Kristiana Phillips
Silently taking in the darkness hanging heavily about them, the Southwest Thailand Impact trip team followed Mr. McClary into a cave-like area, looping around a large cluster of bars. Even in the late morning, the aftermath of an evil night haunted the now-abandoned bars. A menacing tiger statue, an entrance shaped like a grotesquely leering mouth, and a red shop with a sign reading “The Devil’s Playground” all screamed silently of the rampant depravity so glorified in Patong Beach, Thailand.
Reflecting on the experience, senior Nicholas Khor observed that “the literal emptiness of the bars showed the gravity of the sex industry and...represented that emptiness of sin.”
Another senior, Seth Kelley, remarked, “It was one of the heaviest things I’ve ever had to witness, but it gave me a more realistic sense of how depraved the world can be. It also showed me how imperative it is that Christians go out and reflect Christ’s light in these places.”
In fact, the theme of Impact this year was taken from Philippians 2:6-7, calling followers of Christ to adapt the attitude of their Savior, “who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant.” Further along in the chapter, believers are called to “become blameless and pure ‘children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation’” with the promise that “then you will shine like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life” (verse 15).
Many students on the Southwest Thailand team took this passage to heart, asking God to empower them to shine for Him. Through the chaos of many changed plans, through the busyness of organizing a kids’ camp, and even through the darkness of Patong Beach, God was incredibly present on the trip, encouraging His children and blessing them as they stepped out to serve.
As trip leader, Ms. Heidi Keas, reflected, “More than anything else, God was encouraging and affirming me in my calling and letting me taste the pure joy that can be found when we surrender our lives to His will!”
On the very same trip where students were forced to face the worst of humanity, they were also given hope—both through time spent alone with God and through time spent together, serving. Two days after the unsettling trip to Patong Beach, the team was given an opportunity to lead a kids’ camp at a local Thai church.
Surrounded by children who were easily engaged and eager to learn, it was impossible not to be softened by their wonder and innocence. Speaking about his time spent with the kids, Seth recalled, that they “...taught me that there are so many ways to break the language barrier...There’s fun, there’s smiling, there’s laughing, so many universal languages that do more wonders than words.”
The local church’s efforts to reach out to its community and the opportunity to come alongside them and pour into children’s lives was a refreshing reminder that hope and goodness still exist.
For those who went on the Southwest Thailand Impact trip, God’s declaration that “the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5), rang especially clear and true.
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