Merry Christmas!!! or in Thai --(สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาสและปีใหม่)!!

I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas from the blazing hot and sunny country of Thailand... I think it would be safe to say that the weather most of you are experiencing is quite the opposite! It doesn't seem like Christmas at all.. Not just because of the weather, but also because this is such a Buddhist country, they don't celebrate it at all -- except for the few people who got sucked into American traditions and don't know why they do what they are doing... But most of all, it doesn't seem like it because I don't have all of my loved ones around to share it with... I don't regret coming here at all, but I admit it is super hard to think about everyone back home and everything that I am missing out on. But.. I am keeping in mind that God has called me to this place and that my sacrifice of giving up a half a year of my life away from my loved ones will never even compare to the sacrifice he has made for all of us... Keeping God's perspective is key for keeping my attitude positive.. if not, I would not have the strength to endure all that I am experiencing here in Thailand.
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I wanted to add a quick little update of what I have been doing for the past couple weeks... I don't have enough time to go into details, but I have been keeping a daily journal and I will elaborate more at a later date or I will just save my stories for when I return home!! Anyhow.. We have spent the past weeks in a few different villages... Now when I say villages... it is probably similar to what you are thinking... I can't wait to show all of you these pictures.. They are rather primitive...they aren't straw huts, but we are sleeping on the floor in mosquito nets, surrounded by tons and tons of ants..everywhere. It's crazy, I never thought that I would become accustomed to the feeling of having things crawling on me and not be bothered by it. I'm really not complaining though, I think of everything as being an experience, a memory, and a purposeful reason to sacrifice my physical comfort for a higher purpose. I mean things could definitely be worse, but we are roughing it for sure. I have just finally mastered the art of cold bucket showers and "squattie potties" (the Asian toilets which are just pretty much a porcelain hole in the ground that you have to flush with buckets of water). These things are not the most pleasant to use, but God has a way of humbling all of us, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to fulfill what He has called me to do!
We have been ministering to the schools in the local villages by teaching them English.. There were about 400 kids at each school and we split them into 4 groups... This was my first experience at teaching, but I really enjoyed it!!! There were a lot of kids in my class, but they behaved and listened really well - I was really impressed with their teachability and their disciplined behavior. It is sooo funny .. we get treated like celebrities here in Thailand.. everyone mobs you for pictures, autographs, and they want to touch our white skin and blonde hair.. and they get really shy when you talk to them, but they love it! It kind of bothers me though, because they treat us as if we are of higher worth than they are and that is definitely not true.. I got really attached to the kids in my group and it was really hard to say goodbye.. I loved them and they really showed me love in return.. They would love to just be around me or have me talk to them (even though they couldn't understand what I was telling them) I received a lot of gifts from these kids, which really melted my heart because they don't have much to begin with - yet they are so quick to give.. They really love saying my name - they draw it out like "Jess-a-kaaaaaaaa".. haha. It was so apparent that God has been opening doors for us this entire time. The headmasters of the school were so open to us coming in and not only teaching English, but sharing the gospel message to the kids and they thanked us for it, truly an act of God opening up the minds of these leaders!
We have also been able to minister to local people in the villages. In the first village, everyone was able to freely come and listen and participate -- we had a wonderful turnout and a lot of people who requested prayers and wanted to know more about Jesus!! The second village was a little more disappointing - The headmaster of the village would not allow for us to have a program for the people of the village and said that the people were not allowed to join us. A few brave souls showed up anyhow.. a man came and asked for prayer to heal his shoulder and we prayed and prayed until he could take his shoulder and move in in complete circles, he said that the pain was gone! The next evening, many more people showed up to listen. A few of the Thai women gave their testimonies and I also volunteered to share mine. The Holy Spirit must have been speaking through me because there were some young girls there who were in tears as I was telling my story and they wanted prayer afterwards... We took time to pray for everyone who was courageous and came, regardless of what the headmaster said. It was sad though, because at one point while we were praying, a mother from the village (obviously upset) came up and demanded that her daughters should leave right away. The heaviness of the Buddhist religion is so strong here, but I think God is definitely doing amazing things and he is breaking the soil for big things to come! I am so hopeful and expectant of this! He is so capable and powerful... I will never cease to be amazed by Him!
Well I better end this now, my internet time is about up..
Again.. I hope you all enjoy your Christmas and New Years!!! May God bless each and every one of you and may you be filled with the peace and joy that only He can give to you!

Love,
Jessica

Sawatdee Kaa!!! Thailand At Last!!!

Sawatdee Kaa (Hello)!!!

I just wanted to write a short blog for now to let everyone know that after all of the mishaps and a few more minor ones, I have arrived safe and sound in Bangkok, Thailand. I am quite tired at the moment, experiencing a bit of jet lag (a 17 hour time difference from Maui) but the excitement that is building up inside of me more than makes up for the tiredness!!!

I have to sign off for now.. I will add more later on!
Love,
Jessica

Thailand...Not quite yet. haha.

This morning we got up at 3 a.m. to get all of our stuff together to leave the base at 4 a.m. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:10 a.m. from Kahului, Maui. During the previous night and the early morning hours the wind was so strong and loud that it kept me from getting the sleep that I needed. Everything was going pretty smoothly and all of our groups arrived at our gate and we were waiting for the call to board and suddenly the sky got super dark and it started raining harder than I have ever seen before in my life and the wind was out of control! The flight before us had to turn around and come back because the Honolulu Airport was shutting down due to the extreme weather. It was already past our boarding time when a man came over the loud speaker and informed us that at that point they were still waiting to hear back from someone at the Honolulu Airport to inform us what our flight status was or if we could find another flight over. He also told us that there was a very intense and large storm between Honolulu and the island of Molokai and it was heading toward Maui. To make a long story short, all of us ended up camping out in the Maui Airport for over 6 hours, watching the hurricane-like conditions outside. We were told that our connecting flight in Honolulu on China Airlines had to leave without us and there would not be another one flying out that day. We had to get ahold of people back at the base to come pick us up and we had to go claim our baggage which somehow ended up getting soaked!!! It was such a long trip home, it usually only takes 1/2 hour to get back to the base, but it took over an hour! The vans we are transported around in aren't luxurious by any means.. the ceilings leak when it rains too hard -- and somehow I ended up picking the "lucky seat" in the van where there was a constant trickle and sometimes a flow of water streaming onto me!! It was raining so hard that we could hardly see in front of us, the roads were flooded out and the whole towns were shut down because the weather was so horrible and there was no power. However, we got home safe and sound AND soaked.--(atleast me) haha. We didn't have electric at the base for a while so since we were all exhausted from the early morning, most of us decided to go into our sad and empty room to nap in our beds one last time. I was so strange because when we left that morning I thought that I would never be back in that room again!
Sooo.. all that being sad -- what is going on now you might be thinking?
Well, we are tentatively planning on leaving tomorrow morning at 9:45 a.m. to head BACK to the airport to catch our flight at 12:45 to Honolulu. We will have a 16 hour layover there, so I have been told that we will be staying at the YWAM base for a bit so we can attempt to get some rest before we head off to Tokyo, Japan. After that we will fly to Taipei, Taiwan where we will have a 4-6 hour layover before heading to Bangkok, Thailand which is the final destination for the first stage of our outreach. *** Like I said, this is only tentative because the brunt of the storm has not even reached Maui yet, so we are expecting it to arrive here early in the morning or sometime tomorrow. I was told that it is a big tropical depression that could possibly turn into something more as time goes out... I'm not sure how things are going to pan out, but one thing that I'm sure of is that we are in God's hands and He is taking care of us! However, I'm not opposed to any extra prayers you may have for our safe travels!!!
Sorry for the long, rambling story - but I just wanted to share with all of you the first interesting experience i've had as a missionary. I'm sure there will be many, MANY more to come! Our group handled it great, very maturely and responsibly! :) So as of now, we are going to attempt this all again tomorrow morning! Thank you for your prayers!

I love you all!!! Have a wonderful day!

Prayer Points

Hey guys! :)

God has really been placing prayer and intercession on my heart lately and I would love if all of you could help out in this way as well if you feel led to!!! He has really been impressing in me the sense of urgency of it and also He has really been speaking the importance of "Expectancy" and unshakable belief. By this, I mean that in the past I have viewed prayer as a very robotic act, almost as if it is a forced call to duty that is generally followed by an unexpected outcome. However, I have already experienced a difference that it makes if you pray with an expectant heart, fully believing that God hears every word that you say and that He will act upon it. It is important to always uphold God's perspective and trust wholeheartedly that His ways are so much higher than our own. We need to remember that His will and timing are perfect, regardless of our own humanly thoughts that we fabricate and tend to cater to. Prayer is so powerful and the more people that are engaging in this, the better! Sometimes, I admit, it is a little hard to remain disciplined and motivated to make the conscious effort to include prayer throughout the course of the day; especially for a place that is half way across the world - on a totally different continent! However, the Lord has really been challenging me to pray for these countries and the people that we will be coming into contact with. Below this, I have created a non-exhaustive list of the following things that God has been laying on my heart to pray for. :) Thanks again for your ceaseless and unconditional love and support!!! ~♥~
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*Prayer Points*

*The women/prostitutes of Thailand
-That their hearts will be softened and open to what we have to share with them.
-That we can effectively connect with them and lead them to repentance & to Christ!
-That the new Tamar Center (women's shelter) will be a success and it will provide hope and a new vision for the lives of these women.

*The men that come to Thailand for a "get-away"
-Although we are probably going to feel sick and angry just seeing these men, we really need to have God's perspective and keep in mind that these men need Jesus just as much!
-That they will become convicted of what they are doing and turn from it.

*King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Thailand's King)
-That he may become a believer and influence all of his followers to turn from Buddhism.
(The people of Thailand praise and worship the king, they would do anything for him!)

*The people groups of Myanmar
-That God would prepare their hearts for our arrival
-That they would be able to escape fear & condemnation that their country controls them with
-That the harsh government would crumble and that the oppression would cease.
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*My Outreach team :)
-That God would replace all of our fears with peace and that our faith and dependence on him would increase in all areas of our lives.
-For protection in our travels and safety in general
-That God will give us hearts for these countries and these people groups
-That the Lord will set up divine appointments and give us the right words to speak
-That my leader (Sarah) will receive God given wisdom, guidance and discernment
-That we will continue to unite as a team and function as "one"
-That we will not get discouraged if we do not see the fruit of our work...our purpose may be to prepare the harvest and it may be in God's will for someone else to come along & reap the fruit

This looks like a pretty good start for now.. I don't expect you to pray for all of these - I realize that may be a little overwhelming! Thanks in advance for all of your effective prayers, I love and appreciate all of you! ♥ Love ♥ Jess

Outreach Details!!! :)

Wow. I just realized that although some of you may already know a little bit about my outreach location and what I will be doing, I haven't posted anything about it on my blog. I don't know what I was thinking because I am anxiously awaiting December 5th. This is the early morning that our entire group of 3 separate outreach teams are flying out of Maui to Honolulu, then to Tokyo, then Taipei and finally - off to Bangkok, Thailand - which is what I have been informed, a 20+ hour flight. (The flight is not what I am excited about. --eeeks!) After we arrive in Bangkok, all 3 teams will be spending 10 days together at the Thailand YWAM base, helping out with ministries there. When the 10 days have passed, Team C and Team Bangla will disperse and my wonderful Thailand/"M" team will begin our 3 month outreach adventure! Our first destination will be Khonkean, Thailand where we will spend Dec. 15th- Jan. 5th helping a woman named Nella start up a new shelter called the Tamar Center for women. She was the founder of the first center in the city of Pattaya and now she is wanting to expand the ministry. It's really exciting because we will be the first group involved there to help her start everything and reach out to the women in this new town. I pray that it will be a success and that it will make a profound impact on the lives of these women and their families! The reason the Khonkean village was chosen is that it is a poorer section of Thailand and the people there don't have many resources to make a decent living for themselves. Typically when this is the case, the women usually feel inclined to cave into prostitution because they think it is the only possible means to provide for their families. What breaks my heart even more is that some of the parents sell their daughters (as young as 6 years old!) into prostitution just to make a little bit of money! When this decision is made, they have to move to the city of Pattaya, the Red Light District of Thailand along the coast where most of the prostitutes thrive. Our goal will be to show these women and mothers that Jesus loves them more than they can imagine and that he has created them for a much greater purpose and they do not have to resort to selling themselves...also that Jesus will provide for their needs if they put their faith and trust in Him!!! **** We will be travelling to "M" after this for a period of time that we have not finalized yet. Our contact there recommended that we only stay for about 2 weeks for our own safety. The whole time we are there, we will be monitored by the G.I.'s (government intelligence) to make sure that we aren't evangelizing to the people of this country. While here, we will be reaching out to the people living in the slums and we will be teaching English (incorporating the gospel in whatever way we can!) When we leave "M", we will head back to Thailand for the remainder of our outreach. My team will be ministering to the town of Pattaya, the red light district of Thailand. We will be working with the bar girls and prostitutes (typically the same thing) -- again, we will be teaching English to them and witnessing along the way like we will be in "M". We will also be helping in the slums of Pattaya, reaching out to the children there and showing them love they might not have experienced before. ***I will add more to this as I get any more updates!
So, all that being said I, I would like to ask you to pray for Me...and my team as we prepare for our Asia outreach.. I don't think that there is anyway for me to totally prepare myself for this (as far as the culture goes...Guys Mills is pretty much all I have known and I'm pretty sure that doesn't qualify for culture at all! Anyways, I really have been getting prepared in other ways - learning so SO much about the character of my sweet Lord and living my life out in the way that He intended me to; walking with Him every step of the way. :)

1st Month Update

Hello everyone!!
Well here I am, one month down.. Not that I am counting down at all because I am having a great time. This has been a very busy month because we have gotten deep into lectures and schoolwork. So far we have had 4 different speakers come and talk to us each week about 4 very different topics.
The first week a young man named Andy Byrd came and spoke with us about Intimacy with God and our Inheritance as Christians. He was the past director of the Maui base and now he travels all over with his wife and 2 young children as a missionary, going wherever God tells him to go!
The second week was very interesting, a young lady named Amy Sollars taught us about the Holy Spirit. It was a very intense 5 days and I've witnessed things I've never seen before.. pretty interesting! She is a very prophetic woman and her gifting is absolutely crazy. I didn't have any radical experiences like a lot of students in my class, but I have definitely learned that God speaks to us in different ways and at different times because he is a personal and intimate God who loves us all the same (so much we can't even begin to fathom the depths of his love for us!!!) :)
The third week was a really down to earth, but challenging week for us. What I mean by challenging is that our speaker, 25 year old Dave McCoy really encouraged us to listen to God when he tells us to do something, even if it is something we don't necessarily want to do. He did his DTS here in Maui when he was 18 and after that he felt he was called to start up a Missions School of Surfing in his hometown in California. He was at a conference one night and the speaker was talking about the great need for missionaries in Afghanistan. Dave felt the Lord speak to him and tell him that he should go there. He was really upset because he felt his calling was his passion for surfing, which he would not be able to do in Afghanistan! To make a long story short, he went and began a frontier mission field in Afghanistan and spent 2 years there. After that, God spoke to him and told him to stay for another 5 years and through his obedience he stayed although he didn't enjoy being there. Fresh back from returning from the dangerous middle east, Dave came and spoke to us about Missions and Obedience. He really put it into perspective that God has called all of us to go and make disciples of all nations. He has not told us to stay in our comfort zones and forget about all the troubles that are going on around us. Everyone is gifted in different ways and not everyone is called to go overseas to spread the gospel, there is a need everywhere for people to be reached with the truth of God's Word. I'm so excited to see where God leads me after this, He has not revealed that to me yet.. (I guess I should just focus on this for now.. haha I have a lot ahead of me already!!)
This past week the current director of our YWAM base, Tom Osterhus came in and spoke about The Bible overview. I definitely have a new desire in me to learn more and more (as much as I can) about the Bible. We spent 4 days quickly covering only Genesis and Exodus.. there is soo much in there that I would have never realized just reading it over by myself! (To the people in the 8 am Sunday study group with Pastor Steve: it made me smile knowing that I'm not completely missing out on the Genesis study!!! haha) The biggest thing that was revealed to me was that when I am in the nations spreading the Word of God, --what am I going to do when I am face to face with an unbeliever, trying to convince them of the truth about our book (The Bible) I haven't completely read yet!? I might only have experiences to share with them - They might have these too, maybe even stronger than mine! Some of these people will be very knowledgeable about their false religion and books. I really need to take this as a challenge and become more disciplined with reading and learning the truth of the Word of God.

Well that was my month of lectures in a nutshell.. I will create another post later to describe everything else I am experiencing.. the living conditions, friends, activities, etc. :)