Our Team's Mission

Our teams mission in Thailand is to love and live among the Thai people, with a desire to reach out to the oppressed. By working in totally unreached areas of the country that have no gospel presence, our hope is to within community be building deep, authentic relationships with the Thai people. Our prayer for future teammates as well as ourselves, is that we would be eager servants of Jesus, desiring to walk humbly, be teachable, eager to be challenged, refined and totally dependent upon Jesus. We need to live in the unchanging reality that without His power and His grace in our lives, we would be capable of nothing. As we are a pioneering work in these unreached areas of Thailand, much of our beginning and continual work will be in  building a strong foundation of trust and love with the Thai people. Our hope is that they would see from us, a genuine desire to be a part of their lives and learn who they are, as we also share our lives with them. As we follow Jesus example of focusing on a few, our prayer is that God would reveal those whom He would wish to raise up as leaders of their own people for His glory. 


Our mission is to within areas of darkness, see light shine upon it, and souls rescued out of darkness and brought into that light. Though we have a strong focus on and passion for the human trafficking reality within and around Thailand, our goal is not to stop the sex trade but to impact it. We cannot walk with the disillusion that we can end this evil as only Christ can be the victor over all Satan's works. But with hope, faith and love, we believe that Lord can use us to see souls prevented from entering into this horrific cycle, and rescued out of it one individual at a time. As we labor towards this hope and share life with the Thai's, we will listen to, encourage, counsel and love them, praying together, eating together, laughing together, introducing them to the word of God, discussing it's importance and power in our lives, growing together in Christ for His glory and His purposes. 


The vision the Lord has given us is big and daily grows, but without our eyes set on the Jesus completely and without Him being at the center of our every ministry effort, nothing lasting, eternal or life changing can be accomplished within Thailand or anywhere. The heart of this team is rooted in the only truth that Christ is the way, the truth and the life and that no one gets to the Father except through Him. He is our reason, our purpose, our power and our heart as He is and forever will be our Savior and King. He shall always be the center of our every work and all the glory goes to Him.

The Used...

I got up at two a.m about a month ago to write this song... it's not perfect and it might not even be finished, but I think it's true.

-Juliet

Hello shadow

How do you do?

It's nobody, It's just "the used"

Can't see your face,

but feel your traces left all over my reflection...

Honor shame, here today...

Somehow in my world you share a name

What can I do, I'm the used...

Its all I am to service you.

Lost betrayed... I lay awake

Here in the cloud of my destruction

Its all me, and all you see...

Is less that what got thrown away today...today... today

Piles of abduction bring the pay....today... today

And its in this world you function

So confused... we're the used...

We're the feeling that you'd buy to feel alive

Not me, for every day I fail to not survive

Hello quiet, here me call

Stay so I don't count the footsteps down the hall

On their way, to see the used...

To take part in thee abused

No say, there's no way

A voice will find it's way to light, tonight... tonight...

As I memorize the stain of lack of fight, in my mind...

What could a voice even do

Im just the used... the used...

I could try to breathe to pray

If I thought it would change the day

But who hears me...

Who sees me...

Who knows me...

I don't know me...

I could scream, I could cry

If I had the strength to speak and say a lie

That it's ok... it's ok...

It's ok to use me then throw me away

But there's a truth

I don't know

About the song of having somewhere else to go

This is me, I'm not free

And so I'll just be the used

Hello shadow

How do you do?

It's nobody, It's just "the used"

Can't see your face, but feel your traces left all over my reflection...

Honor shame, here today...

Somehow in my world you share a name

What can I do, I'm the used...

Its all I am to service you.

“And everyone who commits an offense against one of these little ones who believe in me, it were profitable for him that a donkey's millstone would be hung around his neck and he be sunk in the depths of the sea."

Matthew 18:6

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

Matthew 19:14

My heart has hands that lay within, within the heart in me.

The hands to reach and hands to hold... the key to your eternity.
Your face it sticks within my mind, is it dark with soot and ash?
You who calls the street your home and lives to make them cash.
Your innocence was weighed and sold, as if it was not yours they say.
How much I long to give it back, though I cannot change today.
Did you know I know your face and feel you in my embrace?
Did you know my heart is yours and longs to touch your face?
You only know the dark and dank and cold ground beneath your feet.
You have not had strong trees to climb, but chaos you do meet.
Your hands have not been held with love, but led to your discrace.
You only know your worthlessness since no one showed you grace.


Could I wipe your tears away if you allowed yourself to cry?
Could I introduce you to love that would never say goodbye?
May I, I pray.... ask God today to teach me how to be.
Someone who could earn your trust and love you like He loves me?
There is so much to life than "must" and pains you must endure.
There is a King who fights for you, of this you can be sure.
Oh dirty hands and joyless face, there's so much more for you.
You can have dreams, you can have life, you can live in hope and truth.


Oh woman who dances in shame, who commands your body sin?
The lies you live and things you give are not who you are within.
Your beauty comes from deep in your soul, a place you do not know.
You've never been told that just what you were, was everything dear soul.
I wish that I could make you safe and steal you away from pain.
But He who walks within my heart can show you you again.
Take off those heels and walk in grass and feel wind on your face.
Your bed can be a place to rest and not the cornerstone of your disgrace.
These choices that were made for you, were not your own desires.
If you take my hand and walk, we'll make it through the fire.
For He is a refining flame and will strip your shame away.
You can walk anew in joy and smile in freedom today.

Menus...

"Pet Maak maak!!!"

This was a phrase very commonly used by my darling husband and I during our eight months in Bangkok, Thailand. Very very spicy!!! When you first walk down the long and narrow outdoor markets, you are overwhelmed by the powerful aromas, color and variety in every single dish you see. The sellers are busy, working harder than most people you will ever see, in heat so intense that you walk out your door and the exertion of that very small act has you sweating like you were in a sauna. One would think with the incredible number of dishes that you would have plenty of variety in the dinner of your choosing... but “pet maak maak!” is the reality of living in a country where “spice” to them has a different definition than to ours as Americans. There are no menus, and nothing is in English, and very rarely do the people speak it, so you take your chance on whatever dish has less peppers... and bring a hot dog home just in case.

There are however in Thailand, menus for people and enough English spoken concerning that menu to ensnare somewhere between 60 to 80% of foreign tourists and 70% of Thai men. When my husband took the train to go get our internet connected in another part of the city, he was approached very forcefully by a man who put a “menu” in his face filled with Polaroids of girls whom he advertised as, “Very young! Very cheap!” As shocking as this might seem, that man would not have that angle or choosing of words, were those very things not in huge demand every single day. Very young... very cheap...

In Thailand, there are more brothels than schools, around 60,000 to be more precise. And it is estimated that up to 400,000 children under the age of 16 work in bars, brothels, and night clubs. Trafficking is a $16 billion dollar annual business, which makes up 50%-60% of the governments annual budget. This industry is more profitable than the drug trade. Yet the issue lies in the grey area of corrupt desire and lack of desire to learn the reality that would compel even a cold heart toward action for the voiceless. Because if you were to ask if children were prostituted in Thailand, you would receive an automatic no. But, if they thought you might be interested in those children for your own sexual agenda, they would be made available to you.

If you were to open your eyes to see, the evidence is everywhere. So which way will we look? Will our hearts hunger to learn what we can to help, or turn away from a problem that feels too large and too dark? My question is, did the children and women who are prostituted have a choice? The majority of them did not, as their worth lied in being a commodity as opposed to a human being. So if they did not have a choice, why should you? If there were options for them, what could you do?

Intro to Human Trafficking; Article for Fayetteville Newspaper, by Juliet Stuck

God's Response to "Encouragements Needed"

After our most recent post, I received a letter from a most beloved friend... God moved in her to share with us words of such truth and joy, that we felt were so profound and grounded in Jesus that we wanted to share what has been uplifting our hearts...

"My dearest Friends,
My prayer over this letter and gift is for God to speak words of encouragement, reviving your weary soul, renewing your deferred hope and solidifying your deep, deep, deep love for Him. Remember and be encouraged tender heart, therefore:

"The Lord waits to be gracious to you,
and therefore He exalts himself to show mercy to you...
blessed are all those who wait for him."
-Isaiah 30:18

Your most recently email resonated with my soul, as I too have been in a season of prolonged waiting. As you have known great blessing in this year of waiting, you have also known great sorrow and broken hope. As your hearts eagerly desire great things, desiring to put your hands and hearts into the work which few are called, it seems God has called you to another work, which few are called, a work of suffering. If this be true, I can testify it is given to a select few, that they would be softened, seasoned with salt and prepared to speak a tough word with powerful gentleness. Please know I wait and hope with you. hopeful for God to come and exalt himself and hopeful for your hearts to be made glad with cheer.

Your waiting and hoping in God, they are not in vain. For,

"Those who wait for me shall not be put to shame." (Isaiah 49:23)

Take courage weary soul, your Father sees and He will be gracious to you. He is delighted beyond measure with your heart of trust and wait in Him."

Our hearts were deeply mentored to by this letter, and by our God who inspired it. We know He walks with us and will lead us onto His glory in His perfect time... in His perfect way...

Encouragements Needed

Dear Friends,

We wanted to write you all specifically for in asking for your prayers. First off, we should say that health wise we and the girls are all doing very well so no worries there. We do however feel very drained in spirit and ask you to continue to lift us up. We had initially prayed when we came back from Thailand that we would be back in the country by that December, but this December we will be a year past that hope. We are so honored, thrilled and passionate about our return to Thailand and this call that we know the Lord has confirmed to us... everything is aligned and waiting in such beautiful design that could only be by God's hand. But while we have been placed back in the states for this time, our desire is to be just as faithful to Jesus during the time of waiting, laboring and existing in what can be a frustrating unknown on when we can return. With each month that has past by our original hope of a return date, our desire is still to be obedient to Jesus and lights where we are... we want to be missional where ever we are, and we want Him to be glorified no matter our position.

We have even here dealt with a lot of struggles and many people have seen an noticed that there has still been a lot of attack. The enemy is eager to discourage our hearts, steal our finances and make us feel very useless.... We are so confident in Jesus, and we know that a life lived for Him is one where we will daily fight the oppressor. Our hearts have always been ready for that and have experience in fighting this good fight, knowing Jesus is always the victor. But our spirits now are very tired... we are very discouraged, and we have been hopeful for encouragements that lately have only turned into more let downs. We just feel like we have been working with all we have and laboring as faithful as we can, without much encouragement, without much progress... and without any clarity on when the Lord's time will in fact be that He will lead us back to Thailand.

So friends, we ask for your prayers... Jesus felt burdened and wept over the situation of man's heart... the disciples felt this weight, and we also have felt it too. Pray that we could be encouraged by responses... that there would be follow through, that things would start to move. Please pray that we would be nourished by the food that those who don't know the Lord don't have... and that we would continue to find peace. Please pray that Father would open the floodgates of financial support and opportunity, and that He would reveal when we might be able to return, so we can make strong plans for our time left in the states. And lastly, please pray for our financial situation while we are still here. This has long since been a struggle, and though we feel we have handled it well, it has begun to get draining after years of this situation. Please pray that we might be able to have a little leftover financially each month, so that we might be able to support raise without financial concern or boundaries. We also have the prayer that we might be able to leave for Thailand debt free!!!

Thank you so much to those of you who will pray and lift us up, if you guys want to get in contact further, we always love to talk with you. Thank you for who you all are to us, and for taking time to hear our hearts. Jesus can do all things!

We love you,
In our Precious Jesus Name... Juliet and Jonathan

"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)