Bright Beacons of Light

between byron and coffs

2009-05-20T00:22:00.000-07:00

April 28, 2009

Today was orientation to Byron bay and we got our schedules for the week. Which are awesome. We went to the Lighthouse to pray at the most easterly point in Australia. We prayed for the spheres of society (education, health, business, media, the arts, the church, business) in Byron Bay and Australia.
We peaced out from the light house and Steve (our contact) gave us a tour of Byron Bay. I can’t say it’s ugly here, and I can’t say I don’t like it, and I don’t think I can say it’s anything less than perfect. We had lunch in a small park just in town, and relaxed. We then headed to the beach to play some music and start some conversations. A few meaningful conversations were had by some, and good times were had by all.
After that we got settled into the church we were staying and had intercession with some of the local church leaders. The church in Byron is connected well and likes to work together to make things happen. the intercession time we got to be a part of is one that has been going for 15 years strong which encourages us to know that the church is unified.

I still have dysentery and one of my leaders has bronchitis. Pray for us.

April 29, 2009

Today we got an awesome opportunity to play some music at a park right next to the beach. It was a bit of a disaster because everything that could have gone wrong began to. Guitars fell over in the middle of the set, monitors stopped working, people forgot words and chords. It was a big mess, but we learned from it. And how to cope and recover. All we can do is commit it to the Lord and pray that He used it to His glory. We packed up and headed back to the YWAM base here in Byron and had some incredible home made pizza with pumpkin and corn.

April 30, 2009

We woke up early to prep today because yesterday was a bit of a disaster. We had a few miscommunications that led to a downward spiral. We had a great worship time before going out to set up at 11:00 am. We had an idea to put on a free BBQ on the beach where we were playing. It went off really well. I had some awesome conversations with some people down there who were into what we’re doing. One girl I talked to for a while was from Vietnam. She was a product of the Vietnam war, and given up for adoption when her dad went back to the states after the war was over. Her mom couldn’t support her, and so she was sent to an orphanage. She was adopted by a family in Sydney and grew up there. Her story has a good ending unlike many orphaned children in Vietnam as well as Thailand. Newy (the woman’s name) was super stoked on what we were doing, and asked how she could get involved. She made the week here in Byron Bay worth it. If we do nothing else this week, we can feel accomplished because not only did we get the word out about the injustice that’s happening, we’re getting people involved in missions. And that’s our goal, so Newy was incredibly encouraging.

After dinner, we went back to the lighthouse to hang out and watch the waves crash against the rocks. If I could wrap that scene up and bottle it and give it away, I would. Because I can’t think of a time when I’ve seen anything so beautiful.

May 1, 2009

Today we woke up with a little discouragement due to the weather. We were meant to play a full band show at a park, but because of the impending rain we opted for a broken down acoustic set: just one guitar, a djembe, and two microphones. The rain held off until we got home which was great. The Byron Bay YWAM base hosted a free BBQ while we were playing. A lot of people came out for the barbeque and heard what we had to say. There were people who disagreed with our message, and they were quite vocal about it. But a majority of the people there agreed that human trafficking is an issue worth talking about, and were glad the message was getting out.
It was also Sara’s, one of our outreach leaders, birthday. We had an awesome dessert, and built her a fort for her birthday. It was awesome to act like a kid again.

May 2, 2009

Today was incredible, in every aspect. I mean, yeah where we went wasn’t to spectacular, but what happened was. We woke up and prepped for what we thought was going to be a full band set up, but just as every other day this week, what we expected and what actually happened were two completely different things.
The agenda today called for the broadcasting of our message at a festival called Marty Grass (and no it’s not spelled wrong, you see in a minute) in Nimbin, a small village 40 minutes from Byron Bay. To give you a little history of Nimbin we need to go back to the 1970s when a similar festival was held called Aquarius. As you probably guessed, it was a hippy festival to protest war and legalize marijuana. After the festival back in the day, some hippies stayed behind to call Nimbin home and by the 1990s ran everyone else out of town. Somewhere between then and now the left-over hippies came up with a bright idea to have an annual festival, Marty Grass, to make a concerted, yet stoned, effort to legalize marijuana… it has yet to work, but they are still trying.
So that’s where we went today: Marty Grass. We got there with the notion that we were going to set up in front of the Anglican church and play music. When we got there, the priest of the Anglican church had NO idea who we were or why we were parked in the driveway of the church. So we proceeded to wait for the rest of the group to get there, and tried as hard as we could to get our 14 passenger van stuck in as many awkward situations as many times as we could. By the time we parked we had a total of 8 bad situations under our belts. We helped unload the pancake factory that the Byron YWAM base brought (they were going to give away free pancakes to the festival attendees while we played music.) and a woman came up and told us we could be where we were setting up because we didn’t have a permit. It was frustrating, but we kept unloading the van in faith. By the time we were done unloading the pancake factory, the woman had opened up to the idea and allowed it, but she told us that we could not have a full band set up. So we did what we’ve done all week and improvised with two different acoustic set ups on either side of the pancake sweat shops with no PA system.
We didn’t get to tell large crowds about human trafficking, but what we did get to do was have meaningful conversations. Two of our team members, Morgan and Sam, talked to one guy for about hour and a half. We’ll call him Stan. Stan was from England and was stoked when he heard one of our team members singing a Fray song, and came up and sang along. He was also very excited to meet other internationals and Morgan and Sam just started talking to him. They talked about love, life, struggles, and heartache. Stan really opened up and told Morgan and Sam about how he had gone to Thailand twice in and attempt to fulfill the hole he had in his heart. He had been with many women in many of the bars, yet couldn’t be satisfied. Over the course an hour and a half Stan poured out his heart while Morgan and Sam poured into him. Sam asked Stan if he wanted to be a Christian, and Stan said yes and gave his life to Christ tonight. That made today worth it. Yeah we couldn’t talk to everyone about human trafficking, or the sex trade in Thailand, but God used us today. How cool is that?

May 3, 2009

Today was supposed to be a day off, but we made a commitment to the church that we’re staying at that we would run today’s service. So we led worship, and our outreach leaders gave a sermon. They also gave the testimony about Stan, and the redemption in seeing a man who once patronized the sex industry in Thailand come to the Lord. Because we couldn’t get the whole day off we did a half day today and a half day tomorrow.
After church we went to the beach with the guys from the Byron YWAM base and learned how to surf. There was an outrageous amount of traffic in town because you have to go through Byron to get to Nimbin (today was the big day at Marty Grass), so we went to a different beach than first planned. The waves were good to learn on, but were few and far between. So they said they’d take us out early tomorrow morning.

May 4, 2009

We ended up not going surfing, but Jaso and I went to help the Discipleship Training School with worship. And then we had a half a day off where we went to the beach, got rained on, came back to brief and prepare for Coffs Harbor.

May 5 - 7, 2009

We loaded up and peaced out from Byron at around noon to head to Coffs Harbor. When we arrived, they handed us the keys to the church we were staying, and we unloaded and made ourselves at home. We set up for practice and got ready for the week.
We won’t have much to do this week because schools just let back in and it’s hard to get lunch time programs the first week back. We had some prayer and intersession though, which is awesome
We did laundry for the first time in a while, and some communications home.

May 8, 2009

We had some awesome practice time, and nailed a few new songs and then got ready for tonight. We played our full show for the second time on outreach for a youth group here in Coffs harbor. There were a few people who came up afterwards and were interested missions which is freakin’ awesome!

OZ update from Brisbane to Byron Bay

2009-05-15T02:27:00.000-07:00

April 20 - 23, 2009

Got to Brisbane at 6:30 am and drove to the suburb we’ll be staying in. When we got there we Unloaded and set up the practice arena as much as we could… we were missing a few integral parts of our band set up, including cymbals for the drums. People have various illnesses that we picked up on the way home. We have a few things like dysentery, bronchitis, and various stomach issues. I personally picked up a special illness that makes me go to the bathroom around 3 to 7 times a day. It’s not entertaining. But tomorrow will be a good day because we get to play for the first time since YouthStreet.

April 24, 2009

I still have the same sickness I’ve been dealing with, and it’s starting to get discouraging. But today was spent practicing and nailing transitions and testimonies for tonight’s show.

Tonight was great because it reminded us that no matter how many people you play for, you’re getting the word out there that things are not ok. The world in it’s current state is not ok. And it’s awesome that God would bring just 17 people to hear what we had to say and we had an impact on all of them. It was humbling to play for a seemingly stagnant crowd and leave it in God’s hands. But was encouraging to know that God brought those people here today to hear what we had to say and that’s what we’re on about: Telling people about the injustices around the world and asking them to stand up and make a difference.

April 25, 2009

Today we were supposed to work with Invisible children in their Rescue Me campaign, but we couldn’t find the place they were going to meet. We found out that they were three hours behind schedule after we already got home. But it was fun to go to a park and let out all our energy.

April 26, 2009

This morning consisted of us running a kids church program at the Anglican church we’ve been partnering with which was loads of fun. Some of us are still sick with some stomach issues. Afterwards we took a quick trip to the Gold Coast a half hour away to kill some time before the dinner and fellowship back at the church. This beach was another amazing Australian beach with great waves and freezing water. The fellowship dinner was an amazing time to get to know and pray for the people in the church.

April 27, 2009

We woke up early to peace out to the Murphy’s Farm, a friend from Townsville, for a day off. We did some silly stuff like Paddock Bashing and Bonnet Riding. Check this video out for more insight.

At around 8pm we headed to Byron Bay.

the last of the thai updates.

2009-05-10T15:41:00.000-07:00

April 12

We peaced out of pattaya the first time at around 9 am, but on the way back to Bangkok, we got a call that someone left a laptop… Nick left his laptop in the room, so we turned back and got back to Pattaya around 10 and left again at 10:15. As a team, we had an Easter service and communion with some of the guys from the Bangkok YWAM base.

We ate lunch and dinner at our translator’s favorite restruant. It had some of the best food I’ve had by far. After dinner we watched the passion of the Christ with some of the guys from BJD(the YWAM college ministry in bangok).

April 13 - 15, 2009

This morning started the three day water fight that the thai population calls Song Kran. Within the first 3 minutes I busted my toe open fleeing very very cold water. I succeeded in not getting hit with freezing water, but my toe bled significantly. Ministry over the next few days might get cut because of the political unrest, but we’re going to treat this new years celebration as ministry. No one was off limits to get hit with water. No matter what age or occupation. We soaked people from the age of 2 to 82 and all of them loved it. Even on the way to lunch we got hit around 4 times. It was ridiculous, the funniest person to hit was the pizza guy who accepted his fate with great joy every 8 minutes when he passed us. I suggest we bring this holiday home and celebrate in the states by chucking water on people.

April 16, 2009

Because of the political unrest, we had to cancel some of the ministries we were going to work with, and we acted like tourists and did prayer walks in two of the larger temples in Bangkok. We went to the reclining Buddha temple and it just felt empty. It had the spiritual atmostphere of a box of cheerios. There was nothing special about the place. There were so many people that were praying to this big gold statue. I felt strange. We also went across the river to this other temple that felt the exact same. I felt empty and ignored. Again, I felt strange.
After the temple tour, we went to a park to have a bit of a debrief session on thailand and then went to Vashi’s to pick up our suits. Again, Vashi proved to be a great testimony of God’s goodness and told us some more stories of what God has done in his life.

April 17, 2009

Today we teamed up with Night Light to lead worship for a large group of Thai women. Night Light is a ministry that educates women in a trade to give the women another option besides prostitution. They train the women to make jewelry and encourage them to come to the church services at night. It’s a redemptive occurrence when western men lead Thai women into the presence of God because the average patron of the bars is a western men there to take and abuse them and we are going to give. This is one of the most exciting things we got to do while we’ve been here.

April 18, 2009

Today we went to the largest market in Thailand. This was an experience that everyone needs to have at least once in their lives. These markets sell everything from used converse shoes, to flying squirrels, to house wares, to crocodiles and the type of chickens for cock fighting. We all got a significant amount of things to bring home and give to supporters and stuff. We had lunch at the famed Black Canyon Coffee and then peaced out to the IMAX where we watched Monsters Vs. Aliens. Which is by far, one of the funniest movies I’ve seen in a long time. We then said peace out to the IMAX and made our way home to get some grub and go to the markets down the street to do some last minute gift getting. Afterwards a few of us went to the YWAM base and watched a super bootleg version of wolverine, a few weeks before it was supposed to be released. It was so bootleg that the 3d animation hadn’t been finished so it was a bunch of grey blobs instead of the finished product. And all the cables were still present. It was great.

April 19, 2009

There isn’t much you can do when you fly out at 11:30 am. Flying is boring. If you’ve been on a plane you know what happened today…

Update: I just watched Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory in a theater in an airport… for free. That’s exciting.

OZ video update.

2009-05-09T22:16:00.000-07:00

2009-05-04T02:22:00.001-07:00

April 3, 2009

New Food: farang (guava). They also call tourists farang because they are green and white and sometimes taste bad. It doesn’t make sense to me but whatever.

Today I split from the team to help YWAM Bangkok with some maintanence projects that needed to be done immediately. I painted a railing that spanned a six story staircase and a mailbox, patched and painted walls and cabinets, and fixed some wiring in one of the offices. My team went into a more touristy part of Bangkok to do some research for At Risk Kids International. They walked around as “farang” or tourists, paying attention to children: where they congregate, how many are around, how many girls vs. boys, is there any suspicious activity going on? The answers to these questions were all were relayed back to the directors of ARK to give them an idea of how dangerous this area is in regards to kids being kidnapped or coerced into prostitution as the only means for living. The team got back around 11pm and we are about to go to bed.

April 4, 2009

Thailand is known for a few things, one of them being fine tailors. We had been forewarned about a certain tailor who was especially gracious to missionaries. Vashi has been making suits in Bangkok for over 25 years and most of those he has been working as a light in the dark as his shop is right in the heart of one of the red light districts. Vashi also turned out to be the brother of the Christian tailor in one of the other red light districts in Bangkok that we met 2 days earlier. It’s really encouraging to see Christians using their lives as missionaries in their workplace. I bought a custom suit from him along with 2 other guys on my team. Then we went to the nearest mall to meet up with the girls on our team and plan the day.

We were told to meet them at the fourth floor Starbucks at Siam Paragon (a 7 story mall with bowling alley, movie theater, and IMAX). No problem, until I get off the elevator by myself on the 2 floor… I realize my mistake when the doors start to close.

“Don’t worry I’ll take the escalators,” I said.

No big deal right?

It’s just two floors. I can make it on my own. We have malls at home, worst case scenario: I take the stairs.

The escalators were fully operational so it cant be that bad right?

But it’s never that simple in Thailand.

Fact: there is no Starbucks on the fourth floor of Siam Paragon. I did not know this. There is one on every floor except the fourth floor. I arrive at the fourth floor to see no one on my team. I wait a few moments before going back to the third floor Starbucks thinking that they got their Asian and American floor system messed up (in America we start at floor one, in Asia they start at the main floor or the ground floor and the next one up is the 1^st floor).

I wait. I finished my drink. They do not know what a Venti DoubleShot is, but I can’t complain. There is ice in the drink. That’s all I got it for anyway. Anything to get me out of the 96 degree Fahrenheit heat.

The couch I was sitting on was once a rich red color. It’s now furnished with stains. Many men have sat on this couch waiting on their significant other to return from their gallivanting.

20 minutes pass. I wait. I go and wait by the elevators. 10 minutes passes.

I return to the couch. I have to stalk a spare seat like a hawk. 5 minutes passes. I sit. I wait. I run out of ice to chew nervously.

I wait. 10 minutes pass.

I know what it’s like to be lost as a kid. As a kid, no one seems to speak your language. No one is familiar but family. No one can tell you where your family is because you can’t communicate what they look like other than they are your family.

No one spoke English.

The security guard is the only one who could definitively tell me that there was no Starbucks on the fourth floor.

I cant speak Thai.

I wait.

I have to pee. But if I go pee, I might miss my family who is looking for me.

I sit. I hold it. I wait.

Finally 40 minutes into the debockle breakthrough occurs. They came like angels standing in a shaft of light. Jaso and Nick arrived gliding down the escalator like a vision from heaven. Time stood still. The man next to me who was spilling his drink on the floor slowed to a sloth like pace and you could see the molecules of his latte shifting as the erupted from the defective cup. You could also see his thought process as he saw the events unfolding and struggled for the most appropriate inappropriate word he knew.

But none of this was important to me.

I was on a quest, a quest for my family.

I saw them descending between levels and I ran.

I ran for the sixth time in my life to my family.

I cried a little.

We were in the wrong mall. Well, we were in the right mall, but they were in the wrong mall. We went to where the rest of the group was, we embraced. I shared my horror stories about bad espresso shots and the fear of being lost.

We had some dinner. I ate western food for the first time in Thailand. It was subway, and it was definitely a good change. It wasn’t as good as thai food, but it reminded me of home so I loved it.

The guys who got suits from Vashi’s had to go back for a final fitting that night. The rest of the team watched Fast and the Furious 4. I heard the movie was sub par, but our suits were definitely not.

It took us a while to get back to the base, but when we did I met a girl from the south of all places. She’s with a missions organization called the world race. We got to talking and she mentioned that she grew up outside of Atlanta, and I told her I did as well. I asked her where she grew up and she said Marietta. I got a little weirded out, but thought the world just keeps getting smaller. So I met someone from back home on literally the opposite side of the world.

April 5

Today we started early by throwing all of our stuff to the top of a van and pile in like sardines and headed to Pattaya. It was a good time to just chill out and regain our thoughts before going into Pattaya and starting the day. The ride should have been about 2 and half hours… it was an hour and a half. Needless to say it was a bit stressful going 95 miles an hour swerving between traffic, but apparently it was Thai-safe. So I took comfort in knowing the driver did this for a living and stared out the window. I started to count the temples we passed. I lost count when we passed this place where they cast the large Buddha idols, and there was this sitting Buddha that was about 6 times the size of the 12 passenger van we were riding in. and at that moment, I realized the whole idol deal was real; that these man made objects get worshiped and that they have no redeeming qualities. It made me feel a little empty. It made me realize how empty their temples actually are. We continued to pass many a temply temple before we arrived in Pattaya.

We were very lucky have the accommodation we’re given. Shortly after arriving, we were given our orientation to Pattaya and were told that we were booked for church in 2 hours. We played with our lives in crossing the 9 lane divided highway every time we needed a meal from the Big C, or if we needed a ride anywhere. It was like a real life version of frogger, except in this one you get one life, and no continues after game over. After lunch we headed to the city to go to church.

On the way to church I realized that the entire city was a red light district. It wasn’t just limited to one or two districts like in Bangkok, but was spread all across the city. We went to church that was hosted at a hotel in one of the more intense red light districts. It was during the day so it was pretty sleepy around, but you could tell something was off. Church was great to be a part of even though we couldn’t understand a majority of what was said. It’s also good to know that light is being shown in the dark. We spent a while after church just talking to people and getting to know the city that we will be working in.

April 6

So today we went to two different prisons to give food to the prisoners and pray for them if they wanted it. We handed out bottles of water, boiled eggs, sandwiches, and bananas. The prisoners were mainly Cambodian and Loas natives who had over stayed their work permits. They came to Thailand where the economic opportunities are much better than in their home countries. The worst part is how they got to prison. The contractors would hire people who were very close to the end of their permits and have them work until after their work permit was up. When the work was done, the contractor would call the police and not have to pay for their labor and the contractor would get a reward for turning in illegals. And sadly, this is allowed by the governing officials. Every once in a while we would meet a western man who was in on drug charges or for being drunk and disorderly, but they would just be in overnight and released in the morning.

As we were leaving the second jail, the sky opened up and the torrents of rain came down as we road in the back of an open truck. The driver stopped under a covering near a VERY large mall and we hopped out when the rain slowed down. We went in the mall to look around to kill some time. This was an outrageous mall, just like the rest of them. 7 stories tall filled every type of store imaginable, but this one felt very empty and vain and gross even though it was brand new. We peaced out and found a dodgy place to eat. Those are the best.

We had an incredible opportunity today to do prayer down two of the roads where bars are. I say opportunity, because guys are rarely allowed by these ministries to go down these streets. But they encouraged it this time and we went. It was even more shocking than in Bangkok, because these women didn’t just call us in but yelled at us to come in. But just having four western men walking down the street and not entering one of the bars and not acknowledging the cat calls speaks volumes. Also praying as we walked down the streets felt victorious and felt like it actually did something. While we were praying the girls on our team went out with members of the Tamar center and talked with the girls at the bars and invited them to English lessons at the Tamar center.

April 7

Orphanage:

Here is something I learned at the orphanage: little kids can be the best and worst medicine for self esteem. When a kid looks at you with his arms straight up in the air and motions for you to pick him up, it makes you melt with joy. But on the other hand, if a kid looks at you and starts crying, immediately a sense of failure wells up inside. It’s crazy how real kids are. Today we went to the pattaya orphanage. The kids were there for various reasons, but they are all there with out parents. It was awesome to see the joy in the kids, but you can tell that they are missing something. It breaks my heart that these children are often forgotten. They are some of the most beautiful kids I’ve ever seen, with some of the biggest smiles the world will know.

Later tonight the guys worked with The Crossing which is a skate ministry with their own skatepark out front of the store. It’s a really cool place to hang out, and it has a ping pong table, pool table, and a few electric guitars hanging around. The Crossing is run by this young Thai guy who has a passion for his little district in pattaya, he’s just a guy with a dream to make a difference and he’s doing it. And he’s got two really cute kids. And they attack farangs (foreigners) and make them pay a ransom of 13 tosses in the air.

April 8

The Tamar center is one of a few organizations in Pattaya that assists girls in getting out of the sex trade. Many women in Thailand are not necessarily trafficked into the trade. They have come from a family where the children, when they come of age, are responsible for providing for the family. This is especially true in the northern and eastern regions in Thailand. Boys in Thailand can support their family in the eternal sense by serving as a monk for a period of their lives and are considered no longer responsible for providing financially for the family. This leaves an enormous burden on the girls of the family to provide finances to their family until she has a family of her own. Because of poor education and often poor families that can only send one child to school, usually it is the first male child. This leaves the girls with a high rate of illiteracy and a low rate of education. These two factors: education and cultural pressures leaves the girls with no other choice but to sell themselves to support their family.

The Tamar center has been going into bars for a few years and just finished their 8^th training school. Tamar allows the girls to come to free English lessons and incorporates the gospel into their lessons. English lessons are very appealing to them because many of their customers are western men who speak English. The girls might come for English but they start learning about a man who loves them regardless of what they’ve done and is waiting for them. Tamar is a training center where girls in the bars can come and learn a legitimate trade to send money back home. They offer training in café work, baking, card making, and hair cutting and styling. The training has been going almost 8 months and they graduate on Friday and we get to be here to celebrate with them.

Today two of the girls shared their testimonies during intercession. One girl, we’ll call her Saa, told us about how she grew up in a wealthy family and lived a good life until one day when she tried and got addicted to heroin. She became more and more addicted until she resorted to working in the bars to support her habit. she began cutting herself, and contemplated suicide. She came to tamar for English lessons, but decided to stay for an education and a relationship with God.

The other girl had a very different story, Bam grew up in the Eson, a region in the east of Thailand. She was born into a poor family. Her brother shared the family burden by serving as a monk for a period of time. So she, along with many other girls in Thailand was faced with no other option. She began working in the bars, selling herself nightly. Bam had a dream, a small glimmer of hope that one day she would meet a rich man and they would fall in love and he would marry her and take her far away. She held onto this hope for a long time, and then it seemed it would happen. A French man who had been seeing her on a regular basis asked if she would like to move in and live with him. She thought this was it, and it seemed to be for a few months, but she became an in house slave. He would beat her and then rape her. What she thought would be safety became more dangerous than the bars. She got out and returned to work in the bars. After a while, she heard about free English lessons and went to the Tamar center. Many women have similar stories, but they all come with brokenness and baggage that takes months of prayer, intercession, and teaching to conquer.

During intercession, we prayed for almost all the ministries in Pattaya. Each ministry leader would come prepared to share a testimony or a prayer request. All together there were about 5 different ministries and a few churches that participated. It’s really cool to see the church raising up and coming together to work at one mission.

Right before we got to intercession that day, The Tamar Center got an order of 2000 handmade cards from a cruise ship company, so after intercession we did inventory of all their cards… the counting got a bit ridiculous with everyone shouting numbers at Morgan to have her write them down. It was a magical experience.

Straight after finishing the inventory, we ate at a hole in the wall right next to Tamar. And split up, the guys went to do prison ministry while the girls taught English at the Tamar Center. We decided to bring a guitar along this time to the prisons, and played some worship songs for the guys in the prisons. As we started the second song the guard motioned to Micah, the team member playing guitar, to stop or else he would put him in there as well. So we stopped with the music, and as we were leaving, the guard told the woman who leads the ministry to bring him money or a gift if she wanted to keep doing what she was doing… he basically demanded a bribe but she said that can’t happen because they don’t have anything to give. The guard was upset because the prisoners were getting something and he was not. It was a bit ridiculous.

Today the guys got to go back to The Crossing to hang out, but because of the torrential downpours no skating was to be had, so we played with the little kids that were just hanging around. About halfway through being at The Crossing, this baby elephant comes walking down the street. And we hung out with the elephant too.

April 9

Today we handed out Bibles to Chinese tourists. At first they would be cautious about taking it, but when they found out it was a Bible, they would take it and be very thankful for it. It’s legal for the Chinese to bring one bible back into the country, and the Chinese are voracious readers. They will spend hours reading at a time in a similar fashion to how we in the west watch TV.

The hardest part about today was walking back from where we were handing out Bibles to tourists. We had to walk through the largest red light district to catch a sung tao back to our house. Seeing the women working in the bars, and the men patronizing the bars hurt so much. I’ve never felt such oppression in my life. The women fake a smile, but inside they are crying out, and the men fake an emotion, but inside they are broken and hurt. It made me realize the vulnerability of the human heart, and how small choices we make effect our lives on a long term basis. The men I saw tonight started making small, immeasurable choices long ago that eventually became lifestyle choices, and now they are in the place they’re at because of those small, immeasurable decisions.

April 10

The guys went back to the prisons today and saw a majority of the same people as the past few days, but this time there were three foreigners who overstayed their visas, and, in trying to do the right thing and get there visas extended, they went to the police station to ask what to do about their situation. The Police called them criminals and threw them in jail for overstaying their visas. There was one man from Switzerland, one from London, and one from Iceland. There was also an old man in his late 70s from Germany who was put in jail for being drunk in public, but he was having a very rough time with his health. He told one of the men we worked with that he only had one lung and needed medical assistance. So we tried to arrange for it. There were also 2 Chinese women and 1 man who were put in jail for supporting an anti-Chinese government militant group. Today was by far the most diverse and eye opening day through the prison ministry.

We went back to the crossing tonight to participate in their Good Friday service. They showed the Jesus film in Thai and I got to play with the awesome kids that hung out there. I also got to skate a little bit which I haven’t done in a very long time. Afterwards we got some dinner and headed home.

April 11

Today was a wonderful and needed day off that started with us almost getting run over by the political unrest… we had no idea about what was going on until today. Apparently the Red Political party came down to Pattaya today to disrupt a very large southeast Asia and Oceania political conference. They came down in a caravan of taxis, vans, and scooters. It was a bit ridiculous, but they nearly ran us over when we were on our way to the ferry. We just wanted to peace out of there before it got ugly so we huffed it to the ferry in a hurry. We went to some island off the coast, where seemingly every male owned a Speedo. I felt a little left out. The water was nice, warm and clear. We all got a beautiful burn while we were there, and by the time we returned to the ferry dock, they political problems were cleared up for the mean time.

2009-04-03T21:11:00.000-07:00

April 2, 2009

New food: Duck and rice.

Today we worked with ark international again, but this time we didn’t do a slum program. We went to a park outside of Pat Pong to have worship and prayer for the surrounding areas. Because not everyone could speak English some Thai people congregated around for short periods of time. After a little worship and prayer ARK International had us separate into four teams and read the Bible aloud in locations surrounding the red light district. We read through the four gospels as a team before heading to Pat Pong for dinner and prayer walks through the streets with the bars. On the way from our spot in the park where my group read to the place where we were to meet the rest of the team, we got to experience this:

Going to Pat Pong was a little less shocking because we knew what was coming. This time we split up into two groups. One group had a guitar and when it started raining (raining is an understatement, for reference watch Forest Gump) they played worship songs in a bar until the rain subsided. Which proved to be an incredibly unique and great opportunity to shine some light in a dark place. My team was about to cross the street to another one of the main strips for the bars, when the torrents came. We were looking into a suit shop window when a woman steps out and asks, “who are you?” we respond with our names and that we’re with YWAM, and she invited us in and asked us to pray for her and her whole family who happened to be in the store. God provided a place to find shelter, and people to minister to when we started to get discouraged because of the rain.

April 3, 2009

New Food: farang (guava). They also call tourists farang because they are green and white and sometimes taste bad. It doesn’t make sense to me but whatever.

Today I split from the team to help YWAM Bangkok with some maintanence projects that needed to be done immediately. I painted a railing that spanned a six story staircase and a mailbox, patched and painted walls and cabinets, and fixed some wiring in one of the offices. My team went into a more touristy part of Bangkok to do some research for At Risk Kids International. They walked around as “farang” or tourists, paying attention to children: where they congregate, how many are around, how many girls vs. boys, is there any suspicious activity going on? The answers to these questions were all were relayed back to the directors of ARK to give them an idea of how dangerous this area is in regards to kids being kidnapped or coerced into prostitution as the only means for living. The team got back around 11pm and we are about to go to bed.

2009-04-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

March 30, 2009

FACT: thai food is the best ever.
We ate dinner at the turtle bakery. It was amazing, I had the traditional pad thai gai. Which is pad thai noodles with chicken.

March 31, 2009

We got an orientation to Thailand. My foot is offensive and my head is sacred so don’t touch it. The King is a great man. We had the best pineapple the world puts out for breakfast as well as some milk bread??? What ever, it was good. The cantelope was mediocre but the pineapple was to die for. The temple tours got cancelled because of the rain, but we’re still looking for a time to shove them in before we leave. We had a great time of worship at night and got to communicate via the internet for the first time since leaving Townsville.

Pineapple = 10 Baht = 30 cents
Curry chicken = 25 baht = 70 cents.
Sprite = 25 baht = 70 cents
1.5 liter bottled water = 12 baht =34 cents.

Feed my face full for one day 4 dollars.

April 1, 2009

Today I had hot green chicken curry, Pad Seiu Gai Ped, non-carbonated red-bull, and tea that tastes like fruit loops/ cap’n crunch.

Ark Kids Ministry in the slums:

We helped with an existing program for kids in on slum outside Bangkok. We spent about two hours getting ready for it, preparing a puppet show, cleaning the tarps for the kids to sit on, and got a few kids songs ready on guitar. When we got there it was a huge shock to me. Kids were running around with very little clothing on. The houses were made of scrap wood and signs, and built on top of an enormous cesspool. Think Venice but instead of water, think sewage and waste and instead of architecture think dilapidated. We taught the kids to wash their hands and brush their teeth. We gave them vitamins and a snack as well. These are some kids that are most at risk for being coerced into the prostitution industry, so we just tried to instill a little bit of love

After dinner we jumped in a sung tao and headed to Pat Pong, the red light district of Bangkok to do a prayer walk down the streets with the brothels. I thought I would be prepared for it, but no amount of preparation can truly get you ready for that. It’s absolutely crazy to see the markets where people are selling knock off bags and watches, and you turn around and there are women selling knock-off love. It crushed me to see girls around 13 standing outside of these brothels asking us to come in. We’re going back tomorrow night, so pray that we continue to have compassion, and pray that we have God’s heart for these girls, guys, and those there to buying

Transport To Thailand and Such

2009-03-31T01:37:00.000-07:00

So if there is one thing I’ve learned during my time overseas is that I should not blog for a living. I would be quite poor should I live for blogging. I have blogged less than ten times in the past three months. Unless people revered my words like gold, then I would be broke.

So I’ll get on with it, we’ll bee Thailand for three weeks. Three glorious weeks, with all the Pad Sieu Gai Ped Ped and Paw Ka Pow we can eat. So we’re in the Singapore airport right now (a few days ago now) waiting for our flight to Bangkok, Thailand. The Singapore airport is known for it’s amenities, but I kind of feel like I’m in an amusement park. There is an outrageous amount of stuff for people to keep themselves entertained until they get on their plane. This airport features a free movie theater, a smorgasbord of video games and TV lounges, and a cornucopia of culinary delights including Starbucks… they are taking over the world.

Here’s what we’ll be doing while we’re in Thailand:

March 30, 2009

Lots of traveling to destinations: Townsville → Brisbane, Brisbane → Singapore, Singapore → Bangkok. Total traveling time: 36 hours.

March 31, 2009

Tomorrow we get an orientation to Thailand, where we learn what is kosher and what might upset people; why we don’t step on money (it’s disrespectful to the king who’s face is on the money.) and why we wear yellow polo’s on Wednesdays (to honor the king). We also get to go on temple tours and market tours. We’re pumped about the markets because we get to eat fried scorpions and bugs and congealed ducks blood. Mmm good.

April 1–4, 2009

We get an exciting opportunity to work with this ministry called At Risk Kids. ARK International works with kids in Thailand who are at risk for abduction or who have been misplaced. We don’t know too much about what we’re going to be doing but we’re excited none the less.

April 5-12, 2009

During this week we are going to Pattaya which is considered one of the biggest red light districts in the world. The people there are some of the most friendly people you could meet, but deep at the heart of the city is a cesspool of corruption, that permeates society. We are going to split up this week. The girls will be heading into the heart of the red light district to work with a ministry called the Tamar center, whose sole purpose is to see women rescued from the sex industry. They will be teaching English and hanging out with them in the bars on top of ministering to women who recently exited the trade. Meanwhile the men will be working with the slum ministries, playing with kids, teaching hygiene classes, and wound care. We also, as men, might get the opportunity to go to some orphanages and hang out with some awesome kids from around 18 months to two years old. We’re really excited about Pattaya because it’s such a daunting place, yet we’re not phased by the size of the problem, because we have a hope and faith for God to use us.

April 13-15, 2009

Asian cultures all celebrate new years at different times, Thailand celebrates their new years for three days by hosting the worlds largest water fight… Yes, we will be in Thailand during this annual event and will get to partake in some of the festivities. The bigger opportunity lies in the amount of people that are going to be out. Nearly everyone has these three days off, and nearly everyone participates. So during this time we will have a convenient opportunity to tell people about the hope that we have for Thailand.

April 16, 2009

We’re going to have the 16th off to hangout as a team, explore Bangkok a little bit and do a bit of souvineir shopping.

April 17, 2009

The 17th we are teaming up with Night Light to lead worship for a large group of Thai women. Night Light is a ministry that educates women in a trade to give the women another option besides prostitution. They train the women to make jewelry and encourage them to come to the church services at night. It’s a redemptive occurrence when western men lead thai women into the presence of God because the average patron of the bars is a western men there to take and abuse them and we are going to give. This is one of the most exciting things we get to do while we’re here.

April 18, 2009

We might have another day off to wrap up everything and get last minute things before going back to Australia.

April 19, 2009

Peace out Thailand, hello Australia.

Prayer Requests:
- That we’re whole-hearted in everything we’re doing
- That we have patience to get through the transportation systems
- That we’re safe
- That we are effective in communicating what we’re there for
- That we have favor.
- That we stay healthy

captains log

2009-03-10T17:11:00.000-07:00

Wow. i've been here for two months already. its crazy to see how much God does in such a short amount of time. I have definitely learned a TON since i arrived in january, not just in music but in leadership and service. for example, everyday I get to clean up after lunch. this would normally be a feat for me to accomplish at home just to clean up after myself. and i used to dread cleaning dishes so i would drop the dish in the sink and peace out. but after about two weeks here washing the dishes and utensils used by 100 people and all the pots, pans, and serving platters necessary for preparing the food, i started to enjoy washing the dishes. i don't get it, but i get this enormous sense of accomplishment.

as for the School of Music in Missions, we've written 27 songs over the past two months and are practicing our faces off for the next few weeks before heading to Thailand. we came up with the name Elior for the band name which is hebrew for Light of God, and that's what we're about here. we're going to be bringing the human trafficking issue to the light, and be a voice for the voiceless. so we're stoked about what's happening. right now, a lot of our plans in thailand fell through so we're having to scrounge up some last minute stuff. we are still going but some of the ministries we were going to work with in the hill tribes (orphanages) do not have enough accommodation for us so we will be working in some of the slums in the major cities. what ever happens we're ready because we know that God will be with us.

after we get back from thailand we will be going to brisbane and traveling south to sydney, raising awareness with our music and testimonies from thailand with a tour called A Voice in the Dark. we will be working along side churches and other organizations to speak to schools, youth groups and anyone who we come across. we will also be partnering with Invisible Children on their world tour which is stinking exciting. we should get an itinerary soon of all the cities we'll be hitting on the way and i'll let you know when i get those.

if you guys could pray for patience, unity, and perseverance as we go on outreach because we're going to need those things more than anything else. we don't want to get in the way of what God wants to do through us.

Thanks,
Brandon Funk

king of pancakes

2009-02-19T00:46:00.001-08:00

Just a little update

By the way, I ate 22 pancakes for the win. Collectively, the pancakes weighed in at just under 8 pounds.

here is a video about what we'll be talking about, and what we're doing.

reason for the lack

2009-02-16T04:07:00.000-08:00

this is a terrible excuse for why i haven't vlogged. but it's a vlog. more to come this week.

Week 3

2009-02-03T20:48:00.000-08:00

So i haven't been as faithful to this Blog as I had anticipated, BUT i will push onward to hopefully update twice a week... i put it in my calender with alarms and everything.

Week 1:
Orientation procedures consumed the week so it wasn't too riveting. Just the review of Standards and expectations for the next six months. The most challenging thing we ran up against was the assignment. we have to write and present a new song every week. each week the restraints get tighter to challenge us more. oh and it rained without ceasing during week one, that's not true. it was sunny on saturday.

Week 2:
Week two focused on songwriting. We basically reviewed some of the general literary devices used in common songwriting. We also experimented with different styles of poetry just to get some creative juices flowing. We did haikus, and then performed them in the Greenwich village style. It was good. we had to write 2 songs that week. we also learned about the necessity of knowing your target audience. some good stuff. it rained all week. no joke.

week 3:
well we're not really completely through it, BUT we're learning the ins and outs of sound engineering. it's some pretty cool stuff. i love finding out how and why it all works. oh and we have one song due this week. I read the paper yesterday... we got over 400mm (15.75 inches) of rain in january. half of it was during week 2.

I'll be filming a "day in the life" blog tomorrow to let you ... it should be up by friday.
***Update...
we've had an abnormal two days so the "Day in the life" will have to be postponed till next week.

Voice for the Voiceless

2009-01-27T16:44:00.000-08:00

So last night a "school of " of YWAM made a presentation to our music in missions class and i just wanted to tell you guys a little bit about it. Sonja, a girl from Perth, Australia, told us her testimony and her journey. She was abused by some boys she grew up with and carried that with her for a long time. After graduating high school, she decided to do a two year degree with YWAM focusing in Photography. she dealt with the baggage that she had been carrying for years and used it to make an impact. The two year track she was on was a school focusing on injustice, and more importantly, abuse and human trafficking. Their school went all around the world taking pictures of people whose lives define injustice. For an entire year they were on a journey to capture the faces that are the epitome of the problems our world faces. They did an outrageous amount of research on the numbers and statistics about human trafficking. after a year and a half on the school, all 29 photographers came together and made a book about human trafficking to raise awareness about this issue.
last night we got a chance to look at this book, be crushed by the reality of trafficking, and prepare our hearts for what we'll see in thailand.

if you want more information on the school of photography:
http://www.photogenx.net/

more information on their book and video:
http://www.photogenx.net/sexandmoney/

more information and statistics on Human trafficking:
http://www.humantrafficking.org/
(^ this website contains statistics from the UN, and because the sex trade is so underground, many of the statistics are lower than the true number is.)

Youthstreet

2009-01-23T16:48:00.000-08:00

So i decided to kind of do a blog about each ministry i'm a part of these next few months. Today I'm a participating in Youth Street which is a 8 hour saturday program to give a safe place for youth to hang out and, if they choose to, learn about God. the first 4 hours we break up into teams and build the skills that the Crew (the kids) already have or acquire. So the teams break up at 2pm into music, sport, skate, dance, art, and media teams and learn a new skill. I'm on the music team and I'll be giving guitar lessons and teaching the kids band dynamics and hopefully develop them as musicians. Around 5:30 teams break up and we have dinner in the large auditorium and hang out with the crew for a bit and until 180 hour is set up. Youth Street live and 180 hour is a time for the crew to ask questions, participate in rock worship, and listen to a short message centered around a moral question or biblical principle. Usually the message will cause the Crew to ask questions about the reality of God and the question that was posed. This gives the Crew the opportunity to take it upon themselves to find out who God is. I'll be filming today at Youthstreet and will post the finished product by wednesday.

Update: well i told you guys i'd be making a video... i completely forgot. i apologize deeply for that and hope you will forgive me.

finally here

2009-01-17T13:58:00.001-08:00

Well, I’m finally here after 32 hours of traveling, 4 planes, a train and a bus. I’m so excited about the things God has for us on the School. I’ve met all the people on my School of Music in Missions and love them all. There is Dana from the Philippines, Suzie from Montana, Jaso from Arizona, Micah from India, Phillip from Australia, and me. All of us have varied backgrounds in music so that should make for an interesting six months.
I’ll post two videos today about my flight and my flat. Taking you through the saga of getting here and the wonderful abode I call home for the next few months. It’s almost time for breakfast here so I’ll head out.

Brandon Funk

UPDATE!

Nerviosa

2009-01-03T10:21:00.000-08:00

Well, just under two weeks until i leave, and I'm being bombarded with a cornucopia of emotions at the moment. There is so much to do before I leave and it seems as if time itself is against me.

Before I leave, I'd love to let you know what you can be praying for:
-Patience is going to be key in everything I do.
-Health is NEVER a bad thing to pray for seeing as how we're going to a third world nation and our stomachs might not make it back in the same condition.
-Safe travel would be a good thing to pray for. Last year, we traveled around 5000 miles in a car alone, not including my flights.
-Humility is also critical to our success. The more humility we have as a team, the less we can get in the way of what God wants to do through us.

I will post video updates and pictures as much as possible while I'm in australia.

Stay classy,
Brandon Funk