Trip to Thailand
While I was doing all that, Paul and Allisan Beeghly have been working tirelessly to help exploited individuals in the red lights of SE Asia find restoration from a life in the sex industry.
Our trip last week to visit them was fueled by our intent to not only visit their ministry and see what they have been working on for the past few years, but also to spend time loving on them and encouraging them as they enter their busiest season of the year.
It all started with a great dinner when we first arrived, sharing stories, laughing, and catching up after a long travel day.
We then returned to our hotel for the night, with the anticipation of meeting up in the morning to explore their ministry site.
In the morning the Beeghlys picked us up and brought us to their ministry building.
We got to see the cafe first, where they work with exploited women to teach them skills in the hospitality industry, including baking, barista-ing, and how to wait tables.
We then took a look upstairs at their huge building which encompasses everything from child advocacy, to training, conference rooms, office space, and dorms!
We then sat and chatted about how far the ministry has come and how their contributions have been instrumental in the ministries success up to this point.
We also chatted about the hope of Ankura Ministries partnering even further and leading a Justice Immersion Trip to visit the ministry in the fall of 2020! We also talked about helping to find one student to go out to Justice Semester(developed and operated by Paul), a 3 month course that gives young men and women the opportunity to explore culture, faith, missions, calling and come home transformed and ready to adventure deeper with Jesus wherever He calls them next.
After this, we ventured back downstairs where we were able to check out the salon(a project created by Allisan), where individuals get the skills and training they need to succeed in the beauty industry.
While in the salon, we got the chance to witness first hand the training and services that they offer!
When we had finished up at the center we were off to the mall where they serve one of my favorite Northern Thai Dishes! Khao Soi!
By now it was time for their little one to go down for a nap. So we headed back to their house and relaxed for a little while.
Once we were rested up, Allisan, Katherine, and I, headed out to one of the near by temples to take in some of the sights. The architecture is beautiful, but the atmosphere was heavy, and the people worshipping there seemed hopeless as they dropped their money in the jars for “good luck” for the day.
When we had finished up there it was time to head back to the house to pick up Paul and the baby and go out to the beach for a little while. We got to soak our feet in the ocean and feel the sand between our toes as we enjoyed the beautiful weather.
After, the beach we headed out to dinner at a local bar that serves one of the best cheeseburgers I have ever had!
After this it was time to head back to the hotel for the night as tomorrow we would have an early morning!
In the morning Paul and I were up at 5AM to get ready and head out to the golf course by 6:30. We arrived before the sun came up and were the first ones on the course. Paul had a pretty good round, and I played alright, considering it was my first time out in months and I was using clubs I had never used before. We had so much fun and that is what really matters.
When we were finished golfing I got dropped off at the hotel and Paul went home so that we could get cleaned up and ready to finish up the rest of the day.
We met back up for lunch and had some really good food at a pretty popular local place.
Then we went and dropped off Allisan and the baby for nap time and headed up to Big Buddha. It was an interesting place with a beautiful view. It is still in the middle of construction, but we were able to get a pretty good feel for the place.
The atmosphere here was far less heavy than the temple yesterday!
Once we had finished up there we went back to the house to rest up before heading back to the beach for supper.
It was a beautiful restaurant with tables on the beach, we had some amazing food and sat and watched the sunset while chatting away and reminiscing about the trip.
All in all it was a really great trip, we were so thankful to spend some time with the Beeghlys and encourage them and bless them before they get slammed with back to back teams for the rest of the year. We pray that their ministry continues to flourish and that they continue to impact lives and spread peace wherever they go!
If you are interested in finding out more about the Beeghlys or would like to donate to the work that Paul and Allisan are doing in SE Asia, please follow the link here!
