On a Monday about a month ago, shortly after midnight, I felt the sudden urge to check my email. What I read there left me dancing with joy and entirely bereft of sleep. 


   

     I had been accepted into a worship leader’s school in Australia. No, it’s YWAM, not Hillsong, ya junkies ;-). At the end of July, I'll be boarding yet another plane to journey to a curious place with a curious name, Toowoomba, Australia. 
                                          It's located right about...
                                 
                                                            Here
                                                       
     What drew me to this particular school is that there is an emphasis on missions mixed with music. They call us "musicianaries." 

  After a few months of training I sincerely hope we'll meet a few of these ......


     And, maybe one or two of these.....



     And hopefully NONE one of these

   
                          Then we’ll pack our wee bags and board another plane to..

                                        Here

                                       And Here


 The pictures above are of Bangkok and Pattaya, two of the cities we will most likely be working in. These two beautiful places have one terrible thing in common; they are both hubs of the human trafficking trade. According to statistics, there are around 400,00 children alone working in the sex trade in Thailand. The vast majority of them are from the mountain communities , many of whom belong to people currently without a country.  The entire situation is still a little beyond my grasp. What it comes down to, however, is thousands of little girls, and even boys, are being sold into prostitution at a very young age. They have few or no options. Much of what Ywam Thailand (http://www.ywamthai.org/) does, is prevention. If the children can be put into a trade or find decent jobs, it's very unlikely that they'll ever darken the door of a brothel. They also deal in recovery for those coming out of prostitution. It's such a hideous trade and the lives of these people can only be described as nothing short of a nightmare. Nonetheless, it is often extremely difficult to extricate them once they are already being bought and sold as human chattel. 


It's hard to imagine that this tropical paradise is a living hell for so many. I'm told by my Thai friends now living in the U.S., that Pattaya only wakes up at night and that during the day hardly a soul can be seen on the streets. 
    I can’t even tell you how honored I feel to be able just to meet these people who’ve suffered and seen so much and to share with them the love of Jesus and His heart for the broken. And this is where I ask for your prayers. Even though I'm happier than a Koala in a Hawaiin T-shirt at the opportunity, 


     I'm still very aware of what a little, naive, American girl I am. Could you pray for our team and for me even now as you read this? Please pray that if this is the Lord's will, that He'll continue to provide the funds; that we'll develop hearts that hurt for the broken, eyes that see like Jesus, and mouths that speak His truth into a broken and desperate world. Thank you for your constant support, encouragement, and prayers! Praise God who drags us of out of our comfortable, little Hobbit holes and off into adventures!

~Rachel~