Adventures of Week 2!

Wow!  Another week already finished!  These days and weeks seem to be flying by with amazing speed!  After the first week of jumping from Hill top tribe to hill top tribe we were all thankful to be sleeping in the same place for a couple of nights in a row.  We all have such amazing memories from those hill top tribes and the people that we were able to minister to!  Keep them in your thoughts and prayers that God would keep meeting them where they are at.  Even though they have little to nothing (often not even electricity or running water) they are so content and joyful with what the Lord HAS provided for them (They are the most hospitable people you will ever meet)!

As for this week we FINALLY had our complete team with us here in Thailand!  Praise the Lord for instant unity and no weird feelings of being separated.  Since Monday is always our day off I will start with Tuesday, which was our first full day of ministry together this week.  Tuesday we had most of the day off to prepare for that night when we were traveling to yet another tribe about 30 minutes from our house, except this time was a really neat opportunity because it wasn't just us encouraging a church but we were doing a performance for a group of non-Christians!  As we drove up we were greeted by children and pigs and chickens as well as the loving women of the tribe.  They set out large rice bag mats which we would soon find out was our stage.  It was a simple performance with a few dramas and testimonies.  At the end we did what we call, "The Savior Drama" and then Solveig shared a gospel message after.  At the end we asked if anyone would like to accept Christ into their hearts.  FIVE adults and a couple children raised their hands!  What a blessing!  We were able to pray with them all as well as pray for some of the individuals with illness.  Thank you Lord for your provision!

The next day the staff took their first staff day, leaving us students to take ownership of ministry.  Pastor Sanguin took us to the local hospital where we were each placed into groups of 3 Thai and then one of us students.  Each group was designated a different floor of the hospital.  We would then knock on each door and ask if we could pray for them.  Even through the language barrier all of us agreed that it was such a special time.  A few of us even had situations where the patients knew a little English and we were able to talk to them.  With all of the groups combined we were able to pray for 146 ROOMS throughout the day!  The hospital staff was incredibly welcoming and were ecstatic to have us there.  I think we felt just as blessed as they did!

Most of Thursday was spent traveling between houses of individuals in Pastor Sanguin's church who though were Christians either worked on Sundays in the rice fields or lived to far away to make ti to service.  We prayed for each individual and just spent time letting them know how much they still meant to the church!  One of the families made a huge impact on us in the sense that there was one girl in the family who said she was christian yet her family was not.  When we got there the girl wasn't even there but the family welcomed us with open arms.  They showered us with gifts of their rice and bananas (which are INCREDIBLE!) and allowed us to pray for them.  Even though they are not Christians their hearts to serve and to bring the Kingdom were amazing!  We will continue to pray a blessing over this family!

Friday was an early morning for us all.  The family that we are staying with have a son named Prom who is in Kindergarten and part of our agenda today was to go to his school and do a performance for over 200 kids.  We did funny performances like "The Doctor Skit", we performed David and Goliath and the Savior drama.  The kids were a great audience and so fun to perform in front of!  After that we had what Bethany has designated an "outreach moment" haha.  These moments are those awkward moments on the trip where you just have to laugh.  After the school we headed to the same hospital we had prayed before.  When we got there they had told us that we were supposed to do some dramas right in the middle of the waiting room.  Now this in itself is a little awkward but bearable.  Well it gets worse!  All of our dramas have background music, but we were informed that we needed to perform all of these dramas without music or talking and without anyone telling people in the waiting room what was going on.  We did about 4 performances and then just had to laugh after each one and trust that God had a plan and will follow through.  Quite the experience!

Saturday, we performed and helped out with a Woman's Retreat for a local church.  We did dramas and testimonies and worship songs throughout the day and just encouraged the local church.  We were at this retreat from 8am til about 1:30pm and then Pastor decided to bless us with a little bit of site seeing!  We went to this temple called the "White Temple" which is incredibly appropriate and looks much like the castle out of the movie Narnia.  It was definitely an interesting place.  It was sooo beautiful on the outside yet when we walked in it was very strange to see that the walls were all decorated with superheros and movie characters and demonic figures and many other strange things... haha.  After taking a few pictures there we went to a waterfall that was close by.  It was about a 45 minute hike in straight RED MUD haha and it was such a beautiful jungle walk.  Tons of bamboo and palm tree and just green everywhere you looked!  When we finally got to the waterfall it was WELL worth it!  We all stood at the bottom and got SOAKED with the water that sprayed off of the falls.  We were seriously feet from the waterfall.  Not many of us have ever experienced anything like this.  Amazing!

All in all this week was an incredible time of ministry and fun!  We are looking forward to this next week which is our LAST week in Thailand!  Can you believe it?  Then off to India!  God has provided so much for us throughout this trip!  Especially through Pastor Sanguin and his family!  We could not be more blessed by this family, please pray that God would continue to bless their lives.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers!  We feel them every day!  A few requests would just be for sickness that has been going around our team (colds nothing serious), for strength for this final push in Thailand, that whatever ministry we are helping with this week God would use us to bring the kingdom.  Thank you so much!