Missionaries

It is a joy to share some updates on how life and ministry has been for us here the last few months. God has opened up new opportunities to serve and minister to our YWAM team here in Trang as well as continued growth in learning more about our beautiful community here and its people.

At the start of the year our leader approached me with an opportunity to serve our team in the capacity of leading what we call language and culture processing. Essentially this has been an opportunity for me to assist our team in the process of adapting to life in Thailand, processing change, culture shock and culture stress and much more. We meet once a week and the goal of this is to promote caring for the overall health and wellbeing of one another so that there can be longevity and good fruit. Another opportunity presented to me was to join the YWAM Trang leadership team. We are a team of four individuals and the purpose of this team is to oversee the implementation of the ministries vision, values, and overall direction. As a leadership team we carry a responsibility to serve the wellbeing of our team members and that our ministry remains true to the task that God has called us to.

New Opportunities

Language learning has been a challenge to say the least but it is fun to take a step back and realize that even though we are still very limited in language there are many steps of progress in these last 6 months living here. I want to share a couple of cool things about the Thai language with you. For example: เข้าใจ pronounced kao jai means to understand but literally translated it means to enter heart. I find this so cool! In the Thai language and way of thinking a lot is connected to the heart. ดีใจ dee jai are the two words good heart but together mean to be happy, delighted, or pleased. if you flip it around and say jai dee that is to describe a person as being kind. One other word that I find really interesting is เชื่อฟัง cheua fang being the two words believe and listen meaning obedience. If you listen and believe the result will be obedience.

Language Learning

Community Life

God has been highlighting lately to me the conversation that Jesus had with His disciples asking them “who do you say that I am?" Jesus is: life, hope, peace, teacher, friend, he restores, heals, renews, forgives, saves, and he shows us the Father. He is the good shepherd that gave his life so those who believe would become children of God. As people we all trust, put our hope in and give our lives to something or someone. I see this around me all the time as we drive on the streets, go to the park, go shopping or spend time in the neighborhood. The world has many different solutions to offer  and some of those things may actually help us feel peace, hope, and purpose in different degrees but in the end it's not complete. Only the creator Himself has the full answer that our souls long for.

As a family we want to allow this to impact and guide us in our daily lives. Whether we are going for a walk, attending one of those community parties the Thai people love so much, shopping, spending time at the community park, and in everyday endeavors. We have been told many times that people are watching us and they recognize how we live. We might not be able to fully express a lot of things still in the Thai language but we can still be representatives and communicators of Jesus and the good news of God’s kingdom.  

• Pray for our friend Mike. He is a new believer and has experienced great difficulty. He says that demons have been coming to him in the form of his ancestors telling him that Buddhism is his destiny and path. He feels very confused and is tired of this struggle.

• Pray for the kids and families that gather at the park in our neighborhood and that in our times together we can grow closer relationally and for openness to know about Jesus.

• At the end of March we are invited to participate in a church gathering that will be 12 different churches from the entire province of Trang where we live. We are looking forward to having this opportunity of connection with other churches in this area.

• Also at the end of March we have our YWAM Southern Thailand conference. For us this will be the first time we can meet the other YWAM missionaries serving in the South of Thailand.