Back in Kona..a new season ahead!

 ..yes it true I am back in the big island of Hawaii in Kailua-Kona :) :) Its so crazy to see the 360 turn and being back in the exact same place I began this
all. TWO YEARS
later.
wow.. where has the time gone? so crazy I can't even believe its been that long. It's been such a blessing having some of my best DTS friends back on campus as well. They are staffing various schools and DTS's. Sometimes we just sit and marvel at the fact that we haven't seen each other in two years and here we are back in the same place we all met still on fire and pursuing the Lord and now on the other side.. staff instead of sudents. SO proud of them all :) and excited to see them around in the months I'm here. I'm overwhelmed at the Lord's goodness and faithfulness in my life. I turned 22 the other day and was so humbled to think back on the adventures and journeys the Lord has taken me on all before me 22nd birthday. The multiple nations, the many people I've been blessed to meet, to serve, to love. And all the growing he's done inside of me. Apart from him we ARE nothing.. and we can DO nothing. But with the Lord... the possibilities are endless. He is a loving father that is worthy of our praise.. worthy of our lives. Worthy of everything.  amen :) ... hmm didn't mean to start a mini sermon haha just started writing :)

(old friends reunited)

Sooo while we are in Kona we are working on creating our publication that will incorporate our photos and stories from this past year and really portray God's heart for a particular issue or injustice that we faced.  Past teams have focused on issues such as the sex industry and sex slavery (http://www.facebook.com/sexandmoneyfilm?sk=info) and the team before ours focus on small acts of kindness (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Act-Here-Love-Now/112114918872009). Throughout our year of travel we really felt the Lord put the theme of home and family on our hearts. We really began to see that the breakdown in family in the root of all injustice in the world and its such a prevalent issue in America as well. We are in the brainstorming process still and working to come up with a title and really figure out God's heart on the issue and what he wants this book to focus on. It's quite an intimidation process trying to sort through all your content as well as design a book and all that comes with that such as marketing and social media and then planning out distribution tour at the end. one day at a time I keep telling myself :) I will be helping primarily with the book design as well as tour planning. We also hope to get a website.. blog.. and mini documentary to show our creation process. We are dreaming very big haha and have ALOT of work ahead so please please join us in prayer!! Below are a few pics of our past few times debriefing from the year.. and brainstorming titles and topics. We had a great prayer time the other day and God spoke a lot more into the project. We are so blessed to have the help of a talented graphic designer and creative director who is staff on the Kona base to come alongside us and really help direct the project. I'll do my best to keep everyone updated as we decide on a titles and really get into the writing and research and design! :) additional things going on... monday mornings is corporate worship for the whole Kona YWAM base. Tuesday and Thursday mornings the photogenx community has intercession for topics of injustice for an hour in the prayer room..sunday night's i'm attending a "Women of Glory" bible study.. I've also begun a cross fit workout tuesday and thursday at 6am (eekk!) A DTS staff girl on base who is also a personal trainer has offered her skills and runs these workouts for fellow staff. And then we have our class/work time everyday and Friday nights all the photogenx community staff gets together for a fun night (this includes our "around the world track" group .the current staff that are running a "voice for the voiceless" dts...the staff that are here preparing for the photogenx dts next quarter....and the photogenx core team/office crew) busy busy! and lots of meeting haha. Pray for energy strength and creativity!!!

aloha and mahalo!

some randoms..

Bagels are EXTREMELY hard to come by in foreign lands.. and they are my go-to breakfast at home... therefor you can probably understand the massive craving I have held all year towards these wonderful creations.. which then would also explain the tears.. yes TEARS.. I cried at the sight of them on a menu. Praise the Lord! Chiang Mai Thailand has bagels!! This particular cafe has been visited by us now numerous times haha ;) 

yes.. its true.. I'm guilty of monk stalking ;)  

... these youngster monks weren't to thrilled to be in these festivities haha you can view more pics of this wonderful parade that we crashed/stalked/joined.. ;) ..at marisagroff.tumblr.com

A=ah B=buh C=kuh ...and all that english mumbo jumbo ;)

One of the amazing ways the Lighthouse in Action builds relationships with the girls on the red-light district streets is by teaching english. This is relatively new and we are one of the first few teams to really head it up. It started with one massage parlor and 2 girls and is now up to 2 massage parlors + 3 bars + some randoms who joins in = about 30 girls!! Each of those girls had a folder where we keep track of their progress as well as their personal lives. Looking at those folders everyday amazing me. Those folders not only represent students but amazing relationships that are being built. Our goal is to teach english but our main purpose is to show them the LOVE OF CHRIST, through our genuine love and actions of care towards them. Having this time in the afternoons to teach english really gives us a chance to get to know the girls deeper so that we have solid relationship already built when we go into the bars at night. So many of the bars are welcoming us to come teach their girls and really being open to us talking with them and knowing more about their lives. I am falling in love with my students, they are amazing individuals and I have really really really enjoyed teaching them :) I was a bit skeptical at first because I am not a teacher haha and I didn't even know how to go about teaching my own language but we start most of the girls on phonics just learning the alphabet letters and sounds and so on into months, dates and time, as well as basic dialog. One of my students is *Moon she is a 36 year old mother with an adorable nine year old son *Finn. Sometime he sits in on the lessons too. I love being able to see them interact and learn together. He is learning a bit in school as well so it fun to watch him help teach him mom :) To us the alphabet is so basic, but to them its the beginning of everything. The beginning of potentially finding another job, and just being able to communicate more effectively with the foreigners. *Moon started with not being able to speak any english and not even being able to read or write Thai. She is very basic but has learned SO fast! I love this part about teaching, being able to watch their progress.. its so amazing to watch them "get it." She knows and remembers (which is the tricky part haha) all the alphabet letters and sounds, can sound out/write three and four letter words, can hear the various vowel sounds in words, knows the days of the weeks and can do basic dialog. Seems simple, but for two weeks of learning and knowing NOTHING to start with, she is WAY ahead of my other students. Remembering the sound that each letter makes and being able to put the sounds together to form words is very tough for them. 

*Moon has really been opening up to me, and through a translator, has told me a lot of her story. She essentially trafficked here when she was 15. A man came to her village and told her parents he has a good job in the city that would pay well, a daycare job. (one of the biggest forms of trafficking looks like that. Men will go into the poorest villages and bride the parents to send their daughters into the city for work). She was brought to Chiang Mai and basically dropped into the red-lights.. never ever seeing her family again. Her father has since passed. She started working as a "go-go" in the strip club doing shows and then, in addition, began working at a bar. Over 15 years later she is still doing that exact thing. She also told me she has another son, one that is three years older than *Finn.. but his father came one day and stole him and she never saw him again. With tears in her eyes she told me .. "I am not lonely anymore, I have *Finn." He means the world to her. I love this precious women with all my heart. I want so badly to see God's love and to see something brighter for her and her son. I want her to know that there is a different life outside the life in bars that she has known her whole life. I want her to experience freedom. She has been "enslaved" in a sense since she was young. I bought her a bracelet the other day for all her hard work, I have a similar one that I wear. She also wears a a bracelet that a monk gave her when she was young, like a buddhist good luck charm. I hope and pray that my bracelet can be a different symbol, a symbol of genuine love and affection that can come from a complete stranger because of Christ's love for her. 

In my last post I mentioned *Butterfly Bar and *June and *Sam that work there. They also started doing english with us!! It's so great because it provides a great "in" to start really pouring into this dark bar. The other girls there are really warming up to us too. I love teaching *June and *Sam, they are 20 and 18 and it feels just like hanging out with friends :) Their english is decent enough that we can talk. I have gotten really close to *June and been able to really pour into her. She has opened up a lot and trusts me so much. I'm thankful for the private talks we have had where i've been able to speak TRUTH into her. They are both huge Twilight fans and so we are hoping to be able to take them out to the movies sometimes this last week before I leave :) :) Below are some pictures of us teaching.. you can also read on Bethsaida's blog (http://agendalove.com/2011/12/05/1-massage-parlor-1-bar-modern-day-miracles/) . Our days are busy as we sometimes teach from 11am-4:30 pm! and then the slums till 6 and the bars at night! eeeek haha! long days but grreeeaattt days! :) 

Taking back what the enemy has stolen..

"In this season you may be here to plant, to water, or to harvest..but its Jesus who will save these girls"

I hangout with prostitutes

I teach english in bars

and I serve…

because HE who is greater than all… came to serve

My heart is so full of thanks for all the things God is doing through Me, Sarah, The YWAM Perth team that's here and everyone else that has been going out three nights a week to minister to the girls in the bars. Loi Khro road is a road full of bars, massage parlors, strip clubs and broken and lost people trying to fill voids that nothing of this earth can satisfy. Its full of trafficked girls working all day and night to earn money for their poor families in the villages. It's full of lost dreams, false security and strongholds gripping the lives of many men and women. The scene is the similar to that which I saw in the Philippines, the reddish glow coming form the bars, girls standing along the streets calling out to men walking by, drunken college kids looking for a good time, and older men removing their wedding rings and breaking their vows. 

The first night I went out I wasn't sure I was ready for it again. Flashbacks of the Philippines, the heaviness, the brokenness, the hurt. Could I handle it again? My mind races with the faces of girls I had befriended in the bars in the Philippines and I prayed and prayed for them. focus marisa..God has you here in thailand, there are new girls you need to meet..he will give you strength… The thickness of the darkness in such places would bring chills to anyones body. So many things going on around you. A darkness that goes deeper than what we can visually see. But we are LIGHT. We walk in authority. God's word LIVES in our hearts and we have won the battle with the evil one. We've been working in the bars for three weeks now, I've gone out 8 nights (tues/thurs/sat) and with each night the darkness is lifted more and more. I go out now with such a heart overflowing with love and joy, I feel a peace and light when I walk down that street. I feel the presence of God cutting the darkness with every step we take. we are taking back what the enemy has stolen. Every night before going out we have prayer and worship and get God heart and listen to where he is leading us. The first two nights it was just me and sarah and Bethsaida, the women running the ministry, and a volunteer from England. Then an outreach team of 10 from Perth Australia came for two weeks, as did two girls from The World Race, and another YWAMer who was in Chiang Mai doing a school. Our group kept growing, we could barely fit in the tiny prayer room :) :) After prayer we walk to the street together and then split into groups of two or three and go into the bars. Sometime that looks like just walking the street interceding, or buying a soda and sitting and talking to the girls who work in the bars. Its well known that all the girls working are prostitutes. They earn money when guys buy them drinks and when men buy to take them out for the night. The massage parlors on the street are the same way. Many children walk the street trying to sell roses to earn money for their families. Kids as young as 5 or 6 up to maybe 13. And girls working in the bars are as young as 16. Their innocence is being stolen. My heart really hurts for the little boys that sell roses. They are so young and their only role models are the men they see on that street. Many of them have become very hard and wont let us talk with them. We always play with the kids for the first 1/2 hour but there is a group of boys who have such hard hearts and wont come near us or let us touch them. They are full of such anger and bitterness at such a young age. Pray that God will soften their hearts , I know he already is. short story quick: there was one night that I was sitting in one of the bars we teach english at and noticed one of the little rose boys over by the Thai boxing ring. A group of drunk guys were teaching the little boy to throw punches. I prayed and prayed that God would take him out of that situation. Right after I prayed the little boy moved over to the other side of the boxing ring by himself and then just stood there alone. He then moved on and went from bar to bar trying to sell flowers. I prayed that God would bring him over to me. Right as I was about to leave he came into my bar. As he stopped to fidget with his flowers I lightly placed my hand on his back and proclaimed the name of Jesus over and over and over again. He stood still. He didn't fight back, he run off. I know Jesus is slowly softening the hearts of these little boys.

Another bar I continually visit is the *Starfish bar. Its one the rowdier bars with lots of girls always out front calling after men. I met two girls here that I am really close to, *June and *Sam they are both 20 years old. *June can be a bit stand-offish at first but she opened up to me right away and we have such fun relationship. Its been hard because we have planned many lunch dates that she has backed out on or been busy with a "boyfriend/customer", I love her so much though and keep pursuing her. God is doing great things in that bar. Many times when we are in there praying and bar is empty of men before we leave :) yeahyeah! we chase them out with our prayer ;) All the girls there are really open to us and the bar owner as well I have become friends with. *June has a lot of pressure to earn money for 2 year old son and mom and dad living in Bangkok. You can see the happy lively face she puts on every night in a front. I am praying so much for this girl, for a discontentment where she is that she will see that there is more, that there is other options and that she would feel christ's love through me. It amazing to come back at the end of the night and hear everyones stories and conversations that were had. We offer free english classes during the day to the women on this street so its always nice visiting them bar nights as well as making new relationships. Our presence alone there is making a difference. Many people watch us and see how we interact with the women and kids, they see how we genuinely love them and just want to get to know them. The other night when I was walking down the road, we were saying Hi to all our friends in the various bars, a man behind me said "wow you sure do know a lot of people." I told him that we love meeting new people and that we teach english to the girls on this street. He said, "yeah...I saw you guys out here this morning.." People are noticing. There has been breakthrough in seeing girls do from depressed all the time to happy and smiling all the time. They love when we come and often offer free punch or coffee. Some people in the group have even gotten to talk to some of the men. One guy from the Perth outreach team met the same man two nights in a row. The man said he was nothing to live for and is basically waiting to die. A few people have had the chance to share the gospel and one guy even was allowed two gigs to play guitar in the bars and shift the spiritual atmosphere through words and song. Most of all though we have just loved through actions. Through conversations, smiles, hugs, hellos, and continued pursuit after these women's hearts and their friendship. Please be praying along with me as we go into our last week of bar ministry, I know God wants to do so many great things as we have build solid foundations with many of the girls. Pray for open hearts and wisdom for us in what to say and do. Pray for a blinding thick light that will radiate from us, and for all who see us to know that there is a father in heaven with a love for them greater than we will ever comprehend...

Everything you do screams I love you

Everything you are screams I care

What am I that you would love me like you do

Who am I that you should care … -corey asbury

These lyrics from a worship song are my hearts cry, I want to exude those same characteristics. I want the love and hope and presence of God to manifest through me on the darkest streets of the red-lights in Chiang Mai..

(the last two images and the one with the motor bike were take by Sarah (swallensteen.wordpress.com)
** names have been changed **

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Where to even start! Its been a little over two weeks now and I absolutely LOVE this amazing city! its seated in the north of Thailand  up near the Burma border. I am still shocked at how in love I have fallen for this country and place. I fought God for a long time on going to Thailand. I new I wanted to do the Asia outreach portion with my team-mate sarah and she really felt called to Thailand. I on the other hand though to myself, "Thailand is overrated, everyone in ywam goes there, I want to go somewhere new and remote and exotic like Burma or Tibet or the hills of Nepal.." I was really NOT wanting to go to Thailand. Buttttt.. my heart was changed, as God has a habit of doing ;) (This is probably one of my favorite places all year!) I found this ywam ministry in Chiang Mai, Thailand online and really felt compelled to work with them. They even had a coffee shop that they used for ministry!! PERFECT! :) and it was in the north, not the south of Thailand where lots of people I know have gone, so I guess its more "remote" , although its a large city, still, its near by many villages and hill tribes and in close proximity to Burma :) haha. Being in Thailand is so different that when I was in the Philippines. There is so much obvious culture here where as the Philippines was more westernized. The brilliant colors, temples, markets, and cafes make it such a fun hip city. If Bangkok was NYC then Chiang Mai has more of a Lancaster/Philly feel. perfect again. Not to mention the ministry I am with is amazing. They are such a light here and I am so blessed to be teaming up with them! They are so excited we are here and say its an answer to prayer because they are in the process of making a new website and have NO PHOTOS they were praying for someone to be able to help and we came 1 week before the graphic designer's photo deadline! so in addition to serving along side of them we have been photographing away to bless them with nice high quality images that really show the heart of their ministry. 

The ministry is Lighthouse in Action 

(http://www.lighthousethai.com/Welcome.html ) 

(http://www.ywamthai.org/lighthouse/)

started by a Thai YWAMer Emmi Khanthana.. click here for her story!

Lighthouse In Action has three sub-ministries : 

WONGEN Kafe and college outreach - this is the coffee shop that is located right across from Chiang Mai university. They reach out to the college students and also have an english club in the cafe and do fun events such as open mic night. They also use this place as an alternative working environment for girls who want to escape the bar scene

Love Acts - This part of the ministry is the one that I am focusing the most with. Love Acts does outreaches in the bars to the prostitutes at night as well as teaches english to the bar girls in the afternoon. Three days a week we also go and teach english and play with kids in the slums. An American volunteer, Bethsaida, is running this sub-ministry, you can view her blog at http://agendalove.com/

X-Life - this part is the prevention part. Many girls are trafficking from poor villages and told they will have better jobs in the city. X-life sends outreaches in to the villages to build relationships and bring Jesus into the hearts of the buddhist thai people living there. They have started in Emmi's village where she was born and hope to expand into other villages. We got to spend 4 days in the villages (i'll post about that later!)

so thats briefly  an overview of the different things I'm working with here. Stay tuned for more detailed stories and photos! we got to do some exciting things in the villages and have been having incredible times meeting the girls in the bars. Pray for continued strength and perseverance for these last 2 weeks! Below is our FIRST Thai meal.. mmhmm pad thai at the sunday night market. DELICIOUS. The food here is great and cheap! you can eat for a dollar! There is also another DTS outreach from Perth working with this same ministry. We all live in the same house together, its been a blast getting to know them all, I already feel like we've been friends forever!

So blessed to be apart of everything God is doing here!!!

Macedonia

Being the avid travelers that we are, we never pass up an opportunity to put a stamp in the passport ;) While in Albania our contact, Fiona, offered to drive us over the border to spend a day in Macedonia. We went to a small village on the coast, it was dreary and very very cold, but beautiful nonetheless. We even got to climb a castle! I decided to be super cheesy and do a faux polaroid, then deemed it blog worthy. enjoy! 

Alma and kids

A sweet family in Albania was generous in letting us live in their humble unfurnished home for the few weeks we were there. They were so gracious in letting us move into their bottom floor, and share the space with them. The floor had two rooms, and one bathroom..toilet, sink and a giant plastic tub to collect water in for bucket showers ; and a "kitchen' area with a sink, campfire gas burner we could cook on, and shelves. The water was only turned on for a couple hours a day, and not till almost a week in did we discover the hot water heater for showers haha. Most of Albania is to poor for heat and we came right at the beginning of their cold season and the temperatures were so low. The drafts going through the house meant sleeping with 4 heavy wool blankets on top of me :) :) 

I was so thankful to be living with an Albanian family, you always experience more of the culture when you are staying with host families. In the home lived Alma, her daughter (maggie) and son (desarde), her two nieces jessie and kayla, and her mother in law. It's common in Albania for the daughter in laws to move in with their mother in laws and become almost a maid or care taker of the home, it is also common for husbands and wives to go away to Greece for extended periods of time to work and bring money home for their families. That was the case with jessie and kayla and so their aunt Alma is raising them. We treated the kids like our own siblings and it was so fun coming home and being greeted by their adorable little faces and swinging them around. We had some bonding time painting the little girls nails and taking funny pictures on the computer. It's amazing how much you can communicate across languages. We cant verbally speak to each other but the actions of love and care speak so loud. In true Albanian fashion, they have invited us up a few times for a snack. They of course will just sit and watch you eat and if you stop eating they make a strong motion for you to continue eating. haha we sit in silence and smile at each other :) It is an honor in their culture to be able to host foreigners. One of my favorite memories was when Alma and her 5yr old son Desarde came downstairs and sat with us as we were cleaning up our dinner, we made a giant batch of hot chocolate and shared it with them, Desarde was so cute curled up in his mothers arms and they sat their smiling as we chatted around them, again we couldn't understand each other but just being together and sharing drinks was so valuable and precious to me. 

..Desard wasn't always cute though haha.. that silly little kid became somewhat of a trouble maker during our stay. The one day he managed to get ahold of a match and lit our bath towels on fire! Burning them to a crisp! haha and squeezing our toothpaste and shoving our toothbrushes down the drain lol. A bit of a bathroom terrorist, that one.

The day before we left we did a family photoshoot with them and created a beautiful album full of all these shots we had captured of them together and laughing and being  family, I know it meant a lot to them and it was so fun to watch them look through pictures of themselves. Below are some of those photos. It was hard to say goodbye, we had lived with them, shared memories, loved on the kids, got frustrated with the kids, watched movies with the kids, shared food, met their extended family, and woke up to a loving Alma being a sweet mom and always say Mire Mengjes! (good morning) to us. It broke me heart to see them cry as well when we left. I pray that God really blesses this family and that their hearts come to know him. They are muslim by heritage but the kids are currently going to a christian preschool. I pray for safety and love on the dear sisters who are separated from their parents, and patience and courage for Alma who raises all the children.