Did you hear the LATEST?

i thought it was about time that i let you know some of the things going on here and things that you and the church can pray for.
i think the last update you got was just after the outreach and was mostly about what we did there. we have since had four weeks of lectures and another outreach so here is the catchup... the second phase of lectures was harder than the first. for most people the schedule got to them, and as we began to become familiar with life here, it became harder and harder to concentrate in lectures. but we didn't stop learning. and god didn't stop teaching.
a few of us were taught big lessons in submission and heart attitude through some of the schedule changes but as i came through that we found a greater sense of God's working in our lives.
the final week of teaching before outreach #2 was on evangelism from a Thai perspective, and it was super hard to concentrate, but super good to hear. Narong who now works with YWAM Perth talked about the Thai mentality to evangelism and the differences in thinking between Thai (eastern) thinking and western thinking. where westerners tend to be linear and logical in thinking, eastern thinking is more story-based, so telling them the gospel and why they need to receive Christ just doesn't work. but to tell them a story and relate to them, will have better results. all this was very important for us to hear as we went on outreach with a focus more on evangelism than service.

so taht brings me to this outreach. i will shortly have photos of it on Flickr . but for now just let me tell you about what happened. we had no plan for this outreach other that we were going to Nan and doing what God told us to. so we prayed and prayed leading up to it and we sought god for waht we wold do. as we prayed, he gave us pictres of places that we would go. to Yvonne he gave a picture of a river and she felt that we would be staying within sight of it (we did.) to two or tree others he gave a picture of two mountains but and we thought that they would be physical mountains , but we discovered on the 4th or5th day that PS 25 talks about those that trust in the Lord being like mountains. and though in the village we went to there were NO Christians, there were 2 missionaries that had been there for four years working hard in teh community. i think the most the obvious picture that happened was when Lance an american who can't speak Thai got the word "luang" and as we looked on a map, there is was, "Luang village." taht's where we went and ministered for 6 of our 11 day outreach. i mentioned before that we had no plans for what to do and no plans for accomodation so it was a real blessing arriving in Luang and meeting the Chief at the market where we stopped and having her point us to the only accommodtion in town, an abandoned wood house with a tin roof, 1 bathroom (there were 13 people on our team) and bucket shower. but it was next to the best restaurant and "supermarket" in town. the chief set us up to teach at an english cam taht she would organise for us and also invited us to a party at her house to bless her parents.
the english camp was great we ran it from 9-11 in the mornings over 5 days and had up to 45 kids in attendance. we had heaps of fun and everythign that we did we focussed on God. we taught them bible stories and told testimonies, we taught them "if i were a butterfly" and "My God is so BIG." and had a heap of fun.
on the Tuesday (day four of 5) we asked them if they wanted to accept Jesus as their friend and saviour and we had 37 kids accept, but we think only 5-8 knew what they were actually doing. it was still awesome to see God moving like that!
we also had the privilege of seeing God heal 2 elderly ladies that were lame and also heal their hearts that were dead, and a man in hospital who was in his final stages of aids come to life in his heart too!!
the outreach was an amazing time of seeing what god will do when we seek him and put ourselves in a position where we have to trust him!

as for prayer points, please continue to pray for finance for living here, and that God will keep on teaching me the things that he wants to... I've been finding the greatest lessons I've been learning have been outside the lecture room and then just reinforced inside.

thank you all for your prayers and support. i hpe to be able to put pictures up soon, but my compuer is a little nackered at teh momen so it might be linger than i'd hoped.

bored.

i'm sitting here in the salah (thai for Gazebo) waiting for the staff to finish their meeting in the office. i'm supposed to be doing my work duties in there and i can't because im' not allowed. i hope they dont make me do it during my free time. that would suck. i have a skype meeting at 4.00 with kimberley, my sister. so i really hope they just let us pass on work duties today...
here's a funny story that you might not know yet.
all the dts crew have just been on outreach for two weeks. they broke us up into five teams and sent us to five different lications in the chiang rai province. this morning all the teams told everyone what they had done on their out reach and told some funny stories. there was a theme coming through of the teams doing manual labour jobs. one team built a bamboo church, another built some fences and another spread a heap of dirt out on an area and then had to pile it up again! it struck me half way through the sharing time, that all the other teams built something up they added to teh community they were serving, and our team DESTROYED something!! check it out!!>>>>


see what i mean? now, you have to understand the events leading up to this because it really is an amazing story.
we arrived at the bamboo palace on sunday arvo and immediately made jokes about it's life span and how safe it was. but we didnt reall think it would come down! every day on outreach up till then we had eaten lunch at the noodle shop around the corner, but that day, we got lunch at the market and ate in the palace; on the day it fell, our outreach leader Peaw (say Bow) had felt lead to spend the entire morning praying for us only stopping at lunch time; The palace could have fallen at anytime during the day or night when we were asleep or not there, but we were able to get everything and eveyone out in time; Danielle could have taken pictures of the palace earlier in the week, but her remebering to take pics at that moment and noticing the state of the building was what saved us!
we really believe that God lead that day down to the very last detail. i think it's pretty obvious really.

outreaching....

hey all i know it's been ages since i posted and i know that although i said i wouldnt be like shane and blog only once a blue moon that's how i've turned out to be. so all that said, i'm sorry.

the update:

i'm currently sitting in an internet cafe in the centre of chiang rai. i'm in an internet cafe because i'm on outreach and i wasn't allowed to bring my computer becuae they think that it would be too unfair on the people who are out in actual villages. that's ok i'm cool with that it gives me time to spend with my team mates.
anyway, out reach for us is at baan nam jai. there is a video here our outreach is mainly focussed on manual work around the property. we have a serious truckload of dirt that we have to move. i think it's between 2 & 3 tonne!!!
the temperature is warming up here too!! the days have been around 30 degrees, but it's not as humid as it will be later in the year, so it's not so bad. but moving that much dirt is HARD work!!! i think the hardest bit is working with the hopless wheelbarrows that we have, they'd be great if the werent falling apart, and 63 years old!! after one trip up the hill, with one of these wheel barrows, your legs feel like jelly and your puffing and there is sweat dripping off your brow, it's hard yakka!!

it's great having outreach at baan num jai thought because we get tot play with the kids if they're out! they're so much fun and they are so amazingly cute!!
you can see their profiles and stories at the baan num jai website above.
I'm sorry this isn't very long, sitting in web cafe's isn't good for the writing side of my brain.

one last thing

i miss you all!! i'm sorry if you've written me emails and i havent replied, i've jjust been so busy with other stuff!! i have thre half written emails i think and many more that i'm yet to start. the half written ones are to laura and jeff, and also to liz, i dont konw who the third is too, it's been that long!!
i'm having a grewat time here in CR but i'm fully nackered , looking forward to the weekend,and a good long sleep in!!

ok we i have to go, my time's running out, but i love you mum and dad and S and K and B and A and Gi miss you and cant wait to see y'all again.! and i cant wait for my package too!! also can someone let Charis know that i havent forgotten her textas, they arent quite in the mail, but i've at least bought them now!!

ok bye and i love you!!

My Bond

ok so i said i'd keep y'all updated on what's happening here in thailand, and i know tha i've been a little slack on that, but the reason i've been slack on that is because i really havent had time to not be slack! our schedule is so full!!
a quick rundown of a typical day:

• 6am get up
• 6.15 aerobics
• 6.45 breakfast/showers
• 7.45 quiet times
• 8.15 worsip/meditation
• 8.45 lectures
• 12.30 lunch.
• 2.00 workduties
• 4.00 freetime
• 6.00 dinner/tea/supper
• 7.00 night meeting.
• 8.30 finish.

so as you can see the tiny bit of time that we have for freetime is usually spent trying not to do anything, but we also have journals to do, and 15 chapters of scirpture each week to read, and a book to read and.... i could go on.

so there is my excuse for not blogging. with that out of the way, let me blog...
what am i learning?
god speaks. in more ways than i had ever thought of, and more often than i thought! i dont think there has been a day when god hasnt spoken to me in some manner. it's funny because i KNOW that god speaks to us all the time and whether we hear or not, depends on if we're listening (looking). so you would think that god speaking to me daily wouldnt take me by surprise! it has. i knew god would speak on DTS. but this much?! i guess by coming here i put myself into a position to hear him and so he's taking advantage of that.
last week was prayer and intercession week with art and ellen sanborn and it was really great to see god move and speak to people who had never recognised his voice before! many of us when we were asked to share what god showed us, started our statement with, "i dont know if this was god, or what it means but...." or "this might sound a little stupid but..." so we have all heard gods voice here and most of us love it!

yesterday the boys moved to the base from our temporary accomodation down the road a little. so we all packed up our freshly UNpacked things and moved them by motorcycle a whole 800 meters to the base but thankfully it only took a few hours!

for those of you who havent heard, i have a girlfriend!! her name is Grayce Hollingsworth and she is from Florida! you can read about her at her blogspot here. NOW, for those of you who are thinking to yoursleves "gee he's a fast mover," let me set you straight. i have known Grayce since june 2006 when i visited thailand for Shane's (and Grayce's) DTS Graduation. wihle i was here we hardly noticed each other... but since then our friendship grew and grew as we chatted and talked. so as we weere talking the other day about our relationship, we came to the conclusion that now was the right time to make it official! so we did.

Grayce and I, originally uploaded by Stunyard.

on saturday we had our first date, and we went to the golden triangle, where Burma and Laos and Thailand and drug trafficers meet at a junction in the Mekong River. it was a great time! the view however was not so great because of a thick layer of smoke that is covering the region at the moment...

i think that is my news to date, i am loving it here and loving getting to know god more and more each day!

The Best Is Yet To Come...

Well another year has come and gone and I’m still here.... which I guess is a good thing. I am so privileged to be able to just put out my thoughts and let GOD use them to bless or challenge or encourage you guys as you read. It is an amazing blessing to me.
Talking about thoughts and blessing I think ill make my last post for the year a slight challenge for you.

!!rorrim a ni ti daer ot evah uoy os sdrawkcab ti etirw ll'i :D

No seriously, just thinking about blessing and being blessed reminds me of a thought that I was challenged with 2 or 3 years ago, and it has to do with being blessed to be a blessing. It’s a strange thought. To think that I will be blessed just by blessing you, is not something that comes easy to us but when you think about it, it makes a LOT of sense! You know that feeling that you get when you go out of your way to help someone?? You walk away felling uplifted and encouraged and BLESSED!! You don’t do it so that you'll be blessed, you don't do it because you think you'll get something out of it, but you do!! This is being blessed to be a blessing!!

Now, think about what would happen if the person you tried to help, to bless, didn’t accept your blessing! How would you feel? Would you get that feeling of upliftedness? Would you get the feeling that you had actually been useful and been used by GOD?
No.
You would most likely feel a little disappointed and confused. Why wouldn't they want me to bless them with this? What’s wrong with what I have to give? I was only trying to help!!

Can you see what the phrase blessed to be a blessing means? It means that sometimes, if you are the subject of the initial blessing, accepting that blessing is more important than you think! It could be that GOD will use the return blessing to speak to the person doing the initial blessing than he will to you!
Take this for an example.... say I wanted to bless my best mate, Shane. Now I’m not feeling the best about myself, but I’m thinking of him and how it will be such an encouragement to him for me to bless him in some way... so I do. I go out of my way to make him feel good, loved, encouraged at some cost to myself. And he accepts that blessing and thanks me for it. I walk away feeling good because I’ve just done 'a GOOD deed.' and then GOD begins to bless me. Where I once was feeling a little down and discouraged, GOD speaks. Where I was being attacked, GOD defends. Where I was sinking I am uplifted, simply because I was ready to be used by him to bless someone else!

This relates so well to what GOD did for is through Christ’s death on the cross.... THE ULTIMATE BLESSING!!GOD saw that we were sinking, that we were a little down (actually so far down that we couldn’t get back up by ourselves) and he thought, "These are my children, my FRIENDS, I want to bless them! I want to help them out of the pit, out of their trouble. I want them to feel the same way about themselves as I feel towards them! So at Great personal cost to himself, he sent the son to help us he put the son IN the pit so he could give us a boost up and out! (Now if you think about this, if Jesus is lifting everyone out of the pit, then who is going to lift him?! herein lies the cost.) Jesus chose the pit so that we could get out of it!
GOD is blessed when we accept his blessing on us! IMAGINE NOT accepting this blessing!!! imagine that you said to yourself, "no thanks Jesus, I’ll just keep jumping and hope that one day I’ll be able to jump high enough." you've forgotten that with every jump you get more and more tired, and your feet start to make impressions in the dirt, both of which make your goal harder to achieve! If you take Jesus' hand, then he will lift you out of that pit. Just like that. Just say to him, "hey, I, uh, I, I need you. I can’t do it. I’m trying, you can see that, I’m trying REALLY hard; I’m jumping as high as I can but... I just can’t. Will you help me? I need to apologise for not accepting your offer sooner, but something told me I could do it! Thanks for being here to help me out, I know that it means that you'll die here, but thanks. It means so much to Me." that's all you need to do! Have you done it? Why not? What are you waiting for? Are you looking for another way? There isn’t one. Are you thinking to yourself "he's wrong I’m just going to keep jumping and I’ll get out, I’ll work harder?" IT WON’T WORK! Just accept the blessing that GOD has offered you and let your life, the very fact that you ARE alive, bless him!!

For those of you who have taken up God’s offer of life, who will you bless? This coming year? Who will you allow to bless you by blessing them?

Take the challenge and see what happens (or maybe you wont see) when you accept the blessing that a friend (GOD included) bestows upon you!!

I’m glad that GOD ahs used me through this blogspot this year. There have been times when I have felt like what I have to offer is of no use and not important, but GOD is faithful to his promises. And I have been available to be used by him....

The best is yet to come!! A scary thought!
I pray GOD bless your new year!
Servant.

P.S. The bit you could'nt read near the top needs a mirror. Have fun! :D

Silence: More Than Words

by Scott Lyons 11/22/2006 I am sitting across from my spiritual mentor. Today we are meeting to talk about silence, to discuss the importance given to the discipline within the church throughout its history. "There is irony here," I say, "Mystics and monks who go on and on about silence. It reminds me of Polonius, whom Shakespeare could only quiet by having Hamlet run him through with his rapier, speaking the words, 'Brevity is the soul of wit.' " "There is no irony," [my mentor] quietly assures me, smiling. And so we begin. "Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he taught. . . . 'There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her'" (Luke 10:39, 42). I don't remember ever hearing a sermon about practicing quietness, about seeking out silence and shunning conversation. Our culture doesn't value it. And though I want to criticize my world for all its noise, its busyness, and its foolishness--I am Martha. And silence, my sister, is a stranger to me. There is value in saying nothing, in stepping away from disagreements, in excusing ourselves from conversations. And to do so not because we wish to avoid conflict or because we pessimistically believe it will change nothing, but because we recognize in ourselves the wickedness of needing to be right, of wanting to be thought right, to be heard. So we become silent because we know that we lose something when we speak. But I am a lover of words. If I stop speaking, I will be naked on this stage-bearing witness against myself before God. So I keep speaking, wildly hoping that what I want to be heard will be heard. How do we walk away from words? I know it's not easy. But to be silent is to be known. And in the quietness there is forgiveness (because there is confession), peace, and strength. I am not asking anyone to become a Trappist monk. What I am asking is for us to try silence-just for a short period of time. Turn off your radio and head to the park near where you work. Sit quietly and eat your lunch. Turn off the TV one evening each week. Pray. Read. Pray some more. Learn to be familiar with the silence. Then, in time, if you are snapped at as you walk through the door, or if a barrage of little ones immediately crowd about you and pull at you, you will discover greater rest in your heart. The discipline of silence does not give us a place of mental detachment, but a soft blanket that we gently, caringly spread under our families. I am tired of hiding behind the noise and the words, expecting to find rest where I have never found it before, tired of trying to avoid hearing a quiet voice say, "Where are you?" Noise is just another fig leaf. So I shut my mouth and let my pretense drop, shattering around me. I need to be here, at this moment, in silence. I need to be able to hear again. I am desperate for rest; I am desperate to be known. "I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault." So come and sit with me. Sit with our sister, Mary. And let us listen to this Jesus.

Blessed

I just finished reading an article in relevant magazine that really spoke to me and I know will speak to you too! It was about looking to the blessings in the now instead of ignoring them and looking for the blessings in the future.

Right now is an amazing time of blessing in my life. God has been speaking to me and directing me and leading me, but the blessing has come through following his directions. Imagine looking at a map book for directions, and not going where it says!! It makes no sense! Following his lead, though, hasn’t been easy. He has asked of me things that I have not wanted to do and I have asked things of him that he has declined to give. So there are times when I get discouraged. I get down, because I think to myself that I will never see the end of this, that I will always be in the dark waiting for the light, or more fittingly, that the light at the end of the tunnel seems to be moving at the same rate I am!
The article in relevant talked about a guy and his sons who every week played XBOX together from 2 till 4 on Saturdays and Sundays. They really enjoyed the time together, but he found that his sons were SO HANGING OUT for Saturday that the rest of the week was just an obstacle to get past so they could get to the weekend.

This is how I feel sometimes. There are things, amazing, and wonderful blessings, in my life that God has told me to wait for. So do I look at the time I have now, the waiting period, and use it to it's full? No I pine for the blessing. I WANT IT NOW; I don’t want to have to wait. The waiting period is hard! It's an obstacle that's hindering me from the blessing.

I DONT WANT TO PINE FOR THE BLESSING!! I want to be able to enjoy what I have now! I want to be able to look at what I DO have and not think to myself "One day this will be better" but I want to think to myself "how blessed I am be have what God has given! Surely it can’t get any better than this for this point in my life!"

I choose to look at what God has given me now, and grow it. I choose not to look at what I want and complain that I don’t have it but rather to look at what I have and thank God for it! Develop it and to nurture it.

Because God has given it and I am blessed.

Term 4 Calendar

term 4 calendar, originally uploaded by Stunyard.

My Prayer

Dear Father,
I honour you as Sovereign Lord. I acknowledge that you are always present with me. You are the only all powerful, and all wise God. You are kind and loving in ALL your ways. I LOVE you and I thank you that I am united with Christ and spiritually alive in him. I choose not to love the world, and I crucify my flesh and all its passions. I thank you for the life I now have in Christ, and I ask you to fill me with your holy spirit that I may live my life free from sin. I declare my dependance on you, and I take my STAND against Satan and all his lying ways knowing you standing beside me. I CHOOSE to believe the truth, and I REFUSE to be discouraged. You are the God of all hope, and I am confident that you will meet my needs as I seek to live according to your word. I express with confidence that I can live a responsible life through Christ who strengthens me. I now take my stand against Satan command him and all his evil spirits to depart from me. I put on the WHOLE armour of God. I submit my body as a living sacrifice and renew my mind by the living Word of God in order that I may prove that the will of God is good and acceptable and PERFECT. I ask these things in the precious name of my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. SO BE IT.

Home of the Open Heart - YWAM Thailand

2 min 59 sec - Aug 17, 2006
Thailand's Department of Public Health reports that per capita, Thailand has the most HIV/AIDs cases in the world. This translates into more than 14,000 AIDs orphans per year. Many of these will be HIV positive. Chiang Rai, one of the provinces worst hit by the Aids crisis, had no home for HIV positive babies. Project L.I.F.E. stepped in to meet that need with Baan Num Jai (Home of the Open Heart). Opened in December 2000, its heart purpose is to give HIV positive babies a loving home until their HIV status is determined. They also provide small group homes for babies who cannot be cared for by relatives. Home of the Open Heart is also committed to caring for HIV+ babies until they die. If a baby converts to HIV negative and is able to be adopted, Home of the Open Heart will release the child to have a family of their own! Our mission is to assist families affected by HIV/AIDs, through education, orphan care within the home and within the community, community visits leading to income-generation projects, and mother/child respite care.

If you want to know more about Baan Num Jai, please visit their website