Goodbye Thailand, Hello USA

Hello from Hermann, Missouri. After many tears and sad goodbyes to many friends who feel like family to us, we left Thailand on Nov. 7. We were in Thailand for 1 year and 3 months and are amazed at how much has happened. Please check out our pictures for more info as well.

• We completed a YWAM Discipleship Training School, growing in our personal relationship with Jesus Christ and experiencing and learning many unique things.
• We worked at the Lopburi Youth House, reaching out to students aged 14-22 with the love of Jesus Christ in many different ways.
• We visited beautiful waterfalls, climbed, biked, motorbiked, took 12 hour trains and buses, and slept in a Buddhist temple as we explored all of Thailand and even visited Laos and China.
• We taught English and we learned Thai language.
• We experienced it all, fun times, hard times, challenging personal growth, seeing God working in our lives and in those around us. Through it all we have seen that He is truly faithful to those who follow Him and that every step of faith we took was rewarded by Him. We want to encourage you to seek Him with all your heart and to trust Him with all your ways. Even in these hard economic times, to remember that He gives strength to all who hope in Him. Now is a good time to remember that it is God who we trust, not money.
  
  

Last week we visited Ashley’s Dad in Kansas City. We cooked lots of food, cleaned the kitchen, ran and climbed together, and prayed together. Even in this very difficult time for them, God has blessed them in many ways. We continue to pray that He will provide strength for each day.
Now we are visiting Ashley’s Mom for Thanksgiving. It is great to be reunited with family and to share our stories from Thailand and catch up on all that we missed.
On December 8 we will visit Jonathan’s family in North Carolina.
As for what we’ll do next, we know that we should live each day as Christ’s Ambassadors, sharing Christ’s love with those around us. We are also reminded to “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your requests to God. And let the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Christ.” Phillipians 4:6
We pray that you have a blessed Thanksgiving. Click here for pics of our time in the USA, and here for our pics of our going away party in thailand

Climbing and Kwan's wedding in Chiang Mai

After Chiang Rai we went to Chiang Mai to visit some old friends and vacation a little before leaving Thailand. We stayed at our friend Emi's Lighthouse Guesthouse, a great Christian environment in a good location. Anyone visiting Chiang Mai should check her out.

Climbing!!!

We finally got to go climbing in Chiang Mai at the famous Crazy Horse area. Our friends Carolyn and Charles came along with us. We were not disappointed as the area had enough easy climbs for us to play on for the day, and also had a nice quiet and friendly environment with beautiful views. It was great to get out in the wilderness again.

Kwan and Jeremiah's wedding

We met Kwan during our YWAM DTS. She is from a Lisu village in Chiang Dao (Northern Thailand) near the border of Burma. The Lisu culture is very different than thai culture, often leaving us feeling out of place as white faces who speak a little thai, but no Lisu or Burmese or Northern Thai. It was a lively atmosphere as the family and friends gathered to prepare for the ceremony and to prepare food for the HUGE wedding feast. Hope you enjoy our pictures and say a prayer for Kwan and Jeremiah as they start their lfe together, that God will guide them and bless their relationship with love and perseverance. They are both talented and hard working with a desire to worship God with their lives, but they come from poor families with little opportunity.

Pain in the Butt (mtn biking with Art) and other adventures.

This last week has been a whirlwind as we went to bangkok for our friend Em's engagement party and then came to Chiang Rai to visit Art and the New Generation Ministry. Many stories to tell, but little time. We'll pick just a few, including mountain biking for the first time in a long time on uncomfortable bikes which has a tendency to cause a problem in the bottom area. Make sure to check out our pictures also.

Em's Engagement!!!
Our friend Em surprised us by bringing his girlfriend Kluay to Lopburi to meet us, and then inviting us to his engagement party the next weekend. Engagement party's in thailand are almost as big as the wedding.
The ceremony, in true THAI Style, took hours to prepare for and then lasted only a few minutes. We spent Sunday night making decorations, food, preparing the room. Then we woke at 5:30 am and ate breakfast at a nearby restaurant with Em's family and friends and waited around until 9am for the ceremony to start. Loud firecrackers started the ceremony, and Em led his family and friends into the building where Kluay's family and friends were waiting. Em presented the Dowry and other gifts to the family, the parents said a few blessings, and then it was picture time.
Ceremony - 15 minutes
Pictures - 45 minutes
Preparations- Hours
We did get to meet 1 of Em's friends (Klong) who is a strong Christian and is very good about encouraging and teaching Em in his faith. It was very cool to see these 2 young men standing strong in a world with values very different from theirs. They are truly a light in their world. Please keep Em and Kluay in your prayers, that their relationship will be blessed and that Kluay's relationship with God will continue to grow and continue to impact her life.

Akha Christian Youth Camp
In Chiang Rai, we got to see the yearly ACY camp which had 750 Akha Youth age 15-22 join. We taught English for an hour to 60+ students, and then sat back and watched this camp completely run by Akha men and women volunteering their time and money to reach their own people. It was a great sight, and amazing to see how well they put together a camp for so many people.

Pain in the Butt
Art also took us bike riding in the mountains near Chiang Rai. We rented 3 mountain bikes for the journey and loaded up a bag of snacks and water and set off into the unknown. The bikes were good, except that it felt like driving a tank and the seat had no padding whatsoever.
The trail at the start was great, it was a dirt road used by motorbikes over steep mountains with several stream crossings through beautiful rice fields and villages. Some hills were very steep and long, causing Art to throw up from exhaustion (not the first time Jonathan has caused a friend to throw up while bike riding). Several areas were very technical too, negotiating through rocks and mud and sticks. It made us miss Colorado.
We stopped for lunch at a small Akha village where Art quickly made friends who brought us out food and water. Their food was much better than what we brought, and they forced us to eat it, so we did and we gave them our food to eat later. We had a wonderful time resting, eating, talking, joking, and comparing "farang" (western) culture with the Akha culture. 2 old Akha ladies, when hearing we were riding bikes, exclaimed, "those farang are CRAZY".
Then, we decided on a shortcut the villagers told us about, which was very fun. It led us on the edge of cliffs, through the woods, and through at least 20 stream crossings. It was a awesome bike ride, but, left us with very sore butts.

New Generation Ministry
We also had a great time staying at the New Generation Ministry house for the week. We were very encouraged by what we saw and heard about how the ministry is going. We know many of you have supported the ministry with prayer and finances, and he wants to say a big THANK YOU for it all. The ministry is serving it's purpose to disciple young Akha men, give them opportunity to study at school, and train them up as leaders. We are very excited by what we see, and will update the New Generation Website with more info. God is truly blessing these kids through your support and prayers. And, if any of you are considering supporting a ministry, this is a great opportunity where your money will definitely be used wisely.

For Example, to pay for 5 students and 2 staff, the monthly expenses right now is around $300 including food for breakfast & dinner, rent, and utilities. The students are responsible to pay for their own lunch and school fees.

They cook and eat food together, play soccer, and then meet nightly to study the Bible, pray together, and worship God. God is blessing there relationships and is giving Art many opportunities to speak truth into their lives and to train them into leaders of the Akha community.

Invision Global Network
While at Art's house, we also met Tim and Cindy, 2 people from the US with an interisting vision ad mission. It was wonderful getting to exchange stories with them and hear about what they are doing. Anyone interested in organizing a short life changing mission trip with a group of friends or church members should check out there website. They have a very interesting and unique perspective on short term mission trips and how to take what you learn in a far away place and bring it home and allow it to change your life in a way that is honoring to God.

English Camp 48 hour Road Trip.

PARTY BUS!!!
How did we get here? we're sitting on a bus filled with 16-17 year old thai students who are dancing like there's no tomorrow, disco lights are flashing, and tecno music is blaring out the speakers. We've slept a total of 8 hours in the last 2 days, and now students expect US to DANCE?!?!? As we stop at a bus stop for a break, the music keeps blaring and students jump out into the parking lot to continue the party. This is crazy, and, how did we get here?

Well, as foreigners with white faces (farang) and English as our first language, we got the great opportunity this week to "volunteer" to go to help with "English camp" with 85 students from Chai Nat. Wearily, we accepted this great opportunity to be a part of Thai culture we had yet not seen, and left home at 2pm on tuesday for the 4 hour journey to Chai Nat.
After meeting the other teachers in Chai Nat and still having no idea of what exactly we would be doing on this trip, we loaded up onto 2 buses at 9pm for the overnight 10 hr bus ride to Chiang Mai. As it turned out, "English Camp" was really a 48 hour road trip with very little time for english or sleep. We went to Chiang Mai University for breakfast, stopped and "payed respects" at a temple, drove up to a temple on top of the famous Doi Suthep mountain, then did a short 30 minute English activity. We drove back down the mountain, stopped a fresh market to buy snacks, then drove to a souvenir "handicraft" market, then on to a umbrella making factory, and lastly, to the Lamphun University of Buddhism for dinner, activities, and to sleep. We had a nice dinner, watched dance performances by a local school, our students, and then participitated in a hip hop dance by the teachers.
Jonathan stayed up late singing songs with students (who Love singing) and sharing about his beliefs in the God who created us, the world, and loved us so much that He came to save us from our rebellion against Him. Then Jonathan went to the guy teachers room to sleep with the buddha (our room had a big gold buddha statue in it), thankful that Jesus is with him wherever he goes, and again asking, "how did we get here".
Students woke up starting at 4am (thai students apparently don't need to sleep), ate breakfast at 6am, did a 45 minute english worksheet (which most students copied later on the way home), and then set off for home with a hourly temple, market, or gas station stop on the way.

So, here we are, sitting in a bus with flashing disco lights and loud tecno music. We can either try to sleep, or we can try to bond with the students and take this once in a lifetime opportunity to party on the english camp bus. What would you do? Check out our pictures to see what WE did.

Chayaphum and Floods in Lopburi

We visited our friend Ram in Chayaphum last weekend and had a great time. She was a staff of our DTS and is now trying to start a YWAM ministry in her village. It was eye-opening to see where Ram came from in simple living conditions and as 1 of 2 christian families in the whole village. The people are poor, living off of their rice fields, gardening, raising cattle, and fishing. It was humbling to see a family with so few possessions but such true inner joy and peace coming from their trust and dependence on God.

We were truly blessed in our time with them. For more info look at our pictures. You'll see Ram's family and home and even her dad sitting on their newly built toilet.

Food and Floods in Lopburi

Also, this month we continued working at the Lopburi Youth House. We made food and snacks together. We also had a big flood in Lopburi that came up to the roof of some people's homes. We paddled a boat to bring food to Peung's Grandma. You have to see these pictures as well.

Laos trip

Last week we had a whirlwind trip to Laos to renew our visa. The best way to check it out is to view our pics here. We sipped wine, danced aerobics, renewed our thai visa, and toured around vientiane for 2 days and then spent 2 days adventuring in Vang Viang. Vang Viang is a beautiful place, rivaling any place we've been before. We were able to communicate with locals as well, because Lao language is similar to thai.
The people were very friendly and laid back (except the drunk westerners) despite the poverty. The infrastructure in Laos is comparable to Thailand 50 years ago.
Check out our pictures for more info.

Olympic Camp

We'll write a short play by play account of the camp first, and then a few testimonies from the camp.

Friday 5:30pm, the bus showed up at the Lopburi Youth House. We threw our stuff inside, loaded up the bus as quickly as possible, locked up the Youth House, and then headed off to Nakhon Sawan for the camp. Students immediately started singing songs and getting to know new friends. Praise God that it seemed like no student was left out.

Friday 7:30 pm, arrive at the camp, register, find our rooms, have a fun opening ceremony with games. Praise God that students who initially seemed anxious to come to a Christian Camp figured out that they would have fun as well. Then we separated into groups for the first of 4 Bible Studies.

Friday 1am Bedtime.

Saturday 7:30am Staff Meeting, then breakfast, a Silly Song, then Bible Study.

Saturday 11am Workshop time, students got to choose from 10 workshops, like sports, craftmaking, Photography, etc.

12:30 pm Lunch

1:30 pm Workshop #2

3:00 pm Camp Olympics- Students divided into 10 "countries", and competed in several events such as: Tie your legs together relay race, Balloon Stomp, indoor soccer, gymnastic water relay race, water balloon volleyball. The winners of the beautiful gold medals and gold chocolate bars were: China.

6:00pm Delicious Dinner with sticky rice and chicken and Som Tam.

7:30 pm Song, skit, and then a Bible Study in small groups. Afterwards, a time of question and answer with the camp "GURUS". Praise God that many serious questions were asked about the Christian faith.

10:00pm Irish dance time, then an outdoor BBQ with live music playing. Students really enjoyed their time this evening, and we heard of many good conversations that happened between students and Christian student leaders.

2:00 am Most students and staff didn't go to bed until around 2am

Sunday 7:30 am Staff meeting, breakfast, workshop #3.

Sunday 11:00 am Skit, Bible study in small groups.

12:00 pm Students choose 1 of 4 groups to join. 1. I am a christian already 2. I am ready to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and saviour. 3. I want to know more about Jesus Christ and the Christian life. 4. I had fun but am not really interested in Jesus Christ.

Praise God that 3 students chose to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Praise God that the majority of students wanted to know more about Jesus and the Christian Life. Pray that they will continue to learn and seek God, and that they will continue to have opportunity to learn about God's love for them.

1:00pm Lunch

1:30 pm Closing Ceremony speech by Johnny. Praise God that he was able to clearly summarize the gospel and that students were listening closely to his words.

3:00 pm - clear out your room and load up the bus as quickly as possible.

A few short Testimonies:

Pang: Pang has been coming to the Lopburi Youth House regularly for 2 months now and has heard several testimonies, been to church several times, sat in on the weekly Bible Studies, and joined us all in singing worship songs. She was drawn to the Youth House because she could tell people here cared about her because we looked in her eyes when she talked. She told us of how alone she felt at home and school, and how her parents didn't seem to care about her. Slowly she has started see Christ's unconditional love for her. At the camp, she was able to clearly study the gospel message of our sin and separation from God, and Jesus' love for us and desire to have relationship with us. Pang chose to make Jesus her Saviour and to follow him. Please keep her in your prayers.

Nam: Nam, age 17, has been a Christian for 2 years now, and has obvious leadership and fruit of Christ's work in her life. Through the witness of her life and the change in her life since becoming a christian, her mother is also a christian now. Nam was a Bible Study leader for the first time at the camp. She said it was a great experience and very challenging. She was so excited to be able to serve God in this way. Her group had 1 other Christian and 3 non-Christians. She said they asked many tough questions, but she was still glad to be their leader. Some students even thought she was staff because of her maturity.

Students from Polytechnic School: A teacher from Polytechnic School arranged for 11 students to come to camp. We were at first a little worried because we did not know them and students from this school are not the most obedient. We were pleasantly surprised that they got along well with other students, enjoyed their time, and several showed that Christ was working in their hearts and minds as well. Ball is saying he wants to be a Christian and a Buddhist (this is a step in the right direction, even though he's not there yet). Others also enjoyed the Bible Studies and are open to learning more. They all left smiling and hoping to see us again.

Nice and his friends from Kai Narai: Nice is a great witness at his school. He was able to convince a group of 8 students and 1 teacher to come to camp with us. He organized all their paperwork, and even wrote an official letter to the school director asking for permission for the students to go. Several of these students had good conversations with staff about the Christian Faith and show that God did use this camp to work in their hearts. Pray that he continues this work and continues to connect them with Christians.

OLYMPICS Evangelistic Camp

On August 15-17 we will have a big evangelistic student camp in Nakhon Sawan with a theme of the Olympics. The official name is Huang A Yai, which is a sort of play on words for big circle, Take Care, and it's hard to explain but students like the name.
We hope to have around 120 high school and college students come to the camp for around $8/person. We'll have several competitions, opening and closing ceremonies, and we'll use the colors of the Olympics to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will have 5 Bible Studies, each on one color of the 5 circles.
The rings of the Olympics are Green, Blue, Black, Red, and Yellow.
Green represents God is the creator of everything.
Blue represents God reigns over everything, He is the Ruler of the world.

Black represents man's sin and rebellion from God.
Red represents God's love for us, shown by sending His son Jesus, who died on the cross so that our sins may be washed clean. Red also represents Jesus blood, shed as a sacrifice once for all of us.
Yellow represents our new life as children of the King, and the promise of eternal life in heaven with streets of gold.

Other activities will be a campfire with music and performances by students, a BBQ dinner, singing worship songs together, and time in workshops. In the workshops, students get to choose from several different activities including: sports, making crafts, learning english, etc.
Please keep this in your prayers over the next 2 weeks.
1. The staff, to complete all of our preparations and to still have energy to love the students at camp. That we will have wisdom in all the last second preparations. That we will show God's love through our lives and our words.
2. The Christian students, to grow closer with God and have a bigger understanding of His love for us. Also, to be encouraged/set on fire by the big community of christian students. Pray for them to be bold in sharing their faith with non-christian students at the camp. Also pray for the student leaders who will lead the small group Bible Studies.
3. The Non-Christian students, that their hearts will open up to the Gospel and that they will let go of the things that hold them back from following Jesus. There are several students from each Youth House that have heard the gospel and have interest, but pray that God will use this time to convict them of their need for Jesus Christ to be their personal Savior.

Our God is Great

Just a quick update, and also a reminder to check out our new pictures & videos on picasa. We have descriptions on our pictures that tell the story of what we're doing also.

The last 2 weeks we returned from Phitsanulok, celebrated Jonathan's 29th Birthday by climbing and eating some brownies. We had several activities at the Youth House with students, and then went to Nakhon Sawan for 3 Staff Training Days. The days in Nakhon Sawan were filled with Fellowship, Prayer, Worship, Celebrations, sharing what God is doing with students in Central Thailand, and preparing for the future. 2 big things we are preparing for are an Evangelistic Camp on August 15-17 in Nakhon Sawan and several short mission trips in October.

We hope to have around 120 students come to the camp this summer for around $8/person. The theme will be centered around the Olympics. We'll have several competitions, opening and closing ceremonies, and we'll use the colors of the Olympics to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. The rings of the Olympics are Green, Blue, Black, Red, and Yellow.
Green represents God is the creator of everything.
Black represents man's sin and rebellion from God.
Blue represents God as a Holy God, perfect and loving.
Red represents God's love for us, shown by sending His son Jesus, who died on the cross so that our sins may be washed clean. Red also represents Jesus blood, shed as a sacrifice once for all of us.
Yellow represents as our new life as children of the King, and the promise of eternal life in heaven with streets of gold.

This week, Off and Pheung went to Chiang Mai to visit family, but God has been good and has given us strength, energy, and just enough language between us and Tam to communicate with each other and with students. Tam led a fun bible study of I Peter 2:11-25. We took students downtown and played sports and ate at the market. Saturday morning, we taught about 25 students a little english as we played games and baked cookies. God has provided many opportunities to develop relationships better and to study the Bible with christian and non-christian students. Several students are good guitar players and enjoy singing worship songs also. Many of the students we have seen recently are interested in going to camp.

Keep us in your prayers for the activities here, preparations for the camp, and for the students to grow closer to Jesus.

Bittersweet Goodbye to the Singapore Team

Please, check out our new pictures also. There is much you'll see there that you won't see here.

This was the last week that the Singapore team was here, and it turned out to be a good one. On Saturday, July 5, about 30 students came to the Youth House to hang out and study English. We all taught them and then spent time hanging out with them. Ashley baked a cake with 10 girls and then fed us all. Meanwhile, Off, Pheung, and Tam had many opportunities to talk with students 1 on 1 and study the Bible together.

On Tuesday we went to a nearby town called Phrabaat to help a church reach out to the community. We walked around a nearby village and talked with people, giving them tracts and sharing the gospel. We had many good conversations with people. We were all surprised at how open the people were to talk about the gospel and how interested they were to hear more. We were also excited that 3 students from Phrabaat church joined us and were bold to share their faith with the people we met. It was their first time to evangelize in their hometown and for 2 of them it was their first time ever. Afterwards we returned to the church and watched a 5 on 5 soccer match. The pastor of the church has been organizing soccer teams for several years as a way to build relationships with men. After the soccer match, the players came inside and ate dinner with us. We did a small little performance for them as they ate. We sang a song, performed a skit, shared a testimony, and then Off did a gospel talk. It was a great chance to help this church reach out to its community.

On Wednesday we taught English at 2 schools. The teachers encouraged us to share about our faith and beliefs, so we did. We taught the gospel, shared testimonies, performed skits, and had time to just sit and chat with students. When we returned home, several students were already at the house playing games and took the Singapore team out for ice cream.

Thursday, we taught more English. We were all encouraged by the response we got from students. They listened attentively as we shared the “Color Gospel” about the God who created the world, every persons rebellion from him, His love for us shown by sending Jesus as a sacrifice for us, and the new life we can have in Jesus. There are also several teachers who have been listening closely and asking for more information. While it is a very big change for a Thai Buddhist to believe in 1 true God, we can see God is working in their hearts.
Thursday night we had a Bible Study. The group study I Peter 2:4-10. About 7 christian students were there for the study and 2 more non-christians were happy to sit in and see what was going on.

Friday was the last day for the Singapore Team in Lopburi. In the morning, the 4th Year English Students at the University put on a going away party for the team at the university. They taught us some about their culture and did several performances. They performed Thai Boxing, Traditional Thai Dancing, and cooked Pad Thai, Papaya salad, and several thai desserts for us. It was a fun day. Friday afternoon we had a going away party for the Singapore Team. We were amazed by how many students came to say thank you and goodbye (many bearing cards and gifts). We could see that God had used them in many ways. Here are a few specific ways: to make the Youth House known in the schools as a fun, cool, safe place for students to hang out, to develop strong relationships between many students and the Youth House staff, to share the gospel to many students in an honest, open, and respectable way, to develop good relationships between the Youth House and several influential teachers at different schools (There is an open door for us to come back and teach whenever we have time).

Saturday was a big day for all the Youth Houses because of Youth House on the Road. We rented a tour bus and filled up half of it and left Lopburi at 7:30am. In all we had 16 students and 10 staff. We picked up another 30+ students and staff at the Nakhon Sawan Youth House and then drove to the Phitsanulok Youth House for a big fun day. The day was action packed with eating snacks, playing games, singing worship songs, doing a Bible Study of Psalm 139, and then doing a “Adventure Race” type game. The game was very fun as we had to follow instructions that took us all over campus, singing the Thai National Anthem, taking pictures with campus guards, solving trivia questions, and making balloon models of all the staff. It was a great time for all the students to get to know each other and the staff and to learn more about God and how he created us. Everyone loaded up the bus around 5:30 to return home, but we said our good byes and stayed in Phitsanulok for a few days.

Our good friends Jesse and Kristen Troll and their daughter Trinia just moved from Lopburi to Phitsanulok to work at the Phitsanulok Youth House. They are staying in a 4 story shop house right next to the Youth House. But, the house needs a lot of cleaning and preparing before it can be called a home, so we volunteered to stay and help watch Trinia and clean.

Please keep us in your prayers that we can keep the momentum going now that the Singapore team is gone.

Happy Independence Day

Sorry We haven't written in so long. It has been a busy month. School started for all the students around June 1, and we have been busy teaching, hanging out, playing games, travelling, and getting to know many people.

The first week of June we were preparing the Lopburi Youth House, decorating and cleaning it, planning events, and going to schools. There are about 12 different high schools, technical schools, and universities in Lopburi. We went to most of them and passed out brochures about the Lopburi Youth House with a gospel tract inside it. We also talked with several teachers about opportunities to come teach at their school. Surprisingly, many teachers invite us to come teach "English" at their school. Many would even say that we can teach about our culture and about what we believe as well.

On June 10, 4 college students from Singapore came to help us until July 15. They are staying with us at the Youth House, sleeping on the floor in 2 extra rooms. It is very crowded here (8 people sleeping here and many others visiting), but it is also fun. We have all been teaching English at 4 different schools. We teach about 1.5 - 3 hours a day, 4 day/week at schools. We teach a little of everything, from english, games, american/singapore culture, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Teaching english at schools has many purposes:
1. we get to know many students, some of whom will regularly come to the Youth House for many different events where we get to share the gospel and share our lives with them.
2. We can share the gospel with them at school, giving them a clearer idea of why Jesus died for us and what that means and how Christianity is different from Buddhism.
3. Build relationships with schools/teachers. Because we have helped these schools, they are willing to help us organize events at their schools. They let us come on campus to meet students.

We have also had many activities at the Youth House. The house is always open for students to come and play games, use the computer, and play music. Thai students are very musically talented. It seems like 50% of the students can play guitar or keyboard. We also teach english at the house for 1 hr/day. We have had a few Bible Studies in I Peter on Thursday nights. We had two Open House days where we each shared something from our culture (Ashley was a country girl and taught a line dance, Jonathan sang a rap song and taught Hip-Hop culture/language).

It has been a good month at the Youth House. There are about 8 christian students who come here regularly (1-5 times/week) and 15 other non-christian students who come here often.
Off, Peung, and Tam (our fellow staff at the Youth House) have gotten many opportunities to disciple the Christian students and to share the gospel with students. There are some students who are very interested in learning more.

From June 23-29 we went to the yearly OMF Conference. The conference is for all the OMF missionaries in Thailand to come together, connect with each other and learn what everyone else is doing in Thailand. There were about 150 missionaries and 67 kids. We went to look after the teenage kids of the missionaries. Johnny McClean led us both as we spent 2 days preparing Bible Studies, games, and activities for the kids. Then we had Thursday - Sunday to hang out with them. We had a Bible study and craft activity for 3 hours each morning, played sports for 1.5 hours each afternoon, and then we had another Bible Study time at night. It was a good time for us to get to talk in English and share with these kids. Sometimes their knowledge of the Bible was better than ours, but we still found that we had valuable life lessons to share with them. They seemed to enjoy their time and we did too. Except that we were exhausted.

Be sure to keep us in your prayers and check out our pictures as well. God Bless You.

New Generation For Christ

The Akha dorm has changed to it's official name of "NEW GENERATION FOR CHRIST". We have updated the website with some new information. Please keep checking the website for new info on the students who are living there. Currently, 6 students and 1 staff are living with Art.

We are very excited about the progress Art is making. It is and exciting opportunity to raise up Christian Leaders in the Akha community. Please read through his prayer needs and keep him and the students in your prayers. In Isaiah 44:26 it says that "God carries out the words of His servants", so we christians, servants of God, can ask God to work in and through the lives of those at the New Generation For Christ.

A few Testimonies of Students from Central Thailand

Looking back over some of our posts, we realized we may not have given y'all a good idea of what it's like to be a Christian in Thailand. Last week we got to hear parts of the testimonies of several students. The faith of these students is amazing. We thought we'd share a couple.

Nam

Nam is 21 years old and lives in Nakhon Sawan and studies English at the University. This is his testimony as he told it to me. 6 years ago, he was at school and everyone was bowing down to the idol in the school (it is customary in schools here to have an idol and for the students to have a regular time of "worship" to the idol. Worship being facing the idol, kneeling down, and bowing your head to the idol. The idol is often a gold image of Gautama (the founder of Buddhism) or a famous monk). Nam had grown tired of bowing to this idol, and looked around as everyone bowed and saw one student (out of 2,000) who did not bow. Later he went to this student and asked her why she did not have to bow to this idol. She told him she was a christian and explained some of the gospel to him. Nam was interested, but did not yet believe. He began attending church and learning more about Christianity.

One day, he got in a big argument with his family. After the argument, Nam called his Christian friend and her what he should do. She prayed with him and tried to counsel, but Nam did not feel any better. The next day, still upset over the argument, Nam prayed to God by himself and was filled with an overwhelming peace and a desire/courage to talk through things with his parents. He immediately went and talked with his parents and the argument was solved, and Nam believed that this must have been from God.

He also stopped bowing to the idol at school, and faced opposition from his teachers. He was called to talk with the school director to explain why he does not bow to the idol. His faith was discouraged by teachers and staff, but they did not physically persecute him for his decision.

His family also questioned his decision. For him, telling his family that he is now a christian could be compared to telling your family that you are now homosexual. Often, students who become Christian are cast out of the family, any inheritances removed, and are rejected. But, Nam has been able to keep a good relationship with his family even though they do not agree with his decision. In his words, "My family has not put their faith in the true God YET".

Att

Att, age 21, lives in Lopburi and also studies English at University. His dad died 10 years ago and his mom is a Buddhist Spiritist. She converses/consults spirits on special religious ceremonies.

I'm not sure yet how Att became a Christian, but he has a real faith in God's power over the spirits that his mom believes in. Most boys become a Buddhist monk at the age of 21 for a period of at least a month. They do this to earn merit for their mother. Thai Buddhists believe that the best way for a woman to earn merit is through their son becoming a monk. They literally believe that after death, the mom will "catch" their son's robe which will earn them merit, leading to a better rebirth for the next life.

Last month, Att turned 21 and was under enormous pressure from his mom to become a monk. As her only son, he is her only chance to be reborn in a better position. But, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he refused to obey her and bow down even if it meant the loss of her financial support. He tried hard to explain why he can't, but according to

Matthew 9:32,33, 37, Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

Att showed great courage standing up for what he believes. He also shows great courage each night he spends at his mother's house, believing that "He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world" and not fearing the spirits that his mother invites to their house. Praise God that the Lopburi Youth House is here as a place for him to sleep, rest, fellowship, pray, and be encouraged in his walk with God.

Best

Best's dad was arguing with him, telling him to stop hanging out with those Christians so much. Best's response was to listen quietly and respectfully to his dad, and then go take a shower and sing at the top of his lungs in Thai, "I have decided, to follow Jesus". He prayed for his situation, and later his dad backed down a little and has stopped discouraging him from his beliefs.

We heard several other statements of faith or responses to "persecution" from students that really challenge us. These students follow and trust God with all of their heart, and He has made a big difference in their lives. We are excited to be a part of a ministry that is growing men and women who have a real faith and a real desire to reach out to their friends and teachers with the "Good News".

Staff Training Week

This week was the training week for all of the staff with the Central Thailand Student Ministry. There are 3 Youth Houses in Central Thailand (Phitsanulok, Nakhon Sawan, Lopburi). Noon (Thailand), Julia (England), Jesse and Kristen (Florida) will work at the Phitsanulok Youth House. Caroline (England) and Zo (Thailand) will work at the Nakhon Sawan Youth House. We will work with Off and Pheung (Thailand) and Dtam (Thailand) at the Lopburi Youth House. Johnny and Ann McClean will look after all of the staff. 10 of the staff all came to Nakhon Sawan for an intense week of training, planning, and fellowship.
Each morning we started with a time of worship and then a Bible study about God’s Glory. We studied about God’s Glory because the mission of the team is to bring God glory by living our lives for Him, teaching students about Him, and teaching them how to live lives that bring Him glory.
In the afternoon we took time to talk about how God has been working through the ministry and to plan and discuss our vision, mission, and goals for the upcoming year. We had several long meetings sharing ideas and prioritizing our ideas. So, here it is (keep in mind that the statements are translated from Thai):

Vision
By God’s grace to see students of CT receiving salvation, growing as disciples, being faithful witnesses and living holy lives according to the Word of God.

Mission
To glorify God by Living, Proclaiming and Teaching the Word of God so that Thai students follow Christ in every area of life.

Goals
1. Students and outsiders acknowledge the Youth House is a place of good and appropriate activities (fun and trustworthy)
2. Students are passionately committed to regular, creative, widespread Biblical evangelism as God calls them (Acts 1:8)
3. Students passionate about studying and applying Scripture so that their lives glorify God in every area
4. Students commit themselves to regular prayer
5. Students take every opportunity to use their gifts to humbly serve others both in their church and their YH.
6. To have ‘small groups’ on each campus able to witness and encourage one another to grow spiritually
7. More Thai team members who are able to use their skills for God’s glory in CTSM
8. Thai churches and Christian organizations know and support CTSM/T2S

From these goals, we started making a schedule of activities and specific goals for what we will do at the Lopburi Youth House. Next week we will have more time to plan for specific events and activities at the Lopburi Youth House.

This week we also started our Train To Serve (T2S) program. The Train to Serve program is 2 years long and is for Thai students also (Noon, Zo, and Dtam will also be studying T2S). Unfortunately we won’t be able to complete the whole program. Johnny and Ann McClean will be our mentors for the program. We each chose 10 “modules” from the following list that we have to study and complete over the next 4 months.

• Evangelism
• Discipleship
• Training Others
• Inductive Bible Study
• Theology
• Biblical Leadership
• Practical Service
• Biblical Overview
• Personal Spiritual Life
• World Mission
• Thai Language

Each module has a list of assignments to complete and discuss with our mentor. The assignments often include working with students, so that the training is “on the job” training. For example, for discipleship we must prepare bible studies and meet weekly with 1 specific student that we will disciple. For Inductive Bible Study, we will study the Inductive Bible Study method and then prepare 6 Bible studies that we will then use. It looks like it will be challenging to complete all of the tasks but we are excited about the spiritual growth and skills that it will develop.

Ashley Dancing Aerobics

Check out this video of Ashley dancing Aerobics at the downtown park. She pays 35cents to dance with 30-50 other ladies. Ashley says many of the older ladies put her to shame, shaking their hips in a funky simultaneous side-to-side and rotation movement while doing something else with their arms and hands. She comes out drenched in sweat...great workout and fun too!!!

Thailand is Sanuk Sanuk (fun fun)!!!

A lot has happened in the last month, and it's hard to put into words, so we've put up some pictures also. We went to the beach for a retreat with the Central Thailand Student Ministry Team. Jonathan played in a basketball tournament and won!!! We went climbing in Lopburi. Ashley turned 28. And, we continued studying Thai Language.

Prajuab Team Retreat

16 people met at the beach at "The Pines" for a retreat to get to know each other, relax, and study and worship God together. "The Pines" is a special retreat place owned by OMF for OMF missionaries to use. It was a fun time to get to know the other "student ministry workers". We had time set aside each day to read and pray by ourselves, to worship God together, and for fun team building games. We celebrated Ashley's 28th birthday in Prajuab. Ashley went with the girls for a massage, then we all went to the beach and played games and ate, and came back to "The Pines" to eat cake and ice cream. Ashley was given several nice gifts and cards. Thanks for everyones birthday wishes!!! To see pictures of Prajuab click here.

Basketball Tournament

A group of guys that Jonathan plays basketball with invited him to play with them in a tournament in a nearby city. The tournament had 7 teams and had a $250 cash prize for the winners. WE WON, in overtime thanks to a missed layup at the buzzer by the other team. The game was played outside in the dark on cracked concrete, and the refs apparently had some connection with the other team that made them refuse to call fouls against them. Basketball in Thailand usually has very little contact, but this game felt more like football and took Jonathan a week to recover from. Afterwards, we posed for pictures and went out to eat to celebrate.

Climbing in Lopburi

We found some climbing in Lopburi. We borrowed a motorcycle from Off and Pheung and drove about 15 kms to a temple at the base of a big 600' tall mountain. Just getting there was an adventure, not really knowing where it is and not yet too comfortable driving a bike. Luckily, we found the cliff easily and found some easy climbs to warm up on.Climbing for the first time in 9 months also has some challenges. We remembered how to do everything but our hands and feet are sore from the sharp rock and tight climbing shoes and we also have lots of mosquito bites. The climbing was fun though, and it looks like there is quite a bit of climbing to explore while we're here (especially after the weather cools down). For our climber friends, we'll explain a little more. The rock is limestone and is bolted with nice new bolts. Most of the +-40 climbs are 5.10a-5.11b. There are a few multipitch climbs, including a 6pitch climb that goes to the peak (you must rappel the route to get down). Most of the climbing is vertical, but there are a few cave formations with some hard routes.

For more pictures of climbing, basketball, dancing, and Lopburi click here.

SONGKHRAN!!!

We just made it through our first ever Songkran, the Thai New Year festival. It is 3 days long, and is one of the most unique festivals in the world. It mainly consists of throwing water at each other and rubbing mud on each other's faces. We had heard many stories, but we still weren't prepared for the maylem when we rode our bikes to church on sunday morning in our "church" clothes.

The church celebrated Songkhran as well. The older people of the church sat in a semi-circle while the younger members went around and prayed for each member and blessed them by pouring a little water on the hands of the member and wiping a little paste on the cheeks. It was a moving and fun ceremony. Apparently, this is how the ceremony began, by young people returning home and blessing/thanking their parents and elders for teaching them. But, this is what it has turned into. It is now the MARDI GRAS of Thailand.

When we left church in our nice "church" clothes, people had already started playing hard. In a 1/2 km ride home we got soaked with warm and COLD water and covered with mud.

We changed into some old clothes and rode our bikes through the mob of people to a friend's house in the heart of action. They were armed with buckets of water, loud music, lots of snacks, and a continuously running water hose. We stayed at the house from 1-5:30 for two days, throwing water on anyone we could. People walking by would wipe mud on our face, and we would return with a bucket of water. People often stopped traffic to do a little dance in the street or to attack a friend with some mud.

Our friends even bought about 100 pounds of ice at one point to give the water a little better effect on passers by. People expecting to get a little warm water, instead got soaked with freezing cold water. It was definitely a fun atmosphere, and most of it is in good fun, although the wiping mud on someone's face often turns into a good excuse for guys to try to grope any girl passing by. The festival breaks so many cultural "rules" that it turns out to be a big release for people. In Thailand it is culturally offensive to:

1. touch the head of anyone over 5 years old

2. have any physical contact with the opposite sex in public

3. do anything to someone older than you

4. throw things to anyone

All of these "known" rules are set aside for these three days, and basically anything goes. Thankfully, the thai's are all very cool headed and do not let anything bother them. We did not see any fights or major accidents, although we saw several close calls. Check out the video below (you'll see Ashley throwing water people in the truck) and our songkhran pictures on picasa as well.

More at home in Lopburi

A lot has happened since we wrote last. We celebrated our 2 yr. Anniversary, found a home in Lopburi and moved in, started studying Thai, and made some new friends. You can see more pictures of it all here.

We Found a Home

After 10 months without a home, we were ready to unpack our stuff and settle down a little. After looking at the options, we decided to stay at the top floor (4th Floor) of the Lopburi Youth House. The main floor is a community place for students to come hang out, eat, or study. There is a kitchen, laundry area, computer, and plenty of room for people to relax. The 2nd floor has a TV and couch and has room for students to sleep on the floor occasionally. Off and Pheung (the leaders of the Youth) live on the 3rd Floor. They are our age, have been married 2 years, and speak good English.

We get the whole 4th Floor. We have a nice big bedroom with 2 little nightstands, 2 dressers, and most importantly, an AIR CONDITIONER and 2 Fans. Sometimes at night we turn the air-con down to 84degrees F, but then we start to feel cold. We have a litte bathroom and a nice open landing with a desk and some space to dry out clothes. We have wireless internet at the house as well. We have really enjoyed having a home for the last week.

2 Year Anniversary

Jonathan surprised Ashley on our anniversary by leaving the house, reserving a hotel room, and planning the day for her. Ashley went and sipped some coffee, got a nice massage, shopped a little and then we had a nice relaxing evening at the hotel. For dinner we went to the Lopburi SteakHouse and were pleasantly surprised.

Learning Thai

Fiat (yes, she was named after the car) is teaching us Thai for 2 hours a day Tuesday through Saturday. We are both finding it very helpful to have her tell us when we're pronouncing things wrong and to motivate us to study on our own. She is teaching us with the same curriculum that OMF missionaries have used for the last 30+ years, so there is a lot of wisdom in the methods. Some days it feels like we're doing gymnastics with our mouths, trying to make it move in ways it hasn't moved before. We also go home each day and practice more with the CD they give us. Then, we try to practice as much as possible at the market, basketball court, and restaurants. It's hard work to learn Thai, but it's fun also. Luckily, Thai people are extremely gracious when we don't know the word for something or say the wrong thing. Almost every interaction ends with both them and us laughing;)

New Friends

We've been going to a park downtown about every other day. Jonathan plays basketball and Ashley does dance/aerobics. Their are normally 20-25 basketball players, some of whom are pretty good and tall. Ashley dances with about 50 thai ladies.

We made friends with Dton and Goff. Dton plays basketball and Goff does Aerobics everyday. They have invited us to go eat afterwards and introduced us to lots of their other friends. They are very nice to us. They speak really slowly for us and, between their english and our thai, we can have some fun conversations.

We Made It!!!

After travelling to Chiang Mai, Chiang Dao, Chiang Rai, and back to Chiang Mai, we finally packed our bags and headed to Lopburi. And, when we say packed our bags, we packed a lot of stuff. After being in Thailand for 6 months we had accumulated a lot of things; bikes, helmets, books, clothes, stuff. But we fit it all into 6 bags (minus bikes) and rented a songthaew to take us to the train station.

The Train Ride

It is a 12 hour train ride from Chiang Mai to Lopburi, and because the trains were full, we had to take a train that left at 2:50pm, arrived at 2:50am, and didn't have A/C. It did have convertable chair/beds, a fan and a window. For the first few hours, we hung our heads out the window and sweated, but then it cooled off and we enjoyed our ride through Thailand. We even got to sleep some.

Finally at 2:50 am, we ran off the train with our bags (barey able to fit through the doors), ran down to the cargo train to get our bikes (very glad that they were still there), and took a seat. Shortly after, our new friend Caroline picked us up, and took us to the Lopburi Youth House where we will be staying the next few days. We'll look for a more permanent place to stay, meet the OMF team in Lopburi, and start studying Thai.

We added some more pictures as well.

WOW!!!

Guam was great, but we left with some good options and a few ideas but not feeling certain about any of them. We planned to go to Chiang Mai and settle down and try to help YWAM in any way we could. But, we had 1 last person to talk to first. We set up a meeting with Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) at their Bangkok office.

We arrived in Bangkok on Monday afternoon (March 10) and went to the OMF office to stay for 1 night. We really expected to meet with OMF in the morning and then to head on our way to Chiang Mai and help with YWAM. But, while in our meeting we saw many intriguing things, and so we went to Lopburi to see a little more. We sat at a bus stop for 2 hours with 2 big bags waiting for a bus to a small town to meet people we had never met. Jonathan almost lost it, thinking Ashley was crazy to think we would ever find anything in Lopburi. But, we made it, and the first person we called in Lopburi was so excited to meet us they offered to pick us up and give us a tour. After seeing the Youth House, Thai Language Center and talking with many wonderful people in Lopburi, we decided to continue on to Nakhon Sawan to learn more. Jonathan was still weary, thinking that we were wasting ours and their time and would most likely go to Chiang Mai as planned.

In Nakhon Sawan, we met Johnny and Ann McClean, the pioneers of a college ministry (similar to Intervarsity/Campus Outreach) that has spread to three towns in Central Thailand. We immediately felt at home and stayed up until midnight talking with them about everything, the good and the bad of them, us, OMF, and Central Thailand. We were impressed at the way everything was organized and strategically set up to share about Jesus’ love with the students of Central Thailand. We were excited when we learned that they had a program that would encourage us to further our language study, disciple us, help us disciple others and still give us opportunities to see other ministries. It seemed too good to be true so we asked for more information about the specific program we’d be doing. We spent the next morning praying, talking, and just being amazed at how this seemed perfect for us.

So, the Big News is, we’re headed to Lopburi for the next 9 months. We will study Thai at the best language school. We will be a part of OMF’s "Trained to Serve" program to train us to lead student ministries. We will help Off and Pheung, a thai couple who are leading the Youth House student ministry in Lopburi. We will get to develop relationships with students through playing basketball, running, teaching English, or any other way we can. The Youth House will organize several events to invite our friends to and guide us as we try to share about Jesus with those who are interested. We are very excited about this next step. We are sure that God led us to meet these people and opened many doors for us to convince us that this is where He wants us for now. We are truly amazed at His guidance for us. He is always faithful and always on time, even if it is at the last second.


Amima's Wedding
After traveling from Guam to Bangkok, to Northern Bangkok, to Lopburi, to Nakhon Sawan in 4 days and meeting with 10 people, we set off to go to a little village near the Burma border to go to Amima's Wedding. We took an overnight bus, another bus, a songthaew, and then each rode on the back of a motorcycle to a little Lisu village where Amima lives. We got to watch as the entire village came together to prepare for the wedding by building tables and benches out of bamboo, chopping firewood, butchering a 220 pound pig, cooking enough rice for many people, and decorating the house and church. It was a very interesting experience. We wish we capture Lisu culture and send it home in some way, but it would be impossible. Their dress, smiles, laughter, intelligence, and history is all so intriguing. We met several people who speak 5 languages fluently. Several people who recently came from Burma with nothing and have managed to survive and thrive.
The wedding was long and involved 3 sermons and a couple songs. The church was packed and even the windows were full of people looking in on the ceremony. The couple exchanged 2 simple gold rings, and walked out. In many ways, it was similar to an american wedding. After, we all walked to their house and had a big feast. We had alot of good food, and got to talk with several friends from DTS who had come as well.
It was bittersweet, as we enjoyed seeing our friends but it was also hard to tell them we were moving far away. We had all hoped we would end up living near each other. But, they were very encouraging to us to follow where God was leading us and to come back to visit them as much as possible.

What Now?
Now, we have a few more bus and train rides to see Art and Ponglak and Somkit in Chiang Rai and then to move our things to Lopburi. We are excited to settle down in one place for awhile. Luckily, bus rides in Thailand are very cheap. Please keep us in your prayers the next few days that we won't lose anything and that we will find a place to call home in Lopburi.

Top of the World!!!

Top of the World!!!
Tim, Connor, and I (Jonathan) decided to brave the horrific weather, life threatening altitude, low visibility, flesh eating animals and dangerous terrain to climb to the top of the highest mountain in the world, Mt. Lam Lam. We took turns carrying our pack (Connor is 42 pounds and didn’t like walking on the slippery mud) uphill for 2 hours in 90 degree heat. Near the top, visibility was reduced to 10 feet due to the 10 foot tall grass that overgrew the trail. After losing our way and crawling through the jungle, getting attacked by ants and mosquitoes, we found the summit and bravely hiked the last few feet, reaching an altitude of 30,357 feet. We were filled with awe at the view. You could see the entire island of Guam, the ocean, and the jungle we hiked through. We signed the summit register, took some photos, and headed down to reduce the risk of getting altitude sickness.
Mt. Lam Lam is higher than Mt. Everest, if you count from the bottom of the Marianas Trench at the bottom of the Ocean. But, Mt. Lam Lam is only about 1311’ above sea level, which makes it a pretty easy day hike for the family. If you decide to hike the tallest mountain in the world, we recommend sunblock, long sleeve shirt, and most of all, mosquito spray. Connor was covered with mosquito bites on his face, arms and legs.

We had a good last week in Guam. We went snorkeling, saw big seaturtles, sharks, and stingrays at UnderwaterWorld, hiked on the beach and to waterfalls, and ate some good food. We also joined Tim and Joann at the Marriage Enrichment class at church and for a BBQ at the beach with their “Flock Group”. It’s nice to know that even though they don’t have family here, they do have a strong church family to grow with.

The Akha Dorm
Art added an update to the Akha dorm blog. We plan on going to see him soon and can add some more info as well. Please keep him in your prayers as he tries to prepare for the students who will be moving in soon.

Our Plans…
We have now been homeless for 9 months. We have had a lot of fun, seen a lot of cool places, met a lot of people, and learned a lot. We left America expecting that God would lead us each step of the way, and He has been faithful. So, you might be asking, what’s next? Well, that’s a good question, that we have some surprising answers for you, but we want to keep you in suspense for a day or two. In the meantime, check out a few more pictures we added to our Guam photo album.

Guam

It has been a great 2 weeks so far with Tim, Joann, Connor and Eliana in Guam. Click HERE to see some pictures from our time in Guam. Our first few days here we realized we had been missing some of the comforts of civilization. Heres a few:

• Family and Friends



• Flushable toilets (especially ones that you can put your toilet paper in)



• Hot showers and water pressure



• Cereal and milk for breakfast instead of rice



• MEXICAN FOOD, Nachos, Burritos, Tacos, Chips and Salsa



• Washer and Dryer



• Having Internet at home



• AMERICAN FOOD



• Did I mention Nachos and Breakfast burritoes



• Full conversations without referencing our Thai Phrasebook

It has been nice to get some of the comforts of home. But, mostly we have enjoyed getting to know Connor and Eliana. Connor is almost 4 and loves to wrestle, hike, swim, and loves anything with Star Wars. We have watched Star Wars 1-6 since we've been here, and some of them we've watched a few times. When he's not watching Star Wars, he's often humming the tune of Star Wars or saying "the force is strong with Luke". Every morning we sleep to late, he knocks on our door and says matter-of-factly "its time to wake up guys, look outside, see, it's light outside, that means it's time to wake up." He is so funny and continues to shock us with his extensive vocabulary, ability to spell and remember things.

Eliana is 18 months old and she loves to eat. She eats more than Connor. Blueberry Yogurt is her favorite, and if you try to give her Strawberry, she'll give it right back to you and ask for a different kind. She likes to eat the yogurt, and then take the rest of it and give herself a facial/ mudbath.

Ashley and Joann both started the visit not feeling well so the first week we all stuck pretty close to the house so we could pump the vitamins and rest. We're both feeling better now and are thankful for everyones prayers!

Since we've been here we've spent a lot of time playing with the kids. We've gone snorkeling a few times. The snorkelling here is great, with beautiful coral, tons of fish (so many we're afraid we're about to get attacked), lots of starfish, and nice clear blue warm water. The beautiful coral reminds us of Jean and Jerry's sea aquarium in Florida. We've gone for several hikes to secluded beaches, Japanese Caves and guns and cannons from World War II. We've gone for a few runs. On Guam, they have a 5k race almost every Saturday at 6am. Jonathan and Tim ran 2 of these races so far and Ashley did the last one. Jonathan won his first race ever but didn't realize it so we left before the awards ceremonys. Even though Tim beat him, apparently runners aged 20-29 are not as fast as the older runners, and Jonathan won his age division both weeks. Ashley also won her age division and came in 2nd place overall among girls. They are fun runs, with start times before the sun comes up, tons of friendly people and families, views of the beach and always a nice sunrise.

We've also enjoyed getting to catch up with some friends and family on the phone or internet. We feel a little like computer geeks, but after 5 months with very limited internet access, we have some catching up to do. We didn't even know who won the Super Bowl! We've also been listening to sermons from Flatirons Community Church. Even though we're far away, it still feels like our church, and the messages still apply to our lives.

Life After DTS

Freedom is good. This last week we rode the buses from Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai, back to Chiang Mai, and then to Bangkok. Click here to see more pictures of graduation and our travels this last week.

Chiang Rai
We spent 2 days in Chiang Rai with our friend Art. We stayed at the house he is renting to use as a dorm for Akha students. Currently, he has 2 guys living with him. They study the Bible together, go to church together, and talk together regularly to give Art opportunity to mentor them. In April, 6 more students will move in with him and go to school in Chiang Rai. It was great to see Art and also to see his house. It is a nice place in a good location and has plenty of room for the students. We spent a lot of time with his roommate A-No, who is quiet, speaks no English, but is very nice. The highlight of the trip was when A-no and his friend gave us a ride on their motorbikes to the bus station with all of our stuff. Imagine a 5’ tall guy, holding Ashley’s suitcase in his lap while driving a motorbike with Ashley sitting behind him down a busy street. It was quite an adventure.

Chiang Mai
We took the bus back to Chiang Mai and stayed at a guesthouse for 2 nights. We ate dinner with some friends and walked around the markets and practiced our Thai. We visited WonGeneration, a YWAM ministry that reaches out to students at Chiang Mai University. It is a coffee shop/ live music/ dorm/ place to hangout near the university. We talked with the leaders of WonGeneration and then sat in on a Thai Language For Beginner’s class at the University for 3 hours. Then, we boarded the overnight bus to Bangkok.

Bangkok
After trying to sleep on the bus for 10 hours, we were literally dumped off in the middle of Bangkok at 5:30am. We wanted to get to the YWAM office in Bangkok, but it was too early to call anyone so we practiced our thai some more by asking people what bus to take to get there. The office is outside of town, so we confused many people. At one point, we got off a bus, asked one person, he told us to walk to that bus stop over there and take bus 11. We walked over there and someone told us to walk back where we came from. We ended up taking the skytrain (which was another adventure in itself), and another bus and arrived at YWAM at 9am.
We stayed at the Ban Jai Diao for 4 nights and joined in on many activities with our friend Bond. We went to their staff meeting, went to the slums and talked with YingNoi and played with kids, and we just hung out with the many staff at the office. The YWAM National office is a 5 story building that has meeting rooms, staff offices, and rooms for teams that come to Bangkok for outreach. A 2 minute walk down the street is the Performing Arts Building. This is a 4 story building that has housing for Thai staff, recording equipment, and dance studios. Another 2 minute walk down the street brings you to Ban Jai Diao, which is a Discipleship dorm for students at the university across the street. This is a 4 story building that has about 10 guys and 10 girls living in it along with several staff members. The students who live here are required to attend Bible studies, cell groups, have individual Bible study/prayer, and meet with their staff member regularly. It was a fun place for us to stay and talk with all the people that came from all over Thailand, Fiji, Australia, USA, and India.

Valentine’s Day
We went to a nearby 5 story mall, ate some food, and then watched P.S. I Love You. It’s such a sad movie, but good if you like to cry and laugh at the same time. In case you were wondering, Thai’s like to watch movies too.

On Sunday, we went to Hope Church with Edna (a friend from DTS). It is an international church in a fancy hotel in downtown Bangkok. It was a good encouraging service, and afterwards we all ate a delicious buffet lunch at the hotel restaurant.

Siam Square, Chinatown, and the Endless TukTuk ride.
After church, we headed off to be tourists. First we went to Siam Square, an upscale 7 story mall with an aquarium in the basement. This place had it all, from Lamborghini’s, Porsche’s, diamonds, high fashion stores, $60/plate sushi, everything. Ashley’s eyes just lit up the second we walked in. Jonathan’s eyes, well, he almost instantly went into depression at the thought of walking around this place. We managed to make it out alive and then headed to the Grand Palace by bus (we knew how to use the buses by now). At the Grand Palace there are several tourist attractions and we wanted a tuktuk driver to drive us around the area for a few minutes to show us what was here. We found one, who for $1.50 would take us wherever we wanted to go. He proceeded to take us wherever HE wanted to go. We found out, he gets a little commission for bringing tourists to random places, so, we enjoyed our ride around town as he took us to some temples, a jewelry store, a silk store, and a restaurant. At each place we were greeted by a salesman ready to pressure us into buying whatever he had. One man wanted to make 3 nice silk shirts for Jonathan. He quickly realized that wouldn't happen, so he proceeded to give advice on how Jonathan's appearance would look more alert if he stopped eating meat and wheat. After refusing several "great deals", we were allowed to leave. Finally, mad that we didn’t buy anything, our driver dropped us off in Chinatown.
Near Chinatown is a section of town with many Indian Restaurants. We had an awesome meal at a little restaurant here and then walked around the busy streets and markets of Chinatown before heading home for the night. It was an exciting cultural experience.

And now… we’re off to Guam to visit Tim and Joann!!!

FREEDOM!!!!

We GRADUATED last night. We spent all day decorating and preparing food and then at 5:30 we had dinner and a little ceremony with the YWAM Staff and friends and family of the rest of the students.
Now, we're free! We left some things at the base and took the essentials with us. Today, we'll go to Chiang Rai for a few days to visit Art and then we'll go to Guam on Feb. 18 to visit Tim & Joann.

We added pictures to our Picasa Web Albums site from Li. Please check them out.
God Bless You.

We're Home?

Hey, we made it back to the YWAM Base near Chiang Mai. Our last week in Li was good, but it is always hard to say goodbye to friends. After 7 weeks in Li, we had grown close to some of the students, church members, workers at the market, and kids from the orphanage. This week we had "cell group" at several people's houses. It was fun to go into people's homes and meet their families and hear about how they became christian and some of the things they are praying for. Every person had a unique story to tell.
One member, Nam, is 24 and just moved to Li 3 months ago with her boyfriend. Her family is christian, but she has always ran away from church, but since being in Li she has really wanted to go to church and follow God's will for her life. Every time she talked she would start to cry because she was so happy we had been here to encourage her. She was very sweet, and her boyfriend seemed to get more accepting of the christian faith each day.
We happened to find out that the next day was her birthday, so we turned our going away party into a surprise birthday party for her, which led to more crying.
Saturday morning we spent an hour saying goodbye to everyone who came to the church to say goodbye. It was a bittersweet time, but it was nice to know that our time spent in Li had impacted the people there.

Overview
Our time in Li was very good. We were able to share the gospel with many people in many different ways. Through performing at schools and christmas parties we were able to share our testimony and tell many people of God's love for us. In our time at the schools we had many chances to talk with students and teachers about our faith. We were also able to set an example to students, teachers, and the people in town of what a Christian acts like and how they treat people.
At the schools, a few kids showed a real desire to learn more about Jesus and to live for him. We were able to pray with them and teach them a little and connect them with other christians.
Also, we learned a lot about Thai culture, Thai buddhism, and thai christianity. it is one thing to read about it and talk about it, but to live in a small town and spend every day with the people there you get a better sense of what they struggle with and what they believe and who they are. It was a valuable experience for both of us.

Now, we have 1 week left in school. We're excited for our freedom but also sad to say goodbye to our new friends. Keep us in your prayers that we'll get some direction for what to do in the next year. We have many ideas, but you can only do so much!

It's Raining

Here are a few pictures from our time in Li. The first one is Ashley with Mango, See, and Am. These 3 girls spend a lot of time at the church, mostly because they can play computer there.



















The second pic is a picture of some adults playing musical chairs at one of the churches we visited. We stayed for a day and played games and ate with the people there to encourage them. It was very funny watching these people play a game. 1 man was obviously drunk, but he was hilarious.



The 3rd pic is of Tim teaching some English at a school. This school let us have story time, so Tim taught the story of Jonah and the whale. Here, Tim is the whale and is about to swallow the little kid (Jonah).

The 4th picture is us performing the "Heart" drama at the Christmas/New Years celebration. I am trying to convince ashley to give me her heart by doing pushups or a handstand. When she finally does give me her heart, I throw it down and break it. Then, Ashley picks up the broken pieces and gives it to God, who heals her heart and gives it back to her. Luckily, it's just a drama (I would never really stomp on her heart).

Today, Ashley and I decided to go for a walk. Monday is our 1 free day in the week, so we bought some food and started walking towards the hills. We had a nice time walking and eating bamboo sticky rice (our favorite snack, it's sticky rice cooked with sugar and condensed milk inside a bamboo stalk). We stopped to talk and eat our fried rice, fried bananas, and oranges. Then, a miracle happened. For the first time since November it rained. Actually, it was probably the first clouds in the sky since November.
It was nice. We found a little abandoned shelter to sit under. It reminded us of a rainy day in Colorado. The rain cleared up long enough for us to walk back home.
Now, we're in a internet shop, with loud music blasting all around us. The internet shops are the happening places in Thailand. The kids pack them and play computer games all day long. They turn on some music, and then lose themselves in some kind of game. It's kindof sad, you ask almost any boy here what they like to do, and they say "play computer". The girls, they either like to play games or to chat online with random people.

This is our last week here. If you haven't emailed us lately, send us one. We'd love to hear from you and soon we'll actually have time to email back.