Thursday, September 22, 2011
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By:
BLC Thailand Mission
Ready to go!
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
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BLC Thailand Mission
GETTIN' READY!!!
Well, we are getting ready to go to Thailand, it's getting closer and CLOSER!! We are very excited for the opportunity to share our love of Jesus with our new Thai friends. We had the privledge of meeting with Dennis Denow from LCMS who currently lives in Thailand. What a great opportunity to ask all of our questions. So, now we are armed with proper information and we're ready to go. Just a few more things to get done here before we leave.
We are all working on our presentations for the ESL program and we're trying to make them as entertaining as possible. Dennis says that the Thai people are very soft spoken, humble and sensitive. I guess maybe Americans are kind of more "bull in the china shop" in our way of dealing with things. (Those are my words, not Dennis'!) We are not sure who will come to our classes, but the classes have been well advertised and the idea seems to be well received. We know that God has a plan for us, whether it's 10 people or 70 people in our classes, we'll be ready to go forward. We do know that these will be adults of at least 18 years of age. We also know that Thai people are well groomed, so we must put our best foot forward.
Once again, we request your prayers for our mission, for safety, for successful relationships and for the Holy Spirit to be with each of us. Thanks for your prayers
We are all working on our presentations for the ESL program and we're trying to make them as entertaining as possible. Dennis says that the Thai people are very soft spoken, humble and sensitive. I guess maybe Americans are kind of more "bull in the china shop" in our way of dealing with things. (Those are my words, not Dennis'!) We are not sure who will come to our classes, but the classes have been well advertised and the idea seems to be well received. We know that God has a plan for us, whether it's 10 people or 70 people in our classes, we'll be ready to go forward. We do know that these will be adults of at least 18 years of age. We also know that Thai people are well groomed, so we must put our best foot forward.
Once again, we request your prayers for our mission, for safety, for successful relationships and for the Holy Spirit to be with each of us. Thanks for your prayers
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
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By:
BLC Thailand Mission
Elephants and Polo - WHAT???
And to think we missed this !!!!!!!
Audemars Piguet and Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas kicked off the 2011 King’s Cup Elephant Polo tournament on September 5th in Hua Hin Thailand, the royal seaside town some 200km south of Bangkok. The event offered a day with seasoned elephant polo players, colourful parades, Thailand’s last elephant spirit men (Khru Ba Yai) and pachyderms - all providing a taste of the excitement to come all week.
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
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By:
BLC Thailand Mission
English as a Second Language
We met again on Sunday, August 28th and Dave opened with a devotion from 2nd Corinthians 1:9. Thank you Dave for starting us off on the right foot.
We've been told that it's natural to have fear when going to a foreign land to share your faith. I can only speak for myself, but those fears are alive and well! We want to share God's love and salvation with others, but there is always that lingering doubt. We will rely on God and the Holy Spirit to be with us. As in 1st Corinthians 2:2-5 - 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
We are interested in building relationships with these wonderful people and sharing our love of Jesus and His powerful act of salvation. In order to do that, we have discussed the need for personal and team daily prayer time while we are in Thailand and taking the time necessary to get to know some of the people we meet. Who knows, with the availability of e-mail, we might even be able to establish a "long-term" relationship!
We've all been assigned a subject to present to the English as a Second Language (ESL) class, such as favorite foods, traditions, families, pets, gardening, BLC, sports (Who could travel from Wisconsin and not talk about the Brewers and the Packers???????), and many more. We will be doing 14 sessions and a closing ceremony for the students. The idea is to make this a fun learning experience with games, music, pictures and whatever else we can think of. These sessions will hopefully open opportunities for us to share our love of Jesus.
I guess we are "official" now: we've been registered with the State Department. WooHoo!!
We've been told that it's natural to have fear when going to a foreign land to share your faith. I can only speak for myself, but those fears are alive and well! We want to share God's love and salvation with others, but there is always that lingering doubt. We will rely on God and the Holy Spirit to be with us. As in 1st Corinthians 2:2-5 - 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.
We are interested in building relationships with these wonderful people and sharing our love of Jesus and His powerful act of salvation. In order to do that, we have discussed the need for personal and team daily prayer time while we are in Thailand and taking the time necessary to get to know some of the people we meet. Who knows, with the availability of e-mail, we might even be able to establish a "long-term" relationship!
We've all been assigned a subject to present to the English as a Second Language (ESL) class, such as favorite foods, traditions, families, pets, gardening, BLC, sports (Who could travel from Wisconsin and not talk about the Brewers and the Packers???????), and many more. We will be doing 14 sessions and a closing ceremony for the students. The idea is to make this a fun learning experience with games, music, pictures and whatever else we can think of. These sessions will hopefully open opportunities for us to share our love of Jesus.
I guess we are "official" now: we've been registered with the State Department. WooHoo!!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
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By:
BLC Thailand Mission
The Three "P"s
Pictures – Preparation - Presentation
Did you ever think of taking pictures as being part of a mission trip? Well, I sure didn’t! Not until, that is, we discussed it at our last meeting. We are so thankful to all of you who have supported us financially and prayerfully and just plain ol’ support! We want you to feel like you’ve been on this mission trip with us. We have been granted a huge opportunity from God to bring other people to Him and you have helped us make it happen.
While we are in Thailand, we hope you’ll follow this blog because we will be writing every day about our mission, our God sightings and showing you pictures of the people we’re meeting and the culture we are experiencing. When we return home, we’d like to do a presentation of our trip. We do hope that some of you might be encouraged to experience a short term mission trip as well.
In September, we will be meeting with Dennis from LCMS World Missions. We are so anxious to continue our training with him. Our team will be busy writing down questions for Dennis, so that we don't forget what we want to ask him. Everything we can learn about these wonderful people will make it just that much easier for us when we are with them.
In September, we will be meeting with Dennis from LCMS World Missions. We are so anxious to continue our training with him. Our team will be busy writing down questions for Dennis, so that we don't forget what we want to ask him. Everything we can learn about these wonderful people will make it just that much easier for us when we are with them.
We are requesting your prayers for so many reasons. First of all, protection and safe travel (Did you know that this trip is 23 hours in the air? Yikes!!) Please pray that we can be accepting of our hosts’ culture, make us open and receptive to them. Also, please pray that we may impact these people with Jesus.
Thank you to Kathy and Jim for supplying us with a yummy lunch of Pad Thai and Bangkok Curry from Noodles and Co. Let us not forget that awesome dessert - that was completely American!!
Monday, July 11, 2011
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By:
BLC Thailand Mission
T.E.A.M.
TOGETHER EVERYONE ACHIEVES MORE
We met at Brian's home yesterday after the late church service for more Thailand information. Brian's wife, Amy, prepared us the most unbelievable Thai luncheon: Easy Green Curry with Pork over Jasmine Rice, Fried Spring Rolls and Pad Kee Mao (Drunken Noodles). WOW - Amy is one awesome cook and a hostess with a servant's heart. Everyone present knows what at least one of Amy's God-given talents are. Thank you Amy and Brian for sharing your home.
After our fabulous luncheon, we all gathered in the family room for devotion and prayer led by Pastor Whitfield from Psalm 18. We moved on to talking about our God sightings and several of us commented on how God was working through our friends and family to support our fund raising efforts. This has been an overwhelming and humbling experience. Sandy said that a 10 year old boy gave her $30.00 that he had put aside from his grass cutting money to help with our Thailand trip. Several of our members talked about the support they have received from their employers which allows them to leave their job for a couple weeks. We are blessed with understanding families and supportive friends!
We discussed more about clothing "dos and don'ts" and found out that Thai women prefer proper dress. Here's an excerpt from a letter we received from our "Thai sponsors": For the women on your team, modest tops, knee-length skirts, nice slacks/pants/capris are good when doing team ministry activities. Nice shorts are fine for free time, shopping and sight-seeing (except in temples and the Grand Palace where long pants are required for everyone). For the men on your team, sport shirts or polo shirts and nice pants are good during team ministry and nice t-shirts and shorts may be worn during free time.) So much to learn! We also talked about proper footwear. While sandles may be fine for our personal time, having our toes covered with good walking shoes may be more appropriate. Don't forget to bring your umbrella! It will definitely be hot, humid and sometimes rainy!
While we understand that the members of our team have the same goal in mind, we talked about how to handle any conflict that might arise on the trip. Afterall, we will be away from our loved ones, in a foreign country, eating unfamiliar food and living with people we don't know too well. Hmmmm, sounds like it could be difficult once in a while. We talked about our individual triggers and resolved to care for each other and be open about problems.
After our meeting was over, Amy served a wonderful berry dessert that Ann brought to our meeting. The dessert was light and wonderful. Thank you, Ann. Do you see what I mean about "servant hearts"?
We discussed more about clothing "dos and don'ts" and found out that Thai women prefer proper dress. Here's an excerpt from a letter we received from our "Thai sponsors": For the women on your team, modest tops, knee-length skirts, nice slacks/pants/capris are good when doing team ministry activities. Nice shorts are fine for free time, shopping and sight-seeing (except in temples and the Grand Palace where long pants are required for everyone). For the men on your team, sport shirts or polo shirts and nice pants are good during team ministry and nice t-shirts and shorts may be worn during free time.) So much to learn! We also talked about proper footwear. While sandles may be fine for our personal time, having our toes covered with good walking shoes may be more appropriate. Don't forget to bring your umbrella! It will definitely be hot, humid and sometimes rainy!
While we understand that the members of our team have the same goal in mind, we talked about how to handle any conflict that might arise on the trip. Afterall, we will be away from our loved ones, in a foreign country, eating unfamiliar food and living with people we don't know too well. Hmmmm, sounds like it could be difficult once in a while. We talked about our individual triggers and resolved to care for each other and be open about problems.
After our meeting was over, Amy served a wonderful berry dessert that Ann brought to our meeting. The dessert was light and wonderful. Thank you, Ann. Do you see what I mean about "servant hearts"?
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