Where to begin 555

So much seems to have happened this past week that. It's been insane and awesome and amazing.

     Thursday: Thursday is one of my days at the horses stables. I got there a bit early to work one of the young horses; April. When I was almost done with her, I noticed this little boy running around like crazy. I finished up with April and as I was putting her up, the kid and his parents came over and his parents started getting him to try to touch her. I just kind of held onto her and tried to show the boy that she wouldn't hurt him. Thankfully Freudhelm came over and explained to me what was going on. The boy had special needs and his parents really wanted to try horse therapy with him and Freudhelm wanted me to do it. I was super excited, so I ran over and got a horse I thought would be more suitable for it; Cookie. The boy, Freudhelm, the boy's mom and I all went into the arena. He really wanted nothing to do with getting near the horse, so I just gave him the end of the lead rope and showed him I was still holding onto it as well. Eventually I was able to let go of the rope and just let him lead Cookie around. Cookie just put her head down and followed him. A couple of times he dropped the rope and Cookie would walk closer so he'd have to walk back to her and grab it. After a while he hesitantly started touching Cookie. The more he started touching Cookie, the less he was clinging to his mom(he was probably around 7yrs old) Finally his mom was able to just go stand on the sidelines and he just followed me around leading Cookie. He started yelling something(he only spoke Thai) and Freudhelm told me he was saying he wanted to ride. So I asked him if he wanted to, and he let me grab him and put him up on Cookie(which he hadn't let happen at first). Freudhelm and I led him around for another 15 minutes or so, and he just always kept an arm wrapped around me. Freudhelm was super happy about that because of how easily he'd let go of his mom and just grabbed at me. By the time it was over he didn't want to get off the horse. Later I found out that the parents were sooo excited about it and had asked if they could tell a bunch of other people about it and said that normally the boy wouldn't get on a horse or do anything like that until after 3 days+ of getting used to the area and people. That was such an incredible experience.
        That evening I went with all of the German team to this meeting/dinner thing. It was so all the short termers met the long term missionaries. Freudhelm asked me to come because I am working so much with their farm. The food was good but I had to get up and tell everyone where I was from and what I was doing and stuff like that...the only person who spoke English.
       After the dinner, like 7 of the Germans came over to our house and we all went together to go see Cowboys & Aliens. It was a blast getting to hang out with that huge group walking around the Thai mall and going to see that movie.
       Friday: We ended our study on the parables with the parable of the prodigal son. It was pretty amazing. Also Jenn Rathmell made an amazing wonderful feast that I'm still full from. It was soooooo good!!!!!

       Saturday: Grabbed Kurtis and Monique(our friends from Canada) and headed up to the Sticky Waterfalls. We took a side track to this Snake Show. It was crazy!! There were all sorts of snakes, including a huge massive king cobra. They did a cool snake show, that included jumping snakes, thai cobras, rat snakes, and a python. I got to hold the rat snake and even had it on my head.

      We got kind of lost on our way to the Sticky Waterfalls, but finally made it. It had to be one of the coolest experiences in the world. We climbed down this path(like a foot wide) through the jungle, and jumped into the murky water. Then we tried to climb upstream and it didn't work so well so we climbed back to the path and just walked to the next level and jumped in the water again. Then the coolest thing, when limestone and water react, the limestone gets sticky. So we got to climb straight up this multi level waterfall. We climbed up it, down it, and up it again. It was sooo neat.

      We headed home and then Bethany and I headed back out to hang out with Monique. We caught a Song Tao and went to Saturday Night Walking Street. We got interviewed 2 different times for school projects. I was able to find some stuff for my family, and it was just an incredible experience. There was such a range of stuff there. We tried a bunch of different foods, and had a pineapple/strawberry smoothie that was pretty much incredible. We found a place that was playing Jazz, they were really amazing. We got home around 11:30 at night.
     Throughout the week: Learned about the parables through middle eastern eyes, some really amazing new perspectives and ideas. Still getting ready for outreach.

Also, I got invited/asked to come back to Thailand and run the horse stables while the missionaries are on furlough for 6 month-ish. Please pray for wisdom for me as I try and figure out what God's will is in this.

Oh, and for everyone still wondering what 555 means in the title,  5 in Thai is Ha so around here they use 555 as Americans would lol cool, huh?

Monk Chat?

So last Friday night I got to experience something that was just sooo cool! We went to what is called a "Monk Chat." It is right outside some of their temples and also their university. You get to go and just talk to them and ask questions and they ask questions and practice their English. It was such a neat experience and I learned soo much about their beliefs. Did you know that there is a difference in reincarnation and rebirth? Rebirth is more Japan style Buddhism and that means they believe that they remember their past life, while reincarnation is when they don't remember their past life but right before they die their last thought determines what they will come back as. Also, karma isn't about 'what comes around goes around' in THIS life, but the next life. Also they don't have to be a monk for life, they can do it for as short as 10 days once they turn 20. Before that if they want to get into it they are just called novices. One of our monks name was Camping. He was hilarious! (Who would have thought, a funny monk) But he was saying how he was getting out of being a monk in a year or so so that he could get married. He also likes KFC and the hardest part about being a monk for him is that they can't eat after 12noon. The experience was eye opening. It also what such a neat experience to see monks go from faceless people i disagree with to real people, even though I still disagree with them.

Saturday we had another member join our team, so I have a new roommate. We now have 6 people living in the house. It's soo cool just to get to live like this with everyone. In itself it's a huge learning experience.

Things are getting in full swing at Abentur Farms. I have anywhere from 6-12 kids I teach every time I go out there. Really starting to build relationships there. And, while I was wondering how it would turn out to be a real outreach opportunity, some of the girls have started coming to the German church to be able to hang out with me even though they have never been to church, so that is just really neat.

We are starting on Friday to prepare for our outreach period which starts in mid October. We still aren't sure where all we'll be going but we're look at going to Cambodia, Vietnam and maybe Laos working with different organizations. We will be preparing skits and music and testimonies and different 'messages' that we'll all be doing.  I am pretty excited about this. We'll be living 7 weeks out of  a backpack.

As we're getting ready for outreach I really need to raise the rest of my support for the trip. Please prayerfully consider supporting me on this mission. I also put a paypal donation button on the blog to make it easier. Thank you for everyone who has already supported me(I am working on getting thank you letters out if you haven't already gotten them!)

Where's the confidence?

So I am really starting to work A LOT over at Abentuer Farms( http://abenteuer-farm.com/index/ ). I am working on traning two of their horses, Frodo and April, teaching riding lessons and helping with therapy. It is an amazing farm that I am sooo privileged to be a part of. Not only are they using horses to get into people's lives, everyday they give lessons or therapy they also set up a booth and tables and chairs and have other activities going on so the whole family can be there and they just really focus on building that relationship with the community as an opportunity for outreach. I am loving working there and it's just incredible. However, they all speak German, so I am now working on learning German in addition to Thai. I'm getting incredibly confused!! I also got to go to German church with them, which was super cool. I am getting spoiled after all the wonderful German cake.

This week I also got to experience the market and learned how to barter and rode a Tuk Tuk all in one evening. It was a blast just getting to walk around it.

While teaching this week, I realized something interesting. These 2 girls I was teaching where riding 2 very capable horses. They are both around 100-120ish lbs while the horses were 1200lbs. These horses carried them with ease and could have done much more than what we were looking for in the lesson. However, every time I asked them to do something with their horses, they only half-heartedly asked. They were so so so timid about asking, like they were frightened how the horse would react to their request and weren't sure they could really accomplish it. Then, when the horse didn't respond to their timid request, they gave up. This was kind of frustrating to me. I encouraged the girls to keep at it and not quit and to boldly ask the horses for the response. As I was sitting there telling them all of this though I was struck by how often we treat God like they were treating those horses. We are so timid in our asking of God. We claim to know His might and power and especially His love of us, however we ask Him for things like we are scared He'll be mad at us for asking or just isn't big enough. We choose medium sized things to pray for. We deem the little things to inconsequential to Him to bother bugging Him and the big things to crazy to ask for. Yet we're His kids. Why do we treat Him as uncaring or aloof and weak? All of these thoughts ran through my head as I'm sitting there in the middle of a muddy arena on the back of a horse giving riding lessons in German. These thoughts haven't left my mind and with these constant thoughts a new choice to start treating God more like my loving all might dad and less like some harsh, weak, person.

While writing this blog I also had a visit from my friend Cami from the states. She brought us some peanut butter!! We had a blast hanging out and then going with the rest of the team to go help out at an English club. We played games with a bunch of Thai and Chinese kids at Won Gen Kafe'. Then, we loaded everyone up and went bowling. We played for 3+ hours and just had such a fun time getting to know the people. I even got a turkey!!  I also now have a Thai name, since my name is a bit difficult for them to pronounce. Its Lukwad(it means candy, and they didn't even know how much I love candy!!)  I also had the opportunity to share about Jesus with some of the girls when they asked if they could interview me for a school project. It turned out one of them was even a new Christian so that was really cool!

God is definitely working here in a huge way. I'm loving living here and just learning to grow close to God in a whole new way. Please continue to pray for my teams and my safety here as well as the opportunity to serve.

Horses, horses, horses....

Germans in Thailand. What? Horse therapy in Thailand. Really? Germans running a horse therapy place in Thailand that need help, especially from someone who rides/trains western? No way.

Yes way. It's just incredible to see how powerful God is and how He truly answers prayers and is alive and working today.

Today, I started what will be my main ministry for the first two months here in Thailand. It is a horse therapy/outreach for local lower Thai people, run by an amazing Christian German couple. They are just starting their programs again next week after a summer break. They had been praying for several things. 1. Someone who could teach in English. 2. Someone who has background training horses to work with their younger horses. 3. Someone who has background in western riding. 4. Someone who is willing to make relationships with the kids and really help them. 5. Someone who could be around till mid October at least. 6. Someone who preferably has some horse therapy knowledge. My prayers. 1. A ministry opportunity in Thailand that I could pour myself into while I was here and just have the opportunity to pour myself into people and love them. 2. Continued direction as to what God wanted me to do with my life, whether it be with horses or just missions or whatever it was He wanted.

God coordinated everything out so that we both were answers to each others prayers. God literally brought me out of a situation I needed out of and brought me directly into one where I can not only grow closer to Him and be encouraged to Him daily. But one that I can use everything He has given me with horses over the years to serve Him and bless other people. And what are the chances there are horses, especially being used for therapy, in Thailand? Right down the road from me, who need help? I feel like again God is showing me that horses is an area where He has always blessed me and that is really a tool He has given me to be able to reach out people. As Jenn said today, "Here you are working in Thailand, with Germans, and you're American. But it doesn't matter, you can reach them and minister to them anyways; because you speak horse."

It has given me so much excitement at the opportunities I will have while serving there. But also, it reminds me of my desire to be able to help soldiers with PTSD and their families through horses. And encourages me that it is the direction God has me heading.

Many Lessons

So, it's official. I'm a wuss about foods, I just can't do spice. I have eaten fried rice almost every day and probably will continue to eat it as long as I'm here. It's pretty awesome fried rice though, I will say :)

Last night a lot of our team went out to go see this cafe' called the Won Gen Cafe'. It's this really awesome cafe that is right out side of Chaing Mai University. It is designed to be a place to reach out to college students through music(open mic nights on fridays as well as some performances on saturdays) art(monthly art shows) and learning english(english club on mondays and wednesdays). The building itself is a super cool place that has just a relaxed environment. It's all about reaching these students with the truth through building personal relationships with them. As a team we are probably going to start spending time there helping in any way we can.

It's kind of funny here, for several days we were having trouble with the power; it kept going out. And even though we all had no problem with no power, it brought us all together. No matter when it was, we all seemed to head to the common area and spend time just laughing and talking together.

As we have continued to do the Gospel Transformation and the Is That You God?, it has continued to just be an amazing time to grow in my personal relationship with God. As I continue to grow closer to Him, the lack of certain direction and so much confusion about my exact future has faded into direction and trust. Trust that what I don't know isn't going to hurt me and God works all things together for the good of those who love Him. All the things that God really seems to be teaching me right now seems almost overwhelming. It's soo much change, so much I was failing at and so much I needed to be doing better. It's been wonderful though. Another thing that I have been catching myself on(and this really surprised me) that even as I was sitting here recognizing alllllll of my faults and sins and how broken I am before Christ, I was catching myself almost getting self righteous about it. It startled me when I realized it, because it made no sense. So, I have turned it into something that I just lay before God daily, to keep me completely humble and broken in Him. So that also He can work through my strength, and that I don't even ever begin to think I can do it on my own again. I   daily remind myself of the brokenness He brought me from, and His grace and love. One of the biggest areas I feel God has been working on me these past several days is that He ALWAYS follows through on His promises. He is forever faithful. No matter how much time, how difficult it seems, when you hear Him you can  trust Him, unconditionally. I mean, Abraham waited close to 40 years before he was given the son God promised him.

Please continue to pray for me as I attempt to grow closer to my Savior and trust in Him through it all. That I would be open and be ready to listen to Him and His plans for my life and for this trip.

This song is my daily prayer.

Hearing God's Voice

To start off with I was looking at all the stuff on the 'controller' end of the blog and noticed that of all my posts that I've put up, the least read is the one I started with(July 25th). And while a part of me likes that fact, I really think it is the one that needs to be read, especially to be able to understand where I am coming from and where I'm going and all that God has done in my life. 


So this week has been really neat. We've been going over a book called, 'Is That Really You God?' written by the founders of YWAM(youth with a mission). It's all about just really taking the time to not only daily pray and read the Bible for direction, but also to take the time to listen to Him when He speaks. We've also started going through the book, Gospel Transformation, and it's all about just letting the Gospel of Christ transform your life. That it isn't just about a man and a set of rules, but that it has the power to erase your sins and help you live daily and promise you a place in heaven forever. I'm looking forward to the rest of the book. It's been a very cool experience to get to just have soooo much time to really focus on God and pray and read the Bible here. I've decided to just lay every single one of my plans for my future on an altar before God and just really start from there with Him, looking for His direction in everything I'm doing. Another thing God is really working on in me is just trusting Him. I knew that Thailand and this school is where God wanted me, however in the short time between finding out and leaving I wasn't able to raise the full amount of support. So, it's just a continual battle to make myself just rely and trust on God that He will provide for when I follow through on His instructions. Ephesians 6:10 is the verse I'm really holding onto, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. It's really just a great reminder to me that I don't even have to try to do anything on my own strength, because I can live out of God's and He has enough to get me through anything. 


This week our team has really started working to get the organization, STOP Slavery going. We have been having many brainstorming sessions and lots of prayer and research and now have a full 'to-do' list to fill our days. This is an organization against Human Slavery/Traficking. It is designed to be kind of a hub/base that offers information to eventually both individuals interested in learning more about what the current Human Slavery looks like, what is being done against it, and also for agencies involved in fighting it and caring for those people who have been saved. It is really neat and I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to get to work with this team and this organization. (i'll put up the website later as we are currently re-vamping it)


Another cool thing this week was we went and visited a place nearby that does horse therapy(using horses for people therapy). We went and talked with them for a bit, and asked if they needed another hand to help. They were pretty excited as they hadn't been able to do some of their activities because of lack of people so as one of my ministries while I am here I will be getting to go and work there with their outreach. They also give lessons to local missionaries kids, so I will be able to help in many different areas. 


I think that daily it becomes more and more apparent to me that God really has me in Thailand for a purpose and I'm just soo excited to continue to find out more and more what that is. 


P.S.   right after I got done with this post I went to start working on my homework for Gospel Transformation. I started praying before hand and was really trying to figure out what had been kind of i felt, blocking some of my communication and relationship with God. While praying God showed me. As much as I wanted to be used by God, I still wanted to be 'normal' in some ways. Not all ways, but some. I quickly realized that it couldn't work like that, if I am sitting here praying God would use me to do amazing things, I can't expect to still be able to hold onto my little corner or normalcy. So my new prayer is that God helps me to just turn over anything and everything that makes me normal and just be sold out for Him, and not have even the desire to be 'normal'.

some pictures so far :)

                                                              on the way to burma!!

                                                                 cool mountain shot :)

                                                        the song tao we ride around in!!

                                                                      burma street

                                                                         burma

                                                                 hat vendor in burma

                                                     akari and i with the border in the background