Saturday

After Friday night’s experiences, many needed some time to recover emotionally. During our debriefing last night, we went around as a group and shared some prayer requests and things we were struggling with. It began innocently enough, but it turned into quite an emotional experience and several team members broke down crying. It was a good time, and it really helped our team know more about what each other needed, but we all woke up exhausted, physically, emotionally and spiritually drained.

Luckily, today was beach day.

Unfortunately, it rained all day.

That didn’t stop us from heading out to catch some waves. But it did stop us from catching very many. The water was whipping around pretty good. I hadn’t had many experiences with swimming in the rain, since usually rain is paired with lightning in Kansas, but the scene elicited memories of Forrest Gump talking about the rains during ‘Nam when “it would sometimes rain so hard it would rain up” (Completed by the image of Bubba and Forrest walking through the river, shielding their eyes from the rain splattering on the water below them). If this doesn’t make sense to you, it is probably because I am concussed. More on that later.

We persevered through the rains for a while, but eventually gave up and went to a restaurant for a late lunch. The place had a great view (at least it would have been without the obstruction of rain clouds). But it had a swimming pool right next to the dining area. I was the brave one who cannon-balled in and soaked those still sitting at the table. Although I was later informed by a super-grumpy Australian dude that “this was not a children’s playground (You hear those sirens coming? Watch out, it’s the fun-police). When the menus came, we were all pretty pumped that it included bacon-cheeseburgers and fries. Everyone was kind of ready for some comfort food. The Thai cuisine is really solid, but there are only so many meals in a row that I can eat spicy red curry on everything. Everyone else forgets to eat the fruit every meal, and as a result we have a rash of digestive issues on the team.

Then we went out to Bangla Road again in the evening. We split up into groups every night, so no two groups have exactly the same experience each night. For a lot of the group on Friday night, it was a very dark night. Several sensed a lot of spiritual oppression and had really hard times staying positive. I chose to stay home last night and be part of the intercessory group back at the compound because I was personally too overwhelmed by some of the experiences on Thursday. Saturday went much better though. Even though we arrived an hour later than normal, we still had chances to go to several bars, and since the rain was still pretty heavy, many of the bars were relatively empty, giving us a great opportunity to speak with several girls who expressed serious interest. We all felt much more upbeat and optimistic than we had the previous nights.

Then I smoked my head on the door while getting out of the truck. I’m pretty sure I’m not concussed, but I have a pretty serious headache to go along with the giant knot and gash on the top of my head. Kind of put a damper on the rest of the night, but the important part was finished. And my headache wasn’t going to interfere with that.

All’s well that almost end’s well. Or something like that.

When I sit up, my whole face starts to throb, so I will end with a few prayer requests.

-We are all spiritually exhausted. Pray that today (Sunday) can be a good time of rest, recuperation, and reflection as we take a night off from Bangla Road and spend some time with the girls here at the SHE house.

-Pray for the guys on this trip. Pray that God would guard our eyes and our hearts.

-Pray that we are all able to get/stay healthy. Everybody has a little wound or insect bite or something that keeps them from feeling great all the time.

-Pray for the girls that we have been meeting. Pray that the Lord works before us, with us, and after we are gone in the hearts and minds of the people we encounter.

-Pray for our contacts here as they deal with stresses every day that would drive normal people insane.

-Pray for our families back home that miss us and our supporters that are in battle with us.

Thank you so much for your prayers, support and love. We look forward to waking up each morning to see who has posted comments. We love you all and miss you.

Special shout out to my brother Seth, as he is now a certified boat driver in Missouri.

Ben