our bangkok

pictures...

This is a park I get to walk through every day. It is small but a welcome change from the city! They even play music with some nature sounds so you don't hear all the traffic!


Tony and I on the way to Chatuchak weekend market... it is pronounced more like jatujak


Here is Tony and the King of Thailand. (On the skyscraper)

The market is HUGE. We didn't even make a dent in it. You're supposed to get good deals but since we are farangs (foreigners)- we didn't find any that day.


This is also where NL buys a lot of their beads...


Okay. Meet Benji. One of the cutest babies on earth.


See? I'm not joking!!Almost every morning we grab coffee from the sweetest lady who has a small coffee cart and makes a great iced mocha.

This is madness! A view looking down on some of Siam Paragon's escalators- we were on the top floor which has a VERY nice movie theater, bowling alley and karaoke.


This is the chandelier that hangs in the lobby area of the movie theater. You can't take pictures once you enter the theater, but the interior is as nice as the Buell Theater (for those from CO).

Here I am after I got my hair blow dried. I never thought I could enjoy having straight hair.


A sweet view from the boat we took down the Chao Phraya river.

A nice thai man took our picture on a boat we took to cross the river.


This is the Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn.

It was pretty hot that day.

The whole thing is very intricately designed with tiles, shells and even china plates.

Here we are on the third level, and behind Tony is the Kings Palace across the river.


Most people pose with the peace sign here- so I am fitting in nicely. That is more of the Wat behind me.


Scary! The stairs were so steep!!

This is more of Wat Arun and Tony!



Quick update:

Tony hasn't gotten to do outreach yet with MST yet. It has been raining a ton so it has been cooler but also more humid and muggy. Unfortunately, all this rain has made the roof of my bathroom fall through- due to rain collection above it for a long time. Someone should be out to look at it soon but some pipes for the AC run through there and my roomie and I were advised to not use AC. Thats the bad news- but the good news is that Tony will move into the other NL volunteer house and will get to sleep in AC!

We would appreciate your prayers for all the women we meet on outreach, and woman we cared for this weekend who is 5 months pregnant and has a 3 year old son. Other women of NL found her passed out on the road, kicked out of Starbucks and left on the sidewalk. They brought her to the house I am staying in and we kept an eye on her all night. Then in the morning NL staff shared with her about NL and offered her a job, but she insisted that she didn't want to be a prostitute and had another job lined up that she was starting soon. Please pray that she comes to NL and that her baby and son are okay.

Also, Tony just finished the book Irresistible Revolution by Shane Caliborune. He found it challenging and powerful as it states that it, "will disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed." A lot has been on his mind from and I am excited to read it soon as well.

bangkok belly and more

Megan:

Well, either I caught up to Thailand or it caught up to me... either way I've had some of the Bangkok Belly (as my mom calls it) lately! So I took a day off last Tuesday and missed outreach that night, but I am feeling better now. Just some sinus congestion. And praise the Lord my AC works again.

I feel a little more adjusted after these two weeks, and now I'm excited to see beyond the few blocks I live on now. We also have about a million ideas for how we can try to help NightLight so pray for us in that! Many of you have probably already done a survey I made about Jewelry Preferences in the US and thank you so much for your input. Also many of you may have tried to do the survey and were informed that it was closed! Sorry for the problems but it is working now so here is the link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=l0U3XM3mV4CZ_2bNa7C1e5Yw_3d_3d


Also, tonight Tony got the opportunity to do outreach to male sex tourists with a ministry out here. As far as they know they are the only group who does this kind of outreach in all of Bangkok. Keep him i nyour prayers, as well as the men in the red light district, and Tony will give an update soon.

pictures! ching ching!

so here is photo update of our adventures. and ching ching means really or for real.



here is tony being silly in Honk Kong airport...



This is Tony and I our first Saturday in bangkok, across from MBK. Almost equivalent to 9 super wal-marts stacked on each other. With knockoff designer stuff.



Here is an elephant butt... I was up on the sky train and tried to get a picture real quick!


Here is Tony in his super small room. No AC but there is a ceiling fan, some kind of floor AC unit that is really more like a fancy fan, and his towel is draped over another fan. Thats a picture of the King above him as well. But thats really how big it is!


Here I am at a great little restaurant eating some cashew chicken. I also came here the first day in Bangkok and a rat ran around inside for awhile. It is completely open in the front! And cheap.



Here I am with the girls getting down to some karaoke...


more to come...!

why dont we catch up....

Hello Everyone,

Tony:

Sorry its been so long since we have updated our blog, this last week was busy and the internet has been less than reliable from my house(Tony's house). So now lets see if we cant catch you all up on what happened this last week.

It was our first week working at NightLight. Annie Dieselberg (da boss) was out of town, so we never got a chance to sit down and find out what we could do for her, so our time was taken up with creating some sales template e-mails for seasons (Christmas, Easter, etc. ). We have been spending a lot of time with the other volunteers here, and feel very blessed that God has brought all of them into our lives. also, we have been learning and trying new Thai phrases all the time, but we are only understood about half of the time.

Last night was a blast because a bunch of us went bowling and did Asian karaoke, which means you get your own private room with just you and your friends. Everyone was extremely silly, and we all had a lot of fun.

Megan:

Aside from the Jewelry business at NightLight, there is also a huge outreach focus. Every Tuesday and Friday, a group of women meet for prayer, dinner and then time trying to develop relationships with prostitutes in the red light district. Initially I didn't think I would be part of this team. Mostly, I was afraid of the unknown.

After getting a chance to talk with the other women who have already participated, they all assured me that there is nothing to be afraid of. And mostly, that our God is more powerful, bigger and stronger than anything we could encounter in the bars. I had also read a verse that morning about not being afraid, and decided to go with them that Tuesday night. After prayer and a dinner of pat kra pow gai (some kind of chicken with sauce, and rice with an over easy egg on top) we headed out.

There were four of us that night, a smaller group, so I was then led around the area. The first level is beer bars, but the next two are more like strip clubs. We headed into the bar, and immediately one girl reached out and touched my arm saying "You are beautiful!" I stopped to talk to her. She was so kind, as many Thais are, and also very affectionate. (Although, I'm told that sometimes you have to establish that you are not a lesbian when you are in the bars.) But in general, women generally walk down the street holding hands as friends. She asked me my name and where I was from, and then we all sat down together. We ordered our cokes and began to pray.

I have never been in such an environment. A million thoughts were going though my head. About how this bar and the next bar and the next bar are supported. Why does this area even exist, why do people come here, why do so many western men come here, how did that girl on stage get here, how long has she been here, what are her hopes and dreams, what is the difference between me and her, why do I get to sit in a booth while she has to dance on stage?

I had pictured the men that go into the bars being very drunk and obnoxious. But I was surprised that all the men in that bar that night came in quietly, sometimes alone, sat down, ordered a drink and watched. They would carry on small conversations with the waitresses. And sit there.

That night there was not as much interaction as usual I was told and we soon headed to the other red light district a couple streets away. There, more Eastern men are present and many trafficked women are located. They are mostly from Uzbekistan and Africa. This was no dimly lit smoky bar, but a very nice hotel, well lit. And women don't go to you, but you go to the women. There are already connections there, but some of the women don't like our group because they think we are reporters. This makes them not talk to us. One girl went to talk to a couple new girls but they were too scared to talk to us. Also, in this area, the men are much more direct and will call out things to women and wink. Ew.

And that was my first experience on outreach. Praying for change for each woman I saw, for the waitresses, the bar tenders, the DJ, the men in the bars. Against evil spirits- as there are many idols in the bars and many girls have tattoos where thy have invited evil spirits into their body.

It is an odd walk to the area and back from it. It is like the whole world passes you by. Every language is being spoken, every color of skin brushes past you, every style of dress, different religions, different idols, every kind of food is being sold on the street from bugs to chicken kabobs, every designer brand is sold in belts, watches, t-shirts, purses, shoes, illegal DVDs, jewelry, wooden carvings, people crawling on the ground because they are missing a leg, mothers with small babies begging, children selling small trinkets, and street walkers, not to mention elephants with people selling corn for you to feed them.

Yes its overwhelming.

Yes, this is real, these problems are real and now I am responsible for what I have seen.

Prayers would be appreciated for: protection when on outreach, for tony to sleep at night (with no AC, and me too for the time being), to serve with a joyful heart, and to be used to serve in new opportunities.

Love from Thailand

Knowledge

And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best any may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes though Jesus Christ- to the glory and praise of God. -Philippians 1:9-11

The word for knowledge used here in Greek is Epinosis (not sure about the spelling). But this refers to the kind of knowledge that comes from experience and helps you discern what to do next.

We learned this from church Sunday Night with Pastor Perry. Tony and I were very inspired by it and would love to have prayers to gain Epinosis as we begin working with Night Light.

Today was out first day and we are excited to get to know the women and learn more about NL. We are doing well so far but my (Megan) foot is hurting a bit. Nothing big but prayer for that to go away would be appreciated. Thank you all so much :)

5 things

suprising:

1. elephants walking down the streets at night

2. the urge to go pee at 5 am

3. outback steakhouse

4. no toilet paper usage other than drying off...

5. rat in restaurant (save that for dinner!)

exciting:

1. tomorrow is our first day at NightLight

2. trying to speak thai (emphasis on "trying")

3. eating cow pot gai (thats my american spelling)

4. meeting the Perry family (who are all amazing)

5. being in a foriegn country with MEGAN!!!

scary:

1. rats (no one seems to mind them running around the restaurant)

2. riding on the back of a motorcycle taxi

3. The traffic

4. The sheer volume of people (about 15 million in Bangkok)

5. The possibility of getting lost (thankfully we have cell phones now!!!)