Thai house church

Our purpose in being here in Thailand is to share Jesus with the Thai people, disciple them and then train them to do the same and train them to lead house church. We want to do this so that the truth of Jesus will spread quickly by creating house churches all over Thailand led by Thai people.

A few weeks ago we were asked to lead house church for 3 weeks for a group that usually meets in another home for house church. These are not people that we have trained and some of them don't know Jesus yet. This was the group we had the first week

As David read the Bible story that week they acted it out. They had a lot of fun doing it and it really stuck with them. Before they left we all got in groups of 2 and shared the story and the 3 main points with each other. This was our practice so we could share it with others that week. Then they had to make a list of 3 people they would share it with. One girl came back the next week and shared it with all 3 people she had listed. Praise God! She is a believer but shared with 3 who are not.

This young man with Davis is Uno. We love Uno and want him to know the love of Jesus and receive Him for himself. Please pray that he and his 2 brothers will come to receive Jesus. Actually pray for his whole family to receive Jesus.

It was really good to get to model how to lead house church for them all and it is our prayer that they will receive Jesus and will be willing to allow us to disciple and train them so that the gospel will spread quickly here in Thailand. Please pray for that as well.

The 2nd week Samantha led our worship time and we read a Psalm all about who God is and then while playing worship music in the background they drew pictures showing what happens in the scripture and how all of creation is proclaiming the truth of who God is. It was powerful just to see them really get this and draw out the truth. May it sink deep into their hearts and minds and bring salvation and much fruit!

Fun at school!

This year Davis decided to play volleyball at school. This was his first time but did really well. They have had much fun and worked hard to have a good season. Here are some pictures of one of their games against a local Akha group.

This is the middle school team. As you can see they have a lot of fun together.

Davis has a pretty strong serve which really helps when you need some points!

And of course you have to have proud parents cheering them on (I think you recognize one of them)

 

This past weekend we had a 4X4 Volleyball tournament at the school that anyone could have a team in. This was Samantha's team. She was asked to play on this team of girls and one girl's Dad. The girls had never played but Dad was good. So the girls decided they needed to look good since they might not actually be good. So they did look good with paint on their face and bows in their hair (even Dad wore the bows to be a team player). They actually turned out pretty good and was 2nd in their pool of teams.

I didn't get a picture of Davis' full team but here are 2 members. Kruu Baht is a teacher at their school. He is not as tall as David by the way, he made David scrunch down. They had 2 Thai people and 2 Americans on their team and they did quite well also. Everyone played hard and played a lot. There were 18 teams so it lasted all day but was a good day! The Thai people are so much fun when they are involved with things like this so we all had a great time!

 

Treats in the midst of our days

The weekend before school began for the kids David decided we should go away for a weekend as a family and spend some time just enjoying each other and also looking toward the new school year and what God desires for it. This was a very special time for our family and David led us well!

David took the Word and envisioned us for this next season of what God wants for our family. Our focus is that God wants to glorfiy Himself through us by us loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others as ourselves.

 



Then we took that family mission and prayed through what that meant for each of us. In our times of praying and planning we would pray individually and ask God what He wants us to do in this next school year. We would hear from Him and then set and write goals accordingly. You might think kids wouldn't enjoy this but they really did because it gave purpose and direction to their days ahead and helped them know how to plan their days. After coming home, we all took our planners and scheduled out the things God had given us to do.

We also played games, went swimming, went hiking and had much fun together as a family. It was truly a blessed weekend and we came back refreshed and envisioned as a family for this next season.

 

When we got back from our vision weekend we had another treat waiting on us. My Mama and Daddy had sent us a package with canned chili. I know that doesn't sound great to you probably but it was like gold to our kids, especially Davis. When we use to live in the States we would have special nights as a family where we would have canned chili(because that is the kind Davis likes best) and grilled cheese sandwiches. It was his favorite and they don't have that here. Since we were not able to have it in the States, my parents mailed it here. It was a real treat!

 

We also received another package from a dear friend in TX. This was a real surprise treat because we had just gotten back from America and didn't expect to receive a package for a long time from anyone since we had just been there. But she sent one anyway and they are always fun no matter what!

 

We really don't take things for granted any more. We are so blessed by all of you as you pray for us, support us, send us encouraging emails, cards in the mail, send us treats and so much more. We thank God for each and every one of you!



Graduation Day - WOOOHOOOO!

The day was finally here and Samantha and Davis said, "this is a big deal, we have to be there!" So they joined us for our graduation. David and I are dressed in typical University uniform for this special day, Aug. 31, 2012.

This is me with the President. He puts the stole around your neck and then gives you the certificate. It is very formal and official.

And of course, David received his certificate as well.


 

At the end there were many pictures to be made. This is us with Aajans and classmates. We really will miss our classmates (they will go back to China) and we will miss seeing our Aajans daily, but we do plan to see them off and on. Please pray they will all come to know the love of Jesus personally for themselves.

 

 

Back to school!

Our family returned to Thailand and got back to our house on Saturday, Aug. 4, and then it was back to the University for David and I on Monday. Jet lag and all we showed up and praise God He helped us to remember the Thai language. We jumped right back in, got caught up and about 3 weeks later we were finished.

These are the sweet people we were in class with all day 5 days a week for 10 months and now we had finished.

Our very kind Aajans (teachers) invited our class out to dinner the day we finished our finals. They took us to this Japanese restaurant which was actually very good.

Here are 2 of my Aajans which I just love so much. We have a great time together always. We laughed so much that night!

 

Sweet time with family

We were also very blessed to be able to spend some time with family while in the States. It was only a little over a week but we made the most of the time we had and loved it all!


First, we surprised my Mama by showing up a day early to celebrate her birthday. It was genuinely a birthday SURPRISE! (As you can tell by my Daddy's face)

We had fun celebrating and I think they were glad we were there. I was so happy to see my Daddy in person and see he was well after having open-heart surgery. It just did something for my heart.

 

The next morning we left for a getaway to TN, where someone had offered a free cabin for us to stay in together with our family to spend some time relaxing and enjoying each other. This was the amazing view we were able to see each day. It was just what we all needed.

This is at the cabin in TN and David's mom and Dad were able to be there (Dad not in this picture) and my Mama and Daddy and of course our kids and me and David. It was a great get-away!

Here's David's Dad, otherwise known as "Grandpapa". Samantha and Grandpapa are sitting at our big dinner table and ready to eat. This was a favorite time for the 4 of us. We realized just how much we had missed American food so we enjoyed every bite!

We even had this little fellow that liked to come and visit us in the evening. We stayed inside and he stayed outside!

Davis made some delicious homemade ice cream

We played lots of games and even went to play putt-putt a time or two!

I think when you spend time with family a lot or live near them you can really start to take them for granted. But when you are a world away, times like these are so very precious. We did not take a single minute of this time for granted and are so thankful and so blessed for all of you who made this trip possible through your giving to us. You brought more joy to all of us than we would ever be able to describe. Thank you!

 This was a highlight for all of us...mexican food. We have really missed it!

We had this final meal with our family and some sweet goodbyes and then...

...it was back to the airport and headed back to Thailand. It was sad to say goodbye but it was good as we returned back to Thailand to realize it really was home as well. We had really missed our home and all our new friends in Thailand. We are back and ready to start sharing the gospel and planting house churches.

Trip to the States for International Conference

July 12, came quickly and it was off to the States for a short trip to our sending organization's conference. We were excited to be refreshed and renewed at the conference but not excited about the long trip there.

Our trip began by sweet Thai friends taking us to the bus station in our city.

Then some of the kid's school friends suprised us by showing up to say "goodbye". You would have thought we were going to be gone a lot longer than 3 weeks. It was quite nice. They all waited with us until our bus arrived.

And we are off on a 3 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai where we will catch a plane!

The Thai people were great as they assisted Samantha in getting a wheelchair at the airport. If you remember, the Dr. had said since she had the leg injury she would have to have wheelchair assistance in the airports. It was a huge help!

We arrived in Seoul, Korea, very tired and ready to relax for a while. Davis took over as Samantha's protector and he pushed her wherever she needed to go for the rest of the trip, which was a lot because we got on 5 different airplanes on this trip.

When Samantha was laying down Davis decided to sit in it just to see how it was. I think he preferred walking.

This was our little home away from home in Korea as we had a 12 hour layover. We pushed 3 of these together and for a long time we were all 4 sleeping on them together. We were worn out! This picture was after some rest!

Well, we finally made it to the States but still have a way to go, we are now in Seattle, Washington!

Still jetlagging we finally made it to our International Conference (ICON 12). This was the resort where we had the conference and just the scenery itself cried out to the greatness of God!

We were so blessed at ICON for many reasons. They had so much planned for the week for our kids. They had great times of worship, prayer, testimony, and teaching to really stir up more faith in them all and more love for Jesus. But they also had many great times of fun as well. One surprising thing was the weather. It was really cold there and coming from Thailand, where it was really hot, that was somewhat unexpected. We had on jackets and sweatshirts all week, which was kind of fun!


REUNITING WITH FRIENDS AT THE CONFERENCE WAS SO MUCH FUN!!!

This is our teammate's daughter Joy. We were so excited to see them because they had been in the States all summer!

And Samantha and Davis made lots of new friends. It was good for them to be able to spend a lot of time with other missionary kids around the world who really understand them. So now they both have new friends!

It was the day to leave the conference and we had to leave at 6AM to catch a flight. Samantha and Davis had a faithful friend working at the conference from TX, David, who got up just to come and say goodbye! We had a wonderful time at our conference. We were truly refreshed, renewed and faith was stirred greatly to continue to expect the harvest as we head back to Thailand.