Bangkok & Bumble Bees

So we're on a scavenger hunt all over Bangkok right now and one of our stops on the list is to go to this internet/coffee cafe called "Bloom" to write a quick note to someone back home. I chose the blog cuz it reaches everyone! Obviously we got here safely from Brisbane. We got off the plane, hopped on a "song taw" (which is a truck that has benches and an overhang in the back with poles to hold on to) and arrived at YWAM thailand-bankok. Relaxed a bit before we strolled into the marketplace where we danced & ate fried bugs. Not kidding. I ate a bee. Almost threw up but I did it. The guys ate handfulls of grasshoppers, maggots, thick fat worms, and who knows what else!! This culture is so different so we had orientation this morning led by a man named Paw whose role is to introduce the foreigners to Thai culture. Thailand is amazingly inexpensive and hot. I'm obsessed with Thai food. They LOVE fair skin and greet eachother with a "sawatdee-ka" hands together and a head bow. Only 1 % of the entire population declares themselves Christians, while 94% are Buddhist. God's work through different YWAM ministries is clear and I couldn't be more excited right now for the next 2 months!! We have a temple tour tomorrow in Bangkok and then a 13 hour bus ride north to Chiang Mai. I already have so many stories to tell but this will have to do for now because we have to continue our scavenger hunt.
Thanks for your prayers. Also, pray for healing for Tiffany's cold and Bryan's hip :) love you all!

A New Chapter

It's Sunday morning and the house is quiet. Everyone left last night except for the Thaibodia and Bali/Philippines teams. Lecture phase is over. The good news is that we'll all be seeing eachother again in 2 months because we're all flying back here to Sunny Coast for debrief week on May 23rd. Actually we're all on the same connecting flight from Malaysia to head back here which is going to be unreal! It was surprisingly really sad to see them go. I thought I would be totally fine since I've been preparing for this day for 3 months, but I already miss a few of them. No tears from me though because I for some reason rarely cry which I'm realizing more and more since I've been in Australia. This sharp pain hits my chest but the tears only come on occasion... it's weird and I don't like it!
On another note, this past week was kind of a blur for me. Trying to soak in every minute together before departure and at the same time attempting to pack up our lives here for another adventure posed quite a hectic 5 days. God blessed us with a gorgeous few days so in the midst of all the chaos, we escaped to the beach a few times to soak in the rays. I know my skin damage-conscious sister LOVES that! The speaker for the week was a pastor from Byron Bay named Neville. I'm not being dramatic- he is the most knowledgable person I've ever come across in my Christian life. When it comes to apologetics, I've never met someone better either. That said, I got lost a few times during lecture but on the whole he taught me so much more than I expected for my last week. The topic was missions and the key to missions is worship. Neville pounded this in our heads and hearts. In order to be a tool for God to be excited to use, God wants to know that I'm going to give Him every ounce of the glory and not take any for myself. This is why he loves to use the weak. The weak have been brought out of their weakness only by he power of God and they know it. For me personally, I struggle with pride and the notion that I can do and get anything I want if I put my whole mind, heart, and body into it. I don't know if that is just a super competitive, athlete thing that has been driven into me my whole life or if it comes from the pressures within the American society or if it is something else, but whatever the case, this whole idea of weakness does not come naturally for me. If God wants complete ownership of his glory then he's going to be more reluctant to use someone who secretly desires to be glorified.
The supernatural realm was a hot topic this week. With a pentecostal background, Neville has seen and experienced a dramatic desire for the Holy Spirit. Neville actually has a really cool testimony but I won't go there right now. He has a wealth of knowledge about supernatural things. Healings, visions, dreams, and things that can only be from God. We know that as we go out in His name it is very likely that some of these ways that God uses to speak to us will take place. I can't wait! Literally. I can't wait anymore here- I need to go to Thailand & Cambodia. I'm sick of hearing about all the tragedy out there and being stuck here. Tomorrow night! The first week in Thailand we'll be hiking up in the mountains on the border of Thailand and Burma, delivering medical supplies, blankets, water, and food to the poorest of the poor in the mountain villages. When I say medical supplies I mean things like band-aids and gauze pads to patch up infected mosquito bites and who knows what else. I'm really looking forward to each part we have planned for this outreach. The 2nd week we'll be working with orphans and sex slave ministries. The 3rd week we'll be in Phuket (look it up on Google, it's gorgeous) working with a kids' sports ministry. The 4th week we'll be back in Bangkok & I forget what we're doing there. Bry and Tiff said the best times are going to be the times that are completely unplanned where we're just praying for guidance and His leading to speak to certain people or go to certain places. I'm so excited for these times! Then we're off to Battambong, Cambodia where we'll be for the entire last month of outreach. I'm telling you all of this now because I don't know how often I'll be able to blog since internet access will be extremely limited.
I just want to say thank you to everyone who has been supporting me this entire 3 months. Thanks for following my journey and for every single prayer you've prayed for me. Each of us on team Thaibodia are trying to raise up as much of the body of Christ we belong to back home to pray for us because we know that prayer changes things. So please take some time to pray for: Bryan and Tiffany-their health, their marriage, and a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit
Our team- safety, direction, adaptability, and divine unity

I want to send a special thank you to you mom for being the first to introduce me to Jesus and for following Him faithfully even when you don't want to. You are such a role model to me and I miss you so much.
We leave tomorrow night at 7, flight is at 11 from Brisbane to Bangkok. I'm off to be a little bird on a mission! haha

Week 7: The Living Word

"I'd rather miss the will of God trying than do nothing at all."

It has been way too long since my last post, I'm sorry! Right now I'm in the midst of packing up and preparing for outreach since God was yet again faithful in providing all the needed finances! We leave for Bangkok on Monday so I will definitely post again later on this week and during outreach as well to keep you updated. Christian came to visit me all last week which was such a breath of fresh air for me and I was very sad to see him go this morning but God really used Christian to help renew my strength and bring me so much joy. Because Prayer Week was so heavy I found myself almost forcefully barricading my heart again as to avoid anymore intense and draining personal transformation. Though I was really excited to dive into the next week's curriculum, I put the breaks on in the self-analysis department of my life.

The week after Prayer Week we studied the Living Word (fancy phrase for Bible) taught by my outreach leader, Bryan Hunsberger. Bryan knows more about the Bible than anyone I know and he is only 23. I had a good chunk of questions about the Bible that I never really voiced before because I think I felt like I should have already known all the answers or maybe I was just too embarrassed to ask them for some stupid, prideful reason. Most of my questions were answered this week, but one important thing I learned was that as long as I am living here on this Earth I will never know all the answers and neither will anyone else. What I know for sure is that Jesus is truth and the Bible is just further proof. If you ask for a passion for God's Word He will give it to you. But it's important to be persistent and to ask with a whole heart. We learned that sadly only 60% of believers in America believe the Bible is totally accurate. I dont know about you but that statistic really rocked my world. How can we call ourselves Christians and not trust in the Bible? I will be the first to admit that I have had my doubts about the Bible and it's ability to last thousands of years- especially after 4 years at an ultra-liberal, skeptic, anti-Christian University. But that is why I'm here. I'm seeking God's face with my whole life because I want to know Him. I've been asking God to build my faith and this week He showed me that I can trust Him and His Word. All of my doubts have been shattered because God graciously removed them for me over time as I seek Him relentlessly.

The Bible has been preserved miraculously for thousands of years. It is timeless in the fact that something that was written so incredibly long ago still is applicable to my life today. Bryan took us through the Old Testament, the 10 Commandments, the New Testament, the 400 years of silence between the Old and the New Testament, and we finished with a Jesus story every day. We talked one day about the fruits of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23): love, joy, patience, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, and gentleness. Because we know Jesus, He has sent his Holy Spirit to counsel us through each and every day. Just because we may not feel Him emotionally does not mean He isn't there. He is here in fullness all the time no matter where we go and it takes true faith to actually believe and follow Him. I have seen with my own eyes the work of the Spirit and that is why many of my own doubts have been replaced with faith. We also broke down the 4 gospels: the audience, the writer, and the purpose. Acts, Philippians, James, John, Isaiah. The book Isaiah was written by the prophet Isaiah 650 years before Jesus was born. The probability that Jesus would fulfill all the prophecies that He did, would be like filling the state of Texas with quarters, standing waist deep in them, coloring one blue, and choosing that one quarter!!

God really took this week and used it to expand my knowledge. Even though I didn't apply what I learned to my life right away, I learned so much that I will carry with me forever. Toward the end of the week I was ready to take that barricade back down from around my heart to let God continue his work. "Problems are opportunities for God to work." -Bryan Hunsberger. Problems can either be whined about or they can be a perfect circumstance for God to show Himself. Just depends how you look at it. Anyway, I have to get to bed but I'll be back in a flash this week when I find some time. Thanks for your prayers and all your support back home. I miss home! Bye for now :)