Welcome 2011!

Well, it is a new year, and January has already zipped past me. I have a feeling that time will be moving  at super speed from now on. Time to bring you up to speed. So far this month most of our ministries have remained the same with a couple of new additions.
      
I have started a baking class! I am very excited about have had a lot of fun with it so far. Even though most Thai's don't have an oven, they love to bake and make "foreigner food" as they call it. It gives me a chance to do something I love and spend time with my Thai friends. We meet together once a week, and bake what they request. I have even had a chance to learn some Thai desserts as the same time!

       We also had our first official University drop-in this month. One of our goals is to meet students at the Phuket Universities and then invite them to the center for events. We would love to draw more young adults age people to the church. We know that this will take time. A lot of our usual friends came but no new people that we met at the University. We are planning to go their every week to hang out with them at lunch times. We will need to build relationships their before most of them will be willing to come to our center. Keep praying for good relationships!

    
One of my most exciting stories this month is of my language teacher Dtuk. My relationship with her has been growing and she has become a good friend. Her family has also become very involved in our center and our events. They have even started coming to church. Dtuk usually is helping in the kitchen but she loves being there. she has also had some amazing conversations with the missionaries Becky and Cynthia. she told them that she has been noticing good differences between Christians and Buddhists. I think she is becoming very interested in Christianity. She and her children love coming to the center and being around us. Her husband is also warming up to us! I am very excited as Dtuk and her family have become very special to me, and I know they are special to God. Keep praying for them that their hearts would soften towards Jesus and they would be willing to open their hearts to him!

Dtuk teaching me how to cook Thai

Another new ministry we have begun is teaching English to highschool students at a local school two days a week. This school is a little less privileged than others and doesn't always have good English teachers. Our classes are pretty fun as they mostly consist of playing games and having fun! We have really connected with one of the teachers there who is a Thai English teacher. she translates for us in the classroom. Her name is Dtoom. Last week we had a great conversation with her about Christianity. She said she had a friend who was a christian who she went to church with once. She said she has always been interested in Christianity but her husband is very buddhist and against it. Please pray for them that their heats would be softened and our relationship with her would be fruitful!

Next month we have a retreat coming up and many other fun events planned. Never a dull moment!

Over this next month please pray for:
- new relationships
- for transformation in the lives of the people we already do know
- for a spiritually, emotionally, and physically refreshing retreat for our team

- also for two of our Thai believers whose house just got broken into. Many things were taken of the little they had. Pray that they would not be discouraged and that we would be able to meet their need.

Christmas in Thailand!

Despite the fact that Thai's don't officially celebrate Christmas, we were very busy this season! I got to participate in all the "normal" Christmas activities, it was just hotter and all in Thai haha!. We started with some very rigorous Christmas baking, which we used at all our events and to give as gifts to friends. 

We also did took part in a Evangelistic Christmas Festival that the churches of Phuket put together. It was very successful and many of our Thai friends came and heard a great message about Jesus! they all said they had a great time.

Then we participated some Christmas caroling in a hospital, villages, and church with Thai Christmas carols! Pretty fun. The hospital was especially amazing. We spoke with many people and prayed with them, shared the love of Jesus and hopefully brought a little joy into the place!

Caroling at the hospital

Christmas Party for the kids in the village

We also managed to have our own Christmas dinner together with our missionaries in the midst of all the events! we finished off with our Church's Christmas party in which there was games, prizes, and Christmas songs and sharing the Christmas message. Lots of people came which was great and we are getting to be quite well known in our community!

We now have a little holiday to recuperate, but next month we will be starting again in January at full force! Please pray for our continuing ministries: English class, youth, sports in the park, music class, and also for our language teachers. These are people in our neighborhood who we get to spend consistent time with and have become our friends. We have a great opportunity to witness to them and to build relationships with them. My language teacher's name is Dtuk. She has a husband and two children and lives next door in her restaurant. She is very fun and Has been getting more involved in our church. I pray that God does a work in her and her family's life.

God bless you all!

Month 1 Completed!

Well, Month 1 has been very busy and full of surprises. After completing our orientation with the Oullettes in the first week, we spent time preparing for the ministries we would be involved in, and working with a DMI (Discipleship Making International) team from BC, Canada who came to do some evangelism with us. We spent a couple afternoons in the two major universities in Phuket hanging out with the students and sharing our testimonies. Although this may sound a bit bold for us Canadians, I have learned that Thai people are very open to talk about spirituality because with 95% of the population being Buddhist, they are a very spiritual and religious people. What is more difficult, is explaining to them the concept of Christianity and how it applies to them. This religion is very foreign to them and takes some careful explaining. During those two days, we were able to have some good conversations about Christianity with them, and start some relationships that can hopefully be continued during our stay in Thailand














The next week we traveled to Chonburi, Thailand, to visit Karen and Ricky Sanchez (part of Team 2000), to do some orientation with them about missionaries in Thailand, and help them with whatever needed. This trip was especially great for me because I finally got to see the founding MB church in Thailand, and meet some of the people that I have been hearing about from my church's missionaries Dave and Louise Sinclair-Peters. We also ran an after school kids program for the neighborhood kids in the community of Angsila where we were staying. It was a very fun week and it was neat to see another part of Thailand. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to the Tiger Zoo, and a day in Bangkok!

Since we have been back, we have been enjoying a more regular schedule and preparing for the ministries we will be involved in the rest of our stay. These will include:
Mondays - Teaching English to a childrens class in a Thai school, and sports in the park with the locals (our team really enjoys this night just to have fun and make friendships)
Tuesdays -One-on-one Thai  language learning with Thai neighbor, and sports in the park with kids from the neighboring slum followed by bible story
Wednesdays - English class in Thai school, and English class for Adults at our center in the evening (We have made some great relationships here and many have been drawn to our church because of this class!)
Thursdays - One-on-one Thai  language learning, Bible/English lesson for kids in a village nearby, and guitar lessons for Highschool/University age
Fridays - One-on-one Thai  language learning, Youth group for missionary kids of Phuket every other week, and possible University student drop in.
Saturdays - Church in the evening!

Its a full week and there are lots of opportunity to make some meaningful relationships and connect with the people around us. More updates to come, and feel free to check out my pictures!

Thailand!!!!

Well, here I am! My team and I have arrived in Thailand after 20hrs of traveling (including a 3 hour lay over in Korea). So far we have just settled into our residence (Phuket Life Center) and done some orientation around the city and into Thai culture.

We also had our first language lesson today! It was pretty fun but a little overwhelming. Got to practice those tones! But I did notice that I started to hear some of the things we learned in the Thai people's speech. That was encouraging.

Tonight we are going shopping at the big shopping center in Phuket called the Big C. Apparently it is like Walmart. We have done some walking and shopping just around the local shops and "restaurants" as well (they are more like street vendors or hot dog stands with tables and chairs beside them). That was pretty neat and helped us get right in to the culture and especially the food. I haven't encountered anything unexpectedly spicy yet but I know that will come. And the Lord will give me strength! lol.

I am very excited to jump right into learning the language and connecting with the people just as soon as I regain my energy and sleep! It has been great learning from Greg and Becky Oullette and their kids! I can tell we are going to have a great time with them!