A quick summary:
We have been in Thailand for almost one year & I will say that this year has been a very difficult one. Transitioning from Canada to Mongolia was not even close to transitioning from Mongolia to Thailand. We are so thankful that God has been with us. Thank-you all for your prayers & financial support.
I am still studying Thai language full-time each day. I have had many Thai's encourage me by telling me that what Thai I speak I say clearly & they understand. Starting next week I will begin writing Thai, starting with the Alphabet. The alphabet has 44 consonants & 43 vowels. I still have another year of full-time Thai language study to complete what is required & am looking forward to it because already God has given me opportunities with Thai's I would not have had.
God gave me a cool opportunity a few weeks ago where one of the many Thai community security guards I have befriended when he shared with me that he was not well. Many people both Thai & foreign have shared with me that this was rare because Thai's only share personal things like this with close friends/family. In the end I laid my hand on him & prayed (in English because I am not able in Thai yet). When I prayed said "Jesus" in Thai so that my friend would know I was not magical, nor the cross around my neck. The next day when I saw him he was smiling from ear to ear & said that my prayer worked.
I have been intentionally meeting with Christian men to get to know them, to pray with them & to support them in anyway I can. I also meet regularly with a couple older Christian men, my mentors to help me.
2 weeks ago I went 2 hours drive NorthEast very close to the Burmese border to visit 5 small villages with an older friend. I went to see just a small picture of life for poor Thai farmers & the villages they live in. I saw 10's of children playing with themselves. There was a church in each village, all except one were very small, simple bamboo buildings & the pastors with their families also lived in homes that were small bamboo one room homes. I was so blessed to see what I saw that day.
In 2 weeks all of us will be travelling to a ywam base where we will be speaking/teaching for 3 days on missions & living/serving cross culturally.
