Tis the season to be Jolly…Falalala…LALALALA….
So this year R-squad celebrates Christmas in Thailand! We have had the amazing honor of having two Christmas Elves in our teammates Ashley and Chelsea who have worked so hard to make this season an unforgettable one. We have had Christmas decorations of all kinds up and festively reminding us it’s Christmas (though we still wake up sweating and last week I went snorkeling at the beach). Nikki created paper stockings for every squad mate and we have exchanged Secret Santa names for a gift exchange.Other Christmas festivities have included a Gingerbread House decorating competition, (my team’s house had a David and Goliath theme since our Gingerbread man’s head fell off :)) watching Home Alone 1, and laughing at Clint in his awesome new Santa costume! Pictures of me and Santa to come later….
These are our World Race Christmas stockings 🙂
As I type this on Christmas Eve I am reminded of how truly blessed I am to have this opportunity. I am surrounded by such an amazing community, a new “family” of such strong men and women who desire intimacy with God more than anything else. The times that I feel the most blessed to be a part of this group is when we join together in worship. We have an incredible ability to bring the presence of God when we are together especially when we enter into corporate worship.
Again I ask…God is this really my life? I feel so humbled to be a part of such a solid group. As much as there were challenges that came with our entire squad being together in one ministry site this month, I know I will truly miss being together next month when we are separate. i have grown to love them all very much! Great news as well my teammate Nikki got enough support to bring her to the $10,000 goal! Thank you everyone who was able to support her in this way! Praise the Lord for His provision! 🙂
You can continue lifting this ministry up in prayers, we are having a Christmas Eve community outreach event this evening, and then a big Christmas cook-out tomorrow afternoon. My team invited all of our girls from Freedom Bar to join us at the cook-out on Christmas Day and they said they would come! We are praying that they will indeed come to the celebration, and that while there thye will connect with a few of the Thai girls who work for SHE. We would really love to see every one of these women get out of the bars and have a steady living outside of prostitution.
As amazing as this experience is, I still do miss friends and family at home…and was TOTALLY blessed by this wonderful video that my friends put together back in Ashland. Thanks so much guys for putting this together and reminding me that I’m still supported and remembered back home during the holidays. Sending you all hugs from Thailand! Merry Christmas!!
