Please pray for our July World Race Team that is stuck in Thailand... one of them, Ally Page, is from here in Colorado Springs - she made our local paper this morning;

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Alison Page, 23, is stuck in Bangkok, Thailand, while anti-government demonstrators control the city's airport.

Turmoil strands native of Springs

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November 28, 2008 - 9:49 PM

PERRY SWANSON

THE GAZETTE

A Colorado Springs native was stuck in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday while anti-government demonstrators held control of the city's major airports.

Alison Page, 23, is in Thailand as part of an 11-month mission trip with a Christian ministry called The World Race. Her mother, Tammy Page, said Friday her daughter is in no danger. Alison Page was scheduled to leave Bangkok on Wednesday and arrive Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa, her mother said.

The protests shut down air traffic in the city and left thousands of travelers stranded.

Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat said Friday "security forces will use peaceful means" to end the crisis, the Associated Press reported. The U.S. State Department on Wednesday advised U.S. citizens to stay away from the airports and on Friday issued a statement urging peaceful resolution.

"I was just glad she wasn't at the airport, because who knows where that could go," Tammy Page said of her daughter.

Alison Page posted an update to her online blog on Wednesday assuring readers she and the four other members of her team, 5-Alive, were OK.

"We are actually located very far from the protest and would be completely unaffected by the chaos if it were not for our scheduled flight to South Africa," she wrote.

Alison Page graduated from Rampart High School in 2003 and from Western State College last year, her mother said. She later moved to Crested Butte.

She left on the mission trip June 28 and will return at the end of May. The trip involves visiting 11 countries. While in Thailand, Alison Page has been working with a ministry called the Tamar Center, which offers job training and Bible instruction to prostitutes, according to its Web page.

On a short stopover in Thailand in September, her blog writing showed she was deeply affected after speaking with two prostitutes.

"What does (a) white girl from America know about their pain and loss? What do I know about their lives? I can't relate to them in any way at all. God is faithful and created each person in that awful disturbing place to be loved, just as he created me to be loved. He created them for greatness too. The reality is, most of them may never make it out of that place. God is sovereign; I have to trust that. We all do."

Contact the writer: 636-0187 or perry.swanson@gazette.com