Gracia Burnham at High Street

Gracia Burnham Testimony from High Street on Vimeo.

THAILAND TRIP REPORT JULY 1st

THE MOST EXCITING NEWS FROM THAILAND

We got news today that one of the little boys we met at the School where we held English Camp in Baan Nam Kem,  got saved after we left for home.  Erin shared her testimony with him and Pholi interpreted it for her, and he got saved!  I bet Erin is glad she stayed behind now!!  His name is Pon and this is a picture of him. He was a fun little boy to hang out with, full of energy for sure!

Pray for him, that his family will allow him to attend church at the CDC and he will continue to grow in Christ and grow up to be a Godly young man.  Maybe even he will go back to school this week and tell about his experience and bring others to know Christ.  It was worth taking this trip just for this good news!!

We hope to hear more stories like this one!!  

BACK IN THE USA

We are home!  The team landed in Springfield around 3:00pm Monday afternoon.  Mixed emotions.....ready to be home to regular toilets and american food.....sad to leave the precious people of Thailand and our new friends.

Hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of our trip.  There are no pictures, stories or souvenirs that could explain the sights, sounds and smells we experienced on this trip.  But we hope you were able to grasp a little bit of our experience from our post on the blog and all the facebook post too!!

Two of our team members, Haylee and Erin,  stayed behind for 2 more weeks of working with our missionaries.  Please pray for their safety, health and making it to all their flights home by themselves!!  There is a lot involved flying that far away.......passports, tickets, security checks, immigration, customs - it is a major ordeal!  

Thank you to Jason & Pholi Goh, Sarah Kurian and David, Joy, Alena, Gabriel and Jasmine Speights for making this such a fantastic trip.   We are so privileged to be able to partner with our missionaries to help them share the Gospel with the people of Thailand.  Now that we have been there and experienced ministry together, we can pray for you in a more intimate way, knowing now what you go through each day.  We love you all and are so blessed to have been able to go on this trip.

The Thailand Team

LEAVING THAILAND TODAY

Sorry it has been a couple of days since we have posted anything - it has been a very busy few days and we didn't have internet in most places. We have done so many amazing things I am not sure we can put it all into words but here we go.......

We spent 3 days at the school here in Baan Nam Kem holding an English Camp.  But it wasn't really about the English, it was about the time we spent with the kids and the realationships we were going to form while we are here.  It also was an opportunity for the CDC to reach out to these kids as well.  We did games, music, English, sports and we took lots of pictures with the kids.  They loved having their pictures taken with us and then looking at it through the camera. By the third day our kids had bonded specifically with certain Thai children.  They knew their names and were exchanging gifts with each other.  

Thursday evening we went to the beach where they have a memorial of the Tsunami.  There is a wall of pictures of those who were lost in this village.  It was very emotional to not only look at the memorial but to be standing in the very spot where the Tsunami took place, you just can't describe that feeling.  We had pizza on the beach and held our service that evening in the pavilion on the beach.  There could not have been a more perfect place to sit and listen to the word of God, with the sun setting, the cool breeze from the waves of the sea and the peaceful feeling that God was with us.  Randy Tucker shared with the team and it was just a powerful, powerful time with God. 

Friday we ended our English Camp at the school here in Baan Nam Kem.  It was a very emotional time for all of us.  Even though we can't understand each others language, there was still a connection made and many new friendships made.  We invited all the kids from the camp to church service this morning at the CDC that is a children's church.  It was great to see this morning as we arrived many of the kids came.  They were here almost an hour early waiting for us to arrive - it was so sweet to see the look on all their faces when we pulled up.  Especially the girls who were waiting the arrival of Mario (aka Blake Tucker).

We had a Thai church service Friday night at the CDC with some of their workers.  Three of them shared their testimonies with us about how the came to know Christ.  A couple of them had lost children in the Tsunami - it was heart breaking to hear them tell the story of the Tsunami, we could see their pain and heartache as they shared.  They all had come through some very tough struggles, yet they have a joy in their life through Christ.  It was such a blessing to all of us to get to hear their stories.

Saturday morning we headed out to go clam digging!  We loaded up in long tail boats and took a 30 minute ride out to where the water was shallow trying to dig for the clams before the tide came in.  However, it came in very quickly and we had to keep moving down stream.  Just as we arrived at our digging location and unloaded the boats, Randy Tucker let out a scream as if he had been hurt by something.  As we got him out of the water it was evident he had been stung in the foot bad by something, we were assuming a stingray, but we weren't positive.  It was obvious that it was an unbearable pain.  So we loaded him in a boat with one of our missionaries to interpret for them and they headed back in to the doctor.  It was a tense moment for the team and a little scary for all of us for a while, but we are so thankful that it was a stingray and not something more serious.  He is doing pretty good now.

After clam digging and lunch at the CDC we went on Elephant Rides.  That was a blast! Something we will never forget.  We also got to see an adorable monkey show and another snake show with a King Cobra!  It was probably around 16 feet long, the guys who work with those snakes are nuts!!

We left there and finished up some shopping in a town called Khao Lak - once again it was extremely hot, but it was fun and we got to get more trinkets to remember our time on Thailand.  We ate dinner at an international restaurant that had american food and ice cream!!! It was a treat for most of the team to have something familiar like Hamburgers and Spaghetti!

When we returned to the hotel we all met together and Troy shared a blessing that he had received from each high school student as he observed them on this trip.  It was a sweet time together to hear him share so many neat things that our kids had done this week.  They all went out of their comfort zone and did things they would never have done had they not been on this trip.  To watch God speak to each one of them in a different way.  This has truly been an amazing trip.

We are at the CDC now having children's church, then we will have lunch here and jump in the vans and head to Phuket to the airport to start our journey home!  At first it seemed like 10 days would be so long, and now we can't believe it is already time to go home.

Pray for us as we travel home, that we can keep the same excitement we all feel right now when we return back to our life in the states again.

The Thailand Team

thai photos

High Octane in Thailand

Hello everyone,

We have had a great trip so far and had many unique experiences.   Our students have seen things that they have never had the opportunity to see in the Ozarks.  We have had a wonderful chance to see people that are very different than us in their culture, but still at the end of the day, just like us.  Just like Americans, they are a people who need the Lord.  And yet when you do meet someone who has received Christ here, their automatically seems to be a strong kinship with them.

I appreciate how High Street has enabled our students to have this life changing experience. Your support has allowed us to get over here and experience the world and realize there are so many who haven't heard about Christ.

You would be very proud to see our students and how they are behaving.  It has been very hot/humid, and we have kept them very busy, but haven't heard any complaints.  Please continue to pray for our safety in traveling, and that God opens doors for our students to minister to the people at the CDC.

Here is the breakdown of what we have had the opportunity to do so far in Bangcock.

1.  Church Services in Thai and English

2.  See culture in their places of business

3.  We visited a 5,000+ private Christian boys school in Bangkok

4.  Visited Buddhist temples and palaces

5.  Attended a very interesting snake show!

God bless.

Troy Wolfe

Youth Pastor

FIRST DAY IN THAILAND

We arrived safely in Bangkok around 1:30am Sunday morning.  By the time we got to our guest house and got everyone settled in to their room it was around 3:00am before we got to bed.  It was a short nights sleep but a much needed rest after such long flights and the 12 hour time difference.

We began our day around 8:30 am with breakfast then heading to Pastor Noom's church, Sia-mia Baptist Church. They had a Thai service first at 10:30 then we at an authentic Thai lunch that the church prepared for us, then we held an English service at 2pm with Troy bringing the message. The people were so sweet and we enjoyed our time with them.

A couple of exciting things for us was first to meet one of the missionaries that works with Pastor Noom, Minda Gallarin, who is a Fillipino missionary from Boyd Lyons church.  She was so excited to meet us and she was especially excited to see Coco.  What a great picture of how missions really works to be able to see a missionary that was sent out of one of our missionaries churches.

Another exciting thing was to meet one of the girls at the church that was saved in an English Camp that a team from High Street held here in Thailand in 2004.  Especially for Gary and Randy who were a part of that team, to be able to see that she is still attending church and serving the Lord.

Tomorrow we will be seeing the sights of Thailand and learning the culture.  Our day will be a long one - riding the train to visit the oldest private Christian school in Thailand with over 5,000 students, touring a temple, taking a long tailed boat ride, eating in the tallest building in Thailand and ending our day with some street shopping.

We are looking forward to a good nights sleep!  Thank you for praying for us, things have gone very smoothly so far.  

The Thailand Team

THAILAND HERE WE COME

We are at the airport waiting to board our first flight to Chicago (hour or so), then to Japan (14 hour flight), then to Bangkok, Thailand (7 hour flight)!!  Pray for us, this is going to be a long haul today!!  Hopefully we can all sleep on the long flight.

Thank you to everyone who has supported our fundraisers, purchased items for us to take, prayed for us and encouraged us as we prepared for this trip.  We are expecting God to do some amazing things with this group and all for all of us to come home changed.

Our verse for the trip is Colossians1:29 "Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily"

The Thailand Team

THAILAND MISSION TRIP 09

Thank you to everyone who came out and support our high school class at the pancake breakfast!  It was a huge success. 

The team will be leaving for Thailand on Friday June 5th and returning to Springfield on Monday June 15th.  Please be in prayer for our team as we go, several of the high schoolers going have never been on a mission trip!!  Pray for their safety, their health and for God to speak to each one individually about what he would have them do for Missions.

We will be working with our missionaries Jason & Valencia Goh, David & Joy Speights and Sarah Kurian at the Community Development Center that High Street helped build after the Tsunami devastated the community of Pukhet.  The CDC has a school, MANNA feeding center and Church services there.  One of the things we will be doing is holding an English Day Camp with the children who attend school here as an outreach to share the Gospel with them.  Many of these children lost family members and all their belongings in the Tsunami.  

Check the blog during our trip and keep updated on what the team is doing and see how God is using these students to share Christ with the people of Thailand.

Sheila -  John Paul - Britton - Brittany - Coco - Megan - 

Kim - Abbie - Erin - Ruby - Rachel - Shawntel - 

Blake - Randy - Tammie -Haylee - Ashley - 

Lisa - Morgan - Gary - Troy - Jen

Guatemala 2009 Video

ALLYOU CAN EAT PANCAKES

ALL YOU CAN EAT PANCAKES FUNDRAISER

 Saturday, May 2nd

8:00 am - 10:00 am

Applebee's on N. Glenstone

Tickets are $5 and include your drink

You can purchase your ticket at High Street or at the door

All proceeds from this fundraiser will go to help 

our high school team members go on their trip to 

Thailand June 5 - 15th 

In Thailand we will be working with our missionaries 

Jason & Velencia Goh, David & Joy Speights and Sarah Kurian.   

The team will be working at the 

Commnunity Developement Center in Pukhet.  

High Street had a part in building the CDC after the 

Tsunami devastated this community.

They have a school, MANNA feeding center and 

church services at the CDC.

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING MISSIONS AT HIGH STREET!

GOOD TO BE HOME

It is great to be back home from Guatemala, but at the same time it was so sad to leave those precious babies at The Eagles Nest Children's Home. Thanks Larry & Claire Boggs for a great trip!

We hope you will join us Wed. night at 6:30pm in the Chapel at High Street to hear about our trip. We will have Dinner for $1 Tacos at 5pm! Don't miss it!

ANOTHER BUSY DAY IN GUATEMALA

Friday was a hectic but fun day for the team. We headed to Panajachael right after breakfast and started our day learning the culture of the Mayan people. Miguel, our tour guide for the day taught us about their language, their dress and the meaning behind what they wear. He also shared about their religion and how the Maya people believe the world came into existence, which is very far from the truth.

Miguel then took us on a boat ride across the lake to the city of Santiago. It is 95% Mayan and very crowded and very poor. We went to the home of a lady who showed us how they make some of the goods they sell. She showed us how to make thread from cotton, how to weave cloth into designs and she even dressed some of our team in Mayan clothing. It was a wonderful experience.

We returned back to Panajachael and headed to the Zip Line! Oh my, this was a fantastic experience for the team! They climb up the mountain to reach the starting point which seemed never ending....but once we got there it was amazing to zip line through the jungle surrounded by mountains, exotic wildlife and just the natural beauty of this city.

We had an authentic meal in Panajachael and then headed out for a little shopping. That is an experience that you can't explain. I can't tell you how many times each of us said No Gracias!

The sights, the sounds and the smell....it is so hard for us to put into words what we are seeing, hearing and smelling! One thing we all have noticed the most is that the people here work very hard long hours. We have watched young children to very old people carrying everything from a baby, to loads of wood, to harvested onions and the biggest carrots we had ever seen! We watched one man put a load on his back that it took 2 grown men to get off the top of a bus. They walk up and down mountain roads that nearly killed some of us with nothing on our backs!

So today is finishing up the security system, one last quilt, and watching the most chaotic garage sale you have ever seen! Claire lets the workers each pick 30 things for free, then the rest of the people get to buy things for about a quarter. Claire just yelled across the valley and the people came running. When everyone is finished buying they take the left overs to the front of the hospital down the road and within a minute everything is gone.

We leave for Guatemala City right after lunch, and it will be hard to say goodbye. We have experienced so much this week, and at times it has seemed overwhelming. We realize how much we take for granted, and hopefully we will remember to be thankful for all that God has blessed us with back home, but also to remember how much the people here need Christ, and to keep praying and supporting the Boggs ministry in Solola.

NEWS FROM GUATEMALA

Today was a full day....some of us went to the state children's home to help Claire as she has to volunteer 10 hours a month to complete a course she is taking to meet government requirements to run their orphanage. It was sad, there was no structure and nothing for us to do with the kids as there were no toys or book and a not so great play ground.

The rest of the team went to Vina Studios where they translate the Jesus film into different languages and they also make movies with finger puppets for those who can't read or write. There are 43 different dialects besides Spanish in Guatemala.

This afternoon we ate an authentic Guatemalan meal .... it is a lot of hard work to prepare a meal here for a big group. It was a great experience trying to make our own tortilla shells!! None of us were very good. We toured a cemetery where they bury above the ground 3 or 4 high. The monuments are painted in all different colors...it was a beautiful view but a sad reality.

We also had a soccer tournament tonight and message brought by a group from Larry & Claire Boggs first church in Guatemala. We gave out soccer backpacks, t-shirts, water bottles and candy to all the area kids that came. (thanks to Glendale Soccer Team and Lake Country Soccer) We ended the night with a little fireworks show! They all had a great time and it was a lot of fun for us as well!

We have 11 quilts made and the security system is installed....we are just doing a few tweaks here and there and we will be done!

We will try to post another update before we head to Guatemala City Saturday to begin our journey home.

GOING TO MARKET

There are no words to explain market yesterday.....Claire took some of us to their local market they have a couple of days a week. It was unbelievable....the sights, the sounds and well THE SMELL!! It was so crowded there were times we couldn't move. But it was a great cultural experience....one that most of the group will never ever forget!

Operation Security Blanket is Under Way!

Well we are here Guatemala and things are going great! The guys got a lot of work done last night and today on the security system....and the girls got 2 quilts completed....which was a huge accomplishment since none of us had ever made a quilt before. As you can see in the photos the babies at the Orphanage are so adorable. It is so much fun to play with them and spend time with them. One of the babies was brought here by his mom the day she delivered him in October, he was only 4lbs old. She asked them to take him or she would leave them in the street. So the Boggs kept the baby and his mom overnight and they went to court the next day to get the appropriate papers signed so they could keep him. Because his mom didn't want him and hadn't given him a name, the state has him listed as baby X, it just breaks your heart.

Keep watching for updates and Keep praying for the team!

HEADING TO GUATEMALA

Operation Security Blanket Team will be leaving for Guatemala this Saturday, March 21st - 29th! Please be in prayer for the team and for our project. We will update the blog daily while we are in Guatemala so keep watching for new pictures and updates of our trip!

Team Members:
Gary - Lisa - Matt - Dave - Brad - Mandy - Jeff - Shannon - Ashley - Charlotte - Greg - Stephen - Jenny - Morgan - Sam - Mark - Cindy - Barrett - Dave - Sam - Dennis - Melanie

Prayer request:
Safe Travel

Team Members Health

All our luggage will arrive in Guatemala with the team

We have no trouble getting the medications we are taking through customs (the last team that went to the Eagles Nest had their medications confiscated at the airport)

That the equipped we shipped is in good condition and nothing is missing

We will be able to finish the installation of the security system while we are there

The team will have opportunity to share Christ with those we work with and come in contact with while in Guatemala

GUATEMALA PANCAKE BREAKFAST

We are having a fundraiser for our Operation Security Blanket mission trip in March. The proceeds from this fundraiser will go to help pay shipping for all the materials we will need to install the security system. It will also be used to help purchase any materials we need that were not donated, purchase any items the Eagles Nest Orphanage may need us to bring and for team members that may need help raising money to go.

ALL YOU CAN EAT PANCAKE FUNDRAISER

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 7th 8:00am -10:00 am

APPLEBEE'S NORTH
(corner of Glenstone & Kearney)

COST IS $5 PER PERSON

YOU CAN PURCHASE YOUR TICKET AT THE DOOR
OR YOU CAN PURCHASE A TICKET AT HIGH STREET
ON SUNDAY JAN 25th AND SUNDAY FEB 1st

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING MISSIONS AT HIGH STREET!!