where on earth has the time gone?

First of all, today's December 2nd. Holy smokes. Do you know what that means? That means that December 27th is getting uncomfortably close. Now, don't get me wrong. I am oh so very excited to see and hug a lot of people when I get back to good old lynchburg and I am also excited to see what God has in mind for this next season of life. But, when a place (or more accurately, the people in it) steals your heart, it's not exactly easy to say goodbye (or more accurately, "see you later"). I've been trying to avoid thinking about all that, but with the Christmas parties (more on that in a minute) coming up so quickly, it's hard to avoid realizing that time is slipping away pretty fast.

But anyway, speaking of the Christmas parties (I'm so excited about them!)... every year, Beginnings throws two BIG Christmas parties. Last year my home church (Brentwood Church) sent a team to help with the parties and through Freedom 4/24, was able to pay the bar fines for 380 girls to be able to attend the parties and hear about Beginnings, and even more importantly, to hear about Jesus. Here's a glimpse at last years parties.



Beginnings will be throwing two Christmas parties again this year in which they estimate being able to pay the bar fines for up to 200 girls each night and bringing them to a banquet in which they will be the guests of honor and will be showered with love. The parties will be on December 15th and 16th.

Here are some ways you can be in prayer for these events:

For the preparations for the parties.

Safe travels for the team of 7 women from Brentwood...



(Stacey Reighard, Jill Stroud, Sarah Mullins, Katelyn Bowers, Martha Heinlein, Amy Sabatini, and Tammy Dupin)

...as well as for my best friend (Ilana Poole), who will all get to Bangkok on December 10th and will be doing outreach leading up to the parties as well as helping with the parties.

Our nights of outreach leading up to the parties and that the girls who have expressed interest in coming to the parties would be able to attend.

The nights of the parties, for the girls to feel special and loved and that God's glory would shine through everyone involved in a way that the girls attending the parties would feel His love for them through us.

I am so excited to see the glory of God all over these evenings. Expecting Him to do more than I could ever ask or imagine!

Jesus replied: “A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests...Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame. “‘Sir,’ the servant said, ‘what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’ Luke 14:16-22

i think i'm asian

Have I mentioned how amazing the girls at Beginnings are?

Someone asked Bonita and I recently what some of our coping mechanisms for not getting emotionally overwhelmed are. We both said that one thing that helps is spending time with the girls at Beginnings. They're so full of joy and it just brings me so much hope to remember the stories of the girls living in the house and to see how God has freed them. They are such beautiful, strong, smart, funny women and I love that they've become like family to me. And that's also kind of confirming my suspicions that I might be part Asian. I mean seriously, just look at the facts. So I have American parents and an American brother and 2 American sisters, a Korean sister (Sohee. She's amazing. She's lived with us for about a year and a half now and is part of the family. She's wonderful :) Love you Sohee!) and now I have 13 Thai sisters! And I've come to the conclusion that that makes me at least a little bit Asian.

Anyway, the Beginnings girls are just great and at the end of a bad day it's always a good idea to get around them. They always have their silly ways of making me laugh without even trying. For instance... the other night several of the girls ended up in my room and I started painting some of their nails and the room ended up turning into "Megan Salon" (in case you were wondering, Megan Salon is free, unless someone happens to do a good King Kong impression, in which case it's either 200 baht or the King Kong impression). This was all fun and games but only got better when an impromptu dance party broke out. We watched and "learned" the Single Ladies and Waka Waka dances, just to name a few. And let me just tell you, these girls have got moves. For real.

But besides just being able to laugh with them, it's been amazing to see how God has not only brought them to a place where they experience their own healing, but that He is also using them to show Himself to other people. It reminds me of part of the Brennan Manning book, The Furious Longing of God, when he says, "Healing becomes the opportunity to pass on to another human being what I have received from the Lord Jesus; namely His unconditional acceptance of me as I am, not as I should be.”

I was out doing outreach with one of our girls from the house this week and she was talking to me about her (terrible) story before she came to Beginnings and how God is able to use that to help the girls in the bars listen to her. She said that if she hadn't been where they are, they would just tell her that she doesn't understand. But, because she's been there she is able to tell them that she does understand and that she's been where they are and that there is a way out. It was so powerful to hear her talk about her story in that way and to hear that she sees how God is able to use that. Basically, she's my hero.

They always seem to be up to something. There's been some really bad flooding going on in Northern Thailand. Last week Ann sat the girls down and told them that 100 baht could provide a disaster relief package for the victims of the flooding. ALL of the girls donated from the little that they have to provide these packages for the people affected by the floods. I loved getting to see them in that position. It was a beautiful picture to me of God's Kingdom. He has brought healing to them in a way that allows them to be able to take what they've been blessed with and use that to provide for others in their time of need. They have such beautiful hearts and were all so excited to be able to help. They went out and bought the items they needed to put in the bags and together we filled all of the bags that they would take the next day to Kho Kred Nonthaburi Island. Two of the girls on leadership went and only four of the girls from Beginnings were able to go with them to deliver the bags. All of them wanted to go so badly that they did a "lucky draw" to decide who would go, and the next day they went and delivered the packages to the people on the island.

Beautiful Child

Speaking of Nic and Amanda...

So, in my last post I mentioned how my friend Amanda is a design genius. But, what I didn't mention is that her husband Nic is a super talented musician. Basically, Lou Lou and Sissy are doomed for greatness. Anyway, he wrote an amazing song called Beautiful Child, for Freedom 4/24 which he debuted at Run For Their Lives. You can buy the song on itunes. It's a 99 cents very well spent.

I've never been much of a writer and something I feel like I've struggled with some since I've been here is being able to explain in words everything that's been going on inside my heart and head when I think about and pray for these beautiful girls. I think Nic did a great job of expressing all of that through the words of this song. This song has been a real blessing to me while I've been here.

Beautiful Child

Beautiful child,
When did the brightness fade?
Can what’s been done be unmade?
Will there come a day?

Beautiful child,
How will your heart replace
What others have stripped away?
Will there come a day?

When wounds will be bound for their healing,
And soft words will silence the stealing
Of your heart, your lovely broken heart.

A new song, with melody sweeping,
The new dawn, a song of your healing,
And kindness, like you’ve never known
The day that you come home.

Beautiful child
Do you dream of life retraced?
Where your worth is not misplaced?
There will come a day…

Fading slowly out, fading slowly now, fading slowly out
You will shine with brightest light,
Gleaming bold in purest white,
Heaven’s grace will sing your beauty.

Happy Birthday Sissy!

There are two very special little girls that I just love more than I know what to do with, and if you've known me for at least 5 seconds, you probably already know of them as Lou Lou and Sissy and have seen about 400 pictures/videos of them on my phone. And I am unapologetic about that :) But, on the off chance that you don't know who they are, let me introduce you.

This is Lou Lou.



And this is Sissy.



And this is just... more pictures of them because they're so darn precious.



























It all started with COMS 101. Everyone and their mom recommended that I take Amanda for coms since she's such a great teacher, and I did and they were right. She is a great teacher. But she's not just a great teacher. She's an amazing person and has become a really close friend. She's one of those people that I know I can call about the stupid things or the deep things and she'll not only listen while I let it all out, but she'll really care. And not even just because we're friends. I think mostly just because it's who she is. She cares about people. A lot. I love her!

Anyway! I was in her class when she was pregnant with Lou Lou. And one day after class I asked her if she was going to need a babysitter. And she said something along the lines of "are you serious?"... and the rest is history and now they wouldn't be able to keep me away if they wanted to (please don't ever want to!). I had no idea going into it how close I was going to get with their family. Really, if you don't know Nic and Amanda, you're missing out. If I had to describe them in one word, it would be genuine. They just really care about other people. They're awesome people and awesome parents to Lou Lou and Sissy! And on another note... Amanda also happens to have killer design skills. You should check out her website here.

One of the hard parts about deciding to stay in Thailand until December was knowing how much Lou Lou and Sissy would grow while I was gone. I won't lie... I was secretly praying that God would stunt their growth until December. Go ahead, judge me. But apparently He wasn't on board with that idea, and they are getting SO big! Lou Lou's a genius (I mean she always has been, but she's talking so much! She learned to say Thailand the other day!) and Sissy's like 4 feet tall now or something. It's ridiculous really. But thank goodness for technology because video chatting with them often has helped so much!

This is a picture of them in two of the dresses that I got for them and sent home with Lyndsey and Janette. Thailand looks good on them :)



Anyway, today is Sissy's birthday! I can't believe she's already a year old!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! I love you so much!

I art freedom

This is my best friend Ilana.



I wrote about her before when she had put her creativity to work by making and selling head bands to help raise money to get me to Thailand.

Well, she's at it again.

But first... I have exciting news!

Ilana is coming to Thailand in December!!! Beginnings has two big Christmas parties every year in which they are able to pay the bar fines for hundreds of girls and allow them to enjoy a night away from the bars where they will be treated as honored guests and are shown hope in the person of Jesus Christ and are shown the hope of a way out of the sex industry through The Home of New Beginnings. Ilana will be coming to help with the Christmas parties and to do outreach in the bars while she is here, and then we will be flying back home together on December 27th. I'm really just so so so excited to be able to share this experience with her and am so excited that she's going to get to meet all of the girls that I have grown to love so much.

But back to I art freedom. Ilana makes some beautiful art, and has decided to sell some of it to help raise money in order for her to be able to come. She's extremely talented. Check out her stuff! I'm sure you're going to love it.

fun post continued!

Badminton! There are two sides of the driveway with a gate between them and so the driveway has become the girls badminton court or field or whatever you call it. I've played with them a few times and we just usually end up laughing so hard that one or more of us is literally on the ground.







While Ann's mom was here we went to China town one night. We had a reason... but I can't remember what it was. Why did we go again? I know it wasn't for the shark fin or birds nest soup we ended up eating... what was it? I don't know. I can't remember. Oh by the way, birds nest soup is actually made out of swallow saliva. Wonderful! I asked Ann what it was before I ate it and she said "try it first" and then I took a bite and asked her again and she said "do you like it? finish it first". Oh come on! It really was actually kind of good. So I finished it. And then I asked again "so, what is it?". And she says, "its made from the saliva of a..." 'nough said. She couldn't think of the name of the bird at first, but really the saliva part was the weird part anyway. She knew what she was doing when she made me wait until after I'd eaten it to tell me. I still think it's weird that I ate bird spit.









That night we also went to the flower market. I loved the flower market!!! A lot! There's just something so happy about flowers! Normally when I'm at home and I feel sad or need to get my mind off something, I go to Target. It's very therapeutic for me. The flower market gave me a similar feeling. How can you not feel happy when you're surrounded by a gajillion flowers?





















We bought these flowers for 50 bt. That's about $1.50 for 50 roses. Nice, huh?









Don't you feel happy?

There's this cute little dessert place that Celeste took me to one night and then Ann took me with her again while her mom was here. It's called After You.



This is the Nutella toast. It was so good!

And last but not least... the ballet! If you don't know, I've done ballet since I was about 3 years old and just had to stop a year ago when I started having to take a few night classes and I couldn't fit it in. But! I'm going to say I'm probably not finished with dance just yet. Bonita and I were talking about how I've never been to a ballet, so for my "thank you" for staying here until December, she took me to see Cinderella! Bangkok has an annual festival of the arts type thing and there was a Russian dance group that was coming to do Cinderella. It was beautiful!