Mae Sot

Myself and six of our students went 6 hours south west of where we are now to a place called Mae Sot. This town is made up of mostly Burmese people, most of whom are illegal. We were working with a family and a few single people who's main objective in going there regularly is to provide relief for these people and help them develop their communities, schools, etc.

It was absolutely amazing! We were able to bring Christmas to kids in schools, and some street kids. The difference between them was huge. The kids in the schools were crying because they were so thankful, and the kids on the street would hide what we gave them to try and get more, say they hadn't been given anything at all, or just try to take things when we weren't looking. What was so sad about this to me was that they don't know any different. The life they are forced to live consists of lying, stealing and anything else along those lines. But the Lord gave me a special love for these street kids, along with a much needed patience, and it was very hard to leave them.

One of my students was hit pretty hard when a homeless lady with a baby asked her to take the little girl. It was clear that this lady knew Whitney was better off than she ever would be, and wanted something for her daughter she felt Whit could provide. Whitney wanted nothing more than to scoop her up and bring her home with us, but had to promise the lady instead, that she would pray for them everyday. She's holding true to that promise still.

The four days we had in Mae Sot will never be forgotten. That place made a huge impact on my life. I hope and pray i was able to shed His light in such a dark place.

Thankful for... life.

Day before Thanksgiving...
Luau. Roasted pig. 200 lbs. This Thanksgiving was soo amazing! Most of all, I'm thankful for my life which God has blessed me with!

Thailand...

We leave for Thailand in 13 days!!! I'm really excited!

We leave December 4th and arrive in Thailand December 6th. It seems weird, but because the time difference is not just a few hours, but a whole day different, we are actually leaving December 5th Thai time. Anyway, we are going to be spending time in Chiang Mai (in the North) working with university studetnt, teaching them english and just hanging and making friends until January 12th. After that we will go further north to a place called Chiang Rai to work with three different ministries whose main goal is community development. We are excited to get our hands dirty and be creative in sharing the gospel! We head to another location on January 25th to help out a ministry wherever we're needed. We have to make a border run into Myanmar (Burma) because we were only granted 60 day visa, and we are in Thailand just over 60 days. So we will leave for Myanmar January 31st, stay over night, and then head back to Chiang Mai for three days of debriefing. We come home to Honolulu February 4th.

When i see it all written out like that, it seems like we hardly have any time there, but i know it will feel like a long time after we've been there for a while. I really loved Thailand when i was there this past Spring. Granted I wasn't doing ministry, but i love the Thai people and their food! I know God has alot in store for us. Please pray for our team as we go out!

Prayer Points:
Health and Safety
Team Unity (there are 20 people on this team- its HUGE!)
My co-leader, Breanna, and I
The ministries we will be working with
Open hearts from, and divine appiontments with Thai people

Outreach Prep Week

It was about a month ago when we had a speaker cancel on us last minute, that we decided to plan an entire week to prepare the students for outreach. The idea was to re-arrange the normal schedule, add in new things, and hope it gave them some what of an idea of how outreach is SO different than lecture phase of a DTS. It would challenge them and stretch them... we called the week 'The Gideon Experience'. The idea came from Judges 6 and 7 and just as Gideon's army went from thirty-two thousand to ten thousand, and then from ten thousand to three hundred, we really tried to facilitate an environment and experience that would allow the students to really look in at themselves, and allow God to work in them- to take away things in their life they didn't need.
We started Monday morning off by waking the students up at 5:30am for a prayer walk. They had no idea we were going to do this and to my suprise didn't put up a fight! Throughout the week we did alot of team building, which was muchneeded for our large team! We did personality tests and spiritual gifts test, and learned about left brain/right brain and gaurding your heart. Even I got so much out of the teachings, I think everyone should hear about those topics!
The best part about this week for me was how much i learned about myself. God was able to reveal things through activites and situations and I've been able to really apply things I learned to my daily life, my leadership, and my friendships. I especially benefitted from the teachings on left brain/right brain. I realized that just because my way of thinking is sort of like pulling things from a garage sale instead of a filing cabinet, doesnt mean I am not capable of certain things, and I'm finding that i have a filing cabinet in the back of the garage- its just a matter of finding it sometimes :)
To end the week, we decided to do baptisms. We usually do this once a quarter for students who feel like they've made changes in their life and want to symbolize a new self. Because this week was all about getting rid of the old self, it just seemed like the best timing. It was an amazing thing to be a part of, and I was so honored to be asked by a few of my students if I would be the one to baptize them.
All in all, God did really cool things that week. It gave everyone a little taste of what outreach is like, and they really can't wait to get to Thailand.

What's Happening...

The DTS is going really well. I think the students are finally realizing this isn't a church camp, and starting to get really serious about why they're here and listening for God to direct their steps after DTS is over.
We went out to Waikiki Wednesday night for a Halloween outreach/evangelism. It was absolutely crazy-town. My co-leader, Breanna, myself, and one of our students teamed up and walked to a fairly busy corner to pass out candy. But every attempt at getting someone to come over and take a piece, hoping it would lead to a conversation, led to people thinking it was poisoness. In all reality, it probably looked that way; we weren't dressed in costume of any sort, we were just standing in random places on the strip, and to top it all off, the candy was in PAPER BAGS! haha. It's funny when i think about it now. But eventually we got some takers, that even asked questions-other than if they could have our number. Breanna talked with some girls that she came to find out were only 13 years old! One of them in particular was very drunk and maybe even more. Bre tried to tell her she's too young for this kind of life, and that there is more out there for her. We prayed for her at the end of the night, hoping God would plant a seed through what Bre shared. On a more positive/fun note, there were some pretty creative costumes. Alot of them had me cracking up! :)
I am doing well too, getting things ready for outreach. We leave in just over 4 weeks and time is flying! If you think about it, take a minute and pray for our team. Its quite large, and me and Bre can use all the prayer we can get! God is doing alot of stetching in my life, and challenging me in my faith and trust in Him. He's done so many amazing things in my life, and I know there is so much more of His provision for my life to come.

Pirates

So...confession.

i LOVE pirates. Now...I know you're thinking... "what? Pirates aren't real", and I know this, BUT they are SO COOL, and i think sometimes people get a really bad idea of what a pirate is. As if they are a group of bad guys that go around killing people so they can take their ship and gold. I'm not too sure of this, and maybe we have Pirates of the Carribean to thank. After all, those movies put some pretty handsome faces on the pirates, made them romantical-like, and very, very funny.

But i think pirates are just a group of people that just needed a little love. Someone to listen to their problems and give them advice. I think i would have liked to be a pirate back in the day...

Anyway...i was just thinking someone might like to know. :)

Passion

What is passion? What is it to passionate for something...about something? The dictionary defines passion as 'any powerful or compelling emotion or feeling, as love or hate'. So, you can love something with a passion, and also hate something with a passion. Marked by characteristics of an earlier period, passion meant 'the sufferings of a martyr'. To be a martyr...what a passion...

This question: what is passion...or more so, what is MY passion, has come up alot recently. Maybe it's because of where i am in my life, and what i'm doing. But, i am believing God to give me the answer. Because what is passion if not given by God Himself, right? I love alot of things, and i hate alot of things.

Could it be that my passion is Life?

Bellows

So today was beach day. I really love this day, and especially the beach we take the students too. But, i'm not sure how i feel about it anymore. Usually my time spent at Bellows is beautiful, fun-filled, and sunny. Today, amongst those things, the water was filled with Portegiese Man-a-wars. And I had an encounter with one while wading in the water...actually, i wasn't even in the water. It washed up on the shore, right where my feet were. The tail-like stinger wrapped around both of my legs, sending a crazy and VERY painful feeling into my body. I thought at first "wow, cool...i've been stung by a jelly fish...i can't wait to tell people about this!". But after about ten minutes, i wasn't very excited about it anymore. What happens when you get stung is the sting causes your glands to swell up; either at the top of your legs or under your arms, depending on where you get stung. So i had already gone to the lifegaurd and he put some vinegar on it, when i started to feel the cramping in my upper legs...and lower back...and stomach... and i was scared. They say as long as you can breathe normally you're ok, but i started to get scared and THOUGHT i couldn't breathe. Haha. Really i was fine...and still am. But i had crazy welts on my foot and around both legs. They're gone now, for the most part...and it still is pretty cool to say... i've been stung by a jelly fish!