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!
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