Here’s the Thailand Trip (Pattaya Praise) preview
In less than 48hrs I’m off to Thailand to take part is a worship festival in a city called Pattaya - the epicentre of ’sex-tourism’ in Thailand. The week long event is a multi-faceted series of happenings that will sees bands and teams from all over the planet converge on the city.
Pattaya is a city of nations, a kind of microcosm of the world. As you can imagine it is a place that needs healing and transformation, not only for the tourists but for the locals as well.
It has been the vision of United Christian Ministries (UCM) to see God’s love expressed in the city through the bringing together of many tribes and tongues. Many prophetic words have been spoken about the city and how Praise & Worship would be key building blocks to release God’s power.
It is with this vision that Pattaya Praise was created. This year a team of nearly 50 people from Northern Ireland will be travelling to Pattaya. Of this there are 15 from churches in the Coleraine area. Primarily this team will travel to support and encourage the citywide church through its various ministries and helping to lead worship at the Pattaya Praise festival.
The team will be involved in Prayer Walks throughout the city, Street Outreach, traveling to the many slums to provide food to those who live in poor accommodation, helping within the Mercy Children’s Shelter playing with kids who have been abandoned or getting involved in some manual labour around the premises. Fundamentally, Pattaya Praise is not some large organisation, but rather is something that rises in the hearts of many who obey the call to just come and serve.
My laptop, whilst repaired from it’s last crash is proving unreliable, so I’m hoping to pick up a macbook enroute so hopefully I’ll be able to give you regular updates while there.
However, if I don’t get to do that we have a team blog here that will keep you up to speed.
In the meantime here’s a quick video of our band rehearsals - Enjoy!