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Another few months have come and gone.  And life over here has yet to really slow down, make sense, etc.  We still feel like we are holding on for dear life at times!

But we are doing well.  If you haven’t already, check out our latest newsletter by clicking on the image above.  It’s an exciting update on church camps completely in Thai, language tests, and prayer meetings (again; all in Thai!).  Your thoughts and prayers continue to be such an encouragement to us…

If you are not currently receiving our newsletters and would like to get them delivered straight to your email inbox, please fill out the online form here!

Thanks for your ongoing prayers and support…  Life has been crazy over here and we look forward to sharing more and more about our lives here in Thailand!

Blessings!

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(click the image above to be taken to the actual Operation World page for more details)

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If you are not currently receiving our newsletters and would like to get them delivered straight to your email inbox, please fill out the online form here!

Thanks for your ongoing prayers and support…  Life has been crazy over here and we look forward to sharing more and more about our lives here in Thailand!

Blessings!

Leave a Comment!

Golden Tree Snake... DEAD.

Now, Thailand is known for having TONS of snakes (some poisonous, some not).  It’s actually probably more surprising that we hadn’t seen one here up until yesterday morning.  But, when you see a bright green with black banded snake IN YOUR LIVING ROOM, it gets your attention.  And as soon as Sara saw it, she was done.  I mean, like scared/creeped/shivering like a cold 9 yr old outside at 3AM by herself.

Anyways, the snake quickly made it’s way behind a book shelf that took about 20 minutes to remove book by book, bags, other junk until the snake was finally accessible.  Oh yeah, and that’s when it started CLIMBING UP THE WALL!  What!? Snakes on the floor is one thing.  Snakes in water are creepy.  But snakes slithering up a flat wall is flippin’ weird.  Luckily it was this weird act that was this snake’s downfall.  A quick smack to the “neck” (Do snakes have necks?  Like where would it start and end?  Where are the shoulders?) with an umbrella handle followed by repeated blows just for good measure and to make me feel more like a man in my wife’s eyes and it was all over with.  Well, except that even after dead, the stupid thing keeps slithering, coiling and moving around.  WEIRD!

So, yeah, I guess there is just another story to add to the numerous interesting moments that we’ve been collecting living here in Thailand.  Oh, and it seems the snake isn’t so poisonous for humans but it is known for being able to climb flat, vertical walls… …oh, and it can fly from tree to tree…  If you are super weird and are interested you can read more about this snake and other snakes in Thailand here and here.

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This video is worth watching…

From the Compasio website:

The Heart of Compasio

Seeing a need, feeling compassion and acting with practical love on behalf of those who are poor, needy and at risk, this is the heart of Compasio.   See.Feel.Act

This is good stuff that they are doing!  We need more ministries and ministers willing to come and get dirty as the step out in faith and serve the underprivileged here in SE Asia…

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If you are not currently receiving our newsletters and would like to get them delivered straight to your email inbox, please fill out the online form here!

Thanks for your ongoing prayers and support…  Life has been crazy over here and we look forward to better sharing whats going on when our traveling is finished!

Blessings!

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We invite you to join with us as we pray these nine blessings for Thailand. If you want to know more, or get hold of the prayer guide – visit www.nineblessings.org.

Will you join us in praying for Thailand?

This video is not produced by me, but rather just a re-upload of a video produced by OMF Media. I simply added a background track as there was none in the original video.

I’ll be real honest.  I don’t really know what Darla does or what the company she works for does either.  I’m lazy in that manner.  What I do know is that this video should rock your understanding of this world that we live in.

This morning I watched a live broadcast of a U2 concert via YouTube.  I sat in Bangkok, Thailand and watched a live video feed via YouTube of a U2 concert back in California.  But what really blew my mind was when they had a feed coming from the international space station > YouTube U2 concert > us in Bangkok while I carried on conversation with people from all over the world in real-time!  Blew me away!  What is this world that we are living in?

Exactly how small is it?  I can video chat with family and friends Skype.  I can host a conference video chat with several people at one time from all over the world at once.  And share conversation in a split second with content generators all over the world.

How can we as ministers of the Gospel redeem this technology for His work?  How can we, as missionaries, use the understanding as we reach out to those around us, be it in Indiana, USA, Southern California, or in Bangkok, Thailand?

In the coming months and years before us we will see this technology unfold and our understanding/embracing of it should move forward also…  How will we be a part of it?

Your thoughts?

Our fellow Thai newbies!

We’ve been here for two months, experienced A LOT, and are continuing to get settled in.  A lot has gone on, and thus, it is hard to know where to start.

First thing once we got started was to move to Lopburi, the provincial capital of Lopburi province about an hour and a half north of Bangkok.  This is where OMF has their language school that new missionaries attend for up to a year of language study.  Because there are currently so many new missionaries studying Thai at the LLC (Language Learning Center), Sara and I were unable to move into an actual home once we arrived.  So, seeing as we have no children (yet) and are young (still), we moved into a one-room youth hostel.  It was quite stretching to start with.  I’d be lying if I said that tears didn’t flow from my wife’s eyes at times due to the circumstances (lack of kitchen, lack of another room, and lack of internet or even a computer desk to study at).

But even through that God was gracious.  I was able to build friendships with the Thai people working at the hostel and honestly it made moving into our current home all the more sweet!  Now, Sara has a kitchen, we have more than one room, two desks to study at and even internet to once again begin blogging and sharing our hearts with you as God grows our passion for the Thai people.

Aside from physical stresses, we’ve also experienced quite a bit of emotional and mental stress.  Attempting to get back into the swing of being a full-time student was harder than we had thought.  But even through this the Lord’s grace was there and we are (Praise the Lord!) able to remember much of what we studying almost 4 years ago when we lived in Thailand the first time.

This is just a short, sweet update as it’s been way too long.  Thanks for checking in and we look forward to sharing with you more often now that we are getting settled in!  Now off to sweat in our living room as it is currently 90 degrees Fahrenheit and Sara is off baking brownies for Fellowship Group tomorrow…  yeah, she loves finally having a kitchen…

We can’t deny the fact that God has called us to serve in Thailand.  He’s moved too many mountains and continued to open doors in that direction for the past 3 years for it not to be the case.  With that said, we know opposition to us and the message we will be bringing will find us.  We may not know exactly when or how, but do understand that it will be there.

I’ve recently been re-reading a book by an OMF missionary who served in Thailand called “HELP! My Halo’s Slipping”.  In one of Larry Dinkins’ chapters he comments on the stronghold that Buddhism has in Thailand.  Check out the passage from chapter 7 below:

Take [Thai Buddhist's] understanding of John 3:16, for instance.  This famous verse, run through the Buddhist grid, presents a very confused picture of Christianity:

“For God (Buddhism has no concept of a creator God) … so loved (a desire to be quenched) … the world (an illusion) … that He gave (giving is done in order to get, repayment is expected) … His only begotten Son (this God has a wife?) … that whoever believes in Him (Buddha said, ‘Be a lamp unto yourself,’ and ‘work out your own salvation with diligence.’) … should not perish (hell is not eternal separation but temporary) … but have eternal life (the goal of Buddhism is nirvana–the extinction of suffering and the end of conscious existence).”

In fact, the whole of John 3 presents problems for the Thai.  Take being born again.  The last thing a Thai wants to do is be reborn.  As a believer in reincarnation, his goal is to stop the never-ending cycle of birth/ old age/ sickness/ death.  The Thai equate rebirth not with spiritual renewal but suffering.

This just caught my eye and mind in a new way as I read it on the flight here to Thailand.  It reminds me of the fact that, once again, it is Christ alone who is able to bring about true life change and work through these cultural mis-/understandings.

Pray that the Thai people might first have the opportunity to hear about the gospel and then secondly pray for their response to that gospel message.  Pray also for the missionaries who have, undoubtedly, all struggled to bridge the gap between Thai understanding and the Truth of the message.

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