New Generation For Christ

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

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

A few Testimonies of Students from Central Thailand

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

Nam

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

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

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

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

Att

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

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

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

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

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

Best

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

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

Staff Training Week

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ashley Dancing Aerobics

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

Thailand is Sanuk Sanuk (fun fun)!!!

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

Prajuab Team Retreat

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

Basketball Tournament

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

Climbing in Lopburi

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

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

SONGKHRAN!!!

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

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

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

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

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

1. touch the head of anyone over 5 years old

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

3. do anything to someone older than you

4. throw things to anyone

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

More at home in Lopburi

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

We Found a Home

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

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

2 Year Anniversary

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

Learning Thai

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

New Friends

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

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

We Made It!!!

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

The Train Ride

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

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

We added some more pictures as well.

WOW!!!

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

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

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

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


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

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

Top of the World!!!

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

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

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

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