Blessing Festival

Fri Nov 18^th

            Shane went with Martin for the morning.   Our children had a waterfight and played in the water for awhile this morning.  Hunter loves it!  This afternoon, Dinah & the boys came over and they all played soccer in the street.   Got take out for supper, then Dad & Mom stayed with the children.  Shane & I, Bree, Marcy, and Martin all rode motorbikes to the middle of Chaing Mia for the Christian Blessing Festival.

 
We worshipped God together.  Had lots of singing & some of the songs we knew & could sing along in English.

 
How Great Thou Art is my favorite song to sing together with other languages.  Was so awesome!  They had several times of prayer.  The Governor was there and was recognized & had a speech, and was given a gift.

Our first Sunday in Thailand

Sunday Nov 13

     We went to IGo for worship.  Had a wonderful service.  Martin was leading the songs & praise part of the service.  Martin & Rachel attend there about once a month.

     I wanted to explain IGo just a little bit.  It stands for Institute for Global Opportunities.  It is a school (the students are usually Anabaptist background & come for a semester, or more) in Chaing Mia, with the purpose to provide students with a cross-cultural setting in which mission work, Biblical teaching and personal discipleship can take place simultaneously.  They have 4 goals:

1 To nurture and equip missionaries with a theology & practice that brings a faith that works in love to build the church of Jesus Christ.

2 To plant & nurture churches in the uttermost parts of the world with this same theological perspective.

3 To send IGo faculty to Asian churches and conferences to instruct local leaders & students in the doctrines of Scripture as held & practiced by Anabaptism.

4 To provide Asian students & missionaries a setting in which to strengthen their doctrinal foundations and  to develop their personal spiritual lives while living & interacting with other cultures.

     Martin’s & us went out to lunch at a beautiful restaurant.  It had waterfalls, beautiful flowers and the food was really good.  Martin ordered a variety of dishes and we just passed them around.  Some of them were shrimp soup(spicy), spicy fried chicken, cashew chicken, fried rice, steamed veggies, green curry, & white rice. 

     After naps , we went with Martin’s to their small group.  We met at a couple’s house who are from Pakistan.  They had to flee their country.  For supper she cooked us Pakistan food.  It was delicious.  We were ready to call it a night.

Worship in Thai

Sunday Nov 20th  Our second Sunday in Thailand

Sorry for not posting sooner!  Ok, that's out of the way...I will try to do better now that Bree's computer is fixed. I will post today, then back track this past week in the next posts.

We couldn't understand the language or identify the food but our day was filled with fellowship in Jesus Christ!  We greet you all in His name.

Today we went to a Thai church Martin's have attended some. They were having their 5th year anniversary(of the church).  Had a potluck there.  We traveled as follows: on  5 motorbikes there was, Martin, Shane & Nikita, Dad T & Hank, Marcy & Dinah, and me.  In the van, Rachel, Titus, Andrew, Austin, Mom T, Bree, Brandy, Aspen, Lacy, & Hunter.  This has been our mode of transportation most of the time.  Bree & I share a motorbike, so we take turns.  In the afternoon, the children took naps while Shane & I came to a little restaurant to get online.  Iced Cappuccino & Coconut Smoothie was delicious! They were 50 baht total, which is about $1.75!

Tonight we are at Martin & Rachel's for snacks & worship.  Currently the children are playing soccer in the street. and the men are talking to the neighbors.  They have lots of company also because there was a wedding in their family.

singing praises 

Singing in Thai & English

The pastor

 Good food

The song leader