Sadly, this is potentially the last time I'll be updating you for a long time. Tomorrow we leave on our major outreach, which means I won't be able to see all your lovely faces over Christmas OR New Years, which is rather sad, but February is not that far away, and then I'll be back home.
We'll be on outreach for 7 weeks, and I'm pretty sure we come back January 27 or 28th... I think :). Doi Inthanon sounds like its way out in the boonies, which means limited cell service and we'll see about the Internet. If I get a chance to update the blog, I definitely will, but I can't make any promises as to how often that's gonna be happening.
This week was our very last week of lecture phase, I know I've said this a billion times but its going SO fast! The teaching was about the Two Kingdoms (I realize that kind of sounds like a Lord of the Rings movie, but its not. haha) Anyways, the speaker was from Norway, and he taught about how the world is a Kingdom and its ruled by Satan, and his constitution is selfishness and humanism but we are citizens of the Kingdom of God, where the constitution is love. We can be living in the Kingdom of the World, but we BELONG to the Kingdom of God. I really, really liked the guys teachings, he taught on a lot of things that I so agree with, but he said it in ways that were so clear and to the point.
He talked about how because believers and non-believers come from two different Kingdoms, the laws are different, so what is normal in one kingdom like lying, stealing, homosexuality etc. is against the law in another kingdom. So when we come to situations where we have choices on what to do, we need to base our actions on which kingdom we are from.
Another point he made was how humanism is creeping into our churches, and how its scary because humanism is similar to the real thing. Being a Christian says "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself." But humanism just says "Love your neighbour as yourself." So humanists justify what they do by saying "I'm doing this because I love the other person" but as Christians we need to put our love for God first.
Anyways, things here are getting Christmafied (yep that's a word) We're having a Christmas dinner and celebration thing at the base tonight. I might just be a little bit excited. I am currently listening to Amy Grant's "Home For Christmas", which if you have ever been in my house around Christmas time, you've had the privilege of listening to it on repeat. Gotta love the Amy Grant.
There's a Christmas tree set up in the Geske's house (our base leaders) and we have a mini Christmas tree in the girls house. Not to mention, Melissa's dad sent her a gingerbread house kit in the mail, so we listened to Christmas music while building a gingerbread house, which is now filled with candy canes, AND smelling the wonderful smell of the fir branches and pine cones that smell like cinnamon and cloves, that her dad also sent in the mail. It was a definite Christmas moment.
For our Little party tonight, a bunch of people are performing and there's a little skit planned, and Kathryn and I will be singing... Ya, that's right, I am going to sing in front of a group of people. It's possible that YWAM has pushed me out of my comfort zone a little bit. =P
A couple people have asked me about mailing stuff to me, so here's, a new address for you to send things to if you so desire:
YWAM Chiang Mai
100/2 Moo 9 T.Khii Lek
A. Mae Daeng Chiang Mai
Thailand
50150
I guess that's basically it for now, some prayer requests for you guys:
-Team unity/ safety
-Good communication
-To remember for our team to keep God in everything we do
-Good attitudes/ patience
Oh here's a bonus fun fact for you guys. When we were doing all the prep work for our outreach, our leaders told us this, "Dont' pick up anything shiny, or actually anything at all of the roads!" Apparently, Where we're going, they cast out evil spirits and stuff on to hand woven clothes and stuff. So last year, when the DTS team went there, somebody picked up one of these things and he ended up having and evil spirit in him that they had to cast out and everything. A little intense? I think so. It's like a whole different world compared to North America. So also pray that we don't have any problems like that!
I hope I can get Internet during outreach but I guess this is potentially, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I hope you guys have a wonderful Christmas! For all those school-goers, and anyone else who gets time off, enjoy the break!
I'll talk to all you guys later!
Today's Fun Fact:
Back at home, I was convinced that there was nothing that couldn't be fixed with baler twine or duct tape.
The Thai have taught me that there is nothing that can't be made or fixed with banana leaved or bamboo.
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