Where 2 or more meet togethere in His name....

Today went shopping for food and prizes for the carnival on Saturday. Then we took out the college kids for a shrimp dinner. The food was great, and the fellowship was too.  After dinner we headed back to the college house where we had a time of singing and then separated into small groups with them for a time of sharing and prayer. It was both challenging and interesting hanging out with the college kids, seeing how they interact with each other. We shared our most embarrassing moment, what God was teaching us and a prayer request. It was a blessing to be able to thank them in person for their prayers last year while I was in the hospital. Currently there are 13 of them with studying ranging from music, to English to business.

Friday morning was a special treat, we were able to go to the High school to see a few of the seniors perform in a talent competition. Then we went back and started preparing to cook dinner for the staff and kids of Khaodee. We decided to serve chicken and pork burritos and nachos. Eating Mexican food was a new experience for the kids. The team worked like a well oiled machine; slicing and dicing, mixing and serving, spooning and wrapping. Then after everyone had their fill, it was time to get ready for the carnival. It was neat to work with a couple of the college kids. Each day winding down I’m starting to miss the kids..I’m going to miss them……..

In His care

Kit V

Planting rice & fellowshippin!

Tuesday-

God is good.  He plans out our trip in ways we can't imagine.  He blesses us  with opportunities it is impossible to plan for.  On Tuesday, the high school kids didn't have school.  So the team was able to spend time with them.  We worked on the rice field, planting rice for hours.  It was some back breaking work which the team had never experienced, but it was well worth it.  Helping Khaodee with their physical needs, and more importantly spending time working side by side with the High Schoolers, fellowshipping, sharing, and having fun.  :)  After eating a feast of a meal for lunch, we went back down to finish the rice field for the next couple of hours.  Then....we went down to the river and played in the water!  So fun!  Needless to say, this gave the team a pretty good nights sleep :)

Wednesday-

Every year on these  trips, we ask Khaodee what their needs our.  What can we help with?  Painting? Building a chicken coop?  This year, they said the kids needed more fellowship.  Small group sharing and prayer.  The kids work so hard each day, there isnt much time for this.  So on wednesday, the High School kids had a test early in the morning, and then had the day off.  So, we picked up the kids, grabbed some drinks and pizza, and went off to have a picnic with the kids.  What a awesome time of fellowship with the kids!  After eating, we had some worship with the kids, and then split up into small groups of 3-4.  Another blessing, is that usually we have Gai as a translator, but God had other plans.  We were blessed to have 4 translators with us on most of this trip!  So we were able to do the small groups.  We had the kids share:

1. Most embarrassing moment
2. Something God has taught them recently
3. Prayer request

I can't believe how much the kids were longing for this.  An outlet to share and pray for one another.  Tears flowed and prayers were lifted up.  Praise God!  We didn't even have enough time to finish!  When we got back to Khaodee at night, the High School kids kept coming up to me asking if we could do it again.

God calls us to meet the physical needs of those in need.  But more importantly, God calls us to help disciple and grow other brothers and sisters in Christ through prayer and the Word.  Word!

CJ

PS sorry no pictures....the internet is super slow here  :/

The Praying Grandmas!

Today we went to the Overbrook Hospital to visit and pray with a group of Thai Christians for the patients. While there we were split up into groups. What was awesome was that in almost each of our groups we had a “grandmother” figure that spoke English and was able to share and interpret all the prayer requests of each of the patients.  Most all the patients we came into contact with graciously allowed us to pray for them regardless of their religion. Just being able to pray for people with various ailments and hurts in a hospital was a great experience. Afterwards I found out that this was the only hospital in Chiang Rai that had a ministry of this type. Every week volunteers would visit patients to pray for them. And in because of those faithful prayer warriors, patients have come to Christ. I can only imagine if we had something like that back at home at all the hospitals, the possibilities of sharing with patients the chance to know someone who could heal and cleanse their lives forever.  

P Bo- even though theres a picture of CJ  : P

Days 6 and 7!

Day 6 - Bangkok

We went back to the slum community that we visited yesterday (day 5) with King’s Kids ministry. On Saturday mornings, King’s Kids ministry goes to the community to teach Bible lessons, sing songs, play games, etc. to the kids there. Our team taught the kids “Making Melodies”. Just like the kids at the school at Ratchaburi, the kids in this community had fun learning the motions and singing the song.

After singing a few more songs, one of the King’s Kids leaders read the story of Moses and the burning bush. When he finished reading the story, he asked the kids some questions and it was encouraging to see how excited they were to answer the questions.

We also got to play some games with the kids. Even though most of us weren’t able to communicate with the kids, we all had fun playing with them and the kids were not shy to play or interact with us. 

Later that afternoon we took a short flight to Chiang Rai, rode on the back of the extremely bumpy Khaodee trucks (where one of our members managed to sleep through the entire ride), and arrived at Khaodee. SAWADEE KHAODEE!!!

Day 7 - Chiang Rai

Today was our first Sunday in Thailand. What better way to start our time in Khaodee than Sunday worship with the children. It’s always a blessing worshiping at Khaodee. Even though everyone in the worship room doesn’t speak the same language, it was a blessing praising God together.

During our time here at Khaodee, our team will be playing games with the kids that ties into salvation. Tonight was our first night and we played a game called “River Crossing”. The kids were very competitive in trying to complete the game. The point of the game was for each team of about 8-9 people to cross the river using 5 rafts. Any time someone stepped into the river, the team would have to start over again. Unlike the game where you have to start over again when you step into the river, as Christians, we don’t have to start our relationships with God over again each time we sin.

Julie

“All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will

never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do

the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall

lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my

Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have

eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:37-40

BANGKOK!!!!

Sawadee Ka from Bangkok!
We arrived in Bangkok safely yesterday. This morning, we were able to have some down time getting massages and eating dessert around town. One of the team members said it was the BEST massage he's ever had!
In the afternoon, we had an opportunity to visit a local childrens home. A husband and wife team takes care of 8 teenagers at Baan Chu Jai childrens home. They take in children who are at risk for various reasons and provide shelter, food, and send them to school. They also teach them about God and pray with and for them constantly. They seemed like they were a one big family. We spent some time hearing about the kids' background, met few of the kids and prayed with them. It was encouraging to meet the people who are doing the actual leg work for God, full-time, in these areas of need. The people in the various ministries have been all very himble, asking for nothing more than our prayers. It was very evident that they live solely on their faith in God.
After visiting the childrens home, we headed over to the Bangkok slum community. This is the second slum community we've visited so far and the conditions were pretty bad. Their homes were built with some metal sheets and wood boards, sitting on top of garbage and nasty green still water. It is a 400 family community and out of the 400, only 5 were christians. We visited the house of the first christian in the community and a few others. But the story that stuck with us the most was of the people in the last house we visited.
In the last house, we met P'Mu and her daughter. She used to worship many idols before she became a christian. After she accepted Christ, although her circumstances make it very difficult for her to go to worship, she HAS to go worship God. She suffers from various illnesses, but about three months ago, she had to get her leg amputated because of diabetes. Ever since then, her 13 year old daugther became her sole care taker and has not been attending school. P'Mu has a wheelchair but cannot easily get around, even to see the doctors, because of the road conditions in the community and the wheelchair is too heavy for her daugther to lift. They can't even catch a taxi because the wheelchair is too big. She could have told us that she needed and wanted many things in life, but told us that only thing she really wants to do is to go to church and worship God. She told us about the times, when her daughter pushed her in the wheelchair in the pouring rain to go to worship on Tuesday nights. Her story put a lot of us in tears, grateful for her faith in God even in the worse conditions. Before we left, we held P'Mu and her daughter and prayed with her. Seeing these people and hearing their stories made me reflect on my attitude towards worship. Am I absolutely always ready to worship God no matter where and when in any condition?

MJ

Day 3 -- Ratchaburi

We went back to the school to teach and play with the Middle Schoolers.  We had a great time teaching the kids "I've got Joy" with hand motions.  They enjoyed the song and liked the hand motions.  On day 2, our team has taught them a song the day before called "Making Melodies".  The kids loved the song so much that we brought it back today.  If you want to know how it is done, please watch this tutorial video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QynR96wUwaI

Brian taught lesson on feeding 4,000.  He described a picture and had the kids draw the picture to see which group would match our picture.  We wanted to teach them the Bible and test their English at the same time.  All the kids participated and had lots of fun drawing pictures.  We then broke them up into 3 groups to play games.  We had "Freeze Tag", "Steal the Bacon", and "Rock Paper, Scissors".  The kids had a lot of fun.

As I reflect back on our trip so far, I had an opportunity to share my testimony to a small group Bible Study.  Although it is all in Thai, we had a translater.  During my sharing, the translater left and a new translator, named Boy, stepped in.  As I was sharing about encouraging other believers, I felt it was being received well.  But I felt that God was saying it was the translators opportunity to share.  A new believer in Christ, Deo, did not know how to pray, so I told him about the Lord's Prayer.  I asked the translator to explain the prayer.  When he explained, Deo was so touched by the message that he teared up.  He prayed on his own silently.  So, I asked him to pray out loud and allow us to hear him.  I learned that day that no matter how what message you might want to share that God may use other people to give the encouragement by sharing about what the Bible means.  When I share the gospel, I always believed that it is me that needs to talk.  That day, I learned that others need opportunies to share as well.  I felt encouraged to hear others share and learn about the Bible.
Later that evening, we went to go shopping for food to eat.  We were talking about exotic foods, so we decided to have some exotic foods and some regular meat.  We picked Deer, Rabbit, and Crocodile to eat.  While they were cooking the meats, I was the baby sitter playing with the kids.  There were 3 kids.  One only spoke Thai.  Her name is Emily.  She would not even look at me at first, but I tried talking to her in Thai.  She then opened up and wanted to play.  She took me around the house and telling me things.  Unfortunately, I did not know what she said to me, since it was all in Thai.  I had a chance to learn new Thai words and practice those that were taught to me.

I learned that no matter what language barriers that you have even in your own language that the message can still be shared.  When I practiced my Thai with Emily, I did not know how much of a bond that could be built.  She wanted to play with me.  She wanted me to carry her and fly her like an airplane.  She wanted me to fly her everywhere around the house and outside.  You could see her smile.  I learned that a bond can happen even though there is a language barrier.  We should not stop sharing or think that we cannot share about the gospel because others may not understand you.  A bond goes farther than any words that you can say.  It was sprinkling and Emily wanted me to hold her hand to get back in the house.  I felt encouraged to know that I will have more opportunities on this trip to share more without fear of a language barrier.  Boy, Deo, and Emly has been so far very encouraging for me on the trip so far.  I cannot wait to see what will happen next.

-- Alvin Hsieh

Sawatdee Thailand!

Soooo after 13 hours on a plane to Taipei,  a 2 hour layover, and another 4 hour flight o Bangok, and then.....and van ride to Ratchaburi....we finally arrive at our 1st destination.  Our friends, Honda, Pim, and Manit met us at the Bangkok airport and had a van waiting for us.   Praise God  that our flight was pretty smooth and no one yacked...yah!

When we got to Ratchaburi, the team went to a Burmese community and cooked for the whole community.  After the kids finished eating, then we took them to play some red light, green light and duck duck goose.  Then we did a Bible lesson on Jesus feeding the 5000 which the team acted out.  After that P Noi, our host here, took us to eat some bomb Thai food.  There was this spicy fish that was the team's favorite.

Please continue to pray for the team, as tomorrow we are headed to the local school to teach English!

T Minus 1 Day!

Hey everyone!

1 day until this years mission team heads off to Thailand!  Woo hoo!  This years team is an awesome group mixed with a little bit of everything.  We have dads, newly marrieds, college kids, singles....see?  a little bit of everything :)  If you wanna learn more about the people on the team click here: http://www.reactsministries.org/july2012.html

This year will be headed to 4 different cities in Thailand!  Bangkok, Ratchaburi, Chiang Rai, and Chiang Mai!  And as always, our God has been soooo faithful to us.  He has provided the supporters and funds to help us meet our financial goals!  Praise Him!

We will be trying more than ever this year to update you guys on what we are doing by blogging and also maybe trying out some video blogging....so look out for updates.  So thanks again to all of you who are supporting through finance or through prayer!  Thanks for being part of this team and thanks in advance for keeping us in your prayers!

Some things you can pray for:

Team unity
God to use us for His glory and purpose
The hearts of the Thai people to be open to God's love and redemptive plan
For safety and good health
To meet the needs of the Thai people
God to teach us through this trip

God bless you all!

Clifton

2nd Annual Benefit Dinner

Hey everyone!   I know...I know...it's been sooooo long since our last blog update.  We're very sorry and hope to update you guys way more often.  :)

So we had our 2nd annual benefit dinner this past April 21.  All success is due to God's grace.  There were so many blessings that happened that just can't be explained....except by God.  3 Hours before the dinner we realized the tablecloths for the tables weren't big enough for a table.  So we had to use 2 tablecloths for some tables, which left us short 10 tablecloths.  Yikes!  We were scrambling around trying to figure out how to get 10 more tablecloths in the next couple of hours....By God's grace, we knew someone whose mother owned a chinese restaurant.  We called him, and luckily we were able to send someone out to go get them.   Praise God!

We had an exhibit this year at the dinner.  We had a crew of college and young adults who helped work on them.  Just to give you an idea....this thing was big!  And we had booked a room to hold the exhibit....but when the venue's staff found out how BIG it was there were concerns.  They said we might not be able to have the exhibit.  Yikes again!  And this was like 2 weeks before the dinner.  We prayed and prayed.  And then prayed some more.  And then asked our friends to pray....

The venue called and said the room we had was too small......so....they gave us a bigger room.  WHAT?  Seriously...crazy right?  Totally God.

Things like this were happening left and right.  I still can't believe how good He is to us.  The dinner went pretty smoothly.  We had a full house, good food, Rachel Chan singing, but most importantly...we had the Spirit there.  His Holy Spirit was alive and flowing through that hall that night.  We pray that His message of love and hope came through loud and clear.  We pray that people left the night understanding how loved they are by God and because of that love want to love others in turn.

God bless!

CJ

To check out pictures from the night go to:   https://www.facebook.com/reactsministries/photos