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This week we faced a spirit of restlessness in the school with the students. The students who are shy and rarely talk were acting out for two days (ironically, when we started introducing Jesus’ birth and John the Baptist). So, Wednesday, David and I were praying that their restlessness and distractions would be turned into attentiveness and curiosity. God definitely answered prayer, because the 6th graders that day were captivated by the stories of Jesus’ ministry. In particular, you could hear a pin drop with the story of Jarius’ daughter being raised from the dead and Jesus healing the sick lady. On Thursday afternoon, the teachers had a meeting (in Thailand, schools are cancelled more frequently for holidays and meetings than in the US. I don’t know when these kids are learning math and science…) so school was cancelled. We invited all the kids in the school who wanted to, to come after lunch to the soccer field to play games and we read the story about the Sermon on the Mount (“How to pray” in the JSB). There were more scream races, “Fishy Fishy, Come Swim in My Sea”, and “Duck, Duck, Goose”. The 6th grade girls (who happen to be Region Champs in Jr. Division Volleyball) whooped our butts (twice) in volleyball. The other kids climbed 25 ft. trees (barefoot) and banged on scraps of tin and trash as our cheerleaders. After our games, we found out that the kids usually stay at one or two houses as latchkey kids and wait for their parents to come home from the fields around 7ish. We were invited by one of the 6th graders to come to her house where we hung out with 12 kids (aged 2-11) while they watched a Hmong soap opera, talked, and ate sour tomatoes dipped in chili powder.

Eak, Well (our Shan couple) and Lim went to Khun Klang again to talk with Shan people about Jesus and to hand out tracks. They talked to 8 new families and even paid a visit to the mawpee (witch doctor). They said that people listened and asked many questions.

Earlier this week, Bruce Taylor had arranged for us to spend 48 hours with 4 Hmong families who are Christians. David, Uan, Au, and I went with a family down the street. The father is Yuh, the mother is Ju, and they have a daughter (Dogmai) and a son (Manit) (20 and 25) still living with them. We ate, slept, talked, worshiped with them and helped them pick strawberries/cabbage/oranges in their fields. Yeh and Ju told us that they moved to Khun Wang about 15 years ago and became Christians after they got married. They have 6 kids (5 girls and Manit) all of whom are married except Dogmai and Manit. Some of their daughters have turned away from God. So, at night we prayed for them and their family and gave them encouraging words. Au played some worship songs on his guitar. I think we threw them for a loop because it was obvious that they never considered worshiping together in their house. It was fun to work through periods of awkward silence and stares. At the field, we prayed blessings over their crops and flowers. (This family also works 6 rows of chrysanthemums at the King’s Project farm). They work very hard, but they are a shy and humble family. They have a good relationship with the non-believers in Khun Wang and the Lord has them here for a very strategic purpose.

P. Yeh and P. Ju said that they had worried about feeding 4 more people when we stayed, but the Lord provided food where they thought they had none and everyone was full at the table and there were always left-overs. This loving family gave us all that they had (which to many, may not have looked like much at all), but they were proud to kill some of their tilapia so we could have fried fish one night and they showed us pictures of their family. They were slightly embarrassed once they found out David and I were husband and wife, as they didn’t plan for us to sleep together. We told them “no worries” and I slept with Uan on a wooden pallet while David got his own private pup tent in the “living room” (that was appropriately Asian “fun-sized” so his feet stuck out). They got a kick out of David’s height and astounding beard. The family told us stories of how Manti got into a motorcycle accident when he was 15 years old and can’t go to school anymore. He collects birds and builds birdcages as a hobby. Dogmai got a degree studying Korean at university, but she was homesick in Chiang Mai and moved home. She wants to go to Bible school to study and become a leader in the church (DTS, anyone?) but she was worried about the money. We were able to tell her about how the Lord provided for us to come to DTS even when we thought it was impossible. I think she was encouraged. It was truly because of Jesus that we got the chance to share life with this family and it was an experience that we will never forget. This family welcomed us as sons and daughters into their lives and we are thankful and blessed to have gotten to know them. It will be bittersweet to leave Khun-Wang as we have been here long enough to finally interact in the community and people know our names and faces on the street.

One more week, we leave mid-week for debriefing. Please pray for a strong finish and that kids get their faces rocked off by Jesus’ death and resurrection (on Monday morning) and Holy Spirit teaching (on Tuesday).

<a href="” title=”Scream Race” target=”_blank”>

A blog post from Mike Breen about integrating discipleship and community into your life. A great way to bring the Kingdom wherever you live.

http://mikebreen.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/building-an-extended-family-keys-to-an-integrated-life/

This week has flown by and was less stressful than last week. Our team leaders are being able to voice their opinions and take ownership of their responsibilities. This is such an answer to prayer because previous situations had limited them. Our team has seen an increase in witnessing to the students at Kuhn Wang School. Every day, the students ask (in Thai) and then translated for us: “Are we going to read the Bible story? Can we read it now?” Because the teachers leave for the two-hour classes we teach, we spend the last 30 minutes or so just reading from the Jesus Storybook Bible and they LOVE it. (We are still on Old Testament stories and they can’t get enough…Abraham and David….and we’re not even on the best part yet). Planting seeds is wonderful! MORE LORD!

On Thursday night, we went to one of our students’ house (thanks to his invitation) and we met his immediate and extended family who live in a one-room, no-window, dirt-floored, one-light hovel. Our team has been on prayer walks in the mornings for the last few weeks in hopes that we can visit families to encourage them. Even though this room was crowded enough as it was, David, Gai, and I crowded in and they offered us dinner (although we politely declined due to being full already) and showered his family with compliments and blessing. His dad moved the motorcycle over so he could reach the ancestral shrine in the house and he began a 10 minute ceremony of incantations, incense and noisemakers. His family is employed by the King’s Project and even Pong works on weekends for 120 Baht ($4)/day picking flowers. We pray that God will continue to let us visit families like his to be open to hearing the good news!

On Friday, the kids had Field Day Celebration with games and snacks for the kids. When we arrived, the kids were having a morning assembly and a bunch of moms/grandmas came to watch. One woman came up crying hysterically and was causing commotion at the back. The kids were distracted (and I’m sure her kid was embarrassed) and none of the adults were consoling her. So after 5 minutes of this woman sobbing, I couldn’t stand it any longer and I went over there and said “You are having a rough day, so I’m giving you a hug.” I got to hug this woman and rub her back and tell her I was sorry for whatever was happening. Another woman came over and spoke to her and Au and Wit came over to help with translating. They said this woman’s father-in-law gets drunk often and blames her for everything and beats her. She has a little boy at the school. She was crying because she’s sick of it and wants out, but that’s not realistic here. We were able to gather our team around her to pray protection and peace over her and her family. God loves her so much.

We were able to play with the kids for field Day. Au and I are explaining how to run the SCREAM RACE!!

Earlier in the week, Eak and Well (the Shan couple) went to the next village over, Kuhn Klang, to spend a day ministering to the Shan there. They talked with 8 or 9 families all day. They seemed very encouraged and interested in what they had to say. Hopefully they can go back to continue to tell the Shan in Kuhn Klang about Jesus and what he has done for them. They also visited Jing and her family again and Melissa helped explain what all of her medicines were for. Pray that God will lead us to people who are open to being friends and listening to our stories of encouragement.

This week we’ve reached the half-way mark! It’s been a very busy week. On Wednesday, we started working in the schools. The four white people (David, Melissa, Jamie and I) will be at the Kuhn Wang School teaching English to grades 1-6 for the next 3 weeks. We have one Thai translator with us (which we would be lost and pointless without them). David and I are on a rotating schedule for grades 4-6. The students have memorized phrases like “Hello, how are you? I’m fine. My name is so-and-so” but they have no idea what that means. The first day of 5th grade class, the teacher handed us the English book and said “peace” and he never came back. David and I had Au translate where they were in the book and what they knew already. The teacher does not let them speak English, only copy the paragraphs in the book. They knew the alphabet song, but don’t realize that letters make sounds and can’t remember them. So, after a planning period, David and I will start at the basics (and do what Jamie and Melissa are doing with grades 1-3) and teach the alphabet and phonics for the remainder of the time. Compared to the craziness of China classrooms at the orphanage, the kids were pretty well behaved. We told them to go run around outside for 5 minutes so we could gather our thoughts for class and everyone was back in 30 seconds. Some didn’t even move. The kids are all really cute and they were entertained by the “silly farang” instead of their normal teacher. Everyday we are reading to them (first in English and then translated into Thai) from the Jesus Storybook Bible (http://www.jesusstorybookbible.com). It’s really cool to see the kids around the village now and they shout out “P. David, P. Jen!” (“P.” is the “Mr.” or “Mrs.” before someone’s name and is a sign of respect to someone older) and it is our hope to start to visit with them around their families. Half the kids drive motorcycles and mopeds around town (at 7 and 8 years old). They can barely kick a soccer ball in a goal and they get mopeds to drive around at 40 mph? Yes, really.

An update on the Shan grandmother, Jing, that we prayed for last week: Melissa, Eak, and Well (the Shan couple on our team) went again this week and her wrist was still swollen and her legs were still swollen and the three of them were persuading her to go to the doctor. She showed them all of her medicines (all unlabeled and in plastic baggies) and neither Jing, nor her family knew what they were for. Melissa wanted them to go to the doctor just to straighten out what the meds were and the correct dosage amount since she wasn’t taking any. The family can’t go to the Thai doctor’s office in Chomgtong because they don’t speak Thai, only Shan. They also didn’t have enough money to go pay for the doctor’s visit so they went to the mawpee (witch doctor) instead. Eak and Well went back again to help this family pick flowers and talk with them some more. Please pray for this family: for Jing’s health to improve and that they would be open to receive the Gospel from Eak and Well’s relationship with them.

On Saturday, we hiked up one of the mountains that was in sight of the highest peak in Thailand, Doi Inthanon. It is actually in the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. It was super steep both ways and our team is pooped, but the view from the top was incredible! Even though Clemson lost badly in the Orange Bowl we still represent our Alma-Mater in Thailand. (Over our left shoulder is the highest peak in Thailand).

Pray for sleep and rest for our team as many of us have not been sleeping this week and a lot of us have been sick. Pray for the village of Kuhn-Wang (specifically the church here, that has lost members as people revert to ancestor spirit-worship over New Years). Pray for continued encouragement (our team is doing well), but for our hosts who have been here for approximately 20 years, but have seen little change. They are candidates for a miracle right now. Also, pray for one of our staff members, Bow, who had to leave DTS because her visa ran out and at the bus station someone stole her bag with her passport. So, she can’t stay in Thailand, but needs a miracle to get back to Germany.

Thanks and let us know how you’re doing! Big love, Jen and David

On the 27th we received the blessing of a day off (for Hmong New Years) and we went to the school where we watched the eligible bachelors/bachelorettes of the town throwing balls back and forth to find their lucky guy/girl. It’s like the one day a year to make your affections known–while the whole village stands around and watches your every move. The guys who weren’t so interested in the flirting competition stood around with cell phones attached to their ears.  The Hmong people take this one day to dress extremely fancy in their traditional costumes.  The kids practice their tossing and catching abilities with each other and spin tops and look extremely cute doing it too.

 

This week, our team has seen a lot of progress within ourselves.  We praise God that we all haven’t killed each other and we all genuinely want to work out communication and understanding and push onward with good attitudes (thanks for your prayers, again, they are working)! We can’t compare ourselves to other outreach teams and their experiences.  The Lord redefines success as obedience and we are obeying Him by being here. It’s a hard place with hard hearts, but this is where we were called to be.

 

Eak and Well (the Shan couple) have been making progress building relationships with some of the Shan migrant workers here (These migrant workers have literally nothing here. They are not eligible for i.d. cards and can’t travel, work legally, or own anything. Their bosses usually pay them in food as an incentive to not leave working the farms, but they have no money for anything else. They are a shy people, who choose to stay on the farms and keep to themselves.  Of course, working in Thailand for them is a world of opportunity for them compared to getting shot up in Burma.  Of course the workers are interested in how Ek and Well got involved in our DTS so doors have been opening to share the Gospel. Please continue to pray for Eak and Well as they will be able to reach people that we never could (neither Thai or farang = foreigner).

On New Year’s Eve, we went with Eak to visit a Shan family that lives in the middle of one of the King’s Project chrysanthemum farms.  A family of 5 lives in a 2 room shanty made of tin and crooked boards.  They have been working there for 2 years and we got a chance to talk with them (Eak spoke Shan, Uan/Au spoke Thai and we listened, smiled, and prayed).  We got a chance to pray for the grandmother, Jing, who can’t work because of a hurt wrist for 9 years (which she is convinced was inflicted upon her by a witch-doctor).  The family believes in animistic spirits and Hinduism (there was a Hindu-god drawing over their bedroom door).  We prayed for her and spoke blessing over the house and the 2 grand-kids (Sienpon and Zeh). She welcomed us back anytime and we will definitely be back for a visit.  They family lives close to a nature trail/waterfall so we will have to check that out as well.

 

Happy New Years everyone. Love you!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

We have been in full swing since the Hmong celebrated Christmas on the 18th, because the 25th is their New Years celebration (for 3 days).  Because we’re not Hmong, we celebrated Christmas with you guys! Jamie made a Nativity creche out of cut up Coke cans, we made chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, and Santa even paid us a visit (to all of our dirty socks hung by the fireplace in exchange for a sweet roll and a box of Lactasoy).  It’s been a wonderful Christmas.  Today we hitched into town to use wi-fi and had sticky rice and som-tam (spicy papaya salad) and fried chicken.  You really get to focus on the Lord when no one else around you is celebrating with commercials and white noise.  Last night, we prayed together and read the Christmas story in Thai and English.  We really do miss you though and hope your Christmas with your family and friends was spectacular!

This week, David went on an adventure with Bruce and I to the hospital dentist.  He’s fine, he just had an inflamed tooth. So after 3 hours of waiting, a lunch break of water buffalo soup, and 2 x-rays later they decided: “Mr. Carter, you have an inflamed tooth.” Take IB Pro-fen for a few days. Total time: 7 hours, total cost: $6. Had it been a life-or-death situation I wouldn’t have trusted these hospital “professionals” with my life, but at the time it was very comical.  If you’re that curious, Kara Moon, I’ll let you know that they reused gloves, drew blood (without gloves) in the lobby with screaming and sick people all around, and the nurses and hygienists wore flip-flops and mini dresses with short lab coats over it.  The x-ray tech in the back (next to a very large  sign in Thai that said “Danger, Gamma Radiation”) had the door wide open to the lobby, the patients weren’t covered by lead jackets or anything and between charts he kept Facebook pulled up.  Crazy. The moral of the story is that the next time you are complaining about Obama care, you could be under these guys’ care and you probably wouldn’t want that. Really.

Work this week included: potting coffee seedlings, more hoeing the tea fields, cutting down vines to feed the pigs, watering banana trees. On Friday we killed the fattest porker (we have the video if you’re curious, but can’t put it on here thanks to PETA) to feed us and the neighbors in the village.  Actually, the whole village went on a mass pig killing this week because of New Years. Yep, it was a big deal, but we met some of the village elders and their wives.  We learned how to make sausages and use every part of the animal for something (even lard to make oil).

The next 3 days (25-27th) are New Years when the Hmong shoot off firecrackers and mortar shells non-stop.  People with make  pledges with their ancestor spirits for the year and they will clean their houses.  At night, gangs of boys will carry out the tradition of getting a girlfriend.  The Hmong say that to get a girl to be your wife, you go play ball (like toss and catch) with her as you sing a line of a song to her and you talk to find out if this person is your soul-mate. If she likes you she sings your heart’s duet back at you. If she drops the ball, she sings a line of the song by herself and if she misses again then you take her bracelet or earrings. If she wants them back then she arranges to meet you at night to get them back.  Then you two are officially a couple in the eyes of the village.  If the boy has money to arrange a marriage, then they will get married.  If he doesn’t have money, the other  not-so-pleasant way to get a wife is for gangs of boys to go wife stealing at night.  If a girl gets taken to a boy’s house and someone else swings a chicken’s blood over their heads together, they are married, bound together forever.  Not so romantic.  Don’t worry, the foreigners aren’t even fair game and all of the single ladies in the DTS will be locked up on these nights 🙂

The Lord has been teaching us a lot about how he provides this week.  He provides for our families while we can’t be with them this Christmas and reminds us that HE brings joy and peace this season. More than what we can provide ourselves.  He has adjusted our attitudes this week (sometimes you get bent out of shape doing the same back-breaking labor with the same people) and allowed us to show forgiveness and to give Him the glory when your work goes unnoticed by others.  We have learned from the Taylor’s generosity and how much they give of themselves when people may look at what they have and not see much.  Today, the Lord provided a pick-up truck on Christmas day as we needed to get to town (1.5 hours away). We were walking up this mountain and not a car in sight and when we asked we received.  That couple is so amazing to stop for us when they were going on a family picnic.  It’s the little things that the Lord keeps bringing up that are so meaningful to us.

This week, the founder of YWAM Norway, Ivan, came and talked to us about the two kingdoms: the kingdom of light vs. darkness. Ivan travels Asia with his new ministry (not with YWAM) but predominately works in China. He has lots of awesome stories of revival happening in China, Nigeria and North Korea. He is besties with “the Heavenly Man”, Brother Yun, in China. Yeah, this guy’s the real deal and he stated that “it is important to hear the rains of revival in parts of the world to refresh those who are in a desert place to get through the dry seasons. There are more people being saved today than ever before. We are a part of the greatest revival on the earth.”

North Korea used to be the “Jerusalem of the east” and all you have to do is to tune into the latest CNN report to see that they are from it. Kim Jong Il has taken worship songs from all the hymns and replaced God’s name with his, Jesus with his son, and the Holy Spirit with the spirit of Korea. If you are caught with a Bible it will cost you your life. People are sent to concentration camps to die if caught associating with Christian paraphernalia or speaking out against the great leader of communism. Ivan has been there and confirms the darkness over Korea makes China seem like a vacation. People were afraid of making eye contact with him because they didn’t want to be accused of adopting “western ideas”. Even amidst all the horror there, he said that the Chinese are sending out “M’s” where Westerners can’t go: north Korea and the Middle East. The Bibles are still being sent and people are getting discipled and saved everyday in ways that You can’t imagine. There is no darkness too dark where the light can’t penetrate it.

This week a team from Chiang Mai came to teach us about church planting in Thailand. The Gospel has been in Thailand for 180 years. Today, out of a population of 65 million, only 339,000 (1%) are Christians. 42% of this number are hilltribe. World, we have a problem.

So what will it take to reach the core 75% of Theraveda Buddhists/animists in Thailand? A radical change of the Thai church as we know it. The group that came this week have all been missionaries at sone point an are from different parts of the world, but all desire to see house churches planted to reach all of Thailand. An interesting approach is incorporating the Thai Buddhist culture to fit Christianity. For example, the easiest thing that any Thai Buddhist knows is to obey karma. You get good in return for good and bad for doing bad. So trying to push foreign vocabulary on them like” sin, repentance and saved” only confuses them. The majority of Thais already have a stigma of church that it is the “faring” thing or the hilltribe religion.

The team’s approach is to meet the Thais where they are based off of the early church in Acts. They speak blessings over a person’s house or business (chanting prayers to God in a Buddhist style) and if they are welcomed into the house or received then they will share their testimony of faith. They will ask to be taken to the sick or oppressed in the house and people will be healed. They will ask te family if they want the Gospel and if they wish to know more then they will return the following day with the water ceremony (baptism). The team had many stories of this method working, going to houses where they were welcomed (even a massage parlor) where people became Christians. They are having fellowship,discipleship, and training in this same method in houses and businesses. Praise God! Pray that methods like this will be happening rapidly. Theretically, all of Thailand could be reached in this way in 6.5 years if more workers are called into this harvest. (Luke 10:2)

Spreadtheflame.com

One guy, Kennedy Paizs, creates art while in a market stall using familiar Buddhist emblems and designs, but with Christ-centered themes.

Pray for the encouragement of Thai Christians this week as many of our peers got rocked this week to evangelize in new ways. Pray for us, as we are so limited in Thai words, by that we can still bless people with our actions, especially in our outreach teams.