Save 1 life, you're a hero. Save 100, YOU'RE A NURSE!!

Surprise!

2009-03-27T23:18:00.005+07:00

At 1:00 pm, she crept into the house (as quiet as a mouse), grabbed a newspaper, and jumped onto the couch. As the woman of the house came into the front door carrying her granddaughter, she didn't even notice the stranger on the couch. She was focused on baking bread, but her daughter kept pushing her into the living room. At last, she looked up and let out a squeal of delight! There on the couch was . . . .

A bit later, the man of the house came in and wondered who the person behind the newspaper was. Finally, she peaked over the edge of the newspaper, and the look on his face was priceless! He was totally unable to conceal his shock at the sight of the stranger!

Then all of them (including the 5 that picked the girl up at the airport) ran up to another house. A few of them went in the front door and started talking to the grandmother who lived there. The rest ran in the backdoor and the girl ran and placed her hands over the grandmother's eyes. She had no idea who the cold hands belonged to. At last she laid eyes on the face of the stranger, who, come to find out, she had just been praying for. She shed a few tears!

The Stranger??

Yay, it was ME, of course!

It was great fun surprising my parents and Nana. Fawna and Jeff (and Sierra and Savana) picked me up at the airport and helped me plan the whole surprise. (Beaver and Becca also helped me coordinate all of this from Thailand.) I went up to Southern on Monday to surprise Shama. I was worried that she might find out, but nope, she was totally surprised!

I know I haven't posted in a while, that was all part of the surprise. I couldn't talk to my family on the phone or e-mail, because I was afraid they would find out.

The last few weeks in Thailand, we went to some more villages up north, one of my friend's village a few hours from Bangkok, and then down to South Thailand. It's good to be home, even though I miss some things from Thailand. I had a great year serving there, many learning experiences and hard times, but growing times, too. Praise the Lord for my time in Thailand!

Continually learning!

2009-02-18T12:40:00.004+07:00

Tomorrow, we are heading back to the villages. I am so excited to be going to the country. One month in the city was more than enough for me. We are going first to an Akkha village and from there, to an orphanage, and then who knows. : )

I really enjoyed the last month in Lamphun. It was a stressful month, but I have learned so much and fell in love with the students. I was sad to leave them. It is scary all the things that I am learning about myself. These stressful situations have been opening my eyes to the sinner that I am and the amazing God that I serve. This morning as I was reading about the race that the Corinthians would run, it made me re-evaluate my own life. In Acts of the Apostles it was explaining the work that went into receiving a laurel wreath and the applause of men. Contestants would die as they reached for the prize, or they would be permanently handicapped in the midst of the race. Why would they go through all that, maybe even die, just for people to notice them! What am I willing to do for the Lord? Am I willing to put away my comforts, step up to the starting line and let go of everything to touch someone's life?

Just a quick note!

2009-02-13T15:04:00.002+07:00

For some English we have learned from our students, check Emily-Thailand (Emily Yoder's) blog. It's pretty funny! The blog title is: "Did we accomplish anything?"

3 of my girls!

2009-02-12T16:43:00.003+07:00

These are my girls that I had lots of fun with, playing games, singing songs, oh yeah, and teaching English to. This was the craft at the Evangelistic meetings.

Ajhan (teacher)

2009-02-11T16:08:00.002+07:00

Me, a teacher? yup, that's what I've been doing for the last month. We arrived here in Lamphun and were put to work teaching 2-4 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the evening. It was extremely stressful the first week, seeing as I have never taught English in my life (besides some random vocabulary words:) and nothing was planned. We had to prepare everything from scratch, but after we started, things improved immensely. This is one of my classes that I taught English to. It was pretty fun, at times. I have a lot of respect for teachers and the work that they put into teaching. Right now we are having an evangelistic series, so please keep that in your prayers.

All for now!

2009-01-05T18:29:00.004+07:00

That's all for now, folks! I hope you enjoyed a small taste of my Christmas vacation. A couple things that we did that I didn't post up included visiting the Killing fields and Phnom Penh in Cambodia, and also going to Vietnam and seeing some of the War Tunnels. It was a great break, these pictures hardly say anything about how we spent it. Rob, Alison, Emily, Holly and I were the ones who traveled around. Great times! Anyways, we are now in a meeting to find out what the future (or at least the next month or 2) holds for us girls. Exciting! We might be leaving tomorrow, so who knows when I'll post again! Byebye.

Train Ride!

2009-01-05T18:14:00.002+07:00

Emily and I on the sleeper train. Instead of taking a bus to Chiang Mai from Bangkok, we took a train! It was awesome. We had our own bunk-beds and everything. A fun new experience!

At the beach!

2009-01-05T18:01:00.003+07:00

Emily, Holly, Kelly, and I with our delicious coconuts on Pattaya Beach! It was beautiful but not as nice as some of the other beaches in Thailand. Can you believe that on the 2nd of January, we went swimming at the beach?! It was great fun! (I got pretty sunburned, though)

King's Palace

2009-01-05T17:53:00.003+07:00

We are outside the King's palace, but unfortunately, since it was New Year's day, the palace was closed to tourists. This king is the longest ruling monarch in all of history!

Temples

2009-01-05T17:40:00.003+07:00

(Front to back) Kelly, Holly, Emily, Michelle, Jeptha, and I, in front of the "Temple of the Emerald Buddha" in Bangkok. This Buddha was supposedly so special that only the king was good enough to worship it. (Michelle and Jeptha are teachers in Laos)

Holly, Emily, and I

2009-01-05T17:35:00.001+07:00

In Bangkok on New Year's Eve

Angkor Wat

2009-01-05T17:33:00.001+07:00

We left at about 5:00 AM to get to Angkor Wat, a famous temple (and surrounding ones) in Cambodia! It was beautiful to watch the start to rise up over the temple!

Angkor Wat

2009-01-05T17:26:00.002+07:00

Such a beautiful temple! (Emily is a great photographer, too:)

Angkor Wat

2009-01-05T17:23:00.002+07:00

These huge tree-roots were making the walls fall down in some places!

Back at the Ranch!

2009-01-05T15:11:00.002+07:00

I have never been so excited to arrive back at the "ranch" (a.k.a "the center" or "our base") as I was today! We have been on the move since December 10 when we headed to Cambodia. I really enjoyed Christmas break, but it sure wasn't very Christmasy without family, many Christmas lights, and cool weather! We arrived back in Bangkok on the 30th and got to spend New Years with Kelly and Jorge. That was fun, but I couldn't live in Bangkok for long! The city is just too big! It was crazy! So, that was why it was so nice to get back to the mountains and fresh air! Anyways, some pics will follow about our days on break! Hope you all have the best New Year ever, as this is the closest we have ever been to the Lord's return! God bless!

heading back to thailand

2008-12-29T12:46:00.002+07:00

We've been enjoying our time here in Cambodia, and a few days in Vietnam as well. We are heading back to thailand tomorrow, and will be spending a few days in Bangkok. That should be interesting. I will update more later, with pictures and more stories! I hope you all had a very merry Christmas, and that you will have a happy new year. Remember the true REASON for this holiday season!

In Cambodia! (until tomorrow:)

2008-12-14T17:09:00.002+07:00

Well friends, it has been a while. I have been keeping pretty busy, at least away from internet for a couple of weeks. I am in Cambodia right now, but am heading to Vietnam tomorrow. I am on Christmas break, so we (Emily, Alison, Rob and I) went to an orphanage in Cambodia where our friend Holly was and will be sight-seeing from there. We are on our way to Vietnam, but must wait for our visas right now. (It feels pretty funny being a tourist;)

I had a great Thanksgiving, with lots of sticky rice (a few days before) and a visa trip to Burma on the day of. Fun, none-the-less, even though it was nothing like at home. We are planning on decorating for Christmas here in Cambodia, even though it is probably 80-90 degrees during the day and doesn't feel like Christmas. :D Well, I don't have any more time but I hope that you all have a great Christmas! Enjoy the snow and cold for me. :D God bless you all!

Beautiful Thailand!

2008-11-28T16:35:00.003+07:00

The sunflower fields are amazing!

One of the many waterfalls in Thailand!

Karen shirts

2008-11-28T16:29:00.001+07:00

Emily, Ying, and I in our Karen shirts

Puppies!

2008-11-28T16:27:00.002+07:00

We have a mommy dog and three puppies that are adopted into our family now. This is one of them. At first this one was terrified of us, but now he is such a sweety! We have wone their hearts with lots of love and rice.

A Karen kitchen

2008-11-28T16:26:00.003+07:00

Ying and I cooking in our Karen kitchen. In the villages, they cook over open fires.

The food that Emily and I made for the village church members. We had a little feast over at our house, then had worship, etc. They seemed to love the food. It was all cleaned up!

What is this? you may wonder! It is a whole bunch of chilis out drying in the sun, and rice in the other container! This is a typical Karen meal. You have to have the chili paste (Nam prick) or else the meal isn't complete! (I know that mom and nana would love it! Don't worry, I know how to make it for you when I get home. :D)

Do I look Thai yet?

2008-11-28T16:22:00.001+07:00

:D

2008-11-28T16:17:00.001+07:00

Ying & I

phone service?

2008-11-28T16:14:00.003+07:00

On top of a hill, in the middle of a herd of cows. . . . The only phone service!

Yim (smile)

2008-11-28T16:12:00.003+07:00

Ricky, Emily, and I giving our BIGGEST smiles for the camera!

Hanging out!

2008-11-28T16:09:00.002+07:00

Emily and I hanging out the back of a Songtel! This is the common mode of transportation in these areas!

Trekking!

2008-11-23T10:59:00.016+07:00

The week before last, we had the amazing opportunity to go on a 3-day trekk. We thought that it was to be a 3-day elephant trekk, but it ended up being more like a 3-day backpacking trip with about 2 hours of an elephant ride. We started out on a boat going down the river between Thailand and Burma. (Ying & I getting to our boat)

The trail was quite intense the first day. We didn't realize we would be hiking 5-6 hours, so we had lots of stuff! Thankfully I had my chacos, (sandals) otherwise, I would have died in flipflops! We went up one hill that went up 1,000 meters, or about 3,000 feet! It doesn't seem that much, but it sure did then. :D We crossed over many bridges (and many bamboo sticks across the river). This was one of the nice bridges!

We saw a poisonous snake about 30 minutes into our trekk. It was so different than backpacking in the USA, because we would be hiking through the jungle, and then come out on someone's rice field!

We spent the first night in a small Karen village. We were able to do some health teaching and some hydrotherapy there as well. The next morning we left on our elephants. We only had 2 elephants for 5 of us! So, 3 of us rode on the big one.

I actually got to ride on its neck! Very prickly hair, though.

We spent the 2nd night in another Karen village, right next to a beautiful stream! This was the last picture taken with my camera before it went swimming! Thankfully it works now. :D

We visited a little school, and hopefully will get to go back and teach there. They are open to having us, especially as foreigners, go and teach health & English. (we could also teach about the Christianity, too;) This was an adorable little girl at the school!

The next morning, we left and headed out walking across many streams. After that, all of us with chacos got great big blisters! Lol, oh well. We made it back safe and sound.

The most lasting part about the trip were the friendships we made, especially with our guide. Before we left, we had been praying especially for the Buddhists. This young man is Buddhist, and had a bitter taste about Christianity from an ex-girlfriend. We had prayer before leaving, before eating, etc. and that left a deep impression on him. Just in little things that have happened since the trekk, God has opened the doors for us to meet up with him again. We rented some motorcycles from him and after we were finished, the guys forgot to leave the keys (so he had to come get them); we've been able to go out to eat with him, and he suggested that we pray (before we mentioned it). He seems to be opening up and trusting us! I pray that God will continue to use us to reach him. He said that we were a special group. It is awesome to watch God working on his heart. God had a purpose for us on this trekk, and with the help of the Holy Spirit, our prayer is that our guide will get to know Him through our friendship. (Our group that went. Our guide is the one beside me, and the one in blue was a guide in training to this forest. The man in red in the back was from Belgium.)

Kin Kaw, mai?

2008-11-23T10:30:00.009+07:00

Literal translation: eat rice, yes? When people ask if you've eaten, that's what they say. As before mentioned, we got to harvest rice. Here are a few pics. Enjoy. :D

Fun fun!

This is how you do it: you grab a handful of rice, and take the scithe (sp?) and cut off the section! Not too hard. The hardest part is walking into the ankle-deep mud bare-footed. (with lots of leaches!)

The after affects-our dirty feet.

The rice field after we finished! Beautiful, yeah?

The Harvest!

2008-11-04T15:30:00.003+07:00

"The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His harvest." (Matt. 9:37-38)
(unfortunately, the picture isn't of us, but later I'll post some)

These words have taken on a slight new meaning for me. As before mentioned, we went to help harvest rice yesterday! The experience was exciting, wading around in ankle-deep mud barefoot, with small leaches hanging around. The rice was a bit scratchy on the arms, the sun got hot, the bugs were flying around us, but we kept on grabbing and cutting the rice. As we talked about our day, the above verse came to mind. The harvest truly was ready! There are fields and fields full of ripe rice here, but there are only a few workers! Why aren't there more? Maybe because the work is hard, the bugs are annoying, the sun is hot, the leaches are disgusting, and the plants are scratchy! Friends, God's work is not always easy, not always fun! There may be days of discouragement, things that seem to take your energy right out of you. But this work must be done! Nothing is too difficult to do for one soul! Are you answering the call, "Here I am, Lord. Send me"?

Hello from Mae Sarang!

2008-11-04T14:39:00.003+07:00

This morning, a couple of the people here had to leave to go to Chiang Mai, and a couple more had to get their visas renewed in the city. So, we come down off of our beautiful little mountain into the polluted town. We have been staying in a small Karen village since Thursday. It is pretty primitive, but not as much as some places I have been. There IS electricity! but there is no phone service except up a huge hill. So we go and take a hike sometimes. :D We arrived here in the city and were informed that we would be staying in this city until tomorrow! I guess I wasn't too surprised. We don't have anything besides a purse with a jacket, camera, wallet, and a couple other necessities. (lol, like toilet paper, because here in Thailand, that is hard to find!) Anyways, that's how I get to check my e-mail!

We have been in a little Karen village that I can never remember the name of. We have been doing visitations, and meetings in the evenings. Yesterday was definitely out of the norm! We worked harvesting rice! I had always wondered what it would be like. Wow, was that ever exciting! I felt a bit unprepared, clothes-wise. I had only flip-flops (and skirts, lol). Well, we ended up taking our shoes off and walking around bare-foot in ankle-deep mud. Only a few of my friends ended up with little friends (called leaches) on their extremities! They were rather thrilled, to say the least. :D I will have to put some pics of this up later, since I have none with me now. We then went "jungle shopping". Ok, it was actually more like "compost-pile shopping". In the soy-bean fields, after the season is over, they leave all the left-over plants and that decomposes and little mushrooms grow. So, we went and picked hundreds of small and tiny mushrooms to eat. I must say that mushrooms are not as appealing to me as they were before. (digging under rotting soy-bean pods and cow patties. . . .) Lol, I know some of you already agree that mushrooms are not meant to be eaten. Anyways, it was quite the experience!

The village people are very sweet! They love inviting us over for meals, etc. One family invited us, and not knowing that we are vegetarian (at least in this program), they made us some fish (more like fish skeletons), and some chili sauce with canned fish, (some other REALLY hot chili sauce when they saw we were vegetarian) rice, and some steamed, bitter vegies! I did try to eat some of them, very hard though! Thankfully we had brought corn on the cob (so delicious!) and some other chili sauce. Another day, a man came running into our house at about 6:30-ish in the morning (after we had cooked breakfast) and invited us to come to his house for breakfast! We ran out, with a few noodles in hand, and followed him home. The food they fed us was VERY VERY salty! WOW! Ricky got sick from it and said that it reminded him of the salt flush we did to cleanse our systems. I do really appreciate the thought of these families, and the first family understood that we are vegetarians.

I have actually not even seen a chair since I have been in that village. I have seen a couple little stools, but that's it. They always sit on the floor (even in church) and they eat with their hands! They also sleep on the floor, with only a bamboo mat (or a little fatter mat if you are lucky, which we aren't;). Eating with my hands is taking a little to get used to. Sleeping on the floor is kind of hard, with a little back-pain now and again. The sitting on the floor is the one I think I'll never get quite used to! My legs are getting less and less comfortable with it! Every time I lower myself to the floor, it takes less time for my seated position to get painful! Lol, I feel like I'm getting old!

It is a very simple way of life, but I really enjoy it! They don't have many distractions, but they do have electricity and so TV is a big distraction. We really need to pray for these villages, because, despite the fact that they don't have a lot of open devil-possession the Hmong villages we were at, they are quite lukewarm and sleeping. I know the Lord has big plans for them, and we need to continue working and praying. Thank you all for your prayers!

UPDATE!

2008-10-28T19:42:00.003+07:00

Just a small update: we are leaving tomorrow @ 9:00 am. We will be going as one group (minus a few that went down to Bangkok) to a village many hours north of here. We will possibly be there until December. (notice: possibly) :D We will have phone service sometimes but not at other times, which I'm not sure exactly what that means. Have a great rest of the year! I will be praying for you! God bless.

Waiting!

2008-10-28T18:22:00.003+07:00

Well, this blog wont be too exciting because not much has been happening around the center these days. We have been recovering from colds and sicknesses; resting up; cooking; pulling lots of weeds from flower patches, aloe-vera patches, and gardens; doing landscape work; playing soccer, ultimate frizby, and basketball (well knock-out and PIG) in skirts (a fun experience); and checking e-mail. It has been nice to get a small break to catch up on sleep, etc. It has been a bit long, and I'm about bored and ready to go back out into the villages and get busy.

I think that we will be going out in the next day or two, possibly tomorrow, but we still do not know for sure. I just wanted to write one last time before leaving, since I don't know how many weeks (or months) it will be before I'll get to write again!

I hope that you all have a great next couple months. I will think of you all on Thanksgiving, but will probably not have the "traditional" Thanksgiving meal. It's rather difficult to cook Thanksgiving pies without an oven. :D Yeah, that's one thing that is not common here. I have seen all of 3 ovens since I came to Thailand (one at a little home bakery, one at a Canadian family's house, and one at Pastor Phamor's house). We can still have mashed potatoes without an oven, though.

Until next time folks, may God bless you all! Keep in touch, and I will do my best as I am able and have e-mail. :D With love from Thailand. . . .

P.S. We're just about to have a meeting and find out what's happening! Exciting. Maybe I'll have a chance to update before we go. :D

more pics!

2008-10-23T20:43:00.003+07:00

Some cute kids at a school in Laos that we visited!

more pics!

2008-10-23T19:41:00.003+07:00

Ying & I in Laos when I went to get my visa renewed.

pics

2008-10-20T09:17:00.000+07:00

Part of our group on a mountain above Buakjan village. So beautiful! It is practically a panoramic view of the mountains!

pics

2008-10-20T09:16:00.000+07:00

Walking down a very rutted road to visit some villagers at their work (a rose-garden). It was great exercise! On the way there, a couple of my friends screamed and jumped back, and right in front of us was a bright green snake, a small but poisonous one! It was exciting. :D

pics

2008-10-20T09:15:00.000+07:00

The scenery is soooo beautiful up in these mountains!

pics

2008-10-20T09:11:00.000+07:00

The Hmong lady in the front dressed us all up in the traditional Hmong costumes!

pics

2008-10-20T09:04:00.000+07:00

Melissa and I in our the girls' room. This first village of Panakok, we were very spoiled! We had a huge room for 4 girls, we had a hot shower and a washing machine!

pics

2008-10-20T09:02:00.001+07:00

Two adorable little Hmong children. (they remind me of Mongolian people, probably because their ancestors have come to Thailand from Mongolia, China, etc.)

What next?

2008-10-20T08:09:00.001+07:00

Well, within this next week (probably) we will be splitting up into three groups and going to different villages all over Thailand! We will be doing more of the same-type of stuff with medical work and meetings in the evenings. One very exciting thing is that the village where my group is going, we will not even have phone service, unless we climb a tree! Lol, that sounds exciting to me. My group is Mew, Mam, Rob, and I. L-R (back row): Me, Mam, Jerun; L-R (front row): Mew, Ying.

(back): Rob, (2nd row L-R): Ricky, Michael, Me, Wut; (front) Bee, Emily, Mew, Melissa. This was my group in the last village, (minus Jen) in Panakok (sp?). . . .

We will be staying here at the "ranch" for a few days, because some people are sick and need to get well before we go and teach about health. :D While we are here, we will be doing exciting things like shopping (since we wont be able to do much of that for possibly as long as 2 months!), doing laundry, re-packing, checking e-mail, etc. It will be nice to have a little rest-up. Would love to hear from you all! I miss you and immensely enjoy getting comments and e-mails! God bless you all.

P.S. I have no idea when I will be posting again. Once we go out into the villages, there is no set date that we will be returning. It is possible that we will go to another village after a week, or that we might remain in one village until Christmas break (around the 15th of December)! So, bye bye for now! Keep us in your prayers.

For We Wrestle Not. . . . part II

2008-10-20T07:44:00.000+07:00

This week we were in a small village called Buakjan (sp?). We joined the rest of the group there and would go out daily to minister to surrounding villages. We met many people and treated many diseases, but the one case that has changed my life the most was this lady in the picture. She came to us first with complaints of numb hands and painful arms. She said that a few years ago she had woke up in the night with horrible pain. (the translator said tendon pain, but it was more like nerve pain.) She would now have intense pain when she got startled, and her hands were frequently numb. We checked her blood pressure, which was a bit high.

We proceeded to give her hands and arms a massage as the Thai girls chatted with her. The more they talked to her, the more we realized that this was not an ordinary nerve problem. This woman was a spirit worshiper, but not only a worshiper, she was a spirit medium. As they talked to her, she would say how the spirits would hurt her sometimes, but then would praise the spirits and say how great they were. One spirit told her that they live in Heaven, so that is what she believes. Come to find out, she had been involved in spirit worship since the age of 13. Then she became "Christian" (Catholic). Later she married a man who worshiped spirits and she then became a spirit medium. Pi Mam, one of the Thai girls, told her that our God could heal her, but that she had to commit to Him and pray to Him.

As I sat there massaging her, I could see the battle going on for her soul! Her eyes would soften as she heard about the Lord, but then she would stiffen up and start praising the spirits again. She wouldn't let us cut the spirit strings off her arms. We had prayer with her, realizing our helplessness in this situation! We could do no more. She wouldn't give up her spirits!

As we were walking away, Melissa wanted to take a video of her, so we went back and talked to her some more. We prayed with her again and sang "What a Friend we have in Jesus"and left. This was a very emotional time for some of us, seeing the battle for her life. I was so sad as we departed because I felt we were leaving her forever! I just kept praying that God would work on her heart, and not let the Devil win this battle!

THE END. . . . I thought! Sabbath, part of the group went back to that village to do church service and check on some of the people we had visited. This lady came to one of the meetings and they were able to study the Bible with her! It excited my heart to hear how the Holy Spirit kept working on this lady! They proceeded to study with her about what spiritualism really is! No obvious decision was made up front, but just the fact that she was happy to come to a place where the Lord's name was praised says a lot.

This story is the most apparent demonstration of the Great Controversy that I have ever witnessed with my own eyes! There is a battle going on for YOU and ME. It is usually more discrete in Western Cultures, but does that mean that it isn't happening? No way! It is happening all around us! Will we surrender to the Lord? If it is not His Holy Spirit that is with us, then it is the evil spirit. Praise the Lord that He does not give us up to the Devil without a huge battle for our lives! He will continue to fight until WE have closed our hearts to Him. The Great Controversy is quickly coming to a close. The decision is up to you.

New Phone!

2008-10-13T13:06:00.002+07:00

Yay, I'm so excited! I finally broke down and got a phone. I wasn't planning on it, but plans change. :D I decided I could actually save money by buying a phone. Anyways, if any of you would like my phone number, just e-mail me. I don't want to post it up here. My e-mail is phoebeeller@southern.edu. God bless you all!

For We Wrestle Not . . . .

2008-10-13T11:45:00.006+07:00

This past week we were at a beautiful Hmong village up in the mountains! Emily and I overlooking the breathtaking valley.

We were able to do some visitations. The most common diseases we saw were high blood pressure and gout. We were able to help them with natural remedies and a lot of education on drinking water, etc.

We had the fun privilege of passing out literature with a bunch of little children.

We conducted health seminars and Bible lessons in the evening as well. Our whole group is split up into two groups. My group is: Emily, Rob, Ricky, Melissa, Jen, Mew, and I. It is sad to not be with the rest of the group. We did get to see them a couple times this week! That was great fun. It is interesting with the scheduling here, or lack thereof. We usually don't know what is happening until the day before, or more like the day of, as mentioned before. I pray that God will help me to be flexible, but that we will be organized in a flexible type of way so that we can get things accomplished. That was a bit challenging for at this village. We were planning on staying there another week, until Sabbath morning, we found out we were leaving the next day.

So, here we are back at the "ranch" (the name recently given to our center in Chiang Mai). We arrived last night and are leaving again today. We were planning on going to a village way up in the mountains that just got electricity in the last year! Today, plans have changed again. We will be going to the place where the other part of our group is at. There are some things happening there that really need prayer! They have been dealing with some spiritualism things. A devil-possessed man, a monk trying to convince them all to come to a temple for a massage lesson (with much chanting, etc. involved), and when they were praying last night until 11:00, one of the girls heard moaning, crying, dogs howling, etc. until they stopped praying. Whenever the prayer would stop, the noise would stop, too. There are also some other things going on. Satan is working very hard at that village! Please keep us in your prayers as we head there to work for the Lord! I pray that our faith will be strengthened and most importantly, that God's name will be honored!

Ephesians 6:12-13: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Trust. . . .

2008-10-02T19:14:00.004+07:00

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

This verse has started to take on new meaning in my life. Especially as I do not know what is happening in my life from one minute to the next! God is teaching me to trust Him with EVERYTHING. We need to trust like a little child, completely resting in the arms of Jesus! Soon we may not know where our next meal will come from. How will we trust Him then, if we haven't learned to now?

Well, tomorrow, the plan is to go out to a Mong village (a tribe from China, I think) for one week (or maybe 1 month;) and then from there, possibly go to another village, or come back to Chiang Mai, or who knows what we'll do! This plan changed today once already, so it could change again! In that village, we will be visiting people in their houses, assessing their physical and their spiritual health, helping them with natural remedies as much as possible, and then in the evenings, we will be conducting some meetings! I'm not sure exactly what those will be over yet, we are still working on some details of that, but there will be two sections, one on health, and the other about the Bible. This is not very detailed, but that is about all I know for now. We will find out more when we get to the villages and assess what they need!

Time is running out! We can't trust our own plans and our own work to accomplish anything. God bless you until we meet again! (Even if it is only on e-mail in who knows how many months!) I really like this quote: who is working in your life?

When man works, man works.
When man prays, God works!

My life? I think not!

2008-09-26T16:44:00.006+07:00

Well friends,

The training is almost over, and it has been a crazy week! I have learned a whole lot, but I am praising the Lord that it is almost Sabbath! I think that my life will change a bit in the next few days. Tomorrow night I am going to Laos to get my visa renewed! I can't believe I have been here for almost 3 months already. Crazy, crazy.

Lol, this is kind of how I feel right now!

Ok, ok, maybe this is an exaggeration, but I do feel quite crazy, because very soon we are all being split into groups and going out into villages! They haven't told us for sure who will be in our group and where we will be going. It is actually very exciting, but a bit scary, especially not knowing. I will return from Laos probably on Tuesday, and then on Wednesday we are OUT! Tuesday we will be enlightened a bit as to what our life holds for the next month or two, as we will be stying in one place that long. Plans? Yes, they are already made. Can I be enlightened? No, because things might change in the next few days.

Matthew 6:34--Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Lord, this is not my life. I do not have control and help me not to want control! I am Yours and my future is in Your hands.

I feel much better now!

I don't know when I will be able to write again. If you don't hear from me in a couple months, it is because I am out in the jungles somewhere with no internet! I will write when I can. Keep us in your prayers. Thanks.

Food? What's that?? (lessons while fasting)

2008-09-21T20:00:00.002+07:00

Yay, tomorrow we actually get to eat normal food! This sure has been an interesting past 5 days! Thankfully we have been able to eat fruit on Sabbath and "rice porridge" today with more fruit. (That was kind of interesting, just rice, water, and salt). It is a nice feeling to have fully accomplished a 5-day fast! I have learned some very interesting things while on my fast. These last few months that I have been here in Thailand, I have had a hard time with the food. I haven't had a hard time eating the food, but the difference in flavors has been messing with my taste-buds and appetite! I have not been getting much fruit (because they like to eat rice for breakfast & lunch & supper) and they don't usually eat very much fruit. I don't know exactly the reason, but I have been having a hard time not eating too much! Lol, that sounds crazy, I know.

I was reading my Bible one morning and came across these verses: Luke 12:22-23, 31: And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.

I have recently realized that self-control is not what I need to overcome the sins in my life. It is full surrender to the Lord that will help me accomplish that. We cannot do it on our own. It is ONLY through the Lord's power that we can overcome. Thankfully, God has given us a promise: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." He will hold true to that promise! Praise the Lord I will be able to eat tomorrow. :D Lol, hopefully, with His help, not too much!

Way to Fast (or Too Slow)

2008-09-18T19:56:00.004+07:00

Especially here in Thailand, everything is about food! Greeting people, you don't usually ask them how they are doing, but you ask them, "kin kaow" (have you eaten rice)? Recently, my days have included many food activities. I help cook breakfast, lunch, and supper, help eat breakfast, lunch and supper, and help clean-up breakfast, lunch, and supper. I have also been helping at a bakeryThat takes a lot of time out of my day, but I enjoy it.

These last 2 days seem to have dragged by! I don't know if any of you have done a 5-day fast before, but it is amazing what a difference it makes on how your day goes! The first day (the 17th) was only water, which was the hardest. It went by sooooo slowly! I don't know why it's called a fast. :D I felt a bit tired and week, but it actually wasn't too bad. I did feel pretty hungry at different times during the day, but I drank LOTS of water!

Not only is this a fast, it is a "cleansing fast"! So, today, we started out our day at about 5:45 am with a "salt-water flush"! That was sure an experience. We were supposed to drink one liter of that water, so I tried my best. It was worse than drinking sea-water, it was sooooo salty! I tried putting lime in it before I started, but I couldn't even taste the lime! We didn't realize that the boy who made the salt-water for us put WAY too much salt in it, at least twice as much as was necessary. That was found out when I was about 1/2 finished. Then, I was told I didn't have to finish it. Some people vomited, some had lots of diarrhea, some had horrible headaches! I didn't vomit or have a terrible headache, but I did have the diarrhea! It was very crazy, but it sure has helped to "cleanse" me! Then, today we have been able to drink coconut water as well as normal water! Praise the Lord for coconuts! That has helped to give us more energy so that we can work and walk and think. I have fallen in love with coconuts since I have gotten here! They are soooo awesome. The only problem is that we can't eat the coconut meat, but oh well. :D At least we have something besides water.

Tomorrow, we have only coconut water, Sabbath we have citrus fruit and the coconut meat, Sunday we will have rice-porridge, and Monday is back to normal Thai food!

This has been an interesting experience, and these last two days have gone pretty slowly, but it is helping my body to be healthier. I have not been extremely hungry yet, but my stomach has been wondering what's happening. It seems to make my mind clearer, and hopefully will continue to. I will have to update you all sometime. It is a great experience!

On Tuesday, the last three people came to join our group! Emily Yoder, Brian Castellanos, and Alison Deacon all flew in. I'm so glad that the group is all together now, except there might be a couple more coming in December of January! Lol, Emily and Brian brought me some stuff from my family. I was so excited to get the nuts from Emily from my parents but I had to put them away because the next day was the fast! Then, just today, Brian got his luggage and gave me some stuff from Shama, and it was soooo tempting to eat it! Lol, thanks so much, I did feel very special, though!

Well, it's getting late and I need to sleep! Those of you at SAU, enjoy SEYC! We are praying for you all. Oh yes, there are some friends here that have blogs, and I have them linked to mine with Thailand after them. So check them out, too! God bless you all as you start your day.

What's New?? (part 3)

2008-09-03T11:19:00.011+07:00

Wow, these blogs are soooo long! Lol, this one is finally telling you about what I am doing right now, in Lampang. I have finally caught up to myself! I am not sure how much longer I will be here, it could be a few hours or a couple weeks, only the Lord knows! I have seen and learned many things here in Lampang as well. I have been here for about 2 1/2 weeks. I have been able to see a Thai (Christian) wedding. It was not much different than a western wedding. (the little Bible boy was a case! He was yawning, stretching, looking around, making faces, the whole wedding. It was quite entertaining to say the least!)

I have been baby-sitting an adorable little Thai girl. She is about 7 months old! She is actually very good, and she seems to like the "farang" (Thai=foreigner).

We have been doing a few visitations to church-members or people who listen to the radio. We have been able to help them with health, to just talk with them and invite them to church (and some have come), and one of them invited us to come and teach at her school.

We went to teach at the school. It was very fun. We were supposed to go again, but unfortunately they had a meeting, and we weren't able to go.

Right now, every day, I am working at a radio station as a DJ! That is quite the experience. I never imagined myself being a DJ! I speak from 6-7 every morning (with translations) about the Bible and health. It is actually pretty fun! Yeah, it is live. God sure does have a sense of humor! I never would have imagined myself doing this, ever! :D I'm learning many things.

We have also been baking bread, cookies, and crackers! Learning how to make Thai-style bakery goods has been very fun! The crackers in this picture are very special ones. They take SOOO long to make, but are very good. We have to put all of the ingredients on by hand, so, yeah, they are very precious! They are so expensive that I probably would not buy them, but since we make them, then we get to eat some.

We have also done a weight-loss session with one lady. It was more of a detoxification, but also helping her loose weight. She had to leave part-way through for some unexpected business, but hopefully she will come back and we can finish later. We are praying for her.

We went to a Cancer Center here when they were having a big meeting. I thought we were just going to visit the patients (which we will do tomorrow for my birthday:). The man in charge of all the health information in the government was there speaking as an honored guest. We were not "supposed" to speak or share, but as I sit there listening to Thai words floating around, I hear this one word I recognize, farang, (foreigner) and EVERYONE (50+ people) turn and look at me! The health govenor asks me in English, "will you speak, please?" So, I had to speak! It was quite an exciting experience. Later I got to shake his hand and talk to him. WoW, never thought I would meet a government official in Thailand!

While I have been here in Lampang, I have also learned how to drive a motorcycle! I have driven one probably 8-10 years ago, but never enjoyed it! Lol, so I never really learned. Motorcycles are the biggest mode of transportation, so I decided I should learn! It has been very fun, but a little scarry at times. I am glad that I am learning, though! (sorry, no picture yet).

Here in Thailand, I have been getting lots of experience doing many things! It is not exactly what I expected, but I have been enjoying myself. Where flexibility is a necessity, life is never boring. The rest of the group from Southern (Kelly, Emily Yoder, Ricky, and Brian [graduated a few years ago]) are all coming this month! I am excited to see them!

I hope that you all have enjoyed my very long blogs, haven't gotten too bored, and that I will hear from you soon! Just remember, as it talks about all through Psalms, to praise the Lord no matter what is happening in your lives! Thank you all for your prayers. Bye for now.

What's New?? (part 2)

2008-09-03T10:50:00.014+07:00

Since the last blog is so long and I have so much more to share, I decided that I would split the blog into two (or three). :D This is still on the same trip that was supposed to be a long weekend! We next went to a city, called Mae Sariang, and taught some other children. It was very exciting, because I got to play my first piano since I had been in Thailand (about 1 month)! It was a synthesizer, with no pedal, but it was still fun. Then they asked me to play for church and Sabbath School! Now, let me tell you, that is quite an experience!!! Let me tell you about it. Well, it was a Karen church and the numbers don't even look the same as ours, so.... one of my friends had to sit there and listen and proceed to open the hymnal for me. Then, some of the songs have English sub-topics, and some of them I knew, but the people sing them VERY differently sometimes. I usually play the piano rather fast, but the Thai and Karen people sing hymns (some of them) EXTREMELY slow! There are also some that they sing with different timing and notes. So, yes, that was a very exciting experience.

I also gave vespers, and after vespers was finished (at about 9:00 pm), I was asked to preach for church. That was quite an experience, but praise the Lord, He helped me to come up with information. My translator was almost 100 years old, and I trust that he did an amazing job! (lol, he only had to stop and ask me about one thing).

We were able to do a little site-seeing and went up this beautiful mountain to see some soy-bean fields!

Some of my friends and I up on the mountain!

We went visiting some people and they fed us some food. I only ate the rice and chili, and it's a good thing I learned to eat with my hands earlier, because that's what we did here.

We were able to visit and to share with them ways to help their sicknesses, aches and pains, etc. It was very neat!

We traveled back to Chiang Mai (our head-quarters) and there was something very exciting that we saw! As Jorge (one of my fellow student missionaries) was taking a bath, he saw a "rope" hanging from the wall in the bathroom. As he finished, he realized that it was actually a snake, eating a "tukay" (a huge lizard)! So, we all went and watched it eat this lizard that was fatter than the snake. It was quite an experience.

Here you can see the size of the snake and lizard next to a Thai 100 Baht (close to a $20.00 bill size)!

Fat snake, byebye Tuckay.

I was able to go to my first water-fall that we could walk on and not slip and fall to our death! I have gone twice. It is such a beautiful place! It was so nice and relaxing, getting the water-fall massage!

I praise the Lord for the trip that we were able to take out to the jungle. I believe that we will be taking more like that in the future.

What's New?? (part 1)

2008-09-03T10:10:00.019+07:00

Wow, so much has happened since I wrote a blog telling what has happened. :) Lol, hope that makes sense. My life has been very crazy these last two months. (I can't believe that I've been here over 2 months already!) I have done and learned many things. Here is a little overview of my life.

Right after the training in Chiang Mai, we took off on a real adventure! We started out taking a very exciting trip with many people and much stuff packed into the back of a truck. We were planning on staying in the jungles for a long weekend. (There were many more people and much more stuff at the beginning of the trip.)

We spent the night in one little town, and the next morning, on the way to the market to purchase some food, we found out that we would be staying in the jungle for over a week! Exciting news, to say the least!

Our next stop was at a Karen refugee camp called Beccla. While there, I saw some of the most extreme poverty that I have ever seen before. The pictures that we took do not even come close to showing what it was really like.

The scenery was beautiful, but the poverty and filth was sickening. These people are displaced out of their Burmese land into Thailand and many of them had to walk all the way to get here. It is a very sad story of their lives. Most of them have seen family members killed, gotten chased out of their own valleys, homes, etc.

In this refugee camp, I received a new nickname. This is the first time in my life that I have had many children scream something and run away when they see me! They would yell "Galawa, Galawa" and run away. I found out later that "Galawa" means "White foreigner" in Karen. Lol, that has become one of my nicknames.

I saw one little story unfold that melted my heart. My Thai friends baught a small snack that was not "aroy" (delicious). They gave it to one small boy. He proceeded to go straight over to his two little friends, split the snack in threes, and each of them got a tiny portion! That made me very happy to see. The Karen are dear, sweet, humble people.

We departed from the refugee camp and continued on our trip. We went to a small village school way out in the jungle! It was located in a beautiful little valley surrounded by majestic mountains.

I learned many things here. We slept on bamboo mats on a bamboo floor (not the most comfortable at first, but got better as I got used to it). This picture was taken at about 4:30 am. They would ring the first "bell" (which consisted of hitting a metal something with another metal something;) at 4:30, then they would all start getting up and doing chores.

I learned how to eat food with my fingers, which was actually very fun. (When I was little, I always wanted to eat with my fingers. Lol, just kidding) We do it sometimes now, even when we don't have to. (sorry, the picture is pretty dark)

One of the most exciting/embarrasing/intriguing things that I learned how to do was: to take a shower in the creek, with a mixed audience. Wow, that sure was an experience! There is not much privacy at the school, seeing as the the little bamboo hut we slept in was also the female staff's house, the worship house, the play house, the hang-out house, etc, etc. So, we had to change with children in the same room quite often. The way it was possible was with something called a "Ni". It is a wide piece of cloth, sewed together (so it is a round piece of cloth). That is wrapped around and tucked in, and changing and showering are all possible! (The Ni is also used as a skirt.) It was a very exciting thing to learn. :D My Thai friends had fun trying to teach me. (sorry, the picture is only of the creek, not of any showers going on;).

I was also able to visit a clinic while we were there. It had the softest beds that I have ever seen in a clinic. . . .

It had a great stash of medications on hand. . . . (many of the bottles were empty)

There were also great quality IV poles available. . . .

It was very sad, actually, the care that was not able to be properly given to some of the people. We wanted to go back and teach them some other ways of treating things like malaria, etc. (becaues malaria was very high in this area), but we ran out of time and never made it there to teach. Maybe next time we go we will be able to.

I was able to teach many things to the children about health. That was actually pretty fun. :D (a "cholesteralized" [word?] artery, and a clean artery)

I fell in love with all of the children. They were so sweet, and I did not want to leave them!

This is the house that we stayed in!

Oh yes, lol, I don't have this one on picture, (or video, too bad) but when we were on our way out of the village one morning, it was raining, and the ground was very slippery. We were walking away, but still in the village, and everyone was waving and telling us bye, and my feet went right out from under me! That was so embarrasing, but funny! Now I look back and just laugh! Well, that's not the end of the story. Once we were out of sight, I fell again. (lol, I'll blame my flip-flops that have no traction;). Then, we were about to get into a boat, and I almost slipped right into the river, computer and everything! Praise the Lord I didn't! That was my exciting exit from the beautiful school in the valley. :D (Read part 2 for the next section of our trip)

School-sick!

2008-09-01T10:38:00.003+07:00

Friday afternoon, as I was preparing and cleaning for the Sabbath, I started thinking about Southern. Many things came to my mind. I thought of my sister (of course;) my roomate, meeting all of my other friends as well, I thought of you all preparing for your first Sabbath back at school. I thought of vespers, hymn sing, church (maybe North River), potluck, hiking, Patton Towers, and sundown worships. I thought of great fellowship in the cafeteria. :D So many great memories! I can't believe that I am actually school-sick. I miss all of you guys! Thanks so much for the prayers and thoughts. You are all in a great mission field in the United States (and anywhere else around the world you may be) and I am praying for you. Remember that God has great plans for all of you this year! Keep in touch, and don't forget your friend way over in Thailand!

Just a note!

2008-08-08T17:03:00.001+07:00

Dear friends,

Just a small note to let you know that, even if you do not have a blog, you can now comment on my blog. I opened it up to all people. Please put your name if you comment, so that I will know who you are! Thanks so much. God bless! I can't wait to hear from you!

Lessons from 3 small children!

2008-08-08T16:00:00.006+07:00

One Little Girl

Playing with the children one night, I noticed one small girl in particular. As we sang songs, she would shyly smile at me, and then look away. Her dark hair and bangs framed a gorgeous little face. Her slightly slanted jet-black eyes would dance every time I smiled at her. I noticed how she did not interact much with the other children. I made it a point to pay extra attention to her, noticing her apparent insecurities. I would reach over and pinch her arm to get her attention and then smile at her, and her smile would melt my heart! Another day, at one of the meetings, she made another little girl move over so that she could sit next to me. Ever after that one memorable night, she would always follow me around and want to be right next to me. What a little love can do to an insecure heart!

Little Boy Number 1

Another day I was helping lead out with the younger children. As we were singing songs, the girls and some of the boys were enjoying it immensely. There were some trouble-maker boys who were getting bored and punching and pushing each other around. I stared him down and shook my head but then I smiled at him. His round face was very hardened, his eyes empty. As I looked at him, thoughts were running through my mind. I wondered what his home life was life, or what had happened to him in these last few years. I wanted to just go and give him a hug and tell him that Jesus loves him. I could tell that he wanted to be loved and accepted. I kept looking at him and smiling, and finally he started smiling back. A couple days later, I heard a very sad story. When this boy was little, he had been put into a cage and his parents had had beaten him and starved him. Something happened to his parents and an army sergeant took him to the school (where we were teaching) and enrolled him there. The first day he attended the school, he was very anti-social. Then he started throwing sand at all the children and would not leave the sand-box. They tried to get him to stop, but he would not quit. One of the teachers went to prepare for disciplining him, and he ran from the sand-box and hid. A couple other teachers found him, and talked to him, had prayer with him, and finally convinced him to apologize to the students. Little by little, Momo, one of the teachers, has been showing him special love. Each day he attends school, she goes out of her way to spend time with him. He is a village student, so it is more difficult, but she does what she can. He has gotten friendlier, but he still will pull away as she gives him a hug in the morning. He does not say “thank you” for things that she gives him, either. We will just give him time. He is slowly responding to love.

Little Boy Number 2

One little child was sitting there playing with some toys, but not saying a word. His friends were all around him, talking and laughing, but he just watched them and played. When I smile at him, he flashes me a big toothy grin, but does not say much to anyone. Not long ago, his mother died and not he has a step-mother. We do not know what the situation is at home, but this little boy is very withdrawn.

What About Me?

There are so many stories like these in the lives of children. Which child are you like? Do you pull away from the Lord when He shows you His love? Do you just close up in your own little shell? Do you avoid anything that would remind you of Him and His love? Jesus knows what you have been through! He understands that you have had much pain and suffering, and even if you have stepped away from Him, He is still there telling you to follow Him. Think of what He has been through for you! Won’t you quickly respond when Jesus calls you and shows you His love?

10 days plus no internet

2008-07-29T16:57:00.002+07:00

Well, these last couple weeks have been crazy! We went into the jungle expecting to be gone for the weekend and ended up staying almost 2 weeks. Now that I am back in Chiang Mai, the internet is down for 5-10 days (the server in the town is broken) so I am in a little computer shop checking my email. I will post pictures and exciting stories later! God bless you all.

Thailand excitement!

2008-07-15T17:06:00.016+07:00

These last couple weeks have been very busy ones! The first Sabbath that I spent in Thailand, we went visiting the people in the village around the area and gave them massages, or as in my case, just talked to the lady about natural ways to help her health, etc. My friend Baw Baw had been taught by this lady and wanted to go talk to her. It was quite exciting to be able to help her with her health in many different ways. I only hope that she will put into practice some of the things we taught her. Eugene, Baw Baw, the lady, and I at her house.

I have learned many things from the health classes. They have taught us how to make charcoal from coconut shells . . . . (Eugene and Jim from Anon training center in Malaysia)

How to apply charcoal. . . . and how to eat charcoal. (This is Pastor Say from Burma)

They also gave us cooking classes and taught us how to make Malaysian food. (It was pretty good, I'm still getting used to the sweet/sour taste, though.) This is Karen from Anon and :) from Thailand. Karen is the master cook!

They taught us how to give chair massages and back massages (the chair massages can be pretty painful when given by a child). This is Crystal, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Lee (unfortunately Dr. Lee was not able to make it).Our group was very big! There were between 35-40 people that attended or taught classes regularly. The ones in the front are the teachers from Anon and then the Burmese, Thai, American, Mong, Indian, and some Malaysians are all mixed in. It was like the Tower of Babel with so many languages being spoken! I haven't learned Thai yet, but as I stay here longer, I will. :DAnother picture of our group. This is practically the whole group. There had been a few people missing before!

Something else that kept me very busy was teaching a couple classes for one of my friends. A doctor was supposed to come and teach about disease management, but he was not able to, so Lin had to teach that and I took a couple of her A&P classes (endocrine & excretion), and also CPR and 1st Aid. I had a lot of fun with the CPR and 1st Aid class, but the other two were not as exciting. Never thought I'd be a teacher. ; ) This picture is of me and my dear translator, Ying!Traveling to church was exciting! We were in a big truck/type vehicle and there were quite a few of us in there. I hear that they usually fit many more people in them! The church we went to was very beautiful! It was new and it even had air-conditioning! I got a little chilly, though. :D I think I'm getting quite customized to the warm weather.
(a lady from Thailand, Burma, and I)
Baw Baw and I in Church

This is me, the five Burma girls, a Thai doctor and her sister. We are standing out front of the church. They take their shoes off when going into any church, house, or private building.

This is me, the three girls from Malaysia (plus Crystal, the little one) and Baw Baw.

Well, I have to go back to the school now, but I am headed into the jungle tomorrow! I will not be posting anything too soon, but I hope to hear from you all! God bless. Keep the Lord first.

Remember Ephesians 6:10-12--Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The New Experiences!

2008-07-06T16:38:00.007+07:00

(Part of this I was writing my 2nd night in Thailand on July 2, 2008.) As I sit here, with my hair still wet from my shower and my forehead sweating, I think back over the last couple days. I happen to look up to see a baby cockroach flying around above my head, and then looking down I see a little cricket on the floor. . . . When I arrived at Chiang Mai airport, I got through customs without too many problems. The only problem was that I had many books to send to a pastor in Bangkok and they thought that I was going to sell them. Praise the Lord they finally let me have them. I got out of the airport in time to see. . . . no one waiting for me. At least no one that I recognized. I decided to just sit and wait (seeing as I had no other choice:). Probably 10-15 minutes later, Jorge and pastor Phamor came walking in. Boy, was I relieved! The smells that met my nostrils as we traveled through the city were very foreign to me. We made it out of the city and on to the country about an hour out of town where the school is located. The school is located on very beautiful property.I sure have had some exciting new experiences since I have been here! (I'm sure that they are not as crazy as I will have in the future, though). The day I arrived, they showed me two scorpions that some guys had killed (each about 2 inches long) and a little snake. Just today some boys caught one that was alive. All of the little creatures are very cute. I think you all might agree. :DThe showers are quite an adventure! They have little squat pots (oh yes, no toilet paper, just water) in the bathrooms and then, if you look closely, you might be able to see the whole in the wall that lets the water out from the shower. There is a bucket that is filled with water and then a little one to pour the water over my head, and if I want to, it is quite convenient to wash the laundry at that time, too. Just fill up another little bucket with water and wash all the clothes by hand. One night before taking my shower, I was getting all the buckets ready and walked into the bathroom. There was this very beautiful 2-inch spider awaiting me. :D I decided to step quietly and respectfully into the next room to take my shower.
I have also had my first taste of many foods. One of them is called Rambutan. It is quite a unique little fruit. Pretty good, actually. The outside looks a little scary, though. :)I have also had fresh Durian for the first time. It is not as bad as people say that it is! Lol. It might take some getting used to, though. The smell is unique, but the flavor is very sweet. It is kind of like a custard/type consistency. There are some others that I can't remember the name of right now. They eat lots of cooked greens, some more interesting than others. There is a plant that they call Morning Glory that they eat raw. I told them that we have flowers called that which they thought was quite funny.

Well, this is kind of a lengthy blog so I will sign off for now. I need to prepare for a class or two that I will be teaching. I realize you all are probably sleeping as I write this, (I am 13 hours different from mountain time zone) so I hope you have a good nights' sleep and a great day (mine is almost over;). Signing off for now! (P.S. sorry this blog doesn't have pictures of people in it. When I tell other stories, I'll put pictures of people.)

2008-07-04T16:07:00.004+07:00

This was while I was on the plane on my way to Thailand. I was a little bored, but still had fun. I met some really nice people, like a Christian Missionary couple from Chiang Mai. They were a real blessing to me. They encouraged me in the work I was doing.

Some delicious Thai food. This was the best meal that I have had since I have been here. It was like a feast! It reminded me of my Korean Ramen that I would eat at Oklahoma Academy! Such good memories!! During one of the classes that we have had. They were teaching us chair massages at this time. It was a great review!!
This is me and my friend Bubbow. We went walking one morning (during the exercise time at 7:00 am). It is an Adventist school (grades 1-12) that she went to for 6 years. It was a very beautiful place. Bub-bow bought me a little note-book and a soy-milk. It was delicious! Such sweet people!
I will post more pictures later. I will have to let you see what the bathrooms are like and the "grocery stores". I hope that you all have a great week! It is quite exciting because I just found out that we will be doing 1/2 hour at church tomorrow. Fun stuff. :D

Thailand!

2008-07-03T15:32:00.004+07:00

Wow, I am finally here! I can hardly believe that I am half-way across the world from you all. It sure was a long trip over here, but it was worth it! The trip was pretty uneventful, I got all my luggage safely, thankfully! I have sure had quite a few first experiences here! I don't have much time to write now, but when I have more time, I will let give more details. It is very beautiful here in the mountainous terrain of Chiang Mai. It is definitely warm and humid, though. The people are so sweet! Thailand is not called "The Land of Smiles" for nothing! The people love smiling and laughing. I'll post some pictures up later as well. That's all I have time for now, but I will update soon. God bless you all!

The Last Day!

2008-06-29T23:40:00.002+07:00

Well, the day has surely come! I am flying out starting my long journey to Thailand this evening at 6:05 Pacific time. Today I have done will be doing many things for my last time this year. The last canoe ride, the last swim in cold water, the last real shower (the next ones will be with buckets of water), the last morning worship, the last playing the piano with Nana, etc. etc. Wow, that sounds kind of sad, but I am so excited because soon I will be having a whole bunch of "FIRSTS"! I will update you all as I have some of those firsts! I am looking forward to what the Lord has in store for me this next year! As I make sure I have all the last minute things packed, I am ready to go and serve the Lord! I am not exactly sure when I will get to write more, but I will be praying for you all! Keep in touch and I'll update as I can. I'll talk to you all later!

Angels in many forms!

2008-06-24T09:57:00.020+07:00

As the Eller family commonly do, we went camping one weekend. This was no ordinary camping trip, as the rain proceeded to fall on us as the snow fell on the mountains. The heat was astonishing, as it reached an amazing high of possibly 40 F. As we sat huddled around the fire, listening to the pitter-pat of the rain on the tarp, many a prayer was sent up thanking the Lord for a warm fire.

My Nana is almost 89 years old, and can be rather unsteady on her feet, especially after dark. One night as she was walking back to the delightfully warm, huge fire, all of a sudden she lost her balance and started falling---into the fire! All she could think was, "Lord, this is it. I'm going in", but instantly she felt strong hands pull her away from the fire! "Thank You for sending an angel to save my life". The fire was so hot that Nana does not believe that her body could have taken the shock! She thinks that she would have spent her last days in pain from that fire!

The next morning, as we were discussing the near mishap, we found out that Nana's angel was very visible that night. As Shama and I were on the other side of the fire, we saw it all happen, but could not do anything about it. We saw Nana's angel at work. It was Cody, a boy of about 14 years old who had been standing behind her and caught her as she started to fall.

Nana cannot stop reminiscing on how the Lord saved her that night! Hebrews 13:2 says: "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Cody is no stranger to us, but God can use many different "angels" to take care of his people. Keep your eyes and ears open to the Lord, because YOU can be an angel, too.

One more little miracle: On our way home this afternoon from Faith Camp in Kooskia, Idaho, (about 300 miles away) all of us were sleeping while my dad drove. We had to spend the night in someone's back-yard because our truck was about to break down and we had to get it fixed this morning. My dad was very tired and struggling to stay awake. As the truck decelerated while coming into a small town, I awoke from my slumbering and my dad said that HE had just fallen asleep, but had opened his eyes just in time to compress the brake pedal and not plow into a car ahead of us! God sends His angels in many forms to rescue His children.

Here I am, Lord!

2008-06-18T08:17:00.008+07:00

As I sit on my bed praying, I consider what had happened that day (read previous blog). I proceeded to open up my Bible and read Micah 2:10 "Arise ye, and depart;...". I started "arguing" with the word that the Lord gave me. Is that really what You would have me do, Lord? Maybe I should just stay here in the States longer. This would take me out of my comfort zone into the unknown, alone! I will go if you want me to, not alone, because YOU will be with me. With that, I went to sleep. "Circumstances may separate us from every earthly friend; but no circumstance, no distance, can separate us from the Heavenly Comforter." Desire of Ages 669-670

My Thailand adventures will begin this month (June). During the planning exciting things came up, but then fell through. There were many changes, but finally, the date was set for me to leave from Spokane, Washington on June 29 at 6:30 (ish) pm.

"The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and are safe" (Proverbs 18:10). Satan trembles and flees before the weakest soul who finds refuge in that mighty name. Desire of Ages 131

Friends, prayer is immensely important and powerful! I have come to realize that more in my own life this summer. We can make the best plans ever, but if it is not in the Lord's plan, it will not happen. He wants us to move over and let Him take the wheel as we travel down the roadway of life. "Here I am Lord, send me."

God's timing is PERFECT!

2008-06-10T10:26:00.010+07:00

It is only a tiny rosebud,
A flower of God's design.
But I cannot unfold the petals
With these clumsy hands of mine.
The secret of unfolding flowers
Is not known to such as I.
GOD opens this flower so sweetly,
Then in my hands, they die.
If I cannot unfold a rosebud,
The flower of God's design,
Then how can I have the wisdom
To unfold this life of mine?
So, I'll trust in Him for leading
Each moment of my day.
I will look to Him for His guidance
Each step of the Pilgrim's way.
The pathway that lies before me
Only my Heavenly Father knows.
I'll trust Him to unfold the moments,
Just as He unfolds the rose.

But like the stars in the vast circuit of their appointed path, God's purposes know no haste and no delay.~Desire of Ages 32

As my summer has been passing by quickly, my thoughts have been in turmoil! What would the Lord have me do this next year!? Today, I found out that Thailand is finally approved, so I will be going! Yay! Praise the Lord! I was so excited to finally find out, but then. . . . My friend that I was going to be traveling over with in a couple weeks is not able to go until September. I keep thinking, "Lord, should I go over there by myself?" (Not that I would be alone over there, just traveling over there and there would be no other girls from here.) I would get some good training, but they will also offer something like it in September when the rest of the group is going over. On the other hand, I have an option of working in a hospital here in Montana for a couple of months and getting that great experience! I know that the Lord will show me when I should go. I pray that these quotes will be as much of a blessing to you as they are to me! God bless you all!

My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from Him. Trust in Him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before Him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. ~~Psalms 62:5,8

Lord, give me patience, but please give it now!

2008-05-26T02:00:00.000+07:00

With plans to go to Thailand still up in the air, I am sitting on the edge of my seat in anticipation of finding out what my future holds. Right now, the plan is to leave in less than a month and none of us who are planning on departing have a visa or even a plane ticket. From what I hear, the plans are progressing, even if it is not as rapidly as I would have hoped. Hopefully, in this coming week I will find out what the plans are for next year.

I have been having fun at home here in Montana this summer, working on the blueberry bushes and the rest of our food, going hiking, playing in the snow, canoing, swimming, and cooking. It is amazingly beautiful in this part of the country! For any of you who haven't been out here, I would highly suggest it (you are welcome anytime).

God must have many lessons that He wants me to learn, including patience and trust in Him. As I am waiting, I pray that I will learn those lessons, and that I will learn them fast! It is challenging, but it is with these challenges that I grow. I realize that when I am down to nothing, God is up to something. He must be really busy right now. :)

Truly, I have found out that being a Christian is never boring!