Emily Durbin - Thailand

I considered my trip to Thailand one of the hardest trips I have been on because I wasn’t prepared for the spiritual warfare and the heavy presence that surrounds the country. I had never been to a nation that wasn’t primarily Chrisitan and so being in this environment was hard for me to understand what was going on spiritually. During the trip we primarily served in three different ways: going to temples, praying around Christian churches, and serving at a ministry called NightLight. Before going into some of the temples, we got an information packet about what the different temples, gods, bells, and other religious things meant. Through that information we were able to invite God into these spaces and be specific about where God could meet these people. One of the strongest things I felt to pray for was for God to show the people worshiping and sacrificing that He is the living God. That their actions towards these other things do not compare to the glory and grace that our God has to offer. These kinds of bold prayers were met with heavy spiritual warfare. Although we weren’t praying out loud and the people worshiping their gods at these temples really didn’t know why we were there, we felt unwanted. There was a specific temple named the Golden Mount where my whole team felt physically sick after praying over it. My mind was hazy and, although no words were exchanged, we felt like we were being yelled at through the gongs and bells. I couldn’t help but think of singing the song, “Jesus, Jesus you make the darkness tremble,” in my head. Although very difficult while we were there, looking back on it, I know that these negative feelings were because we were trying to spread the name of Jesus where it had not been and we were experiencing physical manifestations of spiritual warfare. Through this I learned a lot about how powerful our God is, how desperately Jesus wants the people of Thailand to turn to Him, and what spiritual warfare looks like. We also had some amazing opportunities to pray over some already established Christian churches in different areas of Thailand. We prayed for growth and revival throughout the country. We got the chance to pray with this one pastor and, although he could not understand English and what we were praying for, he was crying. The difference in the feelings that were present between praying at temples and at Christian churches was very big and that is how we knew that we were in a spiritual battle in Thailand. Lastly, working at NightLight was unlike anything I have experienced before. NightLight is an organization in the RedLight district in Bangkok. Although prostitution is illegal, it is very prevelant in this area. NightLight will employ women who want to get out of prostituion through offering them a job in their coffee shop, making jewelry, or other administrative roles. A big evangelism event they do is host a thing called Salon. They will walk around the Red Light District and invite girls to get their hair washed, styled, and have their nails painted. We were able to serve here and although we could not communicate with them, we were able to give them a positive, gentle physical touch. I learned a lot about how actions speak louder than words by being able to touch their hair softly and be gentle while holding their hand to paint their nails. This showed them we cared. We met so many amazing women through this process and we feel blessed to have the opportunity to speak to some ladies about Jesus simply through just having girl time and being a safe place where they felt they could open up about their feelings. One woman in particular shared her story while I was doing her nails about feeling far from Jesus and how people close to her were committing suicide. Once this was all translated, we were able to pray for her. She said when she hugged us she felt the Lord. God is so big and can touch others even through a hug! God is doing such big things in Thailand. There were times when I was confused on how God could even be there because He felt so far, but I am reminded he made each and every one of these people. He made the hands of the people who made the temples. He made the flowers that were growing around religious statues. He was involved in everything I was witnessing. God is there and desperately wants them to follow Him. I feel so blessed I was able to come into these spaces and break spiritual strongholds through prayer and I am super expectant for the things that God is continuing to do there.