Crazy Things We Have Learned

I am sure if I had time I could sit down a make a huge, long list about the crazy things I have seen and learned here in Thailand, but right now I am just going to stick to some things I have leanred about buddhist belief.

First of all, I am beginning to see how widely accepted it is to be homosexual here. Every single day we see transexuals or men dressing and acting like women. I can't even give you an estimate of how many we have seen because they are everywhere. But we learned that it is accepted here because buddhists believe in reincarnation, so the homosexuals may be men or women in this life, but they were probably the opposite in another life. They say that you may be a man, but you are truly a woman in your heart. I need prayer that I can get through my judgements of these people and just see them the way God created them, in His likeness.

The second thing I learned is that we may see running an orphanage as a GREAT thing, but many Thai people believe that it is wrong. This ministry that we are a part of here has had much criticism for taking in these orphaned children. Again, since buddhists believe in reincarnation and karma, they think that the children were left orphans because they were bad people in a past life or something. They would tell the ministry that they were messing up the children's lives because they wouldn't let "karma" unfold the way it needed to. I am so thankful that the true God of this universe is a merciful and loving God who will not abandon us or forsake us. Thank You Jesus for dying for our sins, all of us all over the world!

We Are Back Online

So it seems that nowadays that we quite on our blogs quite sporadically. Honestly, it's not that I haven't wanted to write on the blog or that I didn't have anything to write about, actually, it's probably the opposite of that. I have so much to write about that I just don't know where to start and that is quite frustrating. How about I just start back again right here where we are at...

Gabe is really really loving school here. He's like excited all the time it seems. His schedule goes like this 5 days a week: 6:30 leave for school, 7:00 breakfast, 8:00 chapel, 9:00 class, 12:00 lunch, 1:00 mentor groups and practical ministry, 5:00 most nights he gets to come home at this time. 

Yeah, it sounds pretty crazy, but I get to be up at the school with him quite a bit because I am teaching English to the students. Five days a week Gabe and the other students (about 15 of them) have a chapel service in the morning which the students do everything for themselves. They take turns preaching and teaching and leading worship all on their own. That's a good teaching tool I think for the ministry.

Also, five days a week Gabe goes to do practical ministry. This is all about hands-on learning. Some nights he will go out to the streets and tell people about Jesus and pass out tracks and sometimes he works with the media department to make videos and such about what is going on here. 

All in all, we truly believe this is an incredible opportunity for us. We are growing tremendously in faith and love. We know these people need us, but we also know that we cannot do this without God in every area. 

Thanks for your continued prayers and support. We are beginning to get revelations of how important prayer truly is. With that revelation comes a desire to pray...Hallelujah!

Hey From Thailand

Okay, so sorry we haven't gotten a chance to write in the last few weeks. We are trying to get this whole internet thing worked out. We found this sweet little internet place right down the road from our house and it only cost 50 cents an hour, but it's just hard to get here sometimes with a two year old. We will have internet at our house soon though, I believe!

So to all our precious friends and family back home, we are so sorry about the craziness of this hurricane season. We only get one real English channel on our tv here and that is Fox news, so we have been keeping up with the weather there and praying for you guys. It's like I want to be there to make sure you are all okay and give you love and encouragement. We are believing God with you that good will come out of this bad weather season. One of my favorite quotes of all times is The darkest night is just before the dawn, and that is exactly what I am believing over Louisiana right now. You sweet people of God are a bright light there right now. We Love You, We Love You, We Love You, We Do!!!!! I mean that, more than I can actually explain. 

Everything is going good on our end. We really like it here in Thailand. We have gotten settled into a nice house, made some new friends, and have been really enjoying the new ministry we are becoming a part of. Our biggest challenge here so far is to keep our faith high. I was reading in Psalm 78 today about how God was so angry at the Israelites because they had seen Him do so many amazing miracles, but they still said that there were things that God couldn't possibly do. Gabe and I just need a stillness in our spirits that we know, that we know, that we know that God has sent us here and will meet all our needs in abundance. We have some faith, but we are believing God to increase our faith to incredible levels. 

We are so excited about the ministry possibilities for our lives in this place. We see a need everywhere we look. I will go into more detail later, but I can just say now that these people REALLY need Jesus and they have no other way to know Him other than through us. 

Thank you our loved ones for your continued prayers and support. We just can't express how much it means to us. I am not being cliche, just telling the truth from my heart. WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

Love always, Dawn