December and January are hectic months and people often forget their missionaries in all the hussle and bussle. But you never let us down. We want to thank you for that. Not only were so many of you faithful to your monthly pledge, you also increased your giving, and a few of you gave a big one time gift to help us get started strong in this exciting new year. Thank you so much for that. Your prayers and monthly support enable us to focus on investing in the lives that we have been in these past few months. Your compassion for the lost and your generosity mean so much to us and restore our hearts whenever we think of you. There are a few of you for whom we don’t have email addresses on. Would you please send us that if you haven’t received a thank you from us so that we can thank you personally? Thank you and we love you so much.
Jacki & Akha Woman named Lydia from this past weekend
Ok so here are the pictures of our house FINALLY! God has blessed us more than we can imagine with this house and just providing for us with everything we need and so much more. Actually 2 weeks before we moved to Thailand we had no house at all and thought we were just going to look for one when we got here, but luckily one of the missionaries here went looking for us. She told us about the house and we didn’t even see pictures of it and said just please get it for us bc we need a place to live. We had NO idea how great this house was going to be! It was a leap of faith for me bc moving to a foreign country is hard enough but then I didn’t even know what kind of house we would be getting. However, God is soooo good to us!
Everyday when I look out my windows and see this majestic view I just thank God over and over for His blessings and his provisions. The other great thing about this house is all of the closets and the bathrooms because a typical Thai has no closets and no bathtubs, and no kitchen storage, but the man who owns this house is German and his wife is Akha so that is why this house has these things. Which we are extremely grateful for! It also saved us a ton of money not having to buy storage cabinets, etc. It’s just been a perfect place. The view is just wonderful!! It feels as though I’m on vacation everyday : ) There are so many great things about this place, including the rent. We only pay about $280 a month! We were paying double this for a tiny apartment in Cleveland! It just blows my mind! Anyways, I hope you all enjoy the pics! : ) For those of you who have been so faithfully supporting us, thank you for making this possible!
To kick off Media Light this year, we headed into the mountains nearby for a retreat with our new students. We shared our stories, ate some good food, and spent quality time in worship. Here are a few pictures from that trip and our trek out to some nearby waterfalls for more bonding time.
One of our first activities with the new students was to take them up a mountain and spend a weekend telling our stories. Sleeping in tents and huts, eating delicious Thai food, and getting mauled by mountain kids were all just a part of what brought us closer together. At the end of the retreat, the team put together an outreach event for the hill tribe children from the area. If you’d like to find out more about how that event went, just click on the last post, which’ll give you a recap on the first week.
leading our morning worship. hearing the prayers of our Thai student, Bow, broke my heart. I'm trying to get a video of that up on here so that you can feel the desperation of these people.
Jacki hanging out with one of our staff buddies, Marj Laurena here, who is a bubble of sunshine
Media Light is a discipleship, leadership, and media training center here in Chiang Rai, Thailand. It’s also one of our primary ministries under Emerge Missions. The vision of this operation is to disciple, train, and equip young Christian leaders from around the world to be solid leaders in a healthy church that uses the modern tools that we have to communicate the good news to a lost world. This past week, we kicked off the January 2010 term with our all-star team and crew of students. Here’s a video recap of this week produced by Chuck Quinley, our president.
Well, you remember that post with the Big Thai BBoy Breakdancer? I posted it on my Youtube and one of the dancers actually found the video and told me the name of the breakdancer, JZero. When I checked out his page, I found this incredible video of another Breakdance competition here in north Thailand. This one’s just for your enjoyment.
At the local Wal-Mart named “Big C” here in Chiang Rai, we were surprised to find a B-boy danceoff competition going on. I hung around and watched for a while. When this guy got up, jeers went sideways and laughter ruffled through the crowd. By the time he had finished his short set, he had proven that appearances aren’t everything.
For Christmas, we joined my family on a beach trip to Koh Tao, here in Thailand. Though the trip was arduous (literally land, sea, and air), the island was torn from the page of a Clive Cussler novel. 20 foot boulders hunch lazily on top of one another down by the coast like a herd of elephants around a watering hole. Stony peaks erupt from the foliage above. The water teams with fish that hold no fear for man, because the island is within a nature reserve.
Joe is an Ahka man that I have recently become friends with. When Jacki and I met him and his wife at the local night bazaar, he told me he was a Buddhist Christian. I also found out he loved to fish. So, naturally, we set up a day to go fishing.
Thais are incredibly gifted in the arts and cherish these gifts as a culture. Here are a few sights and sounds from the Saturday Night Market here in Chiang Rai.
Hello to you. As you'll see, our lives are a conglomeration of unique people from ethnic groups far and wide, experiences both legendary and mundane, and lessons, both profound and simple. Welcome into our life, you can leave your shoes at the door.
Hello to you. As you'll see, our lives are a conglomeration of unique people from ethnic groups far and wide, experiences both legendary and mundane, and lessons, both profound and simple. Welcome into our life, you can leave your shoes at the door.
