Chiang-Kham Week of Action

non-negotiable waterfall visit

More greetings from Chiang-Kham, Thailand -- bringing you a fresh report on our first week of ministry here at The Home of Blessing!

Now that we've been here for nine days, there's almost too much to report -- we've gotten so much closer to the girls on the property, grown in unity on our team and have made it half-way through the weekend-long bible camp we're running for the Home of Blessing! We've also managed to give devotionals at the girls' daily morning prayer at 5:30am! What an admittedly tiring privilege!

Our week started with the painting of the property's masssive worship hall. From Monday to Wednesday, we were given the chance to lather on two coats of yellow paint on the exterior of the structure and inside the washrooms. Much attention to detail was required, as team members fearlessly cut paint around urinals and gave a new sheen to high-ceilinged walls with paint rollers (extended by bamboo stalks, nonetheless).

 Later in the week, we also got the chance to load dozens of dozens of 40kg unrefined rice bags to a silo for emptying -- the girls at The Home of Blessing plant and harvest their own rice! Additionally, every evening our team has put on a session for the home's girls to learn various dances our team knows. It's been incredible to watch how quickly the girls learn the songs we've brought to them and it's been with incredible energy that we've been able to share some of the most memorable moments yet with one another.

emptying unrefined rice bags

Currently, we are into our second day of the bible camp we're putting on. We started with an afternoon of games, separated by stations. In the evening, we had a time of dance and worship, followed by a drama our creative put together specifically for this camp -- an encouraging and rousing message by Elana Swartz came shortly thereafter. We began the morning sessions today with a message by Nicole Recalde on courage and spent the rest of the time crafting lion masks for everybody! Later tonight, Hannah Root will be giving us a talk on unity (with some illustrations, rumour has it) for our evening session. The camp will have three sessions on Sunday.

Prayer points: 
- that the girls would receive the teaching and heart behind our weekend sessions
- that overall team health will continue to be restored
- for energy, as a demanding schedule in a new culture can be exhausting!
- a desire to continue looking to be more like Jesus in every way we live our lives!

Thank you for keeping updated with our team with your reading -- your prayers continue to mobilise and enable us to continue serving and no words in a blog post could ever thank you enough!

We made it!

Hi, blog world! This is Kristen, from the Thailand team, reporting from Chiang-Kham, Thailand!

We are glad to announce that we have arrived! We landed in Bangkok on Tuesday morning at 7:00am and had a very short lay-over in India, where we rushed through the airport because our flight had been delayed in London!  I will never forget sitting in the bus waiting to go to the plane and praying that God would bring everyone else through customs quickly.  Besides those few minutes, our travel went very smoothly.  The rest of Tuesday was spent trying to stay awake, trying new foods, and going to the mall.

bangkok skyline via temple roof

On Wednesday and Thursday we had orientation at the YWAM Thailand base in Bangkok where we were staying. We were introduced to the technique of the "squatty-potty" (a new, special kind of toilet) and learned about Thai culture. We did a scavenger hunt that helped us grow accustomed to the area and foods --  one of the activities on this adventure was to try eating kind of insect from the local market! Though this is not a normal Thai diet, it was fun to see the team experience this new treat...  I personally tried a cricket and found it tasted a lot like french fries.  The maggot on the other hand was a one-time experience.  On Thursday, we went on a prayer walk in central Bangkok, where we visited two temples -- an interesting, but challenging experience.

On Thursday night, when we were almost over jet-lag, the team boarded a bus for Chiang-Kham, a city in northern Thailand. The bus ride was 12 hours long, but the bus was the nicest bus I have ever seen!  The seats reclined three times further than a plane set and there were blankets and pillows! We will probably take this same trip in a few weeks when we head south again.

The last few days we have been at The Home of Blessing, the primary location of our ministry for the next few weeks.  This video below explains The Home of Blessing...

nehemia Girls Care Project, Thailand (english version) from Kittikoon on Vimeo.

We are staying at the Home of Blessing campus for the next two weeks and have been spending a lot of time with the girls. I already love them so much!  This morning we helped lead the church service by doing a drama of the story of Esther while Pete, one of our team members, talked about we each are chosen.  It was fantastic to worship with the girls in Thai! We will be doing some painting around the campus and continuing to love on the girls. Next weekend, we will be putting on a weekend-long Vacation Bible School for the girls here at The Home of Blessing.

public transport via river boat in Thailand

 Prayer points: 
- if you could pray for us as we put the VBS weekend together, we would be so, so grateful.  God has already started to orchestrate that time, but your prayers make a world of difference.
- prayer for health would also be appreciated -- there are several people, including Sam (our youngest team member at 8 months) that are not feeling well.
- lastly, please pray for our struggles with the new language. As we excitedly try to learn the language, it still remains difficult to break through the language barrier

Thank you so much for the prayers, they are absolutely crucial to this trip! We will continue to keep you updated as things progress!

Love,
Kristen

We're going to Thailand and Belfast!

Hello! On behalf of the YWAM Harpenden September 2012 DTS's outreach team to Thailand and Belfast (that's quite a mouthful, I know), welcome to our blog!

We're glad you've found your way here -- whether you're family, friend or an internet-meandering YWAMer, this blog is for you. Whilst we're serving and loving communities on our continent-hopping voyage, we want you - as parents, supporters and loved ones - to know what we're getting up to! It's our way of keeping in touch during this undoubtedly busy season. 

We fly out to Thailand tomorrow morning (10/12/2012) and will be hitting the ground running as soon as we land in Bangkok. As far as a rough outline of our time is concerned, we'll be spending the first six weeks of our outreach in Thailand and the last three weeks in Northern Ireland's beautiful capitol, Belfast. We'll have more details on what we're up to and what God is doing in both of these lovely nations as we move into action, and we're thrilled to invite you to read, what will hopefully be, weekly updates on our journey. Thank you for mobilising us and making all of this possible! 

We've only just begun this outreach and are excited to keep you updated on our adventures. Please tune in often or send this page to people you think might find this helpful!