Praise God for all He is doing!

August, 2013, was an exciting month. A teammate of mine and I began meeting with a few Thai people at our kid's school. We began doing some lessons with them that we have written for this purpose. The first week one man choose to accept Jesus as his Savior. The following week my teammate taught he and his wife about baptism and both wanted to be baptized right away (she was already a Christian).

It was so exciting as we all gathered for this very special day!

We all rejoiced as the whole household (Dad, Mom and Son) had received Jesus and now were all being baptized.

After baptism we spent some time praying over each one of them.

Even as you look at this picture I ask you to pray that this Dad will be the leader of his home God intended and that all of them will love Jesus deeply and fulfill His desires on this earth. Pray that they will be oaks of righteousness with very deep roots in the Word.

Thank you God for these lives that have been changed for all eternity!

Back to School, August, 2013

It is that time of year again, back to school time! It came very quickly after a really busy summer with much outreach going on.

And here they are ready to leave for the first day of school. David is teaching part-time at the kid's school, Davis is in 8th grade and Samantha is a Senior this year. They were all excited for a new year!

Soon after the school year began we had Crazy Hair Day at school. This is always a fun day for all the kids at school. Samantha was the designer for Davis, David and her hair. Just in case you can't tell, Davis' hair is blue. David says, "you have to work with what you got!", since he doesn't have much hair on his head.

Highlight of the Spring, 2013

One of the highlights of our Spring this year was a family camping trip

One of the things our family has always loved to do is camp. We have not been since before we moved to Thailand so this trip was so exciting for us all. We had no idea what to expect going camping in Thailand.

It was absolutely beautiful. We camped on Doi Inthanon which is the highest mountain in Thailand. 

This trip was all about relaxing, playing games and just enjoying each other in the beautiful surroundings. We also were camping next to a hill tribe so we had many people all around and we loved seeing them all. These family times away are so very important when you live in another country and in the midst of a spiritual battle all the time. Trips like these truly are a gift from the Lord!

There were so many beautiful waterfalls and tropical areas and we went to a new one every day. This one was a favorite for the kids!

One day we spent the whole day in this popular swimming/tubing area. It was bigger than what is in this picture and it was full of people and seriously, we were on the only non-Asian people in the whole group. This was during the week of Songkran, which is a water festival they celebrate here so all week long as you go down the road people are splashing cars, etc. Well as we were tubing here I saw the look in a young boy's eye and he wanted so badly to splash Davis. I told Davis this and told Davis just to splash the boy with a little splash and see. He did it and within 5 minutes the whole place erupted with a water splash war and much laughter. Wow, we had really started something but everyone had so much fun, they just needed someone daring to start it and Davis did.

Here's our stunt guy, Davis, hanging from a bridge. He loved all the adventurous things this trip offered but he made Samantha a little nervous.

The beauty of the Lord was everywhere and it was breathtaking!

And of course a camping trip would not be a camping trip without smores. But you see you can't get marshmallows and graham crackers here; however, a dear friend had sent us a care package a little before we went on our trip and in it she had all the ingredients for smores, including the biggest marshmallows we have ever seen. She didn't know we would be going on this trip but I believe God just decided to bless us in this way through her and her husband. What a perfect surprise!

 And a great time was had by all!

Easter, 2013

He is risen!

What a joy to come together, in these beautiful gardens, as a community of believers on Easter Sunday morning to worship, pray and cry out for the salvation of the Thai people. Easter is always a hard day in that you realize just how very thankful you are for what Jesus has done for us but sad in that it brings the reality that there are so many here who do not know the love of Jesus. Come Lord Jesus and make Yourself known in this country!

Celebrating birthdays in April, 2013

April is a big month for birthdays in our home and we celebrated them all!

First it was David's birthday on April 4, and we always start off the day with our traditional birthday muffins

In the evening we celebrated at one of David's favorite restaurants. David is having to check out Davis' pizza

Then back to the house where these 2 acted silly until I finally brought out the "birthday cake"

Well not actually a birthday cake, but a birthday pie! You see David loves pecan pie and pecans do not exist in Thailand. But his mom sent some pecans in the mail and I was able to find all the ingredients so we had pecan pie instead. This was a huge treat for us all!

After David's birthday it was time for Naa's birthday. Naa is our house helper who lives with us but we just see her as one of our family.

We celebrated with dinner and then Davis served her birthday cupcake.

Then we finished with presents. This is to brighten up her room.

On April 17, we celebrated Samantha's 17th birthday. Her friend and mentor also joined us.

She chose mango and sticky rice for her birthday "cake"

A few days later she celebrated her birthday with friends and family at a Chiang Rai United soccer game, which she loves!

After the game we continued the celebration with her traditional birthday ice cream cake (which is not easy to make in the hottest month of the year in Thailand) and then a sleepover with all the girls!

Conference in Singapore

In March, 2013, Samantha and Sharon set out for an adventure to Singapore. We had never been there before so this was exciting!. This is Samantha in the airport having to do homework since she is missing a few days of school.

Here is the crew we went with. As you can see most are young people and they really wanted to hear from God and learn more about Him as they were there.

 Every morning started with an early morning bus ride and the day was very full with speakers and time alone with God. It was very powerful for us all!

The man on the left was our host for the conference. He and his wife hosted us in their home and they were so kind as they provided for meals and stayed up with us late into the night hearing all the stories from the day. This is our last day in Singapore and he even took us sightseeing before we had to jump on the plane! This family is such a blessing to us all!

As we were sightseeing we were even able to go to the beach and found a baptism going on. This was so exciting for us to see! We returned refreshed, renewed and ready to continue to move forward in all God has for us to do in Thailand!