Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Christmas celebrations have been extravagant in Bangkok this year. Shopping malls, offices, and even bars have decorated for the season. Christmas music has been playing throughout the city. The music is clearly glorifying Jesus, but for the majority, Christmas is just a commercial holiday and another good excuse for a party.

At NightLight, however, 40 women have experienced Christmas with a new revelation. Christmas, they discovered is a celebration of the birth of Jesus who came to "give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God . . . and to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace." (Luke 1)

The women at NightLight are discovering in their lives this prophecy fulfilled. We at NightLight, have so much to praise God for this season. We thank God for all of you who have supported us financially, through prayer and through words of encouragement.

Praise God:

• Jewelry sales have picked up for the season


• For generous donors and faithful prayer warriors


• For 40 women employed at NightLight


• "Sharon" who was trafficked from Uganda has returned home with 4 large hair dryers to open a small business.


• NightLight's outreach team distributed Christmas gifts to the women in the bars and on the street

Prayer Requests:

• Ay has been diagnosed with lung cancer


• Pray for "Sharon's" transition back to Uganda and for healing of her traumatic experiences


• Pray for the women over the holidays that they will not return to the bars for extra money

From A-Go-go to Glory

Go-go dancing is something that many of our women have had to do to make money and please customers. The dancing in the bars is not a style of dancing that is natural to Thai women. Beyond that it is demeaning, dehumanizing and solely for the purpose of men's temporary pleasure.

This year, a team of women from NightLight rehearsed for months preparing dances from their culture. During the Christmas season the women were thrilled to be able to perform these dances at 4 different events. They chose their outfits carefully; they spent time on their make-up, their rehearsed over and over. During a Christmas Outreach at a Thai church the women appeared on stage in Thai traditional costumes. This time when the women danced, they glowed with pride and delight. Their dignity was restored. They danced to glorify God and their dance was worship. This is what Christ came for - to bring light - to free the captives - and to reclaim that which He created for His glory!

 

An Opportunity for Giving

NightLight's women were very excited this year when they had the opportunity to spend the day ministering at Rainbow House, an orphanage for children with disabilities. The women's faces showed their joy at being able to give through the music they sang to the children. Many of the children need assistance in eating and the women were quickly giving their hands to feed the children and interact with them.

Many of our women have painful histories with painful consequences but when they listened to the stories of the children, NightLight's women were moved to tears.

Rainbow House is run by Christians and it was another opportunity for the women to see the difference Christ makes in communities and to understand what Christmas is really about. It was a joy to see the women sharing their gifts with the children.

 

May God bless you with abundant joy! We praise God for you and for all God's blessings we are privileged to share through NightLight!

 

Peace and Joy,

 

Annie Dieselberg and the NightLight Team