In just a few short days...

Wat Arun, Bangkok. Image borrowed from here.

I've got just two full days left before I leave on my trip! I don't get Monday, because I've got a little excursion planned. So this weekend I'll be doing all those last-minute things to get ready to go to Thailand and Cambodia on Tuesday.

It's a little weird going overseas from already being overseas. But, as this is home now, I shall be trying to figure out where to get bug spray and other necessities from any pharmacy that I can find that is open on Saturdays (how's that for planning ahead?).

So - I am really looking forward to this trip!! I loved, loved working with Charity last year during my job with the Salvation Army. Partnering with her organization, NightLight, to do outreach and prayer and other events, was definitely a highlight. I am excited to see her, catch up, pray together, and hear about the ways she has been fighting human trafficking literally all over the world the last few months.

We'll be in Bangkok and I think Pattaya (a city known specifically for its sex industry!), etc. for about nine days. I've mentioned before that Thailand gets 59% of their nationwide income from the sex industry. NightLight started in 2005 as a business employing women coming out of prostitution. As of last summer they had 72 women employed, and over 120 women have come through the program. I'm so excited to see their business model and meet these amazing women. We will be doing outreach in the red light district and I know I will see things I've never seen before - it may be the same "trade," but it looks different in every part of the world. I am praying for a really meaningful, stirring, maybe even shocking (I'm not easily shocked) time there.

And then onto Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I am looking forward to my meeting with one of the directors of the Chab Dai Coalition, a Christian organization that is made up of over 40 agencies and organizations fighting sex trafficking there. Last year I was helping teach a segment in a Hands that Heal course in Long Beach and I met one of the girls who works for them. We got to talking and this visit is the result of that. I have many questions - I hope to learn a lot of things that I can bring back here to implement in Greece. They have bi-annual meetings with all their members, and they do community education, trainings, offer resources, and have a research center and library. So much of what I'd love to see happen here! The Greek mentality about working together is so different...

I will have two days there, so I might have time to visit some of the sights there - I've made a list. Near the top would be the genocide museum; the city is still recovering from the Khmer Rouge regime of the '70s, so it will be interesting (and sobering) to see the effects of that and learn more about the history.

Wow! Should be an amazing experience. I'd say my self-confidence about traveling solo has skyrocketed in the past year, so I feel ready, and I'm really looking forward to learning and absorbing everything I can!