Burma, The Brick Making Village & The Red Light District

During this visit, we were able to cross the border into Burma to visit one of the Life Impact Orphanages, the House of Hope.

Pictured below are two precious kids, brother and sister, who were recently rescued. Lana was showing some visitors "no-mans land" on the Thai / Burma border when she saw a man just about to hit that sweet girl with a metal pipe. Thank God for divine appointments, because Lana yelled out and was able to stop him. She was at the right place, at the right time. After some investigation, she found out their mom was cracked out and it was only a matter of time before these kids got sold to the wrong people. Lana and her Burmese team were able to intervene and Life Impact was able to take these sweet children into custody. Now, they are part of the Life Impact family and so happy. They both just had me hold them and I just prayed over them as I rocked them. 

Below is our team playing Sharks & Minnows with the kids. Complete chaos as you can see. haha!

A couple of the girls put thanaka on our faces. It's a type of makeup / sunscreen / cooling agent that Burmese use on their faces. It's made from a bark. These little girls had a blast putting it on our faces, and they literally slathered it on us.

We were also able to spend time at a brick making village to share the gospel, pass out food and tour the "factory". These people are some of the poorest of the poor out here and are practically slaves. Life Impact has been able to reach the other areas that they've been ministering to for the past few years, so it's time for them to find new villages to minister to. These people have never heard the gospel before and when we went, it was only the second time Life Impact had been there. 

They were so happy and grateful to have us. We came during their lunch break, and most of them came to listen and be blessed. There were so many children who work as brick makers and don't get to go to school so that they can help their families make some extra money. Some of these workers were as young as 5 or 6. It was nice to get to spend time with them. They were so excited to have us there. Life Impact will continue to do outreaches with them on a weekly basis and eventually have a church come in and help too, so that they can establish roots and a strong support system for this village. They will also be able to help educate the children so they can have a brighter future.

Here's the team passing out the food bags to the people.

 

This is a sweet girl that stole my heart. I won her over, because I gave her a lollipop, and  she quickly became my best friend.

Here's some of the children who work at the factory. 

Me and Stacey, one of my friends who traveled there with me. She's also the accountant for Life Impact and an amazing woman. 

It's important that we pray for these people, because they are a huge target for human traffickers, since they are poor and uneducated. That's why Life Impact puts so much effort into their prevention projects like this one.

The night before we left, Lana took us on a tour of the Red Light District in Bangkok. That's where women (and we saw kids too) are prostituted out and are often found in these "clubs" dancing. I felt sick to my stomach the whole time and had to hold back tears. I was scared at first, because you just feel an evil spirit when you are there. But I was quickly reminded of Psalm 23:4

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me."

Those girls just looked so dead when you looked at their eyes. Most of them were "pole dancing" but barely moving. You could tell they just gave up. Lana shared with us the process they go through that brings them to the point of breaking, so fearful. Being raped, tortured, beat, drugged and verbally abused, they become too afraid of the pimps to run away. Some girls came on their own will, don't ask me why. But we also saw many young girls who were obviously trafficked. And that's what some of these kids I've met have been saved from - having this terrible fate. I will never forget the look in these girls' eyes.

I know a lot of things I'm sharing in my blog are sad and might seem helpless. But, I want you to instead be encouraged that if we all do a little bit to help others, this world really will be a better place. If you can't go, then give or find out how you can help locally. Life Impact has a mantra, "Change a life, change the world." I love it, because it can often seem overwhelming, all of the people who need help. But, if you focus on using the gifts God has given YOU to help others, you can make a difference.

God bless you,
Amber