At the Table

The Well began 20 years ago with the simple mission of “Reach, Teach, Send”: reach folks in need, including women in Thailand’s sex industry, teach them to follow Jesus, and send them to reach others. But small focus included a big vision of transformation of Thailand through these future leaders. It has been slow going, but indeed there are now sent individuals who are reaching and leading others. Meanwhile we have all gained a wealth of experience. The vision is still far off, but much more imaginable than it was 20 years ago.

But darkness has not been napping. Men’s entertainment has grown, facilitated by social media and increased affluence. Drugs are cheaper and more ubiquitous. The pervasive small screen clearly fosters isolation and depression. And most tragically, the West parallels Thailand. While cultural differences became clearer over the years, so have our human similarities. At the core we’re very much alike and it isn’t pretty. Families are breaking up, and more unsafe children grow into dysfunctional adults. It’s drastic problems needing drastic solutions.

The dream behind this little ministry called “Servantworks” was a drastic solution. Reaching bar girls and others at life’s bottom was not intended as an end, but the means. Our ultimate desire is to encourage more people to take Jesus literally when he says, “Follow me.” To follow neither the ideas and practices of the world nor other Christians, before Jesus. Through all our long-haul, down-and-very-dirty 20 years we have focused on two questions:

1. How can we better serve the healing and growth of Thai people?
2. How can we better mobilize the highly resourced/educated American, both for Thailand but also to counter this rise of evil?

This special online magazine looks at both those questions. But not so much as to give answers, but to hopefully stimulate conversation. As we wrote some months ago, we can’t quit now. We’re just getting started. But we need you now more than ever.