"Look At Us"

In Thailand, there are no easy words to explain the beggar situation, and to explain the realities of this issue, the words get even harder to say. A lot of blogs out there say that there really aren't that many beggars in Bangkok which is an interesting lie. Because the reality is, there are thousands of beggars in Thailand and everywhere you go, if you have eyes to see, you will see. But the problem with this situation is just that... the fact that people whether they be tourist or local or law enforcement, what have you, have trained themselves to look the other way... these people place themselves in highly trafficked areas, with bowls in front of them and hands placed in prayer, and are used to the fact that they are basically invisible, insignificant and worthless... thus the reality of a worthless life becomes all there is.
The stories that you hear, if you seek out stories of truth, will wreck you and place your heart in such a sea of hopelessness over how tragic this devastation is. Many of these beggars are from Burma or Laos, and controlled by gangs who at the end of the day steal all their income. In highly touristy areas, you may see countless women with their babies begging for anything you have to give. Many of them are holding children who are not their own, who have been rented out for the day for about 100 baht, the equivalent of about three US dollars for the day. These babies are kept in the most extreme and unhealthy conditions, so that someone might USE them before they even know how to speak, when they should be at the breast of their mother, making money for other people.
Some children are brought from rural areas by their families, who watch on as their children beg without food or water for the day in extreme temperatures all day long. There was a story of one little boy doing this in the streets who was killed by an oncoming car. The family was watching on, but the heartbreaking part of it, is that for many families in Thailand that do not have Christ, you have to wonder... what was the greater loss for them? The son... or the income?

Many of these children, some younger than five, are orphans controlled again by an international Mafia or gangs... some are street children, some are rented out by their families, some are there entirely on their own, having crossed a border on their own, to get to the city to make funds for their family. This is a form of trafficking, because it is the exploitation of children forced to labor... it is just another kind of trafficking, that more than likely will eventually shift into another kind of trafficking this site works to explain.
There are men and women who sit on the street without limbs, literally, without any arms or legs... would it shock you more to hear that some are proffessionals? And that their limbs are hidden behind them all day everyday in the most unnatural sort of bending? Or that gangs have been known to cut off the limbs of humans knowing that cripples make more money, and then put them out on the street as a commodity. We have been cripples with managers... we have seen a man burnt all over his body, discolored, without eyes, beginning in one of the more well known large markets. He could not speak, he could not move... but he had a manager behind him for whatever donation came in. I was terrified to look at him... never having seen a person exist at that level of life, and yet he was managed.... he was someones income. This man, who barely had a life left to live...

While searching out pictures for this blog of things we have seen, I had a quote in my mind from a most beloved movie, The Lord of the Rings. In The Two Towers, Aragorn, Theoden, Legolas and the people of Rohan, are battling what seems an impossible battle against the Uruk-Hai and the forces of evil. The odds are completely against them... they have boys fighting a man's war... weaponless with a breaking defense structure, many of them, including their king, begin to fall to doubt. Theoden, the king of Rohan says, "So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?"
This is the line in my mind that kept whispering as I consider these facts, these realities, these lives of many innocent and so many corrupt. Yet following Theoden plee of helplessness in the film righteous words are spoken,

Aragorn:

"Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them."
Theoden:
"For death and glory."
Aragorn:
"For Rohan. For your people."

Aragorn does not see what is lost, but what could be possible when people truly give their lives for the greater good. He also, denies Theoden's response in that riding out would be for death and glory... instead, he confirms that the testimoney and action would be for what they fought for all along, which was the hope of their people.

Jesus asks us to ride out and meet them when all hope seems lost, remembering that we have no control over the sin of the world... but we have the opportunity to be a light in dark places. When we take these chances, we give Jesus the lead, and He becomes what He is, which is the breaker of strongholds and the redeemer of shattered souls... Jesus cast light into darkness... He is the light the darkness fears. We saw this in Thailand, with the men I watched my husband get on the ground with who walked on their hands or on a small piece of wood they had fashioned with wheels to move around. I saw Jesus when he touched them and smiled at them and loved them and helped them... I saw Jesus working when their hearts were moved to smile and allowed themselves to be cared for in a different way, simply by being seen as alive, worthy, wonderful... creations of God. And I saw Jesus one day, when we were walking home from the market. There was a man begging on a bridge... thin, scarred, keeping his head down and hands open to occassionally put his head up and look at those who just continually passed him by as if he weren't there. Jonathan and I had been collecting money for Jesus to use, and carried it in a bag in our backpack, and that day, the moment had come to give it away.

Jonathan asked me if I wanted to give it to him and with all my heart I did. I stopped thinking about if it would offend him, or if he would reject me, or any of the things Satan would try to put in my head to stop what Jesus wanted acoomplished done. So I moved in Christ and I felt Him there with me. I went up to the man and got down on the ground with him and looked in his eyes, and in Thai I told him, "God loves you".
There is nothing I can do to explain what happened... the man did not get up and walk and he did little other than look back into my eyes... but what happened was, I knew it wasn't me he saw. Jesus came... and He was my hands and He was my eyes and He was my voice... and I walked away with a feeling unlike anything I have known in my life. I have worked in ministry, I have worked with people on the streets and loved them there. I have done what I have done in the hopes to have Jesus be seen... but this moment was unlike anything before it, because it was a different reality of loving and becoming the least of these... washing the feet of the beggar, having my Savior do so. I touched his hands that were covered in scrapes and scars... and my Saviors love I pray was felt.
As I said, there are no words for this holy of holy moment, because when it comes to Jesus, there are no words good enough. But as I left that man, I felt my Saviors presence with me, I felt what it MEANT to love how He loved... and again, my life shifted. Living, truly living is what was felt in that moment. Being able to be Jesus to people... being able to give Him a chance to shine. I fail miserably at explaining this moment with this precious man who very much resembles the picture to the right, in his posture... his unworthy stature.... but it was JEsus gift to me, to my heart, to my life, to my understanding and awe of him, to love that man... to get on the ground with that man...

"Now Peter and John were going up to the Temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. And a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at that gate of the Temple which is called Beautiful to ask alms of those who entered the Temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the Temple, he asked for alms. And Peter directed his gaze at him, with John, and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention upon them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. And leaping up he stood and walked and entered the temple with them, walking and leaping and praising God." (Acts 3:1-8 RSV)

Brethren, We Beseech You

And thus I aspired to preach the gospel, not where Christ was already named, so that I would not build on another man's foundation; but as it is written,

"They who had no news of Him shall see,
And they who have not heard shall understand."
For this reason, I have often been prevented from coming to you; but now with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you,
whenever I go to Spain-
for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while- but now, I am going to Jerusalem serving the saints.
Therefor, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain.
I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness and blessing of Christ."
Romans 15: 20-29

Paul's words are used by Jesus to minister to our hearts, when our longing resembles his own. Paul was eager to return to a people he loved, that he knew he was called to. His heart yearned for them and longed to be near them... Paul so deeply loved the people God put on his heart to reach for Christ, and it was his lifes purpose to preach to them our risen Savior.

We are so touched by Paul's expression of these things, knowing the exact same core indwelling longing to be sent and then to be brought back to them. I believe it is part of God's plan to place us and then for a time remove us from the place of our calling. I believe it grows in us only a deeper connection and urgency, when we have been and seen and then have also been pulled away. It is our daily prayer that God's will be done in our lives, but it is also our daily longing, to return to the people to which we have been called to give our lives to seeing brought near our precious Jesus.

So it is with that desire and division between us and Thailand, that we have shed tears and felt broken in the distance. We fully understand and embrace the reality of God having set His perfect time for everything, and we rest in that. But our hearts ache for this land and people that we are in love with, and with the call Jesus has placed on our lives. We labor daily to be lights where ever we are, and see Jesus glorified in our lives whether it be in America for this time, or in Thailand... but we also wrestle with the knowing of how available the gospel is here in this land, and how in other nations, there is no one standing to share with them the saving redemption of our Lord.

If you follow this blog, we ask you humbly to consider partnering with us in a way that would help us return to this land and this mission you support by being here. We NEED monthly supporters, people who could even commit ten dollars a month to us. If the 100 of you who we see daily read our updates could find a way to do that, we could return by our target date of November!!! Then again, if you felt moved to give more, it would bless us greatly and we would love to know who you are so that we might thank you personally! We will be brought by God's hands alone paving the way, but part of that clearing is done by his moving your hearts to be a part of this journey and work for Jesus.

So we beseech you brethren.... to labor with us and joyfully sacrifice for the Kingdom, to be a part of this pursuit to see wickedness stomped out, and Jesus light brought to these dark places.
We thank you all for your support and time in being here... all giving information is below... we would be so blessed by your movement in this.

In His Sons Holy and Sacred Name, Juliet and Jonathan Stuck

All giving information is available on the "Give" page, with links to our organization. All donations made are tax deductible and will be directly deposited into our personal International Teams account. Those donations are what make up our living expenses budget in Thailand, plus build up on one time expenses that allow us to get our visas, flights and first time set up costs. Thank you so much for your support.
The Stucks

Clarification

Jonathan and I have had something on our heart for sometime, that through a lot of prayer, processing and quiet time, it became something with the desire to be mentioned. God has given us a powerful call, one that humbles us daily... we are inadequate, weak, selfish people that God sees the gold in, that, which is our Savior who gives us whatever greatness and good that we possess. He has redeemed us from the pit and made us new, and we serve a God who is a Father passionately in love with His children. We know He understands our weakness, but does not measure us by it. He sees in the greatness we all can be and all that we can accomplish, if we give our trust to He who gives us life and pursue after the hope that our lives if anything, honor, glorify and establish Him in places where His name was not known.

God has shown us the issue of Human Trafficking.... but to take it out of its title... He has shown us the enslavement of children, women and men. People who in their greatest venerability are exposed and become helpless slaves to the command of great wickedness and evil. He has shown us the reality of shattered people who were never given a voice, but He has also shown us the hope that lies within them... the very hope and light that has kept them surviving. He has also shown us the deep affliction man would face to become the oppressor, and how they too need saving by a tender Savior. He has shown us this reality, and shown us our responsibility to it.... mostly, He has shown us the avenue that through this deep darkness, He can powerfully be the light within it.

The struggle we have been facing, is the fact that we feel that Human Trafficking has become a bit of a "hot topic" right now. One that can tend to get thrown around as the words, "human trafficking" instead of the actual realities of it. Jonathan has been exposed to people around him who joke about this reality and even about selling babies on the black market. The stories of it have brought great pain in imagining how deeply as His people it digs into our hearts... but how much more would it break the heart of our Lord? This indifference... this lack of heart. People have heard the WORDS, "Human trafficking" so frequently lately, that they stop considering what it actually is. So this is a problem. The other difficulty for us is feeling like people have tended to turn our life call into fighting the issue of human trafficking alone.

We have nothing but honor over the fact that Jesus has called us to take part in His holy work regarding this, but the clarification lies here.

We are not missionaries going to tackle and issue...
We are bond servants of Jesus Christ.
We are moving out into the part of the world He has called us to be.
We are pursuing the people He has laid on our heart.
We are moving forward to see His hands and heart revealed to them.
We are not people who are thinking we can change the world.
We are hoping we can serve Jesus by loving people one at a time.

We are not fighting the issue of Human Trafficking as our sole role.
We are going to see Jesus magnified and preached...
We are not fighting an issue.
We are praying to through an issue our hearts have been broken by,
see Jesus's light shine onto it.
And see people changed and transformed through His holy power...
ALONE.

We claim no greatness.
We do not call this OUR ministry.
We are not going to fight the issue of this devastation.
We are pursuing this call to fight the war against the enemy.
ENTIRELY.

So to clarify again... please see that this is something that God has called us to be a part of... and we by no means mean to make it seem less important than it is, because we are in fact going to give our life to this because of how important it is. But the point we need to make abundantly clear, is that we do not want to be identified with the issue..... we want to be identified with Jesus Christ alone. And the fact that he has called us all to tend to the orphan and the widow in their distress... to be a light in dark places, to make disciples of all nations and to become the least of these.

A HUGE part of the path we are following, is working to see those oppressed through this vicious cycle of trafficking freed and redeemed. To love on them so deeply that one day they can begin to see their worth in Jesus Christ. But even with dealing with this issue, we do not just speak about trafficking in Thailand... we want to vocalize the travesty of this force against people worldwide. We never want to appear as though Thailand is the only place dealing with this reality... and we would ask all of you who support us in this endeavor to also remember that truth. We need to pray for Jesus's children everywhere, in the many ways they are all oppressed.

We have been called to Thailand and will give our heart to the people of Thailand, but we know that God sees the whole world in its suffering and want to grow to be more like Him by daily doing the same.

We have been called to be a part of the issue of human trafficking, but we were not called to just fight the issue itself. We do pray that this horror of trafficking will be stopped one day, but Jesus has to be the center of everything we do and our hearts need to daily remain humble in the truth that anything accomplished for the Kingdom, is Jesus THROUGH US.

So please remember us daily in your prayers and pray for our strength as His children, His followers and His servants... and with us pray in remembrance of the evil penetrating the world that CREATES the issue of human trafficking, war, genocides, slavery and every bit of oppression in existence. Let us not work to stop issues, but labor to see light cast into darkness, everywhere through everything, through Jesus Christ.

Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself is doing; and the Father will show Him greater works than these, so that you will marvel."

“I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. If I alone testify about Myself, My testimony is not true."
-John 5

Planes, Trains, Automobiles and everything else you can think of...

One of the things that we learned very quickly while we were in Bangkok, is that there are so many different ways to get from here to there. It was all up to you how adventurous you wanted to be. One of our first bus rides, it took us 45 minutes to go about a mile and a half in the blazing heat with no air conditioning. My first motorcycle ride I was sure that my knees were going to bump into something. Then later, that fear was confirmed when my driver tried to make it between two stationary buses and I was left standing in the middle of the busy street. From riding the sky train and hearing that it was bombed that same night, to getting out of a taxi and having a motorcycle driver ram into the door, transportation in Thailand is a daily adventure (obviously these events are easy to laugh about now, but a little bit more strenuous at the time). :)

We wanted to write a post talking about the many different types of transportation in Thailand and give you a glimpse into daily life. Each day we would take at least three different types of public transportation. With a pregnant wife and a little girl, this was an art that took a little getting used to and a good amount of time to master (if that). Another thing that is interesting about getting around in Thailand is all the different types of people you see. Each way of getting around is also used to transport not only people seeking cheep sex, but also those being exploited. A couple years ago the police arrested a driver of an enclosed truck only to find the back full of Burmese refugees who had all died due to poor ventilation. Certain types of transportation tend to be used more frequently for the seekers; sky train, tuk tuks, etc.

Thought:

Like most things in Thailand there is that thrill of the unknown and new adventure. Also, like most things in Thailand, it has a direct tie to a problem that permeates all parts of the culture and daily life.

Walking was a HUGE part of our life in Thailand. It is the cheapest way to go, and in all reality, so many people in the city live in such small circles that a few minutes of walking can get you to food, school, shops and more. On the right of this picture is a song tao. This was probably our most used form of transportation.

We would ride in these open air truck thingies that have set routs through most of the neighborhoods. We always ran into the same people, and it was a fun way to get to know the people who lived in our neighborhood.

One day we decided to go for a ride on a canal boat. I think we were imagining something a little more like a peaceful ride in Venice. We were looking forward to a lazy ride looking at the city and enjoying the beautiful water of the canals. What we got was VERY different. We were crammed into a boat jam packed full of people and sitting right in front of a motor that I am sure they had connected to a speaker to make it even louder. With the fumes rising up all around us, we were still happy that we were going to be able to get a different view of the city. Then they pulled up a tarp that covered the sides of the boat to keep the "lovely canal water" from splashing onto us. It was an experience, but a very different one than we had imagined. :)

So needless to say transportation in Thailand was an adventure and an exercise... but just another thing that we now miss, and look forward to experiencing again soon.