It’s so hard to describe what this school is like and what we are learning, but we’ll try to just give a general overview of what’s going on. First off, we found some pictures online of the students: http://www.ywamcmthai.org/idts/student.htm, and http://www.ywamcmthai.org/idts/2007pg_001.htm. We just bought a camera, so in the future we'll have more pictures, but for now, this will have to do. We’ve been taught lots of things, but that’s not the biggest part of the school. The biggest part (so far) is that it is a chance to see God work in your life and grow closer to Him. Everything is centered around that.

The teaching helps us focus on specific areas of our lives. Then, the Holy Spirit works in us individually. It may sound weird, but it really works. The Holy Spirit is given to every Christian, and he has been working in our hearts to help us forgive others who have hurt us, release bitterness, heal emotional wounds we have, show us sinful areas in our lives, and show us that God does love us more than we can imagine. It’s easy to say that God loves us a lot, but He has really been convincing each person here that He loves them and has good plans for their lives.

Last week, we learned about the Father Heart of God and how He cares for us like the perfect father would. This week we learned about Hearing God’s Voice and different types of ministries to the poor.

Kob
I think if we tell you about some of the people here it will give you a better picture of what we’re up to. So, I’ll tell you about Kob. Kob is 32 and from Chayaphum, which is in northeastern Thailand and is the poorest region of Thailand. His family is Christian. His parents have a rice farm. His older sister runs a Christian Orphanage. His older brother is a preacher. His younger sister Raem is staff at this DTS.
Kob speaks as much English as I speak Thai, so I don’t know much about him. He was an electrician before coming here. He made about $130/month. He has built a reputation here as the hardest worker and the class clown. He can fix everything, cook, clean, fish etc. Anytime we’re not sure of the best way to do something during our “worktime”, we ask Kob to do it first and then we copy him. He can make the whole class laugh by doing a dance or singing a song or making a comment.
God has been working in his life too. We’ve seen him cry out loudly as he realized he had held onto some bitterness towards his parents the last few years. Later, he told me “I feel very good, God released me from it”.

Ami
Ami is the leader of the school. She is Thai. When she was 4, she saw her dad kill her mom. She lived in complete poverty with her great grandparents until she was 10 because everyone else in the family thought she was a curse. At 10, because her great grandparents health declined she was put in a Christian orphanage in Chiang Mai. She went to college and studied tourism. Her first job after college was as a translator/tour guide for YWAM teams that came to Thailand. She then “scammed” her way into getting a visa to go to America and went to Colorado Springs for DTS. Since then, she has been through several other schools with YWAM. She has also forgiven her dad for what he did, and they’ve started to have a relationship again.
She has very good English with a Thai accent. She is constantly busy. She translates for all the lectures, leads our Bible Studies and Prayer Times, and leads all of the Staff meetings as well. She is amazing.
Her passion is for business in Thailand. As a business person, she can show God’s love to drivers, translators, tour guides, everyone she does business with. She can use profits to help support Thai ministries. She owns a tour company called Lighthouse Excursion. After this DTS is over, she plans to start a Mountain Bike Tour company and maybe a Coffee Shop. The Mountain Bike Tour company would be focused on Christian bike riders, who she would lead on multi day trips to visit remote villages. At these villages they would help encourage ongoing Christian work. It sounds cool, and she has the ability to make it happen. We might get to help her get started. Yesterday, there was supposed to be a meeting in Australia to discuss whether to donate money for her to start a coffee shop.

Visiting Kwan’s Village
Last weekend, Kwan took a group of us to her home village. As we approached she told us that it was the first time she had ever brought foreigners to her home. It is a Lisu village about 2 hours from here in the mountains near Chiang Dao. It is beautiful there. To celebrate Kwan’s visit and guests her family slaughtered a pig, cleaned it, sliced it open, and separated all the inner parts. They even took the bladder and turned it into a balloon for the kids to play with. While the food was being cooked, we went into their field and picked peanuts to bring back to YWAM. It’s hard to describe everything, but her family gave us the best they had and were really nice to us. We didn’t do much for them except sing a few songs, did a Thai dance and share a few Bible verses. However, this visit was very special for Kwan’s family because she was able to apologize for some things she has done in the past and they forgave her. It was a great and healing time, we were privileged to get to see it.