!) I don’t know if this was explained already, but at many of the bars there is a big slab of wood that people use to play a game with. Everyone who plays has their own nail that they have to hammer in. The goal of the game is to get your nail in first. So you go around in a circle and each person gets one time to hit. It is definitely not my game!! I had a really good conversation with a girl that is about my age, and her birthday is actually tomorrow. We got to talking and had an instant connection. She is pretty sassy, but my dad tells me that I am too….so anyway, I found out that she had an American friend just like me and she didn’t drink any alcohol either. I immediately knew that it was someone who worked with SHE. This girl told me all about her best friend from America and how she liked her so much. We also talked about stuff that we liked to do, like shopping, and I asked her if she wanted to hang out sometime soon. We decided that we would meet at McDonald’s and walk to the mall together. (Of course, my team planned to come with me.) I was pretty excited when we left the bar because I knew that the night was a success and I was excited to spend some time with her away from the bar. We headed over to Soi Tiger, another street lined with bars. Anna and I ended up having a good conversation with a manager of a bar. One of the first things she said to us was, “Can I ask you a question?” So we said yes, sure. And she said, “Are you working, or what are you doing here?” So she kinda knew why we were there. We ended up having a great conversation though. Anna initiated conversation with her and we had a really good time talking. Throughout the night we kept trying to go back to the Moulin  Rouge bar, where we had started to make friends with the girls the night before. That bar was packed with men the entire night, so we weren’t able to go back to see them. Well I am going to take a little nap now so that I can be awake for tonight’s ministry! 

Hope all is well at home in the States! We will write about what happened today after we get back tonight! Please be in prayer for the girls that we will be speaking to! :-) Especially for the girls in the Moulin Rouge bar! I pray that the Lord will empty the bar stools so that we can see those girls again!

P.S. There isn’t sugar in the whipped cream in Thailand. It tastes kinda funny. 

Love,

Brittany

Hey all! Sorry, we are really tired tonight- It has been a super long day filled with moving a mountain again…and night ministry!! :) We will post in the morning- well our morning and your evening! Goodnight everyone! 

Hello Blessed (Bless-id) Followers!

Kara here! It was another beautiful (and humid) day here in Phuket.

I started out the day giving a devotional for the SHE staff and with a bowl of corn flakes. After breakfast, we were taken by our trusty wrangler to a Buddhist temple at the top of the dam. It was quite a trek. I have hiked many of hills, but this one was a doozy. After arriving, we took time to pray over the temple and admire God’s creation. Unfortunately, some of God’s creatures called bugs decided to bite a few of us. 

The food here is pretty tasty. If you know me, this sounds weird to you since I do not handle spice well AT ALL! The lovely Thai staff actually makes the food we are given to be less spicy so those of us who are wimps can actually eat it.

Anyway, after lunch, we were put onto a very….delightful project: cotton picking. To be fair, the founders of SHE had already gathered the cotton pods, but we weeded through the cotton taking out cotton seeds, grass, and sticks. The cotton we sorted will be eventually made to stuff pillows and furniture to use at SHE. The task itself was not difficult, painful, or generally unpleasant, but imagine playing with a whole bunch of soft, cotton that goes everywhere even when there is no breeze. Unfortunately, we did have a breeze (although it did not compare to Kansas “breezes”), and the cotton was hard to contain. We had cotton stuck to our clothes, hair, eyes, noses…everywhere. The task really was not THAT bad, and I enjoy helping out any way I can, but the cotton did like to tickle my nose. :-)

After dinner (fried chicken and curry rice!), it was time to prepare to go out to the bars. It is mandatory to worship before anyone goes out onto Bangla Road, and it definitely was great spending time with God. We went back to both of the bars we attended Monday night, and received a warm welcome by the whole staff at the first bar. This was a bar that we had previously been to, and we had already started to built relationships with the bar workers. We really enjoy the atmosphere of that particular bar and the people in it. Through the ice breaker of playing games (Jenga, Connect Four, Jackpot!, or this nail/hammer/wood game), we get the opportunities to connect with people. Tonight, I ended talking with the woman who owned the bar. To be honest, I was not sure if she owned the bar or her parents, but that specific detail did not matter. At one time, we were all talking to each of the personal of the bar. To me, this blows my mind that we are so welcome to have the WHOLE STAFF want to talk to us. I feel the time we spent there to be a God moment. After spending an acceptable amount of time at the first bar, we moved onto the second bar we had attended Monday.

Unfortunately, the bar owner did not receive us well, and the girl we had talked to Monday was not allowed to talk to us. It was a bummer because some of us really connected with her. Since we were not wanted there, we made it seem like we were there just to drink a beverage to try and make things better on her.

We decided to try a third bar because 1. we had enough time to. 2. there was a downpour, and we were trying to wait out the rain. This had really good results. I ended up meeting a girl who had only been working at that particular bar for eight days. Normally whenever I talk to someone, it’s been a few months or years, but not days. To not intimidate the girls, we tend to break up into mini-teams at the bars. The group I was not in ended up having a great time with the girl they talked to. The girl even took a picture of them to document the AWESOME Jenga game they were playing. I have to tell you the Jenga tower they had before Brittany O. knocked it down was REALLY impressive.

Random…whatever. I should have listened to my mother and brought an umbrella. It is rainy season here in Thailand; I come from Kansas, there is minimal rain, but the same cannot be said for Thailand. Even though the random downpours that sometime catch us at inopportune times, we are grateful for these showers because they cool things down a LOT! The result of tonight rain caused quite a bit of water to be on the road when our tut-tut was driving us home. As David stated, the rain kinda looked like chocolate milk that you would not want to drink…yum.

That brings you…us….me….whatever to now. It is after de-briefing, 1:05 in the morning, and I need to get myself to my hard mattress for some much needed sleeping. Thank you so much for the prayers, good wishes, and everything else you all are doing for us; we greatly appreciate all of it.

May the Lord bless you as you go about your day. I pray you be aware of the little things you take for granted and be appreciative. In Jesus’ precious, holy name, Amen.

<3 Kara

P.S. Happy Birthday to my favorite Sister-in-Law! Well, it’s today in the States, technically it’s the 24th here…

Hello family, friends, and other loved ones! Today was an interesting day in the country of Thailand. We all got up early to go see what is called the “Big Buddha.” And if the name doesn’t give it away, this is a BIG Buddha. Basically, it is the largest Buddha statue in Thailand, and perhaps even the whole world. (Warning… My facts may not be 100% accurate, but it’s still at least one of the largest Buddhas in the world. It was a little disconcerting to walk around and see 300+ Buddha idols being worshipped around this larger one. But the greatness of God far exceeds this stone carving! Just by turning 180 degrees, you would see the beautiful land of Phuket and its beaches. Such a beautiful creation of God’s!! One of the other teams here told us that nine times out of ten when a person is walking up to this statue, they will turn left to look out at God’s creation before looking at Buddha. Amazing, right? 

Then it was lunch time! After lunch, we headed out to “THE LAND” for some manual labor! This is where SHE is building a second site. On the way there, something wet started falling from the sky… RAIN!!! Such a blessing after the many hot days that we have experienced since being in Thailand. The rain cooled us and the weather. Once we got to the new site, we took a tour, and then were assigned our task for the afternoon. We were to move a mountain! Okay, so that may be exaggerating a little bit.  Our task was to move a huge pile of dirt down a sloped hill in order to raise the ground level by a swamp so it wouldn’t be so swampy. Brittany O, Anna, Kara, and I set right to work at this, while David started weed-wacking. The rain had let up while we moved the dirt, but once we were headed back to SHE, it picked up again. Such a blessing!! The cool weather continued! 

We decided that we were all so exhausted from our afternoon, that it would be best not to go out to Bangla Road tonight. We rested and then relaxed by getting some ice cream. Delicious! Well, this girl is super tired and pretty sure the rest of her team is probably asleep by now! 

Please just continue your prayers for our team, and we thank you for the prayers you’ve already prayed! Many of our team are missing home, so please just pray that we can keep our focus here in Thailand, and that we don’t miss home too much! We love you all!!!

Until tomorrow,

Britnie J.

Today was another great day here in Thailand! We got up for devotion with the SHE staff and got to see the full staff. When we got here on Friday, we got to see some of the staff, but we didn’t get to meet many of them. After devotion was another cornflake breakfast along with a team devotion. We then had just a relaxing morning til lunch where we had some really good Thai food. After lunch was really when our day really kind of started we had some work to do around the SHE center one of the jobs was putting oil on the posts in the car ports to help keep the termites away which was what I did. Britnie J. and Kara went around cleaning and taking out the trash around the center. Anna and Brittany O. went for a prayer walk on Bangla Road in Patong to prepare for our ministry tonight. 

After we had finished and Anna and Brittany got back, I was called over to their room to listen the song they had been listening to all of the trip so far; I have to say it is really just not my style. It was nice getting to hang out with the girls and have some bonding time, but at one point the conversation left all realms that I knew anything about went straight into girl talk. So I sat there and tried to interpret what they were talking about, but my translation part of my brain did not seem to be working today. Oh well, I guess! We did go check out the 7/11 that is down the road, and I had to try some Asian chocolate milk. It wasn’t to bad at all. 

After supper the girls went with some of the SHE staff, and I went to hang out with the only other guy that is here. Which I have to say was much needed, but after that it was time to prepare for another night out in the red light district of Patong. We headed down the street and were able to get the same taxi as we did last night. We were able to further our conversation with the taxi driver. 

Once we arrived, we headed towards the mall to group up our thoughts, pray and head out to go wherever the Lord called us. We started off going to Soi Dragon and were able to talk to a girl in a bar for a quite a while til. Once a group of men came into the bar, she was called away. So we got up and headed around the rest of the bar, but didn’t really feel any pull so we walked around and ended back at the mall. After regrouping, we headed back out and headed towards Soi Easy, and we were able to start up another conversation that was very productive. 

Tonight we were really able to see the small victories that we had made from getting to talk to the Taxi driver to getting great conversations with girls. It was truly a great night! 

Also on the way back we got the opportunity to talk with another taxi driver that was very productive. It was cool because he saw us walking to 7/11 earlier and recognized us. God is opening doors all over the place! 

Thank you all for all the prayers and please keep praying! 

David Guthmiller                                                                                                                        

Our Sunday looked a bit different than a typical Sunday in the U.S. We woke up and had our usual breakfast of corn flakes and milk. We also decided to test our skills at making hot water with a gas stove in the kitchen. We had some instant coffee together (which was much needed), and had our own “team church.” We gathered together in a room at SHE and began the day with worship, scripture reading, and prayer. After church, we got together and cleaned up around SHE and rode down to Bangla Road with some others that are staying at our site. We took about an hour and prayer walked the area where we would minister tonight. We also grabbed lunch at the Subway while we were out. Around that time, Anna started to feel a little nauseous and dizzy. We headed back to SHE and gave her some time to rest…and we may have taken a little nap too :)

Shortly after that, we had a time of worship and prayer. Kara and Anna decided that they would stay back and use their time for intercession while Me, Britnie, and David went to the bars. We walked down to the end of the road to get a taxi and found one right away. We had a really great conversation with our taxi driver. We talked about the view of the U.S. from the Thai perspective. He said that when they think of the U.S., they think of Las Vegas, Music, Cowboys, Caesar’s Palace, etc. It is eye-opening to see just how much our country has influenced theirs. He told us that the first tourists to Thailand were from the U.S. Army after WWII. They taught the Thai about food and the American culture. It is clear that the Thai culture stems directly from ours and continues to be influenced by our country. The man that we talked to was very interested in talking to us and telling us about the Country. When we got to the bars, we really didn’t feel the Spirit leading us into any particular bars. We tried to go back to the bars where we had made connections with girls, but the first one had no girls working, and the second only had two of them. It seemed like it was a very slow night for the area, and the girls weren’t very receptive to us. The girls were also trying much harder than usual to get the attention of the males walking past the bars, that they looked right past us. We decided to prayer-walk the area after we visited two bars, and we left a little earlier than usual.

When we returned, we found Anna and Kara after they had just finished intercession. Anna is feeling a little better, but please keep her in your prayers. We have a full day of ministry tomorrow! We will be working in the SHE building and helping out with any projects that need to be done. We will also continue to minister in the bars tomorrow night! Goodnight everyone!

Love, 

Brittany O. 

So after a long night of ministry we were actually able to stop and take a breath today. I think it’s the first time since our ropes training that we woke up and didn’t feel like zombies. We had a team breakfast at SHE and decided that we all wanted to get a taste of the Thai culture through shopping. (American of us right?) I think we were all surprised by what everyone meant when they said “mall”. When you think about being in a foreign country you think about language barriers, strange food, mud, bartering, and altogether being out of your comfort zone.  Now we will get to that point in our story, but for this period of time I felt more like I was walking around in Scottsdale Arizona than a country it took a day and a half to travel to. I was shocked and somewhat disgusted by just how much Thai culture attempts to be Western. There are endless amounts of “whitening creams” for skin and secret eye liners to make your eyes look bigger and more round, we even saw several places in the mall that provided plastic surgery. These are products and procedures that the Thai people throw their money at. And here we are in the states paying money for tanning beds and creams. Crazy right? I think it really put things into perspective for all of us. Materialism will always make you unhappy with what you have. It will always make you compare yourself to other people and somehow come up lacking. What was the most crazy to us all is that these people here are BEAUTIFUL and their culture is amazing, and yet, some how they seem to miss how much they are worth when they are just being themselves. 

After our exploration of the mall the true adventure began. We experienced foreign public transportation, a huge lack of crosswalks ( which lead to running like maniacs across the street), and and actually experiencing Thai culture. 

Long story short, our wonderful friends at SHE told us about this thing called the Weekend Market( proper noun? capital letters? I don’t know, let’s pretend), which is basically a huge amount of chaos with the locals. We saw deep fried chicken heads, whole pig snouts and other various….treats. I would also like to note that I am officially too tall for most of Thai culture and spent most of my time stooping or hitting my head on the tops of tents. But let me tell you it was all worth it! We got some amazing presents for our families and loved ones ( hey that’s you guys!) and got to experience the real Thai culture. Despite all of the culture shock I think we all agreed that it was good for us. We needed a chance to see Thailand outside of the tourist trap and outside of the darkness of Bangla road. It was like a breath of fresh air to actually see a culture not trying to please anyone else. Incase any of you are wondering, I am officially a horrendous barterer.. (is that a word?) but Brittany O is totally boss at it so thanks to her I didn’t leave empty handed. We didn’t try the pig snout or the fried chicken head either… incase you were concerned. 

To refrain from rambling on sleepily I will probably wrap this up now. Sorry if none of this even makes sense, it is definitely bed time here in Phuket.  We are headed to the bars again tomorrow night, so your prayers would be greatly appreciated! Know that we love and miss you all, but God is doing incredible things here in Thailand. God bless! 

PS: I have a new found love for fans, and air conditioning. If you have this things thank God. (No, really you have no idea. Heat here is intense,

PSS: This is Anna by the way. Apparently that is not clear unless I tell you, or so I have heard from my loving teammates. 

Hi Blog Followers!

This is Kara. I warn you know, I am a rambler, so please excuse my sporadic thoughts. 

So far on the trip, I have gained more nicknames than what I have had in my ENTIRE life. So, if you hear me referred to as “Kenyon”, “Karasus” or as a dinosaur, do not worry. :) 

Anyway back to what we are doing. We left Sterling as secret agents by leaving at 3:30ish Wednesday morning. Everything went smoothly between our flights from Wichita, Chicago, Tokyo, Bangkok, and Phuket. It was my first time flying internationally, so it was definitely an experience flying for almost 13 HOURS to Tokyo. My ankles are still a little swollen from the flights. (yikes). We were lucky to sleep a night at YWAM Bangkok before getting on a flight this morning to Phuket. It was really beneficial for today since we ended up starting our ministry tonight.

We decided to start the ministry tonight since if we wouldn’t have started tonight, we wouldn’t have been able to begin until Monday. We figured we were here to do God’s work, and we figured why wait? After we ate, we began our training. The woman here who we have worked with the closest with is super nice. She keeps telling us she’s really funny, but that has yet to be determined. :) After a little training, we ended up Prayer Walking through Bangla Road before the evening. It was necessary for one so we would not be completely shell-shocked when I arrived this evening, but also to prepare the base of prayer for the evening. After worship, we set out for Bangla Road. (whoop whoop) We split up into two teams with two of the staff members so they could show us the ropes. For those of you who do not know (which is most of you), what we basically do is talk to woman that we feel called to. We ask them their name, if they have children, etc. To get the girls to be more comfortable with us, we play games with them. They play Connect Four (who would think I would need the skills I learned when I was 6?!), Jackpot! (a math game), and a hammer-nail game. Can I just say that I STINK at Connect Four compared to these women?

So, that was the boring informational stuff, now to the silly, more rambling stuff. Can I just say that I LOVE riding in these trucks that have seating in the back. It is so cool to experience a town by riding in one of those things. We (Anna, Britnie, Brittany, and I) have NO qualms about using each other as pillows on planes. Britnie and Anna sleep a lot on planes. Thai people are super nice. It’s SUPER humid here, so the fan and me are already best friends. The SHE people are super sweet and helpful.  The girls we talked tonight were really nice. It’s heartbreaking and sad seeing some of the stuff that happens on Bangla Road, but I know God is working His magic through us and the other teams that are here. 

Please continue to pray for us, the other teams here, the woman and men we will see, and SHE in general.

Kara

Hello friends and family members! Britnie Jenkins, here! Our blog is officially set up and you can follow our adventures in Thailand over the course of two weeks, starting May 16th! We are all looking forward to the work that God has planned for us while we’re in Thailand. Please continue to support us with your thoughts and prayers!

God Bless!