.bangkok. thailand.

home sweet colorado

2008-07-29T05:47:00.000-07:00

We are home now! If you ever fly to Asia- Cathy Pacific is the way to go! Now we are getting settled and processing all that has happened the last two months.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and support.

It has been an incredible two months.

Also, please keep praying for NightLight and for change in Bangkok.

Love.

never keep it simple

2008-07-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

here is the culprit: (only it really was McDonalds)

here is the result:

Friday night and into Saturday morning, Tony got sick. After throwing up many times I took him to the hospital where he spent the night getting fluids and antibiotics. The next day we found out he had a bacterial infection in his stomach and food poisoning. So he spent another day in the hospital. Here, he is rockin the IV. The hospital was very nice actually, he had a private room with a couch and flat screen TV with cable. They even put a rose in the room and gave him sponge baths, after sweet Thai nurses came in and asked, "You want me wash your body?" haha! Now he is back at home with more medication and taking it easy. Praise God for the great hospital and staff, and that Tony is doing better. I think he just wanted to do something different that weekend...

Here is the previous weekend, when we scrubbed down our friends new house.
And here is a picture of me on my birthday! We were at a pretty posh coffee shop.

Last week in Bangkok! Pray everything goes smoothly and pray for NL as they search for a possible new building.

2 weeks

2008-07-14T23:19:00.000-07:00

2 weeks left to enjoy bangkok
to work at NightLight
to do outreach with NL or MST
to eat pineapple bought off the streets
to eat banana pancakes and mango sticky rice
to buy coffee from the same woman everyday
to have men try to sell you a suit everyday
to see rats in the trash, bats in the trees, and cockroaches under your feet
to walk the same path to work through a park dedicated to Jesus
to feel the sticky hot humid heat and cool pouring rains
to see the faces of women working at NL
to see the faces of women working in bars
to walk into houses barefoot
to see new life long friends
to smell bangkok...

Chang Awesome

2008-07-09T00:41:00.000-07:00

Heres how sweet Chang Rai is...

Boat ride to elephants

Me riding on the elephants head with Molly, Audrey and our guide (so cool)

Tony and his new friend

Tony and I at lunch yummmm

Me in front of the White Temple

More of the White Temple

chang rai

2008-07-05T23:32:00.000-07:00

We are in Chang Rai for a long weekend to visit the Fish family who Tony met last year in Thailand.

Chang Rai is beautiful! And the Fishes hospitality has been so amazing. Plus this is a welcome relief from Bangkok's polluted air. Chang Rai is more relaxed, less crowded, less western, and cheaper than Bangkok.

Tomorrow we will head back to NL!

tension.

2008-07-02T01:22:00.001-07:00

megan:

There is a tension between the different sides of life here.

The work side, the outreach side, and the touristy/ everyday life side. Everyday starts with church 9-10. Then work 10-12. Lunch 12-1 and work 1-5. Work presents its own challenges, as I imagine any kind of job would. (Since I have limited work experience.) Plus is not just a business, but a ministry as well. But after about a month, we have a better idea of how things work around here and what we can do while we are here.

The outreach side is the most different side. It always starts with prayer. Then dinner, the same place, same meal every time. Then break into groups. Then go to a bar. Sometimes are harder than others. Sometimes I get to have a conversation with a woman sometimes I do not. I am always praying. Trying to make eye contact, smile or say hello. Play a game or hear about a womans dreams or children. Sometimes we are the only people in the bar, sometimes there are many customers, many women, or few women, lots of things going on, or nothing going on. Rituals, drinking, loud western music, lights flashing, cheap decor, dimly lit. a sprite in front of me. When we go home I feel relief to be out of the area- but my heart breaks a little more every time statistics become my friends.

Then the tourist side. There is more to Bangkok then prostitution- even if it is so notorious that any tourist book can tell you about red light districts. It is also true what the tourist books say about being careful that as falang (foreigner) you don't get scammed! Last Saturday we set off to visit the Kings Palace and as soon as we set foot on the curb: we were seamlessly intercepted into a fool proof procedure for scamming falang! Although we cant complain that much. We DID get to see two Wats as promised... but then we also got to see two very nice suit shops and three very nice jewelry shops. All for 30 Baht and two hours of our time. At least it was not really a money scam. Then we saw the Kings Palace and got to borrow some awesome clothes since we had shorts on.

I'm not sure how to handle all sides of life here. I do feel friction between them. I also feel challenged to see how big God really is. And how limitless his love is. Please pray for the women in the bars and for our outreach night.

tony:

I have now also been able to go on outreach 2 times. It is really strange, talking to men about what most men prefer to keep secret. In fact, I feel like the culture in the US would encourage you to keep quiet about sexual/relationship feelings/morality. Its becoming more and more apparent that sex is not all the men are here for. You see bars full of men sitting sharing drinks or a meal with a woman working in prostitution, trying to carry a conversation and it hits you. These men crave relationships....close relationships that they have not been able to attain with out a monetary cost. I find that particularly sad, since most of these men are from western areas. What in our culture has isolated these men so much that they feel a need to pay for love and kindness? Christians are supposed to give love freely (love thy neighbor), but it seems like we missed a few. Or have we missed a lot? I have realized how we are called to remember the forgotten, see the unseen, love the unlovable. I am so guilty of not doing this, and I am praying for this to change so that I may offer the love and grace that was shown to me first.

I have also found it difficult not to place a huge gap between me and the men. We are supposed to be non-judgmental. We are there to share love and grace, but how? We offer surveys to begin conversations (the data we collect is actually used though) and to convey that we care about what there going through. Anyways, its easy to put yourself on another level than that of these men, and that inhibits the ability to love. I know that I need to realize that I am one that was and is continually in need of love and grace. We are all on the same level, in fact under different life circumstances I can't say for sure that I wouldn't end up in same place as these men. When we place distance between each other...or when we apply status to our circumstances it inhibits the ability to love.

Christ called us to view each other as brothers and sisters, and not in just some hokey Christian jargon way, but as actual blood relatives. Now when i see a homeless Thai mother with her toddler sleeping on her lap, I can't help but see my own mother and sister sitting there (it's enough to bring you to tears). It has allowed me not to feel so awkward to bend over offer money, and say hello (I wish I could say more, but my Thai is so limited). If I haven't made it clear, this is related to my point about placing gaps between ourselves and those in need. If I were to see this woman and her daughter as just homeless, Thai, beggars, etc. I would have placed a huge barrier to me and this family, and if I want to help I would have to work hard get across this "gap" first, and the effort would feel like charity. However, when I narrow this gap by thinking of them as my own family, it places them right next to me. And when I try to help it's not "charity" it's just what you do for family. The same goes for the men in the sex trade, they are my brothers, and at times its hard to see that.. really hard, but I'm trying and praying that it would become more apparent to me. Please pray for this in me and our community as we try to show the love and grace we were given first.

our bangkok

2008-06-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-16T02:54:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-06-08T07:03:00.000-07:00

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....

2008-06-08T00:31:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-02T07:41:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-01T01:28:00.000-07:00

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!!!)

We made it!

2008-05-29T21:37:00.000-07:00

finally in bangkok!!

we got our bags without a problem and customs had a really short line at 12:00 pm which was great. then katie was waitng right outside for us and off we went in (my) first thai taxi car ride!

tony got checked in to his room for the night and i stayed with katie. i havent heard from tony but he is on the way to where he will stay the rest of the trip and soon i will be in the volunteer house. (right now im at katies apartment) katie is going to take us around bangkok the rest of today so we can orient ourselves.

okay last funny plane story: tony and i were passed out on the last leg of our journey- me in the asile seat with my head on the tray in front of me... when i got a nice little wake up call from tomato juice traveling down the back of my pants! the stewardess was very apologetic as she handed me the meal i was about to sleep through (oh yummy airplane chicken) and put an ice cream bar on my plate. i thought she did that to be nice but then i realized everyone got one. :(

Hong Kong

2008-05-29T05:28:00.000-07:00

Well here we are in Hong Kong right now! Tony just got some Burger King so he is happy. But we are both pretty exhausted (and apparently a little silly :) ) from the 14 hour plane ride. The airport here is very clean and cool. And humid.

Soon we will be in Thailand and be very exhausted... and happy!!

We love and miss you guys!

Funny airplane story: Megan handed the stewardess a cup of spit out sunflower seed shells. And she was grossed out a little bit!!

Also we watched about 5 movies.

Funny plane story: Megan gave the stewardess her spit out sunflower seeds, which according to stewardesses facial expression, was not really what she wanted. But at least Megan put them in a cup, instead of just spitting them on the floor like at a baseball game. Go Rockies!!

I (Tony) also received a small tea spoon with my meal, and felt it necessary to poke Megan with, unfortunately Megan's unpreparedness led to tea residing on her pants....and a Chinese man across the aisle giving me a dirty look.

Leaving CO!

2008-05-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

We are on our way to Los Angeles today and are so excited!

Thank you SO much to everyone who supported us- we raised more than enough money! We are just blown away by how God provides.

Benefit Concert

2008-04-17T20:55:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone who attend our Benefit Concert on April 11th! It was a huge blessing and encouragement. And a special thanks to Everyday Joes, Sasha Sacket, Josh Dillard, Nathan and Stephen of Hearts of Palm, and the Riflemen!

We are getting more and more excited to go to Thailand!

Be sure to check out their sites:

http://www.myspace.com/sachasacket
http://www.myspace.com/joshdillardmusic
http://www.myspace.com/heartsofpalmband
http://www.everydayjoes.org/

Getting started

2008-02-20T14:36:00.001-08:00

testing!!!!!!!!!!!!