(v.) to promote growth by labor and attention

The beginning of this blog marked a new chapter in my story as I left my career as an agricultural lobbyist in DC to “go” to love and serve the least of these.  After praying the dangerous Bob Pierce prayer that my heart would be broken by the things that break the heart of God, He broke my heart for the broken and oppressed women and children of Thailand.

I’m now serving with an organization called The Well, living in dynamic community with people committed to mutual healing and restoration through encounters with Christ.  We seek to offer love and community to at-risk women, and often their families and extended communities, as we journey together toward greater understanding of God.

The Well is a ministry of Servantworks, a US-based nonprofit committed to finding innovative ways to solve difficult problems to advance the Kingdom.  The mission of The Well is to help transform Thailand through reaching sex industry workers and others at risk, training them to be leaders and sending them to reach others.

My main area of focus is to explore the root socioeconomic factors in Thailand’s poor, rural provinces of the Isaan region that lead Thai women to migrate to Bangkok to find employment, often in the sex industry.  I’ll start by simply working to better understand the fueling forces behind the urban migration, ranging from lack of employment opportunities to poor education structures and weak agricultural systems.  Beyond that, it’s my hope to be able to walk alongside some local leaders — namely a few former bar workers that have experienced God’s transformative power and returned to their rural villages to multiply the story — in helping them acquire training and resources needed to carry out their visions for development of their communities.

I will also team up on some of our Bangkok-based activities including our bar outreach initiatives and teaching some of the job training courses administered by The Well.

I’m hoping to be able to give a few small glimpses into some of the things God is doing in Thailand through word and photo.  It’s my hope that these thoughts, stories and captured moments will welcome you in to our life and ministry here, spur you on to believe in and pray for greater things for this country, and challenge you to seek out those greater things that God has in store for your life as well!

Thanks for being a part of this journey!

“Look at the nations and WATCH and be utterly amazed.
For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe,
even if you were told.”
Habakkuk 1:5