Thursday

Today started off amazing by waking up at 6:44, the latest I've slept all trip. After getting all cleaned up and having a nice cold Thai iced latte, the group and I went for a walk through the university and to a little table by the lake. We then enjoyed a breakfast consisting of yogurt and oats, which has become a favourite breakfast among the group. Once we finished we headed down toward the Centre and met up with David, one of the centre’s staff. David led us to a section of the camp where we would be handing out flyers for the Centre. David had told us to meet him in the cafeteria once we were done handing out our stacks of flyers so we went about our business in the mild temperature of roughly 36 Degrees. Now when we tried to meet up after handing out our flyers we were informed that the meeting place was mis-communicated and that David had gone missing, so we were stuck outside for some time before we could call him. 

After our trip to the university Melody picked up the group and brought us to her place. Mark and Doug…. Mark, then took Sam and Melody’s vehicle for a test drive, and were quite thrilled due to the fact that it is a right hand drive, And, standard. Janelle also decided to try something and her and Jolene jumped on a scooter and drove that around. When we had enough of this excitement Sam and Melody ordered us pizza that was probably twice the size of the usual medium pizza back home. Having enough food was not a problem at all, and to top off the meal Melody made us all mango smoothies. 

When the food had come to rest and the energy levels started to wain down Sam started to talk to us about something he had heard. It was about a lady whose job was to take care of those who were dying and only had a couple of hours to a couple of weeks to live. She would scrape the sores off the peoples legs and let the puss out then cover it up with bandages. One day, while she was doing her job, a lady walked by where she was working and observed her doing this. She then proceeded to say, “You couldn’t pay me a million dollars, to do that!”. Now the hard working lady looked at her and replied, “You couldn't pay me a million dollars to do this either, but for Jesus I will do anything”. This sparked the group and really inspired me and gave me a little more understanding on what it means to serve God. Serving him isn’t about doing what you are comfortable with or really good at necessarily, but being ready to serve him even if he calls you to do something you have no experience in or that you aren't used too. God gives you your talents and everything you have, everything in your lives is a gift from God. He gives you gifts and in return asks for you to be faithful, humble, praise him, and be willing to follow him and go wherever he needs you too. 

Braedy

P.S. Hey Harley

        The reference to the McDonalds story is from my first interaction with someone who spoke absolutely zero english. It came down to her actual taking down a menu so I could physically point at everything I wanted. This happened at the Kunming airport, and it was one of, if not thee most impressive buildings I have ever seen. But their entire menu was chicken. Feel free to ask more questions, I love hearing from you and i’d love to answer anymore questions, or just tell stories.  

From the Group

  Have a goodnight! or a good morning! 

A Few Wednesday Pics

 Playing games at The Centre

 Jolene hard at work painting

Sam drops in for a nice midmorning conversation.

Tuesday

Some of us playing games with students at the centre

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Today was filled with lots of heat, stresses, and also joy - the Lord gave us strength and energy to persevere. We started to paint the main room in The Centre, and hopefully we will finish tomorrow! We had lunch at Sam's favourite place again today, and then we went to interact with the students at the Centre. At around 6:00 we left to go to dinner in the market and do some shopping. Every Day our team does a debrief, and at the end we share a high, a low, and an awkward part of the day. This is what mine were:

High: I liked the painting because I am a project person, and I wanted to get it all done today, however I am okay with waiting a little to finish.

Low: Was also to do with the painting. I am a perfectionist, so I take a little bit of a longer time to do something than others, and when I make mistakes, I get that much more frustrated. For the longest time I continued to paint the wall paint onto the base boards, and this consisted for like a solid hour, to the point where  I just started to carry a wet cloth with me because I'd paint the baseboard so often.

Awkward: I have a fairly loud laugh, and while playing a game with the students, I laughed, and I saw them look and then begin to talk in Thai, which made me feel a little awkward because I have no idea what they were saying. They seemed to be talking about me. 
Another awkward moment was two minutes ago when Janelle started getting loopy because she's over tired. For my sanity, I should probably leave this and let her go to bed, before things get too weird. :) Thanks for all the prayers and support, we miss and love you all!

Robyn

9:37pm

Monday/Tuesday Pics

Lunch today at Sam's favourite hole in the wall Thai restaurant - Fantastic food!! Everyone loved it!

Our morning visit at the Wat, first we had to climb a LOT of steps. (picture doesn't even show the top) 

Hopefully I'll get some of Robyn's pictures off her camera tomorrow - I'm sure she's got lots, and much better than my iPhone snapping, (mind you our internet is rather slow and uploading these two took forever!) Anyways, this will hopefully give you all a little picture into our current world for now. Good night our monday is done and it is sleep time! Janelle

Day "Neung" (One)

Sah wat ti cap! Greetings!

We are here and we are right into it all, and it is so good.

To boot, we all woke up having had a fairly restful night for just having traveled 40 hours and Melody Kuka took us on a tour of a Buddhist temple. She initially brought us to a shrine where many Thais pray to Buddha (against Buddha's own teachings) for blessing when starting a new business or honk when driving past for good spirits to protect them on their travels. From there we had to drive further up the mountain to the temple. 

However, Melody's remote stopped working and her key wouldn't open any doors, which had never happened before. Only after praying over the vehicle and fiddling around with the remote for a while did it open. Was there an evil spirit in the vehicle? were the batteries just low and the key worn down? I can't tell you confidently one way or the other but this I can: the acknowledgement of my dependence upon the Lord in all situations, 'big/small'; 'significant/insignificant'; 'sacred/secular', grew from that experience. It was too bizarre for me to pass it all off as merely coincidence and in so doing refuse the Lord to work in my life and teach me that there is more to this world than flesh and bone. We fight the powers and principalities that cannot be seen with physical eyes and cannot be won by physical means. To ignore is to loose.

The temple itself was extravagant. Much beauty, much craftsmanship, much significance, much devotion, much twisting of truth, much hopelessness. It was helpful to see, so as to better understand the Thai culture and the background of the people both around us, and those we interact with. That's what I really want to talk about now so I'll leave off talking about the temple.

All afternoon was spent hanging out at the Centre talking with University students and it was so good. All of us were able to jump into conversation with the students rather quickly through playing card games or the students having been assigned to ask us questions or joining in on an English teaching class. I tend to have difficulty initially engaging in conversation with people, strangers and people I know well. But today it was smooth and easy and enjoyable. I met new people and remembered their names and even learned to correctly pronounce some Thai. They are really fun to hang out with. I really look forward to seeing them again, continuing conversations, and building stronger relationships with them.

Please continue to pray for us. Already we seem to see the Lord begin to work amidst this group and we desire more of it, deeper change, greater love. We love you and I thank you again.

Love,

Brother Mark

p.s. Frog legs do not taste like chicken...but pretty close.

Note from Janelle - for the Wiebe family - Jolene (though not convinced at first) also tried the frogs. 

travel pictures

Here's some pictures from our travel day yesterday. We're eating breakfast now and off to a Wat (temple)

Arrived!

Greetings from the Malin Residence in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We have just finished our first evening debrief of the week and are on our way towards bed (7:30 Chiang Mai Time). Its been a long couple days of travel and we are very ready for a fully horizontal sleep in a very firm bed.

Quick point form flyby of the day:

• Arrived in Shanghai, China in the fog, went through a maze of corridors, had to sit in a 'transfer station' which was less than inviting, but eventually made it to our connecting flight to Kunming, China. 
• Kunming was an incredible airport. Built in 2012, the Chinese spared no expense and created an architectural masterpiece. Look it up if you're curious. But apparently McDonalds isn't the same in China (I'll let Brady, Robyn and Jolene explain their adventures another post)
• Hitting Chiang Mai was incredible - wonderful warm air, warm smiles of the Kuka's and a wonderful dinner at an open air restaurant close to our hotel. 
• The day was filled with many 'firsts' - so much excitement (and a little fear at times) with all the new things to experience. But all of our team did an incredible job navigating security check points, baggage claims and drop offs and some gruelling hours of flying (sleeping on a plane for long hours is no easy task)
• Team unity is going great - but continue to pray in this area. Anxiety, fatigue and heat have the potential to create struggle relationally. So far so good, but pray.

Good night from Chiang Mai - as the Karaoke bar below our room begins to really warm up!

Doug 

(Last you'll hear from me for a while as the others will now take over this blog tomorrow)

Teetering on the Pacific Rim

It's been a great evening of travel and we now sit comfortably in Vancouver International airport awaiting our 1:30 (Pacific Time) flight to Shanghai. Our first flight was full of excitement and wonder as our team enjoyed some really nice views of the Rocky Mountains and the beautiful decent into Vancouver. There was much excited chatter as some of our team got their first view of the ocean coupled with a beautiful sunset. Supper was fantastic as we hopped on the Sky Train and took a short trip into the city to a restaurant named 'Bibo'. Bibo served great Italian food (served and cooked by some very clearly Italian employees), which we enjoyed at a high table over much thanksgiving at the beauty and adventure we have already experienced.

Now we are tired and back through security. Only 6 hours or so to stay awake. Pray for those who don't like coffee.

Next post - Shanghai (or Kunming, we'll see what happens)

Doug

our bags are packed...

So our bags are packed, and we’re (almost) ready to go - off to Thailand! Please pray for us in the following week:

1. A growing faith for all our team members. Pray that God would open their eyes, and at the examination of other cultures and religions - that they would see the grace of God so gloriously beautiful. 
2. Pray for team unity.
3. Pray that we would be a blessing to those we are in contact with.
4. Pray also for the Thai university students that we will be in contact with in our english classes and camp. Pray along with Paul’s plea in Colossians 4 “that God may open the door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ.”

I asked our team a few questions and here’s their thoughts:

1. What are you most excited about?

• I'm most excited to build friendships with the people we meet at the centre
• I am most excited about seeing Sam and Melody.  I love to encourage people and I'm very much looking forward to serving them.
• I’m stoked for the opportunity to be Interacting with the Thai university students
• Seeing what God will do in and through our team

2. what are you most scared about?

• I'm anxious about communicating wrong and offending the people on accident.
• team unity
• I am nervous about being in the most radically different culture I'll have ever experience
• the unknown

3. what would you like learn?

• I'd like to learn about their culture and their practices, and what they do in their spare time.
• I would like to learn conversational Thai or, more probably, how to discuss Christianity in a predominantly Buddhist environment. 
• I would like to learn more about myself on this trip.  Lots of my boundaries have never been found or checked.  I want to see how I will react to a new culture.  The only culture I've ever known is the typical North American culture.

4. What are some more specific prayer requests:

• A safe flight there and back
• To be courageous and to get out of my comfort zone
• That much to be learned and practiced by all involved
• For the measure of health that will most glorify the Lord.
• People would be encouraged by us

Schedule

March 25th we are heading to Chiang Mai, Thailand to serve along side our church's Sam and Melody Kuka at 'the centre’ (www.thecentrethailand.org). We have included our proposed schedule to help you see how to pray for us each day. 

Friday - March 25  4:41pm depart Winnipeg, 5:45pm arrive in Vancouver

Saturday (26)         1:30am depart Vancouver

Sunday  (27)                  5:00am arrive in Shanghai, China,11:20am arrive in Kunming, China, 5:20pm arrive in Chiang Mai, Thailand Sam and Melody pick us up, supper and check into accommodations 

Monday  (28)          visit a wat, (Buddhist temple), orientation at the centre, outline week’s activities,

Tuesday  (29)          Paint, mix with students, plan shopping list for cooking night

Wednesday  (30)          paint, shop and prepare for evening cooking class with Thai students

Thursday  (31)          prepare for english camp, mix with students,

Friday (April 1)          final prep for camp, english camp (with Thai university Students, outside the city at a camp)

Saturday (2)             english camp

Sunday (3)         english camp

Monday (4)         Clean up from camp, Tourist day

Tuesday (5)         3:35pm departure, 8:55 arrive in Shanghai,11:50 departure, 7:10pm arrival in Vancouver         

Wednesday (6)         9:15am depart Vancouver 1:54pm arrive in Winnipeg