Here is a link to a slideshow of our time in Thailand, created by Taylor Forester. We are so thankful for her! Hope you enjoy it!
http://hollib.myshowit.com/thailand2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Malaria Healed!
We just heard back that the two of the boys we prayed for with malaria were sent back earlier than normal to get checked up. Their blood tests came back negative for malaria!!! What amazing confirmation the Lord gave us that these boys were in fact healed. One of the boys was asked how he felt and after replying that he felt good, smiled and said "Jesus." It is fun to note that the long term missionary who sees these kids come down with malaria often has never seen anything quite like this! Hallelujah!
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Refugee Camp Testimony: Kelly Dunn
We are all home and recuperating from the long travel and jet lag. There are many stories left that we hope to share with all of you.
At the second refugee camp we split into two teams in the afternoon and visited two nearby camps/villages. Five of us went to minister to 25 kids nearby. When we got there we had to ask for the Pastor who shyly raised his hand. He led us over to the children. It looked like they were in the middle of a school lesson. These kids seemed to be living in the worst conditions yet and everyone was extremely dirty. The spiritual atmosphere seemed heavy and even a little hopeless. We started by singing some fun worship songs together. The kids were so cute as they sang at the top of their lungs. Afterward we broke up into groups and painted nails for the girls, painted faces, and also played with balloons. One of the team members then told the kids a story about hearing God's voice and how God wants to talk to them all the time and led them in some time to listen to the Lord. One woman shared how she had heard God told her how much he loves her. Afterward we crowned each child with these shiny paper crowns we had and explained how they are daughters and sons of the King, making them princes and princesses. The adults came up also to get crowned and seemed very encouraged with the message.
Then the team taught the children how when Jesus was on earth he healed the sick and also told us to do the same. So we first asked their pastor to come up. He had been limping badly so we asked him what was going on. He explained he has had chronic back pain for 8 years and also his leg hurt very badly. He had a wound on his leg. We showed the children how to lay hands on the sick and ask for healing. The Pastor said that all the pain had left and he showed us how he could walk without a limp! Next one of the teachers came up and asked for prayer for his finger which was hurting badly and also had a cut on it. The children prayed again and the teacher lit up as he said all the pain had left. The cut was still on his finger and we felt like he was suppose to go wash his hands as an act of faith that God would close the wound completely. Next we prayed for a younger girl. She said her eye had been injured and since then it has hurt off and on and her vision had been damaged. After the children prayed she said all the pain left and she could see clearly again! Hallelujah! A little girl who had pain in her leg was also healed. We prayed for two boys with malaria. One was in the infirmary and was super hot! After the children prayed he said his head ache had gone away and he followed us out and joined the other kids. We are believing God healed him and cleared him of malaria. We encouraged them that they could do all of this without us because Jesus lives inside of them and to continue to pray for each other.
As we left we felt the spiritual climate had changed and was full of life and hope again. The pastor had a smile on his face while he played his guitar knowing that the God who loved him was with him. Amen! We serve an amazing God whose depths are unfathomable and whose love is so great and mighty.
At the second refugee camp we split into two teams in the afternoon and visited two nearby camps/villages. Five of us went to minister to 25 kids nearby. When we got there we had to ask for the Pastor who shyly raised his hand. He led us over to the children. It looked like they were in the middle of a school lesson. These kids seemed to be living in the worst conditions yet and everyone was extremely dirty. The spiritual atmosphere seemed heavy and even a little hopeless. We started by singing some fun worship songs together. The kids were so cute as they sang at the top of their lungs. Afterward we broke up into groups and painted nails for the girls, painted faces, and also played with balloons. One of the team members then told the kids a story about hearing God's voice and how God wants to talk to them all the time and led them in some time to listen to the Lord. One woman shared how she had heard God told her how much he loves her. Afterward we crowned each child with these shiny paper crowns we had and explained how they are daughters and sons of the King, making them princes and princesses. The adults came up also to get crowned and seemed very encouraged with the message.
Then the team taught the children how when Jesus was on earth he healed the sick and also told us to do the same. So we first asked their pastor to come up. He had been limping badly so we asked him what was going on. He explained he has had chronic back pain for 8 years and also his leg hurt very badly. He had a wound on his leg. We showed the children how to lay hands on the sick and ask for healing. The Pastor said that all the pain had left and he showed us how he could walk without a limp! Next one of the teachers came up and asked for prayer for his finger which was hurting badly and also had a cut on it. The children prayed again and the teacher lit up as he said all the pain had left. The cut was still on his finger and we felt like he was suppose to go wash his hands as an act of faith that God would close the wound completely. Next we prayed for a younger girl. She said her eye had been injured and since then it has hurt off and on and her vision had been damaged. After the children prayed she said all the pain left and she could see clearly again! Hallelujah! A little girl who had pain in her leg was also healed. We prayed for two boys with malaria. One was in the infirmary and was super hot! After the children prayed he said his head ache had gone away and he followed us out and joined the other kids. We are believing God healed him and cleared him of malaria. We encouraged them that they could do all of this without us because Jesus lives inside of them and to continue to pray for each other.
As we left we felt the spiritual climate had changed and was full of life and hope again. The pastor had a smile on his face while he played his guitar knowing that the God who loved him was with him. Amen! We serve an amazing God whose depths are unfathomable and whose love is so great and mighty.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Heading Home!
Team Thailand officially flew out of Chiang Mai about 30 minutes ago to start the long trek home. They should be arriving on Friday (July 8th) at 4:30ish pm. Jonathan, Kyle, and I fly out tomorrow for California, Malaysia, and Cambodia. We had a GREAT last two days in Chiang Mai. On Wednesday we spent the morning debriefing as a team, encouraging each other, and prophesying over each other. In the afternoon we visited an Aids orphanage, got to play with the kids, pray over the staff, and pray over women who are very very sick with Aids. We ate dinner with the Hannah House girls and then joined them for worship and ministry time. It was powerful and a GREAT end to the trip.
Today we ended in style with an elephant show, ox-cart ride, elephant trek, and river raft. We got back to the hotel just in time to shower & get to the airport. We took advantage of every second here and I don't think any of us would have changed a thing.
We did a little calculating, and we ended up driving 38 hours in-country (not to mention through thousands of curves in the road :)), ministering in 13 locations and in 4 languages! We are still working through everything God did and has taught us, but we left in great spirits and with everyone very sad the trip was over. We are so thankful that God allowed us to partner with his heart for this region, even for a short time.
Over the coming days different people from the team will be posting testimonies from our time in Thailand, so be sure to check it out! Please continue to pray for this region of the world. We believe that God is beginning a great work in Thailand that will extend all over Southeast Asia. Come Lord Jesus!
Blessings,
Becca
Today we ended in style with an elephant show, ox-cart ride, elephant trek, and river raft. We got back to the hotel just in time to shower & get to the airport. We took advantage of every second here and I don't think any of us would have changed a thing.
We did a little calculating, and we ended up driving 38 hours in-country (not to mention through thousands of curves in the road :)), ministering in 13 locations and in 4 languages! We are still working through everything God did and has taught us, but we left in great spirits and with everyone very sad the trip was over. We are so thankful that God allowed us to partner with his heart for this region, even for a short time.
Over the coming days different people from the team will be posting testimonies from our time in Thailand, so be sure to check it out! Please continue to pray for this region of the world. We believe that God is beginning a great work in Thailand that will extend all over Southeast Asia. Come Lord Jesus!
Blessings,
Becca
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Back in Chiang Mai
Hello World!
Team Thailand (now affectionately called Team Intense) just arrived back in Chiang Mai this afternoon. We spent five days on a "tour" of Northeast Thailand. We got to minister to 4 different refugee camps and 1 prison. Our time was amazing and i think we were more blessed by being with them and worshipping with them than we blessed them.
At the second camp we went to we were literally across the river from Burma!
Also, on the way home today we stopped at a prison where we got to share the gospel with the entire prison (about 330 people). There was actually a statue of Buddha on the stage with us as we were preaching. We got to do the drama and then shared and at least 40 people received the Lord and there were several healings! There is so much that has happened over the last few days it is a little hard to process it all. Over the coming days we will try to put more testimonies on here from various team members.
The team is doing great and we are amazed at all the things the Lord has shown us and taught us. Truly the harvest is ripe but the laborers are few!! Tomorrow we will spend time debriefing as a team, minister at an aids orphanage and spend a night of worship with the Hannah House girls. Then Thursday we will be doing an elephant trek before boarding the plane to come home. Packing it all in--that's how we roll.
Thank you so much for your amazing support and prayers. They have truly made a way for us. Continue praying for us and that we finish strong and give it all!!
Love,
Team Thailand
Team Thailand (now affectionately called Team Intense) just arrived back in Chiang Mai this afternoon. We spent five days on a "tour" of Northeast Thailand. We got to minister to 4 different refugee camps and 1 prison. Our time was amazing and i think we were more blessed by being with them and worshipping with them than we blessed them.
At the second camp we went to we were literally across the river from Burma!
Also, on the way home today we stopped at a prison where we got to share the gospel with the entire prison (about 330 people). There was actually a statue of Buddha on the stage with us as we were preaching. We got to do the drama and then shared and at least 40 people received the Lord and there were several healings! There is so much that has happened over the last few days it is a little hard to process it all. Over the coming days we will try to put more testimonies on here from various team members.
The team is doing great and we are amazed at all the things the Lord has shown us and taught us. Truly the harvest is ripe but the laborers are few!! Tomorrow we will spend time debriefing as a team, minister at an aids orphanage and spend a night of worship with the Hannah House girls. Then Thursday we will be doing an elephant trek before boarding the plane to come home. Packing it all in--that's how we roll.
Thank you so much for your amazing support and prayers. They have truly made a way for us. Continue praying for us and that we finish strong and give it all!!
Love,
Team Thailand
Monday, July 4, 2011
Team update
A quick update from Team Thailand!
Ashley and Lauren have returned home, four days ahead of the team, to be back with their babies. While they are glad to be home, their hearts and prayers remain with the team back in Thailand.
Back in northern Thailand, the team is currently spending time at a second refugee camp and will return home later this week after stopping at a second prison to minister there. We would love to be posting tons of pictures, but with our schedule and with the speed/cost/availability of Internet, we haven't been able to as often as we'd like. The team can't wait to share stories and pictures after returning home!
A brief recap of our time at the first refugee camp:
After driving through a stretch of Thai road that boasts of 2,000 curves, we arrived at a village just outside of a refugee camp for the Karenni people of Burma. As foreigners are not allowed into the camp, the 71 children of all ages walked through the mountains for two hours just to be with us, putting themselves at risk.
These children are beautiful, both physically and in their hearts. When they sang to Jesus, they did so with their entire being, and it is no exaggeration to say that the sound was like the heavens parting and an angelic choir being among us. We had no doubt that their worship touches the heart of their Father in a special way. These children have nothing in the physical, but everything in Jesus, and they know it. They are the epitome of hope.
We spent our time there having relay races, painting faces and nails, blowing bubbles, singing in worship and praying over the children. After hearing stories of what these children have been through, it was wonderful to see them laugh and smile and play. Many of the children's parents have been killed by the Burmese army. The Karenni people are Christian, and the Burmese military has persecuted them to the point of genocide. Some of the children watched their parents and friends die in front of them, and for other children, the last memory they have of their family is of their parents telling them to run for the border, that they'll meet up again. They have waited for years to be reunited, not knowing if their families are still alive.
Through it all, they have community in each other and in the body of Christ. Missionaries supply their food, delivering it to the camp once per month. Teams like ours meet with them to encourage them, pray over them and teach them about their identity in Jesus. The children are gentle, sweet and love each other, and they love Jesus.
We also met with approximately 40 young adults, also Karenni, who are enrolled in Bible school in the village. We were able to talk about discipleship and pray over them, giving them words of encouragement and identity, and it was powerful to see God moving in those moments. We know that God has a special purpose for their lives, as many of these men and women desire to return to Burma to share the gospel, literally laying down their lives.
As the team continues on, please be in prayer for them:
- For strength and energy as their rigorous schedule takes them to many different places over the next few days. Pray for health as several on the team battle car sickness, and the roads they will travel on back to the city, compared with those in Colorado mountains, would be described as "same same, but different." (Right, Team Thailand?!)
- That God would use them to be a source of His hope and light to the children at the second refugee camp, to the people in the prison they'll visit, and to the children at the orphanage they will go to. Pray that they will connect with the children/adults and be obedient in the ways God is calling them to minister.
- We know that as it says in Eph 6:12 - "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness..." But we know that God is sovereign and good! So please pray that God's glory will be magnified through the actions of the team over their last few days, that He will give words and pictures, visions and dreams.
We are so honored that God would use us over the last week and a half and we know that He has more in store for the coming days!
Ashley and Lauren have returned home, four days ahead of the team, to be back with their babies. While they are glad to be home, their hearts and prayers remain with the team back in Thailand.
Back in northern Thailand, the team is currently spending time at a second refugee camp and will return home later this week after stopping at a second prison to minister there. We would love to be posting tons of pictures, but with our schedule and with the speed/cost/availability of Internet, we haven't been able to as often as we'd like. The team can't wait to share stories and pictures after returning home!
A brief recap of our time at the first refugee camp:
After driving through a stretch of Thai road that boasts of 2,000 curves, we arrived at a village just outside of a refugee camp for the Karenni people of Burma. As foreigners are not allowed into the camp, the 71 children of all ages walked through the mountains for two hours just to be with us, putting themselves at risk.
These children are beautiful, both physically and in their hearts. When they sang to Jesus, they did so with their entire being, and it is no exaggeration to say that the sound was like the heavens parting and an angelic choir being among us. We had no doubt that their worship touches the heart of their Father in a special way. These children have nothing in the physical, but everything in Jesus, and they know it. They are the epitome of hope.
We spent our time there having relay races, painting faces and nails, blowing bubbles, singing in worship and praying over the children. After hearing stories of what these children have been through, it was wonderful to see them laugh and smile and play. Many of the children's parents have been killed by the Burmese army. The Karenni people are Christian, and the Burmese military has persecuted them to the point of genocide. Some of the children watched their parents and friends die in front of them, and for other children, the last memory they have of their family is of their parents telling them to run for the border, that they'll meet up again. They have waited for years to be reunited, not knowing if their families are still alive.
Through it all, they have community in each other and in the body of Christ. Missionaries supply their food, delivering it to the camp once per month. Teams like ours meet with them to encourage them, pray over them and teach them about their identity in Jesus. The children are gentle, sweet and love each other, and they love Jesus.
We also met with approximately 40 young adults, also Karenni, who are enrolled in Bible school in the village. We were able to talk about discipleship and pray over them, giving them words of encouragement and identity, and it was powerful to see God moving in those moments. We know that God has a special purpose for their lives, as many of these men and women desire to return to Burma to share the gospel, literally laying down their lives.
As the team continues on, please be in prayer for them:
- For strength and energy as their rigorous schedule takes them to many different places over the next few days. Pray for health as several on the team battle car sickness, and the roads they will travel on back to the city, compared with those in Colorado mountains, would be described as "same same, but different." (Right, Team Thailand?!)
- That God would use them to be a source of His hope and light to the children at the second refugee camp, to the people in the prison they'll visit, and to the children at the orphanage they will go to. Pray that they will connect with the children/adults and be obedient in the ways God is calling them to minister.
- We know that as it says in Eph 6:12 - "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness..." But we know that God is sovereign and good! So please pray that God's glory will be magnified through the actions of the team over their last few days, that He will give words and pictures, visions and dreams.
We are so honored that God would use us over the last week and a half and we know that He has more in store for the coming days!
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Doing Well!
Just a quick update...
We went to a temple this morning that overlooks the city. We got to prayer walk through the temple and then right outside we took communion together and prayed. We got to pray for a muslim man from Dubai who had pain in his leg. After we finished he was shocked that the pain had left and the Buddhist Thai lady with him kept saying "impossible impossible"! We shared God's love with him and gave the Thai lady a tract. Also, an English man named Paul approached us when we were praying and asked what we were doing. He was agnostic but SUPER HUNGRY for the gospel. I shared with him and prayed for him to feel God's presence. He said he felt all dizzy and different and kept asking me questions. He had to go, but please pray for him to know Jesus, he is very close!
Tonight the girls will be ministering in the bars to prostitutes and the boys will be going to Hannah House to hang out with the girls and pack goody bags for the camps. Please pray for God to meet us and that people would encounter him!
Tomorrow we will be leaving for the 2 refugee camps and a prison trip. We will be gone for five days and will be literally right next door to Burma. Please pray for health and safety for the team (the roads have been very hard to pass through because of the rain). Please pray that we would be a blessing to these camps and that many would experience God's love and come into his kingdom. Not sure if we will have internet, but will try to update as we can. Thanks for all your prayers and covering. The team is doing GREAT and have been huge troopers through many adventures. :) God is moving here and we are honored to be a part of it!
Becca & Josh
We went to a temple this morning that overlooks the city. We got to prayer walk through the temple and then right outside we took communion together and prayed. We got to pray for a muslim man from Dubai who had pain in his leg. After we finished he was shocked that the pain had left and the Buddhist Thai lady with him kept saying "impossible impossible"! We shared God's love with him and gave the Thai lady a tract. Also, an English man named Paul approached us when we were praying and asked what we were doing. He was agnostic but SUPER HUNGRY for the gospel. I shared with him and prayed for him to feel God's presence. He said he felt all dizzy and different and kept asking me questions. He had to go, but please pray for him to know Jesus, he is very close!
Tonight the girls will be ministering in the bars to prostitutes and the boys will be going to Hannah House to hang out with the girls and pack goody bags for the camps. Please pray for God to meet us and that people would encounter him!
Tomorrow we will be leaving for the 2 refugee camps and a prison trip. We will be gone for five days and will be literally right next door to Burma. Please pray for health and safety for the team (the roads have been very hard to pass through because of the rain). Please pray that we would be a blessing to these camps and that many would experience God's love and come into his kingdom. Not sure if we will have internet, but will try to update as we can. Thanks for all your prayers and covering. The team is doing GREAT and have been huge troopers through many adventures. :) God is moving here and we are honored to be a part of it!
Becca & Josh
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)