We said goodbye to Thailand on June 2. Our plane left a little after midnight. We are currently in Seoul, South Korea on a 10 hour lay over. (Thanks to "Samsung" Free Wi-Fi center and I am able to update this blog while waiting!)
I was super sad leaving Thailand. I didn't realized how much I actually loved this country! I looked out the plane window after take off and didn't stop looking until the lights from the city disapeared. I just kept reminding myself how blessed I am to have had such a great experience. God has taught and showed me so much during this time!
Our travles are going well so far...thank you for all the prayers! Korean Airline is amazing, and the people are so friendly. Last night before heading on the plane we got some snack money from our leader so Josh enjoyed some french fries from Burger King and I enjoyed some ice cream from Dairy Queen. One of my favorite things I have enjoyed and I think I am going to miss is small talking with Thai people. No one else was getting ice cream at the time I was ordering. There were about four girls working and they all kept smiling at me. So, my favorite thing to do is ask them questions in English because they love practicing English. We laughed and talked for about 5 min, I had so much fun! I did the same thing after security had to go through my carry on after I accidntly left my bug spray in my carry-on bag...oops. Josh just rolled his eyes and me, but I just laughed and blessed to know that God allowed me to enjoy my last few moments in the country interacting with the people.
We arrived in Seoul, Korea about 5:00am this morning and slept on the benches in the airport untill 10:30ish. Then Josh and I explored and walked around the airport. Ate some Subway for lunch...tasted so good!
Well, we are about to head to Seattle now...back to the States! Before you know it we will be home :)
See you soon!
-Danielle
Our shout out goes to Jared Harrington for graduating high school!
Friday, June 3, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Mommy and Daddy?
If you are freaking out about the title right now...don't. I'll explain.
We are here in Buriram at Tree of Life Orphanage absolutely loving life. As Danielle indicated in our previous post, a lot of what we have been doing here is handywork. Painting, cleaning, moving sand, mowing, etc...like any house in America, the projects are endless and there is always something that needs to be done. I tell you what though, I'm going to borrow a saying of Eric Folkers here, our team has been working like a bunch of rented mules. Its been 90+ degrees and humid everyday and we have been working our tails off. I'm so proud of our team. Roger keeps saying that they made a list of things that needed to be done by the end of our three weeks here...we finished it in two. He and Phong, his wife, are so greatful and just can't thank us enough.
The kids are really opening up to us now too. They love to just color, play with the girls hair and just play in general. Here is where the mommy and daddy part comes in. There are two adorable little girls, Taan and Dtoy, who Danielle and I have fallen in love with. There favorite game to play is "mommy and daddy." Taan is especially grown attached to me and she melts my heart everyday. I even got the, "I love you." before bed last night. I melted. Its hugs and stories after school everyday now and it's really sad that we have to leave them in a couple of days. This past weekend was really fun with the kids here. Saturday night we had our own worship time together and then after we decided to teach them how to line dance. Phong was thrilled! She learned way back when she and Roger were first married and visited Texas and couldn't wait to do it again. She walked into the room with her cowboy hat and boots on ready to Texas two step. It was awesome. All of us had a great time line dancing and then we busted out Justin Bieber and the party really got started. It was an immediate hit and the kids loved it! We ended up dancing to anything and everything Sunday night again because they had such a fun time before. You can imagine with no AC that things get a little sweaty and hot but none of us care because its so much fun. I am dreading saying goodbye to all of them on Friday morning. It's going to be more difficult than I expected I think.
Nonetheless, the end is drawing near and we cannot believe it. I know we keep saying this over and over again but its completely true. We will be home before we know it!
Just want to give a shout out to ZEHS Track. Congrats on the success this year! Another bigger shout out to my little brother for his success in track and declaring his undying faith in Jesus Christ on Sunday. I am so proud.
Pray that Danielle and I find the energy to pour into the kids while we still can and that we have the strength to say goodbye. Its going to be a tough end to the week and we will need all the encouragement we can get.
God Bless you all!
Josh
We are here in Buriram at Tree of Life Orphanage absolutely loving life. As Danielle indicated in our previous post, a lot of what we have been doing here is handywork. Painting, cleaning, moving sand, mowing, etc...like any house in America, the projects are endless and there is always something that needs to be done. I tell you what though, I'm going to borrow a saying of Eric Folkers here, our team has been working like a bunch of rented mules. Its been 90+ degrees and humid everyday and we have been working our tails off. I'm so proud of our team. Roger keeps saying that they made a list of things that needed to be done by the end of our three weeks here...we finished it in two. He and Phong, his wife, are so greatful and just can't thank us enough.
The kids are really opening up to us now too. They love to just color, play with the girls hair and just play in general. Here is where the mommy and daddy part comes in. There are two adorable little girls, Taan and Dtoy, who Danielle and I have fallen in love with. There favorite game to play is "mommy and daddy." Taan is especially grown attached to me and she melts my heart everyday. I even got the, "I love you." before bed last night. I melted. Its hugs and stories after school everyday now and it's really sad that we have to leave them in a couple of days. This past weekend was really fun with the kids here. Saturday night we had our own worship time together and then after we decided to teach them how to line dance. Phong was thrilled! She learned way back when she and Roger were first married and visited Texas and couldn't wait to do it again. She walked into the room with her cowboy hat and boots on ready to Texas two step. It was awesome. All of us had a great time line dancing and then we busted out Justin Bieber and the party really got started. It was an immediate hit and the kids loved it! We ended up dancing to anything and everything Sunday night again because they had such a fun time before. You can imagine with no AC that things get a little sweaty and hot but none of us care because its so much fun. I am dreading saying goodbye to all of them on Friday morning. It's going to be more difficult than I expected I think.
Nonetheless, the end is drawing near and we cannot believe it. I know we keep saying this over and over again but its completely true. We will be home before we know it!
Just want to give a shout out to ZEHS Track. Congrats on the success this year! Another bigger shout out to my little brother for his success in track and declaring his undying faith in Jesus Christ on Sunday. I am so proud.
Pray that Danielle and I find the energy to pour into the kids while we still can and that we have the strength to say goodbye. Its going to be a tough end to the week and we will need all the encouragement we can get.
God Bless you all!
Josh
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Scorpian for dinner? Say What!
We made it safely to Buriram Friday morning after a long bus ride from Chiang Mai. Roger and Phongsri Walker are our new contacts and we are staying in their orphanage called The Tree of Life. Many of us expected there to be millions of little kids screaming but there are actually about 12 or so ranging from 3 years old to middle school. They all come from varying backgrounds and situations. These children have been abandoned as a result of prostitution, parental death to AIDS, financial difficulties, disabilities, and alcoholism. They are great kids and I am starting to fall more in love with them each day! They love to tickle and scare us. Once in awhile I gather the kids together and do a "sneak attack tickle Josh" and they love it, but I have the consequence of getting the "really Danielle, Thanks!" look from Josh...oh well :)
Saturday was my favorite day, others didn't enjoy it as much. Our duty for the day as to clean some parts of the house! Let's just say it really needed it! We worked all day cleaning only a few rooms, but it made a huge difference. Audriana and I worked on the library. We took books off the shelves, dusted and deep cleaned. Josh referes to my cleaning as "she thinks of places no one else things of cleaning...and she could do this for days". Well in order for me to do a good clean, I wanted to pull out the shelves and find the "treasures" behind and under them. A few girls came and helped me move one shelf. As we lifted we saw a scorpian! At first we were not sure if it was just a toy, but after we poked it, it ran off. We told Phongsri and her face lit up with excitement! She said she wanted to catch this thing so she can cook it and eat it! So, we caught it and caught one more. They are currently alive in a bucket with no cover waiting to be cooked! YIKES!
Buriram is about two hours from Cambodia. Lots of mosquitoes, insects, and squaty potties, and cold showers with no air conditioned rooms. On the other hand, we are blessed to have a washer! Josh was so excited to not have to wash his clothes by hand today. Rogers wife cooks wonderful Thai food for us as well and we are all able to have a family style dinner together each night which is something we haven't done as a team since Masot.
We attended the Thai church this morning. We walked in and everyone watched us as we walked to the front. I had a wonderful time praising God and worshipping him even though I didn't understand what the Thai's were saying. The Thai people were so passionate and praising God is made me want to cry...seriously it was really awesome!
This week I think we will be up to more "Danielle projects". More cleaning, painting, and yard work. At first I got really down because people think I am crazy for loving it, but I realized this is one of the gifts God has given me. Seeing the smiles on Roger and Phongsri faces as they saw all the hard work everyone did makes all the hard work worth it!
I can't believe we only have a few weeks left! It get's harder each day to think about our time here is almost done. I am super sad and don't want to leave. Please pray that we keep pressing into these kiddos and this city!
Love you all and thank you for the continued support. Also, I think Rachael is almost finished with our 3rd video update...so get excited :)
Saturday was my favorite day, others didn't enjoy it as much. Our duty for the day as to clean some parts of the house! Let's just say it really needed it! We worked all day cleaning only a few rooms, but it made a huge difference. Audriana and I worked on the library. We took books off the shelves, dusted and deep cleaned. Josh referes to my cleaning as "she thinks of places no one else things of cleaning...and she could do this for days". Well in order for me to do a good clean, I wanted to pull out the shelves and find the "treasures" behind and under them. A few girls came and helped me move one shelf. As we lifted we saw a scorpian! At first we were not sure if it was just a toy, but after we poked it, it ran off. We told Phongsri and her face lit up with excitement! She said she wanted to catch this thing so she can cook it and eat it! So, we caught it and caught one more. They are currently alive in a bucket with no cover waiting to be cooked! YIKES!
Buriram is about two hours from Cambodia. Lots of mosquitoes, insects, and squaty potties, and cold showers with no air conditioned rooms. On the other hand, we are blessed to have a washer! Josh was so excited to not have to wash his clothes by hand today. Rogers wife cooks wonderful Thai food for us as well and we are all able to have a family style dinner together each night which is something we haven't done as a team since Masot.
We attended the Thai church this morning. We walked in and everyone watched us as we walked to the front. I had a wonderful time praising God and worshipping him even though I didn't understand what the Thai's were saying. The Thai people were so passionate and praising God is made me want to cry...seriously it was really awesome!
This week I think we will be up to more "Danielle projects". More cleaning, painting, and yard work. At first I got really down because people think I am crazy for loving it, but I realized this is one of the gifts God has given me. Seeing the smiles on Roger and Phongsri faces as they saw all the hard work everyone did makes all the hard work worth it!
I can't believe we only have a few weeks left! It get's harder each day to think about our time here is almost done. I am super sad and don't want to leave. Please pray that we keep pressing into these kiddos and this city!
Love you all and thank you for the continued support. Also, I think Rachael is almost finished with our 3rd video update...so get excited :)
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
From college students and bars to orphans
The time has come for us to say goodbye to Chiang Mai. Our time here is has been so much fun and we will certainly miss it but we look forward to our experiences at the orphanage in Buriram. We hop on a bus for our 14 hour journey through Thailand on Wednesday so there are a lot of memories from this past week since we had to live it up one final time in Chiang Mai.
We had our normal schedule again this week: teaching classes and then hanging out with students after. We also had some additional ministry opportunities this week but first, our classes. Its been so fun connecting and teaching these students. They have really opened up to us and just become our friends. Annie and I finally were able to go out to dinner with some our students and it was so much fun. We just sat and talked like any other friends in the world would do. They make fun of us, laugh at us, and just ask us questions now. It makes class really fun. Yesterday was tough. A lot of us were thinking it would be our last day to teach so we wanted to do something special for them. Annie and I were going to play Apples to Apples and have junk food. Around 3pm it started to rain, hard. Unfortunately our class starts at 4pm and because of the torrential downpour the students didn't show. I was so upset. A lot of the class were a no-show as well. Fortunately, I found out today that we are teaching on Monday and Tuesday! Yay! I would have been very upset if I didn't have a chance to say goodbye. I am looking forward to hanging out with them again but at the same time I don't want to have to say goodbye.
On Monday and Wednesday night of last week we did red light ministry. All the other times we have gone I have felt like that I was not supposed to go into the district but just stay back and pray for the group. On Monday this finally got to me. Hearing all of their stories made me jealous to be frank. So, Wednesday I finally got the feeling that I was supposed to go in. A little nerve racking and exciting was what I was feeling but I knew I was supposed to go in. So I hooked up with another guy from Norway and we headed out. To say I was overwhelmed at first is an understatement. It was just so much to take in. So many emotions going on inside of me: anger, sadness, longing to tell them there's more. We ended up going into two different bars. One of which I got into a good conversation with a U.S. Marshal who is stationed in Saipan. We talked about his job, his 13 year old son who lives with him and he had a lot of questions about what I was doing and what organization I was doing it through. We played pool with him and three other guys from Europe and just had a good time. Hearing his story, I could get a sense of the loneliness and brokenness he was carrying and only wished he knew that these girls weren't the answer. I had a small victory in God later in the night. As we were gathering as a group to head back to our meeting spot, I saw him walking back to his hotel, alone. It made me smile a little and wondered what God had done during our conversation about just life. There is so much more to tell about this story and other from that time down there that I'll have to tell when I get back. I'll just leave it with the awe at how much despair and loneliness there is on that street and in those bars. There is no possible way to win down there. The girls attach to a guy and feel loved until he leaves and then they are heart broken, lose. Or they don't get a guy and they think they are ugly, lose. The guys get a girl and think they are macho and loved until they realize they are paying for it and she will just go back to the bar later and find another guy, lose. It seems like a hopeless situation, a perfect place for us as Christians to be, a perfect place for God to be. Just this past Monday we went into the red light district one last time. I decided that my place was back praying again so I don't have too many stories. When I was praying though, I was overwhelmed with this sense of hope, joy, and confidence that God will change the hearts of the girls in the bars that our girls made relationships with. Our debrief time was somber and sad. Many of our girls had developed a friendship with the girls down there and were broken to leave them in that situation any longer. God gave me some words for the team that were powerful to me and I hope the rest of the team: "The pain of goodbye means you have done well. It means you have loved, truly and deeply loved, the 'unloveable.' So well done, good and faithful servants." Isn't that what our lives are supposed to model everyday? I think our girls did an amazing job just loving those girls and I'm honored to be on DTS outreach with every single one of them.
Tuesday was our last opportunity to teach our students English. It was a sad day realizing we don't have any more time left with these students. Of course we didn't teach. Annie and I decided to just teach them by eating junk food and playing Apples to Apples! It was really fun and I think they enjoyed it too. Its so sad to know that we won't be able to hang out with them everyday anymore. They were awesome and I will truly miss all of them. We didn't have anyone get saved but its up to God now and the people he puts in the rest of their lives to disciple and lead them to Christ.
Its hard to tell everything from our week because its always filled with so many stories. Here are some highlights from this past week though:
- Playing Phase 10 with people at the Centre and just laughing because Rachael and Scott (he is from the Australia team) are stuck on phase 1 while the rest of us are on phase 6 or 7.
- Being able to go out to dinner with two of our students, Pan and Mao, and introducing them to the Hong Kong Waffle. Delicious!
- Getting to know the Australia DTS team. We will miss them.
- Visiting the Chiang Mai Zoo Saturday
- Celebrating Rachael's birthday at The Pizza Company and seeing a movie
- Playing Apples to Apples with our students and saying goodbye
- And last but certainly not least...Celebrating 3 years with Danielle Veltema on May 6th! I love her...
Like I said before we cannot believe the end is near and are sad to see it go by so fast. Yet, we miss home and cannot wait to share all that we have learned over this whole adventure. We will see you all soon and tell you all that we can remember.
God bless you all!
Josh
We had our normal schedule again this week: teaching classes and then hanging out with students after. We also had some additional ministry opportunities this week but first, our classes. Its been so fun connecting and teaching these students. They have really opened up to us and just become our friends. Annie and I finally were able to go out to dinner with some our students and it was so much fun. We just sat and talked like any other friends in the world would do. They make fun of us, laugh at us, and just ask us questions now. It makes class really fun. Yesterday was tough. A lot of us were thinking it would be our last day to teach so we wanted to do something special for them. Annie and I were going to play Apples to Apples and have junk food. Around 3pm it started to rain, hard. Unfortunately our class starts at 4pm and because of the torrential downpour the students didn't show. I was so upset. A lot of the class were a no-show as well. Fortunately, I found out today that we are teaching on Monday and Tuesday! Yay! I would have been very upset if I didn't have a chance to say goodbye. I am looking forward to hanging out with them again but at the same time I don't want to have to say goodbye.
On Monday and Wednesday night of last week we did red light ministry. All the other times we have gone I have felt like that I was not supposed to go into the district but just stay back and pray for the group. On Monday this finally got to me. Hearing all of their stories made me jealous to be frank. So, Wednesday I finally got the feeling that I was supposed to go in. A little nerve racking and exciting was what I was feeling but I knew I was supposed to go in. So I hooked up with another guy from Norway and we headed out. To say I was overwhelmed at first is an understatement. It was just so much to take in. So many emotions going on inside of me: anger, sadness, longing to tell them there's more. We ended up going into two different bars. One of which I got into a good conversation with a U.S. Marshal who is stationed in Saipan. We talked about his job, his 13 year old son who lives with him and he had a lot of questions about what I was doing and what organization I was doing it through. We played pool with him and three other guys from Europe and just had a good time. Hearing his story, I could get a sense of the loneliness and brokenness he was carrying and only wished he knew that these girls weren't the answer. I had a small victory in God later in the night. As we were gathering as a group to head back to our meeting spot, I saw him walking back to his hotel, alone. It made me smile a little and wondered what God had done during our conversation about just life. There is so much more to tell about this story and other from that time down there that I'll have to tell when I get back. I'll just leave it with the awe at how much despair and loneliness there is on that street and in those bars. There is no possible way to win down there. The girls attach to a guy and feel loved until he leaves and then they are heart broken, lose. Or they don't get a guy and they think they are ugly, lose. The guys get a girl and think they are macho and loved until they realize they are paying for it and she will just go back to the bar later and find another guy, lose. It seems like a hopeless situation, a perfect place for us as Christians to be, a perfect place for God to be. Just this past Monday we went into the red light district one last time. I decided that my place was back praying again so I don't have too many stories. When I was praying though, I was overwhelmed with this sense of hope, joy, and confidence that God will change the hearts of the girls in the bars that our girls made relationships with. Our debrief time was somber and sad. Many of our girls had developed a friendship with the girls down there and were broken to leave them in that situation any longer. God gave me some words for the team that were powerful to me and I hope the rest of the team: "The pain of goodbye means you have done well. It means you have loved, truly and deeply loved, the 'unloveable.' So well done, good and faithful servants." Isn't that what our lives are supposed to model everyday? I think our girls did an amazing job just loving those girls and I'm honored to be on DTS outreach with every single one of them.
Tuesday was our last opportunity to teach our students English. It was a sad day realizing we don't have any more time left with these students. Of course we didn't teach. Annie and I decided to just teach them by eating junk food and playing Apples to Apples! It was really fun and I think they enjoyed it too. Its so sad to know that we won't be able to hang out with them everyday anymore. They were awesome and I will truly miss all of them. We didn't have anyone get saved but its up to God now and the people he puts in the rest of their lives to disciple and lead them to Christ.
Its hard to tell everything from our week because its always filled with so many stories. Here are some highlights from this past week though:
- Playing Phase 10 with people at the Centre and just laughing because Rachael and Scott (he is from the Australia team) are stuck on phase 1 while the rest of us are on phase 6 or 7.
- Being able to go out to dinner with two of our students, Pan and Mao, and introducing them to the Hong Kong Waffle. Delicious!
- Getting to know the Australia DTS team. We will miss them.
- Visiting the Chiang Mai Zoo Saturday
- Celebrating Rachael's birthday at The Pizza Company and seeing a movie
- Playing Apples to Apples with our students and saying goodbye
- And last but certainly not least...Celebrating 3 years with Danielle Veltema on May 6th! I love her...
Like I said before we cannot believe the end is near and are sad to see it go by so fast. Yet, we miss home and cannot wait to share all that we have learned over this whole adventure. We will see you all soon and tell you all that we can remember.
God bless you all!
Josh
Sunday, May 1, 2011
I may or may not have a Thai accent when I return....
Over the past week we have started the relation based evangelism in Chiang Mai. Josh and I both started teaching English classes. We paired up with someone else on our team, and we have about three students each. Before and after classes we hang out at The Centre playing games and talking with the students. We hosted a cooking night on Tuesday. We made pasta with different sauces. Friday night we hosted a Mario Party game night and continued to create relationships with the students. This week I was able to go out for dinner with two students First and Bye. It felt so normal and comfortable, like hanging out with friends from home. As we drove to the restaurant I describe things in English on the way. I started noticing that I constantly think/talk like Thai people. After dinner they took me to Swenson's, my dream restaurant! It was an ice cream restaurant in the mall. You sit down and on the menu is ice cream, ice cream and more ice cream! We had nine scoops of different flavored ice cream and a chocolate fondue pot with fruits. (Thailand style scoops..so small. All the scoops together were like the size of the Village Dippers small.) It was great hanging out with First and Bye and being able to have normal conversations and creating a better friendship.
We were able to go out two times this week to the red light district. Josh and a few others stayed back at the guest house and prayed for the rest of the team that went out. Praying is just as much or even more of a part of this ministry than going into the red light district. The first time we walked through the streets we were lead by two other YWAMers, Amanda and Sam, that have been doing this ministry over the past few weeks. We first walked up and down the streets soaking it all in, and also sat down at a bar to observe. I saw the women lined up on the street and sitting at the bars while shining with glitter and glamor. I also took notice of the men ranging of all ages, even some with rings on their fingers. We also had two kids Baan and Oht come to us and asked us to buy flowers. Amanda and Sam have been hanging out with them during their time at the bars. They told us that the kids have to sell all their flowers by the end of the night if they want to eat or sleep. If a someone buys their whole stack of flowers, their Trafficker notices and gives them more flowers to sell making the cycle never ending. I saw the children faces light up as we just loved on them, played thumb wars, checkers, and rock paper scissors. The kids are really good at these games because they play them in order to get more money. It's heartbreaking to realize these children will never experience a normal childhood. At first I felt really angry at the men, traffickers and pimps and didn't understand why anyone hasn't stopped this yet. I saw brokenness, hurt and shame. I prayed to God to not let me be judgmental and let me walk and be a friend among them just as Jesus would. I started to look at it from both sides. Many of the people come here because of a deeper problem. I wonder why anyone would want to hurt Gods beautiful woman and children? I realize though that many of the men are lost and hurt themselves. The second night, me and another girl from my team went and actually talked to many prostitutes, lady boys, and played with the kids again trying to create relationships. We sat down at a few bars and just listened to peoples stories and just loved on them and had fun. I have so many stories to share and I wish I could tell you so much more! I can't wait for this week to go back into the bars and follow up on the relationships I have created!
This week we are doing the same thing. Team time in the morning, English classes starting at about 4:00pm at the Centre and red light ministry starting 9:00pm till about 2:00 in the morning. We also work with smaller ministries as well to fill some time. Last week was such a good week, please pray that this week is even better!
Okay, so there's also the downtime we have with the team. I love to go exploring and trying new things. The other night on our walk we decided to check out the McDonald's that's down the street from us. On the menu they had a "Broccoli, Corn or Pineapple Pie". In America the last time I checked we had apple and cherry. I am not a big fan of McDonald's as some of you may know, but I was very curious about this broccoli pie. So, I decided to get one and have the team take a bite. It tasted like cheese broccoli soup stuffed in a spring roll. I was wondering if it has been placed on the menu yet in the states...and if so, please don't get it!
Anyways, it's over half way through outreach and we have many stories to share. Don't worry though, we will be home before you know it and we will be able to explain more, tell you more, and most importantly tell you how amazing and great our God is and what he has been doing in our life!
We miss you and love you all, and thank you for your continued prayers.
Our shout out for the week goes to all the college students...you have finished another year! Also, congrats to Josh Knap on receiving your masters! Woot woot!
Also make sure to check out Salem's blog post, www.ywamsalem.org/outreach-blog, because Josh updated it this week for our team.
-Danielle
We were able to go out two times this week to the red light district. Josh and a few others stayed back at the guest house and prayed for the rest of the team that went out. Praying is just as much or even more of a part of this ministry than going into the red light district. The first time we walked through the streets we were lead by two other YWAMers, Amanda and Sam, that have been doing this ministry over the past few weeks. We first walked up and down the streets soaking it all in, and also sat down at a bar to observe. I saw the women lined up on the street and sitting at the bars while shining with glitter and glamor. I also took notice of the men ranging of all ages, even some with rings on their fingers. We also had two kids Baan and Oht come to us and asked us to buy flowers. Amanda and Sam have been hanging out with them during their time at the bars. They told us that the kids have to sell all their flowers by the end of the night if they want to eat or sleep. If a someone buys their whole stack of flowers, their Trafficker notices and gives them more flowers to sell making the cycle never ending. I saw the children faces light up as we just loved on them, played thumb wars, checkers, and rock paper scissors. The kids are really good at these games because they play them in order to get more money. It's heartbreaking to realize these children will never experience a normal childhood. At first I felt really angry at the men, traffickers and pimps and didn't understand why anyone hasn't stopped this yet. I saw brokenness, hurt and shame. I prayed to God to not let me be judgmental and let me walk and be a friend among them just as Jesus would. I started to look at it from both sides. Many of the people come here because of a deeper problem. I wonder why anyone would want to hurt Gods beautiful woman and children? I realize though that many of the men are lost and hurt themselves. The second night, me and another girl from my team went and actually talked to many prostitutes, lady boys, and played with the kids again trying to create relationships. We sat down at a few bars and just listened to peoples stories and just loved on them and had fun. I have so many stories to share and I wish I could tell you so much more! I can't wait for this week to go back into the bars and follow up on the relationships I have created!
This week we are doing the same thing. Team time in the morning, English classes starting at about 4:00pm at the Centre and red light ministry starting 9:00pm till about 2:00 in the morning. We also work with smaller ministries as well to fill some time. Last week was such a good week, please pray that this week is even better!
Okay, so there's also the downtime we have with the team. I love to go exploring and trying new things. The other night on our walk we decided to check out the McDonald's that's down the street from us. On the menu they had a "Broccoli, Corn or Pineapple Pie". In America the last time I checked we had apple and cherry. I am not a big fan of McDonald's as some of you may know, but I was very curious about this broccoli pie. So, I decided to get one and have the team take a bite. It tasted like cheese broccoli soup stuffed in a spring roll. I was wondering if it has been placed on the menu yet in the states...and if so, please don't get it!
Anyways, it's over half way through outreach and we have many stories to share. Don't worry though, we will be home before you know it and we will be able to explain more, tell you more, and most importantly tell you how amazing and great our God is and what he has been doing in our life!
We miss you and love you all, and thank you for your continued prayers.
Our shout out for the week goes to all the college students...you have finished another year! Also, congrats to Josh Knap on receiving your masters! Woot woot!
Also make sure to check out Salem's blog post, www.ywamsalem.org/outreach-blog, because Josh updated it this week for our team.
-Danielle
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Chiang Mai to the fullest!
First off let me just tell you that Songkran festival is one of the greatest events in all of the world. Rivals with the Olympics...it has to. Where else in the world would you be able to throw ice cold water on complete strangers and not have thousands of fist fights break out? Not in the U.S. that's for sure. It was such a blast. I will have to admit that I was very hesitant at first and didn't really feel like getting wet but once it happens you just roll with the punches. Unfortunately, some of the water was nasty moat water that has been festering with bacteria for months. Great! One of our girls actually got sick because of such water. Needless to say we scrubbed like never before in the showers and washed our clothes (by hand!!) multiple times.
The bad part about Songkran is that it is a national holiday so literally everything shuts down. Restaurants, shops, everything is closed! It was so hard to just find some place good to eat. This also highly affected our ministry as well. Since its such a big festival the universities that the students we would work with also shut down for the week. This means the place we are going to teach English, The Centre, is also shut down. No students means no class which means no relationship ministry. We were bummed but we kept busy. We had plenty of work projects around the place to help with. Danielle and I got to pick out and plant flowers in their flower boxes as well as clean practically the whole place. Some of our girls were tasked with picking a room and then painting it according to whatever theme they desired. They decided to paint a water landscape with a castle that had hundreds of lanterns floating from it in the sky. If you have seen the movie "Tangled" just picture the scene with the lanterns...thats the look they were going for. It took four days and a lot of paint but it turned out amazing! I wish I was able to upload some pictures of it so you could see it.
As for teaching English, we haven't even started yet. We just arrived at a bad time to be frank. With the holiday and summer classes just starting at the universities students are hard to come by. This week has been adventurous still and we have seen more and more people coming in to sign up for classes. Next week there should be about 6-8 classes compared to the 2 that we started with this week. We are all excited and can't wait. In the mean time we are keeping busy around The Centre by passing out flyers and coming up with fun nights for the students to just draw more in and establish the relationships we are seeking. Tuesday night we are having a Pasta Night and then Friday we are planning a Mario Kart Party! Today was interesting as well. We got to go and visit Doi Suthep Temple. It is one of the holiest temples in all of Thailand and actually arguably the most holy. It is said to contain a bone of Buddha in its pagoda. We went to observe their worship rituals and to pray over the city (the temple is on top of a mountain looking over the entire city of Chiang Mai). Rob, the director of The Centre, really wanted us to closely observe the acts of worship and try to find similarities in our practices and theirs. Finding that connection is highly crucial because the mindset here in Thailand is "If you are Thai then you are Buddhist." So, by maintaining their cultural practices but turning it towards God is a goal for many missionaries here in Thailand so the Thai Christians can still hold onto their Thai culture and not be completely westernized. Just walking around that temple seeing the people worshiping useless artifacts and paying money to lifeless causes made me quite angry. I just wanted to scream out to them that they don't need to be paying all this money and time trying to gain salvation...it has already been paid in full! And then to see foreigners blindly participating in these rituals just made me furious. They have no idea what they are doing and the significance of their actions. Everything inside of me was just turning and I felt like I was going to burst out in anger and cry at the same time. But God is greater and He will overcome all of it.
One more side note. Sorry for the randomness of this post. There is just so much to catch up on. Amy, the school leader for our DTS, made a pastoral visit this past week to just see how things are doing. It was great to have her here. She really enjoyed her time here and we enjoyed her even more I think. Tuesday was her last day so for dinner we went out as a team and splurged. We went to get western food! Very special because it usually is too expensive. We ended up going to Sizzler which is just a steakhouse type restaurant. We each got an entree and then they have a salad/soup/pasta/dessert buffet that comes along with any entree purchase. We must have looked like we haven't seen food for the past month the way we attacked that buffet. I have never felt so full in my life but it was SO good. Not to say that Thai food isn't delicious but rice does get old after awhile. It was just a good treat and change of pace. After gorging ourselves on 'western' food we went to karaoke! I guess karaoke is a huge thing here in Thailand and everywhere you turn there is a karaoke bar. The place we went was set up where you rent an entire private room for either 1 or 2 hours. It was so much fun! Definitely something we will do in the future.
Next week we will begin the relation based evangelism we were seeking in Chiang Mai. Pray for patience for our team. Thai people are unique in that they are discipled first and then they accept Christ so it can be a long process. Pray that we understand this concept and just love on the students fully knowing that we might not even get the chance to bring them to Christ.
For those of you worried about Danielle's health: She is fine. She just has random tummy aches every so often. Danielle is not one to be tied down or to miss out on an adventure so pray that these aches don't interfere with any ministry opportunities.
We miss you all! I want to give a special shout out to the Vriesland middle school group! Danielle and I love you all and miss you dearly. Keep pressing into God and seek him first!
Josh
The bad part about Songkran is that it is a national holiday so literally everything shuts down. Restaurants, shops, everything is closed! It was so hard to just find some place good to eat. This also highly affected our ministry as well. Since its such a big festival the universities that the students we would work with also shut down for the week. This means the place we are going to teach English, The Centre, is also shut down. No students means no class which means no relationship ministry. We were bummed but we kept busy. We had plenty of work projects around the place to help with. Danielle and I got to pick out and plant flowers in their flower boxes as well as clean practically the whole place. Some of our girls were tasked with picking a room and then painting it according to whatever theme they desired. They decided to paint a water landscape with a castle that had hundreds of lanterns floating from it in the sky. If you have seen the movie "Tangled" just picture the scene with the lanterns...thats the look they were going for. It took four days and a lot of paint but it turned out amazing! I wish I was able to upload some pictures of it so you could see it.
As for teaching English, we haven't even started yet. We just arrived at a bad time to be frank. With the holiday and summer classes just starting at the universities students are hard to come by. This week has been adventurous still and we have seen more and more people coming in to sign up for classes. Next week there should be about 6-8 classes compared to the 2 that we started with this week. We are all excited and can't wait. In the mean time we are keeping busy around The Centre by passing out flyers and coming up with fun nights for the students to just draw more in and establish the relationships we are seeking. Tuesday night we are having a Pasta Night and then Friday we are planning a Mario Kart Party! Today was interesting as well. We got to go and visit Doi Suthep Temple. It is one of the holiest temples in all of Thailand and actually arguably the most holy. It is said to contain a bone of Buddha in its pagoda. We went to observe their worship rituals and to pray over the city (the temple is on top of a mountain looking over the entire city of Chiang Mai). Rob, the director of The Centre, really wanted us to closely observe the acts of worship and try to find similarities in our practices and theirs. Finding that connection is highly crucial because the mindset here in Thailand is "If you are Thai then you are Buddhist." So, by maintaining their cultural practices but turning it towards God is a goal for many missionaries here in Thailand so the Thai Christians can still hold onto their Thai culture and not be completely westernized. Just walking around that temple seeing the people worshiping useless artifacts and paying money to lifeless causes made me quite angry. I just wanted to scream out to them that they don't need to be paying all this money and time trying to gain salvation...it has already been paid in full! And then to see foreigners blindly participating in these rituals just made me furious. They have no idea what they are doing and the significance of their actions. Everything inside of me was just turning and I felt like I was going to burst out in anger and cry at the same time. But God is greater and He will overcome all of it.
One more side note. Sorry for the randomness of this post. There is just so much to catch up on. Amy, the school leader for our DTS, made a pastoral visit this past week to just see how things are doing. It was great to have her here. She really enjoyed her time here and we enjoyed her even more I think. Tuesday was her last day so for dinner we went out as a team and splurged. We went to get western food! Very special because it usually is too expensive. We ended up going to Sizzler which is just a steakhouse type restaurant. We each got an entree and then they have a salad/soup/pasta/dessert buffet that comes along with any entree purchase. We must have looked like we haven't seen food for the past month the way we attacked that buffet. I have never felt so full in my life but it was SO good. Not to say that Thai food isn't delicious but rice does get old after awhile. It was just a good treat and change of pace. After gorging ourselves on 'western' food we went to karaoke! I guess karaoke is a huge thing here in Thailand and everywhere you turn there is a karaoke bar. The place we went was set up where you rent an entire private room for either 1 or 2 hours. It was so much fun! Definitely something we will do in the future.
Next week we will begin the relation based evangelism we were seeking in Chiang Mai. Pray for patience for our team. Thai people are unique in that they are discipled first and then they accept Christ so it can be a long process. Pray that we understand this concept and just love on the students fully knowing that we might not even get the chance to bring them to Christ.
For those of you worried about Danielle's health: She is fine. She just has random tummy aches every so often. Danielle is not one to be tied down or to miss out on an adventure so pray that these aches don't interfere with any ministry opportunities.
We miss you all! I want to give a special shout out to the Vriesland middle school group! Danielle and I love you all and miss you dearly. Keep pressing into God and seek him first!
Josh
Monday, April 11, 2011
This week I felt like Jane from Tarzan!
Hello Everyone! We left Mae Sot on Sunday and now we are in Chiang Mai. Last night was our first night here and I had a little bit of culture shock. First off, for those of you that don't know, Chiang Mai is a tourist and university town. We will be teaching English, working in the red light district, and other possible ministries. This week, because the university is closed, we are doing work projects around the English center. I am the leader of the garden/landscape team! I am so excited to design and buy plants for a small area at the university. We are currently staying in a guest house which is sort of like a hotel. It was strange having the toilet, shower and sink all in the same room...and a HOT shower! I forgot how much I appreciate them especially all together in one room. We went to the food market for supper. The streets close down, and then there are basically lots of venders and food stands. It was so weird seeing other white people! Thailand's water festival starts on Wednesday and it could last for about a week. During this time everyone in the country throws water and baby powder on everyone, and everywhere! Everyone is buying squirt guns and many stores and the university shut down for the festival. As "white tourist" we are targeted the most! (I'm sure in the next blog post we will tell you how this went)
Last week was amazing. God is so good! I learned with different experiences that if we are faithful, he will bless us. On Monday we headed to a Burmese village but the guards didn't let us in that day, so instead we ended up heading to a village and then going to a cave in the jungle! It was beautiful, and I felt like Jane off of Tarzan! I even tried swinging from a vine. Well okay, it was only a few feet off the ground but still. :) On Tuesday we went to the local jail and sang songs, spoke, and even taught them how to line dance. We also went to a clinic that night and prayed for people. On Wednesday we headed to a village up in the mountains, probably my favorite thing we have done so far. It took about 7 hours or so to travel up to the village. It was literally in the jungle up in the mountains! Now I really felt like a jungle girl! I could go on forever about this trip! To make it easy I will list a few things and then you can ask us to fill it in when we come back.
1. 2 off road pickup trucks that had 20 or so people and their luggage. Josh and I ended up in the back of the pickup...let’s just say we learned how to ride like the Thai people.
2. No showers = showering in the river
3. Houses were wood, bathrooms outside, no sinks
4. The animals were treated like people in the town, chickens, pigs, cows would walk everywhere! The lived under the houses and outside my window was the home of a huge pig!
5. Food = rice, and...some other stuff
6. I fell in love with the people, and they are amazing! Rarely anyone goes up there because it is so far away. We blessed them and they blessed us!
We had a wonderful time with Pastor Michael over the past two weeks, and I was sad to leave after just starting to create a better relationship with him and other people in the town. I am excited for Chiang Mai though. We will be here for a month and be able to have more time to create good relationships with the students at the university.
I want to thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. It means a lot to hear and know that people are thinking about us, and it helps us to stay strong and continue on. Below are some prayer requests.
1.Safety during the water festival. Our leaders told us today that they heard there are more deaths this week in Thailand than there are in 1 year in Australia. This is because of water splashing on cars, drunks in the streets...etc.
2.Staying healthy. I got sick one day (because I ate something I was not suppose to…oops, that’s what happens when I become adventurous) and Josh has been having stomach problems. Nothing major, but still prayers are helpful.
3. That we dig into building relationships with the students that we will be teaching.
Thanks everyone, miss you all. We are starting to miss American food! So as you eat dinner tonight, be glad for the food you are eating...hopefully it's not rice :)
-Danielle
Last week was amazing. God is so good! I learned with different experiences that if we are faithful, he will bless us. On Monday we headed to a Burmese village but the guards didn't let us in that day, so instead we ended up heading to a village and then going to a cave in the jungle! It was beautiful, and I felt like Jane off of Tarzan! I even tried swinging from a vine. Well okay, it was only a few feet off the ground but still. :) On Tuesday we went to the local jail and sang songs, spoke, and even taught them how to line dance. We also went to a clinic that night and prayed for people. On Wednesday we headed to a village up in the mountains, probably my favorite thing we have done so far. It took about 7 hours or so to travel up to the village. It was literally in the jungle up in the mountains! Now I really felt like a jungle girl! I could go on forever about this trip! To make it easy I will list a few things and then you can ask us to fill it in when we come back.
1. 2 off road pickup trucks that had 20 or so people and their luggage. Josh and I ended up in the back of the pickup...let’s just say we learned how to ride like the Thai people.
2. No showers = showering in the river
3. Houses were wood, bathrooms outside, no sinks
4. The animals were treated like people in the town, chickens, pigs, cows would walk everywhere! The lived under the houses and outside my window was the home of a huge pig!
5. Food = rice, and...some other stuff
6. I fell in love with the people, and they are amazing! Rarely anyone goes up there because it is so far away. We blessed them and they blessed us!
We had a wonderful time with Pastor Michael over the past two weeks, and I was sad to leave after just starting to create a better relationship with him and other people in the town. I am excited for Chiang Mai though. We will be here for a month and be able to have more time to create good relationships with the students at the university.
I want to thank you for all your prayers and encouragement. It means a lot to hear and know that people are thinking about us, and it helps us to stay strong and continue on. Below are some prayer requests.
1.Safety during the water festival. Our leaders told us today that they heard there are more deaths this week in Thailand than there are in 1 year in Australia. This is because of water splashing on cars, drunks in the streets...etc.
2.Staying healthy. I got sick one day (because I ate something I was not suppose to…oops, that’s what happens when I become adventurous) and Josh has been having stomach problems. Nothing major, but still prayers are helpful.
3. That we dig into building relationships with the students that we will be teaching.
Thanks everyone, miss you all. We are starting to miss American food! So as you eat dinner tonight, be glad for the food you are eating...hopefully it's not rice :)
-Danielle
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