It's Raining

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



















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



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

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

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

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

Hello Again

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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!!!

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.

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.