THE CHALLENGE!!!!!!

Ok everyone, here’s the challenge; I still need to raise $800 for my trip to Thailand. So, I’m presenting a challenge. If I raise the full amount by October 8^th, my roommate Bethany and I will eat(and video tape) 5 COCKROACHES AND 5 GRASSHOPPERS EACH! It’s a delicacy here I haven’t yet tried ;) Any little amount will help reach the final goal. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PASS THIS AROUND TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE!!!!  you can shoot me an email @ cowgirl4christ17@yahoo.com or find me on Facebook as Caity Midyett or just use the paypal button the side of this page 

cockroaches!

grasshoppers!!

The Scene

Living out of the back of a horse trailer. Traveling around the country with my two(at least) faithful horses. Hanging out till the early hours of the morning with the other traveling cowboys/cowgirls just having a good time. Big beautiful truck. Winning the National Finals Rodeo and getting to point back to God.

That was part of my biggest dream growing up. I wanted to join the Fellowship of Christian Cowboys and live the life of Rodeo. It seemed like so many things would work for it too. I had always been given horses, even an old barrel racer. I had lots of friends who rodeo-ed. But every time I started to try and compete, things happened. Whether it was schedules, trucks, trailers or horses, something always went wrong. I was able to compete a little bit when I was 14 but that was it. I had always viewed this as just challenges to overcome. Things that would make the victory that much sweeter.

The other night though, my view of this was shaken a bit. I was talking with one of my friends here, and they were saying how they wanted to be able to do what they loved, without getting big or famous, because they were concerned about getting 'caught up in that scene'. At first I was kind of confused, and thought they were a bit crazy. I knew how focused their heart was on wanting to serve God. But as we continued talking about it, I realized that the same held true for me. If I was to get big into rodeo, I would loose focus from God. Granted, my heart would start out right, I would want to bring honor and praise to God. But also, pride is one of my biggest weaknesses. I would get caught up in all that "I" was doing. It wouldn't be about God anymore. I'd start living on my strength, for my glory.

I had also always seen going big in rodeo as the biggest validation of my skills with horses. But as I thought about it and prayed about it more, it really hit me. Why is it my ability with horses needs to be validated by anyone else? The answer: it doesn't. The only reason it would need to be validated would be for my praise and self security. But in reality, what does it matter? What does it matter if there are many many people much more skilled with horses than me(which there is). What does it matter if I don't train for anyone but local horse people? What does it matter if with my therapy place I can only reach 100 people? It doesn't. I realized, that the only thing that matters is I am using what God has given me to the best of my ability in the circumstances He has placed me in. That is why I have those skills.

Please continue to pray for me as we prepare for outreach phase, and then I come back to Chiang Mai till May. We now plan to spend 3 weeks working in Cambodia and 4 weeks in Vietnam. It will be an intense trip hopefully reaching many people. I also ask you to prayerfully consider supporting me, as I still need to raise more money to pay for this trip. Thank you all for your love and support!

Energizer Bunny

"Don't you ever want to just take a break or not do something?" That was a question I was asked by one of my housemates. I thought about it for a minute before realizing the answer was, "very, very rarely". I'm constantly going about a hundred miles an hour, and love it. I feel like I thrive off of the activity and the people. This trip has been really good for me to learn more about people and realize that everyone is so different in so many ways. Not just in personalities but in needs. I had always just kind of assumed that everyone's basic needs where the same. It's been a cool learning experience. Also learning about that has helped me realize a bit more of who I am and how I work and how I can best utilize every single day. 

In following the pattern of me not slowing down, and just keeping going(I just remembered that my nickname one summer was the Energizer Bunny. ha, now it makes sense!) I have decided that I will continue to stay in Thailand until either May or June of next year. I have a house already that I can live in. I will be running the horse stables I have been working at as well giving more advanced lessons to local riders, and training horses, and giving clinics to make an income to support myself living here. Not everything is in stone yet, as details are still being worked out. But I truly feel like this is where God is leading me to be and how I need to spend my next year. I will continue to be apart of the DTS and start working when we get back in December. I'm beyond excited! 

This morning after my run, i was just sitting on our porch and really praying when I realized something. Through the past couple weeks I have been really focusing on laying down my life to God completely. But, I hadn't given  Him all the pain. I wanted Him to help me through all the new stuff, and forgive me for my past, but I wanted to still hold onto all that pain I'd received. I didn't want to give Him all of that. So this morning, I just went through, and prayed for every single person or situation that I'd ever been hurt by and just gave it to God. Those hurts aren't something I want to be defined by.I don't want to look at something and be like, because of that person or pain or situation I am this way. I want to be defined by Christ alone. I want my identity in Him. And by holding onto all of that, I'm just giving those things power in my life, and I don't want that at all. I trust the fact that God works everything together for good. I also started to realize that my shoulder surgery is possibly on of the biggest blessings God has given me. He has used it for so so so so much. Our God truly is an awesome God. 

 

Royalty

Right now it is around 4:30 in the afternoon on Saturday in Chiang Mai Thailand. I still am sometimes just in complete shock that I am even here. I'm currently a sweaty mess. I just got back from a run. I love running. It gives me the chance to really just clear my head and focus completely on God. There is also nothing like the feeling of pushing yourself just a bit further than you thought you could.

This week has been an awesome week as normal. Every week we're getting more and more kids in the therapy and there has not been a time yet when I've made it through a session without wanting to cry. Also continuing to build the relationships with the kids I'm teaching riding too. It is so awesome to just get to be a testimony for Christ just by being around them. I get questions all the time of why I am here, or what I am doing or many other things and it's just so neat to be able to point them all back to God's sovereignty and love.

Wednesday night Clark and I had the opportunity to answer some questions of some Chinese foreign exchange students; Chocolate and Jennifer. They are attending a weekly "Bible Study". It is not however, what most Americans would consider a Bible study, rather it is more of an informative; this is what is taught in the Bible and what Christians believe. Both of the girls had many many questions and when they found out that we were here studying the Bible even more they asked us many questions. We got to share a lot with them and it was super neat. We get to meet with them again later this week, please keep them in your prayers.

Friday we practiced a "Sabbath". It was really a cool experience. We took the day off of all classes and work to really take a day to reflect on what we've been learning and to praise God for all He is doing. We headed up to this mountain to find a lookout. We ended up getting the truck stuck and hiking the rest of the way. We had a cool worship service at the top and then went and found a waterfall where we all broke off and just spent an hour alone with God just really thinking about the past week and couple months and what He is doing. Then we went home and chilled for a while. Bethany and my friend Pakkad came over and hung out, and then we all went to a worship night called Refresh. It was just an awesome night of sooo many different cultures praising God in their own way.

Today was a pretty relaxed day. Talked with my mom, went to lunch with Bethany, talked with Jenn for a while. Came home and went for a run. While I was running though, I was struck by the fact that I was still somewhat stuck on people. That while I wanted to serve God wholeheartedly and be abandoned for Him, I still wanted to be approved by people as I was doing it. I still wanted people to like me. I still wanted to be normal to an extent. Even just in little things. Like saying I don't care about something trivial as where we eat for dinner when I really do. Or not caring what movie we watch when I really hate that movie. I had gotten so lost in making sure I was serving others and keeping the peace, that I'd started to lose sight of my value in Christ. I unknowingly started to mentally put everyone above me. Now, please don't get me wrong. I still want to serve other people, ESPECIALLY the people I am living with. I truly love every single one of them as a family member and want to be a blessing to them. But I also need to consider myself a person of worth. I need to realize and remember that I am also God's beloved daughter. He made me how I am and He loves me so much, no matter what. It doesn't matter what I do. I have value just because of Him being my Father. I"m the daughter of royalty!! Such a wonderful cool thought. The more I think about it, the more I realize what a difficult time grasping that concept.

We continue to prepare for outreach. We will be spending 1 month in Cambodia and 1 month in Vietnam. I am super excited.

Also, the opportunity has come up that I stay here till May or June of next year. I have been offered a place to live, as well as the opportunity to continue working out at the horse stables and to get to train more people and horses around Thailand. I would be able to make a living off of the training I would be doing. The more I pray about this, the more I feel it is where God is leading me. As I seek His will on this, I also continue to pray about this trip. I have no doubt that God called me to come on this trip to Thailand. That has been made clear over and over. As such, I know He will provide all that I need. Before October 15, I need to raise at least $800 for this trip. I ask you to keep me in your prayers, that God makes it completely clear for me whether or not this is His will for me to stay longer and also that He would  provide the rest of the money I need to finish this trip.

Thank you all for your continued love and support. Feel free to email me anytime @ cowgirl4christ17@yahoo.com

Cultural Collision

Once again, what an incredibly crazy amazing awesome week. First, I have a super awesome roommate with the amazing Ms Bethany. She's awesome. Also, I have a super-occasional roommate, Akari. She's just pretty much incredible. Ange, also wonderful daily keeps our lives running smoothly.  In overview of the week, I started doing a lot more therapy at the farm. I'm LOVING that. It's so incredible. Every time I get to see the way the kids react to the horses I'm almost brought to tears. Just seeing them improve just over that short amount of time. Continuing riding lessons. Loving the chance to really build relationships with the kids I'm teaching as well as with their parents and siblings. I'm learning German a phrase a day, so hopefully will be much better at that by the end. Also working on learning Thai, but it's much more slow going. It's a tonal language and I am getting sooo confused. Maa is horse and dog, and several other things just depending on how you say it.

 Classes in the mornings continue to be incredible and I'm learning so so so much. This Friday morning, we went to a meeting about how to use business as a way to reach people. It was sooo cool to hear this man's story as he used his life as a what to do and what not to do. So many things none of us had ever thought of.

Thursday night was super cool as we got to go see our Canadian friend Kurtis get baptized. We hiked up this mountain to a waterfall. We had a lot of climbing and wading and almost slipping(ok so I fully slipped and slid on my butt down this rock, but it was really funny). It was just a neat experience to get such a glimpse of God's power in creation but also in Kurtis's life. We'll miss him a lot when he leaves on Tuesday :(

Saturday night we got a group of 18 college age people and went to the huge mall here. We did a photo scavenger hunt. For those who don't know what that is, you and your team(we mixed everyone up) are given a list of things you have to find and get a picture doing it. The group consisted of Germans, Americans, a Canadian, and a Thai. It was soooooo much fun and just so cool. Everyone had a blast just getting to relax and be silly with each other. After the hunt we came back to where we are staying and watched all of the teams pictures and eat some brownies and ice cream. We started to watch Megamind and then most people got tired and went home. 

this is team 1 getting a group of people to sing jingle bells with us for the hunt

Today though, was the coolest day of the week, by far. Our group was invited to go and lead worship and share our testimonies at the German church. I really wish there was a way to put into words the overwhelming feeling of being there.  We had 5-6 different countries represented there, yet everyone was just lost in complete worship to the same God. Such a wonderful thing to experience. Also, we have some super incredibly talented people who can lead worship on our team(go Justin and Ange and Kurtis!!) Also, we had Louise helping us. She generally plays piano at church and so we all got to practice together and then lead today. So cool how it just doesn't matter where you come from, when your lost in your identity in Christ. So many things we get stuck on; whether it be our past, our future, how we define ourselves etc., all just become irrelevant when we chose to first and foremost define ourselves as God's beloved children.