The house in Ban-On we stayed in for the last 3 nights.
We just got back into Chiang Mai this morning. We were out in a little village near Chiang Dao, called Ban On.
Just to let you know our team for this month is Tim, Annie, Josh and I, along with Tana and Rusty (a guy from Arkansas that found and has been following our blogs all year long. He came to Cusco, Peru with us to see what this WR thing was, then came back to Swaziland and stayed for 3 weeks…and now he’s here and on board with team Nessa for the remainder of the trip. It’s a cool story) of team Nessa. Clinton was with us for a few days, and Stephanie, Scott and Linnea of Nessa are arriving tomorrow morning.
We had a sweet 8 and a half hour overnight bus ride up here from Bangkok the other day. Really nice bus…super reclining seats and tons of leg room. Here’s a list of all the food they brought us: a little box with a muffin, mini donut, and chicken leg; a small cup of pepsi, some little strawberry cookies, a yogurt juice box, small cup of coffee, small cup of tea, bag of peanuts. There might’ve been something else…but it just kept coming. The whole trip wasn’t even $20 USD.
inside the house we stayed at
it was funny…even shacks in Karen (the people group) villages have TV’s with a connection to the big fat satellite dish right outside…
We got up here…and have joined up with a guy named Ray. He’s 34 and American, real cool. He’s kind of our guide guy for our time up here. He’s with YWAM and as far as I know, just helps out this Thai pastor and his wife, Panya and Rapatree. They work with 6 pretty disperse villages and just care for and love people. Ray just helps them and loves on them I think. Ray, Panya and Rapee and us are going to a few villages while us WR’s are up here. We’re only gonna be up in this area for 3 weeks or so. (only about 2 more now) short month.
having some worship time down at the creek
We were just in this village where Rapee grew up, and we helped re-do a ceiling in their church. I didn’t….I was sick. Ever since I got to Thailand…I haven’t been sleeping well, and my energy level has plummeted. A couple days ago I developed a fever…I just hit a wall man. I was soooo out of gas. I felt weak in every sense of the word. It spread over into my thoughts and made me weak emotionally. I see it now as probably an attack from satan. I was just not right. Yeah, I had a physical bug…but depression started to rock me for a few days. Everything seemed pointless for a while. Didn’t wanna be here or anything of the sort.
worship at the house (that’s Rapee on the left)
But once we got into that village…I went to a clinic and got some medicine and now ( 2 plus days later) with a lot of sleep and rest over the last few days….I’m pretty much back to normal. My mind is renewed. Praise God! And my body is almost all renewed.
a nice spread of food
We’ll leave Chiang Mai again tomorrow and head out to another village and help run a church service on Sunday then do some school presentations on Monday and Tuesday.
If you wouldn’t mind, say a prayer or two for Panya and Rapee. From what Ray has told us, and from personally getting to know them a little over the past few days…they are amazing people of God just doing what He tells them to do. One of Ray’s goals I think is to hook up Panya and Rapee with some more people and churches in the States for support. (I don’t think they are connected with hardly any right now) They do amazing work and seriously are just winning whole tribal villages for Christ. I’ll post more in the coming weeks as I get to know them even better and all that…but I just encourage you if you or your church would like to have a hand in Panya and Rapee’s ministry.
