We have made it to Thailand! After a 12 hour bus ride from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Bangkok, Thailand, and then another 10 hour bus ride from Bangkok to Mae Sot the following day, we have finally made it to our Thailand ministry! It is so good to be here with our good friend and long termer, Eric Morgan! He is our contact here along with the local pastor he works for. We have been going into villages, slums, schools, and dumps the first few days of ministry, loving children, meeting wonderful people, and sharing the gospel. We have much more to do here in Mae Sot, like doing prison ministry, more children’s ministry, and a ton more open airs to spread the gospel to those who have not heard it! We are very excited to be here and a big thanks to everyone who has been praying for us!
So we have been working with an organization called Children at Risk. We are about to finish ministry with them this week, and the past two weeks with them has been fantastic! They are all YWAMers and their ministry is amazing. They work with families that the government has relocated from the slums of Phenom Penh in the last few years. Since we have been with them, we have had 2 Christmas parties, as well as a Christmas program where about 500 people attended. Along with that we have, made house visits, had clinic day, preschool, cell groups, intercession, we have painted houses, practiced dramas, had daycare, played soccer, and participated in team building activities! We have also taught English with a church. Things are going so well, Christmas is greatly anticipated and next week we will begin working with a local church! Merry Christmas and thank you all so much for your prayers!
So we have made it to Cambodia! Our first few days we got to spend in Siem Reap and while we were there we got to have lunch with our good friend and long-termer, Kyle Watanabe! It was so good to meet up with him and get to fellowship together! After about 2 days in Siem Reap we bussed to Phnom Penh and we have officially started ministry! We are working with YWAMers who run a Children at Risk home for a community that has relocated from the slums of the city. More updates from that to come!
I feel like it has been so long since my DTS but in reality, I will be on a plane to Asia exactly a year later. It is so surreal and stressful and amazing. I have learned so much in the last three months, I think if you ask me about it I don’t know if I could put it into words. God is so good, and He for sure is why I do everything and I couldn’t do this without Him… But anyways, I am heading to Cambodia in 12 hours or less. I will be there for a month and then in Thailand for a month and a half. This is my first team and I am so nervous but stoked at the same time. I am ready to be back on the missions field and get to learn the process of disciplining all over again in a different setting and environment. It is so exciting to see what God is doing, and it is so good to remember that God has children across the world that He wants us to meet them. He is working on my heart and how I see the world, it is an honor to begin to see things from His perspective and not my own. If you could be praying for me, and my team, and our location, that would be amazing. I will be updating frequently, so stick around and see what happens.
To say that the last 5 weeks have been crazy is an understatement. A huge understatement. We are about to enter week 6 of lecture phase and it has been the hardest, best, craziest time of my life so far. To say that I haven’t been stretched more in the last 2 months I have been living here than any other time of my life, is again an understatement. I don’t even know if I can describe to you how it happens or what is happening. The love I have for those God has placed around me for this season, is deeper than I could ever have thought possible. The friendships He has given me right now, have gotten deeper and more important than I ever could have guessed when I left. And the stuff He has been pulling out of my heart to remove, repair, and make new is one of the hardest but best things that could possibly happen right now. I am learning how to become myself, who God has created me to be, through a whole lot of failures and some success. I am so thankful that I am here, and am becoming more confident of my calling almost everyday. Crazy things are going to happen in this life, and I am ready to find out what it is. So now just a little run down of what I have been doing. In the last 6 weeks, I have been staffing this DTS. We have 14 students and 7 staff. We have 12 girls and 2 boys. yeah, its crazy. Our speakers have been speaking on loving one another, communicating with God, the Father Heart of God, forgiveness, and we just had 70 people join us from YWAM Montana to have a conference, which was insane. We have figured out our outreach locations, my team is going to Cambodia and Thailand! I will be leading a team of 7, along with 2 other staff in December! I am very excited and cannot wait to see what God will do with the team! There is so much more I could share too, it is seriously going great! But if you all could be praying for me, that would be great, it can get difficult at times and tiring, so please pray for strength, guidance, wisdom, and discernment. I am riding on a train that is going 100mph and it wont stop for another 4 months. So please pray for me! Thank you guys so much, I love you all!
