It is amazing to see the affects of prayer! This last week was our very last week here in Thailand and all of us were just really feeling like we needed to dive into more prayer for a deeper connection with the people we were ministering to even though there was an extreme Language difference. One day in the back of the pastor's truck we all sat for a little over an hour and just prayed and gave our relationships with the people in ministry into God's hands (we all were laughing because we felt like God was saying "Finally! IT is about time!" haha). The day after this happened an extreme change in the connection with people changed! God is so good and merciful even when we as humans seem to not even get the simple things!
This week started off with our day off (every Monday is our day off) and BOY did we have an adventure! We got to RIDE ELEPHANTS in THAILAND! We all agreed that it was one of the most amazing experiences ever! Pastor took us up into the hills where there was this one hill tribe that was actually almost all christian and they ran this elephant riding business. We all got to ride for an hour through the hills and rice fields. Breath taking beauty all around us and we were even allowed to ride on the head of the elephant for a little while instead of just having to stay on the chairs on their back the whole time! We all felt so blessed to have this opportunity! Tons of pictures! After that we headed to the hill tribe pastors house where he had a HUGE anaconda snake! Of course our whole team had to hold this as well because we were now accomplished elephant riders, how could we turn down a GIANT snake? This tribe of people were amazing individuals who really displayed God's character! Needless to say this was a DAY TO REMEMBER!
Tuesday and Wednesday we taught and ran an English camp for about 40, 13-18 year olds who were a part of a center where Ying worked (the pastor's wife who we are living with). We got to teach things like verbs, nouns, adjectives, common phrases, and penmanship. These kids were so eager to learn and really did remember tons of information we through at them! Most of us had never experienced teaching but truly felt blessed at seeing the kids progress in their understanding of English. We felt such a strong connection with these kids and were able to get many of the kids emails and of course they always said "Facebook Facebook" haha so we had to give them our names for that! We are probably going to have like 80 friend requests by the time we get home, but oh well it is worth it! By the end of the camp they had all made Thank You Notes for all of us for teaching them English.
Thursday was a nice break from waking up early in the morning because are ministry was at night. During the morning we took time to plan and have team time where we got to pray for each other and worship and pray. This is a much needed time in the week because of how much you are constantly pouring out, we have made such an emphasis on daily quiet time so that we are not trying to pour out of our own strength. Christ is the only one that can sustain us! That night we went to this Community Center for women in a more rural area. This tribe had only 2 Christians in the WHOLE VILLAGE! When we got there, the building was right next door to a Buddhist temple with monks walking around everywhere. Many of us felt the heaviness of Buddhism at every corner of this town, but God was so protecting of us! We got to do a performance for them including a gospel message. The pastor did not want us to do an altar call because they were very focused on a long term relational ministry with this community center. The performance went well and many of us felt that the Savior drama we did was the best it had ever been! After the performance we did this "work out" with the woman, which consisted of dancing in a circle for about an hour. You would be surprised how tired all of us were after this experience! After dancing the only christian in town had ALL of us over for supper and cooked us a FEAST! We were all amazed at how this one little lady could produce so much food for us! I will tell you one thing, Thai people really have the whole serving others and treating others as better than yourself DOWN! They are amazing hospitable people that don't even eat until after their guests are done! We are continually blessed! Please keep this christian lady in your prayers as she has no community but is still looking to further God's kingdom!
Friday and Saturday we taught and ran another English camp in the hills at this Compassion center where the kids who are supported by Compassion sponsors gathered. There were probably 80 kids ranging from age 8 to 20. Though there were so many children, they were extremely well behaved and the leaders of this center were truly inspiring individuals! We taught all kinds of things like verbs, parts of the bodies, days of the week, colors, games, songs, hygiene and many more. The second day a group of us were even able to help clip the kids finger nails and wash lice out of their hair (we are all praying that we ourselves don't have it). This camp ran extremely smooth even though it was from 8am to 4pm God gave us the needed energy to keep up with these little fire crackers! They were all eager to be loved on and often members of our team had kids literally hanging on them. At the end of the two days we were able to pray with them and challenge them more with believing in Jesus as their Lord and Savior. When Pastor Sanguin gave the altar call for who wanted to accept Christ nearly all of them raised their head (though I think most of them had already accepted Christ but just wanted to do it again). They are such a blessing to us and all agree that if you are thinking about supporting a child, Compassion is the one to do it with! They really place God at the center and take SUCH good care of these kids!
Sunday (today) is our last day of ministry where we are in charge of running pastor Sanguin's church and then are going to a family's house who wanted to bless us with lunch. Then we are just cleaning up and getting ready to head back to Bangkok. It is amazing how fast this time has gone and all of us are EXTREMELY sad t leave the Sanguin family and Thailand! We have loved it and have had our eyes opened. These next few days we will be doing HEAPS of traveling so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we start this adventure towards India. Sickness is subsiding so thank you so much for your prayers for that! Unity in the team has been awesome! Please pray for our team as we are going to be making a HUGE culture change from Thailand to India. Pray that God would continue to be present with us in ministry and prepare the hearts of those we are going to meet. Please pray for the Sanguin family and their church here in Chang Rai. They have blessed us above and beyond and I pray that they would feel just as blessed by us and that God would let their ministry flourish! Thank you so much for all of the prayer and support we receive from all of you who read on a daily basis. We are sooo grateful!
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