Farewell Bangkok! Hello airplane

So I'm in the Bangkok airport and I'm about to board my plane. I cannot believe that I am about to exit the Kingdom of Thailand! As we were driving to the airport in the wee hours of the morning (it is 4:42 am right now and we had to leave at 1:30), I was looking out the car window enjoying the city lights :) It was very surreal thinking about being in Bangkok. I think coming to Bangkok for another day was a good way to close the trip. I spent my last day in Thailand with the same people who introduced me to thailand when I first arrived. It was great seeing them all again. Yesterday morning, I said goodbye to  Khon Kaen and headed for Bangkok. Now I'm headed for Tokyo then onto Atlanta and then home. Travel time will be about 24 hours with me arriving home monday night! I'm running on under 5 hours of sleep from the past two nights, and I'm not expecting to sleep "fitfully" on the plane either! Hah hopefully it will help me get over jet lag faster once I actually get back in the states.

I'm looking forward to the plane ride though because of the opportunites it presents for time  alone with God, relaxing and then of course one of my favorite hobbies: just thinking. I'm hoping to do a lot of journaling! So, I'm back to one of my original prayer requests, that God would use the journey! That I would be wise in the time I have by myself.

Random thought I've been having the whole trip... I think traveling alone really helps show us how small we really are. I've traveled alone in the states before, but this is the farthest and longest period of time I have traveled by myself. It is a humbling thought being somewhere where you know absolutely nobody and where you can't even speak the language. I love connections and I love finding connections. But there are some places where you just hit dead ends! The coolest thing.. I'm never actually alone while traveling. Psalm 139 talks about us not being able to escape God's presence.. an awe inspiring thought but also such a comforting thought! God is always my companion when traveling. I can comment to him about the cute little kid with the suitcase, the food the flight attendent just served, and about the movie I just watched. I am never alone. Common Christian truth, but cool thought in relation to traveling. So, I'm looking forward to this next period of "alone time" I have with my God and King traveling around the world! Here we go!

Winding down already?

So, my trip is winding down... Crazy to believe that I've already been here almost 5 weeks. It certainly doesn't feel like that long, but at the same time, it feels like I've been here for much longer! Time plays tricks on the mind... Anyways, I'm starting to say goodbye to some people here in Khon Kaen since I am leaving Sunday morning before church. Wednesday was the last soccer clinic with the kids, and it went well.

 I have two full days left in Khon Kaen and then I will head off to Bangkok Sunday, and then leave Bangkok early monday morning. In Bangkok, I'm hoping to see most of the people that I spent my first week in Thailand with. Looking forward to hanging out with them again!

Today was a really chill day. I stayed at the house for most of the day, ate lunch out with Pi Blaa (Christian lady who owns a bookstore here) and then went to the church for the Thai Summer Project kick off.  Thai summer project is where some of the college students involved in Campus Outreach here come together for a month and do bible classes, fellowship with each other and work in the Khon Kaen area. Its the equivalent of what Campus Outreach calls "Summer Beach Project" in the states.

Tomorrow, I'm looking forward to having a day of prayer. From 8-2 or so, I'm going out with Katie Hamlett and we will just be reading the word, praying, journaling. I'm excited about just spending a big chunk of time with the Lord and having a lot of journaling time (which I always seem to be lacking) I've gone through 3 pens already while here just from running out of ink!

I'll try to write at least one more time before I leave. God has been so faithful this trip to teach me. I pray that it will stick and that I'll be able to apply the lessons into practical steps back home. Thank you for your prayers!

A few thoughts

Psalm  73:25- "Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth."


1. Is this truly my way of thinking? 


But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.


2. Do I live to proclaim His excellencies? Does that motivate me? 


Mark 9:21-24

 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
   “From childhood,” he answered. ²² “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
   ²³ “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
 ²⁴ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”

3. Faith in Christ/trusting Him for the big things (Salvation, existence, sovereignty etc) and for the little things (friendships, plans, agenda, goals etc) Do I truly desire to have childlike faith? Wonder? Amazement? 

A few of the things I've been thinking about, praying about, and wrestling with. God has been good to give me plenty of things to think about while here! Thanks for praying that God would use the time while I'm here to grow and teach me. Please continue to pray that I'll be able to process everything well. Don't we all need need help with that! God Bless!

Ruth

PS: The week is going great. Crazy to think that this is my last week here. Time flies... even when you have an extra day in the month. Cool experiences since I wrote last... went to night market-lots of cool people and food. No, I didn't taste the fried scorpions.... (Shouldn't a person see a red flag when trying to consume something that contains venom?)  Went running 11 kilometers (6 miles) at 5:00 am in the morning with some people training for Marathons. When else am I going to have the opportunity to run that early with thais in Thailand? (My body is suffering a wee bit)... Tried explaining American hand motions to some Thais. How do you explain why we sometimes use our hands to put quotation marks around what we say? Trying to makes good conversation!... And of course the week has been full of good conversations with great people. God is good. Thanks again for prayers!

Photos and Campus Outreach

Here are two photos from the past few days. The first one is from Thursday night when I went out to eat with Bobby and Katie Hamlett and some family they have in town. Bobby is half-Thai and so some of his mom's family lives in Khon Kaen. It was neat to be able to eat a meal with them in their neighborhood. It gave me a little feel for what Thai neighborhoods are like!

The second picture is of some of the kids from soccer. The three men on the back right have been helping out! Bobby and Pi Mo are on staff with Campus Outreach, and then the guy on the back right is a member of the church. His name is Pi Mai. The soccer clinic is going great and it is really rewarding to see everyone put the skills into practice. They are all doing well!

Let me talk a little about Campus Outreach since that is the ministry I've been able to spend a lot of time around while here! Campus Outreach's ministry is explanatory in the name. But to explain their mission in more words, staff go on campus and build relationships with students with the goal of leading the students to Christ. Then, the staff disciples the new believers with the goal of equipping them to do the same thing as students on campus. I have seen examples of Biblical discipleship everywhere while here. Within the team, there are examples of discipleship. At the church, there are more examples of discipleship. And with the staff on campus, there are especially visible examples of discipleship. I don't think I've ever seen discipleship so clearly displayed. This type of discipleship takes work, patience, faithfulness, and a lot of reliance on God! It is a heavy investment to pour your life into someone, but it is so very Biblical. "For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul?" According to Jesus's economic policy, souls have a huge amount of value in God's eyes. The next logical step in thinking is to say that it would be completely "worth" it to pour your life into something or someone if it at anyway affected the salvation of a soul. (Whole world doesn't match up to a soul so anything else I might do wouldn't either.) Whether the immediate affects of the work is visible or not, "soul work" is worth it. Discipleship is worth it. I pray I'll have this mindset wherever I am! I'm thankful that in my life, there are examples of people who have discipled me. But, I also am very thankful for this opportunity to see discipleship displayed through Campus Outreach in such a clear way. May we all strive to go into all the world and make disciples!

Uncomfortable success

Welp, a little late writing, but I'll try to catch up a bit! The past few days have gone by pretty fast. I've met with several more people, and had some memorable experiences! The above picture is of a game called takraw. It's a cross between soccer, volleyball, gymnastics and kung fu. Super fun to watch.. I'm sure it is even more fun to play. Unfortunately, most girls don't play sports here. It is rather tempting to ask to join though!

One of the highlights of the week was going with Mark Caldwell (missionary with IMB) along with church members to a church plant about 45 min outside of Khon Kaen. I wasn't sure what to expect, but ended up having a great time. I ended up teaching an impromptu english class to about eleven kids! I am still not sure if that was what I was supposed to do, but considering the circumstances, I thought it went pretty well :) I will say though, that the trip out to the church plant definitely put me outside of my comfort zone! My comfort zone is normally pretty big (either because I am comfortable doing a lot of things or I'm ignorant of the circumstances when I should feel uncomfortable), so it was interesting being in a situation when I really wasn't sure of expectations and didn't really feel "comfortable!" Definitely a growing experience, thus an uncomfortable success! On the way back to Khon Kaen, 4 students from the university and I had an impromptu worship session in the back of the car. I will not forget that 30 or so minutes spent singing worship songs in english and thai as I tried to figure them out on the guitar!

On a spiritual level, I think God is really revealing some deep heart issues. I can't remember whether I've written about this or not, so forgive me if you are reading a repeat! Two questions and one idea have been in my mind a lot while I've been here. The idea is the one I know I've mentioned several times before, and that is the idea of living and basking in the journey. God is being faithful to reveal how often I try to skip ahead to the next thing, and consequently miss what He is doing at that moment. Sherry Lewis  mentioned the other day that God works primarily in us and not just through us. I'm realizing that so often, I block out what God is doing in and around me because I'm too busy focusing on what the next thing is that I can do. I don't want to live my whole life looking ahead and missing the present.

"If tomorrow is today, the future is the past. The present was never here; we never let it last. Eyes are in the distant, instead of looking down. Maybe if we started slowing, what was lost would soon be found."

Along with learning to live in journey, the two questions that I've really been wrestling with are: "What satisfies me?", and "Why do I enjoy/do ministry?" 

I think as God peels away the layers of "impulse answers" in my heart, He is revealing to me the sad truth that I am not satisfied with just Him. God is revealing that perhaps some of my motivations for ministry are because I have a desire to feel needed, accomplished, or successful in my own eyes. God is revealing that while my idols are not the big golden buddhas I see quite often around here, my idols come in much more "christian forms" like ministry. Wait, ministry can be an idol? Yes, Ruth, it is an idol in your life. I revel so much in doing the things of God, that I fail to revel in God Himself. I can talk for days about exciting ministry opportunities, but fail to talk for days about the glory of the King Himself. My prayer for the new year was that I would return to my first love, not ministry, but the Lord of ministry. I continue to pray that I will be completely satisfied in God alone, so that my joy does not depend on wherever I am and whatever I'm doing.  If I'm completely satisfied with God, I will not be jumping ahead to "the next thing" because I'll be content living in the journey with Him. God is faithful to reveal things hidden in the depths of my heart! "In Christ alone my hope is found!"

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for a clear memory and an open and honest heart that is able to evaluate surroundings, conversations and lessons.

Thursday Feb 16

No creative title this time. I'm running out of creative juice! Here are a few pictures taken over the past two days. I went to a Valentines party Tuesday night for some of the student girls involved in Campus Outreach. We had a fun hang-out time, eating junk food and playing games. I enjoyed meeting the girls, talking with them, and passing out my mickey mouse valentines :)

Yesterday, we had the soccer clinic and focused on passing. It went well! I am glad I have an opportunity to hang out with the mks here; they are all a fun group of people. Wednesday night, I went to community team which is like a small group time for some of the people in the church. Since many members of the church are students, they have a time on wednesday nights for non-students to get together, discuss the sermon and have small group fellowship. Katie Hamlett translated for me, so I got to hear what everyone was saying about the sermon on Sunday concerning Luke 9 and following Jesus.

Today, I'm looking forward to eating lunch with Debbie and Leslie Nesbitt who are with a different missions group (not campus outreach) in Khon Kaen. They are wanting to start some small business programs to help "at risk" people. I read somewhere that prostitution constitutes around 4% of Thailand's economy. The largest number of prostitutes come from the region I am in right now known as Isaan.  Isaan refers to the northeast part of Thailand, which contains mostly rural areas. By starting small businesses etc, some families battling material poverty could have a way to earn some money. Many potential prostitutes would have an alternant way to earn money for their families. There are a few missionary families in Khon Kaen, wanting to pursue that type of ministry. Looking forward to meeting with one family today!

Here are some pictures from the past two days

 The sunsets here are beautiful

 Group picture from valentine's party minus a few people

community team meeting

Happy Valentines Day!

This post doesn't really have anything to do with Valentine's Day, besides the fact that it IS Valentine's day! Hope you have a wonderful day celebrating L.O.V.E. (song playing in head by Nat King Cole). But more importantly celebrating Love. (I'm now going on a tangent that wasn't originally intended when I wrote the first sentence). This morning I was reading Knowledge of the Holy by A.W. Tozer. The chapter was about the infiniteness of God and why we should be concerned with that aspect of God! Why? Because the fact that God is infinite means his attributes are infinite as well: Goodness, Mercy, Justice, Love. Infinite God=Infinite Love. Found not in candy hearts, roses or relationships but in Love Himself. Happy Valentine's Day!

Been reading Knowledge of the Holy and it is such a good book! It is very humbling and definitely leads me to worship how great our God is. I definitely suggest it to you!

Sunday, I went to the church that Campus Outreach sponsors. It was bigger than the church in Bangkok, and they have their own building. It was very cool for me to again be able to see and hear church in another language and culture. I also enjoyed making friends afterwards as I passed out American candy that I brought with me :D.

Monday, I led the first of six soccer clinics that I will be doing for the missionary kids while I'm here. We had about 12 kids, and had a lot of fun working on dribbling. I'm glad I have the opportunity to play soccer while I am here and use it to build friendships with the kids here.

I am very much enjoying being able to go out and meet with people, talk, and hear stories of God's work. Over the past few days, I've been able to talk with several people, and I have so enjoyed learning from them! I have had many impactful conversations in just the past few days, and I am now trying to record them all which is proving difficult! I wish I could write all the names of the people I've been talking with and how the conversations have provoked me to think about topics I haven't previously thought a lot about! I hate that I have to be broad, but otherwise this post would go on forever. Anyways, the past few days have been good, filled with conversations that align with the purpose of why I came here: to learn and observe!

Thank you for praying. God is faithful!