So, what have the Johnny Gospelseed’s (Did I ever mention that was our team name? Haha, yeah, we think it’s pretty darn funny!) been up to the past few days? I’m sure you’re all dying to know, so let me satisfy your curiosity:
The Seeds have been spending quite a bit of time at this sweet little corner spot called Coffee Love. Simply put, this is
our Nirvana: it’s a cute Thai style Starbucks, al fresco with free wi-fi and a
normal (non-squatty) toilet! Cha-Ching!!!! Thanks to the Big Man upstairs for
putting this in Misty’s eye sight the other day! They serve ginormous iced coffees for $1 and the owners are probably the sweetest people around! We all feel a little spoiled to have such a nice place within walking distance, but we are taking advantage of the Internet access while we have it because we know that very few countries (if any more) will make life this easy on us.
Last week we spent 3 days at a youth camp acting as “fun makers” for the 200
University students who attended. A lot of the students spoke English
surprisingly well, and were very eager to practice with us. We had a great time
worshiping and playing fun games with them, and on the last day several of the
students gave their lives to the Lord! It was so encouraging! There were also
two YWAM (Youth With a Mission) groups that were helping at the camp as well,
one from Korea and one from Atlanta. Spending time with other groups who have
similar passions is very refreshing, and I can’t wait to hear stories about
what God does through their remaining time in ministry together!
After youth camp we took a 4 hour bus ride to Kalasin, where
we will be doing the rest of our work for the month. We are staying at the
local YWAM base here and are going to be involved in Campus Ministries at
several local Universities.
On our first day out with the YWAM team we went to one of the Universities that only has 3 Christian students who attend! Almost as soon as we arrived on campus one of the Christian girls grabbed Kasey and myself and brought us to one of her teachers who spoke English.Her professor, Tina, escorted us to a classroom full of students, introduced us as “Crazy and Brees” (close enough) and then looked at me and asked
“So what would you like to say to them?”. HA! So Kasey took point and told thestudents who we were and where we were from and then I told a little about my story and why we were 
traveling the globe. It wasn’t long and I didn’t
get too detailed, but I told them of the difference that our God has made in my
life. I explained that when I was in high school and early college I was a
person without hope, without joy and at many times without a desire to live. I
then told them that because of my amazing God I now live without guilt and
fear, and that I have joy and a purpose for my life. I let them know that our
group would be around campus for the next several weeks and would love to get
to know them all better and be friends. It was nothing miraculous, but I was so glad to be able to share a
little about who we were and how much we wanted to get to know these students.
We have also been invited to teach a 4 day “English camp” at another University next week, so I’m sure we will have a great time sharing our culture, language and our Jesus with anyone and everyone who will listen! Let me just tell you, I’m utterly shocked that I am loving campus ministry already! I’m
excited to see how God uses us while we are here!
That’s all for now, please keep us in your prayers as we try to embrace the constant awkward moments that we experience while trying to bridge this huge cultural and language gap 🙂
Peace&Love
Brianna
PS – for those of you that are interested (and don’t have facebook), here is a little video of the Seeds enjoying some Thai snacks 🙂 and no, it did NOT taste like chicken, just salty and gross!
