Thailand... A Sweeping Overview

Are you ready to hear about Thailand?!? I'm finally over my jet lag and feel put together enough to share with you all how the trip went! 

This blog will have three parts: 

1. A summary of how the trip came together and went overall 

2. A short timeline of events and photos

3. Links to a video and the testimonies from the students on the trip

I hope you will enjoy it and I hope it moves you as much as it has moved me. To God be the glory! 

God really moved and it was evident that he was with us throughout entire journey of our trip. 

There was a lot of confusion when I first began planning the trip last July. We were actually supposed to go to Haiti, but plans fell through in November. There was a lot of scrambling...trying to figure out if God had something different planned. I had about given up, but then during a prayer time I felt prompted to ask about Thailand. I received an answer almost immediately stating that Headquarters thought Thailand would be a great fit for our team. Without having the team fully set, I booked tickets in late December. Any later and the ticket prices would have become unaffordable. 

Over the next 4.5 months our team raised $31,500. There was not a week that went by that money did not come in. I was constantly blown away by how God continued to bless our team. We had fundraisers that were rained out and when people heard this they donated close to $1,000. We had fundraisers that should not have done as well as they did. Our yard sale raised close to $3,000. We sold water and hot dogs during a festival,  held a city-wide raffle, sold chocolate covered strawberries and wrote letters. In just 4.5 months... God gave us exactly what we needed. Hardly anybody could believe that it had happened to fast. I felt certain that God was calling us to go and preparing the way. 

In late May, early June (right around annual conference) I found out that we would be running an English camp at a Buddhist school while in Thailand. I had never done an English camp before, nor had anybody else on my team. Most of the people on my team had never been out of the country.

Two weeks before we were to go, I found out that the camp would be longer than I had anticipated. One week before we went, I found out we would have 600 kids on a daily basis. I about lost my mind. I spent about a day crying and wondering how God could have actually wanted us to do this trip. The next morning I received an e-mail from a friend who had no idea what was going on. She said she felt like God had prompted her to pray for me and she felt led to tell me that it was a good thing that I facing something I could not handle on my own. She said that God did not want me to get out of whatever it was that I was facing, but that instead he wanted to show me, show our team, show our church that God was the one who was in charge and that God would be glorified through it. Again, she had no idea what was going on...she just said it was something that God put on her heart to pray for and to tell me.
After that, I had a great confidence in moving foward. 

Our church pulled together in one week and donated craft supplies (due to this new large number) and it exceeded what our need was. 

It was extremely evident that God was working in Thailand, using us in Thailand, moving in the Thai Pastors and blessing their ministry abundantly. We spent five days teaching English at the school and we only had about 150 students each day instead of the 600. Instead of all the students coming at once, they had one grade come each day of the week. Every day we told the students and the teachers that we were Christians and that we believed in Jesus. I had prepared a theme for the week of "American Holidays" and each day we taught the students about a different holiday to illustrate a different Bible story. We taught them about the holiday through flashcards, games and crafts and we taught them the Bible stories through story telling, games and flashcards. Every morning we taught the students a new holiday. On Christmas we shared the story of Jesus' birth. On Valentine's Day we talked about the Prodigal Son. On Thanksgiving we told them the story of Jesus healing the blind man. On Independence day we talked about Jesus calming the wind and the waves. In the afternoons, we taught about Easter and with every group we told the story of Jesus' death and resurrection.

At this Buddhist school, kids were learning about Jesus for the very first time, talking about Jesus, singing about Jesus. Not only were the students participating, but the teachers started to get involved as well. One teacher, who we found out was a very strong Buddhist, ended up being the translator for the Bible story station. Everyday she was telling her students the story of Jesus' death and resurrection 3-4 times. The principle was so pleased with our work at the school that he invited our team to be part of a special ceremony which was a great honor. By the time we were done there were requests from 3 other schools to have our team or a team like ours come to their school and teach as well. 

One of the very best parts of the trip was that we had the ability to pray over every student in grades 2-6. Every day they would line up and ask for our autographs and our team members would pray for the students as we signed their papers. Imagine, a person who has never been prayed for receiving prayer for the very first time. 

I say this not to brag, but to say to God be the glory. From the beginning... our trip seemed impossible. A week before we went, our trip seemed impossible. We were not the most equipped and we were not the most prepared and we were not the most knowledgeable about the situation we were getting ourselves into. However, in our weakness, God was glorified. God made his presence known to around 800 Buddhist kids and there is a wide open door for the work to continue. 

I believe our students were deeply impacted by this trip and experience. I know that God is moving and working in their lives as much as he was in the students' lives at the school. 

Enjoy the pictures below! 

July 24th - We left bright and early and headed to the airport. We boarded our plane and flew for the next 20 hours until we reached Bangkok. Can I just say that international flights have come a LONG way from what they used to be back in the day. No more of this one movie per flight business. No, it is like Redbox! You can pick whatever movie you want to see, however many movies you want to see all flight long. Plus, each seat has a touch screen complete with T.V. shows, music, games plus all the movies. I don't even know why I bothered bringing a book. :-P

In the airport...the kids are making a "Glory Tunnel" for one of the team members who was not able to make it to our Sunday day of prayer before we left. 

Final Destination! 

Late July 25th we spent the night at a hotel and the next morning we traveled to our main location.

Our bedroom! 

July 27th the pastors wanted to take us to a zoo and aquarium...which was so fun! The main thing that stood out to me was that they felt the need to keep the guinea pigs locked up in a cage, but let the zebras roam free around the zoo grounds... 

You could get so close to the animals! Kris got his foot bit by a baby tiger!

Just hanging out with an orangutan... you know. 

Lock up those crazy guinea pigs! Let the Zebras roam free! 

Nothing like ending your day with a good sip of coconut milk. Apparently I was going for a romantic kind of photo and Kris was going for a "We're a gang and we're gonna beat you if you steal our coconut" kind of photo. 

July 28th we held a church service and spent time coloring a mural on the wall of one of the children's play rooms at the place we were staying.

Not the best picture...but you get the idea. 

July 29- August 2 we held our English camp at the school. We had close to 800 kids throughout the week, but thankfully only about 150 kids during each day. They divided the kids into groups based on their grades and this made way more manageable than what we had anticipated going in.

One of the grades at the school. 

All the kids wanted our autographs. We used it as a time to pray for each student who came to us. 

This kid wanted his stomach signed.... and Kris did it. 

The team teaching the kids the song "I've got the Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy." 

The kids loved singing and dancing with us! 

At the end of the week they honored us by giving us a gift and thanking us for coming. We actually received invitations to come to three other schools while we were there. 

 August 3rd we headed back to Bangkok and visited the world's largest market and discovered the best mall I have ever been to in my life.

This mall was across the street from our hotel. 

August 4th we took the team to a place called Elephant World...which was amazing. We got to pet, feed, hang out with, make food for, sit on, swim with elephants.

Making elephant food! 

August 5th we toured the city of Bangkok, got caught in a thunderstorm, cut our tour short. Headed to a new hotel for the night.

Reclining Buddha 

August 6th we flew home. 

It was truly an amazing and incredible experience. 

If you would like, below you can watch a video of our trip that one of the girls on our team made. 

If you would like to hear the students, leaders and myself talk about the trip you can follow this link and hear our report from church this past Sunday! 

Thank you so much to all those who supported us on this adventure!