Happy Graduation!

Graduation, originally uploaded by hannah..

We finally made it. After 4 years of stressin’, strainin’ and laughin’, we graduated from Grace College on May 9th. World, here we come!

Day…what day is it again?!

I’m home! After another grueling round of travel, we made it. We left for Bangkok (from the beach) around 6:00 pm on Saturday, flew out of Bangkok at 1:00 am on Sunday, hung out in Seoul (South Korea) for a few hours before flying out again at 11:30 am. Somehow we landed in Chicago at 10:45 am (still Sunday) and headed for Winona Lake….whew.

I’m in the process of uploading pictures, so you’ll have to check those out. Some may be a little jumbled and not in the correct order but I trust you can put the pieces together. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/laughlovelivesing/)

Thanks again for staying connected during the trip. It was an amazing experience. One that I won’t soon forget. Feel free to stay in contact. I love hearing from all of you!

Day Eleven – Sun and Sand

We left Bangkok this morning around 9:00 and headed off to Rayong Beach. After 2 and a half hours, we arrived. And boy did we ever! You can check out the website for where we’re staying (go to esfeather.com) but it simply does not do it justice. Three swimming pools, fabulous rooms, great food, and a very quiet, very clean beachfront. And the sand…oh the sand. Though it’s not quite as good as Siesta Key, it’s still wonderful. We’re wishing we had a few more days to just hang out. It’s SO nice.

Tomorrow we will get up, hang out til noon, check out, hang out again until 6, leave for the airport, and fly out at 1:00 am on Sunday morning. It’s going to be a very LONG trip home but I think we’re ready.

Thanks so much to all of you who kept up with reading. It was such an ENCOURAGEMENT to know that you were experiencing the trip right along with us. We COVETED your prayers and are so GRATEFUL for them. I will probably not blog anymore until we arrive home. So I will see you or update you again in about 2 days!

Love to all!

Day Ten – And it came to be.

Okay, so I know that I say that each day is better than the one before and that God answers prayer after prayer but today is by far…the highlight. Let me tell you about it…

Team time started around 9:45 this morning. We sang again, which was so sweet. There is so much passion and joy in this group. It’s a privilege to hear them praise God and be a part of it. Josh had devos today and God had laid it upon his heart to go through Jude. So good. At the Thai church on Sunday, the pastor went through pieces of Jude but since it was in Thai, no one knew what he said. So Josh filled us in. He talked about how the little things can sneak in among believers and our own personal lives and pull us away from being ALL that we can be for God. We may still DO the right things but we’re worthless if we’re not sold-out for Him. It was a good challenge. 

We then prayed specifically for the teams. For the Ram 2 team as they prepared for their party and invited students (we had ours the night before for Ram 1 students). And for the Ram 1 team…that students would come back for the last day of english lessons and that we would have a chance to ask them about the party (what was said, what they thought…trying to dig deeper spiritually). We then prayed for a boldness and the courage to bring up spiritual topics. A constant thought in my mind (even since before coming) and for many on the team is NO REGRETS. We are only here this ONE time, with these students this ONE time, and in this situation this ONE time.

My prayer was that God would open up a door for me to talk about HIM and WHAT He has done for me. That the ladies I had been working with and growing to love for two weeks would have open ears and open hearts to hearing HIS message. And so it came to be…

Around 1:15 we were all settled in to tackle our last day of teaching english. To be honest, part of me was ready to just sit and let the hours pass. But the other part knew that God was going to do something if I simply took the opportunity. Danae and I noticed that a few of our girls were sitting a few tables away studying. Normally they come over and let us know that they are ready to start. But not today. So I wondered. I waited. And eventually felt so much of a pull from the Spirit that I found my feet to be moving. Things started off like normal. We talked about us leaving and how sad they were. Then nothing. Little bits and pieces of relative nothingness. Again, I waited. Again, God answered. Around 2:00 pm a light rain started. Then instantly all the Thai students said “Let’s go!”. We followed their lead. In a matter of seconds the sky fell (at least is seemed that way). It proceeded to pour for the next hour. We sought refuge across the street sitting at benches under a series of awnings. Danae was trying to keep the conversation going when she suggested we play with a new puppy one of our Thai friends had just gotten. What we didn’t know was this…the girls we were working with happened to be two Muslim girls (we had already realized this by their dress and head coverings) and a Buddhist. And Muslims are not to touch dogs or pigs. Who knew about the dogs? That opened up the conversation. One replied, “I cannot touch a dog because of what I believe.” I responded, “What DO you believe?” -At this point we had to grab Yogi to translate.- What proceeded was a conversation discussing the Islam faith, how they came to believe it, why they held to it, what they thought about other religions and their claims, what they thought about myself and Danae being Christians (at this point I laid out the Gospel message…one they admitted to hearing before), and how they rested in claiming that all religions lead to heaven if the Koran states quite the opposite. It was such a good conversation but we quickly hit a wall when their responses turned to “You believe what you believe, we believe what we believe…we each do what we want and we’ll all end up okay.” I had so many more questions but knew we would get nowhere. The girls were very quite to point out that we could still be friends even if we believed different things. Danae and I (and Yogi) assured them that we could and because we loved them, we wanted them to come to know the true God. I think our care and concern took them off guard because they did not know how to respond to this. Which I think, was a good thing. 

I would like to tell you that they came to know Christ this afternoon…but they did not. What I can tell you is that we planted a seed. We opened our mouths. We took the opportunity God gave us and spoke the words the Spirit fed. We may never know what decision they come to but we were obedient in giving an answer for the Hope that we have. And in that, we can rest in knowing that God is TRULY in control and He loves them so much more than we ever could.

What a BLESSING it is to see God’s hand work right before your eyes. To know that your prayers were ANSWERED. To share the Gospel for the FIRST TIME and experience the rush of the Spirit and the JOY that fills every ounce of your being. To realize what life is ALL about. Proclaiming Christ. It was a sweet ending to our time in Bangkok. Bless God. 

Tomorrow we head off to Rayong Beach. We will be spending two days there before our departure on Sunday morning (1:00 am). Be praying for safe travels and a good, relaxing time on the beach. I’m sure that we will be spending a good deal of time reflecting on and working through the trip as a team. So check back for more…there will be good stuff to come!

Love to all!

 

Day Nine – So good.

Good morning all! It’s about 8:00 pm here and our day is beginning to wind down. What a great day it has been…here’s the rundown. 

Team time as usual started around 9:00 am. Today was a little different though. We sang. There is just something so neat about sitting in a hotel room with 13 other believers singing praise to God, accompanied by an iPod. It’s not a feeling that is easily reproduced. We then spent some time nailing down final details for the party and spent a good deal of time in prayer. I know I’ve said this before but the Thai style of prayer is so special (everyone prays out loud, at the same time for the request). I’m hoping to try and get it to catch on when I get home. 

We then headed off to our campuses for another rousing day of teaching. I give credit to all teachers after this experience…so draining but yet, so rewarding. Today was harder for us in a few ways. We were so tired and weary from the last week and a half. Lessons have become “easier” for us and we struggle to come up with new material to teach each day. And we also realized that we that we only have two days left at the university. Happy and sad. God provided strength and energy though, and we pressed on. It was well worth it. Today’s game was the alphabet game. You form a circle and each person says a word that starts with the next letter (A is for apple, B  is for boat, C is for cat…). Typically you decide on a category to stick with, like animals or food. Our student’s english abilities are better than when we started (thank goodness) but they still don’t know a ton so we decided that ANY word will do. Oh, it was funny. One girl said “O is for opportunity”. Nice.

Around 3:30 a few of us headed over to Ratt’s house to set up for the party. The rest of the group stayed back to finish up teaching and bring those who were interested over at 4:00. Our theme for the party was the 4th of July, and let me just tell ya…finding red, white, and blue paraphernalia in Thailand is an adventure. We put the finishing touches on everything and our students arrived. At first only a few walked up the driveway with our Thai staff and we worried not many decided to come. But we were quickly proven wrong when a mass of students came around the corner! In all, there were about 40 students!! Praise God!

Here’s a quick summary of the parties events…(every word of English was translated into to Thai by our wonderful and amazing Yogi…we love her!)

• Welcome from Uncle Sam (Scott) and the Statue of Liberty (Ashley)…of course they were dressed for the part! (check out esfeather.com for pics)
• “Get to know you” game (led by Caleb)
• Sing-a-long time (explained by yours truly and led by Bryce and Josh)…we taught them the KFC song “Shake a friend’s hand, shake a hand next to ya, shake a friend’s and sing along…”
• A pantomime depicting a girl’s struggle between following God and resisting the temptations of this world (Bryce, Amy, Emily, Danae, Caleb, Natalie and Josh)…so good!
• Brief history and explanation of the 4th of July and how America became free (led by Josh)
• Message from Pi (CCC staff)…not sure what all he said (he spoke in Thai) but the general idea was the freedom one can have in Christ
• Song by the American team…we sang “I am Free” by the Newsboys
• Food time!…the Thai women did a fabulous job, it was so good.

It was such a good night! Thanks so much for all your prayers. God answered them above and beyond anything that we could have imagined. He is so good! Many of the girls I work with came and I’m praying they come back to english lessons tomorrow. It would be so neat to follow up with them on what they thought. 

For tomorrow be praying…Both teams have a wonderful last day at the universities. Our contacts return and we’re able to talk about the party and the message that was presented. Once again, energy for the team (we’re pretty tired). Our Thai friends/CCC staff…the ultimate goal is to “pass” our contacts on to them and they will follow up and work with the students after we’re gone. 

It’s hard to believe that in 4 short days we will be home. We are excited to bring what we’ve learned back to our churches and communities, but we are SO not ready to leave our Thai friends here. But listen to me to go…I don’t need to worry about this yet! After all, we have 4 whole days left!

Love to all!