Friends Forever Retreat / Summer Project Visit

Pictures to the left are from the Friends Forever Retreat.  This was Campus Outreach Thailand's evangelistic retreat for reaching Thai students at NEU with the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Throughout the whole summer we built relationships with Thai students in hope to share the love of Christ with them.  This retreat served as a catalyst for us to bring our new Thai friends to  hear the message of salvation in and through Christ alone.  

During this weekend retreat we played alot of fun games with the Thai students.  Games like "sock war," which is dodgeball with flour-filled socks, and capture the flag combined.  Everyone had a blast as this was only one of the fun games / activities we participated in.  (note Courtney getting "socked" during the game :)  However, after the games were over we got to main purpose behind this retreat.  The first night of the retreat we watched "The Chronicles of Narnia III" (in Thai) to expose the NEU students to the gospel of Christ.  This movie is very popular in Thailand even though they have no idea of the Biblical imagery behind it.  After the movie concluded Guy (The Director of Campus Outreach Thailand) explained the gospel message of the Jesus Christ through the imagery / characters of the movie.

In addition to the gospel being seen and explained through the Chronicles of Narnia movie, Daly (to the left) a Senior from Georgetown College had the opportunity to share her testimony at this retreat of how she came to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior.  

The below two pictures are of our CCP team with two Thai students, Tua (bottom left) & Jah Eh (bottom right).  These were only two of the hundreds of students we met and loved on over the coarse of the summer.  Tua and Jah Eh attended the FF Retreat and we're excited to share that Jah Eh repented of her sin and placed her faith in Christ while we were in transit at the Singapore Airport heading back home to the States.  Praise God!  Knowing and rejoicing at Jah Eh's becoming a Christian made the long flight much more enjoyable.  :) Please continue to pray for Tua + the other 70 Thai students who attended this retreat as the Campus Outreach Thailand staff continue to follow up these students with the good news of Christ in hope that they will repent of their sin and place their faith in Christ alone.  

Duke, Brent, Tua, and myself

Daly, Sano, Jah Eh, and Stephanie at FF Retreat

Here's the Friends Forever Retreat Picture.

Over 70 Thais attended the FF Retreat

After arriving back in the States we made a quick pit stop at our Summer Project in Sandusky, OH where we visited with the 110 students growing in their faith through our ministry.  During our visit we shared with them our experiences in Thailand as each of these students below were praying for us while we were in Thailand.  This was an exciting time as we saw first hand these 100 + students desire to grow deeper in their faith in order to reach out to others who don't know & trust in Christ as their Lord and Savior.   Please pray for Thailand and our 4 campuses (UK, EKU, Georgetown College, Centre College) as we desire to grow deeper in and share the love of Christ with all people.


Here's the Summer Project Picture

110 students + Staff at our Summer Project in Sandusky, OH

Victory and Rice

I wish I was alive when Secretariat won the Preakness. Can you imagine if you had been there, watching that horse blaze past everyone and beat them by 32 lengths!?!?! What an awesome horse.  We watched the movie Secretariat with some girls last Friday because we wanted to show them some of Kentucky. I think they may have been unimpressed, but I loved pretending like I was at Churchhill Downs in 1973. Usually I don't get sucked into movies like that, especially if they have to do with animals, but for some reason I felt like I was there. Haha. It could have been because I REALLY had to focus on the movie--We watched it in Thai with English subtitles. Hilarious to hear Diane Lane and John Malcovitch in asian, but nevertheless I really had to pay attention.  It could have also been because I'm so excited to see the green pastures and hills in KY again and my little yellow house.  Or maybe it was because in my heart of hearts I love victory! Sweet unabashed victory, the kind that makes your heart leap and you want to jump out of your seat victory! I think that night was especially sweet to me because of what happened before the movie. We had invited about 20 girls to come watch it with us, only to get there and find 1 girl with one of the Thai girls on staff, Honey. She was sharing the bridge diagram with the girl (her name is Oum). Of course we ran upstairs as to not be distracting and prayed for her that she would understand.  Later, Honey told us that the girl had never heard for God before. Not Jesus, or Christianity, but God.  Taylor Hannah and I went to dinner with her a last night and had some great conversation about God and Jesus and heaven.

She said she has lots of questions, which is so so awesome and she even asked me if I thought I'd found the answer.  What is awesome to me is that I did have the answer to her question! Yes! I have entrusted my life to a VICTORIOUS God! Our faithful Creator and Savior who's power saves me from sin and death! When she asked me that question I could barely stand it--Jesus is victorious! He has overcome the grave! And he will return to claim what is HIS! What a sweet and precious promise! So pray for Oum-pray that God draws her out of darkness and emptiness and guilt and into his marvelous light! Pray that she would LOVE the victory of Jesus! I love her and I cant wait to see what the future holds. Maybe this week, maybe this year or maybe in 5 years....but I truly believe that God is doing something! Secretariat is the most awesome horse that ever was, but his victory is nothing compared to the return of the King :)


Also Oum invited us to plant rice at her house; she lives about 2 hours away, but the girls were so sweet and said yes!! I couldn't go, but I looked at the pictures!  Tay and Hannah said is was quite possible that they ruined the little plot of rice that took an hour to plant--but they had so much fun!

Rice patties are little plots of land--maybe equivalent to a .25 acre that have built up mounds of dirt to keep water in.  The soil has to be very wet in order for the rice plant to take root, so farmers have to wait until well into the rainy season so the "patties" will fill up with water.

 P'Honey and Taylor with rice plants. In Thailand you call someone older than you "P..insert name" I have no idea why.

Oum's mom and the girls. They tried to wear boots but kept getting stuck, so they just went barefoot. haha. Really really muddy and slippery.  Also farmers plant hundreds or thousands of these every year by hand. Just stick them in the ground.

Their little rice plants. Cute.  Try to guess which side the Americans planted..

Hiking and Dinosaurs

The last week has been awesome. In case you didn't know, Khon Kaen is kind of famous in Thailand because in the late 90's some archaeologists found some dinosaur bones. You would have thought from the massive amounts of dinosaur replicas all over the area, that they had found a perfectly preserved body of t-rex in the dirt, but in reality, they found some fossil shells, a vertabrae, and about 9 other bones that look like they could be an elephant or saber tooth tiger. Ha. Actually, I'm sure they really are dinosaur bones--they've actually identified them as new species only native to Thailand. How bout that? Actually what is even more cool is that scientists were actually digging for uranium and happened upon these little gems instead. I hope that something similar happens to me the next time I'm looking for one of my earrings in the couch.
One of the students we met here, May, invited us to her hometown (which is 5 minutes from the park) and since I'm always up for an adventure, especially if it have to do with bugs, smells, and outside, I jumped at the chance :) In all honesty, we really were super excited to see a new part of Thailand and especially to love on May, see the things she loves, and for her to show the Americans something this cool about her home. We invited 2 other students, Priaw and Jom, to come with us, hopped in one of the twin carryboys and were on our way. So many funny things. The first thing hilarious to me was the carryboy. I posted a pic of his brother in a previous post--these cars are crazy and would never be considered street legal in America as there are no seatbelts in the back and the trunk door doesn't latch.  Nevertheless, we can pack 12 people in that baby and go experience the world.

The second funny thing to me was dinosaur world. As I said earlier, I thought for sure that they had found a living dinosaur in a cave from all the hooplah, but alas, just a few bones to give us keys to the past. Dinosaur world has approximately 50 model dinosaurs (dine-o-sooow, if you're thai) and coin slots for make them open their mouths in a rather halting manner and coin slots to make them roar from a speaker twenty feet away. It was awesome and so fun.  The third funny thing was that for some reason we decided the climb half the mountain by driving the carryboy up a winding red dirt road. Did I mention the trunk doesn't latch? So hilarious. I also say "for some reason" because in case you forgot, we don't speak Thai. So things happen and people are talking and we don't know exactly what's going on, but we just follow on right after them.  Hence, carryboy on the side of a mountain.  The thais actually thought it was funny too.

The only person that didn't was the park security guide that was in the front seat--straight face the whole time, as we're squealing and laughing. Haha. That actually is something that America should learn = you must have a park employee with you at all times. It probably would cut down on the amount of bear attacks AND you have an automatic camera man when you want a group pic. Anyway, as you can see from the pics, this is the place to be. We were the only people there for 2 hours. It was an awesome day and we had SO MUCH fun with the thai girls.

 All the girls on a big log. Thai people think its crazy to climb on things, but the Americans had no fear.

 Well, all except Hannah (3rd from the right).  Haha. I think they were pretending to fall? Or maybe they saw a real dinosaur.

 Little do they know that we can replicate this picture at Six Flags.

 Priaw and Daly.  Priaw has been hanging out with us almost everyday. She knows were Christians and has come to church with us twice.  She said she respects it, but doesn't believe it yet. Yet. :) She always wears those hilarious glasses. Sometimes they don't have lenses in them and she pretends to poke herself in the eyes. I really like her.

 Hello awesome mountains.

Thank you park ranger for bringing us to this beautiful spot and taking our picture.

A not so funny thing, and more serious, was that the girls wanted to stop at a Buddhist temple shrine on the side of the road to pray.  I asked May what she prayed for and she told me with a huge smile on her face "To get good grades and to finish school at NEU."  She told us that the shrine we stopped at is a lucky one and she hoped her prayer would come true. How sad to think--what if it doesn't happen? What if something terrible happens to her? How do you explain it to yourself in Buddhist terms, except to blame yourself or blame others.  Buddhism in a phrase is about luck and about doing enough good to get good things. It could work, I think, if the world wasn't made up of sinners. But what if? What if you try to be good your whole life and your child dies? Or you get in an accident and lose your legs? How do you explain it to yourself? Those are such devastating things for anyone, Christian OR Buddhist, but there's no hope for a Buddhist.  How do they know if they can go to heaven? They try and try and hope and hope, but there's no certainty. How thankful I am that I have a living hope in Christ! He has paid the penalty that I deserved on the cross and has lived a perfect life that I couldn't and stands between me and God the judge, saying "She is mine!" How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God! It solidified for me even more how much people need to know--they need to know that there is HOPE, there is certainty, there is glory waiting for them in Christ! What a great and eternal purpose to live for, to fight for! How thankful I am that my King is Jesus. And so we pray and labor for May and for Thais and for all the world--so that they can know--God has made a way to be right with him, to be loved by him, and to be with Him forever and ever! Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy, he has made a WAY!

Baptism Service, Service Day at the Mercy House & A Law Faculty BBQ

Baptism Service: Sunday June 19th, 2011

This was one of the sweetest and most touching things I witnessed thus far.  Twelve students and one elderly man publicly displayed their reliance on Christ as their Savior.  The Campus Outreach Thailand staff & families had been laboring & ministering to these students and one elderly man for quite some time and to see them display to a Buddhist world that they are no longer trusting in themselves or Buddha for salvation but are placing their hope in Jesus Christ was amazing to watch and partake in.  How sweet it has been for me to see more clearly that no barriers exist when it comes to the power of an Almighty God who "... causes us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading..."(1 Pet. 1:3-4)   Witnessing this service deepened my faith and understanding of how vital the message of Jesus Christ is needed in all places at all times to all people.

Here are some pictures of the Baptism Service...

Here's the thirteen Thai Christians who are getting baptized in front of the church congregation.  The tallest one in the blue t-shirt shared with the church his personal testimony of how he came to a saving faith in Christ.

Here's Guy, one of the COT staff facilitating the baptism outside the church. Very powerful!

Service Day at the Mercy House: Monday June 20th, 2011
Almost every Monday here we have a "Vision Trip."  These trips are meant to open our eyes to see the need of the love in Christ displayed to all people (not just college students / our peers :) ).  This past Monday we went a second time to the Khon Kaen House of Mercy, which is an organization that helps orphaned children who are HIV+, either inherited from their parents, prostituted, or from dirty needles.  The House of Mercy is dedicated to caring for these children medically, physically, and emotionally while sharing / teaching them the message of Jesus throughout their stay at the shelter.  The staff of this organization expressed that they needed help with some maintenance issues, such as fence repair, landscaping needs, electrical repair, and several other cleaning needs.  In order to make the most out of this trip, we invited approximately 20-25 Thai engineering students that we and the COT staff have been building relationships with, to come with us on our "vision trip."  This was awesome, not only for the extra hands & skills that these engineering students brought with them, but their willingness to come with us gave us another great opportunity to get even closer relationally with them as we hope to share and see them come to know the motivation for why we live & serve, Jesus.

Here are some pictures from the trip...

The front gate of the Mercy House

Two of the engineering students welding / repairing the fence.

Here's one of the children's rooms are the Mercy House

Me & Nun replacing one of the mosquito nets.

Some engineering guys re-wiring one of many broken fans at the Mercy House

All of us taking a break for lunch, getting to know one another better.

After the repairs were done we took some time to play soccer.  

I was the goalie until I got pulled for poor performance. :(  

Group pic of us before we left.  

Law Faculty BBQ: Thursday June 23rd
Every year the COT staff host a BBQ event for several of the "faculty's" or majors at NEU.  This past Thursday we hosted a BBQ for the Law faculty.  The purpose of these BBQ are for us to serve and show our love for the students at NEU.  During this BBQ we performed some an American dance competition.  This competition integrated the following shows "America's Got Talent", "Dancing with the Stars", and movies such as, "You Got Served," and "Stomp the Yard." :)  Not really, it was just a men vs. women dance competition.  + a "Cupid Shuffle" dance lesson from us.  It was a blast humiliating ourselves and seeing the Law students laugh at us and attempt to learn the "Cupid Shuffle"- (just in case you forgot what this dance is, a helpful reminder/hint is that it's on every DJ's mix for weddings, formals and/or proms.)  After the dancing segment of the BBQ party, the COT staff shared briefly who Campus Outreach is and how we want to get to know and serve them throughout their college experience.  We then ate some pork BBQ with our new Law friends as we got know one another, and play games together as we hope to establish lasting relationships with them in hope of sharing and seeing them come to know Christ.

Here are some pictures of the BBQ...

The law students singled me out during one of their own dance routines.  Yeah, my look says it all --"What am I doing?, why is everyone laughing?, I'm confused?, who cares lets go for it!"

Men vs. Women Dance competition

The men look like they had the competition "in the bag" but the Thai students voted for the girls.  I still think we won.

Here we are teaching the Cupid Shuffle

Here's everyones attempt at the Cupid Shuffle...We either don't know the Cupid Shuffle, or we're horrible teachers.

 Eating and getting to know one another.

Playing Jenga

Courtney playing "spoons" with plastic cups!

We're having a blast! Thank you for your prayers and support.  Please take the next 5 minutes to pray that God would save these students through the relationships being built here.  

A Date with Matthew

Our sweet ride. The carry boy. This 2 door beauty holds 2-16+

Cute Matthew

 Awesome little coffee shop/eatery

Outside Seating 

Khon Kaen Lake

You can run all the way around the lake. It's beautiful there.

Look at you! :) 

"Ha" = the number 5 in Thai

Ha ha ha

From the inside of the cafe

Oh hello lake

One of the few things that remind me of America. Tasty Swensens. 

Matt wanted me to take a picture of the cups. 

And of himself being hilarious.

Choco something. Less than 3 dollars. Brownies, bananas, oreos, chocolate goodness

Thai twin of the dollar store. 20 baht is about 80 cents.