Phuket ministry

Our team arrived in Phuket almost a week ago and have started our ministry at SHE. SHE focuses on reaching out to bar girls. Since many of the women lack education and employment opportunities, it’s very difficult for them to find well-paying jobs. Therefore, many Thai women turn to prostitution. SHE offers these women other employment options such as learning to make jewelry, bakery goods, and cards. SHE is currently working on constructing another facility where women can further their English, receive job training, and also obtain a solid foundation on the word of God. Therefore, our work here varies from manual labor for their future facility to reaching out to the bar girls.

We will be going out to the bars 2 or 3 nights a week to hang out and build relationships with the girls who are working in the bars. Our team is going to an area of Phuket that SHE has never gone before. Last Friday night, we walked along the streets and mapped out the area; writing down streets and names of bars and praying as we walked. A large part of our ministry will be focused on prayer - the areas of Phuket where these bars are located are very spiritually dark places. There is so much evil and the devil has a foothold in the lives of so many people here. But SHE has seen major changes in the past 4 or 5 years since they've been praying through these streets. We know that God is the one who is going to change and move in hearts - we can't do it on our own.

Last night was our team's first night of going into the bars and talking to the girls. We split up into 3 groups and my group visited 2 bars. The girls were very open and friendly and we had some good conversations with them. We will be going out again tomorrow night and are hoping to reconnect with them and maybe get the chance to invite them to hang out sometime during the day.

I'm inviting you to partner with my team and I in prayer. We know this is so important, especially with what we will be involved in here in Phuket. Pray for:

- Safety - we are being very careful as we go into these bars but please pray for God's protection over everyone on our team. Pray that we will be aware of our surroundings even as we interact with the girls.

- Unity for our team - we don't want anything to get between us because we really need to be united in what we are doing here.

- That we will see the girls as Jesus sees them - beautiful, valuable, and precious to Him. And that we will also have hearts for the men here who have come to buy sex - God loves them too and longs for them to know Him.

- Good connections with the girls; that we will be able to build some good relationships during our time here.

- That these women will desire to leave the bars and try to find some other type of employment through SHE. Pray that they will have soft hearts and will be open to Jesus and will respond to His call on their lives.

Thank you for your prayers!