Around And Around We Go

So it's been a while, quite a chaotic last week. Since our last update we have traveled from the south of Thailand, up through the north, and then all the way up to Vang Vieng in Laos. Definitely a change of scenery and spirit. From relaxed, climbing hub Ton Sai, to westernized, party city Vang Vieng. The trip has been a journey in itself. We left Ton Sai and headed to Chang Mai, which is in the northern part of Thailand, on the way we had a young German named Bella join us on our trek, we had a "lay over in Bangkok and Cristina and I spent the day in the park sharing with her while Isaac and Gabe got dreadlocks... yes all three of us had a head of dreadlocks and Cristina upped her number to two. After a day there we loaded up on to a night bus up two Chang Mai.


We arrived at the break of dawn to find that our bags had been gone through. By His grace nothing but a head-lamp, which we had a spare of, was taken. Our group, which Bella had joined for our time in Chang Mai, found an awesome hostile and settled in to relax. After a pleasant morning we had a nice session in the bouldering gym then a peculiar experience at the "farang" night market.

The next morning we packed up and parted way from Bella as we headed up to Pai in the north-west. Upon arrival we had another travel partner join us for our stay. Ed, England, bunked up with us for the extent of our time in Pai. We spent two nights in Pai; went to a reggae concert, took a cooking class, biked through the rice fields, and had some solid talks with people. After a pleasant, relaxed stay we moved on.

The next leg of our travel was the worst yet. 24 hours crammed in over booked vans and buses. The first leg was from Pai to Chang Mai, I got sick. The second was from Chang Mai to our visa station, Gabe got sick. Third leg was to the border, everyone was drained. We missed our bus from the Thailand border to the Laos border so we had to stand in another bus. Next we road from the Thailand border to Vien Tiane and that bus was packed, people laying and sitting in the aisles, full nine yards. Vien Tiane, we missed another bus, sat in the sun for an hour, then we were packed into another bus, people in the aisles and mosquitoes out the yin yang. At this time nobody had really slept so we tried on this but the roads were impossible between the drivers weaving in out of traffic, on a school bus mind you, the pot hole infestation, and the random cows that wanted to take the bus head on... a dog tried and lost... Finally we arrived in Vang Vieng and were greeted by people already drunk in the streets, in the middle of the afternoon. Tough welcoming committee into ministry. Needless to say we've arrived, this is not going to be an easy place but we are confident He has a plan (closed country so beware what is posted considering Him^)

Petitions: Team Unity
Team health (we are all good right now but we would like to stay that way)
Deep Conversations
Our hearts would be sensitive and united.

P.S. Gabe and Isaac both didn't like the way their dreads were done so they have removed them... I'm back to solo dreads... plus Cristina's two...

And We're Back...

Praise the Lord! Except for a few cuts and bruises our team is pretty much back to full power. Isaac and Cristina are up and moving and no longer sleep through the day, and Gabe is slowly rejoining team activities. Seth and Jordan still are in charge of the two teams but Gabe is on the rebound.

This has been another full week of "hello", "goodbye", and "I LOVE JESUS". Our visas ran out last Monday which meant we needed to leave the country before then. So on Sunday we went to Malaysia. We met Gabe and Denver in Ao Nang and piled in a mini-bus for a BUMPY three hour bus ride to the border. At the border we piled out of the van, a patch of tall, light colored hair, westerners amongst a sea f short, black haired locals. We made our way to the immigration offices praying the while way that it would be a non-eventful process everyone went through quickly and then Gabe and I were left, but we had taken our departure cards out of our passports in Bangkok... we needed those cards. But the Lord is our provider and it really wasn't an issue, we walked to another window, picked up a card an continued through. We all walked over to Malaysia... Then walked back. We got back in the van and drove back to Ao Nang where we got on a boat and sailed back to Tonsai. God watched over us and besides some stiff backs and necks we were back safe and sound.

The next few days we went about our business of meeting people and telling them the Good News. Monday and Tuesday; Denver, Jonathon, Mette, Laurie and I spent those days playing volley-ball on Railay Beach with some Danish couples and anyone else who wanted to play... including the locals lady/boys, such a sobering sight to see the deceptive ways that Satan moves in some peoples life.

Regardless of where we've been or what we've been doing, every single one of us had a deep, thought provoking conversation this past week... that's at least 10 people who heard the gospel this week. I LOVE JESUS!!! That has been our rallying cry this week. God good and His son is alive.

Full

The concept of looking back over the last week and recounting the events in chronological order is nearly impossible this week. Instead I will do my best just to update on the major events. The past week has been quite chaotic, as most of you have heard Gabe has been sick the past week so our schedule has been quite screwy. We still get out and climb and the Lord has blessed us with many wonderful conversations, some only go as far as explaing what YWAM is all about but others go as far as to discussing the rededication of ones life to the Lord.

This has all been wonderful but kinda difficult with the weight of worrying about Gabe on our minds. But praise the Lord he is back on the road to recovery. He should be coming back today from his time in Krabi trying to get it all figured out. This morning Seth, another YWAM team leader, informed us that he had heard from Gabe and that he is feeling much better today.

Speaking of Seth, for those who don't know who he is, is one of the other school staff from back in New Zealand. He and his team, including co-leader Jordan, were up in the North of Thailand when they heard that Gabe was not feeling well. They rushed down here and arrived on Sunday so that Jordan could go with Gabe into town while Seth stayed with us and our two teams became one large family. As well as Seth and Jordan's team coming to support us so is Denver, he should arrive today for his pastoral visit.

Through all these twists in turns in our adventure here God has kept us safe and the YWAM leadership has handled it brilliantly. My fellow teammates and I have kept up our ministries going and have continued to share God's provision in our lives with those we meet, this has been a wonderful testimony of His power and has even changed a few people's vocabulary here. One man that we met here switched from saying "I hope" to "I'll pray". This same man has also talked with us about rededicating and how God has worked in his life.

Through it all God has kept us safe and pushed us through, on to deeper commitment to Him. He IS good and He DOES love us. He WILL keep us safe and we WILL continue to do his work.

ความสงบ

Another week has passed and God continues to show us His goodness and ความสงบ (peace). We have had some stellar high moments this last week and a few low moments but God is our comforter and our team comes out of those low moments feeling better than ever. It is in those low moments that we draw closest to each other and to our Father. Just want to clarify however that this week they good outweighed the bad by a landslide.

After our first bible study last week on Thursday... no Friday, we were challenged by a question from Kaison. "Why only twice a week?" We thought about and we realized that we had no reason... so we decided to change our twice weekly to seven times a week, unless God provides ministry opportunities at night, which He did. After I finished blogging last week I met up with the rest of the crew for a relaxing day (Jeremy dropped in on us) of just chilling and meeting a few guys. That night we went to a bar hoping for some good live reggae music but... it sucked, instead we had a rather deep discussion about weed, morality, and the DESPERATE need for a church in Tonsai.

The next night was New Years Eve, which might I say was quite an experience. We started the evening by meeting a guy named Eddie (New York) who was drawn in to our conversation by the talk of Yerba Mate. For those who have yet to experience this delicious tea... Stop reading. Google the nearest place to purchase a cup and let your taste buds be enlightened. Tea aside, it was awesome to see the variety of ways God draws people in to conversation. All and all we spent the night talking to different people, jumping through flaming hoops, dodging shoddy made fireworks (not really dodging... just staying well out of range) and then trying to block the pounding bass out of our ears as we tried going to sleep while the rest of the parties raged on.

The next day we had our first "low" of the week, a opportunity for God to show his sovereignty. After intercession in the morning Gabe and I went to send a few emails but stopped when we noticed an infection creeping up his arm from a small scratch on his elbow towards his chest. We instantly prayed for healing and then decided we would wait on the Lord on which course of action to take. While we waited for a decision Cristina and I went climbing with a student named Ben from New York. After climbing we went and had our bible study which was full of distraction (mosquitoes) but none the less it was good. 

The next day we was Sunday so Kevin took us to the coolest "church" ever... A CAVE!!! it isn't really a church but we hiked up in it and after wondering around and exploring for a while we sat down and had a sweet session of worship and communion. From the depths of the mountains worship of our Lord rang out... it was the best communion I have had yet.


That night Gabe decided that he didn't want to mess around with an infection this early in the trip so he decided to head to a clinic in AoNang the next day. Thankfully God provided ahead of time and we had some amoxicillan with us so we could get him on the path to recovery. After a good night sleep we packed up and headed over to clinic. Jeremy drove us to the clinic and after only a short period of time Gabe was out with a new batch of anti-biotic pills to fight the infection, praise Jesus. After the clinic we had lunch at Tesco Lotus, Thailand's equivalent of Wal-Mart, which we drove to the bus station where we said goodbye to Kevin. We prayed for him and off he went, on to another series of adventures, now in Laos. Next was Kaison, we dropped him off at another, smaller, bus station that would take him back to his church in Nakon.


And then there were four... it felt weird being back to just our team, but we will adapt and jump back into our routine of sharing the gospel. Tuesday... yes... I'm positive it was Tuesday, began rather uneventful. Some good worship in the morning, some wondering around, climbing in the afternoon... but the evening... Oh how I love my God. At dinner we met up with a young Russian man we had met earlier and only had short conversations with, but this time was different. God opened his heart and allowed us to pour the Spirit in. 


Costas (the young man) had seen us worshipping previously and wondered why we smiled and sang in the morning, not a direct quote but the some of his question. We then explained why we worshipped and why we  are here in Tonsai. That just spurred on more questions. We answered his question and essentially just shared the Good News with him. It was wonderful! At one point he looked across the table at Cristina who was sharing her faith and he told her that he did not understand the words that she was saying but he understood what she was saying, he pointed from his head to her head as if to say there was a deeper connection. OH YA MY GOD IS GREAT!!!! After we wrapped up this talk we spent the rest of the night just hanging with him. We ended the night by agreeing to give him a Bible so that he could read it as he continued his travels.

The next morning as Gabe and I were sitting eating breakfast Costas came up, full of joy, and asked if we had the Bible, slightly taken aback by his desire we informed him that we did not have it  on us but we would get it to him that night. After a wonderful day of climbing with a Spanish couple, Habi and Sara (we shared the gospel with them as well), we were able to give the Bible to Costas. As Isaac handed it to him his face was lit up like a young boy receiving his best Christmas present EVER!!! 


If we did nothing else on this trip this moment would still make it worth it.

Prayer:
Continued healing
Hearts open to the Gospel
Our mouths open to the Spirit
Safety while climbing
Clarity for visa run details


HOW FAR WILL WE GO?!?!

พระเจ้าให้พร

We have now been in Thailand for 10 days... or 9... time is a jumble here. Since our last post we have done a few kinda cool things... haha just kidding God has blessed us with a vast variety of awesome opportunities to share his love in VERY unique ways. I wrote in the last post about how we had met up with Kaison here in Tonsai. We spent a couple days here with him sharing the truth with some and just building friendship with others that God led us to. Our Christmas Eve night consisted of sitting around a table on the beach listening to a live reggae band, playing pool and explaining the reason for the joy we have with a few interesting characters. The next morning we awoke to a gorgeous, sunny Christmas day. Myself (Ryan, for those that don't know who's writing) and Cristina went climbing while Gabe and Isaac hung out on the beach and talked to a few of our new friends. Cristina had her first lead fall (25') which she was stoked about and which she greatly enjoyed. For anyone who cringed at reading this she survived this fall with only a small bruise and... a HUGE smile. While we were climbing Gabe, Isaac and Kaison made plans for us to go to a small church in Nakhon Si Thammarat. We were able to bless a couple we had met by giving them our room since this plan was made past our check out time. So once we figured out our room situation we packed up and chartered a boat.

The ocean is a beautiful creation. After a picturesque boat ride through a series of islands and peninsulas we arrived in Krabi town. After a quick scare over whether or not we had left a money belt back in Tonsai we climbed on the back of a truck that gave us a ride to the bus station. We had a dinner (a little to spicy) and then collapsed into the bus for our 4 hour ride. We arrived at a hotel at 12:00 p.m. and quickly got one room and pass out on the hard marble floors. The next morning Pastor Sarapohn picked us up and drove us to his church in Nakhon.

Within the first ten minutes the Lord blessed Isaac and I with a phenomenal opportunity. They asked us to play on their worship team. It was "SWEET AS". After the service (completely in Thai) we had a อร่อย (delicious) lunch provided by the church and the spent the rest of the day just relaxing. 

The next day we traveled back to Aonang where we stayed with a delightful missionary couple, Jeremy and Lisa. After arriving we walked down to a market to get some lunch. As we sat there eating we saw a local working on his dreads. All the guys on our team (Cristina REFUSES) want to get dreads. We asked him where he had got his... Before we knew it we were in the back of his truck flying along the road to his friends Rasta bar where Kaison proceeded to get dreads. INSANE.

When we awoke the next morning Jeremy invited us to go and do a prayer walk with him at one of the Buddhist temples. After climbing some 1200 stairs we arrived at the top looking out over the beautiful landscape we sat up there for a while praying and reading out scripture until the heat grew near unbearable. We made the descent and drove back to the Aonang beach to get a boat back to Toansai. We arrived back and checked into a bungalow... this time we made sure that it wasn't mosquito infested. After that we spentthe rest of the night just relaxing. Yesterday was our "free" day so we slept in and the did what we do for fun... went climbing. A few routes we received an invite to do just what we had been dreaming about doing... DEEP WATER SOLOING!!!!! Gabe, Kaison, Kevin (another friend from Gabe's travels) and I piled on a boat and headed out. It was a blast!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not sure if I used enough exclamation marks to truly do justice the fun we had. We arrived back at the beach to find Cristina and Isaac tear the husk off one of the eight coconuts they had found... อร่อย (delicious).

This morning we awoke rather lazily and ate breakfast then went about our usual activities: worship, intercession... finding Gabe's headphone ear buds in a coconut... Then we came up with a vision for a way to make our outreach in this village a little more blatant. We decided to begin hosting Bible studies (hopefully the beginning of a church) twice a week and advertising everywhere we can. :)

So I suppose that is one large prayer request that the Lord would move in those times.
Other requests:

Isaac's wrist has been bothering him

Cristina's back has been bothering her

For the prayer meetings that Jeremy hosts in Aonang

That we would continue to push how far we will go to share the gospel

That even if we don't see one person come to our Bible studies we would grow in our personal walks.

HOW FAR WILL WE GO?

passports, money, and bibles

So after a few days in Bangkok, filled with temples, strange foods and insane Tuk-Tuk drivers (one kicked us out because we wouldn't buy any silk shirts) we took a 12 hour bus ride to the south of Thailand. We arrived in Krabi town at 8 in the morning tired and sore. We caught a taxi to Ao Nam and jumped on a boat to Tonsai. We arrived in tonsai to a practically deserted town. Everyone was sleeping off the booze from the night before. Look up Half Moon Party on Google images to see the sort of lifestyle that is lived here. We spent the morning looking for a pair of bungalows for the night we found a pair deep in the jungle for 250 baht a night. That's about 7 USD. After we settled in we had a worship session and then struck out to scope out the locals and the climbing spots. As we were walking through the streets we ran into a student (Kaison) who was on last years school. We caught up with him and found out he already has a huge heart for this area. We ended up going to bed pretty early so that we could wake up this morning and climb. After prayer and intersession this morning we headed out and hit some sick spots and met a few couples and set up the foundations for future conversation. :)

Prayer Points:

Health (infections are a serious issue here)

Blessed conversations

Hearts open to hear the Truth

Long term believers in Tonsai (locals)

Khao Jai Mai

First day in Thailand. Landed safely in Bangkok along with one of the other teams from our YWAM base in Oxford, New Zealand. God provided a safe flight, even ironing out a slight hitch at the airport in Christchurch. When our teams arrived at the airport in Christchurch we discovered that we didn't have the right kind of visa (a reoccurring problem for YWAM I feel). The visa we were using only allowed 30 days in Thailand but our return flight wasn't for 2 months. Fortunately the lady at the check-in counter booked us a false flight which allowed us to go to Thailand and then cancel it once we arrived. God is good.

We arrived in Thailand at midnight local time. We stepped off the plane into 25 degree Celsius heat... at midnight. The Lord provided both teams a problem free trip through customs and after we made some currency exchanges our two teams said goodbye and went our separate ways.

The Lord continued to provide as we quickly got a taxi and zipped towards the Bangkok YWAM base. He definitely kept His hand of protection over us as we flew down the road... seemingly ignoring any common laws of the road. After a slight mix-up on actually finding the base we settled in for the night, praying to get enough rest for the next day.

This morning we awoke to the roar of traffic by our window and the temperature already rising. Our team gathered together and headed out for our first market experience. As we walked through the city we were constantly bombarded with sights and smells... LOTS of smells, some good.... some not so good. We had a pleasant breakfast of pineapple, bananas, and milk after which we had orientation. The woman who lead our orientation was a quite Thai woman named Jiap, after our class she joined our team for a our first true Thai meal... which was delicious.

The next few days for our team will be filled with shopping on Kho San road (the backpackers central), visiting and praying over the temples, and finding a way down south to Krabi.

Prayer points: Safe/ cheap travel
Blessings for the YWAM Bangkok base
That the King would live long and prosper
That the corruption in the police force would be brought to an end
That our brothers and sisters would stay strong (locals and fellow Oxford YWAMers)