Heart Heavy and Humor

Heart Heavy and Humor

Heart heavy day…

We went to our fifth prison today, the largest women’s prison in Thailand, with 6000 inmates. Nikki and Maureen shared their powerful testimonies; and the team as well as the inmates were deeply moved. There were over 300 inmates in the service; Kathryn lead the team in worship and the inmates knew the songs and rejoiced and celebrated with us, some in Thai and others in English. We were brought to tears, it was a Holy Spirit moment. Laurie Dawson closed the meeting with sharing a part of her story and asked how many women were from different countries. At least a dozen countries were represented! We sang Amazing Grace and went out in the crowd, laid hands on them and prayed. It was powerful. We then went to the mother and baby nursery. We went around the room and gave love and prayers to the beautiful babies.

All of our prison visits have been unique and God ordained, but knowing how little time the inmates have with their babies was extremely emotional for us all. One precious baby girl has a cleft palate; she was leaving that day for surgery, so we prayed for sweet baby Angel and her mother.

Laughter has helped us get through some hard moments, so here are a few fun things we want to share:

  1. After a long day and many miles, we made it safely back to the House of Blessing. The next day our hostess mentioned that our driver had “driving disease.” We asked for clarification, and she said “You know, the one where you fall asleep when you’re driving.” (Huh!?) And then asked “Who’s been sitting in the front seat keeping him awake!?” 
  2. We have been diligent to use our hand sanitizer. After I shared mine with a friend, she noticed a difference in texture and smell. “Does this have alcohol in it?” she asked. I didn’t know… and as I looked at the bottle, I read “No alcohol – 100% Aloe Vera.” We laughed so hard, realizing we hadn’t been killing germs, but our hands were very soft! Then, Desiree noticed my bottle and had a funny expression as she pulled out of her bag THE SAME BOTTLE, 100% Aloe Vera. More laughs!
  3. While eating at a sketchy boat restaurant, I spied a 4-inch bright thread like item on my plate. Is it… a catfish whisker? Shrimp antenna? I don’t care, I flung it over my shoulder into the water, and we shall never know.
  4. While visiting the prison toilet, one of our sisters dropped her testimony in the bowl. Dilemma: does she flush, or fish??  She went fishing…..yup, a little like Jesus. 
  5. While visiting Chinatown, we went searching for bugs to eat. Our hostess could not find “fresh” fried bugs, so we rode in a tuk tuk to get some. FIVE women in a 2-3 person tuk tuk is hilarious, especially with the “no farting” sticker on the inside! It’s the truth!

Many tears and much laughter, a trip we will never forget.