Awaken team resting in Hawaii.
Thanks for your patience as we rest a bit. We'll be updating and reporting on our couple last days in Thailand really soon.

Much of the last week we've partnered with the MST Project which focuses on understanding and serving men in red light areas. Past blogs have highlighted some stories of our partnership with them over the past week. If you want more info on who they are, go to www.mstproject.com

We had the day off on Sunday, which happened to both be the Chinese New Year & Valentines day. We headed down to Bangkok's Chinatown to take in the celebrations.

One quick funny story. We waited for 3.5 hours for what we thought was a parade. We thought that it was going to be festive Chinese celebration activities. Well, after waiting for all those hours, 3 trollys and 3 black suburbans rolled passed, and then the "parade" was done. It was less than a minute!

We had a a very productive and kingdom building night last night. We had several very significant conversations.

Please pray for these things tonight-

-insight into what the Lord is doing

-safety

-comfort for staff

-deep conversations

-seeds of breakthrough to be planted

-God's love would rest on these men

Thanks for your prayers.  They help a ton. We can really feel them. Yesterday was a great day of connecting with men. I think a huge part of that is your prayers.

Blessings from the Awaken Team

As I've shared in the previous post, the red light area we are directly serving in is called Nana's Plaza. The past few days there have been some difficult situations with the men with whom we've been interacting.

This triggered a group decision to stay in the prayer room tonight and to intercede for the ministry and those we've been called to serve and love.

The following is a song I wrote today as a prayer specifically for the men in the red light district. However, in many ways it's for all of us who struggle to remain in the center of God's amazing love for us.

So, we've been touring across the country this fall talking about the dark realities of sex trafficking.  We have challenged hearts to respond to this issue.  Our own hearts have been deeply challenged to see and respond to this issue.  God, by his goodness, if we allow him, helps us see a bigger picture where we are not the center.  This is good for us. We need this. Our hearts need to be broken for the things of his heart.  Sometimes we so easily maintain routine and fix ourselves within a narrow bubble that constricts us from seeing the world around us.  I do it.  I do it everyday. I have been noticing this more and more in my life over the past year.  I think I am others-centered, but in reality 90% or more of my life, revolves around my life, what I want to do, and where I want to go, and what I want to eat.  I started asking God to expand my horizons.  To enlarge my view of what it means to live in this world, not just exist in it.  I started asking God to show me what it means to truly serve others with my whole heart, rather than checking it off a list. 
God started to expand and break my heart for his children is some very pointed ways this fall. I grew to deeply hurt for the women and children who are subjected to a life of pain, abuse, lonliness, manipulation, and fear in the sex industry.  I came to understand more of the issues that lead them there and my heart began to break.  All the while I harbored deep judgment in my heart for the men who supply the demand for the sex industry.  I harbored hate, and even self-righteousness as I thought about these men.  I thought to myself, "what these men are doing is horrible, how could you even go there...using women...geez, I have my issues, but at least I'm not doing this..." It's easy to think this way.  At least it was for me.  It was easy to think this way until I landed in Thailand and had a conversation with a man named Chris, the leader of the MST project.

The MST Project is short for Men and the Sex Trade which exists to provide awareness about the issues of men in red light areas.  It is a Christian ministry using surveys on the street as an entry point to talk with men, who are more than likely there for sex.  We had orientation with Chris the leader, the night before we headed down to Nana's Plaza, one of Bangkok's premiere red light districts. 
The following short paragraphs are Chris's word's describing the heart of the MST Project.  Read it carefully.  Read it slowly. Let it sink in. 

  "Every year thousands of foreign men visit Thailand as sex tourists. I believe that some of these men who come to Thailand looking for sex are hurting and in need and are trying to fill that need and hurt with love and intimacy. Yet, the love and intimacy that they seek in a red-light district is not the answer. When I first started this ministry there were a few people who told me that there was no hope for these men, that they were better left alone or ignored. But where is the compassion of God in that?
I do not look at these men for where they currently are but rather for where they can be with a transformed heart. I grew up in a broken home, I have looked for love and intimacy in all the wrong places and I have struggled with issues that are common to men; yet God has brought about redemption in my life. I want to reach out to these men and be an example of restoration and redemption.
I believe that it is our responsibility to go to these men, when very few will, and bring the love of God to them in an area where they least expect it, by those whom they least expect it from. These men are like us, and it is my hope that these men will experience the love and the hope that is found in a relationship with Him. I believe that the Father’s love is available to all, in all places and at all times, and that the hope we have in Him will cause a man to return to his wife and become a husband. Will cause him to return to his children and become a father. Will cause him to return to his community and become an example, not a statistic.
God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. This includes men in red-light districts. Therefore, I choose to be one of the few who will stand on the street corner and offer them HOPE."

Chris said one statement in addition to these words, that has been burned on to my heart.  What should have been obvious, was a great reminder, and conviction about what it means to be a Christ follower.  He said "Jesus doesn't give us an option about who we love."  If we we think about the life of Jesus, we realize that his life perfectly reflects this statement.  So, why should we think, or act any differently?  We shouldn't. But we do.  We may think to ourselves that we are loving to everyone, but if we stop to really examine our actions, words, and though processes, can we still say that we really love everyone.  I can't.  I love people who are convenient for me to love, in the places that are convenient for me to go.  But God is working in me.  He is confronting this in my heart these days. 

I need to love these men.  And I am choosing to love these men in the red light districts.  On the surface they are there for sex, but I am coming to realize that it's not that simple.  They're lives have in one way or another led them there.  They choices and/or experiences have placed them on a path to be in a red light district tonight. But why?  For sex.  Maybe.  Surely some of them say that its merely the act of sex they are looking for.  But what's going on underneath?  The MST Project finds that a large majority are there to fill a greater need that a life of hurt and pain has caused.  This makes judging them first ridiculous, and secondly, not nearly as easy. There are issues involved. By no means am I condoning their decision to buy a girl for the night, but the moment that pride allows me to say that I am so different from them, I am poorly mistaken.  By God's grace in my life, I have chosen to mainly make good and right choices. Surely I have had to work at it, but at the end of the day it is God's grace and love that have allowed me to walk towards Him while in a world of pain or confusion.  I haven't chosen the red light district.  For than, I attribute to God's goodness to a broken man.  I am a man on a journey to find love just like these men. I am not so different. So, my mind and my heart is changing for these men. 
 

My were able to have many great conversations with a handful of men last night outside of Nana's Plaza.  Our prayers are for God's revelation in their life.  God can bringing the healing and fill their place of longing that no line of girls could.  God's heart breaks for these men. God's heart-break is helping my heart break as I listen to HIm for the change that needs to take place in my own heart. Then and only then, can I love these men with a fraction of the love that He has for them. His love can change everything.  These men need the change that His love offers.  Just like we do.

Pray for us as we continue to be God's light around Nana's Plaza.  His love is the banner under which we serve. Pray for these men. Pray for conviction and revelation.  Pray for eyes to be opened and for ears to hear God's voice speaking tenderly to them.  Pray for purity and strength for the team as we serve in this areas. They are spiritually intense.  They are visually assaulting.  They are really dark.  But God can and does hold us as walk these streets. Pray for protection.  Pray against superficiality and apathy as they are huge things that keep men from seeing reality, and seeing God. Pray for deep conversations. We will be serving with the MST Project until Friday of this week.

Thanks for your prayers as we serve in Thailand.  We appreciate them!  Until the next time we can write, be blessed as you let God speak to your heart about what it means to really love the people around you!  We are learning.  I am learning everyday. God teach us all what it means to really follow in your footsteps, and to not show partiality in our love.

-Todd from the Awaken Team

Hi there,

Thanks for checking the blog. We'll update it as much as we can. As far as we know, we'll have Internet access, so come back often.

We wanted to write a quick update on our first few days of the final leg of the Awaken Tour.

We all gathered on the island of Maui to prepare as a team for our Thailand as well as to put on a benefit to raise money for the ministry of Awaken Tour in Thailand.

Thanks for checking the blog!
We'll be updating it frequently as we begin our time in Hawaii and Thailand.

We wanted to relay again the information on our upcoming BENEFIT happening tomorrow, Saturday January 30th.

When: Saturday, January 30th

Where: Hope Chapel
300 E Welakhao Rd. Kihei

What: Benefit for anti-human trafficking

With speakers from P.A.S.S., music by Awaken Tour, Women Helping Women, & a silent auction

Need more info: email Holly @ hollyjmorrell@gmail. com

Hope to see you there!