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