This is what I have been doing these last few
weeks….
Saying good bye to Thailand.
Traveling with 14 people in one van that fits
around 7 people. Plus 14 packs, 14 carry-ons and 4 guitars. You could say it
was a little bit cramped.
Traveling from Thailand to Cambodia….
....we don't
really travel light.
Eating amazing food along the way.
Finally reaching Cambodia.
Met some new friends along the way..
Visiting Angkor Wat on our day off.
Meeting up with our squad.
Cambodia, well what can I really say but, rats,
mice, mosquitoes, termites, bugs, bugs, and more bugs. Cambodian karaoke starts
blaring at 6:00am, not a minute early or a minute late. Cambodia has some of
the craziest mosquitoes I have ever encountered; repellant doesn't do my skin
any justice. 39 mosquitoes bites to be exact. Power outages are common and
usually appreciated because of the amount of termite bugs that are attracted to
the light bulb. Termite bugs are a great snack too, the Cambodians like to deep
fry them and from what I hear it tastes like French fries.
It is pretty hot here in Cambodia, and when I say
it's pretty hot, well that is an understatement.
It is the most intense heat I
have felt in a long time. Changing your shirt happens quite frequently because
of the amount of sweat that seeps out of our pores. Baby wipes are not only
great for babies, but they are also a great resource to clean the dirt or bugs
off your feet, and sometimes a refreshing shower due to the lack of running
water. Most of us dream about food on a daily basis- chipotle burritos- what we
would put on our burritos, guacamole, chips and salsa, barbeque chicken, ribs
or steak.
The kids are precious here and all so eager to
learn English. Their smiles make my heart melt.
Our ministry this month is amazing;
we get to work with elementary school kids. In the mornings we play soccer with
them, then teach English class in the afternoon and do Bible studies in the
evenings. But the kids make the uncomfortable living situations, the heat, the
bugs all worth being here in Cambodia.
After all this traveling, cramped vans, bugs,
heat, day dreaming of food, and ministry…I can honestly say….if you haven't
lived like this before, you should.
Because who can really say this is home sweet home.
"Because I have to support my family." -Thai Bar girl
"Do you like what you do? It makes me sad that you are
selling yourself." -Me
"I have to...for the money. Me sad too. My heart is sad, but I
am very strong woman." -Thai Bar girl
This was a conversation
I had last night with a prostitute in the red light district in Phuket,
Thailand. This woman was gentle on the eyes, yet captivating. She drew men in with her smile and her
flirtatious laugh, but if you looked close enough, her heart ached; she longed
to leave the bars.
Phuket is one of the major tourist areas in Thailand; it is
also one of the biggest red light districts. There is about over 300-400 bars just on Bangla Road and
over hundreds of prostitutes work at these bars. Bangla illuminates the skies
with neon flashing signs that say, "Husband
daycare" or "TheDevil's playground". Bangla Road is
where girls go all out to entertain-wearing skimpy tube tops, lace bras, and
panties-which they say is clothing, while dancing sexually on poles.
Guys my age, swarm the streets walking around with this
facade that they could get any woman they wanted, which is true, but at a
price. Married men walk as if
their wedding rings they wore meant nothing; others try to allure women by
their sweet pick up lines, empty promises, and groping hands.Girls at these bars aim to please customers,
engaging in lighthearted games, but ultimately the objective is to entice
customers to buy drinks. But even more than drinks, bars aim for men to take
the girls away for the evening, to sell them as products, and make good
profitable money.
Women desperately partake in
meaningless conversation, and use flirtation as a device to gain the interest
of men to fulfill desires and basically to survive. Many of the women sell themselves to provide for their
families. The
perversion intensifies as the night lingers on, and alcohol intoxicated men
become more intrigued at the thought of a cheap Thai woman for the night to
appease their loneliness.
Something that the Lord has been rooting inside is what
grace really looks like. He is showing me that these men and women are lost,
just like I was, but that HE NEVER GIVES UP, THAT HE IS STILL FIGHTING FOR
THEM. And He won't relent until He has them.
This
is the Father's love for us.
That He would die just
to set us free. It blows my mind.
This month, the Lord is teaching me that these men and women aren't any
different than we are. He still unconditional loves the men and women of Bangla
Road despite the way they are living their lives.
I believe that the Lord
wants these women to come out of sex slavery and turn away from their sin. He
wants these women saved more than I do, His heart breaks more than my heart
breaks.
Before I decided to go on the race, Thailand was the country I was so excited for the most. I was excited for the culture, the food, the people, and of course the Thai traditions! One of the traditions my team and I got to be apart of was Songkran.
Songkran is one of the biggest celebrations here in Thailand. It is a huge celebration that brings in the new year! It is a country wide observed holiday. Kids aging from a few years old to about 80 years old participates in this water craze activity. The Thai traditional New Year starts on April 13 every year and in some cities in Thailand, it last for one week. In Phuket, where I live, it only lasted for one day.
Songkran means, "movement" or "changing"
Songkran is also called
"Water Festival"
There were hundreds of people throughout the city that participated in bring in the New Year by bring super soakers, buckets of water, cups, and bowls.
People were splashing water on our faces, putting baby powder on our cheeks, and throwing coloring dye as blessings. It didn't matter if you didn't want to get wet, people would find a way to soak you.
It was the biggest water fight I have ever seen.
Songkran was probably one of my favorite days on the race. It was pretty sweet, a woman around 80 years old who had a super soaker water gun and got me good in the face with red paint dye and then laughed hysterically.
What better way to bring in the New Year then by splashing your friends, family, random people, grandmas, grandpas, and kids with water?
My friend Stephanie May made a video capturing the best way to bring in the New Year.....
It is the idea that people are not
entirely satisfied with what they have. The sad part is that it usually takes
losing or nearly losing what they have in order for them to realize how much it
means to them.
This is an idea I've realized, I unknowingly
adopted. It gives an unsatisfying desire to fulfill a mirror of illusions. I gained this perception that someone else's
life is better and downplaying everything positive about my own life. I realized
that I am not completely satisfied with what the Lord has for me and the life
He has blessed me with.
A year ago, I had a conversation
with my friend Eddie; he asked me, “Where do you see yourself next year around
this time?” I responded confidently, “I will be done with nursing school and
live by a lake.” He laughed and said, “Oh Krystle, God has so much more for you
than a lake or boat or whatever.” When I heard that I honestly didn't believe him.
I wanted this life filled with success, a life that the world deemed as
acceptable, the American dream- graduated, married, the 2.5 kids and the white
picket fence. But that's just not reality.
I always looked at someone else's
life and desired to be where they were, whether it was my sisters graduating or
my friends getting married. But ultimately, God created me so uniquely! He
designed my life to have a purpose, to be specifically where I am suppose to be,
at this exact moment and that is here in Phuket, Thailand.
The grass is NOT always greener on
the other side. The grass is only as
green as you want to make it on either side.You can have the most exciting life. Jesus is just so sneaky sometimes;
He gives us the freedom to plan our lives, but creates this intricate plan for
us and gives us something better than our
plans.
In these past few days the Lord has
brought me to remember of who I was when I left California and who I am today.
He has given me snapshots of my life and memories of this past year;
experiences
that makes life worth living for.
I know I am going to miss walking
down the streets in Phuket, Thailand in 100 degree humidity just to get Thai
tea for 50 cents, or a live chicken under my seat on a non-air condition 30
hour bus ride traveling to Rwanda, or living in a one room with 10 other girls,
or walking 45 minutes just to eat. I will miss the blaring horns and sirens
that fill the streets of Nepal that woke me up every morning.
I will miss the power going out and
living off of candles for days, or eating something and realizing it was cow
liver. I will miss the cold bucket showers, and fighting over laundry soap, or who
is going to hang their clothes first on the line.
I don't ever want to forget the
grueling travel days especially to Romania for 79 hours with 3 hours of sleep,
or traveling on an overnight train with obnoxious immigration security waking
us up at 3am asking to show them our passports every 20 minutes. I am going to
miss waking up at 5am to walk the cow, or little kids in Africa yelling, “Mzungo”
(which means white person), or African men offering 40 cows for my hand in
marriage in Uganda, or splurging out on American food at airports.
God is teaching me that I have the
most exciting life and this is the exact place where He wants me to be. He is
teaching me that life is what I make it to be, that a life with Him is so
exciting and completely worth it.
I might
never have the most “glamorous life”, but it is a life I would never want to
trade.
Last Friday our team, Modern family went out to the streets of
Kampala. Amidst the commotion of honking horns, street venders calling
attention to their items on display, blaring music, and the roaring of the bota
botas, there was a quieter noise that filled the streets- a sound that was all
but drowned out by the rest of the chaos. It was the noise of the men, women, and
children trying to survive on the streets.
We walked down roads overflowing with the homeless. People were
sitting on brown boxes begging for money. Children, ranging from a few months
old to teenagers, were roaming the streets in search of food or any other means
to survive. Some of them wore clothes that were soiled, ripped and faded, shirts
and pants that were too big or too small. They literally had nothing, nothing
but the clothes on their backs- some without even that.
Two children in particular stood out to me. Their names were
Michael and Moses. Our translator, Ronnie had met them before and had been
looking for them for several weeks. When we came into the city that day, he
finally found them again. Ronnie was so excited to reconnect with the two boys.
He said it was his dream to take these boys out of the streets because they
were different from the rest. They didn't steal or beg. They even refused money
when he offered it to them. All they wanted was to be rescued from the streets.
Ronnie had been hoping to find someone financially able to adopt the boys but
so far, he'd had no luck. Before we left Moses said to Ronnie, “I don't want
your money, all I want is to be educated, please take me with you.”
That night I couldn't sleep. I just thought about the amount
of children roaming the streets at night looking for a place to sleep or
something to eat. I had always known that there were people out there in need
of help, but I couldn't picture their faces until now. It haunted me- I
couldn't erase the images of the two boys from my mind.
A few days ago I saw Ronnie at church and he told me he had
exciting news about the two boys. I thought that maybe he had found a spot in
an orphanage for them- I wasn't prepared for what I heard next. Ronnie said,
“Krystle, there is a reason why the Lord brought you here, even if it was
supposed to be for one thing only. In all these 11 months, you had to come to
confirm what I heard the Lord say to do.” I asked him what he meant, and then
he said, “Krystle, I am going to take Michael and Moses out of the streets and
I want you to come to help me pick them up. I am going adopt them.”
I lost it. I was crying and laughing all at the same time. I was so excited; I
couldn't even explain the feeling. It felt like it was something out of a
movie.
Tomorrow the Lord is going to rescue Michael and Moses from
the streets and my team gets to be there for it all.
40 childrenwere
pulled from the streets of Kampala because of a man named Christopher, who was
a former street orphan. His parents died from war when he was still young. He
grew up on the streets begging for food, stealing money just to
survive,
and using brown boxes for shelter. At the age of 10, he changed his life and
decided to give himself to the Lord. A man helped him off the streets and
educated him. Since then, Christopher told himself that he would use his life
to help orphans and raise them to be men and women of God, who loved and served
the Lord. His vision is still active today; he runs an orphanage in Kampala
calledLife
and Hope AIDS orphanage. He houses and takes care of 40
children whose parents either died from AIDS or war. Our team, Modern Family,
visited the orphanage a few days ago.
“My name is Bryan and when I grow up I want to be a
pilot”He
looked up and smiled at me with the most adorable eyes I've ever seen. I smiled
back and told him I loved his dream. He laughed and as he walked away to join
the other children, I looked down and noticed he was wearing two worn out right
green sandals on each foot. I don't think it fazed him that
he was wearing two right foot sandals,but it did
something powerful to me.
It broke my heart to find that all 40 children live
cramped in two small rooms and have been living on one meal a day if
they are lucky.Their
clothes are faded with rips, stains and holes and many, like Brian, run around
with 2 right foot sandals. This orphanage needs help, they need help to pay for
rent so that the kids can stay out of the streets, and they need beans, bread,
and rice to feed the children, they need clean filtered water, school fees, clothes,
and new sandals.
In each ministry I have been to throughout the past
7 months, I have had opportunities to help out the community I am in. I have
already received amazing responses by family, friends, and people I have never
met before asking to partner with me to give aide to specific ministry projects
I've encountered that have financial needs. For example, in Tanzania, there was
a child named Crystal that was in need of a surgery (see my blog “What You
Did”). This month, a man named Richard came to me with a flesh eating wound on
his foot and through donations I was able to buy him medication and bandages.
As soon as I started using my personal money to
financially bless people, the Lord began to put it on people's hearts to help
me. I have received several donations from family and friends in varying
amounts. As I continue to put my heart into these special projects, the Lord
continues to bring people to partner with me.
If the Lord speaks to you, and
you would like to partner with me, I have started to collect donations into a
fund I've named“Hands
and Feet”.I
gave it this name because that is exactly what the Lord asks of us- to be the
hands and feet of Jesus, to share the Gospel, to go to the nations and feed the
poor, clothe the naked, and comfort those who mourn.The purpose of this fund is to provide
financial assistance for those who have specific needs. This month I will be
using this fund to aid Life and Hope AIDS orphanage. If you would like to
donate or help in any way, please email me at Krystalis3@gmail.com
for more information.
I want to thank all my family and friends who have
already donated to help the children. “Blessed is he who considers the poor;
The Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.” Psalm 41;1.
Below is a video I made about the orphanage. I hope
this video touches your heart the way the children have touched mine.
is
nothing I've ever experienced before in my life. There is a welcoming sense of
home and it is so reassuring and comforting. For the past two and a half
months, I have been living in Africa, specifically Tanzania, Rwanda, and now Uganda.
I made a
video of a little taste of what Africa looks and feels like. Sorry this is a
little late, but this video was made from Tanzania, capturing moments I'll
never forget. I hope you enjoy the video!
This past summer, I felt the Lord ask me, “Krystle,
do you trust Me?” and my immediate response was “Yes….” And He said, “Do you
really trust me?” and then my answer started to get a little shaky. I told Him,
“yeah I think I do Lord”. And then I heard the Lord say, “What if I told you I
want you to give Me everything that is precious to you, and I want you to put
nursing school on hold, move away from your family and friends, and follow Me.
I believe there are two different types of people
that love the Lord. One type is someone who will completely trust him and be willing
just take the next step, where as the other looks at the step and thinks that
this just doesn't make any sense and hesitates to take the next step. I have
been in this desolate season of my life, asking the Lord why He did what He
did.
A few months ago, I sat in my room asking the Lord to show me what I am
suppose to do and I asked Him to specifically show me, and when He gave me a
clear answer, I cried. I cried because I couldn't understand why He was asking
me something so hard. I couldn't understand why if He is good, why would He do
something like this to me when He knows I worked so hard in school and I loved
my family and friends. Even though I loved the Lord, I hesitated to do what He
asked me.
Yesterday I received an email from my dear friend
Brandi and she wrote these words “When I don't understand, I choose You.” When
I read those words something just broke inside of me and I started crying
because I'm STILL battling these words with the Lord for this season in my
life. When I received this email it made me realize that I still have the same
struggles that I did when I left. I feel like the Lord always tells me what the
next step is and I look at it hesitantly because I know it's not a step I want
to take. I become very apprehensive because there are so many times I just
don't want to trust the Lord to be quite honest.
Trusting Jesus is hard, it becomes even harder
when you don't know Him because you don't want to follow someone you don't
know. But the more I spend time with Him daily, I learn His characteristics and
realize who He is.
I
am learning that it is better to know HIM then know WHY.
The Lord has been putting me through this season
of my life where I feel like I don't understand, my friend wrote a prophetic
word on my arm and it said the words, “mirror
image” She said, “As gold is put through the fire, it actually refines the
gold by burning off all the stuff that is needed to make the gold pure. Once
the gold is finished being refined you can see a mirror image of yourself
through the gold.” She said that is exactly what the Lord is doing during this
season of my life, He is refining me and putting me through fire, but as the
heat rises it is purifying, so that the end produce will be the mirror image of
my Maker so I can look exactly like Him”
This has been my anthem for these past couple of
months…. “All of my life, in every season you are still God, I have reason to
sing, I have a reason to worship.”
Even
when I don't understand, I choose You.
Below is the song I have been listening to on
repeat these past couple of days and there is crazy insane power to this song.
I hope that when you listen and meditate on the words, the Lord would overflow
you with His presence.
I grew up with girls all my life. I have two sisters and now my
older sister, Karen is having a baby girl.
Our extended family is a generation
that is predominately girls. I grew up having pointless fights with my sisters,
then laughing ten minutes later because we knew that we were best friends. I
was trained to live with girls- the makeup, prom dresses, and the high
heels. My poor dad never had a son, but he absolutely loves us girls. He always
calls us his “jewels” He taught me everything I know; like how to ride my bike,
drive a car and braid hair with my mom's nylon stockings.
So naturally the Lord knew that I would love and be comfortable with
an all girls team. I was on a team with four other women called Beauty for Ashes.
It was blissful, yeah we had our petty disagreements at times,
but it was never anything I couldn't handle. We had a sisterhood of girl bonding
and fun ridiculous moments. It was like having a slumber party with some of
your best friends and traveling around the world together.
However, being on an all girls team would never let me grow
because being comfortable doesn't always mean that it is what the Lord wants
for us all the time. I am the type of person where I don't always like change
because that would mean I would be uncomfortable, but if there is no change there
is no growth. Sometimes the Lord will test us through some hard situations in
life, but if everything was easy then we would never know how to be truly
grateful for all the things the Lord has blessed us with in our lives.
We just had team changes and we have a completely different
dynamic group of people on this team. We have the craziest, funniest, and as my
teammate Gary would like to say “outrageous” people on the team. I am on a team
with an awesome married couple, Jack and Loren Messarra. My best friend, Kelsey
Amann, who is the exact replica of myself, two of the best brothers a girl can
ask for, Gary Lee and Jacob Murphy, and Angela Harvey, a woman in love with the
Lord.
This team is not a team I would ever picture being put together.
Maybe this happened because God put me in an uncomfortable situation and knew
that they are everything I never knew I needed.