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I have FINALLY finished all the pics from Thailand…
You can view them by clicking on the photo above… or my clicking HERE.

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Soon, I hope to have some of the videos up on YouTube - but we will have to see.
Here are SOME of them…

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I think that you should be able to see them all when they are up by clicking here (but I could be wrong)

Here is one depicting what we now call “Prayer Thai Style”

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Teaching the Thai “Buck-Buck”

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What fun to have all the memories come RUSHING back… it has only been a few days since I was there - yet in a way it seems like forever ago already!

Ashley seeing the ocean for the first time in her life… YES, you heard me correctly, she has never seen the ocean before - and her first experience is at the Gulf of Thailand.

But I guess I should start at the beginning…

Our drivers showed up early and we were all ready to go and were out the door by 9am. We were sad to live the Interplace - but NOT SAD to say goodbye to those crazy, rock hard beds!

The trip to the beach (Rayong) took about 2 and 1/2 hours. The vans were pretty quiet - some choosing to catch up on some sleep. When we arrived we realized that you can say ANYTHING you want on the internet - and their CAN BE false advertizing. The hotel website was TOTALLY MISLEADING.

This place is PERFECT - and so much more beautful than the website indicates…
We have 3 pools and a series of wooded boardwalks that connect them all, and from 2 of them is a view of the beach!

We are having a GREAT time…. minus the sunburn, the rock scraps and the over eating that we are doing!

This is a perfect end to our trip…
a time to finally catch our breath
a time to reflect and organize our thoughts before we return
a time to reveal in God’s creation

last night on the beach, we just sand songs of praise to God… until my iPod broke (I hate technology… but can’t live without it as well - well, there goes a few hundred bucks). So after it broke, we tried to sing for a while without technology - we did not fare so well… but it was fun trying!

Caryn shared with us from God’s word…

This place is too beautiful for me to stay here on the computer… sorry! I am off!!!!!!!!

We will have 1 more teamtime in about an hour…

Christian will finish up his stuff from Ephesians, and I will share about some of the struggles they can expect when they get home.

Thanks for reading this!
Thanks for loving us!
Thanks for praying for us!

This will probably be the last post regarding Bangkok ‘08 (till all the pictures are cleaned up and stored)

We saw God do great things…
We saw God change us…
We saw people won to Christ…
We saw the body of Christ at work…
We saw another part of God’s wonderful creation…

Our team time today was spent singing and with a time in God’s word from Josh. (Christian took Ashley and Kayla to the english classes that he teaches, so they could share their testimony - just like Josh, Caleb, Valarie, and Caryn)

We sang:
Better is One Day
“My heart and flesh cry out for you, the Living God your Spirit’s water to my soul”
Beautiful One
“Wonderful so wonderful is your unfailing love your cross is spoken mercy over me. No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart can fully know how glorious, how beautiful you are.”
How Great is Our God
“He wraps himself in light, and darkness tries to hide and trembles at his voice.”
Hallelejah (Your Love is Amazing)
“Your love is amazing, steady and unchanging your love is a mountain, firm beneath my feet your love is a mystery, how you gently lift me when I am surrounded, your love carries me.”
Heart of Worship
“When the music fades, all is stripped away and I simply come… looking just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart… Though I am weak and poor, all I have is yours - every single breath.”

Josh took us to the book of Jude and walked us through the chapter:

He had read the chapter MANY times during the TCCC service (since it was in Thai and we could not understand what the Pastor was saying anyway)

We talked about the passion of the book, coming from verse 3 “urge you to contend for the faith”
And then he did a GREAT job just walking through the rest of the book and talkinb about how it can and does apply to us!

Spending some time in verse 11 walking us through the progression that we find there.
1) Doing things in a way not quite how God has asked us to do it
2) For money deciding to go a different way
3) Direct opposition to what God wants
It is a “slippery slope” - one that we must be careful about.

Verse 12-13 speak to the fact that - though we can not lose our salvation.. we can be made useless and ineffective.

He ended with the great and powerful verses found in verses 24-25

We must actively contend for the faith today!

Our prayer time was strong:
We prayed for:
1) the Party
2) that the Ram 1 students would come back for the last time
3) that Phai would be able to clearly share the “good news” of the gospel
4) that Ashley and Kayla would be able to clearly share their hearts through their testimony
5) that new students would come to the party
6) that people would recieve Christ
7) that we would finish well

Then we were off to our campuses…
Ram 1 - was off for our last day… and it RAINED… it rained hard - so MOST of our time was spent huddled under a canopy - but that did not stop us from spending time with students.

But it was fun to watch Hannah and Danae share their faith with their Muslim friends… (Hannah mentioned to me how good the Global Perspectives book on Islam was for her, she was able to use what she learned in sharing her faith)

We were only able to be there till around 3. And then we took the hour cab ride to Ram 2 for the party. We pretty much did the same thing we did before…
We started with games… this time we sang and taught them “the hookie pookie” - nothing like singing that song with a bunch of Thai… sights and experiences that we will never forget.

Ashley was her awesome self… I think I have taken about 100 pictures of her… it just makes me laugh (cause I look good in my hat… she just looks funny!)

I can not evern remember the order of the program… but it included Phai sharing the gopsel and Som sharing her testimony. The skit went over very well again…

The group was smaller this time… only 6 Ram 2 students came, but we had many that came back from Ram 1 - so there were 59 total people there.

It was a sad night… We are not sure if our Thai friends will be at the aiport when we leave… so this may have been the last time that we saw them.

After the party, we decided to watch a movie. There was a movie coming out that the Thai leadership REALLY wanted to see, they had been talking about it all week - so we decided to “treat” them. Note to self - never go to a movie without TRYING to read a review first… expecially on a missions trip. Needless to say, the movie was not great - lots of language and violence - we felt very awkward. I just did not feel good about the whole experience… which lead me to appoligize to the team for a few things:

“I am sorry and wish to seek your forgiveness for 3 things regarding the movie last night. I am sorry for not having better discernment, leadership, and protection of you. I should have done more research before having us all go and see that movie. I am sorry and ask for your forgiveness”

It was good for us to talk about it… but we were really worried about the message that it sent the Thai staff - but they did not seem to mind the movie, and most even liked it… we are still not sure what to think about it.

It was fun to see the students processing through this event.

Tommorrow we leave for the beach!

Very hard to believe… but today is the last day what we are in Bangkok.

Today is the last day to each english…
Today is the last day to eat at the San Fran…
Today is the last day to eat on the side of the street… (gee I sense a food theme…)
Today is the last day to spend with our new Thai friends…
Today is the last day to sleep on a rock hard bed…
Today is the last day to share our faith with the Thai students…
Today is the last day to have team time crammed into a small hotel room…

Tomorrow we leave for Our hotel in Rayong on the beach. (not sure how good it is at explaining the place we are going… since I have never been there… but - here is a link)

We are looking forward to it.. but also so sad to be leaving!

Would you please pray for GREAT things today!?!

Well, today was GAME DAY!
The day that we have been waiting for…
The day that we have been planning for…
The day that we have been praying for…
The day that we have been nervous would actually come…

It started early. Many of us got up and were at the courts by 6:30am to play a little basketball… I think there were 10 of us playing.
What a blast to role out of bed…
Fight your way across the street through traffic…
Make your way around the National Stadium…
And sweat like a pig…
And all of this is in BANGKOK!

Team time was AWESOME today… I was afraid to use the sweet songbooks that Melody made for my trip… we have our team time in a hotel room (an Asian one at that) and we cram 30-35 people in there, so I did not want to sing and be a nusance to our neighbors… BAD IDEA.

Today we sang, first we practiced OUR song… I am Free! and then we decided to sing as part of our worship during team time.

Here is a small taste of what it was like:
A group of Grace College Students singing at the top of their lungs…

Blessed be the Name:
“every blessing you pour out I turn back to praise.”

Facedown:
“Lord I stand on your merciful ground yet with every step tread with reverence… Who is there in the heavens like you? And upon the earth, who is your equal?… So let your glory shine around.”

Jesus paid it all: (an all time favorite of mine… gee - I was the one picking the songs)
“Jesus paid it all; all to him I owe; sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow…O Praise the one, who paid my debt and raised this life up from the dead”

This Day:
“This day is the day you have given… this day is the day I embrace, This moment awaits to be lived in for moments too quickly will fade.”

Man… It was SO POWERFUL!

(again for other perspectives on the trip check out Kyla and Hannah’s blogs)

Okay, after this Kayla shared with us devotions:
Her father has lots of health issues…and on Sunday at church she felt a strong presence that something was wrong with him - that has really been on her mind a lot lately!
She took us to Matthew 8:18-22 and talk about the fact that even though she loves her father and family, at least for these two weeks, she needs to concentrate on what she knows God wants her to do and be. Through tears… she talked about how she is learning to be okay with following God and not let what MIGHT be happening at home bother her.

I then went on to talk about how we need to show LOVE today at the campuses and at the party tonight! We might not be able to communicate with them very well.. BUT THEY CAN SEE OUR LOVE FOR EACH OTHER, FOR THEM, AND FOR OUR LORD.

We took a few minutes and just OUTLOUD said that names of people that we hope show up tonight at the party - kinda like a prayer to God… IT WAS SO COOL and MOVING for me! To watch the Grace students faces as they said the names of the students that they have grown to love…
You would be amazed at how each person on this trip has connected with the Thai people in their own way -
Brice through his humor…
Kyla through her passion for life and trying new things…
Valerie through her passion to see people won to Christ…
Hannah through her sweet spirit and love for people…
Ashley through her passion to learn languages and culture…
Emily through her laugh and love for being with people…
Caleb through sports and his boldness…
Josh through his breakdancing and deep love for Christ…
Danae through her abiltiy to connect and make friends with anyone…
Amy through her quiet spirit and ability to have deep conversations 1-1…
Kayla through her passion to be with people and her question asking ability…
Caryn through her presense… she is VERY good at being “present” with people…
Natalie through her determination to connect no matter how long it takes…

I know I have said it before… and I am not doing them justice now… THESE STUDENTS ARE TERRIFIC! and they put up with an old guy like me.

We had Valarie and Caryn check in about their experience with Christian (teaching english and sharing their testimony and watching the kids) I am SO PROUD of them for doing both those things!

We had a sweet time of prayer today…
I decided that I would have some things planned, and we would pray “Thai Style” but I told the students that when it gets quiet, if you want us to pray for something… just speak up. It took a few times of me throwing out things - but after a while they just jumped right in… You can learn a lot about someone’s heart by listening to their prayer requests! These student’s hearts are getting closer and closer to the heart of Christ.

After praying… we were OFF to the campuses…
And when we (Ram 1) arrived… there was a suprise… someone brought a dog! We had so much fun playing with him… (Raylee, you would have died and gone to heaven… this dog was SO CUTE! I thought of you and prayed for you the whole time that I held it!

After another amazing lunch… and fruit smoothies (I think I forgot to mention those before… my favorite has become Apple/Kiwi) we were off to teach…

It was a slower day today, and we were really sad - and not sure that the party would go over that well this afternoon…

(just remembered… someone (I think I know who) sent encouragement cards to the people on the team… what a HUGE LIFT today reading the note stuck to my door!)

at about 3:30 we left teaching and headed to the apartment to get ready for the party. Once everything was set up… IT POURED for like 5 minutes… and then PERFECT WEATHER the rest of the time… it was done raining before any of the students showed up… God has given us some GREAT weather… HOT, but good!

The party was PERFECT… better than we could have planned or imagined…
About 6 of my guys came! I was SO HAPPY… and Veera (42 year old law student, that speaks practically NO ENGLISH but has come every day brought gifts for my child and wife - Jodi, Raylee, and Cam - you will like them!) I could not believe it - Brought tears to my eyes. God is good… not that I got gifts, but that I think that God is working in Veera’s life!

The skit, the games, the drama were awesome. Ashley and I did a great job representing the USA… at least I think. Josh did a great job talking through what the 4th of July means to us… and Phai was able to share his faith with the crowd of 72 that were there! YES, 72 people all together! SO AMAZING.

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Sorry I would blog more… but smoothies are calling!

continued from last post…

Kyla lead us in devotions this morning… and did a wonderful job. She talked about the fact that she was going to try and get out of doing them on the trip… be felt compelled to do it. She has been extremely spiritually dry for a while now, but this trip has been good for her. She took us to Galatians 5:25 and talked about the fact that we need to live by the spirit and stay in touch with the spirit. And that we should not lose sight of this fact, just cause we are uncomfortable. Then she brought up a subject that I think has been on some people’s mind… Jealousy. Believe it or not, we compare ourselves with each other all the time. Here it is easy to do when people come back with cool stories of their day and your day may be been a little down. Galatians 5:26 says, “Don’t be jealous of envious of others.” This was a good reminder for us.

Our prayer items for the day are:
1) That we would stay awake in the middle part of the day – we are really getting exhausted
2) Friends, that we would make new friends… may we get out and share even more
3) Pray for Val and Caryn as they watch the kids and share at the English classes that Christian teaches
4) That we would keep our eyes open for opportunities here at the hotel and not to assume that our ministry stops when we return
5) Party… that it would go well

We then shared random things that happened yesterday:
- Brice and his time with the Iranian Family that he met in the airport. He went to their room and looked at pictures of Iran and had tea…. SO COOL! Strange, but cool. Who else gets to spend time with someone from Iran… and to believe it took place in Bangkok…
-Ashley talked about the fact that we were praying for God to do the unexpected… and things like Brice’s contact speaks to that
-Ram 2 shared about being a little discouraged due to the lack of large numbers of students

Then we were able to hear from Tom (my lunch friend), here are some of the details
- Grew up in a Buddhist family
- In High School, a friend brought him to church, but he did not like Christians
- He came to a CCC functions cause he likes to practice his English – he did not know they were Christians
- He was then invited to an English camp that they were doing – and he was confronted and comforted by the fact that Christ died for him… he wondered, “Why would anyone die for me?”
- He ended with, “God can protect me and he loves me!”

Then we were off to do the normal:
Eat lunch with our Thai friends…
Look for chances to talk with new people…
Teach English…
We were REALLY tired today, and it was hard to “get up for it”…
I was able to have a GREAT talk with “Right” Arm about what it takes for him to raise support (he is on staff with CCC) – he said that it is very hard and that they need to raise 10,000 Baht a month (generally it is about 32 baht per US dollar).
Then it was off to bowling….
I invited Air, one of my English class friends (he has come every day)… at first he said NO, when I asked why? He said… “I have never been bowling before!” – After a little pleading… HE CAME. And had the time of his life. I do not think I will ever forget the strike that he got early in the game and the way that he leaped in the air and had the biggest smile on his face… he gave me a high-five and smiled the rest of the night.

I am so sorry for being so behind on the my blog…
The days are just too full…
The nights are just too short…
And the food just too tempting…

But here I sit, in my (I spend enough time here) little internet cafe just across the street from our hotel. I can almost forget where I am after a little while… but when I look down at the keyboard every once in a while and see Thai letters, all of the sudden I can smell the city, we Thai music, and hear the roar of the city once again… This place is my little piece of America… but not too much.

Not sure that I will be able to include pictures tonight… There is much work to be done before my head hits the pillow… Tomorrow is PARTY NIGHT. The days preceding have all been pointing to these next two days when we, the Grace Collegeteam, along with the Thai CCC staff - put on an international party for all the new friends that we have made. We have decided that our party should be about the American celebration of Indepedence around the 4th of July. This is a chance to use our strangness to bring people in and have the Thai staff be better able to make “contact” with them.

Most of our team time was spent “talking through” our plans and making lists of things that we need. Here is a ROUGH sketch of what will be happening tomorrow and Thursday (Wed. at RAM 1 and Thurs. at RAM 2) - our whole team will finally be together as we execute the party. The parties will take place after englishes classes both days. Here is what we are planning.

1) Games (the committee consisted of Hannah, Danae, Caleb): we will play some games with them for a little while. Games like: 3 legged races / Red rover / The name game / Magic blanket / The paper plate, lava game / Bobbing for fruit / the animal game / and dolphin (a new Thai game we learned here)
2) Teaching about July 4th and American Independence (Josh, Natalie, Kayla): This will be about 10 minutes full of information about the day that we celebrate.
3) Mime (Brice, Amy, Kyla) We plan to do a mime, or pantamime to a song… I think we are doing a LIFEHOUSE song
4) A Thai staff person share:The goal of this is for them to share in Thai about how God brings freedom to our lives, sort of like how we celebrate the freedom that we have in America (Yes, it is a bit of a stretch… but come on - we did not have much to work with)
5) We will sing a song: I think that we are planning to sing the FEE song “I am Free!” Below is the Newsboys singing the same song

6) Food
7) More games

All the while… there will be decorations and Ashley House dressed up as the Statue of Liberty and me as Uncle Sam… it should be a hoot! (sorry I would take pictures… but I think the camera might not be working correctly. lol)

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That is all stuff for tomorrow… but there is still today to talk about!
Caryn and Val went to share their testimony at the same place that Caleb and Josh did… the place that Christian teaches english on Tuesday and Thursdays. After that they were going to watch the Beuggert children the rest of the day so that Christian and Bonnie could go and work on VISA “stuff” they have to go every nine days until it gets worked out…and tomorrow is day 9. I am anxious to talk with Val and Caryn on how everything went.

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I will NOT be able to finish this blog now… Just got word they need help with the skit prep… and you know me - the great thesbian.

Hopefully I can continue later!

Q - “When were you born?”
A - “Tuesday”
Q - “No, what day were you born?”
A - “Tuesday”
Q - “Okay, how about you… what day were you born”
A - “Saturday”
Q - “No when is your birthday?”
A - “Saturday… Purple.”
Q - “Oh, you all know what day you were born?”
A - “Yes, every Thai knows what day they were born and the color that goes with it… In American you do not know this?”
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Amazing, I was trying to get into some conversational english with my students yesterday and came across this cultural issue. Every Thai person knows the DAY they were born and each day has a corresponding color. They were shocked when I did not know what day I wa born (mom… can you help me out?) The present King was born on Monday… hence everytime you see a photo of him or there is a reference to him, it is in yellow…
Here are the colors (in case you care)
Sun = Red
Mon = Yellow
Tues = Pink (sorry if you were born on tuesday and are a Male)
Wed = Green
Thurs = Orange
Fri = Blue
Sar = Purple

I thought this was a cool Thai fact…. but I am getting ahead of myself, so lets start from the beginning. Well, before that… it is 8:43am on Tuesday, the boys are sleeping and the girls are at the pool swimming. We decided to have teamtime a little later today so that the Grace College students could enjoy the pool and Yokie (pronouced Yoggie, like the bear) decided to join them… she is on staff with CCC, this is her second full week on staff, and has become one of our favorites - they all have such amazing personalities and have been such a huge help to us.

By the way, if you have not check out the musings of Hannah and Kyla lately… DO IT!

Retraction… on sunday, Natalie also went and taught the kids in children’s church… Opps, I did not see her get up to leave.

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Yesterday (sorry that I did not blog last night… the bowling, yes there was bowling, must have taken it out on me) started out pretty much like all the other days with teamtime. This has actually become one of my favorite parts of the trip. I really think that the students enjoy it was well.

We started out time with Caleb sharing what has been on his heart lately from God’s Word. Just like all the others so far, he did an excellent job - his youth ministry profs would be proud.
He spent time talking about how God wants us to have an undivided heart and how a divided heart can not stand strong, much like a divided house can not stand. (Matt. 12:25) Then he took us to Psalm 86:11 and talked more about our hearts. He asked us to share some of the things that can cause division in our hearts.
Here were some of the answers:
- Concerns of the world
- Materialism
- What people think about us
- Busyness

He then took us to I Cor. 7:32-35 and shared about something that he has been thinking about lately as it pertains to marriage and his future. And how to connect God’s will for his life and the American dream and expectation of marriage. There is a difference between true christianity and the american dream.

Next he took us to Ezekiel 11:17-21 and talked about the fact that we should have an undivided heart, but that it is something that God gives us, not necessarily something that we can strive for on our own.

After Caleb shared… I ask the students to talk about what God has been doing IN them, we have spent a lot of time talking about what God has been doing THROUGH them - but I wanted to focus today on what God has been up to IN them.
Here is some of what was shared:
- God is great and can do anything… I am realizing this once again
- This trip should excite us, some of us have talked about not wanting to go back, but we need to take this excitement for sharing Christ back home, we if do not… we have missed the point of the trip
- I had lost my focus in life, I had lost my vision… I think that I have it again
- I am totally being energized by God… I am so physically tired, but I know that my strength comes from him.
- The last few months of school, I really started to lose my focus on God, Now I know what I want
- I have loved watching God work through my inadequecies
- I have seen that being seperate from the world for Christ is a good thing
- He is teaching me a lot about himself his is really revealing himself to me through his word
- I love being the center of attention and the other night I was not able to talk with my Thai student cause they were talking the whole time with the CCC staff… then I realized that is the point.
- My time with God has been really dry lately… God is beginning to destroy some of my pre-conceived notions about him
- I have learned so much about the body and how God uses peoples giftings to make a difference for the kingdom
- I feel as though I have had a taste of heaven and what the worship will be like there with all the different languages. God is showing me a lot from his word
- The last few months have been really dry and hard for me, I am starting to get a taste for Gog again.

After this I encouraged them to pray with eyes open and expecting God to do some great things. I went to Psalm 5:3… it was fun to hear the students going back to that all day. We really did go through the day waiting and watching for God to move. I then told them about my grandma, that is never able to remember anything, my mom usually has to explain who she is every time she calls… well, yesterday - my mom called and one of the first things she said was “How is the team that Scott is leading in Thailand!” Wow… so cool to know that so many people are praying and we need to be praying expecting God to work in cool ways.

After this… Christian was on. He shared with us from Ephesians 2:1-10 and explained that we are Body, Soul/Mind, and Spirit and that we were once DEAD in our sins, but when Christ saves us, he restores us.
God does not see us through our eyes, or how we see ourselves… He sees us through the cross and his son, Jesus Christ.

Verse 6 and earlier in 1:20 - We are told that we are seated with Christ in the heavenly realms - this is a hard thing to remember, but a very powerful one.
In our struggle we must be honest… but also speak TRUTH to ourselves and who we are in Christ, even if we do not FEEL it at the time.

Galatians 5:17 refers to the fact that this is a constant battle… the flesh and the spirit. Eph. 2:2-3 explains that we are attacked from at least 3 angles: 1) our sinful nature 2) the ways of the world 3) the powers of the unseen world.
It is important for us to understand WHERE this battle takes place. Matt 16:13-20 gives us a hint when it refers to Jesus’ encounter with Peter. It is in the mind!

We must control and bring our minds under the control of the Holy Spirit. Satan’s entry point is the mind. The mind is the gateway to everything we do. Eph 4:20-24 speaks to the idea of putting OFF the old self and putting ON the new self. This is intentional and not a one time thing… it is constant. We ARE pure, but we are in a battle.

After this powerful time of looking into God’s Word we were able to hear from 2 Thai and how they came to know the Lord.
First, we heard from Pum:
- Her family had lots of problems and her parents finally divorced and she felt as though she lost her dad when he got married again. Things got bad financially after this and she had to quit the university for a while.
- She felt as though she had no goal in life, she had no meaning in life
- She attended a CCC english class. Someone shared about Christ, but she thought it was boring cause too many people shared.
- A friend their asked her about happiness and what made her happy, her answer was; “I get to do whatever I want!” But later that night she kept thinking about her answer… and she realized that real happiness had to be more than that
- A friend read with her the 4 spiritual laws and she later said a prayer by herself and happiness filled her life like never before.
- She can now love others and give freely to them - she was a very selfish person before.
- Her mom used to tell her “you must hate your father for what he did to us…” and she used to agree, but now she tells her mother - “No, I must forgive me… I have been forgiven.”

Then it was time for Boy to share (Don’t you just love these names…)
- He grew up in a non-christian family… before Christ, he only cared about himself
- he never gave good things to others… he tried to be a trouble maker at home and at school
- Tom, his younger brother (my Thai lunch friend) shared Christ with him… he later heard if from a group at CCC. But nothing happened. Then his brother asked him to come to a CCC english camp in August.
- Once at the camp, he saw people love each other like he had never seen before. So he asked God; “If you are real… please show yourself to me here at this camp!” 3 days later he accepted Christ and his whole personality changed. He had asked God; “I know that I am a bad person, you will need to change me… and he did!”
- That was 2 years ago.

We talked about the fact that we only have 4 more days on campus… and that we need to make the most of every opportunity.

Then we were off to our campuses….
More English classes…
More chances to meet new people…
Then we invited some to go bowling with us…
I am sure we will never forget this night… Bowling in Bangkok with our new Thai friend (and of course watching me bowl a 186!)

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Other random things to ask us about when we get home:
1) Valerie’s black eye and the cans of beer that helped keep the sweeling down
2) The “sex ring” that we think is taking place in the lobby of our hotel
3) Feeding elephants at night

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Jodi, Raylee, and Camo: All I could think about while I was bowling is that it has been forever since we have Wii Bowled! I miss you all so much and wish you could have seen the elephant that I was able to touch… you would have wanted to take it home!

“In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation.” (Psalm 5:3 - NIV)

Here are some things to pray for today:
1) That we would not forget the purposes of our trip… one of which is to share the gospel
2) That we would look to continue moving out of our comfort zone (week two is when difference moves from exciting to frustrating
3) That we would be patient with one another
4) That God might choose to use us today

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message,so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ… Pray that we will proclaim it clearly, as we should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” (Colossians 4:2-6 - NIV)

(Something I think I forgot to talk about yesterday very much… the really cool exhibit of photos taken of the earth is REALLY amazing. Check it out!) - you then have to click on the link “The Earth From Above)

Also… many of you have been checking Hannah and Kyla’s blog… they have enjoyed that and love getting your comments too (Thanks mom!)

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What a great day, I know… I am beginning to sound like a broken record. I am sorry for this. But much like the old Michael Bolton song (okay I am not a fan…. but…) “I said I loved you, but I lied.” When I thought that yesterday was as good as it gets, the present is always better.

Today was Sunday, a chance to gather with people of like mind and faith to worship our creator corporately… and today did not disapoint. Today like most days started out with me saying “Grab your favorite Thai and get a taxi!” The CCC staff was with us once again… not really sure how we would have survived without them these two weeks!

We were off to the church where Christian and his family attend. It meets at the Bangna Novotel Hotel in Bangkok (a really beautiful place) and is called, The Bangna Christian Fellowship. It is an international church with services in English and has been in existence for only about two years.

Grace College was well represented at the church. Bonnie, Christian’s wife is a graduate of Grace College, and we were all able to introduce ourselves. The serivice was amazing, due to being an international church there was quite a mix of nationalities present. This is the church where Sherry plays the drums (remember that story from before? If not read it here)

It was VERY much like a traditional service in the states with merely a lot more diversity!
Here are the songs that we sung:
Blessed be the name of the Lord
God of wonders
Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus
Hosanna

After a few songs, a group from YWAM Thailand performed a traditional Thai cultural dance. They are leaving soon (July 28-Aug 10) for China where they wil be sharing the gospel there. We know that it is not true, but we can sometimes assume that America is the only place that sends out missionaries… it was a great reminder, in a different way, that God is drawing people to himself and using his people to do it no matter what nationality they are.

After the dance, Ashley, Danae, and Amy were off to teach “childrens church”! I hear that they did a great job. As the children were leaving, the pastor asked us to break up into small groups and share what God is doing in and around us so that we could pray better for each other. Then they collected the offering and Pastor Leslie got up to speak. He is a pastor there, but none of them are “on staff” they are all volunteers. I wish that I could post his whole talk here… it was AMAZING! He is preaching the next 3 weeks and is going to look each week at a chapter in Habakkuk. So today was chapter one.
Here is a BRIEF outline of his talk (he talked about a hour and 10 minutes)
There is terrible suffering in the world
We seem to be in the end times
We are called to witness during these terrible times of suffering (Tsunami, Floods, Earthquakes, 9-11)
The church usually responds in one of two ways 1) God is loving to he gives man free choice and they do terrible things to each other 2) The mystery is very great… it is too difficult for us to understand
But neither of these choices are enough to help those in crisis, they are partly true… but do not provide enough TRUTH
But the Bible has answers to these questions
We must not be too quick to jump to easy answers
The Bible and God can accept our anger and hurt during these times
Here are some examples: Hosea, Jeremiah, Job, Habakkuk, The Psalms
587 BC the Babylonians were invading
Habakkuk comes to the Lord saying… God this is not about me, but about your nation - he comes in the 3rd person (with vested interest)
A brief outline of Habakkuk:
Chapter one - Protest, The Character of Prayer
Chapter two - Perserverance, The Call of Patience
Chapter three - Praise, The Committment of Praise
We often choose the type of God that we want to serve… we accept gifts, but reject the pain and suffering that may come
Doubt is okay… infact, doubt is essential in finding faith
In verses 1-4 we have Habakkuk’s complaint
In verses 5-11 we have God’s response… Habakkuk, it is going to get worse before it gets better
in verses 12-17 Habakkuk tries to blackmail God
We can learn from Habakkuk’s questioning of God
1) Prayer is not just praise… but prayer moves us to praise
2) Prayer is about honesty… when we pray be honest. God detests sincere hypocricy. He went on to mention that often before a time of singing in church someone will say something like this “Now is the time to leave your cares outside and not worry about them, just sing to God.” - This is obsurd… if you must leave your cares outside… why come to God. He can handle them
“God desires a broken and contrite heart”
We must learn to come to God with our whole being

I am sure the word above do not due the sermon justice… but for some reason it really struck a nerve in all of us. God is good..
The services lasted a bit more than 2 hours… and after the service was over, there was a time of light snacks. I meet a man that had a SWEET camera (well, it could have been better… it was a Canon, but it was probably a $3,000 dollar camera) we was looking at my cheap D50 and we started talking. His name is Enrique and he is a professor that takes photos on the side. I aske him if it was a side business and he said, yes… kinda. When he does weddings and events, we asks that all the money be donated to… are you ready for this… NIGHTLIGHT(remember, that is the place that we visited while we were here - if you forgot, check it out.). He is really good friends with Annie (the founder) so we had a great talk about that ministry.

After church, we “grabbed our favorite Thai and a Taxi” and were off to lunch. We just stopped at a restaurant on the side of the road… a restaurant would be a high title for this place, but whatever you want to call it… the food was AMAZING.

After lunch, we headed over to the CCC headquarters for our second service of the day, but this one would be in Thai.
Afterreading Pslam 95 allowed, in Thai we spent some time singing… I am tellin you this - there is nothing like being in a room of believers singing their hearts out to the Lord is at least two languages…. many of the songs we could sing. So we would sing in English as they were in Thai.
Here are some of the songs:
In the quiet
This is my desire
I could sing of your love forever
Amazing Grace (we swear it started with the tune “Sweet Home Alabama” you should have seen our faces)

It was fun to watch Christian be a learner… there were many times something was said, or was put on the screen and he would pull out a notebook and write the Thai word with the english meaning!

The speaker spoke from the book of Jude.
After he wa finished, we sang “Because He lives” and the Doxology… Again… there is nothing quite as sweet as singing together with people from other parts of the world in their native tongue… and for some reason the Doxology brought tears to my eyes.

After the service, lasting about 1 hour and 45 minutes… we had a meal together… CRAZY STUFF… that is when we eat fish heads and many other things. An experience we will not soon forget.

I know I have said it before… but the students on this trip have been amazing and have gone out of their way to befriend and go our of their comfort zones… EVERYONE OF THEM. If you are a parent of someone on this trip - just know that you would be so proud of them and you should be proud of the job you did in raising them. I would take anyone of them anywhere in the world.

If you could pray for the team though… I sense tonight some tiredness and the beginnings of irritibility with each other (or maybe it is just me… I am getting tired myself) this is nothing big - but I just do not want it to fester into something that the enemy can use.

Tomorrow we are back to our campuses…
Please pray as we try to re-connect after the weekend with them.

Thanks for caring about us and this trip.

The conversations that I have had with so many of the Grace students have touched my heart and soul. They are eating this trip up and letting God get at their core about some things. I am anxious to see how God might these students when we get back home on the Grace campus.

It is also very enjoyable to “easedrop” on them and their conversations with the Thai people. Words can not describe how proud I am to be associated with them!

Good Night!

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Jodi, Raylee, and Camo - Though my heart is full to overflowing with what God is doing here in and through us, the experience is just not complete without you all. I find myself turning to look for one of you many times during the day to show you something or tell you something that I am thinking about. Raylee and Camden, my prayer is that your heart will be open to missions as you “follow me” around the world. God is so much bigger than just little old Winona Lake, yes he is there… but he is more and has chosen to reveal himself through so many different cultures. I am afraid you will not know him as fully as you should until you see what he is up to in places around the world. We will go, you will see, and your view of God will expand.

I love you guys!… again, thanks for letting me come!