The Orchard Blog

This is my friend Jim Larson. The picture was taken one night while we were walking the streets of Bangkok at around 1 or 2 in the morning. It was such a sad, sad scene – a little girl sitting by herself begging for help.

I can’t even begin to tell you the emotions that would flood my heart every time we saw something like this. It messed me up good…

Jim is the reason I ended up in Bangkok two weeks ago. We met a few years ago via a mutual friend and over the past couple of years have forged a friendship that God has used to challenge, stretch and get me thinking about a bunch of things that, for the most part, are pretty uncomfortable for me to think about.

Jim and his wife Judy have a truly fascinating ministry in Thailand. A couple of years ago, they moved their family all the way from Aurora, Illinois to Bangkok to begin a ministry called “The Well.” Their passion and ministry is all about reaching out to Bangkok’s bar girls and sex workers by showing them unconditional love and by helping them see their true value as God’s creation.

On a very practical side, The Well also offers counseling, training, and job development to the women they are reaching. And the greatest part of it all is that IT’S WORKING! In fact, they are reaching these women almost faster than they are able to keep up! The fact is, they need help. More on that in a future post…

You can read some of these women’s stories here. And here. And here.

The stories are just amazing… And yet, it doesn’t stop with the women themselves! Jim and Judy’s ministry is also expanding into these women’s families and even the villages where many of these women are from. Next is church planting…

Beginning on Sunday, February 11th, we are going to devote three weekends at The Orchard to a series entitled, “168 Hours.” The series will feature a bunch of HD video footage that we captured on the trip and I will be sharing some really practical talks reflecting on my 7 days in Thailand. I’m excited about it and will look forward to sharing the videos here on my blog.

In the meantime, you can read more about The Well here. (And oh yeah… one of my favorite parts of the trip was being able to hand deliver a brand new MACBOOK PRO to Jim on behalf of The Orchard!!  You GUYS are AWESOME!!!!)

Posted by Scott Hodge

Soul Cravings: Prayer – Sunday 01.28.07

Setlist:
Your Grace Is Enough – Chris Tomlin
All To You – Lincoln Brewster
O Praise Him – David Crowder Band
Hear Me – Kelly Clarkson

Pray honestly.
Pray about anything.
Pray continually.
Pray creatively.

Posted by Mike Jones

Soul Cravings: Worship – Sunday 01.21.07

Setlist:
You Are Good – Lincoln Brewster
Made To Worship – Chris Tomlin
Better Is One Day – Passion Band
Take My Life (And Let It Be) – Chris Tomlin
Hungry (Falling On My Knees) – Kathryn Scott
You’re Worthy of My Praise – Big Daddy Weave

Worship is more than what we do on Sunday morning. Worship is about how we live our life day in and day out – taking our eating, sleeping, going-to-work, walking-around, everyday life and offering it up to God.

Posted by Mike Jones

While in Bangkok I had the privilege of attending a Saturday evening UNDERground gathering at NewSong Bangkok.  The location I visited was one of four locations throughout Bangkok – this one meeting in a very hip area of town called Siam Square.

NS BKK (NewSong Bangkok) is a part of NewSong Church in LA, pastored by Dave Gibbons.  A couple of years ago, Dave moved his family from LA to Thailand for about a year to begin their first “international” location of NewSong in Bangkok.  They now have campuses located in Irvine, North OC, Los Angeles, and Bangkok.

Read more here…

Posted by Scott Hodge

I don’t have children of my own yet. But I hear about the struggles that parents are going through as they raise children that are different and complex.

If you are a parent,  take time to pray for your children. Pray that God would show you how they were created and who they are meant to be.  Ask God to help you to understand and develop their personality.

If your child is going through an especially difficult time, ask God to reveal your childs fears to you and to reveal what the “root” of the problem is.

He wants to help you raise your child to be a positive influence in the world! Stop and talk to him about those things now!

Posted by Kathryn Egly

It’s 6:41pm BKK time. Dan and I ran around Bangkok this afternoon to visit a few Buddhist temples and a handful of other sights. This was the first real chance we had to just go and wander. This is quite a city! We’ve got some great photos that we’ll try to post later tonight. (The Internet here is pretty shaky and inconsistent, so posting videos has been challenging.)

Tonight we will hit the streets with Jim and spend some time connecting with some bar girls and lady boys. Yes, you read that right… Tomorrow we will spend some time hearing the stories of many of the women who have left the bars and have now become a part of The Well.

We’ve been a lot busier here that I would have imagined, so I’m looking forward to finally sharing some stories and detailed experiences that we’ve had here. Tomorrow night we leave for a day in Tokyo before heading back to the US.

More later…

Posted by Scott Hodge

Video update from Thailand (shown 1.14.07).

Soul Cravings: Solitude – Sunday 01.14.07

Setlist:
Salvation Is Here – Hillsong United
All To You – Lincoln Brewster
In The Secret (I Want To Know You) – Sonic Flood
Wonderful Maker – Jeremy Camp

An Enemy of Silence is a hurried life.
The enemy of NOT ENOUGH TIME.
The ENTRAPMENT OF “MORE.”

Solitude is the “furnace of transformation.”

Posted by Mike Jones

4:02am BKK time.  Very, very tired…

Had a chance today to explore a little bit of Bangkok.  Fascinating city!  Attended one of NewSong’s BKK locations…  Spent time with Jim watching & learning bargirl outreach…  Unlike ANYTHING I have ever experienced before in my entire life…  All I can say is that no one is “bringing” God to these people.  He is ALREADY here at work in many, many lives.

Anyway…  Too much to type right now.  We’ve got tons of video & photos, but no time to throw anything together yet.  Hoping for some stuff tomorrow (Sat night/Sunday).

A couple more pics from today (click for larger image):

Posted by Scott Hodge 

Just got back into Bangkok late last night. The trip to the village went very well. We had some great opportunities to connect with several locals to discuss ways that Jim’s ministry, The Well, can help reach out to the local families by meeting very practical needs. More on that later…

We’re short on time to post much this morning, but we’ll make up for the lack of posting late tonight or tomorrow morning. So far, we’ve got over four hours of HD video and about 500+ photos. It feels like we have experienced so much in just a short amount of time. Dan and I are now off to grab lunch before spending the day with some local ministries here in Bangkok. I’m LOVING the food but we’re hoping to find a little American fare for lunch today. A greasy cheeseburger and fries sounds great! And oh yeah, now that we’re back in Bangkok, we’re hoping to finally run across a Starbucks! I’m jonesin’….