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!