Maejo U, My Favorite Friend, and Coming Home

We've been on the run the last few days and haven't updated recently. Here's a brief recap:

Wednesday, 28 July: We toured and prayer walked Maejo University with Thailand Campus Crusade for Christ (TCCC). Dinner from street vendors.

Thursday, 29 July: Visited Maerim School in the morning to meet with teachers and former students (We taught at Maerim the previous four trips). Traveled to Maejo U, and began to meet students during lunch break and walking around campus. Some contacts were made, and some flyers for a Friday night party were distributed. Praise Night with TCCC in the evening. Adrienne gave her testimony. Steph and Justin sang a duet, backed up by Stuart, Matt and Josh on instruments. Two team members and a TCCC staffer, Pai, shared the 4 Spiritual Laws with six students--and three accepted Christ! (Yay for Jesus!!!)

Friday, 30 July: Arrived on campus to meet students and invited them to Friday's event at TCCC--My Favorite Friend Party. Some played basketball with students during lunch.

My Favorite Party (7-9:30): About 60+ in attendance, more students than expected since we only had two days to meet students. (In addition to our surveying the campus, student leaders were also making invitations. God answered prayers!) Greg co-emceed the night, the team performed "Healer" with body worship, and mimed to "Lamb of God." Pai gave a message. A number of people came to accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord! Praise God! More answered prayers! From 10pm-midnight, some attended TCCC's monthly prayer and worship meeting--a really vibrant time of prayer!

Saturday, 31 July: A day to "relax". Late wake-up for everyone, buffet lunch at 11:30am, a visit to the mall, swimming with students, dinner by TCCC, and touring through an outdoor night bazaar with some students.

Now comes cleaning our rooms and packing. We're leaving the TCCC housing at 6:30am for an 8:45am flight to Bangkok (8 hour layover). Then we fly to Taipei (2 hour layover). Then the long flight home to LA. ETA to LAX, Sunday, 1 Aug, 9:45pm.

Thanks for reading and your continuous prayers.

-JChow

Goodbye for now kiddies...

Its Wednesday here in Thailand, and we've moved on from the orphanage, sadly. We're in Chiang Mai ready to evangelize to the Mai Jo University now. It's such a change in pace from teaching english to now, straight up evangelizing. I feel so spoiled here, having good bathrooms, cleaner rooms and A/C. It's weird being cold at night.

Good byes are always hard. I hope to see that orphanage again some day, the kids were awesome and amazing, I also hope to be able to be speaking Mandarin by then.

It's almost go time, so I guess I'll end it here.

-Josh

Monday was a Fun day of Sun day

hello all!

Today we went on a jungle excursion! We took a field trip with all the kids to hike through tropical trails and rivers. It was amazing to see so much of God's green creation and get some needed exercise. It wasn't an easy hike, but I'm proud to say our entire team trekked it well. Praise God for keeping us safe from leeches, snakes or other wildlife. However, as the title of the post implies, with the fun came lots of sun; and many of the team members are a little burnt.

I put on lots of sunscreen, but i missed a spot and thus i am left with this minor burn and awesome tan line:

But anyway, as of right now we're packing up and getting ready to go for our next half of the trip into Chiang Mai. It's a bittersweet feeling because we will definitely miss all these new brothers and sisters in Christ that we have met, yet I am excited to reunite with Thailand Campus Crusade tomorrow. This past week, the people here have been so hospitable with us as their guests. I am overwhelmed by their graciousness despite their limited resources. They are definitely doing God's work here and their love is evident to all in the community.

And now a few prayer requests:

1) Safety in our 4 hour car trip to Chiang Mai

2) Healing from various ailments for our entire team. Sunburns, canker sores, bug bites. Also please especially pray for Steph's ankle as she suffered a mild sprain from a fall the other day.

3) Energy in the transition of the next portion of our trip to work with Campus Crusade

4) Boldness in evangelism, that we would not be ashamed of the gospel.

Thanks!

J.Joe

are we human?

we are all human indeed!

• today we visited an Aca (tribal people) church service at the Hands Foundation, which is a foundation that sponsors kids from remote villages to go to boarding school. They sang songs like "Our God is so Big" and "Blessed be Your Name" in Thai while we sang them in English. It's nice to see how worship songs have reached all around the world!
• AND lastly... Thai kids fall asleep in church service as well:

how many thai kids do you spy sleeping?

PRAISES
Praise God for our continued bonding with the kiddies. We're finally learning their names and they're playing with us a lot more.

PRAYER REQUESTS
Our last day with the kids is tomorrow before we move to Chiang Mai. Pray for our lasting impression on them that they would be encouraged by our enthusiasm and love for God. Please pray that they would be lights at their schools.

That is all. Adios!!!

-Adrienne

First Week Completed

Our first week of teaching and hosting "Happy Camp" are behind us. We thank God for joining and helping us. He is faithful!

Here's a quick run-down of our past week (Mon-Fri):
7:00am: breakfast (usually fried eggs, pb&j, bread and/or yogurt. A couple of times we had steamed buns and warm soy milk)
8:30-3:30: teaching at the Thai public school
5:00-6:45: teaching at the Chinese private school and the church
7:30-8:00: dinner at the church
8:00-9ish: planning, prayer
9:30-11:00: the shower line (only two operating showers)
11:00~sleep

Personally, I'm really blessed by the teamwork and cooperation of the group. There were numerous times we had to team up at the last minute or had to create new teaching groups, and everyone came through in a positive and receptive way. We also had to plan and lead two 6-hour student "camps", and again, the team came through with great cooperation and teamwork. I thank the Lord for this spirit of unity.

After a full week of ministry, the Lord has supplied us with a Saturday evening and Sunday to rest and relax. God knows what we need.

Pray that God would enable us to live out the Fruits of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Pray also for strength, healing and good rest. Some team members have minor ailments, like heat rash and insect bites. Others have had sleepless nights because their dormitory room is next to the road or because of crowing roosters. Thanks--jchow

Making Melodies

Hello all-

I've definitely got a lot to share with everyone back at home. But for now I think this video will summarize what I've been up to in Thailand. With the help of fellow teammates leading the dance moves (in this case, Caleb), I do this like 10 times a day.

J. Joe

Learning to Breathe

Sa Wah Dee Ka! (Hello) After only a couple days out here in Hueipueng, a mountainous village in the city of Chiang Rai, I've already fallen in love. Let me explain...
After arriving in Chiang Rai airport and walking out the sliding glass doors, I was greeted by a sticky, hot sensation. And I'm not talking about mango sticky rice. Our living conditions are also a very new experience for me. Our bathrooms are only flushable with the aid of a bucket of water/bowl, we find geckos that don't save us money on car insurance, it constantly rains warm water, I share a shower with about ten different species of moth, and I CAN'T BREATHE. But at the same time, I was greeted by gleaming smiles as our vans approached the orphanage we are staying at. I am bowed to respectfully by every student as I walk across the campus. And did I mention how CUTE these kids are??? God has definitely blessed our team with many new friends and experiences. Our lives have been touched by the kindness and attitudes of the people we've met in the country of Thailand. Yet again, I have experienced the power of prayer. My God conquers all and I am living, no, BREATHING this mission trip experience and listening to what God wants me to do for the first time. I'm still learning day by day. I can only hope to find more God moments as my team and I continue our work here.

Love,

Jackie

"Show me how to love like you, have loved me..."

Hey there!

It's been an interesting time here so far in the rural parts of Chiang Rai. Plenty has happened and I have learned much. First off, shout out to my fellow EPIC CPPers. I hope all is well in your respective missions trips. Or at least I hope your summer has been productive.

Teaching English to 11th graders has been fun. Despite only being able to see them 3 times up to Wednesday, they've been well behaved and listened to us, their teachers.

Regarding the title though... as a side project, in the evenings we've been teaching the younger kids at the nearby Chinese school. We've been switching up the grades and today Doris and I got these little demonic 2nd graders. Super difficult and frustrating, the only keeping me from smacking some kids was the bridge of Hosanna... "show me how to love like you, have loved me..." perhaps its all worth it to have Making Melodies ingrained in their minds thanks to Justin. Only time tells...

on a side note, matt, stu, caleb and I had a pretty cool jam session in the afternoon. Matt on guitar, Stu, Caleb and myself rapping/percussion. It caught the orphans attentions, so it was fun.

There's plenty more fight in me to face these upcoming thailand days. Peace out

-Josh

greetings followers!!!

how nice of you to stop by and see what we're up to!! this is adrienne even though I'm under nor's account. this is the first time i've blogged so I want to just share some highlights of the day!!

- STICKERS!! At the Thai school I decided to pass out some stickers to a group of young girls, but then the word started spreading and before I knew it there was a FLOOD of kids swarming for stickers. it's amazing how simple something like happy face stickers can make kids go CRAZY!!
- LEAN on meeeee. Matt & I have been teaching our kids "Lean On Me" GLEE version!!! We weren't sure how their English levels would be, but we've been able to teach the first 4 stanzas!! it's quite beautiful listening to them. we've even added hand motions =)
- CHICKEN! just now the kids at the orphanage chased after a chicken and DROWNED it and then defeathered it. grosssss!!!!
-SHOWERing....our entire team is currently sharing TWO showers due to plumbing issues so right now as we wait for our turn to shower in the loft, we get to update the blog =). it's great because at the end of the day when we've seen each other all day, we get to see each other more haha.

PRAYER!
-please pray for some of us as we're sharing our testimonies in our classes at the Thai school. pray for effectiveness and their receptiveness.

okay, i must give up the computer now!! thanks for reading!! God is good!

<3 adrienne

NL + AW + AM = BFF!

Allison and I have become best friends!
We stay up praying and reading the Bible.
Mother Adrienne watches over us and plays us nice music.
We like her.
Today we took roommate photos! They were special.

The little girls (Steph, Ashley, Jackie) admire us
and like to copy our style.
We don't mind, we know we're cool.

Our new role model is Lillian,
the coolest girl on the playground.
We constantly are in awe of her bright red Crocs
and funny jokes!

Bye Bye America, we miss you.

Love,
Noreen and Allison!

___
edit: Quick apologies for the last post. As you can tell, by the end of the day we've lost coherence from long days of teaching and sweating. Allison, Adrienne, and I are really enjoying rooming together (I hope they think the same, haha). I've been really blessed by our group devotion and prayer times and even the encouragement throughout the day. The tire of the long days are washed away with cold showers and falling asleep to the sound of rain. Praise God for amazing roomies, good food, nice people, and constant faithfulness!

fun fact: the roosters crow at all hours of the day. It's SO WEIRD!

We've Arrived!

After LAX, Taipei, Bangkok and ChiangRai airports, and a two-hour drive by van, we've finally arrived at our ministry location. Praise God. We are in the mountains of ChiangRai, surrounded by the green trees and vegetation. It's hot and humid, and we're treated to the periodic rain.

We've lost track the total hours of travel, but by the looks of everyone, we were wiped out by 9:00pm (local time).

We're staying in the dormitories at the church, with three-four to a room. Some of the rooms have bathrooms, some don't. (Last night, the water for three of the rooms did not work. That had everyone showering and cleaning up in one bathroom. That's missions living. We should be grateful there are bathrooms!)

The church is also an orphanage to about 40 kids. We had some interaction with them but the intense heat and our jet lag limited our fun. Some of our team members led combined children and youth Sunday School today--which began at 6:3oam! It was a good time of interaction. We look forward to spending more time with them.

God is hearing our prayers, even by delivering us to our destination in ChiangRai. Continue to pray for us. We begin on Monday teaching conversational English at the Thai government school and hosting English classes at a Chinese-Thai school and at the church.
****

Leftovers. The church's staff made us dinner on Saturday evening. It was a meal of rice, vegetable soup, ground pork with vegetables, and stir-fried chicken. It was a very rustic dinner, a down home meal. One table of five couldn't finish their dinner (we'd been eating all day with the airplane meals), so some orphanage children assigned to clear our tables came to take the leftovers. Before the plates could make their way into the kitchen, the children had eaten all the leftovers. We were informed later that due to very limited resources, both money and food, the children rarely eat meat. The episode reminded me of when I was young and my mom told me to appreciate what I have b/c there are people in the world who don't have what I have. For some on our team, this is their first exposure to poverty. This is their first exposure to 90% of the world.--jchow

Airport...Waiting...Airport...Waiting...Airport

Praise God, the first long flight is behind us. We have arrived in Taipei without much ado. Now a 1.5 hr layover.

We Need Prayer!

Thanks so much for supporting us.

Join the Thailand Team on Wednesday, July 14, at English-Speaking Prayer Meeting, for prayer. (7:30, Praise Center). Both our team and the India team will be prayed for before we leave.

In the meantime, please pray for a few immediate things:
a) One of our team members is sick, and of this writing, there's only been slight improvement. Pray that God would be complete healing upon her.
b) Pray for good whether upon our arrival in ChiangRai. It's currently monsoon season, and this can make roads tricky and cause delays.
c) We have lots of materials and supplies to gather before we leave. Pray that we'd be able to secure these items before we go.

Kup Koon Krup!