Update on Trip to Asia

Hi Friends,

So one of the big lessons I learned from this trip is not to plan future trips during the latter half of November. To put it mildly, there was a lot to dive back into after we returned from Asia - the last 6 weeks have seen three major holidays, three family birthdays, two bridal showers, one wedding, two trips to FL, one to TN, a new boss, end of year financial processes, and 4 days with my car in the shop. And the last 6 weeks have NOT seen me send out an update to those who faithfully supported and prayed for this trip, but that's about to change. 

This trip to Asia was harder than the previous trip to Europe for so many reasons. Asia is REALLY far away which seems obvious, but that travel time takes a serious toll when you're going back and forth in a week.  There were little things that added up to just make this trip more complicated in ways that the previous trip wasn't. 

The good news is that your prayers sustained us and we saw what mighty things the Lord is doing in Asia. We were able to meet with so many different ministries that are doing amazing things to reach out to the women, children, and men who are victims of the sex industry in Cambodia and Thailand. 

We helped provide meals to those who've traded work on the streets for shame-free employment. We visited centers that provide childcare and medical care and counseling to those who have left prostitution. 

We prayed for those who go on outreach in the bars and clubs where they seek to reach both the women who are sold and the men who buy.

We listened to the tear-streaked testimonies of women whose own families pressured them into selling themselves so that hale and healthy fathers and brothers don't have to work. 

We learned that just as I saw in Europe, the marginalized, the state-less, the poor, and the immigrants are those most easily swept into the trafficking machine. 

One of the most eye-opening things I learned on this trip was the role of Thai Buddhism in the perpetuation of the sex industry. This particular brand of Buddhism is such that sons, teenage boys, are the ones who can earn merit for their parents to have a better situation in their next life. So young men aren't sent to work. They're sent to the temple to serve the monks and earn their parents favor for their future lives. The financial responsibility for the whole family falls on the eldest daughter. She's responsible for earning money for the family, and when you're from the village, that usually means heading to Bangkok for barely-scraping-by jobs in construction or more lucrative but shame-filled jobs in the sex trade. 

A director of one of the ministries that we met with, New Beginnings, shared a story about a family with three sons. They had no daughters to earn money for their family. Not knowing what to do they went to the Buddhist temple and sought advice from their local religious leader. The advice they received? Choose one of your sons to turn into a lady-boy (transvestite) - start him on hormone therapy and treat him as a daughter so that he can go to the city and earn money for your family. 

In both Europe and Asia I've seen the complicity of families and culture in perpetuating the sex industry on both sides of the equation. parents or boyfriends who sell their women in order to gain a more comfortable life for themselves. And fathers in culture where taking your teenage son to the brothel is an acceptable way to introduce him to sex. 

How do we fight against this? How do fight thousands of years of culture and family and even religion? And can we really call it "rescue" if rescue means you have to leave behind your family and culture and everything that you've ever known? How do you convince women that they have more worth and value than they've been told for generations? 

I believe the answer to this is the gospel. The good news of Jesus Christ is the only thing powerful enough to fight an onslaught of culture and heritage and family pressure and generational sin. And I am so proud to work for organization that believes in bringing the gospel to people by living among them and planting churches with a long-term view to transform communities - not through moralism or good works or "just stop doing this already", but by love and grace and forgiveness and freedom from shame. And I am so thankful for my co-laborers who are on the ground in Phnom Penh and Bangkok and are continuing to labor towards communities that are no longer ravaged by lust and greed and shame but communities that are instead ravished by the Holy Spirit. 

Thank you again (and again and again and again) for being part of what God is doing to bring light into the darkness and an end to injustice. My gratitude for you and your partnership in this endeavor is boundless. Thank you.

Please let me know if you have any questions. I've included some resources below if you're interested in learning more on this topic or learning more about some of the ministries and NGOs with whom we worked. 

Love,

J