This week on Bangla has been incredible. Absolutely, ridiculously, incredible. Our team has gotten opportunities to pray for various people on Bangla, and my God has moved and healed! He’s answer prayers left and right, and I mean… specific prayers.
We ask Him what to pray for, He gives us ideas, we pray, He answers. It’s ridiculous.
I’ve been asking Him to heal ladyboys of their need for perfection, body image, and entertainment. These men have been raised up as women in order to make more money for their families. Their identity from the beginning has been to be stared at and photographed like rare zoo animals in order to provide for their families.
This week, we met a girl names Pang. During our conversation, she mentioned that she was a ladyboy. We just thought her English was off, because it’s usually really obvious who the ladyboys are. They usually wear a ton of makeup and have very plastic bodies and costumes. Pang proceeded to pull out her ID, and it said “Mr.” on it. We were all really taken aback, and encouraged that she didn’t grow up to be what she’s always been told she was supposed to be. Instead, she lives as the most adorable young lady you’ve ever seen. She shines.
I’ll come back to Pang’s story soon.
Although the days seem long, the weeks are beginning to fly past me. About a week ago, the team went to see the Big Buddha. As you probably know, to be Thai is to be Buddhist.
It’s funny. When you go to see Buddha or even step into a Buddhist temple, you’re required to cover your shoulders and most of your legs. To bow down, you have to take off your shoes. As you drive down the road, you see a countless amount of personal shrines to Buddha. Strawberry Fanta is even a “good luck” sacrifice to the spirits.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m no expert on Buddhism, but from what I’ve seen, I’ve begun to gather that there are a lot of rules and formulas.
Do this and this and this and you will find happiness.
Give up that and that and that and you will please the spirits.
Honk your horn at the top of the hill in order to ask permission from the spirits to leave and enter Patong.
Set out drinks with straws as a sacrifice to the spirits.
Wear these flowers around your neck to ward off evil.
Standing on the top of that mountain, it was so cool to see all of the people look at Buddha for a few minutes and then turn around and look at this ridiculous view of my God’s creation.
As our team had their quiet time on the top of this mountain, we couldn’t help but recognize that these people have to do so much to prepare themselves to worship their god, while my God tells us to come as we are (Matthew 11:28). We don’t have to clean ourselves up, or cover up parts of our bodies, or buy beverages, or honk our horns at a certain time. We weren’t called to follow silly rules or be in fear that we aren’t worshiping the right way.
Instead, I get to dance when I worship my king.
I get to scream and shout about His love.
I get to speak directly to Him, and more importantly, hear directly from Him.
I get to be absolutely undignified.
When we went back to see Pang on Friday night, we got into a conversation about music. She began to talk a thousand miles a minutes. All I gathered were the words Sorry, Song, and Jesus. After processing for a second, I said, “what kind of songs did you say you sing?” She said “love songs,” and as she pointed up, she said “to Jesus.” After losing every ounce of air in my lungs and trying to collect my words enough to speak, I said, “I sing those too!” She got so excited!
She asked me if I go to church, and I told her about a Christian church here in Patong. She got so excited, because she had no idea it existed, and she’s joining us there next week!
So, there I was in the middle of Bangla road being told about Jesus by a bold and beautiful ladyboy/bar girl.
Geez… God is so much bigger than my mind can even begin to take in.
Thank you all so much for your prayers. They’re being answered!
We only have three weeks left on Bangla road before we begin our long journey back home, so please keep pressing in and praying at every red light!
Yours truly.
