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Posted in Field Support by Kara Frate on 7/12/2011
in the name of Jesus…..
The darkness is heavy and the thick crowd circles around it as they ooh and ahh at the magic performed by the magician who calls himself Tiger….
The first time I encountered Tiger my spirit started doing something I have never experienced before. I know when I am near him before I ever even see him because I can literally feel something go off deep within me. I really can’t explain the feeling and I am still not sure why I specifically feel like God has given me a task to pray for this man. It’s like the spirit inside of me wants to encounter the spirit that is inside of him in order to bring him into light. But the spirit inside of this man wants nothing to do with us. He will make it a point to talk to everyone in the crowd while avoiding our group. We have the bigger man inside of us!
As my team stands amongst the crowds that surround him each night, we pray. We pray for God to show up in all of his glory and to show these crowds of people that this man has no power. We pray that his tricks will fail and he will be standing there with no explanation as to why. We pray in faith and wait in expectation for our God to show His power.
We have watched him do things like stick burning cigarettes through his nose and pull them out of his mouth and after many nights of going through this cycle and asking God “why aren’t you stopping him?” Right at the point of discouragement……
Once more we stand and pray as we watch Tiger try to perform the same trick that we have watched him perform over and over again… As we pray and literally just speak out the name of Jesus, it finally happened… I watched him focus on this cigarette for a good 3 minutes before he realized it wasn’t moving. You could see the confusion on his face as he crushed the cigarette with his foot and turned to ask the crowd for a new one.
My team was left in awe. Our God showed up and showed off. And even if the audience didn’t notice it. Tiger sure did.
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Posted in Field Support by Kara Frate on 7/12/2011
After 3 weeks of ministry in Thailand and working alongside SHE ministries.. We will be getting on a bus back to Bangkok today. Our schedule is below.
Tonight (7.12)- we leave on a bus at 5:30pm.
Tomorrow- arrive in Bangkok 5:30am
Weds- we will spend the day at the Bangkok YWAM.
Thurs- Our flight leaves Bangkok at 5:30am.
We will be landing in Atlanta around 7pm Eastern time on July 14th. See you on the flip side!
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Posted in General Posts by Anna C. MacLellan on 7/7/2011
One of the questions our leaders ask us every day at debrief (a time where we discuss what happened and what we saw the previous night ministering on Bangala) is “What is God teaching you?”
Something that I’ve slowly realized He’s teaching me is His faithfulness and hope.
Yesterday, I was sick. One of the Real Life girls I watch Criminal Minds with on a nightly basis had been quite ill with a fever and some nausea. And I was fairly certain I had caught her sickness.
At one point, I was lying in my bed, wrapped up in a blanket and my sleeping bag. Freezing even though it was in the low nineties (with a heat index in the low hundreds) and I’m on the bed without a fan. As my head ached and I shivered I determined that I was going out that night unless God specifically told me not to, or someone else made me stay.
As the night wore on and I continued to feel feverish I lowered my standards to stay home to someone even saying, “You don’t look so good. Maybe you shouldn’t go out.” But no one did, and I really felt the need to go out that night. So I told God, “If you want me to do this, you’re gonna have to heal me up and give me all the strength I need for this task. Not just for my body, but for my soul as well. I can’t take another spiritual beating like last time. I need some hope or something.”
I’m sure to most of you it will come as no surprise that He did just that. But to me it was as miraculous as the parting of the Red Sea. Not only did I feel fine, I was better than fine. My body felt healthy, strong and energetic. And my spirit was overflowing with readiness, peace and resolve.
On the drive down I listened to a song by Steven Curtis Chapman that perfectly sums up my time thus far in Thailand, especially on Bangala Road. The whole song is beautiful, and the fact that it was written after the death of the artist’s young daughter only adds to the potency and power of it. Below are the lyrics that God pressed on me during this time. I have no doubt in my mind that someday Bangala Road, as it is now, will be merely ruins that the faithful can dance upon.
Slowly panic turns to pain
As we awake to what remains
And sift through the ashes that are left behind
But buried deep beneath
All our broken dreams
We have this hope
Out of these ashes beauty will rise
We will dance among the ruins
We will see it with our own eyes
Out of these ashes beauty will rise
For we know joy is coming in the morning
In the morning beauty will rise
If you can't believe, I will believe for you
Cause I have seen the signs of spring
Out of these ashes beauty will rise
We will dance among the ruins
We will see it with our own eyes
Out of these ashes beauty will rise
For we know joy is coming in the morning
I can almost feel the hand of God
Reaching for my face
To wipe the tears away
Say its time to make everything new
Make it all new
This is our hope
This is a promise
This is our hope
This is a promise
It will take our breath away
To see the beauty that's been made
Out of the ashes, out of the ashes
It will take our breath away
To see the beauty that He's made
Out of these ashes, Out of these ashes
Out of these ashes beauty will rise
We will dance among the ruins
We will see it with our own eyes
Out of this darkness new light will shine
And we'll know the joy that’s coming in the morning
In the morning beauty will rise
Beauty will rise
Beauty will rise. We may not see it during our time here, and maybe not even in our lifetime, but God will transform Bangala Road. And we’ve already been dancing on the streets of this ruined city. Someday beauty, true beauty, will rise from the ashes.
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Posted in Field Support by Kara Frate on 7/6/2011
The good news is that the God we worship is a God of love.
Every day I drive to the property that SHE has purchased to drop off a team of girls to do construction. Usually I join them, however, I have started taking this time in the afternoon to hang out with some of my girls while giving them a break from working.
Yesterday I dropped the team off and Anna and I ventured into town to purchase some things from the store. Of course, this is Thailand. And, you cannot go anywhere in Thailand without being distracted by all of the delicious fruit stands lining the streets. So I did what any smart person would do and walked up to the fruit vendor.
I ordered my pineapple and watermelon. And, then a man named Chai with exceptionally good English started a conversation with the two of us. During our 40 minute conversation I learned a lot about Chai. He is a Lawyer, he is a husband, he is an ex-husband, he wanted to have children but never did, he attended Colorado University, he likes smoking grass cigarettes, he loves steak, he receives his pay from the U.S, he loves lasagna, his roommate in college now plays for the Chicago bears, he likes to drink alcohol, and he is Buddhist.
I have lots of questions about Buddhism. So I asked him. I asked him what Buddhism was all about, what did Buddha (in man form) do that was so honorable, basically I asked him why he believed what he believed.
Very scattered, he stumbled to find the answers. After minutes of trying to explain his religion he finally said “I don’t really know why I believe, I just know that Jesus and Buddah are same same.. If you do good things, you get good things.”
I then began to share the gospel and explain the big differences between Jesus and Buddah.
It is not about good works.
There is grace.
NOTHING can separate us from the love of God. Not even angels nor demons.
I walked away from this conversation overwhelmed by Gods love for us.
Be encouraged that we serve a God of love and grace that we can have a real intimate relationship with... And I have good news: He is the ONLY God.
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Posted in General Posts by Anna C. MacLellan on 7/1/2011
I’ve never been mistaken for drunk before.
Wednesday night I was. And it was amazing.
Ever since Tuesday night, when we had worship with the Real Lifers and prayed and sent them out to do their ministry, I’d been dying to get out on Bangala Road again. Waking up Wednesday morning, I was already praying for that night. I didn’t fast, but I spent the day in that attitude. Even in the shower, when the electricity (and subsequently the water) died for half an hour or so (right after I put shampoo in my hair of course) I was praying, communicating with God. I just knew that there was gonna be a battle that night. That I needed to be drenched in His spirit, His love and His truth. I prayed it over the girls on my team. I prayed and prayed and looked forward to what God would do.
He didn’t disappoint.
As soon as the nightly worship started, I felt this incredible zeal. This warrior-like energy filled me and the anticipation I’d felt before was nothing compared to the excitement now overpowering me. Out in the truck, before we even left, our team continued the exaltation. Never has simply singing felt so powerful to me. The chorus of my favorite song we sang says, “I will bring praise, I will bring praise. No weapon formed against me shall remain.” I can’t even guess how many times I sang (or screamed) out those words over the course of the night.
By the time we got to Bangala Road it was a little later than usual, and a lot busier than it had been the first night we were there. We separated into our small groups of threes and four and headed out. At first my mind was going crazy. I’d been looking forward to it so much, and thinking about it so much that now I wanted to talk to everyone I saw and pray for every single thing. I was a spastic, charged-up child. Fortunately for me, God had an astounding plan in mind.
It started raining.
Ooh big deal. It rained during raining season on a tropical island. But see, it was a big deal. It hadn’t really rained much while we’d been in Phuket, and as the rain started falling, the streets cleared. Everyone headed for the shelters of the overhanging bars and shops’ roofs. For a little while, we stood under that semi-covering, my teammate Sophia singing and me purposefully praying loudly, but after some of our other teammates passed us, brazenly singing at the tops of their lungs, striding down the street so confident in Jesus I believe everyone looking at them had to see it, the leader with us allowed us to follow them. So we marched down the street singing/screaming “Let it rain! Open the floodgates of Heaven!” and by the time we reached the end of Bangala Road I was soaring in my spirit.
We joined our other teammates in song and just called down Heavenly rain onto Bangala. People gawked at us and that was okay. No, that was great! They were hearing us say the name of Jesus right there in front of strip clubs!
As the rain ended and we moved off in our separate groups, a woman in one of the stores lining the street motioned to me. After a few minutes of conversation she asked how much I’d been drinking. My teammates assured her I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol, while I just laughed and thought to myself, actually, I am drunk. With God’s love and this life that he has given me.
I could fill ten more blog posts with all the other incredible and awful things we saw and did that night but I’ll wrap this up by saying Wednesday night was the best night of my life. I could literally do that every night of my life. And I cannot wait to get back down there.
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Posted in General Posts by Shannon Higgins on 6/30/2011
“Let it rain, let it rain. Open the floodgates of Heaven.”
Its been raining, and raining hard.
Much Love,
Megan
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Posted in General Posts by Kara Frate on 6/30/2011
Bangla Road- Pretty much the biggest party street in the country of Thailand. The only visual I can even think to give you would be to say that it’s a mini Vegas. I have traveled around the world doing missions in some of the darkest places on earth… And, I would venture to say that this is the darkest spiritual climate I have ever stepped foot in. From girls and lady boys selling their bodies in the bars, to magicians, fortune tellers, alcohol abuse, witchcraft and pretty much any other form of satan you can think of. It exists here.
‘Open the flood gates of heaven’
That was the song that flooded the street of Bangla road last night as the rain literally flooded the street… .
We did the usual and started our prayer walk by walking down the left side of the street as we prayed for the Kingdom to come and listened for the Lord to speak. On a normal night we walk down one side of the street and walk back up the other… But last night was different. One of the girls in my small prayer group said that she thought the Lord was telling us to walk straight down the middle of the street, we agreed, and right about the time we started walking the rain started to sprinkle. And, then it started to pour. As the pedestrians rushed off the street into the bars by the thousands, we began to sing… The open bars that line the road were filled with people just watching as we literally marched down the road declaring the Kingdom to come with no other distractions. God showed up. His presence was so thick that we felt invincible. As we sang louder and longer, the Holy Spirit fell heavier. We were literally the only people walking down the road with all eyes on us and we didn’t even care if we looked crazy. I could almost feel hope and restoration falling on this city….
The Holy Spirit was moving so much last night. I think I got saved all over again. And, I have to believe that something shifted in the atmosphere of Phuket, Thailand on June 29th because I can promise you that God did open the flood gates of heaven over this city…..
Seriously, one of the most amazing things I've ever experienced.
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