Youth Conferences

Part of our ministry financial support goes to Pastor Boonchu up in Chiang Mai. He, his wife, and their son, live in their car and travel around all of the Karen tribe villages. $16,000.00 of our financial support was spent wisely on two youth conferences-covering transportation and food costs as they reached all the Karen Tribes in Thailand. (The students were thrilled with the food they were given--it was not just a bit of rice each meal but nutritious meals and snacks as well! Please see the pictures above) Each conference lasted four days. Between the two conferences all of the Karen tribes were invited to one of the locations. The conference days were packed. Pastor Luke (from Wisconsin) was the main Speaker with Pastor Boonchu as his translator. He had multiple teaching each day. The youth lead the worship, we had breakout sessions, games, snacks and meals. At the first conference (approximately 250 youth attended), the youth hungered for the Word of God. The sat eagerly attentive to Pastor Luke/Boonchu. In the morning we began worship at 5:30am. Throughout each day there were many teachings and a couple breakout sessions (see the pictures above to get an idea of what it looked like). In the late afternoons, we would have a couple hours to play sports, and then in the evenings there were more teachings, breakout sessions, and worship (For the worship please see the videos at the bottom of this post). The days ended around 10:00pm. At the end of the conference we went around and prayed individually in small groups over one another. IT was a HUGE blessing! Seeing the youth's joy over learning more about God and their pure/honest worship in song made the conference a perfect one. The second conference (about 500 students came), was at a location about four hours away from the first. This conference was set up the same except the audience held a different vibe. Some of the youth were Christian leaders, others baby Christians, and others not Christians-just there out of respect for the pastor in their village. We saw anxiousness in the students one day and so therefore changed up the flow of conference for the next day. The pastor changed the structure/order of his teachings and new things were added (one being my testimony--which will be in a later blog). By the end of the second conference, we saw God's hand at work in the youth's hearts. Another blessing is that a couple youth are considering coming and join our team in Bangkok; working with our ministry (wouldn't that be awesome!). From both conferences, by the end of the conferences, I saw the fire and excitement of the youth being filled with the Holy Spirit. The vibe from the youth's hearts was one of complete, fully satisfied, joy of the Lord. Now, together we must pray that through peer pressure and the wicked worldly lies they stand close to Jesus and follow God's ways.
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A Godly Man

In preparation for the Youth Conferences to come, I was told to prepare a breakout session on "What to Look for in a Godly Man". Honestly, this completely stressed me out. I have my own opinions based on what I know and what my experiences are. I enjoy conversations with people sharing exactly what I THINK a godly man looks like. But, this was all together different. It was not about my opinion in a conversation. It was about Scriptural based facts and truths. I love studying Scripture. However,when teaching on something, I prefer expository teaching because it is truths and applications from a particular passage. This makes it much harder because it is easy to misinterpret scripture or make scripture "fit" the point I would try to portray. Because of this I definitely do not like to teach in a topical way. So, I prayed. I asked God to give me His eyes and Help me to see what HIS definition of a Godly Man is. After reading Proverbs, Song Of Solomon, Researching Godly Men throughout the Bible, looking up ever single passage that would describe a man after God's own heart (through my concordance in the back of my Bible) and finally typing them out (28 (typed) pages later), I felt content with my Biblical Research. God gave me His eyes as I soaked in the Passages and He showed me the characteristics.
Lets take a step back for a second, because God also used my parents in this preparation. You see, a few weeks prior, I was talking with my Dad and He said that a godly man will first "Love the Lord with all His Heart Mind and Soul above all Else" and Second "He will love his neighbor above himself". Then a couple days prior to putting the teaching together, my mother said, "Oh you should put the characteristics of a Godly man to His Physical Body for an illustration." I was excited about the illustration thought because visuals are always easier for me to remember.
So, after God gave me a clear understanding of a godly man, I summarized the points through the verses into four pages.


I had fun with teaching the Sessions. For an introduction I had all the gals close there eyes (see picture above) and picture the most handsome man in the world. Then they were to place that very man at a distance. As they approached closer to the man they saw him yelling at a dear lady, smack her across the face and run off angrily. The girls then pictured themselves running up to the lady-to find out that she was this man's mother and he got angry with her because she would not give him what he wanted...When the gals opened their eyes I asked how many of them thought that this man was still the most handsome man in the world. Then followed that with the lady who has been married to her husband for many years and each day he becomes more and more handsome; each day she falls more and more in love with him; each day-He is putting God first. So together I took them through what it means to be a Godly man...
Here are the Points:
I. "Love the Lord your God with All your Heart, Mind, and Soul" (this is the greatest commandment of all) --eyes fixed on Jesus--towards heaven--as Paul described this person is running a race--not aimlessly but with diligence, training, and discipline---towards the goal.
1. Eyes-Studying Scripture:Daily time with God by reading/studying the Bible
2. Knees-Praying: for What? When? How?
3. Ears-Listening to God: Like sheep with their Shepherd-following his guidance, when he hears God, he is like Samuel saying"Yes Lord, I'm Listening"
4. Nose-Purity of the Heart: Desiring God's Will. God reveals a mans motives-like when one breaths out through their nose-the good/bad air is revealed.
5. Obedience (with stars on the areas of the body): Our Heart (heart), Our Will (Stomach), Our Mind (brain), Our Finances/materials (belt), Our Future (beard)

Transition: A man will Clothe Himself with Christ's attributes (Col. 3:12-17)
II. Romans 13:9 “ The Commandments, ‘Do not commit adultery’, ‘Do not murder’, ‘Do not steal’, ‘Do not covet’, and whatever other commandment there may be, are all summed up in this one rule, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’”
1. Light bulb in the brain-Wisdom/Discernment: How? By seeking God-Information-Proverbs 3-4, and 8-9.
2. Hair on Head-Fruit Produced: Fruit of the Spirit...Remaining in God.
3. Mouth-Truth: Speaks with sound doctrine according to God
4. Feet-Walking Servant Faith: "What is faith without deeds?"-putting others before himself.
5. Head-Leader: Following Christ's example as Christ is the head of the body of Christ, he is the head of his family.
6. Hands-Caregiver/Provider: evident in ministry and family
7. Whole Body radiates Christ-Righteous Living: striving to be more like Christ each day because God says "Be Holy for I am holy".

I challenged the women to run the race this man is running...because if they want this kind of man...they too must be running this same race. They too must Show these same Characteristics in their walk with God. It will be evident.
(If you are interested in receiving an e-mail with the verses and summarizations I can send them to you via e-mail).

The Sessions were fun to do and I even had some men in one of them and it was exciting to see them soak in How they can be godly men. In the pictures above you can see the poster of my "handsome man"(drawn by P'Charin-my co-worker/friend) as I was giving one of the sessions. Dave is also standing next to me translating to Thai =)

Through this preparation and presentation I feel like I learned more than the guys and gals listening. I learned what God's definition of a Godly man is and this has set my standards higher in what I want in a man before I marry him. It also showed me the woman that I am and the woman I am now striving to be as I work on listening to God (not just reading and praying =) ) and then being His hands and feet in all areas of my life. If I want a man like this man...I better be being this kind of woman, right ;-)

Easter Morning Sunrise Service

On Easter Morning, I had a lot of energy as I was so full of Joy when I woke up! You all have heard about the beautiful Mahatthai Park that I go to most mornings in previous posts. As a church we met at this park at 5:30am for a Sunrise Service. At first we set everything up in the grass. But, we were told by the workers of the park that we were not allowed to place our stands and chairs on the grass. So, we moved our sunrise service to the basketball courts (as shown in the pictures above). The Sunrise was beautiful!! We enjoyed some worship together, praising God for His many characteristics shown in the event of His Resurrection (including-All Powerful, Conqueror of Death, Amazing Love)and thanking Him for the blessing and gift He has given us for eternity.

**(Don't miss the videos of a couple of the worship songs at the bottom of this post)

We also spent time in prayer and some of the pastors gave a short sermon too. Then we had a fellowship with conversation, while eating breakfast foods and playing sports together! After this... I realized how exhausted I was and went home for a nap (a necessary one too!) before Easter Service at 10:30am =)

Together we can praise God for the people that came to the services and asked questions about God. One 19 year old boy in particular asked a friend of mine (in Thai), "Did Jesus really do that for us? Is this true?" My friend shared with me that he and this boy had an in depth conversation. This boy seems eager to know the truth and eager to know God personally. Will you pray with us for this boy to come to know Jesus as His personal Savior?

Unity and English Camp Pics

This past week, Sarah and I joined up with Byrd from YWAM, and Doc and Zina (who have a kickboxing ministry down south to a Muslim community) to assist the staff at AMANE (teaching English ministry)-pronounced “Amen”. Amane is run by a Thai couple who have a heart to share Christ with the children in their district through teaching English. They both studied English in America and now have been running this ministry for five years. So, Monday, Thursday, and Friday we took a bus for a two hour to assist with their English Camp. On Monday, as a team, we prepared for the camp. Byrd and I were going to be the leaders of the fourth and fifth grade girls. On Thursday, I taught them English sentences to accurately describe their feelings and listen to/follow directions. Then Friday was the fun day, we took the children to an amusement park. They did well with their English and I may be biased but I had the best group of girls. The funny part was, at lunch time I gave them a break with their English and in Thai teased the girls about liking the boys. The boys joined in the fun and it was hilarious! The stick game was called Warrior. The Red stick was Delilah, The Green Stick was the Philistines, and the Red Stick was Samson. Delilah beat Samson, Samson beat the Philistine and the Philistine beat Delilah. The kids were placed into four teams. They would each get a random stick. Then they would go up to one component. The two would together say, "One, Two, Three" and then show the end of their sticks. The person who one would get the other's candy for their team and then get a different stick and another candy-to fight another. At the end..the team with the most candies collected won. Together as ministries in Bangkok, WE are together praying over Thailand. WE are specifically praying over one another’s outreaches. We are actively committed to assist each other with specific needs. WE as the Body of Christ are in Unity in sharing the Truths and Love of Jesus. Our ministries may hold different names but here, WE consider ourselves One Ministry in One heart for God. Praise God for He is One. With Individual personalities and representations of God; Father, Spirit, and Son are one person! As the Body of Christ WE are called to be One with Christ as our head (thank goodness He is the head, right?!) Together WE (around the entire world)are followers of Jesus-called to be in Unity for Christ. Lets not let satan and his demons trick us into bickering amongst ourselves over the legalities. One Bible, One Word, One God, One Truth, One Body Of Christ WE stand! Jesus stated, “I have given them (believers) the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to compete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”(John 17:22-23)
Hope you enjoy this video!

Physical Pain

Friends!
I have so much to tell you! Details are to come for the following topics:An English Camp for 3rd to 6Th graders, The current political strife in Bangkok, The personal care given to individuals, and the amazing way the Body of Christ has come together within Bangkok.

Today, I need your immediate prayers personally. I have been sick with a head cold here for about a week. It worsened on Saturday. Every morning seems to get better and then by the afternoon it gets way worse. I feel like I am a complainer but, now I am actually getting worried. I have never felt this kind of sickness. I have the normal congestion and coughing. As the day goes by I get this horrible pain-like the pain of an ear infection in both ears and I cannot hear accurately out of my left ear. It feels as though my ear needs to pop-like my ear has a pillow next to it...and then throbbing pain from the inside. Tonight-I bent over to blow dry my hair and a horrible pain struck through the entire left side of my brain. It is a headache that is now throbbing. When I cough and as I move the pain worsens. I am also having trouble seeing clearly as I am posting this.

I hate being sick, admitting that I am not OK and even worse I hate complaining to you about it. Pray that I go to the doctor if necessary and that I am not stubborn about it if I do need to go (I hate spending money at a doctors office). And pray that if I do not need to go that God gives me a peace about that too! Anyway, I feel this is a spiritual attack because in just a few short days we have some neat things for Easter and in less than a week we are going up to Northern Thailand to the Karen Hill tribes to do two youth conferences. These conferences will occur from April 7Th through the 16Th. I do not think the Devil is excited about these two very powerful witnessing opportunities-as our team is being used by God. Well all I have to say is "Satan...you are going down!"

Jesus Airlines

If you receive my prayer letters, one of the things you are praying for, is that God will give me creative ideas to bring Him into each lesson. In my advanced class (until this past Monday) I have been able to do this by using a Scriptural passage (given from God; having them analyze and role play. My students are usually finding grammatical things, the example of a lesson that we are learning, and learning new vocabulary through an actual Scriptural Passage.

This week was tough because we started a new book. The new book does not have any grammar in it. In the first unit we are discussing airport conversations. I told God, "Oh you have to be super creative this week. How are we going to bring you into this tactfully when there is no grammar to focus on nor were there any Airplanes when the Bible was written". It's funny because after I told God this, I arrived at the listening section of my preparations. This specific part had me as the teacher be the announcer's voice as if in an airport for five different scenarios. The students are to depict the airline, departure time, flight number, and gate number for each scenario. This is when God hit me with, "Make the gospel an illustration as you would for a Children's Lesson" (CL training is coming in handy now!). So I was excited. I wrote out the example and in class, when we got to the listening section, I told them there were six listening examples to listen to.

I had to hold a bold voice with each of my examples; a voice that sounded as it was coming from the intercom of the airport (Helps listening skills when you paint a picture of reality). When I got the the sixth example. The one that I made up. Thoughts of, "Oh No! Maybe I shouldn't do this. This is too direct. It will be too offensive,etc" came into my mind. These thoughts were definitely not from God.

Recently, I have been studying about how Satan is the Prince of this World. His whole goal in life is to keep people from knowing and following after God. Once one becomes a Christian, His whole goal changes to keeping you out of fellowship with God. Satan is a spirit being but he is not all powerful. Satan is not omnipresent as he is limited to one place at one time. Therefore, the reality is that there are far bigger people in this world that Satan wants to personally attack rather than personally attacking me. However, his demons are at work around us all. With the thoughts that I had prior to sharing this gospel illustration, I know there was a demon trying to keep me from sharing the gospel this past Monday. My thoughts in my head were spinning (all in a matter of seconds)-making me feel foolish and unsure about what I was about to do. At this moment, I choose to continue with sharing this bold, very blunt, gospel illustration (I encourage you to read it out loud with the same announcer voice that I put on):

"Jesus Airlines announces that flight 777 to Heaven is departing immediately. It is loading now. The ticket is free if you believe that Jesus is God. He came from Heaven and paid the price for your sins 2010 years ago. He did this on the cross. Before His death on the cross you and I were doomed to an eternal life in Hell--burning in a lake of fire. Jesus conquered death as He rose from the dead three days after His death. If you believe Jesus is the One True God-tell Him and He will give you this fee ticket to eternal life in Heaven with Him. We can catch this flight,777, at gate 1, with Jesus Airlines. Once again, this is a one-way flight to Heaven; gate 1. A flight where Jesus will take us to our eternal Home of perfection. It's loading ASAP and departing within the next 10 minutes. Are you ready? Who's with me?"

God spoke through me with a clear, bold, urgent sounding voice. As I read this, my body became covered with goosebumps. IT is real. IT is urgent and This is IMPORTANT information for people to know.

I do not want Satan or his demons to convince me to not share the truth of God's ultimate love with those around me. God is all powerful and He has already conquered the World. He was already conquered the Prince of this World (Satan). Satan and his demons are already destined to an eternity in the lake of fire...it is only a matter of time. We get to choose our destiny. Those who choose not to follow Jesus (the Prince of Peace), choose to follow Satan (the Prince of this World). These people's destiny will also end in an eternity in a lake of fire. Every person gets to choose His or Her destiny. God does not send anyone to Hell. It's each individual's choice. Everyone is either under the Prince of Peace or the Prince of this World. If my class did not know this urgent reality before this past Monday...they do now.
Will you pray with me now that my students will NOW choose to follow Jesus ASAP?

I also want to encourage you when sharing the gospel with a seemingly audience--know that this truth is convicting because ALL need a Savior and we cannot get to heaven on our own righteousness. Satan does not want them to know the wonderful gift they can have in Jesus. Satan wants to bring as many people with him to the lake of fire. BUT STAND IN THE CONFIDENCE OF JESUS AND PROCLAIM THIS MESSAGE WITH A BOLD URGENT TONE--FOR GOD WANTS TO USE YOU. AND HE WANTS ALL TO COME TO FOLLOW HIM. ARE YOU LETTING YOURSELF BE USED BY GOD IN ALL CIRCUMSTANCES?

A Celebration of Three Years

New Community Church was planted 3 years ago in Bangna Ramkanheang Song. On Sunday, we as a church were able to celebrate it's 3 year anniversary! This was a very special day as together we thanked God for the work He is doing through and/within the Church. Special additions were made to this Sunday's Service: Some young girls from ages 8-10 years of age did a dance to "Hallelujah"; A power point that revealed the love of God evident in the lives of all ages at the church; Us women sang two songs "Great is Thy Faithfulness" as well as a song in Thai (I had a cheat sheet)in front of the congregation; Three people gave their testimonies; And there was a feast with many yummy desserts afterwards. Later that evening a group of us went to the park. We walked and played Volleyball, badminton and Basketball (yes...even-very nonathletic me..but its OK because I have an advantage in my height!!). It was a special day of celebration as we see God's goodness. God has been and is continuing to be revealed to the Community of Bangna Ramkanheang Song. It is also exciting to be praying for God's Will/His timing in the vision of the many other church plants being planted around Thailand. My heart Jumps for Joy at the lives being touched by Christ and the Joy of the Celebration of New Community's Three Year Anniversary.