I know that you don't understand the fullness of my love, how I died on the cross for your sins...but I would do it all again.

Well I'm back in the States now. I miss the people and my family of course, but I can't say I'm happy to be back. Outreach was awesome. We go to bless other people, but I felt more blessed than anything. We go to teach other people, but God taught me so much. Anytime I do ministry I feel that I've grown and gotten more out of it than what I put into it, but I guess that's how God works.

Anyways, now that I'm back in the states I'm determined not to fall into the American culture of being too busy again. Every time I go to another country it's like God opens my eyes, and then when I come back to America I fall right back into it again. Here in America we are so busy. Period. We are flat out consumed with the so many different things that we have to get done, we never have time to think about other people. Here in America we say "Hi, how are you?" in the same sentence as were passing by someone. Did you know that in other countries when you ask somebody how they are, it's like at least a 5-10 minute conversation coming your way. They actually have enough time to stop and talk to somebody. Just think about all of the people that you ask that question to, and then think about spending 10 minutes with every person. A little hard to imagine huh? God's been showing me how unimportant that list really is. Yes we have to work, and yes we have to go to school, but that's not why were here. In Titus 3:14, Paul is talking about the church, and he says "Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may not live unproductive lives." If we are consumed by the many things that we have to get done, and not focusing on the real reason why God put us here, then the Bible says we are actually living unproductive lives. You may be productive in this life's standards, but very unproductive in God's eyes. God is teaching me why He put me here, and I'm determined to make my life count.

Thank you guys so much for all of your support and prayers. I really appreciate it.

The feet are beautiful, if only they'd go. If nobodys out preaching then how will they know?

Hey everybody this has been our teams schedule for the last couple days and for the next couple days. We go in the morning to teach english at one of the Christian schools here in Chiang Mai. We teach preschool and kindergarten grade levels. Hah it is very fun and they are very smart. Some of the kids parents speak English so there is usually a kid in every class that can help translate to the other children. We also get to teach them new Christian songs, and we act out some different parables for them such as The Good Samaritan and The Lost Sheep.
In the afternoons we go to an orphanage for HIV positive children. Their ages are from newborns to 18 years olds. We play sports and get to hang out with them after school. It is so cool to see them running, jumping, and laughing just like regular kids. From what I understood, they are given very good meds that are actually provided by the government which is awesome. I don't know how they got that arranged, but very cool. So all of the children are very healthy and you wouldn't know they were HIV positive if they didn't tell you. We laugh, run, climb on jungle gyms, play volleyball and pretty much any other thing that they want to do. They're just living life and following Jesus like nothings wrong with them at all. What a blessing it is to meet these children.
At night we are still going to the bars at night. Things have been going very good there. We are building relationships with these women and ladyboys there. My group and I have actually gotten to hang out with them outside of the bars which is very cool. We were able to go to the walking street, get away from the bar environment, and just sit down and talk like normal friends do. She showed us all the best places of the night market and the best foods of course. We are also planning on going to their house on friday so they can teach us how to cook their favorite Thai meal. Please be praying for May and Mei.
So everything is going good except the only bad thing is that there have been people getting sick recently. One girl went last night to the doctor and they said she has influenza so she is wearing a mask and on meds. The other guy that is sick just got admitted to the hospital tonight and we dont know what he has yet. Its wednesday night here and we are supposed to leave friday. They are thinking that we may not be able to get on our flight friday because we have 2 people really sick and we have been around them so much. I'm not sure what's going to happen, but there is a chance that we might have to stay until everybody is healthy again. Just be praying for the team to finish out strong. We know that we are in His hands.

Your love is a mystery, how you gently lift me

So I feel like I should write. So far not a whole lot has happened today. Our team went to help tear down all the decorations from YWAM's 50th anniversary celebration. They said it was going to take about 5 hours, but we got it done in 45 minutes. Thank you Jesus!

We will be going to the bars again tonight. I don't know quite know how to explain the ministry, but these are bars where either prostitutes or human-trafficked girls are forced to work. Sometimes it's easy to tell the difference between the prostitutes and the prostituted because you can tell who actually wants to be there and who doesn't. These are bars where men can go in and talk to girls until they take them home later on. Sometimes it's harder than others, but we have to remember that God loves these men too and they are trapped in sin just like we once were. Personally, I like to start talking to the men about their families, both the wives and kids. This makes them start feeling awkward about being in a place like that. Haha, but I do it in a very loving and Christlike manner of course. :) So anyways we go in and play pool, just talk, and hang out with both the women and the men there. The bar that my team goes into has a couple of "ladyboys" there. These are women that were once men, but have made the changes to become a woman, which is natural in Thailand. Now we can't go in and just start preaching the gospel, you have to build relationships first. People in other cultures, (and even sometimes in our culture) won't listen to what your saying unless they know that you care about them first. So that's what were doing every night we go. We build relationships, show them we care, let our light shine, and pray constantly that God will work in their lives. It's going really well so far. Every night we go they get excited when we get there, and they don't want us to leave when it's time to go. We really have made friends with these girls and a couple of guys. We get to know about their life, family, how they got there and everything. It gets harder to leave every time. Pray that God will open their hearts.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less. So go ahead and try it, think about someone else today.

We are doing very well here in Chiang Mai. Our team is splitting up in groups to go work at orphanages during the daytime, and we are all going to the bars to hang out at night. The YWAM's 50th anniversary celebration is going on here in Thailand so we will be working and attending the celebration. It should be fun, I guess. So that's what we'll be doing for the next few weeks. Just be praying for our team to show God's love everywhere we go, and also for the 2 team members that are sick right now. Here are a few of the pictures from the Fong village that we stayed in.

My buddy Ram

Children from one of the schools we taught English at

Playing with kids from the Fong village

Kids from the local village school.