Below is the collaborative efforts of our team to put together a blog. We will try to do this often. The internet is too slow here to upload video, but more are on the way.
Ministry – DG
Our team has been extremely blessed to have been place here. Arun and Pang are a YWAM couple that moved out of the city seven years ago with their parents, not knowing anybody in the hopes that they could minister to people through teaching and serving the locals. When they first came there was only one other Christian family that lived in the area. They are know very close to most everyone here and have since started a small church plant of twenty or so people that meet on a weekly basis. Arun and Pang have had small labor intensive projects that we have been able to help with. Projects such as planting a pineapple field and building a trash yard have been a few things we have been able to help build. The Princess of Thailand is coming to visit the small village we are staying in so there is plenty of work to be done. Community here takes on a very different meaning that it might in the states. When a task such as fixing up the school needs to be done, the whole community comes to help. Everyone seems to be chipping in here including children. I think our whole teams has learned from this experience. Though there is some down time, we have come to this village at a time when spare help is needed and appreciated especially at the nearby school.
Upcoming events – SB
If I could create my own name for this category, it would be “lessons in flexibility.” Very few of the plans we have for the day, week, hour happen as we expect. As such, upcoming events is a tricky section to write. What we “know” is that we will be attending worship here at Arun and Paeng’s house on Saturday and traveling to worship on Sunday with the members of one of the new church plants. Next week we will be spending 2 days visiting more local churches, 2 days working in the school to help them prepare for the arrival of the Princess after we leave, and continuing to help do work around the property here. October 7th we are scheduled to head back to Bangkok for a few days for our first debrief.
Spiritual Discussions– JZ
Each day we have had one person in our group give a devotion. The devotion is just about where we are at individually in the day or the week. I love getting to here other peoples thoughts on a book or on a section of the bible. We are learning to become less. We are learning about how we need to fully devote ourselves daily to God in order for Him to become more.56-
Story – Mango Village – LM
Welcome to Ton-Maa-Moung, which means Mango Tree, a little jungle village in the province of Kanchanaburi. Words cannot express the beauty of this place; whether it is the sunset, or a clear blue sky afternoon, or the times when the clouds are so thick and low we can’t see the mountain tops and it feels like we are in a cloud. The colors, the mountains, the waterfalls, the lakes, their beauty leaves us in awe. It seems everywhere we go we find ourselves saying, “Could you imagine…waking up to this view every day or this being your view from your school window?”
Besides the natural beauty of this place, the simplicity and quietness of the community are beautiful as well. It is a rural community with dirt roads where phone service and internet are inaccessible for about thirty miles. Most people farm, but there are teachers, Buddhist Monks, and those who struggle to find work within the community as well. Across from where we are staying is a convenient store that we have come to frequent at least once a day. For me it has become less about the treats offered there, and more about the ladies who work there. Every time we go, they are so welcoming and so happy to see us. Even though there is a language barrier it is amazing how well one can communicate using hand signals and facial expressions. It is the same at the school we have been fixing up the last few days. The children there can’t speak fluent English, and we barely know any Thai, but it’s amazing how the simplest act of pushing them on the swing or helping them go across the monkey bars or twirling them around speaks volumes of love to them and afterwards they never leave your side.
I am surprised at how well we have adjusted to this new lifestyle of simplicity. Squatty potties, hoses with a shower head, tree houses without walls, and sleeping under mosquito nets seem normal and comfortable. It’s only been a week and I feel as though I could be happy living here in this community forever. Maybe in another week I will feel differently, but right now I love this life.
Cultural Quirkiness—KC
Last week after church, we got the chance to go to a farm with some people from the church to pick some fruit. So after a 30 minute drive with about 15 packed into a little truck, we arrived at the Geaw-Mong-Kon farm. Geaw-Mong-Kon, pronounced similarly to Caramel Corn, is quite the amazing fruit. The English this fruit is called a Dragonfruit. On the outside, the fruit is pink and green. The fruit is round and it has little leafy spikes that stick out off of the fruit. When you eat it, you have to peel it like a banana. Inside, we discovered the most amazing color in the history of man. It is such a vibrant pink/purple color. This color completely blows my mind because I have never seen anything quite like it before. The fruit is probably most similar to is the kiwi because of the taste, texture, and the little black seeds everywhere. FYI…if you eat enough of it, it makes your doo-doo purple…believe me, we know from experience. Here is a video of Danny and I looking at some purple doo-doo…….psych…….it is a video of us participating in a Dragonfruit eating contest.
Prayer Requests– CF
1. Pray that the Lord will continue to bind us together as a team (honesty, openness, love).
2. Pray that we would put Christ first in all circumstances and individually grow closer to Him on a daily basis.
3. Pray that Christ would shine through us in this community, and continue to provide opportunities for us to love.
4. Pray that we would be a blessing to our host family.
5. Pray that we would serve this community and learn a lot from them.
6. Pray that God would send a legion of angels to protect us and our families since we are under constant spiritual attack.
7. Pray that our hearts would be centered on prayer and that we would go to Christ for everything.
