Jonathan & Ashley Wallace

New Generation for Christ update

2009-10-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

Hello
Just wanted to send a quick update about the "New Generation For Christ" ministry that we helped start with our friend Art in Chiang Rai, Thailand. The ministry is a Christian Discipleship Dorm for Akha teenagers started in 2007. There is much more info on it on it's website, www.akhadorm.blogspot.com , or check out this video.

Just recently, it was accepted to be part of YWAM (Youth With a Mission), a well known mission organization. YWAM will provide organizational support, mentoring & leadership to Art, and help raising financial support. New Gen is growing, and more and more Akha teenagers are hearing about the dorm and wanting to stay with Art. Many of these teenagers live in small villages in the mountains with little opportunity for education past 6th grade or work, which often leads them to go to the "big city" alone where they end up in gangs or addicted to drugs or even worse. The dorm gives them a place to stay in the "big city" where they can be mentored, learn to adjust to city life, and grow in relationship to Christ as well. These students have also been making an impact on their friends by being positive role models in the community. Of the students who have stayed with Art, several have come to faith in Christ from Animist (spirit worship) backgrounds, some have gone on to Bible School, most have participated in outreach to Akha villages, and all have participated in Bible studies, worship, 1 on 1 mentoring, and school/work.

I want to ask you to consider giving financially to the dorm. I cannot think of a place where your money will be used more effectively to make a difference in the lives of people. Art has proven to us and to his peers that he is responsible and that his heart is following the "way, the truth, & the life". Students contribute to their housing, but they come from the poorest of families and a subsidy is needed. Ashley & I will continue to support Art however we can, through prayer, financial support, encouragement, and visiting him (hopefully soon). Will you join us in helping show Christ's love to one of the most physically & spiritually oppressed peoples in the world?

To make a tax deductible contribution, mail a check payable to YWAM to:
YWAM
501 Blacktail Road
Lakeside, Montana 59922
Ph: (406) 844-2221

*do not write anything in the memo line of the check, but do include a note in the envelope that says "support for project #3672, New Generation for Christ ministry in Chiang Rai, Thailand".

You may want to send me an email as well so that I can follow to ensure the money gets transferred to Art. If you would like to make monthly contributions, let me know & I will get you the form for that.

Good News and a New Generation for Christ Video

2009-07-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Art's ministry, New Generation for Christ is now a certified ministry of YWAM (Youth With a Mission), and so we can make tax deductible donations to him through YWAM (more info on that coming). We also have a video of our friend Art's ministry to teenage Akha guys in Northern Thailand. It's a quick overview of the Akha people in general and Art's goals for this ministry. There is more info on his website, www.akhadorm.blogspot.com.

Here is a recent email from Art about what has been going on at the New Generation for Christ.

The students here they are doing well. They are growing in faith and understand more the love of God. They are learning how to please God and what is the right attitude of worshiping God. I’m so glad to see them growing and walking in him. I’m so glad that God guides me in this way. I really want to be his tool that he able to use me to bless other people. I just want to say thank you so much for being apart of Gods ministry. I can’t do this with out the part of body Christ. They will take exam next week and school break for three months so they think that maybe find some job to make money, and next term about three more students coming to live with us.

( Apa) one of our student here will graduated this term so, he will be going to Chiness Bible college near by Chiangrai. So please pray for him and about new students that coming in.

The helper ( Lawpee) is going back home today for getting identity card, Hey! God is answering our prayer, he can get ID card. (LawPee has been praying for a Thai ID card for many years so that he can travel freely. He has spent many days in prison because he does not have one. Many akha in Thailand do not have an ID card because they recently immigrated from Laos or Burma because of oppression.) God helps him walk through this kind of hard situation by the grace of God. Lawpee share that he had learned a lot from God especially about trusting God, God has a good plan for each of us even though some time the way is look like so hard but if we trust him with the whole heart; he will come in the right time. Do not give up even the situation make us down sometime.

I’m glad to see him growing and can be blessing to other students.

Please continue to pray for him that he will love God more than yesterday, pray for the wisdom that he able to share the love of God to students. Pray for finance cause he doesn’t has from any. He really has the heart of serving God.

This year we have been praying together with the students here about the land for the ministry. So, we pray that we want the land for the ministry because we do not want to rent the house any more, we do not want to lose money for renting house (and they would like to farm rice, vegetables, fruit, and fish to make the ministry more sustainable). And if God wills we want to have some.
Please pray for this, Thank you so much for being a part of God’s ministry.

Missions Blog #2

2009-03-04T10:06:00.000-08:00

How many tribes, languages, peoples, and nations are there? A lot. There are over 2500 “people groups” in India alone. The world is typically divided into people groups.

For strategic purposes, a people group is the largest group through which the gospel can flow without encountering significant barriers of understanding and acceptance. There are 15,900 people groups in the world. An unreached people group is a people group in which less than 2% of the population are Evangelical Christians. There are 6,721 unreached people groups.

Another way to divide the world is into 8 Cultural People Blocs.

Christian: 2.3 billion people, 97% personally know a Christian,
Hindu of India: 1.054 billion people, 3200 unreached people groups, 6% Christian, 14% of Non-Christians personally know a Christian, 1 missionary per 179,636 people
Muslim: 1.326 billion people, 5,500 unreached people groups, 3% Christian, 14% of Non-Christians personally know a Christian, 1 missionary per 306,238 people
Buddhist of Southeast Asia: 378.3 million people, 1500 unreached people groups, 4% Christian, 15% of Non-Christians personally know a Christian, 1 missionary per 176,000 people.
Folk Chinese: 400 million people, 300 unreached people groups, 7% Christian, 15% of Non-Christians personally know a Christian, 1 missionary per 132,857 people
Tribal peoples: 230 million people, 2000 unreached people groups, 12% Christian, 41% of Non-Christians personally know a Christian, 1 missionary per 17,126 people
Non-Religious: 946.7 million people, 100 unreached people groups, 10% Christian, 28% of Non-Christians personally know a Christian, 1 missionary per 70,041 people
Others: 146 million people, 400 unreached people groups, 10% Christian, 67% of Non-Christians personally know a Christian, 1 missionary per 35,405 people

How are the Unreached currently being reached? Good question, and the answer truly brings glory to God.

There are missionaries who have followed the example of Paul and have gone out to the unreached peoples, learned their language and culture, and are using many different strategies to draw people into a relationship with Jesus Christ. These are not just people from America, but from everywhere.
There are other missionaries who support these efforts by translating Bibles and literature, making videos and music, etc.
Many people groups are making efforts to reach themselves. There are many stories of tribal peoples who have risked it all to go to other countries to share the gospel with others from their same tribe. The Akha in Thailand is one such story, where several Akha churches have given money to Akha Christians to go into Laos, China, and Vietnam where the Akha have not yet heard of the one true God. Vietnamese Christians, despite severe persecution and risking their life and possessions, are making many efforts to share the gospel cross-culturally with tribal peoples who have not yet heard the gospel.
God is making himself known to others in miraculous ways. Have you heard of an entire group of Muslims who dreamed of Jesus being the true son of God, and then woke up to hear that many others in their community had the same dream. This entire group came to believe in Jesus as the Son of God without any outside influence. There are many other stories similar to this. God’s heart is for His people to know Him, and He is more than able to draw people to Himself. We get the chance to be involved in this great redemptive work He is doing.
The unreached have come to us. Did you know that there are at least 60 unreached people groups represented in the United States. People have come to the US to study and work from some of the largest unreached people groups in the world. Over 5 million Jews, 4 million Muslims, and 500,000 Buddhists from unreached people groups live in America full-time, not including those temporarily here for exchange study programs. Many of these are from countries where Christians are persecuted and missionaries are not allowed such as China, Vietnam, Myanmar, the Middle East, and India. Did you know that 80% of foreign visitors never get invited into the home of an American? Did you know, that these people probably go home telling the world that Christians are unloving because noone made an effort to get to know them. Did you know, you may see someone from an unreached people group when you go to Walmart or eat at a Thai restaurant?
Prayer- people around the world pray for the unreached. Prayer is well documented as the beginning to the spread of the Gospel. Paul’s missionary journey began as the Christians in Antioch worshipped and fasted (Acts 13:1-3). When missionaries were kicked out of China in the 1950’s, they thought all hope was lost, but they kept praying for the Christians in China. And God worked on their behalf, causing the gospel to spread in an underground “house” church movement in a way no one could have ever imagined. Pick up any biography of a missionary and you will see that they not only lived a life of prayer, but also built a team of people from their home who were dedicated to praying for God to work.

Missions Blog #1

2009-02-19T18:04:00.000-08:00

Why do we have missions?
The simple, common answer is Matthew 28:19, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…” There are many other verses and themes in the Bible that point us toward missions as well. God’s heart for missions can be seen in many Old Testament stories such as Abraham being blessed, “and through your offspring all nations of the earth will be blessed” (Gen. 22:18). God was showing Himself to the world as a powerful and loving God in the stories of David, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and many other stories. Jesus ministered cross-culturally with Samaritans, Romans, etc. Paul traveled throughout the Middle East and Europe, sharing the “good news” and trying to start a movement of Christ-like followers everywhere he went. In Romans 10:14-15, he specifically relates the need for people to be sent out, “How can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?...” And we see in Revelation 7:9 that in the end this “good news” will spread to all peoples, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.”.
We have “missions” because 1. God has been making Himself known to all peoples from the beginning of time and 2. Jesus, His disciples, and the early Christians made significant efforts to share the “good news” to men of all nations as well.

What is the task of world missions, the goal, the thing we work toward?
There are many definitions, but some of the most common are: 1. an evangelizing, discipling church movement for every language, culture, and people. 2. A church for every people and the gospel for every person. 3. Reach the Unreached people of the world.

I’d like to clarify a few words in these. Church- does not mean a building or any specific denomination. In the New Testament, “church” is used to describe a community of people who believe and trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation, who gather regularly to seek Him and praise Him. These meetings may or may not: be on Sunday, have a pastor, involve preaching, and be in a church building. Gospel : This cannot just be the Bible translated into every language. More than 86% of the world is illiterate, and many languages are not yet written down. Not everyone in the world learns the way we Westerners do. Some pass on “stories” through songs or storytelling, some use different art forms (dance, painting, drawing, dramas) to illustrate their stories and assist in storytelling. For these peoples, the Gospel must first be translated into their language and then be “told” in a way they can understand and remember and then pass on to others.

The thing we work toward is to fulfill this Great Commission to “make disciples of all peoples so that all men (and women) will know the love of Christ”.

Check back soon for more on "How many tribes, nations, and tongues are there", "what are the unreached" and "where are they".

A Blog on Cross-Cultural Missions

2009-02-19T17:56:00.000-08:00

In the last 2 years, we have learned a lot about what missions is, why it exists, and different ways to be involved. Since returning to the US, we have met many people who have an interest in missions but do not feel like they can be involved for many different reasons. We have also heard many different questions about what missions really is. So, since I have some free time (thanks to a booming economy), I thought I’d write a little on What missions is and why do we have it, What are the “Unreached”, What are we doing to reach them, How can I get involved, Why should I get involved, and What is the Good News. I’ll also share a few real life stories as well. First, if you’re interested, watch the little video I made called “What if you didn’t know the Good News”. Hope you like it, and if not, no worries, keep checking in cause we’ll write other stuff as well. And, if you have any questions you'd like to ask, feel free to ask it in the comments or in an email. Thanks and may God Bless You.

What if you didn't know the Good News?

2009-02-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

In our spare time we made a little video of some of our pictures from Thailand and China to kind of give an idea of what the people there believe and how that is different from the Good News. Please check it out, I think you'll like it. Feel free to share it/use it with whoever you want. Let me know what you think. It's called, What if you didn't know the Good News? It's kind of based off of an idea from II Corinthians 5:17-6:2

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you."I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

We're Home

2009-01-23T15:12:00.000-08:00

The last few months have been a crazy whirlwind of coming and going, filled with many good memories, happy hello's and sad goodbyes. We visited Kansas City and Hermann Missouri, getting to spend much time with Ashley's family for Thanksgiving. We then visited North Carolina for Christmas, and finally, after being homeless vagabonds for almost 2 months, we moved into a nice little apartment in Boulder Colorado on New Year's Eve, 2008. Please check out our pictures for more info.
We're settling in nicely at our home in Boulder. It was great to be reunited with all of our old clothes and things from our storage shed. We realized that we gave away a lot of stuff before we left, a few things we wish we would have kept. We've been reunited with many old friends and are starting to get caught up with all that's happened in the last 1.5 years. Friends are now marred, engaged, have babies, new jobs, and some friends have even moved away.
We're now looking for jobs and volunteer opportunities to keep us busy. We have been blessed with good job opportunities, even in this hard economic environment. In addition to looking for jobs, we're also cooking a lot of thai food for friends to try out and also trying to remember how to climb, run, bike, and breathe at altitude.

So, How's Re-entry to America?
This is a common question for us. We'll share a few stories from our reentry to the crazy american culture.
1. Taxi ride- a 10 minute taxi ride from the airport, in thailand would cost us $6. Here, it cost us $35.
2. After months of hearing family worry about all the dangers in Asia and hoping we will make it home safely, we made it (of course), only for Jonathan to get bitten by a spider in his first night in America. Apparently, a brown recluse made a home in their unused bed and didn't like his return.
3. After leaving America in great economic prospects, we came back to a failing economy. It was a little depressing to think about looking for a job in these times. Sometimes it caused us to worry/plan a little excessively, but God reminded us to "be anxious for nothing, but with everything through prayer let your requests be made known to Him, and the Peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:6. We have found this to be true, to not get caught up in worrying about the future, but to just live each day trusting that He will provide our every need. And His peace has been comforting, allowing us to enjoy our free time here and use it to reconnect with friends and family.
4. COLD weather - After not wearing a jacket for the last year, we came back to below freezing temps in Missouri. This took a little time to get used to.
5. Saying Hello, in thailand we were trained to "Wai" every person we met (a little head bow with your hands together at your chest/nose), and we found this as a hard habit to get out of. Instead of waving or shaking hands or giving a hug, we often found ourselves doing an awkward "wai" which we tried to turn into a wave/shake/hug.
6. At Chipotle, for some reason Jonathan instinctively tried to speak thai to the cashier.
7. Thai Time - Even though we have no jobs, we still find a way to be late everywhere we go. It's just the thai way of doing things. Whatever you are doing now, whatever conversation you are in or work you are doing, is more important than getting to your next meeting on time. We're having trouble remembering that it's not the same in the US.
8. US sizes - Ashley felt much better shopping for clothes, realizing that she is no longer the biggest size that the store sells. It can be a little depressing to try on an XL in thailand and still need something larger.
9. Toilet Paper - In thailand, you throw your paper in the trash can, not in the toilet. This habit created us several dilemmas as we searched the stall for a trash can to no avail, and then realizing that we can just throw it in the toilet.
10. American Food - it's great, but so is thai food. After getting used to eating fresh food that is light and easy to digest, we had a few problems as our body tried to deal with a plate of cheesy lasagna or greasy pizza. Thai's don't eat much cheese or milk, so this took us a little time to get used to.
11. Dry climate - after moving to Colorado, Jonathan's lips were so dry they cracked and bled for 3-4 days. We both woke up early in the mornings with a throat so dry, we almost couldn't breathe.
12. Missing Friends - One thing that we hope to not get over, is a longing to see some of the friends we made in our time in Thailand. God truly blessed us with friends who looked after us, cared for us, and spent time with us. It would have been a much harder 1.5 years without those friends, and we hope to get to reconnect with them soon.

That's all. God Bless You all.

Goodbye Thailand, Hello USA

2008-11-25T08:15:00.000-08:00

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

2008-10-27T02:50:00.001-07:00

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.

2008-10-19T22:03:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-10-02T23:09:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-27T07:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-04T23:28:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-26T03:00:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-14T04:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-04T05:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-01T01:42:00.000-07:00

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

2008-06-01T00:51:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-26T00:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

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)!!!

2008-05-13T04:36:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-04-15T03:35:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-06T23:21:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-03-21T01:41:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-03-15T22:32:00.000-07:00

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!!!

2008-03-13T02:19:00.001-07:00

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

2008-03-03T16:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-18T18:50:00.000-08:00

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!!!!

2008-02-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-02-02T22:20:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-27T23:48:00.000-08:00

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.

Hello Again

2008-01-20T20:10:00.000-08:00

We made it through another week in Li!!!! We have 2 weeks left here, then we will go back to school in Chiang Mai for a week. Then our school is finished! We are excited to get our freedom back. The school has been great for us, but we do miss making our own decisions and having some free time.
We have some short term plans for what we'll do after this school is over. We plan on spending about a week in Chiang Rai to visit Art and the House of Joy. Then we'll go to Guam to visit Tim and Joann for 3 weeks. After that, we have no set plans. We have some ideas, but that's it. We want to visit Vietnam and Laos, so we'll probably spend some time traveling through those places.
This week in Li we taught some more English at the schools. Sunday at Church, Jonathan "preached" for about 30 minutes about the Temple of God and the Church. God's temple is now in each of the hearts of those who believe in Jesus and repent from their sins. God promises to send his Holy Spirit into your heart, so that your heart is now the temple of God. This is very different from the buddhists here, who build a temple on every corner (almost) and wear a buddha necklace and build a little spirit house outside their house for their gods to live in. But, we don't have to do that, because the true God makes his home in us. Also, we talked about the church and that it does not mean a building or a meeting on sunday morning, but that it means a gathering of Christians to talk about what Jesus and what he is doing in our lives.
It was a stretching experience, but as a result we are now going to have "church" at someones house almost every day this week.
God Bless You all this week,
Jonathan & Ashley

Howdy from Li

2008-01-13T20:43:00.000-08:00

Hello!!! The last few weeks we've continued teaching english at different schools. It has opened up several opportunities to talk to students and teachers about what we believe. At 1 school, we had a story hour where we shared the story of Jesus' life on earth with the kids.

We think the pastor didn't like how we led church the 1 week, so since then he has taken back control of preaching and singing songs. But we have continued to teach the kids sunday school and share our testimonies during church. Yesterday, Ashley shared her testimony at church. She is a very good speaker. The whole church got quiet and listened to her every word as she talked about how God has shown Himself to her and that He is trustworthy. She says, "I could feel the Holy Spirit speak through me because I said things that I hadn't planned to say and they actually made sense".

There's a pregnant woman (Pi Noi) who sells flowers in the market that Ashley talks to often. She is so loving, she always gives Ashley flowers and wont accept any gifts. Last week, when we had a Thai friend with us, she told us about a monk from this area. It is a cool story. Here it is: The monk was meditating, and his spirit left him and went to heaven. In heaven he saw Jesus, at the highest level of heaven. He saw buddha at a lower level. He didn't see Muhammed at all. Then his spirit came back to him on earth. He believed that Jesus was real and told many people about his experience. He continued as a buddhist because he thought his good works would get him to heaven.
She believes this story, and because of it she knows that Islam is false, and thinks that Christians are good. What we think she doesn't know is that Jesus taught that our good works will never get us to heaven. We can only get to heaven through the forgiveness of our sins that comes through believing in Jesus' death and resurrection. There are many people here who know & believe this story of this monk, so we feel like it is a good opening to share with them.
We gave her a New Testament Bible that is in Thai & English and she said she would read it all. We hope God will open her eyes through it and our conversations about it.

Jonathan has been playing basketball often at the school. Thai's are not very good at basketball, but there are a couple who are decent. It is fun to be the tallest guy on the court. Keep us in your prayers.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T00:55:00.000-08:00

For new year's eve, we all went to Mae Ping Nat. Park, to Kao Waterfall and swam. It was fun. I found some bouldering over the water. It was good. It's been 4 months since we have climbed.

On the way there I listened to at song be Mute Math, called You Are Mine. Here are the lyrics.

Everyone has their obsession

Consuming thoughts, Consuming time

They hold high their prized possessions

It defines the meaning of their life

You are Mine, You are Mine, You are Mine, All Mine

There are objects of affection

That can mesmerize the soul

there is always one addiction

that can never be controlled.

You are Mine, You are Mine, You are Mine, All Mine

God created us in His image. Today he was telling me, "I created you, and I am

Obessed with you, you are my prized possession, You consume my thoughts, You are mine, All mine

In addition to that, I was seeing that this is the truth, But satan is busy trying to make us his, by trapping us in sin, addicting us to things of this world that lead to death. He dangles cheap candy in front of us, trying to get us to follow him in to the pit of destruction. But, the truth is, I am His.

This is a beautiful thought to me. God, looking at me, saying, singing, screaming, "You are mine. Everyone has an obsession, you are my obsession. I made this whole world for you."

So, as I swam under a beautiful waterfall and bouldered on a rock over crystal clear water, I head God saying, "I made this for you to enjoy. All this, is for you. There is no limit to what I would do for you. I am so glad you can enjoy my creation the way I want you to.

You are mine. You are mine. You are mine. All Mine."

It was a beautiful picture. Surreal. 12 of us piled into the bed of a truck and drove 60kms through beautiful countryside, and I just sat amazed at God's love for me.

He loves each of us that much.

Happy New 2008.

Li Outreach first 2 weeks

2008-01-01T00:29:00.000-08:00

We've been here 2 weeks now. We're staying at the church in Li. We have 3 rooms and 2 bathrooms to split between the 10 of us. Luckily, me and Ashley get our own room. We've spent a lot of time teaching english at 2 schools. It's fun hanging out with kids. Some are very nice.
We had a big CHRISTMAS CELEBRATION at the church. We invited everyone we met to come. About 250 people showed up and ate food, sang songs, and then watched us do a few dramas, dances, and share what God has done in our lives. It was interesting.
We also got to lead the church service this week. The church has about 25 adults and 40 kids (many from an orphanage the pastor runs). Jonathan, Edna, and Jiew taught the adults. Instead of preaching, we asked the members to share their testimony. Surprisingly, people did. It was the first time the pastor had heard their testimonies. It was good to see that even though they don't have much knowledge or background of the Bible, God has still been working in their lives and answering prayers and showing himself to them.
Ashley, Megan, Amima, and Nu taught the youth (10-16 year olds). There was almost 30 of em, and it was hard to keep order. But some of them did want to be there and did listen as Ashley taught about God's Character.
Tim and Em taught the kids. It was a good experience for all of us. We think we will be leading church here for the next 5 weeks.

We've seen that the Christians here are committed, but they know very little. They are only taught on sunday and they don't meet together or talk with each other during the week. Some read teh Bible & pray, but they have trouble knowing how to do this. So, we have a great opportunity to help them grow in their faith and encourage them so that they can themselves reach out to the community.

We also went to a big Buddhist temple. It is weird to drive through a poor village to get to a huge beautiful temple. This place had many different buildings with statues, idols, incense, and monks everywhere. They painted many walls to tell different stories of the buddhist beliefs. They even preserved & displayed the body of a respected monk. To me, it reminds me of Acts 17, when Paul was in Athens. Read it & you'll know how I feel.

We're still in thailand

2007-12-08T01:43:00.000-08:00

The last 2 weeks have been pretty typical. We talked about relationships for 1 week. Last week we talked a little about Worldview. We’ve also spent a lot of time getting ready to go on “outreach”. We’ve learned a few new dramas and dances to use as entertainment and tool to share the gospel.
Last Saturday, Jonathan went to Chiang Mai and ate Mexican food with a couple guys. It was good, even though the meal was 10 times as expensive as the typical Thai meal. He had a burrito, plate of nachos, and a lot of salsa. It was a little reminder of home. Meanwhile Ashley went to Kwan’s Lisu village, Chiang Dao. We were able to attend their church service and to share a scripture. Since the village had just celebrated Harvest, we read James 1:17-18 that confirms everything that is good and perfect comes to us from God, who created the heavens and earth. In His goodness He chose to make us His children and choice possession. Ashley played with the local kids at an abandoned school while Kwan and her sister sewed Kwan’s outfit for our dances.

Lamphun Outreach
The school divided up into 3 groups for the final outreach trip. 1 group is going to Phetchabun, 1 to a village in the Chiang Rai province, and our group is going to Lamphun province, just south of Chiang Mai. We will spend most of time in or near the town of Li.
There is a pastor in Li that we are going to help. He says that in that area, there are 5 villages that have churches that were built by a Korean missionary. One of these churches has only 2 families, one has no Christians. So, we are going to go to these villages for the next 7 weeks and try to encourage the Christians in any way we can. I think we will actually be sleeping in the church in Li for most of the time.

We leave this Saturday, December 15 and will come back on February 2. We’ll get one day off per week to get on the internet or make a few phone calls.

More about China

2007-11-24T00:33:00.000-08:00

I thought we should describe a little more about what China is like, since we Americans have trouble understanding a Communist country. China is big, and where we were was southern China, so it may be different in different places, but this is how it was where we were.
For the most part, China looked like any other country we’ve been to. The people seem friendly, the transportation systems work well, and the buildings seem to be in good condition. We didn’t see any areas of terrible poverty. We didn’t ever feel threatened by crazy looking locals. It was a nice place to visit (except the public restrooms). But, as we talked to people we realized that it is a little different than most countries.

Religious Freedom: The people are free to believe whatever they want, but not free to worship however they want. It is okay to be a Christian in China. Chinese Bibles are sold at many bookstores. It is okay to have one, but not okay to give out. There are even Christian churches occasionally. But, the pastors of the churches are controlled by the government. They are only allowed to preach on certain subjects, and Christians are not allowed to worship God publicly or talk to their friends about God. Christians are only allowed to meet in these churches on Sundays. Most of these churches do not grow and have become religious ceremonies.
Because of this, many Christians have begun to meet in home churches even though it is illegal to gather without the government’s permission. If the police find a group of Christians meeting in a home, they can arrest the leaders of the meeting. It is okay to tell someone what you believe if they ask you, but it is not okay to “preach” or “witness” to people. Missionaries and missionary organizations are also not allowed in China. Therefore, missionaries either study in school, teach in school, or start businesses. This gives them a reason to be in the country so they can get a visa. We met several businessmen in China who have been there for a long time and enjoy the work they do.
We also met a few Chinese believers who are involved in home church. They had an amazing faith to meet with other Christians for fellowship with the possibility of getting arrested. The areas we were are not too closely watched by the government for illegal meetings, but people were still very guarded about talking about many things. There are stories of "spies" who try to find out where home churches meet and who the leaders are, so people are guarded about what they say. A week later, we still find ourselves looking around before we say anything about Jesus or prayer or church.
The other lack of freedoms we saw was that the Chinese are not allowed to travel as tourists alone. They must be part of a tour group to go outside the country for tourism. The Chinese are only allowed to have 1 child per family. If they have a 2nd, they must pay a big fine that only the rich can afford.

This week
This week was good. We talked about having a clean conscience, before God and man. Basically, it was about the importance of taking responsibility for your mistakes and sins.

Loi Kratthong
Today is the Loi Kratthong festival in Thailand. It is a Buddhist holiday where they send there hopes, dreams, and regrets to god by writing them down and attaching it to a mini hot air balloon. They also float prayers down the river in little floats they make. There will be some parades and also a lot of fireworks shot off. People everywhere are putting up decorations and preparing food for this holiday. I don't really know the origin of it, but we are in Chiang Mai today to see what happens.

We’re home from China!!!

2007-11-16T23:11:00.000-08:00

We had a great time in China. We’re not supposed to name the places we went or people we met, so it will be a little hard to describe, but we’ll try. Also, we posted a few pictures on our picasa website.
The school split up into 2 groups. Our group of 16 people flew to southern China and then took a 12 hour night train and then a 4 hour bus ride to a beautiful city of 100,000 people surrounded by limestone karst towers. We stayed in a dirty motel on the outskirts of town. The city is small enough that you can walk all over the city, and that is what we did.
We spent 10 days in this city, which is made up of mostly Zhuang people. The Zhuang people are a minority group in China. Their language has many common words with the Thai language. We took 3 Zhuang language lessons for 2 hours each day so that we could communicate some with the people. This was a great tool to use to meet people. Jonathan practiced it everywhere he went.
#1 High School
We went to one of the high schools a few times. The students range from 16-19 years old and study from 7am-11:30am, 2pm-5:00, 6:30pm-9:30pm every day. It was not hard for us to make friends there. The kids were very excited to meet people from America or Thailand. Jonathan went straight to the basketball courts, which ended up being surrounded by hundreds of students watching. The kids are pretty good at basketball, but Jonathan didn’t have much trouble showing off. It was a fun way to experience the local culture. Ashley met a few girls who spoke good English and went on a tour of the campus. The campus is very much like a small college campus, with dorms, a lake, a mountain, and a temple. It is very nice. Ashley got to meet a few teachers as well.
TV Station Tower
We got up early one morning and hiked up a mountain with a TV Station on top. The path was 1000 concrete steps. The view from on top was beautiful. You could see mountains everywhere. It reminded us of walking up Mt. Sanitas in Boulder.
The Plaza
There are 2 plazas in the city that the people come to at night from 8-10 and dance and hang out. The big plaza will have around 500 people all doing the same dances. The dances are line dances, couples dances, freestyle dances, a little of everything. The small plaza was a little more quiet, and we went there a few times and practiced our zhuang language on the old men. Once they figured out we were speaking there language (as opposed to mandarin, Cantonese, or English) they would get so excited and crowd around each of us. Jonathan learned how to make his limited language turn into a 1 hr conversation. For example, “have you eaten yet? How much did it cost? Good food? What did you eat? I ate this. I ate there. It was this much. How old are you? How old is your dad? How many years did you live in Jingxi?” They enjoyed talking to foreigners and would laugh everytime we mispronounced something.
The Lingxiao family
One night while practicing the language, a lady came up and spoke English to Jonathan. It was so surprising. She then invited us to her hotel next door for coffee and tea. We ended up talking to her and her family until 11:30 that night. The hotel was very nice. Her family is Zhuang, and has lived in the area for a long time. Her dad is an explorer/adventurer. He discovered a big cave nearby and made it into a tourist attraction. He also discovered a 600 ft waterfall and canyon that is now a major tourist attraction in China. The family just started the hotel last month, but it looks like they have very good business principles. We had a very good time talking about our families, business, and cultures.
We went back the next night to invite them to dinner, but they invited us to their grandfather’s 97th birthday party. It was in a banquet room in the hotel. There was maybe 10 tables of 8 people with food everywhere and a big cake at the front of the room. The grandfather was too tired to come, but we had a good time anyway. The food was good. We quickly found out that they like to drink beer, and tried to force us to by raising their glasses in honor of something every minute. We sipped our glasses a few times, and then quickly found a bottle of orange juice to refill it with.
After the party we went downstairs and had more tea with the family. They sang a few traditional songs for us. We got to talk to her about her spiritual beliefs and share ours with her.
Overview
There were many other experiences as well. We walked through the families beautiful cave. As a group we visited a nearby village then broke into pairs and small groups. We were invited to an old man’s home who proceeded to cook us a gourmet meal. We saw lots of dogs being sold at the market alive and ready to eat. Ashley got to make a few dumplings. We ate lots of different foods (some good, some bad). Jonathan got a haircut and a shave for 75 cents. Most of our meals cost 75 cents or less. Jonathan was excited to hear Ashley say that something she wanted to buy for $1.50 was too expensive.
We also got to meet a group of Christian workers who just recently started reaching out to the people in this area. It was very neat to hear about their process of church planting, struggles and successes.
Overall, it was a great experience. There was not as much culture shock as we expected. The worst thing about China was the very dirty bathrooms with no doors and stalls that go up to your waist. Actually, China seemed very friendly to travelers. The food, the people, the scenery, and the spiritual needs of this unreached people made us hope we can come back.

We're going to China!!!

2007-10-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

We added a few pictures to the picasa website. You should check them out: http://picasaweb.google.com/jowallac/YWAMDTS02
This week we learned about the true meaning of the Church. The speaker, David Frantz,
was really interesting. Many of the Thai students enjoyed hearing him as well, cause they have seen first hand that many missionaries have brought Christianity to them, and then quickly turned their focus to building a church similar to most traditional churches in America. And, the traditional church in America just doesn't quite fit here.
To build a church means to disciple believers, fellowship together, pray together, and share life together. As a group of believers shares with each other what God is doing in their lives and takes care of each other and discusses their beliefs, Their faith will grow. The focus is not on finding a pastor, or building, or meeting on sunday morning. The focus is on loving God and loving each other.
We feel like we've experienced this in America as well. The Sunday Church services have been good and encouraging, but we've both grown in our faith the most when we have had real relationships with other Christians and have been open with each other about what God is doing in our lives and what we're struggling with.

We leave for China on Nov. 1 and come back on the 15th I think. We won’t be able to use the internet while we’re there, so this will be the last you’ll see from us till we get back. Keep us in your prayers.

2007-10-21T03:14:00.000-07:00

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.

Scientists speak another language

2007-10-06T08:08:00.000-07:00

even though it sounds like english, it's not understood by us. This week the lecturer was a American scientist who spoke about creationism. It was interesting to see his perspective on a lot of things, but, I came away with the feeling that I am glad I am not a scientist and that I can kind of communicate with the majority of english speaking peoples.
We also were visited this week by 2 YWAM dancers from Bangkok, who taught us 3 dances that we will use during our outreach events to attract attention to ourselves. 2 are Thai dances, very graceful with lots of hand movements, and 1 is a hip hop dance. It made for a tough week. At 6:30am, we would dance for 30 mins. at 4:30, we would dance for 1.5 hrs. 2 nights we also danced from 7pm-9pm. I spent all my free time this week washing clothes and taking showers. But, it is kinda fun to know these dances (And I use the word "kinda fun" very liberally).
Last weekend we bought 2 bikes. A Gary Fisher and a Trek, each for $300. They're about the same price as in the US. Today, we rode them from the base here. We rode about 12km up a semi paved road through the mountains and countryside. It was beautiful. There were fields of rice, banana trees, some elephants, cliffs, creeks, fog, and a couple little villages with people who looked very different than us.
We found out that we will go to China on Nov. 4. We're excited to check it out.

DTS Week 3

2007-09-28T23:16:00.000-07:00

We added some pictures to our picasa site.
This week a missionary from China was here speaking on the Fear of God. It was very challenging. Everyone here is a little worn out now from the intensity of the week, but we are also very excited at what God is doing in our lives. The fear of God is essentially 2 things: 1. to hate sin like God does and 2. to respect and recognize God as God in every area of our life.

The highlight of the week was when we all were asked to confess our sins to each other in our small groups, believing that confessing them to God in front of people would bring them into light and release us from any shame or guilt. It was a little scary, but it did have a very freeing feeling. It brought each small group closer together. It is a good feeling to know that you can share your darkest secrets with friends and that their opinion of you is not lessened. It was painful, but it allowed a healing and purifying process to take place that was very good. God was faithful to give each of us a renewed sense of forgiveness, and also worked in us to point out some different areas in our lives that we need Him to renew our minds.

We have finalized plans for going on our outreach trip to China now. We will fly to Kunming in southern China on Nov. 4-Nov.18. Then we will split into 2 groups. Some will stay in Kunming and some will go to a different city by bus. We’ll get more details this week.

We finished the smell less pig pen finally. It was hard to communicate with everyone when there was 7 different people in charge and everyone spoke a different language. But, it was fun to build anyway. The pig is named Tinkerbell, and right now it is small and strong. We built the wall of the pen about 2’ high at first, and the pig climbed out of there pretty easily. Today, after an engineering analysis of how many bamboo “dowels” to use, we built the wall 8” higher. We just need to get the pig fat so that he can’t jump any more.

Another highlight was watching the movie Mr. Bean in Thai. It seems that they dubbed the words over into thai, and then translated the thai back into English for the subtitles. The translated subtitles had so many mistakes. “Go he to popcorn ate”, was what it would say for He went to eat popcorn.

DTS, Week 2

2007-09-22T02:07:00.000-07:00

The first week was a little long and intense, but now we are used to the schedule and the people and are enjoying it here. This week, a Hmong pastor from Northern Thailand spoke all week about Salvation. It was very good. He has a phenomenal memory. He had no notes and often nearly quoted chapters of the Bible, showing us how many things in the Old Testament point toward Jesus coming as Savior, and how Jesus life, death, and resurection fulfilled all the requirements for our sins to be forgiven and to be seen as holy and blameless before God. All this, to anyone who believes in Him and follows His teaching. He was very interesting because of his humility, humor, and his stories of christian friends in SE Asia and how they have responded to the persecution they have faced.
Also, a missionary couple from the Burma border visited us. They led Bible study and also taught us how to build a smellless pig pen. Jonathan, Kob, and a few other guys work hard about 2 hours per day, digging a 6'x6' x 33" deep pit, filling it with rice husk, salt, and a mixture designed to eat bacteria, building a 2' high block wall, and building a little roof to cover it all. It is actually fun. We should finish by wednesday. The goal is to breed pigs, either to sell (about $20/baby pig), or to grow to eat.
Kob
Kob is jonathan's new friend. He speaks about as much english as we speak thai, so they spend a lot of time pointing at things and repeating the name of it in both languages. It is working well, they are both learning how to communicate and learning each others language. Kob is a hard working man, who amazes everyone with how he can fix things and build things. Kob even took Jonathan hunting, for ciccadas (big grasshopper looking things). At night, they crawl out of there hole and make a loud noise, so we walked around with a flashlight and a hoe and crushed there hole before they could jump back in it. then we'd catch the bug with our hands and put it in a coke can. Kob fried them up later, and we ate them as a snack today. They kinda taste like chicken, seriously. I'm excited to go catch more.
Waterfall
Today, they loaded us all into a sawngthaew (a big truck with seats in the back) and took us to a waterfall. It was cool. It was a creek that runs down the steep hillside, depositing this white mineral that turns in to rock. The rock was very grippy, so you could run up teh waterfall and not be afraid of falling. From top to bottom, it was maybe 300 vertical feet. It was fun. We should be able to steal some pictures from our friends and post them next weekend.
Running
The weather has cooled off lately, and we've gone for several runs. It is pretty out here. This morning we ran up a long hill to a temple, and had a good view of the countryside and the surrounding mountains. Ashley's actually convinced a group of girls to go running tomorrow.
Ping Pong
We have a ping pong table, and we've been having a great time playing each other on it.

We started DTS!!!!!

2007-09-16T01:40:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Sept. 7, Chiang Rai
The Bus
We decided to try out the ordinary night bus for the ride to Bangkok because it’s a little cheaper. It all turned out to be $38 for both of us. We got on at 7pm, and everyone quickly fell asleep to the sound of Thai music videos that were playing at the front. The bus was pretty nice at first. It was pretty similar to a greyhound bus in the USA, except the seats are a little skinnier and shorter. After a while though, we realized that something wasn’t quite right with the seats. No matter how we tried to rest our heads to sleep, it wouldn’t work, and would leave us with a stiff neck. After about 10 hours of trying to figure out how to look as comfortable as everyone else looked, we decided it was because we were Big Fat Americans, and the seats weren’t made for us. The bus stopped 3 times at little plazas to let everyone out to use the bathroom and buy some snacks. The trip went pretty well, so we decided to try another bus to Chiang Rai. This bus was supposed to only be 10 hours. We got tickets for the next bus, waited for around 2 hours, and then left expecting to arrive around 9:30pm. Around 1:00 am, we finally arrived in Chiang Rai and were happily greeted by Art and his friend ZhuFong, whom we are staying with.

Chiang Rai
This week we are visiting our Thai missionary friend, Art. We have just told him of the financial support that many of you have offered to help him start the teenage dormitory for Akha village boys. He is very excited and is now able to take firm steps to make his vision/dream happen! We are spending some time this week to develop those plans and the budget with him. We have added some info to his website, www.akhadorm.blogspot.com.

Sunday night Sept. 2 we went to the International Church and met some wonderful people and heard Nancy, the woman who runs the Akha Outreach Orphanage, speak about sacrifices. She spoke from her heart about her own recent loss. One of the kids named Manoon at the orphanage was hit by a car on his way to school and after about 2 weeks of battling, he passed away. It was hard to fight the tears as she described the boys determined character and that during this hard time God brought peace and compassion to Manoon’s family and guidance to the orphanage staff. Nancy said that because of their attitudes the medical staff continued working to save Manoon past when they would normally give up. She also mentioned how the bible students at the orphanage had been able to reach out to many people while they were visiting Manoon at the hospital and even in his village during his funeral. Nancy said that she never thought she would have to sacrifice one of her own kids but that God used Manoon in life and even through is passing to bring many people to God.

Here are a few good quotes from Art in Thaienglish:
1. “I have to use the bathroom, but, if I scratch my calf muscle, it helps me hold it. I can hold it for up to an hour”. I tried this, and it didn’t work. Let me know if it works for you.
2. “It is sprinkling outside. I don’t want to go outside. Everyone get sick when they go outside when it is sprinkling. I would rather it be raining hard”
3. “The egg can do many thing, you can grill, fry, skewer, boil, bake. Many thing”

Chiang Mai DTS, Sept. 10-15

We made it through our first week at DTS. There are 23 students and 9 staff. The students are from Thailand (9), Australia, US (10), Ireland, Phillipines, and Canada and range in age from 18-39. We include missionary kids, Bible School Graduates, computer programmers, new Christians, and former drug and alcohol addicts. It is a good mix of people, and we are having a good time getting to know everyone.
We’re not having too much fun, though. Here is our schedule for Monday – Friday.
6:30-7:00 Exercise
7:00-8:00 Shower, Breakfast, clean dishes
8:00-8:45 Individual Quiet Time
8:45-9:45 Worship or Group Intercessory Prayer
9:45-12:45 Lecture
1:00-2:00 Lunch
2:00-3:30 Work Duties (Jonathan helped make a few benches, moved piles of wood, sharpen knives and machetes. Ashley helped prepare dinner and clean bamboo curtains)
3:30-5:30 Free Time (we spend most of this showering, reading books, and washing clothes, but we also went for two runs).
5:30-6:30 Bible Study
6:30-7:30 Dinner
7:30-9:30 Lecture or Small Group Time
10:30 Lights Out

In addition to all this, we have several books to read and write book reports on. Also, we must keep a journal and turn it in each week. This week, Tom Hallas from Australia spoke to us on the Character of God. It was good. He went over lots of things, but the main topics were God’s description of himself in Exodus 34:6-7, and His great plan for our adoption as sons through Jesus Christ. He often went over his allotted time, once lecturing for 3:30 straight hours with only 15 minutes of break time. Because of that, we only had a 30 minute lunch!!!

Being the only married couple on base, the staff has gone above and beyond to give us some privacy. Instead of dorm style bunk beds with 6 people per room, we were given a little 10x15 room with cute lime-green homemade curtains, a double bed with a broken mattress, a dresser that we’ve cleaned up and most importantly…a fan! The bathrooms are Thai style, which means you wear the bathroom slippers, have no hot water, you don’t put the toilet paper in the toilet, instead you dump water into the toilet to flush it. It’s not bad once you get used to it.

New Experiences:
-Hand washing all of our clothes, then running to the clothes line when it rains
-No air conditioning, internet, tv
-Hitchhiking to town (in a large group…don’t worry mom)

We are very excited about our time here. Keep us in your prayers.

Deep Sea Soloing!!!

2007-08-30T05:55:00.000-07:00

We had an eventful few days at Ton Sai on the Railay Peninsula. We went deep water soloing on Tuesday with our 8 newly acquired friends. We all climbed aboard a longtail boat and drove out to an island about 20 minutes away, anchored the boat 50 feet from a huge overhanging wall with lots of holds, and then 2 by 2 they put us in a kayak and paddled us to the base. There was a little rope to help us get on the cliff. I traversed right and then climbed up to a big stalagtite, climbed onto it and then realized I was 30 feet above the water, so I jumped in. There was lots of routes to climb, all overhanging with big holds. They took us to another cliff where 3 of us ended up climbing about 5.10a up to 40 feet high, traversing 15 feet to a ledge, and then (after a lot of thought & encouragement) jumped off. I didn’t quite land right, and ended up having a sore neck the next day. We all climbed around 4 routes, then took the boat to a little secluded beach for lunch and to do some steep bouldering and snorkeling. It was quite an experience, especially for about $15/each.
The next day, we all decided to rent sea kayaks and explore the deep sea soloing nearby. We didn’t realize how hard it is to kayak, and also that the first storm in a week was about to start. The waves got big (3 feet tall) right as we got out to the island, and it was almost impossible to paddle back against the wind. We found a calm spot of water sheltered from the wind by the island, and waited for about 20 minutes for the storm to pass by holding onto the cliff. It was a little scary, but the storm passed and we found a big stalagtite hanging about 4 feet above the water with a rope hanging from it. The hardest move was from the kayak to the stalagtite, and then to get your feet onto it. Once you did that, you could climb as high as you wanted, even circling the stalagtite, and then jump off. We found a few other spots as well, but we mainly enjoyed kayaking around and fighting the wind and the waves. We realized how powerful the ocean is, even in the calm waters at Ton Sai.
We took it easy that night and ate and talked with our friends. They are from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and luckily they all speak some form of English. It was very interesting hearing all their stories. We even got to share a little what Christianity really is. Their view was really tainted by the Roman Catholic Church. They sounded really excited at the idea of a church like Flatirons and the gift of love and grace that Jesus gives us.
Today, we took a boat and then a bus back to Phuket (Nai Yang Beach), picked up Ashley’s bag (it showed up!!!) and will stay here tonight. In true ashley style, we now lost the camera so, no pictures for a while. Tomorrow we will take the bus to Bangkok (13 hour trip). We decided we’d try it since we have time and it’s a lot cheaper. We can take a plane from there or, if we like the bus, we can take another 10 hour bus to Chiang Rai.
Another good experience we didn’t mention yet was my foot. I sliced my pinky toe on some coral. We tried to clean it, but it was deep. By the next day it was swollen and red and my foot started getting red as well and I even started to feel pain in weird places on my leg. The cut was obviously infected, & I’d never had anything like this. We found a pharmacy and the girl spoke good English and said, “you take this pill 4 time a day for 5 day, clean the cut 2 time a day with betadine, and, don’t worry, it get better. I have seen this many time”. And, it worked. The antibiotic pills, bandaids, antibiotic cream, betadine, and ibuprofen cost $18. That’s a good deal.

Tonsai at Railay Thailand

2007-08-26T04:13:00.000-07:00

Here we aer, at the ton sai bungalow resort just a 30 second walk from the beach, climbing, & restaurants. The climbing here is good and fun and steep and also very humid. It is fun to climb completely on a stalagtite or tufa, very different than the US. From our porch we can watch the waves crash, climbers climb, & monkeys fight in teh trees. Ton Sai is very relaxing and laid back. Very different from where we came, at Koh Phi Phi Don.
We arrived at the Phuket airport after 2 day of travelling, but our bags didn't make it. So, we stayed at Nai Yang beach near the airport for 2 days to wait for our bags. We watched kitesurfers, rented a motorbike for 6$ and rode all over teh place. We got our first ticket because we didn't know you neeeded a helmet. It cost $15 and a 6km ride to the police station. We also picked up some helmets. We met a man at dinner that night who just became a christian this week, and he told us his tsunami excperience. It was his day off from work at Khao Lak beach, but everyone he worked with died that day. Now, you don't see many effects of the tsunami, but I'm sure there are many stories like his.
Finally our bags showed up, well, almost, all but ashley's clothes, so we took off for the island of Kho Phi Phi Don, the most densely populated area we've ever been too. We climbed a little, sweated a lot, and played b. volleyball with Joy (a Thai "girl" who hit and jumped like a man) and some other thais. They were good. Even though the island was destroyed by the the tsunami it has been completely rebuilt with little shacks, waiting for the next wave. The busyness there encouraged us to move on to Ton Sai, a paradise for climbers.
We'll stay here in Ton Sai a few more days, hopefully climb and deep sea solo, and then head back to phuket to get our last bag and fly to Chiang Mai. Hope y'all are well. The computer here is kinda slow, so that's why there are some spelling mishtakes.

Missouri & Thailand

2007-08-19T16:30:00.000-07:00

We've spent the last 2 weeks in Colorado, Kansas City, and mostly Missouri. We should have some cool pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/jowallac/ that would explain the story. We went to Justin & Krista's wedding, said our final goodbyes to all our friends, gave away the Silver Bullet (Jonathan's Car), then spent some time in Missouri with Ashley's family. We bouldered some in Kansas City at Swope Park with Ashley's Sister Katie (bouldering is fun in 100 degree heat), Floated down the Meramec River with Ashley's Mom, went to a Grape Stomping festival and a Reggae Festival at 2 different wineries, and ate lots of good food with lots of good friends and family. Jonathan even caught 7 fish, 1 was big enough to filet and eat for breakfast.

Now we're in Chicago, where we are not supposed to be. We're supposed to be in the air on the way to Tokyo, but, as fate would have it we're staying in the Westin Hotel tonight and we should make it to Phuket Thailand about 14hours late. That's not too bad. It could be worse. Here we have free internet, a pool, weights, TV, and $34 in vouchers for food from United Airlines. And, it's not like we have any appointments in Thailand that we're gonna miss. Really, Ashley's mad cause her Thai massage is getting delayed.

We're excited to be on our way to Thailand. We're very grateful to so many of you who have encouraged us and helped us in so many ways. The YWAM Discipleship Training School starts on Sept. 10 in Chiang Mai, and we hope you will keep us in your prayers. Also, please email us. We'd love to hear what is going on in your neck of the woods. It'll help keep us from getting too homesick.

We Climbed the Grand!!!!!

2007-08-01T16:31:00.000-07:00

We’ve done a lot since we last blogged. We went hiking with Andy near Eureka, Montana and then drove to the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks and climbed the Grand Teton. We also added some pictures to our Picasa photo album. If you don’t like to read, you can go straight there http://picasaweb.google.com/jowallac/NorthWestRoadTrip

A Day in the Life of a Fastpacker
Ashley’s friend Andy Skurka is in the middle of hiking “The Great Western Loop”. He started this April in the Grand Canyon, hiked the Pacific Crest Trail through California, Oregon, Washington, then linked up with the Pacific Northwest Trail from Washington toward Glacier National Park. He hopes to finish by hiking through Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and back to Arizona.
He showed up in Eureka at about 9:30pm after hiking 38 miles that day in 90 degree heat. His first order of business was to eat as much as possible, which included 2 big pieces of pizza and 3&1/4 PINTS OF BEN & JERRY’S ICE CREAM. It is his self proclaimed “Half Gallon Challenge”. He was disappointed that he failed, and I was happy to eat his unfinished ice cream. But, he did wake up in the morning and buy another quart and finish it quickly. After his ice cream, he also ate 2 pints of yogurt, a huge omelette, hash browns, and a bagel while at the post office resupplying with new maps and food.
We had camped next to a fun group of 6, 40ish year old friends who met annually to bike ride a section of the Great Divide Trail. They seemed to have a great time and said that it was crutial for them to have good beer at the end of each day so they carried a collapsable cooler with them. We hope that we’re able to continue enjoying the outdoors with our friends like this group!

We set off for our hike with Andy at about 10:45am. He felt rushed because he typically starts hiking around 6:30am. We hiked through town and then down a long road for about 6 miles before turning off onto a old logging road. The logging road was so overgrown that you could not tell where it went, so we got out the map & compass and bushwhacked uphill for about 2.5 miles until we finally hit a real road that led us to a real trail. We then hiked steadily uphill for another 5 miles when we finally made it to a nice stream. This is where we took our first break, after 13 miles of continuous hiking. We filled up our water bottles, took a few pictures and said goodbye to Andy. We had a good time talking with him and hearing about how he has hiked an average of 37 miles a day for the last 3½ months with only 1 rest day over the most rugged terrain in the U.S. It was also good for Ashley to smell someone much worse than Jonathan. His smell was unique, and we named it “FishBait”. After bushwhacking with him through the weeds we kind of smelled like FishBait as well.
We turned around at that creek 3:45, and made it our goal to make it to the famous milkshake shop before they closed at 7pm. We ran through all the sunny areas, bushwhacked through the woods, and ran down the road through 90+ heat into town to complete our marathon day just in time for the best huckleberry shake ever. It was a rough day for us, and we woke up sore everywhere the following morning. For Andy, that would have been a very easy day.

Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone is mostly known for it’s geysers and sulphur springs, but it’s also known for having a lot of wildlife. While driving to our campsite, we saw bison roaming everywhere. They were even walking down the road. We stopped at one pullout and watched a grizzly bear far off in the valley below. We borrowed people’s binoculars and watched him roll around in the sagebrush. A few minutes later, we stopped and watched a black bear cross the road right in front of the car in front of us. We also watched a coyote swim through a river. It was amazing the amount of wildlife that was roaming around. We camped 1 night in the park, went for a slow run in the morning (we were still recovering from the hike) and then drove to the Grand Teton National Park.

Grand Teton National Park
The Grand Teton’s are very inspiring to anybody that goes nearby. As we got closer, our aspirations went from going for a few short hikes and climbs to climbing the Grand Teton. We showed up on Saturday and went straight to the Ranger Station and got a permit to camp at the base of the Grand Teton on Sunday night.

Sunday
We packed our bags with camping gear and climbing gear and drove to the Trailhead. The elevation at the trailhead is 6,600’, more than 7,000’ below the summit of the Grand Teton (13,770’). We hiked 6 miles up to our base camp at the Moraine Campground at 10,500’. Ashley hiked so fast up some of the hills that it left Jonathan behind and hallucinating. We ate some food, set up camp, drank water straight from the melting glacier, and went to sleep (or tried to) at 8:30 pm.

Monday
We woke up and started hiking in the moonlight at 4:45am. The moon was so bright you almost didn’t need a headlamp. There was many other groups of climbers ahead of us.
5:15am We reach the Lower Saddle (11,500’), the sun starts to light the sky. The route gets steeper from here, but we still stay unroped and scramble up a gully.
6:30am We reach the Upper Saddle (12,800’). This is where Jonathan turned around 5 years ago because of a hail and lightning storm. We put our harness and climbing shoes on and rope up to climb the Owen-Spaulding route. This route is only 5.4 and most people climb it in 2 pitches and scramble unroped for the last 700’.
8:45am We reach the SUMMIT. At this elevation, each step takes your breath away. The view from the top is amazing. We can see the parking lot way down below. The summit is a 20’x20’ platform of small boulders. The weather is great as well, with not one cloud in the sky. It’s exciting to be on top, but also daunting to look way down at the parking lot and know that we are hiking there today. We started scrambling down the same way we came up. We did 2 rappels over the steep climbing sections.
11:45am We finally reach our base camp after scrambling and hiking downhill forever.
We eat some lunch, drink some water, and hide in the shade. We immediately start talking about celebrating with a burger & fries in town, which motivates us to pack up and start hiking. We eventually made it to the car at 3:30pm after 11 straight hours of hiking and climbing.
4:30pm Engulf 1 large pizza and then drive to a motel (our second of the trip). After not showering for more days than Ashley cares to think about, any private bath and bed would feel pretty classy. However, since we got the last available room which was the only one that hadn’t been remodeled so we got a 20% discount!!!

Banff National Park, Canada

2007-07-25T17:36:00.000-07:00

Revelstoke
Wow, it feels like so much has happened since last time we wrote! We drove from Squamish through the rain to Revelstoke, a small little town near Revelstoke National Park. It is well known (or so they say) for it's great heli-skiing, with the most vertical drop in BC. It's also well known for Mt. Biking. We celebrated Jonathan's birthday by staying in a little motel in Revelstoke. It was a good relief from the constant rain.

We woke up early and rode some trails. First, we rode a loop together, trying not to slide on the wet roots. The trail was fun. Then, Ashley dropped me off at the top of a popular downhill trail that winds down the mountain through the forest. This was the steepest trail I'd ever ridden. It constantly had dropoffs that I even had trouble walking down. It was made a little harder because of the rain, but I still have trouble imagining ever riding down this stuff. Several spots I tried to make myself ride, but couldn't. I'd look at it, convince myself to do it, back up and ride to the edge of it, and then.... step off my bike in fear. Even though I was cautious, I still managed to do 2 endo's (front flips), because it was so steep. There was also several log crossings, where I rode on a log with a 6" wide platform for 20'. There was several crazy jumps and platforms built as well, that I rode around. I was finding cuts and bruises on myself for days afterwards, but it was well worthit.

Then we drove to nearby Glacier National Park, and went for a hike. There was a huge glacier that we hiked up to. It was 3500' vertical in 3 miles. It was beautiful, even though we were engulfed in clouds and rain as soon as we got up above treeline. We were gonna camp nearby, but because of the rain decided to keep driving to Banff Nat'l Park.

Banff National Park

is pretty cool. Huge peaks all around it and a nice big clear river running through the valley. We relaxed one morning and walked around the town of Banff, and then did a few sport climbs nearby. Sunday we went to a little presbyterian church in Banff. It was a cool group of people, mostly from out of town, but all excited to be around other believers.

We went for another bike ride on a recommended trail by the river. This trail was the last straw for my bike. 5 miles from the trailhead I broke my rear derailler and then my seat. Here's the list of broken parts (items that need to be replaced) on my bike: Front Shock, Seat cushion, bottom bracket, chain, pedals, derailler, cassettes, chainrings. Basically everything except the frame and wheels.

Monday and Tuesday we climbed. We found some really unique limestone sport climbing in Canmore called Grassi Lakes. Tuesday we climbed some trad and sport climbs at Lake Louise. The climbing at both these places was great, and the views were spectacular. We met more climbers from Boulder than from any other place.

Then we drove to some Natural Hot Springs on the edge of a river. It was fun running back and forth from the hot pools to the freezing icemelt water. We also had a few long interesting conversations with some canadians.

Squamish, Canada

2007-07-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

We just left Squamish Canada, the outdoor capital of Canada. It was beautiful. The place is known mostly for it’s climbing, but also has great mountain biking, kayaking, cliff jumping, hiking, and camping. Sounds great for us, right. Well, Squamish also gets about 80 inches of rain per year, and even though july is supposed to be pretty dry, Squamish was covered in clouds and mist and rain the entire time we were there. The sun came up long enough for us to boulder a little and then climb 1 route. It was a little disappointing to look at all the big cliffs and soaked bike trails and not be able to use them.
We did happen to bump into Dave, a friend of Jonathan’s from Boulder. Dave now lives in Durango and got to Squamish the same night we got there with his friend Timmy. Dave and Timmy are a unique combination, which provided us with non-stop entertainment. They were constantly changing into ridiculous costumes, making fun of each other, throwing coffee grinds at each other, and anything else that they thought might pass the time.
After hearing that the forecast called for 5 more days of rain, we decided to pack up and leave and head towards Banff National Park. We added a few more pictures to the Picasa site again.

Clash Alert

Jonathan is pushing the limit of the maximum allowed different blue shades in one outfit, consistantly! See our photos for evidence....

Car Update
Our power steering fluid is still leaking. It got a little better once we got out of the heat of Idaho, but it’s still leaking. We took our car to a repair shop in squamish and found out that our racks & pinions were leaking, and that it would cost $1100 dollars and would be a week before they got the part. So, off we went, with a few more bottles of power steering fluid.

The Budget
Many discussions were had about our budget for this road trip, especially among our Colorado friends. Well, the budget has worked pretty well as a guideline. We did even better than our budget while back East, thanks to the hospitality of a lot of family and friends. The budget has worked well the last few weeks while camping as well. Campsites have been cheaper than expected, and, of course, we’ve spent more money at gas stations than hoped.

Seattle, Scum, Nelson, & Pictures

2007-07-16T12:22:00.000-07:00

We added more pictures to our Picasa Album. You should check it out at http://picasaweb.google.com/jowallac/NorthWestRoadTrip.

We met up with Nelson at Mt. Rainier and camped and hiked. It's a huge mountain, 14,411 feet tall, and lots of people were hiking up it to attempt to climb it. There were lines of people with huge backpacks, skis, snowboards, crampons, axes, ropes, plastic boots, and everything else all hiking up towards Camp Muir, the base camp for most summit attempts. It was fun watching these people struggle with each step up while we ran up & down the trail.

We then followed Nelson back to Seattle to his 8'x8' room he shares with another guy. Nelson showed us their plans of building a loft in the room, so that they can open the door without moving his bed. He then took us to his church, Scum of the Earth http://www.scumchurch.com/. It was cool, and the exact opposite of the church we went to in Tennessee. The name comes from I Corinthians 4:11-13. They served us dinner (tortilla soup, salad, and raspberry banana pudding), and then had church in a small room. About 30 of us sat on couches and the floor. The preacher is a former bank robber and was very open and honest about his shortcomings and how God's grace has gotten him where he is. He spoke about living a life of integrity, and that doesn't mean that you are perfect but that you are honest about who you really are. Afterwards we met Zach and Alex, who grew up in Chiang Rai Thailand and whose parents are good friends with Aje and Nancy (the couple who run the orphanage that we support). They have a friend who will be in the DTS with us this september. It was fun and encouraging to talk to them about our next steps. It was crazy how God arranged our meeting and conversation.

Now, we're heading north to Squamish, Canada to camp.

Backpacking in the Olympic Nat'l Park

2007-07-14T12:38:00.001-07:00

We just got done hiking for FOREVER. Well, it felt like forever and our legs are real tired now. The Olympic NP was beautiful and lush with huge trees covered in moss, waterfalls, big slugs, bears, deer, elk, and not many people. It's so different from the CO mountains because of all the vegetation. Even though the highest point we hiked to was 4700', the trail was very rugged. It went straight up & down (2000' vertical gain in 1.5 miles). Our first night out, we hadn't seen any people and were a little terrified at the thought of a bear snooping around our tent (Ashley made me go to the bathroom with her in the middle of the night). We didn't see any bears, but we saw plenty of fresh bear scat (pooh), and one guy we passed (who camped at the same places we did), said he had seen 4 different bears playing in the water & eating berries.

On the hike out this morning, our legs failing us, the only thing that kept us moving was jonathan's serenade to ashley of every cheesy song he knows (Bed of roses by bon jovi, I'll be there for you, Redneck woman by gretchen wilson, all of the guns & roses classics, and of course, the grand finale of Peculiar by SFC (soldiers for christ).

We wish we could have spent more time there, but now we're headed to Mt. Rainier to meet our friend Nelson from Flatirons Church.

July 12, somewhere near Mt. St. Helens

2007-07-12T12:02:00.000-07:00

Well, Monday morning we left Boulder and drove to City of Rocks in Idaho. We drove past one huge fire (55,000 acres) that was started by lightning in Southern Idaho. The fire had come all the way to the road in some spots, and you could see the flames far away in the mountains.

The camping there is so beautiful. You are in this valley with all these big rocks sticking up around you, and the sunsets every night were beautiful. It’s a nice place to relax. We did some climbing. We did a few classic 1 to 2 pitch routes from 5.6-5.10. Ashley has decided that she really doesn’t like trad climbing. She doesn’t like taking out the gear, and she thinks it takes too long. We also went for a run at sunset through a cow pasture. We would try to scare the cows off our path, but they just kept running the way we wanted to go. Cows aren’t that smart. One cow (a huge one) tried to hide behind this little bush. He acted like he was peeking his head around the bush to watch us, not knowing that we could see his ENTIRE body.

Southern Idaho is very hot. Like 100 degrees hot. While not as sticky & sweaty as the heat we encountered in Florida & Tennessee, it left us looking & longing for a pool or lake. We found a pool, but it’s only open from Wed. – Sunday. We were there Monday & Tuesday. We did find a cute little Outpost that had some great food and pies and service. We stayed there (inside) during the hottest part of the day and sipped lemonade.

For you climbers out there, Castle Rocks State Park is now open and has quite a few routes at it. The rocks & routes look very similar to the City.

Apparently this little area is becoming developed. They are widening the road to City of Rocks. This was quite a pain. As we tried to leave, we had to wait 20 minutes for a pilot car to come drive us through all the road work. We had a conversation with the lady who holds the stop sign there. I’ve always wanted to talk to one of them. This is what we learned: she works 8am – 5:30pm min. (sometimes 10pm), she can’t sit on the job or use an umbrella, she must wear pants no matter the temp. She lives in her fifth wheel so that she can relocate each summer to her new jobsite. But this sign holder is not just a rough & tough construction worker, she also works as an accountant during the winter. She is a nice lady (with 3 huge “pimping” rings on one hand) and now we have new respect for stop sign holders.

After our conversation with her, we proceeded to drive through Idaho on I-84, through more construction delays (with no real work being done), then drove along the beautiful Columbia River and watched the sunset. We knew we had a little leak of power steering fluid in our car, but it has gotten worse. We talked to a mechanic in Idaho who said it could take some time to find the leak, but that as long as we kept it full we wouldn’t damage the car. Well, the leak is getting worse, and we hope to stop soon and get it fixed.

Now, we’re camped at a little St. Park near Mt.St. Helens. We just went for a Mtn. Bike ride through th forest. It is a beautiful forest with big tall trees and ferns and moss. This afternoon, we’ll drive to the Olympic Nat’l Park and backpack for 2 nights from the Staircase trailhead.

We're Home

2007-07-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

The sight of the Rocky Mountains was VERY welcome after driving through all of kansas & eastern Colorado. It definitely feels like home, to look out the window and see the Flatirons. It's hard not to be motivated to go run or climb or bike when everywhere you look you see mountains. It also felt like home to go back to Flatirons Community Church. After visiting churches in Michigan, NC, and TN, it was nice to come back to Flatirons Church. We've heard better preaching, been in nicer buildings, but Flatirons just seems like home to us.

We visited Ashley's Mom in Hermann and her dad, step-mom and sister in Kansas City, and have been in beautiful Boulder for 1 full day. Tomorrow, we'll get an oil change and drive to City of Rocks in Idaho. We'll be back in Boulder around August 5 for Justin and Krista's wedding.

July 4!!!!!

2007-07-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

We were reading today in Phillipians 3 and it made us think of that church we went to last Sunday. Phillipians 3:3 says, “For we who worship God in the Spirit are the only ones who are truly circumcised. We put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we boast about what Christ Jesus has done for us.” It reminded us that it says many times in the Bible that it is not what we do or wear or say that makes us saved, it is by grace that we have been saved, through faith in Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 is a good verse as well. So, if anyone ever tells you that you need to wear a certain dress or suit, go to a certain church, or act a certain way to be a Christian, you can refer to these verses and tell them that these “works” will get them no closer to God.

We had a great July 4!!! We spent the last few days at the Riddle Retreat visiting with family. We also ran, swam, rode bikes and waverunners, wakeboarded, fished for catfish and brim, played ping-pong and poker. We were in the annual july 4 boat parade, where about 20 boats decorated with USA flags troll around the lake and wave to all the people on their docks. Later that night we went out on the pontoon boat again and watched some fireworks. It was fun, but not as fun as 2 years ago. 2 years ago on july 4 at the same place was when we first talked about getting married.

New Pictures Posted

2007-07-03T07:55:00.000-07:00

Check out our Picasa Web Album on the right hand side of the page to SEE what we've been up to.

We drove from Florida Keys to Chattanooga Tennessee. We bouldered and went for a run at RockTown, then climbed a few routes at Foster Falls. It is very hot & humid. We got up at 5:30am to "beat the heat" and climb, and, we still were dripping sweat after 1 climb.

SHARK!!!!!!

2007-06-28T15:36:00.000-07:00

We're now in the Florida Keys,visiting uncle Jerry & aunt Jean. We went snorkeling yesterday and Ashley saw a 6ft Nurse Shark swim right underneath her. I swam over to see what she was screaming about and saw a large barracuda, staring us down. I've never seen Ashley swim so fast back to the boat.

We got here monday night. We've been sea kayaking, snorkeling, hog-fishing (fishing with a hand line and live shrimp inside your glove, while snorkeling) and today we went deep sea fishing for dolphin fish. We caught about 20 small dolphin fish, none big enough to keep but we had a fun time catching em. On the way back, we fished some more and caught enough snapper to feed us all for dinner.

We had a great time in Fayetteville. We relaxed and spent some quality time with friends and family. We had a blast 4wheeling with mike & gloria. We also spent a few days at the beach and surfed, canoed in the cape fear ocean, and played in the sand with our nieces & nephews (Lauren, Ali, Wesley, Elijah and Isaiah). Ashley & Elijah got stung by a little jellyfish, but were tough (the sting is comparable to a wasp sting).

Fayetteville, NC

2007-06-12T08:53:00.000-07:00

We're Home!!! just kidding, but it's nice to be at my parents house with a real bed and a place to put our stuff (besides our car). We need to clean out the car soon cause it stinks like ashley's shoes.
We posted some pictures of our trip. http://picasaweb.google.com/jowallac/EastCoastRoadTrip
Yesterday we helped put up a pool at Gloria's (my sister) house. Hopefully it stands up. If not, we'll have 5 energetic & disappointed nieces & nephews to deal with. Gloria & Mike's new house in Raeford is really nice, much more fitting for a family of 7 than their old home. We also made them grilled cheese for lunch, which consisted of using 1.5 loaves of bread & a ton of cheese. A loaf of bread lasts us about a week, but for them, it lasts, 1 MEAL.

Rocky Top Retreat, The New River Gorge

2007-06-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

We're sitting on a picnic table at Roger's Rocky Top Retreat Campground at the New River in WV. We just saw a beautiful sunset and are relaxing feeling like bums. Jonathan used to camp here 10 years ago when he started climbing, and Roger remembered him and all the friends he used to climb with.

We've had a good time the past 2 days biking, climbing, swimming and bouldering at the local spots. Jason Marshal just met up with us this morning. He's a fun guy and challenges Jonathan a little especially since he's 6ft4! The atmosphere at the campsite is really laid back. Many climbers come here for the easy access to the climbing, cheap nights stay but most of all for Roger's quirky personality. He lives here and jokes around with everyone sharing tall tales, trash talk, beta on climbs, the weather and any other topic. Yesterday after hearing about Ashley's efforts to avoid poison ivy, oak and sumac he warned her that there's just no way to avoid it, it's everywhere...YIKES!!! However she's still trying with alcohol pads, sanitizer and showers that makes us stand apart from the rest of the stinky dirt bag climbers. Jonathan's even taken more showers in the last week than ever.

WE'RE BUMS!!!!!!

2007-06-02T19:31:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are now homeless & jobless, living out of BamBam (our car). Thanks to a lot of y'alls help, we gave away alot of our stuff and put the rest of it in our storage shed or our car. We both quit work May 23. We sold our house May 25. And, now we're in Michigan visiting family. Thank you so much to those of you who have helped us and encouraged us. We have been blessed by many of you. It has been amazing how God has been with us every step of the way for the last year as we visited Thailand, sold our house, quit jobs, and a lot of other steps that have all gone soo smoothly. He has definitely grown our faith & trust in Him.

We have had a good time so far, despite surviving 3 hailstorms, a lot of rain, ashley losing her cell phone (my # is 720 335 1418), not getting cell phone service at all in South Dakota, getting less than 20mpg driving through South Dakota, and gas at 3.69/gallon. We've had a great time visiting family and drinking 5cent coffee & 99 cent donuts in the world famous Wall Drug store in SD.

Be sure to check our pictures at the link over there and also don't forget that you can subscribe to this blog so that it emails you when we update it.
God Bless You,
Jonathan & Ashley

We're IN

2007-05-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

We just found out we got accepted to the YWAM DTS in Chiang Mai. Yeah. It starts Sept. 10 and lasts 5 months. Look at the link over there for more info if want it.

Our real summer plans

2007-04-26T20:01:00.000-07:00

Obviously, these plans are tentative, but, this should give you an idea of what we'll be doing this summer.

May 25, sell house
may 25-30, hang out in boulder area with Amy & Eric
May 30-June 2, climb in South Dakota around Mt Rushmore
June 2-5 Hang out in Gaylord Michigan with family
June6-7 Hang out in Kalamazoo Michigan with Angela & Justin
June 8-11 climb/camp at the New River Gorge with friends
June 12- hang out in NC with friends & family,
June 15-17 Ashley flies to KC for Jen's wedding
June 27-30 drive to the Keys in Florida to visit family
July 1-4 Drive to Jackson TN
July8, leave for the NW roadtrip. Spend a few days climbing at City of Rocks, Idaho (july 8-11), visit friends in Portland (July 12), Backpack in Olympic NP (July 13-15), Visit Nelson in Seattle, Backpack in the North Cascades (July 16-19), climb and bike in squamish and whistler (July 19-23), then stay a week in Banff NP (July 23-29). Drive through Glacier NP (July 29-30), the Tetons(July 30-31), then climb at (aug. 1-4)Wild Iris or Tensleep in Wyoming.
Aug. 5, try to make it to Keystone for Justin & Krista's wedding.

August 20? Fly to Thailand, explore the beaches of southern thailand, then make our way to Chiang Mai
Sept. 10, YWAM DTS Chiang Mai starts. this stands for Youth With a Mission, Discipleship Training School. It is a missionary training school for 5 months. it includes a lot of time in a classroom, and a lot of time doing outreach activities in Northern Thailand and China. It will be a good opportunity for exposure to lots of different things (orphanage work, building projects, and many other outreach activities)
Visit Tim & Joann in Guam
Feb. Stay in Northern Thailand, try to get settled a little, learn the language, and start trying to figure out what, how, and where we could serve most effectively.
November 2008. Return to America to visit for Christmas

1 month to go

2007-04-23T22:10:00.000-07:00

So, we now have a skype name. It is jonathanashleywallace. have you heard of skype. it is an easy cheap way to call internationally from your computer. cool. I just called ashley from this computer for 2.1 cents per minute. would have been cooler if she wasn't in the same room. Another cool thing is if you had a skype name, you could call me from your computer for free, if we were both on the internet & skype & somewhere in the WORLD.

COOL.

We're getting excited to get outta this crazy town. A lot of stuff has come together, and a lot is left to do.

See ya.

Getting Ready to Leave

2007-03-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

This is really just a test, but, we're leaving here for Thailand. Here's a quick summary of our plans for the summer.
May 25, quit work, sale house, leave boulder for a long roadtrip.
June-July: roadtrip through KC, Hermann, Jackson TN, climb in the Obed, backpack in the smoky mtns, drive through Charlotte, Fayetteville, and then return back to CO. somewhere along the way somehow we want to go to Gaylord MI and to the Keys in FL to see family.
July - August: Roadtrip to the NW to climb, bike, run, backpack