Thailand 2019 Recap

Sawasdee ka, friends and family!

Just wanted to send out a huge THANK YOU to everyone who supported our Thailand trip in any way. Due to your faithful prayers and generous giving we were able to go and share the love of Jesus with so many different individuals and people groups while working alongside ministry leaders Don and Judi Stinnett of Mission Pattaya. This included, working with Burmese refugee children and their families through health clinics, distributing food packs, and English teaching, working with the girls at Tamar Center, attending Bible studies, and group counseling, ministering to girls on the bar streets who are trapped in sex trafficking, sharing the hope of Jesus with them, and information on what the Tamar Center is, visiting several different local churches, and Bibles studies, sharing our testimonies and words of encouragement, as well as just spending time with people, praying over them, loving on them, and telling them about the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. The move of the Spirit was powerful and palpable and I am so grateful for the opportunity I was given to go and play a small part in it. God is so good and we were blessed to witness some really amazing transformations taking place right before our eyes! 

One of the first ways we got to serve was joining in a Bible study held in a beauty salon located right in the middle of the red light district where any girl (or lady boy) off the streets can come and join if she so chooses. I was given the wonderful opportunity to share my testimony, then we worshiped together, and another team from the states shared a message with the group. Afterwards we prayed over each of our Thai brothers and sisters who were there and during this time one of the ladies who had been going to the Bible study several weeks made a decision to follow Christ! We rejoiced with our new sister and were able to love on and encourage her. What a joy it was! 

That same Bible study the next week was equally as powerful when a woman walked in off the streets who decided to seek refuge at Tamar Center— who had a place for her and welcomed her immediately. We laid hands on and prayed over this beautiful woman and afterwards actually got to witness her boldly walk back over to the bar she was working at just the night before, collect all of her things, turn away from everything she’s ever known and head towards an unknown venture at Tamar in faith. Wow. I was in tears and so greatly moved by her courage and strength and am exceedingly hopeful for a bright, beautiful future for her!  

Tamar is continuously changing lives in amazing ways! After another Bible study with the girls currently residing at the Tamar Center we were blessed to hear an incredible testimony from a graduate who’s success story is encouraging to no end and a true testament to God’s faithfulness and provision. She shared with us about her dark and difficult past. A mother of three who had some major health concerns and was practically starving decided to seek refuge at Tamar but still wasn’t completely sold on the idea that things could ever be better for her than the way they had always been. So she stepped out in faith and challenged God, “If you’re real, feed me.” That night at the Center God showed up, in the faces of our sweet friends and fellow missionaries Don & Judi who came to lead a Bible study and brought dinner with them inviting all the girls to come and eat as they learned more about who this Jesus was. This was a direct answer to her very specific prayers stemming out of a place of real and intense need in her life. So powerful! She’s now soaring beautifully, has been reunited with her children, and is a faithful follower of Jesus who’s life has been completely transformed. In part, thanks to people like Don and Judi and their faithfulness to the call God has placed on their lives to love on the people of Pattaya and be the hands and feet of Jesus. Loving God and loving people is what they are truly all about and they completely exemplify everything that the phrase encompasses. We were so blessed to work alongside them while there and are exceedingly so moved by their example of faith. The work that they are doing MATTERS! Your partnership is HUGE.

I share all of that to say this: thank you! Thank you for believing in this cause. Thank you for supporting it. Thank you for your fervent prayers. God is undoubtedly moving in the city of Pattaya and His life-changing light is overshadowing the grave darkness in one of the heaviest and most oppressive places my feet have ever walked. It is beautiful to witness and be a part of. I’m walking away so stirred. So encouraged. Deeply moved. Incredibly hopeful. And so very grateful for everything we were blessed to be able to experience while there. Please continue to pray for Don and Judi and everything they’re involved in. For The Tamar Center. For the refugee families. For the girls on the streets and for all those lost and hurting all over the world. This is what the gospel is truly all about, friends, knowing Him and making Him known. I am humbled at the idea of being used even ever so slightly to further His kingdom— wherever He May lead. Thank you from the depths of my soul and may you feel God’s blessings and mercy so richly. Much love to all! 

-Jordyn Miller