Life

Wow it has been a long time since I have blogged! Well I am back in the USA now. In many ways my life right now is not as exciting or as full of adventure as it is when I am over seas, but life is good none the less. This summer has been very low key for me. I stayed home for the first time in 7 summers! Its been sad! :( I have, however spent 3 months of this year out of the country in Thailand and The Philippines! That should be enough to satisfy my need to travel, but no, it makes me want to go all the more! Well, it looks like the rest of this year I will be in this country, due to college in the fall.
The good thing about being home is that I have been able to work consistently. I have a great job as a nanny where I watch 2 adorable children (3 years and 4 months), cook and keep the house clean. Basically, I play mom and get paid for it!
In about a month I start college! I will be going to CPCC. I am excited but it still holds a lot of unknowns, and for me that is not exciting. Thankfully I know that God is always with me and will guide me.
That's all for now... em

Lapat!!!!!

On April 9th we arrived in the Philippines in the capital city of Manila. Our flights to this side of the world were quite uneventful and thankfully, I was able to sleep almost the whole way here. I really enjoyed having 2 days in Manila to rest and repack before our adventure up north began! While in Manila David introduced us to Carin, she from church and went with us to Lapat. Carin is precious, she grew up in Saudi Arabia where her dad worked but also has an underground church. She has some pretty incredible stories of life behind enemy lines. She told me that going to Lapat was her first mission trip but truly it was her first missions trip without being in danger of being caught and arrested. Carin is also a medical student which was a huge blessing up in Lapat.

Then we were off... 15 hours, a bus, a trike, and a van later we were ready to hike. The trip was long and as the view out my window began to change, it was no longer filled with images of city life but now manly rice fields and occasional villages. I started to realize just how far out we were really going. I never have thought of myself as someone who wants to go and do what no one else wants to do, but there I was hiking that mountain where few americans had ever hiked before and loving it. Now don't get me wrong the hike was hard and i think i was more out of shape than before. Thankfully with God's help and plenty of time to rest along the way we made it! I can't tell you joy that filled me when we crested the mountain and could see the river and lapat down below!

The people of Lapat are unlike any people i have ever met, they have so little in the was of material things yet they have so much joy and life. They know a level of servant hood that I have never known in my life. Pastor Victor is truly an incredible man of God who loves God and loves people. He has lived up there for more than 30 years through good times and hard times he has stood strong. He and his family are like a light house, a point of hope among stormy seas. He has truly change the atmosphere of that place and it is amazing to feel the spiritual change as we walked farther and farther from his house. Pastor Victor and his wife have 4 kids Joel, Elvi, Zahldi, and Khas. Joel and Zahldi are still living at home while Elvi is working abroad in Canada, and Khas is living here in Baguio. I have had the opportunity to get to know Khas the best of all. She is wonderful. She is a women of grace and many talents, one of which is the ability to speak 4 languages! While up in Lapat she would have to switch languages on a moment by moment basis!!

We were up in Lapat for 9 days and while we were there we distributed 12, 100lb boxes of clothes to 3 villages of people. It was so wonderful to be able to give these people clothes and show them the love of Jesus. Through the generosity of others we were able to give each adult 2 articles and each child 8 articles of clothing. It was so exciting to see kids running around in their adorable new clothes! One little girl came in and she was just wearing an old tattered shirt. My heart went out to her and I found the cutest dress in her size and put it on her! I loved it she was so precious! Being up there showed me just how many little things we take for granted.

On morning we were able to have a mini VBS for the kids. We had the kids from all three villages which means some had to hike 30 minutes just to come! The children are the life and the joy of these villages and I love every one of them. We taught them motions to the song I Know Who I Am and they loved it! These kids love too sing and a few will walk around there village singing and it was so cute to hear "I know who I am, I am yours" come out of their mouths! After the song we made signs that said "Ni Jesus ay-ayatena ni ________" which means Jesus Loves _______. We were able to put each childs name on the front as a declaration that God loves them. The kids with great patients and joy assembled their signs and decorated them! They turned out great! Ash spoke to them and we prayed over them before they went home.

Later in the week we went from house to house praying for the families and it was soo fun to see the little foam signs when we walked in the door! I think that praying from house to house is one of the most exciting and exosting things we did in Lapat! It was really amazing to feel the spiritual atmosphere change as we walked from house to house. It was then that my heart was moved for this village and these people. There is a cathlic church in Nanawton the neighboring village and many families attend mass there. In the catholic church there is a lot of deception.


This is all I have time to write now but I will write more about Lapat soon!

from Thailand to the Philippines!!!

Well it has been three weeks now since I graduated DTS. I left Thailand on February 21st and still miss it so much. We were in the US for two weeks before graduating, the first week we went to the YWAM Southeast conference in Talladega, Alabama. It was wonderful to spend time soaking up the Lord after some intense times of pouring out in Thailand. The second week we spent driving clear across the country to go speak in some of our team members churches about our trip and about YWAM Orlando. It was crazy but I loved it. We drove to Cincinnati, Ohio and from there to Chicago, and then to St. Joesph, Michigan, and back to Orlando! Our longest stretch of driving was about 22 hours!
After graduation I headed home kind of in shock that it was all over. It was so hard to leave my friends because we had become so much like family. We saw each other every day for 5 1/2 months and then all at once it was over.
Once home I started planning for my trip to the Philippines! My sisters and I will leave on April 8, 2009 and Martha and I return on May 8, where as Ashley will be staying on till July 10! This trip is very full as usual which will keep us quite busy! For the first week Ashley, Martha, and I are headed back up the mountain to go to Lapat (a small mountain village). Please pray for us because we have non stop travel from when we leave Charlotte to when we get to the foot of the mountain where we hick 3 hours up to Lapat. After Lapat we will be Baguio working with a local church doing worship focused ministry. I am so excited about what God wants to do during this trip! And now I really should start packing!

Where has time gone?

This trip has gone by way to fast. We only have 4 more days in Thailand. I am really sad because I really love this country and its amazing people. I have really mixed emotions right now because I want to stay here, but I also want to go because we have the rest of DTS to finish and people to see. I would love to come back here one day.
Our time with the MST project went really well. I honestly enjoyed working with this ministry. Yes, it was hard at times, but all in all it was good. During our last week with the MST two other teams came to join us for a total of 50 people. It was good, but it got crazy at times. Because there were more of us, some were able to go out and do surveys, and the rest of us were in prayer groups.
I wanted to tell you about one of the conversations I had when I went out with MST. A group of us walk 25 min to the next red-light district. It is called Soi Cowboy. Soi Cowboy is a street that is lined with go go girl clubs and bars with love hotels up above. It is a very hard place to be. We were split into our survey groups and I was with Shea (one of the guys in our team). Anyway, we stood there like normal and asked the men walking by if they would like to take an anonymous survey. After a while, a man walked up to us and told us that he would take it. We never got his name but he spoke to us for like 45 mins about everything from prostitution to God to the Olympics. It was a really great conversation. He told us that he was from Canada and he is in the military stationed in Afghanistan. He was here in Thailand on holiday. He informed us that he was only at Soi Cowboy out of curiosity not sexual services, but a lot of men tell us that. One of the coolest parts for me was after we finished our conversation, he walked into Soi Cowboy and about 20 min later he walked out and struck up another conversation with us. I don’t know if anything we talked about changed his plans for the night, but I would like to think it did.
Over this past week, 2 more teams have joined us with the MST Project, which brings our numbers to 50 people! It has been a blessing in a way because our influence is greater, but it is also hard to work alongside people I really don’t know very well. Last night we crammed everyone into Vashi’s Tailor shop and did it in. The floor was already showing a crack but Saturday night something like a sink hole took place and the shop is basically caving in on itself. Not good! The men on our team are worked very hard to fix this crazy problem. They were able to cover the hole with wood but the bigger issue is still there.
On Sunday we went to the market! It was crazy! This market is only open on the weekend and covers 28 acres of land and has over 10,000 vendors! Yes Crazy! It is really fun and I love markets. This was like no other market I have ever been to because it had everything from food, to cute little clothing, to jewelry stores and animals. We went out in groups of 4 and all was good until we lost one of the guys in our group. It was really hard because there was nothing I could do. I miss cell phones! Thankfully, by the grace of God, we all met up right before we got taxis to come home. All in all, it was really fun.
Today we are going to the Island! I am excited! Our entire team is elated! We will only be there for 3 days but they are 3 greatly anticipated days! I don’t know anything about this place, so I don’t know it they have internet; but if they do, I will put up pics then.

Crazy Week

This week has been pretty intense. Along with working with the MST project 5 nights a week, we are also helping the YWAM Thailand base by helping them clean and do a ton of painting! It really has been a blessing to them because painting is very important but they are under staffed and can't do it without help. The first few days I was on touch up painting and painting doors! Now I am going to another office to help paint. It has been fun.
Our schedule has been insane because we have been working about 6 hours a day painting and then a 6 hour night shift with MST! God has been good and given us the strength to push on without getting sick.
Us praying in the tailor shop.
We lost one of our team members last week. :( Lacey's Grandmother went into kidney failure and her mom needed her home. It was very hard to lose Lacey and she has been greatly missed.
For Lacey's last dinner with us we went out for pizza!
On Thursday we went to Cambodia to get visas! It was a pretty long trip but it provided a lot of think time. It was kind of sad for me to get a visa for Cambodia and not be able to actually go in to the country.
Our time here has flown by I am very sad. We only have a week of ministry left and a half a week of a debrief time and then we are off! Before we left Karl told us that there was a possibility for us to have our debrief on an island! When we got here however and found out that we were going to have to make 2 visa runs to two different countries, the island was out of the question. But, God had different plans... a anonymous donor gave our team enough money to cover the rest of our outreach cost as well as our trip to the island!!!!!! We are all pretty excited and very blessed.
As we approach the end of our trip please pray that we continue to press into God and all he has for us in this time rather than just coasting to the end.

MST Project

  This last week has truly been amazing! Monday was my 20th birthday! It is pretty crazy to think that I am no longer a teenager! This was my first birthday without Martha and I missed her. I had a good birthday, plus my friends bought ice cream and sang to me! I felt pretty special. 
  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we did 12 hour prayer for a ministry called the MST Project. MST stands for Male Sex Tourist or Men involved with the Sex Trade. This is the ministry that we are working with here in Bangkok and it was amazing to start our ministry immersed in prayer. Each team member prayed 6 hours a day. It really was a wonderful time spent with the Lord to begin to get his heart for these men and this ministry. If you would like to know more about the mst project go to:
http://www.mstproject.com/Vision.html 
  This wasn’t the ministry we all were originally planning to work with but, it became evident to our leadership that this was the ministry we were supposed to work with. To be completely honest I was pretty upset when I found out, I wanted to work with the women, they were the ones hurting and trapped not the men, they were just the creepers who keep these girls bound. That is what I thought, but it’s not true, these men are just as hurt and broken as the girls. Plus without the men there is no sex trade. These men are from all over the world and represent broken families and broken lives. Most of them are 35+ and are from Europe and the USA. There are 3 main red light districts in Bangkok and the MST Project works in all 3 but their main focus is Nana Plaza. That is where we have gone. There is a Christian tailor who has a shop right in the area of Nana Plaza, He opens his shop up at night for us to come pray and intercede before going out and while groups are out talking to the men. When we go out we go in groups of 3 with a clipboard and survey sheets. The survey is both a tool to get into conversations with the men as well as to give us a better understanding of who these men are and why they come to the red light district. The survey is anonymous and the questions range from “what country are you from?” to “What are your personal views on prostitution?” So far I have only been out for 1, 1 hour slot and I have spent the rest of the time in the tailor shop praying. 

Chiang Mai

I am in Chiang Mai! We left Pai two days ago. It was really hard to go because there are amazing people up there. The night before we left P-noi asked me if I was going to miss her. It was so sweet. She told me that she was going to miss me a lot. She is a phenomenal cook and I would go in the kitchen and help her. She is funny, she doesn’t speak much English but she laughs a lot.
Yesterday we went to Myanmar to renew our visas. So we were in the back of a pickup truck for 8 hours! We were hoping and praying for a 30 day visa but we were only given 15 days. That means we have until the 6th of February to leave the country or get another visa. I am not sure yet what we will end up doing but I will keep you posted. Myanmar was a very interesting place, we were only there for an hour but it was amazing how much poorer it was than Thailand.
Today we get to chill and rest at a wonderful guest house in Chiang Mai! Tonight we take a 10 hour night bus to Bangkok! I will updated you when I get there.

Teaching in Pai

Kids! 
On Thursday and Friday afternoon we went up to a town outside of Pai, it was only about a 20 min drive away. There is a small church up there and we did a mini VBS for about 35 kids from the area. Each day we prayed about what God wanted the theme of the day to be and each time he gave three of us the same thing! On Thursday our theme was LOVE and Jesus’ love for us. Then on Friday our theme was JOY and the joy God gives us. The kids were so sweet I really enjoyed spending time with all of them. They loved duck, duck,… goose! I don’t think they have ever played it before. 







 
 
Church! 
I was really excited about going to Church on Sunday because we had been here at the church a week but never seen what a Sunday morning was like. It was really good. The congregation is quite small even though we are in a highly populated area, only about 11 people. Half of our group did the kids ministry and the other half stayed in the service. I was in the service. It really was a precious time and I am excited we are going to be here until the 22nd of Jan. Please be praying that we would be able to effectively go more in depth into the word and all that God has for them. P-nom and P-noi are deacons in the church, and since there is no pastor at the moment, they do a lot for the church. They are also the most precious people you will ever meet. P-nom has a pick-up-truck and we go everywhere in it! 
 
We have two translators, Anna and Kwan who are amazing. They are precious women of God! It has been a lot of fun getting to know them! They are both in their late 20’s and married. Anna is very sweet spirited and Kwan in spunky, they are so funny together. 
 
School!
Yesterday we started a new school! This school has 160 students and unlike the last school this one is a day school. The atmosphere seemed different, the teachers and the kids seemed happier. My group of 4 taught 28, 6-10 year olds! It was pretty crazy but a lot of fun. I really think this is one of my favorite ages to teach. We taught them colors and we colored pictures. I was actually quite impressed with their drawing ability! We also drew the body and sang head, shoulders, knees, and toes. It was really fun. Please pray for fun and creative ways to teach English and share the gospel with these kids and their teachers.
 
Team!
Please pray for my team, a number of people have been struggling with sickness and just not feeling their best. Over the weekend 6 people were pretty sick but now thankfully everyone is on the up. Thankfully God is bigger than sickness and the devils schemes. Sunday, Shea had a bike accident and came back quite beat up. Ouch. It took Sahlyn and I and a lot of gauze and tape to bandage him up! 
 
 Other than that our team has been great. I have been blessed by everyone’s good attitudes and servant hearts! 

Pai!

We are in Pai! We arrived Sunday the 4th via a Tuk Tuk (back of a pickup truck). It was about a 3 hour drive! Being here we have seen a shirt that says, “Pai 725 turns” so yeh, it was a pretty crazy trip up the mountain! Thankfully, no one got sick! Pai is an amazing place. It is like a combination of Hippy culture, Thai culture, and tourist culture. Apparently, Pai is the last stop on the famous Hippy Trail, which means it is a real destination for hippies. The spiritual atmosphere is really intense and we have to be really aware that we are always under attack. It is good to recognize these things and come against them. Monday we started teaching English! Honestly, it was something I really didn’t want to do because I feel like I’m not that great at English and I’m not that great at teaching, but thankfully it has been better than I expected. We will be teaching in the mornings over the next 2 weeks in local schools. The school we are in this week is a boarding school of 600 students from grades 1-12 and only 2 English teachers in the whole school. Part of our time is in a classroom teaching basic English and the other part is one on one conversational English with the older students. The first day we were at the school it was very hard because we didn’t know what to expect but thankfully it has just gotten easier since then. Yesterday I helped teach the 1st graders. I had to create a lesson plan on the spot because we had prepared for the wrong age group. We ended up teaching them colors and they loved it. It was a lot of fun. Today I had a group of 5, 16 year olds and I helped them with their pronunciation of their vocab words. They were very sweet but so shy it was hard to get them to really talk.
In the evenings we go out in groups of 3 and talk to anyone who speaks English. Some of the conversations we bring up God and some we just build relationships. Our leaders have really encouraged us to make friends and meet up with them throughout the time we are here. It has been fun. More stories to come…
We are staying at the only church in Pai and it is located right in the middle of the town. Some of the girls and I are staying in a room in the back of the church and the others are staying in a house next door. It is really awesome.

Fun day

I'm in THAILAND!!!!!! It is so good to finally be here! Our trip was good but very long with a total of 22 hours of flying time. We got in to Bangkok New Year’s morning at 1am. I got to sleep like five hours then we had orientation and a scavenger hunt and we left that evening for Changmai! Yesterday we went to a Buddhist temple way up in the mountains. It was beautiful in a way but I could feel the spiritual oppression was very heavy. The temple we went to is one that many Buddhists take pilgrimages to.
Today we went on an excursion! First we rode on elephants! It was pretty crazy!  It was quite a bumpy ride, and a few times I really felt like I was going to fall off! It was an amazing experence.

Next we went to a beautiful waterfall! It was  fun we got to get close to the water and I got really wet and cold!
Our trip down the river on the bambo raft was probably my favorite! I rode with Shea and Lish and it was a bit of a wild ride, and yes I did fall in!