A Thai Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope it was a wonderful celebration of the goodness of God in your lives!

Here’s a little synopsis of my first-ever Thai Thanksgiving:

Location: Bangkok, Thailand
High: 91° F
Low: 75° F
Wind:
From NE at 7mph

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The day was full of friends, fellowship, worship, sharing about God’s faithfulness, and food! I’m so blessed that my Thai friends have a thankful heart. It’s beautiful to watch them worship God and thank Him for His many blessings.

This year I am thankful for the ways in which He has moved during my time in Thailand. I’m also thankful for you! You’re such a part of the journey here. Thanks for giving your lives to love well. May God’s abundant blessings overtake you! Love!

Tirak

Orange.

The color filled my vision when I first closed my eyes to pray before making some prophetic jewelry. I wrote it down… then more whispers came from the Lover of these Souls.

Beloved. Fire. Revelation.

Simple. So simple. A few more words came as well, in a jumble of sorts. I selected some beads, deciding as I did to put the word “tirak,” the Thai word for “beloved,” with some orange beads. I settled down with some friends from Extreme Prophetic’s Operation Extreme Love school to string the beads.

Later that night, I went out with some friends to give out the prophetic jewelry we had made. We had a few encounters, and then I was drawn to this ladyboy dressed in orange. Knowing the gift opens the way for the giver, I approached her and offered her the bracelet. At first, she thought that I wanted to sell the bracelet to her. When we told her it was just to bless her because God loved her, she began to listen. She asked what we wanted. I told her I just wanted to bless her. I asked her how we could pray for her to bless her and she said she wanted a good journey. So I asked what her dream was. A boyfriend, she replied. I told her that I felt she wanted a boyfriend because she had a deep hunger for love because she hadn’t always been loved well. She said yes, no one had ever loved her. I told her that God has always loved her and would love her until the day the world ends and beyond. I said that God was calling her beloved. That He loved her so much that He knew she would be wearing orange that night. And He just wanted her to know His love. I told her I would pray for her to have a good journey in life, but I also wanted to pray that God would show her His love. She said we could. And so we prayed. And God showed up. And she felt loved. Perhaps for the first time in her life.

And she said wanted to know this God who loved her. I was shocked. It was so simple. But she became a child of the Lover of her soul.

Nam Wan

She’s one of my favs. Maybe it’s the way that she runs to me for a hug each time she sees me or maybe it’s her smile. But one way or another, Nam Wan has a way of making my face light up when I see her, despite her stubborn streak.

One of the first days I hung out with her, she “read” to me out of a cartoon-strip version of the Gospels. She told me about how God was a baby. She told me all about how Jesus opened the eyes of the blind man. She told me about Jesus dying on the cross. And about how God loves everyone. All in Thai and with very animated gestures, of course. I asked her where God is and she gave me one of those, “Don’t you know?” looks and said, “PraJao yu ti-noon!” (God is way up there!) with her finger pointed straight up in the air. She doesn’t seem to understand that I barely speak Thai… or if she does, she doesn’t let it bother her. She just jabbers away, climbs into my arms for a hug, begs to be spun around, and then runs off with my camera or begins to pose as the model for a very long photo shoot.