Moving into the Second Month

Well, I've officially been sweating buckets for a whole month now. It's pretty incredible how fast time is passing as we build relationships, do ministry and experience this vastly different culture.

Yesterday, December fifth, was a national holiday here in Thailand- the King's birthday. Everybody gets the day off (except us, we still taught English...because we always teach English) and wears bright yellow shirts, and celebrates the King who they LOVE. We went to a market in the evening and there was a concert and fireworks in the King's honour, and at one point everybody busted out yellow candles and stood perfectly still for the King's song. It was quite the experience.

I learned something interesting this week- that the word for God and the word for king in Thai are the same thing. Prajow. So, if you want to tell somebody about "Prajow" you need to clarify who you are talking about, the King, Buddha, a false god, or the God of Christianity. So, in introducing who you talk about you explain you are telling them about the God who created the world, or the God who forgives our sins, or Jesus who is God. It's caused me to think a lot, about God's character, and who this God, that I want to tell Thailand about is. This week for the first time we used the bible as a text book in our adult English class. We taught about the God who has the power to heal. Please pray that our students will continue to attend our class, and that they will learn about more than just English, but also about Jesus, and that their hearts will be soft to the truth. We had a mixed reception to using scripture.

Teaching people scripture though, has become increasingly important to me. The more I read the bible, the more I see that it is the absolute truth. My personal devotional times here have been incredible lately. It seems like every time I open my bible God is speaking some new truth into my life, that is absolutely applicable to the situation I am in. One thing that God has been speaking to me about is my attitude towards the ministries I am involved in. Sometimes it can feel like all I do here is teach English and prepare to teach English, but as I've been reading through 1 Corinthians, the verses 9:19-23 got stuck in my head...by that I mean I actually can't stop thinking about them, it seems like in everything I do they come back to me. Paul is talking about being all things to all people, in order that he might win some for the gospel. I realized being all things for all people includes being an English teacher for those who want to learn English. When my motivation shifted from getting through English classes to loving people, and serving them, in the hope that I can share Jesus love with them, somehow prepping English classes became something that is less tedious and dull, and I am learning to love. My attitude sometimes still isn't perfect, but I can see God is shaping me so that I will glorify him more, in everything I do.

One ministry I continue to LOVE is going to Checheongsaow to a church called Bethel. It is a cell church with four members in the adult Bible study, and this last week we had thirty children at the program for "dek dek" (kids). This week we a man named Matthias who was here for two weeks come with us. He taught the kids to play hockey and for the first time (in two years) we targeted young men, and realized that if there was some ministry at the church for them, they would come. Please join us as we pray that God will raise up somebody to start a ministry to the teenage boys at Bethel, and be a strong male role model for them.
(The picture to the left is Matthias teaching this boy to hold a hockey stick-they'd never played before)

At Bethel this week I had the opportunity to give a man named P' Lud a bible. P' Lud became a Christian just over a month ago, and he has been such an encouragement to me. In the first two weeks he was a Christian he read half of Matthew, and has continued to soak up scripture, and apply it to his life. Unfortunately, he only had the New Testament, and didn't have money to buy a whole Bible. Please pray for P' Lud as he wants to attend church and fellowship and grow in his new faith, but work is incredibly hard to come by in this area, and as a painter, sometimes his only jobs come on Sundays. Pray that God will supply all of his needs, both spiritually and physically.
(The picture to the right is the Bethel cell group)

Well, the time has come for me to sleep...but Thank You again for all your love and support and prayers. I am so encouraged by everybody at home. I love you all!

A Quick Post From a Tired TREKer

Well, life keeps trucking on here in Thailand, and it seems like every day we become more and more busy. Don't get me wrong, my life is full, but I LOVE IT, however it can start to wear on you. Fortunately Jesus is about rest and refreshment, and even when it feels like I have nothing left to give, God meets me in that place, and gives me the strength to keep going.

One day I had a to do list as long as my arm (well, not really, but it was substantial) and I was almost at my breaking point. Our team had things to do and places to be, and one of our host missionaries, Ricky, came up to myself and another girl on my team, Fauna, and asked us to spend about an hour entertaining a man from Miami he had met at a pastor's conference who was just in Thailand for the afternoon. Well, my initial response was that I had a thousand and one things to get done, and I didn't have time, but because TREK sends us out on assignment to "learn and serve", I figured the appropriate response to say out loud was "of course we'll do that, we'd love to." So, a few minutes later we were at a coffee shop, talking with a man from Miami who we had never met before in our lives. I left the coffee shop about an hour later ready to take on anything. This man spent the time listening to our stories, and sharing his own, asking us what God was teaching us, and really listening and getting excited with us. This man, who I had never met before and will probably never meet again, showed me Jesus love in such a real way. He reminded me that I serve a God who is interested in what I think, and cares how I feel, and wants to meet me where I am at. Cop Coon Prajow (Thank you God)!!

Then another week or so passed, and yesterday arrived. Yesterday was our first day of teaching English in a formal setting. We went to an elementary school in a city called Ang Sila (where Michelle and Diana live). We will spend a few hours there every Tuesday teaching grade five and six students English, and the principal has requested we teach him as well. The principal is a lovely man, and we really enjoyed meeting with him. Please pray that as we teach both him and his students and build relationships that we will have the opportunity to invite him to church where somebody who speaks his language can share the gospel with him, and that as we get to know him, we will be able to share the gospel with him through how we treat him, his students and each other. (The picture above is a few of the students from the school!)

After our English classes there, I once again was stressing, because that evening I was teaching an adult English class that still needed a bit more prep, and then the next day I had two more English classes, one with youth, one with adults that still needed prep, and we had a scheduled worship time with Team 2000, and I had a meeting about Youth English to prep for. I had already missed my Thai lesson in the morning and there just didn't seem like there could ever be enough hours in the day to get everything done.

So we headed off to our worship time, and it was exactly what I needed. Andy (one of our host missionaries) read to us from 2 Timothy 2:8-13 (I would encourage you all to spend some time meditating on it), and asked us to think about the first three words "Remember Jesus Christ" and then asked the simple question, why would Paul need to remind Timothy, a pastor, to remember Jesus. That hit me, you see, I find it so easy to get caught up in planning a good English class, or a good kids club, or even a good bible study, and I find it so easy to loose sight of Jesus in all of that. The purpose of everything I'm doing here is ultimately to introduce people to the God that gives abundant life. Such a simple lesson, but I feel like I need to learn it over and over.

Later in our worship time we wrote acrostic poems about life with Jesus. I'm a little embarrassed to do this, but I'm going to share mine with you...please be gracious and remember that poetry is not my area of expertise.

C- Completion (he who has begun a good work in you will carry it through to completion- God is not done with you yet, no matter where you are at!)
H- Healer (Jesus is a physical healer, spiritual healer, emotional healer, healer of relationships, and the list goes on and on. I've really learned this lesson since TREK started in September, and God keeps showing me more and more aspects of life in which he heals)
R- Rock (Jesus never changes, even when I'm across the world in a different culture, he is the same yesterday, today and forever.)
I- Immeasurable greatness of his power (see Ephesians 1:19- we have access in Jesus to the power that raised him from the dead...all I can say is WOW)
S- Solid (going along with the Rock theme, God doesn't shift, we can completely trust him, and build our lives around him, because he's not going to change, that is an incredibly freeing truth for me)
T- Terrific :) (because life with Jesus is Terrific!!!!)

Everybody in the room came up with different words, but they all contained so much truth. It was cool to be reminded that Jesus meets us where we are at, and that there are so many aspects to his character that become especially significant to us at different points in our lives. Try it out- write an a little acrostic poem about what Jesus is teaching you, or what is significant to you about his character right now, and then share it with somebody (for example, ME) and encourage them!!!

I love you all...

Week Song (two)

Well, we have made it through two weeks, and this is starting to feel like "real life."
On Tuesday we had the opportunity to go for a little tour of Burapa University, a place where Fauna and I will likely be starting some sort of ministry. There are thousands of students and we're excited to see how we can connect, then in the evening we got a chance to go out for dinner with two exchange students from China studying here- Annie and Egg, we went out for noodle soup, and then to a place called a Milk Shop, where they serve...milk. We didn't fully understand the conse We've gotten to know quite a few exchange students, who are starting to connect with the church. Egg was baptized a few weeks ago, and we are praying for opportunities to introduce the rest of them to Jesus! A lot of our ministry so far has been just connecting with people, which I love.
Wednesday we went to Ang Sila, a fishing village really close to Bang Saen, where Michelle and Diana (two of my team members) are living now, and got some orientation about Ang Sila specifically, and about Thailand in general. We learned some useful tips about Thai hospitality, which can look different than ours, for example if you offer somebody something they will always refuse, so even if you've asked if they want a cup of water, or coffee twenty times and they said no, you still need to give it to them to honour them, or if somebody wants something they will never tell you directly, instead they will mention that they like that, or they will bring up the thing they want in conversation. We are starting to learn but that is defintely going to take some getting used to.
Thursday I had the oppertunity to go to a place called Chachoengsaow, which is one of the least reached area's in all of Thailand. I went with Louise (from team 2000), Nitra (another short termmer who has been here for seven months now), P' Nat (a national) and Fauna (another member of our team). Louise, Nitra and P' Nat have been going for a few months consistently, running a bible study and a kids club, and God has started to do some pretty incredible things. In the last few months, fifteen children have accepted Jesus (PRAISE GOD- this is the next generation) and the cell- group has grown to about 6 adults. This week another man accepted the Lord! We are praying that God will give him complete freedom, as many people in this city who have initially made decisions for the Lord have fallen back into lives of drug abuse, sexual immorality and witch craft. My team will be starting an outreach through this church aimed at students, teaching ESL, PLEASE PRAY for us, as there has been spiritual, emotional and physical attacks on Nitra, Louise and P' Nat each time the go there, because God is breaking strongholds, and Satan is not happy about that. The spiritual warfare is intense. This video is the kids from Chechengsaow singing
Friday we had the opportunity to go to Pattaya for a worship night. Pattaya is another dark place in Thailand. It's a tourist city with a population of about 100000, where there are about 50000 tourists at any given time, from all around the world, most of whom are there for the sex trade. The premise of this night (part of a weekend put on by YWAM (I think)), was to bring people from all over the world to Pattaya for the purpose of glorifying God, to bring light to this dark place. It was great, lots of people from TLC and Ang Sila came and we had an incredible time of worship together, and of connecting with new people. Our team even got to take some Thai friends out to Subway for their first sandwiches EVER, it was quite the experience!
Then on Saturday Diana and Michelle packed their suitcases and moved to The Friendship Centre in Ang Sila, where they will stay for the next seven months, and I worked on English lessons- we teach our first class on Tuesday and after that we teach at least seven a week, we're starting to feel pretty nervous about that. Please pray for our team as we are living in two separate locations, well we feel our ministries in both respective places are important, it's difficult to be split up, and we really want to stay unified as a group!
Again I just want to tell you all how much I appreciate your encouragement and prayers, it's so great to know that being out here on the field we aren't doing this alone! So thank you!

Welcome to Thailand

It’s officially been one week since our team packed into a van, left the Mark Centre and headed to YVR to catch a flight that would take us around the world. Travel itself was an adventure! We had a thirteen hour flight to Taipei and then a seven hour layover there, and then another three and a half hours to Bangkok. After a brief meeting with two of our host missionaries Dave and Louise, our team was loaded into another van and sent off to find the OMF home in Bangkok- alone. Fortunately Dave had given the driver good directions, because we definitely could not communicate very effectively. After a few wrong turns, stopping for directions a few times, backing up on the highway and a couple of U-turns we finally arrived! Here we met Andy Owen, another one of our missionary hosts who helped get our very jet-lagged team and all our luggage up to our room! Let me tell you, I was certainly thankful to see my bed that night.

The next three days we spent at the OMF home with Andy’s wife Carmen and their two boys, having a bit of orientation. They gave us lots of time to sleep and rest, to get used to the heat and humidity and 13 hour difference in time. We also had team time and bible study, as well as some fun trips out to the hair dresser and for Thai massage. Carmen encouraged us to explore the area, and view the culture, and keep a journal about the differences that we noticed.

Let me tell you a little bit about what I noticed. First of all, everybody in Thailand loves and respects their king, they hold him in such high reverence that they don’t even talk about him! They have monuments and life size pictures (like the one on the right), and buildings painted with him on almost every block. Twice a day in public places the king’s song is played- and people stop what they are doing in respect. Another thing that I saw was that in every shop there is a spirit house, where people invite the spirits to bless their business, and they offer it food and drink every day. We also see Buddhist monks all over the place, and we learned that every Thai male at some point is supposed to become a monk for a short period of time to secure his parents “salvation.” The spiritual deception here is incredible. Please join me in praying for this nation, that they will see the truth that is found only in Jesus!

After our time at OMF we loaded up into another van and headed to Bang Saen, our final location for the next seven months. We finally saw TLC church and got to meet some of the people we will be working with. It’s been exhausting meeting everybody, there are so many names and faces to remember. We haven’t started the ministries that we will be working in yet, but we are starting to get a feel for what life will be like here.

On Thursday we visited the Abundant Life Home, and went with Karen (another of our missionary hosts- there are six in total) to pick up the children from school. In total there are six boys in the boys home and three girls in the girls home. We will likely go to these homes on Friday and Saturday nights to give the house moms time off. After that P’ Ganiga, the house mom in the boys home took us for a tour of Ang Sila, a fishing village where two of our team members, Michelle and Diana will be living (the picture on the left is in Ang Sila). Please pray for them as life there will be difficult, it is a poorer community and they lack a lot of the comforts that we are used to, and are definitely relinquishing many rights to live there. Pray that God will honour that, and help them form many relationships, and will give them safety.

On Friday I had the opportunity to go to the Bang Saen hospital with another short-term worker here named Nitra, and sit in on an English class that she teaches, which our team will take over when she leaves in December. I loved it. The format of the class that she uses, is she goes over an English worksheet with them, or teaches them a new grammatical tool, or set of vocabulary, and then they read through a section of the Purpose Driven Life together in English, and she sends home the same section in Thai for them to read during the week. I really see now how English teaching will be a way for building relationship with people, since you spend the whole time talking. Please pray for me as I step into these sort of roles, that I will be able to effectively build relationships that go beyond just teaching a language.

Yesterday (Saturday) we went to our first church event- the TLC high school and college group. They met at Andy and Carmen’s, where they sang (in Thai), played games (explained in Thai), shared testimonies (in Thai) and studied the bible (in Thai). In case you didn’t get it in the last sentence there was definitely a language barrier, but somehow with our nit-noy (little bit) of Thai, and many people’s ability to speak some English we got by and had a great time, I’m looking forward to connecting with this group of young people. Later that day we had the opportunity to attend the English service at TLC, another neat community I’m looking forward to connecting with.

Well, it’s Sunday now, and I’m babysitting in a little bit, and then should get ready for service (which doesn’t start until 4:00). I miss you all, and can’t tell you how much I appreciate your prayers and emails of encouragement. Please continue to pray for my team as we really start to jump into ministry in this next week, as well as begin some language study!

Freaking Out

Training is flying by. When I left home two months in Abbotsford seemed like it was going to last forever, now I find myself with six days left at the Mark Centre, and the last couple of months seem like a bit of a blur. Today I woke up and realized in a week from now I will be in a plane that is going to take me half way across the world, and suddenly my stomach felt like there was something in it that didn't belong there. I realized I am incredibly nervous!! For almost eight months I am leaving everything familiar to me, from food to ettiquite, and going to a country completely foreign to me. I knew that all along, but suddenly it became a bit more of a reality. Don't get me wrong, I am still so excited, I feel like this is where God wants me to be, but right now that's a little bit tainted with nerves. Earlier this week my team met with the team TREK sent to Chonburi last year, and they were very helpful to us, they shared with us some of their experiences, what their roles in ministry were, what their experience with the culture had been, and some of what they enjoyed and didn't enjoy. While I know that my experience will be different than theirs, it was helpful to hear a little bit. Please pray for our team as week pack up and prepare to leave this week. We feel incredibly ill-informed about what we will be doing this next year, and that makes the idea of packing up and flying away a bit daunting! Pray that we will continue to grow in our excitement and that we will be ready for what God will do in and through us!

Oh, and on Friday (the day before I leave) there will be a commissioning service at Columbia Bible College at 7:00pm in the chapel. It would be great if you could join us!

LIFE

As the date for my flight to Thailand steadily approaches (I'll be there two weeks from yesterday), I find myself wondering where all my time goes. The purpose of TREK training is "to encounter Jesus," so they remove us from the daily grind, and place us in beautiful accommodations, and bring in fabulous speakers to encourage us in our walks with God, and still I find myself caught up in whirlwind of life. Don't get me wrong though, I'm LOVING it, I just wish I knew how to take moments and savor them more fully.
Thanksgiving weekend I had the opportunity to go home for three days, for the first time since TREK began. It was incredible. I had some amazing times visiting with my family and friends, and was commissioned by my church. (the picture to the right is me and my family at Willingdon) I also had the opportunity to reconcile with a friend whom I hadn't spoken with in several years. I was sent back to the Mark Centre feeling so utterly blessed, and so full. God blew my mind that weekend with how good he is.
This last week at the Mark Centre has been less intense than past weeks. Part of our training is participating in work duties, however in past weeks because of the way scheduling has worked out with speakers, it hasn't worked out for us to do them, this week we made up for that. We went to a hazelnut orchard- owned by the people who own the Mark Centre- and raked hazelnuts off the ground. Another day we went to the gleaners (a big warehouse where you prepare vegetables for soup mix that is dehydrated and sent around the world- the picture to the left is us sorting tomatoes), and we did work around the Mark Centre, raking leaves and landscaping. It was really nice to spend some time with the TREKers outside of session, just serving together.
We also had some awesome speakers come in and talk to us about several topics, but one that stood out to me was the topic of Cross Cultural Scenarios. We talked about the differences between "hot" and "cold" cultures. Canada is a typical cold culture, and while there are many different aspects of this, one that stuck out to me was our obsession with time. In hot cultures, like Thailand, they tend to do this less. I realized that this is going to take some serious adjusting for me to get used to. Coming from a place where schedules are valued, it will be an interesting shift to go someplace where people think nothing of it if you come half an hour late to a previously arranged appointment. But, at the same time, I'm ecstatic to learn from these people- who take time to stop in the streets and chat, who value relationship, who take life as it comes- about how to not be stressed about time, maybe I can learn from them about moments, about how to enjoy moments for all they are worth!
I'd like to leave you with a verse that I've been meditating on for the last week
John 10:10 - The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

I almost forgot, I need you to pray PLEASE; the leader of our Mexico team, Ying, is an amazing girl who came here from Thailand to participate in TREK, however, because she has a Thai passport there are some issues in getting her a Visa, at this point for her to get a Mexican Visa will take a miracle, but we serve a God who is capable of anything, so I ask that you would join us in asking God to work this out!

The Amazing TREK

Well, not long after being put into teams, they decided to test our endurance, and we participated in an activity called "The Amazing TREK," that our fabulous interns spent a TON of time putting together for us. This activity is designed to help us learn how our team will function in stressful situations, and to teach us to function without relying on the people around us, because in Thailand, they aren't always going to be there.

Our team had an interesting experience...they say it was the most similar to what will really happen on missions- because pretty much everything went wrong! The day started with incessant banging on the door, and then SonJa (one of our interns) announcing "It is five o'clock and the Amazing TREK has begun, be downstairs in five minutes to begin." So the frenzy began, we ran around trying to get ready, unfortunately my team being all girls took to long and we missed the first challenge!

The second challenge we definitely participated in however, we searched all over the Mark Centre property in the dark for team bandannas...unfortunately ours were dark blue, so they took us two hours to find, and we actually never found them all, they just took pity on us and let us come in from the cold! Even the people who hid them couldn't find it. After we did really well with the next few clues, racing around Abbotsford, until we had to find a house in a residential area for breakfast, you see, all the teams were supposed to have a map, but they forgot to give us one. Eventually we found the house, and headed in a delicious breakfast of rice, little herrings with no heads, and two litres of coke.



We were on track with the other teams and feeling good! However, for the next clue we had to find another house...and we ended up in somebody's garden for half an hour before we realized it was the wrong place. We walked to the correct house, where we found a large pile of hay, in which there was a needle. I don't know how many of you have looked for a needle in a hay stack but it really is impossible. After half an hour they let us leave, needle-less. Only one team actually found theirs.


After this we had a photo scavenger hunt, went and got a picture developed, and had to trade our picture for our next clue. Well, the only problem with that was the place we traded in our picture, a car in the mall parking lot, and all the direction we had to find it was the license plate number. We ended up running around the ENTIRE parking lot, and not finding it. Then we had to do it again! Eventually however we got there, and got our next clue, which sent us to the fire hall.



The fire hall was my favorite of the challenges, we dressed up in full gear and participated in an obstacle course that firefighters do in training. We ran with heavy buckets of water, sprayed things down with the big hose, and ran up the fire hall, and then lifted a weight up the side of the building. I was really proud of all the girls on our team, they were champs, working so hard, and working up a good sweat.



After a few more activities, it was time for lunch, and they sent us to the Sikh temple. It was a good experience to be in a place as a team where we really stood out, and were unfamiliar with proper conduct. We had to be really careful to be respectful in everything we did, because we were definitely being watched.


After lunch things went downhill for our team. Our clue was to go to the Swaan's backyard, where we had been earlier in training. Our driver gave us a map which we followed, unfortunately we weren't supposed to have that map yet, and we had detoured half an hour out of the way, to Yarrow, another city!! This is where the challenge really began. We needed to get back to our original location, with no map, no cell phone, and a phonebook for the wrong city. Our team really banded together, and with several phone calls, lots of ideas, and asking quite a few people for directions we made it to a gas station in Abbotsford, and from there we were allowed to call Luke (the TREK director) for directions.

The challenge in the Swaan's pool involved walking across planks of wood, to a canoe and back, without tipping. Our team dominated at it, even though we arrived two and a half hours after the other teams. We were re-engergized and full of enthusiasm.

Our next task ironically took us back to Yarrow- but at least we knew where we were going. In Yarrow we arrived at the home of a lady we had never met, who we serenaded on her balcony. She in turn gave us our final clue "Team Thailand you've arrived to late, I'm sorry but you've missed your date. So stand up and take a bow, you can head back to the Mark Centre now." We were a little disappointed that we didn't get to finish the race, but the reality of it was that we were proud of ourselves for the obsitcals we had overcome, and we had a good time doing it.

Later that evening we had a time for debriefing as a team about the event. It was incredible how much we had learned about each other in such a short time, and we were able to talk about how we could support each other more effectively and what we loved about each other. It was a great day- but everybody was happy to go to bed.

the adventure begins...

Three weeks have flown by here at TREK.

Arriving here on the first Sunday was perhaps one of the most nerve wracking experience of my life! Thankfully sixteen of the other trekkers are pretty great people, and we all clicked right from the beginning, and it didn't take any time to get started. On Monday night we read through the entire book of Mark with Steve Klassen- an incredible man who runs the Mark Centre where we are staying.

After barely settling in we headed out right away on Tuesday to Whistler for a retreat where we looked into the topic of worship, and dived into getting to knowing each other, and participated in some fun activities. (The picture on the left is of me and some other trekkers participating in a photo scavenger hunt). I came back on Thursday loving the people on our team and pumped to get going on the rest of TREK.

The rest of week one and all of week two were spent in sessions discussing various topics. We had talks on hearing God's voice, prophesy, relinquishing our rights, and many other things. I've been in information overload, but slowly I'm processing all the information that's coming in.

This last week we went on a silent retreat, we left on Tuesday and participated in complete silence until Thursday afternoon. It was time to listen to God, and spend some time totally focused on him. I really realized how much we miss out on in our culture, running from one activity to another, with all the hustle and bustle around us. It was refreshing to get away, with no agenda and spend time in prayer, reading my bible, journalling and taking long naps. I really got to communicate with God, and hear some things from him. Once again it gave me a lot to think about and process, but I left totally refreshed and excited for what God is going to do this year.

Yesterday was the day everybody had been waiting for since TREK began. The day when teams were announced. And I am headed off to...drum roll please...THAILAND. I'm going with a team of all girls, who I am really excited to get to know. We had our first team time last night, where we shared testimonies, were honest about our feelings about the impending trip, and bonded over Starbucks and Quizno's.

So...I hope all of you are doing incredibly well, and want to hear from everybody. If you have time send me an email and let me know what's going on in your lives- jill.wiebe@gmail.com!

I also have some prayer requests!! First of all, everybody around here is pretty overwhelmed, finding out teams was an emotional experience, and now begins the process of applying for visas(I started my application today!), learning about the language and culture, and getting to know each other better. You can pray for us for good rest. Also, you can pray that we will start getting a hold on the Thai language; one of the hardest languages in the world to learn (they say it takes up to twenty years before you can be fluent). Also you can pray that as my team researches Thailand, gets in touch with the missionaries there and starts preparing to leave, God will birth in us a deep love for this nation, and that we will be ready to go and SERVE.

THANKS FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!