Our first month in Asia has been absolutely incredible.  I love the culture here.

I really miss Africa, but the Thai people have made me fall in love with this part of the world all over again.  This month we were assigned to a church up north in Thailand.  We worked with a WONDERFUL pastor in his house church all month.  I think this month has for sure been my most fun yet.  Our pastor is an incredible man and he filled our days with tons of great ministry and lots of laughs.
To begin the month, we arrived on the Thai New Year.  Now, I don’t know if you’ve ever been in Thailand during the New Year, but if you have then you certainly would not have survived it dry.  For the New Year people drive around and proceed to throw water on each other for three days! It is hilarious and SO much fun.  We are already thinking up ways to bring this hilarious adventure to the US.

The first assignment our team had was to run an English camp.  We were told that the students did not know any English, so our first day was filled with teaching “Hello” and “How are you?”.  It actually turns out that the students spoke very good English and were ready for an advanced challenge.  Even though the camp was only three days, we all bonded really quickly.  I was amazed at how hard the students worked and how much they actually wanted to learn.  They were incredible, and I am really proud of th

em.  God really blessed me with the students of that camp.  We were only there three days, but I could really see the impact that we had on the students.  Even though it was only a short time.

The next day our Pastor took us to visit some of the villages up in Northern Thailand.  In these villages, many people have yet to hear the incredible news about Jesus and it was wonderful to be able to pray and share God’s love with them.  In some of my missions classes in College, we studied people groups exactly like these in Thailand.  I felt like I was living out part of my childhood dreams of going into a village and sharing God with people who had never heard it before.  I really loved working with the hill tribe people.

We also got to have many adventures this month.  I learned that “ministry” is just as much spending time with the people, as it is holding Bible studies and preaching.  Our pastor planned lots of fun stuff for us, including swimming in the river with our clothes on, exercise classes with the locals, dancing at a Buddhist monk’s acceptance ceremony, giving gifts to many people in the community, and even playing soccer with the locals.  That’s right, I played soccer…me who hates to exercise and hates to run even more…I played soccer, and you know what? I actually enjoyed it!  (Mostly because my team won and I made an assist on a corner kick.  I still don’t exactly know what that means, but I did it!)  My favorite part of the month, though, was getting to know our wonderful pastor and his amazing family.  We also had an incredible translator, Nat, who I am obsessed with.  She is a college student and an amazing Christian girl.  She has a passion for the Lord and is simply perfect.

All in all, Thailand was the perfect beginning to our 3-month Asian adventure.  We are leaving tomorrow for Vietnam, so I don’t think I will be able to blog much before June.  I bought my plan ticket home today and will officially be back in Atlanta on July 1^st!!  I cannot wait to see all my wonderful friends and family! I am so excited to share with you in person all of the amazing things that God has done this year!

I have also included a video of my Thai students doing a skit about Jesus in English.  Enjoy!