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. 

Learning Learning Learning

We've been here almost 3 weeks and it seems like only a few days. I feel like I've learned so much, about myself, about God, about the human condition.  We're also getting pretty decent at learning some new Thai words--I can even ask someone what they like to do now and order food on my own.  It's been a challenging couple weeks for most of us here, but so far, it's been awesome to see the way our students have responded to hard things. We're in a place that is totally unfamiliar, where we have no control and are forced to depend on someone else. It's been a highlight for me to watch the girls interact with new Thai freshmen, as they're forced out of a comfort zone and into a place where they have to trust God.  They really are learning to be intentional with their lives, to go on campus when they don't want to, to ask someone they don't know one more question, and to keep a vision before them--that God is redeeming sinners and we get to be part of it.  We're all learning more about the selfishness in out hearts--that we love control and getting to do whatever we want, whenever we want. It's been difficult for those things to be exposed, but has resulted in praise to Jesus for loving us in our sin.  The language barrier has been more difficult that I think we all anticipated, only in that we don't have control, conversations can only go so far, and they don't give immediate reward.  I think that's been biggest question we've asked ourselves--do I love people because of what they can give me, or do I love them because God does?  Not in the sense that they can give us gifts, or be nice or kind back, but in that sense that you get affirmation from others when you get to know them.  In the states, we can, in some way, feel like we get something back from having a good conversation with someone, like you've been able to help someone, or give them wisdom, or that they like your personality.  But here, you don't get immediate affirmation, or reward because the conversation can only go so far. So I've asked myself, why I do I love people? It's been challenging to my soul to figure that out and I've come away thanking God so much more for Christ. That he would die to for me, knowing that in some ways I love people for me, not for them, and not for God. That he would redeem someone who doesn't deserve him and cause me to follow him, even though everything in me wants to rebel and live for myself. What a sweet thing I'm learning about the character of God--that I am precious to Him in spite of me.

New Friends

It's been a whirlwind of activity these last two weeks. From meeting tons of new freshmen girls, to karoake, to baking brownies with friends, to jenga and connect four, we are definitely having fun. We've met so many girls and have loved it! We've been told by the staff here that if girls come off campus to do anything with you, it is a small victory! Last week, I spent time with Honey, Taylor and Hannah and we did everything from walking around campus to meet freshmen, to teaching girls that we met earlier how to play spoons and kemps.  It was so exciting because each day a new groups of girls met us somewhere to hang out. We baked cookies with Friendly and her friends, and sang Karoake with Aw-Air and 2 of her friends. That was such a sight, especially because their were only about 5 English songs that worked on the screen. We sang How Do I Live, Hero and Killing Me Softly (we scored an 88 by the way).  (The girls were way impressed with Hannah's voice, since she's a real life Von Trapp :)  It's been awesome to teach English to girls--most of us have had the chance to meet one on one with some girls and help with their conversational English. It's been a great way to get face time with girls and meet their needs in a different way. We've eaten lots of different thai dishes, some really good, some not so good. I never thought I would love rice so much--mostly because its about the only thing I consistently want to eat. Haha. 

Karoake with some freshmen!

Tay with Nam and Loogmei

freshy friends

Baking brownies with Noon and Friendlie.

Honey (most right) is one of the single staff girls at NEU

Yum. They don't use box mix here. 

Baby Agape. He is the son of Guy, the campus director at NEU.

Agape isnt so sure about me, but I know inside he's just pretending. 

Matt's Thailand Beginnings...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150197070361227&oid=148618591847767&comments&set=t.151201205&type=1
Check out the above link to see a video of our arrival into Khon Kaen.  It was really sweet to be welcomed by the staff, their families and the students involved with the Campus Outreach Thailand ministry this way after two days of air travel.

Everything is going well here in Thailand.  We have been on campus for 4 days now meeting tons of Thai students.  It's been a challenge to speak their language but every student we have met on campus has gone out of their way to teach us the proper annunciation of Thai words/phrases.  Our team has been split up into 4 different ministry teams (2 students paired up with 1 Campus Outreach Thailand staff) in order to reach the NEU campus more effectively.  This week I went along with Guy, the director of Campus Outreach at NEU with Ross Buskey and Noah Moran.  Or goal this week was to meet as many Freshman (or "Freshy's"- that's what the freshmen are called at NEU) and/or reconnect with as many students that Guy already knew in hope to eventually develop a relationship that could lead to an opportunity to share the gospel.  In order to accomplish this goal we spent time with Law, Engineering and I.T. students on and off campus.  This week all the incoming "Freshy's" are "earning their keep" in order to be apart of their majors.  "Freshy's" have to go through initiation (kind of like initiation that freshmen go through in order to be apart of a Fraternity and Sorority in the U.S.) in order to be a active member in their major / field of study.  During initiation the upper classmen have been teaching and "playfully hazing" the Freshys by making them sing songs/chants, dance, and repeat/memorize rules of their major.  Each department (Engineering, I.T. and Law) have allowed us to watch/participate in their initiations.  Here are some pictures of what we experienced so far.  Enjoy...

Two pictures of the first initiation meetings for the I.T. Freshy's

Here's some of the LAW freshy's "earning their keep" by memorizing their majors songs and chants.

Here is myself, Ross and Noah sitting inside one of the LAW initiation meetings

Here we are sitting with the first 4 "Freshy's" we met at NEU before lunch on campus.  The Freshy's have to wear ties all throughout the day on campus.  Be praying for these 4 freshman as we hope that we will be able to continue building a relationship with them in hope of sharing the gospel.  Here are the short versions of their full Thai name.  (Left to right) - "Nu," "Nes," "Den," and "Nae"

Thank you for your support.  It's been very exciting here in Thailand.  We as a team are looking forward to what the Lord will do here at NEU.  Please continue praying for our personal growth/development as we have began studying 1 Peter.  Pray also for the salvation of the Thai people that we come in contact with (like Nu, Nes, Den and Nae).

Matt

Lessons from a Song Taw

This crazy bus van truck is called a song taw (taw is pronounced like cow). It's a small toyota looking truck with two benches on either side and a roof over the top. It's the thai version of bus route--there are different colored and numbered trucks for different routes and it only costs 10 baht no matter how far you go! (about 30 cents).  This is some us with lots of our new friends who are students at NEU (Brent looks very happy with all the ladies, doesn't he).  Most of the girls in the pic are sophomores and juniors-the new freshmen come on Tuesday for orientation and then everyone starts classes next week! This song taw is what we rode from the airport when we got to Khon Kaen--needless to say, it was a little overwhelming!  We also took a tour of Khon Kaen on Saturday and rode around with our friends all day seeing some of the city. We went to a large buddhist temple (Picture below) which I'll explain more about later and we went to the Thai walmart called the Big C. haha. It was wild in the Big C--lots of American products, including tasty jif and nutella (even though its european) and a dairy queen with cones for 9 baht!! Our new friends rode with us everywhere and showed us around all of the places. Most of the girls can understand English if we speak slow and some can speak it slightly--It's pretty impressive!  I was most encouraged and excited about the bonds we made on our song taw rides.  Even though the language difference is a barrier that makes it stressful and a little harder to have conversations, I've seen that it's created a sweet bond between us Americans and our new Thai friends. We've had lots of laughs already trying to say Thai words and getting them totally wrong! Thai words are tonal, so the same word can mean 5 different things based on the tone and inflection in your voice. You could try to say, "look at that dog", but if you mess up the tone, you would really say "look at that horse." Or you could say "No" but if you change the inflection, you could say "you look thick." (personal favorite).  I have asked the girls their names at least three times, I ask the word for yes and rice at least 5 times a day, and I cannot for the life of me remember how to say thank you!! But the Thai girls that we have met have been so sweet! They laugh and repeat the word and then we repeat it back and get so excited when we get it right!! It's hilarious! I truly am amazed at how accommodating and welcoming the girls have been!  It is awesome to see how the Gospel transcends culture and language and creates a community between people that have never met! The song taw was a perfect place for friendships to start! We get to see how God's church loves each other even though we cant totally understand each other! It is so freaking cool. And we've learned awesome thai words which is also cool.

This temple is 9 floors!!

CCP girls and Thai girls!