Friday

Friday was our last day of service work. Saturday was spent doing a little bit of tourism with the Antolecs as we rode elephants!

(Long boat ride TO the elephant camp)

(I don't think we need a title here!)

Back to Friday...we climbed into a truck where a couple of us braved the back of it and drove close to 2 hours to a school in the mountains.....What are we talking about; it was a blast!

When we finally got to the school, a portion of it was covered in fog and it was the coolest it had been all week in Thailand (probably because of how high we were and it was a 'cooler' day).

(some fog on our way up to the school)

At the elementary school all the students were gathered into a room where we were introduced and led them and taught them the song "If You're Happy and You Know It." The children were divided into 4 groups: 1) games 2)face painting and puzzles 3) English and bracelet making and 4) making balloons and snacks. It was a little crazy and kids were not staying in the groups, but I think it is safe to say we had fun and so did the kids.

It was a great time and we were thankful to work with such a wonderful school! The staff brought us to a noodle place nearby where we probably had some of the best soup of our lives. We got to hang out with the kids and staff a little afterwards too, playing and taking pictures.

On the way back we stopped for a quick view of Chiang Rai as well as a coffee plantation.

(Our wonderful trip leaders!)

Friday evening was our send-off goodbye from S2S. It was a wonderful evening of Christian fellowship, good food and surprise gifts. 

What an amazing group of people to spend our time in Thailand with....none of us would have had it any other way. They were each such a blessing to our team. 

Saying good bye it never easy....so we will just say see ya later! (The following day most of our team left for Bangkok.)

 It is incredible to see what God is doing in and through the people in Thailand. We were each blessed by the people we worked for and alongside. God is doing amazing things in Thailand. This is a country that is only 0.06% Christian. This is a country that has temple after temple and buddha after buddha all over the land. 

We challenge you to ask God what your part is in Thailand. Is God calling you to pray? Pray! Is God calling you to give? Give! Is God calling you to go? By all means, go!

Psalm 115:4-11

Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak; 
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;  
  noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;   
 feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them become like them;    
so do all who trust in them.

O Israel, trust in the Lord!

    He is their help and their shield.

 

O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord!

    He is their help and their shield.

 

You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord!

    He is their help and their shield.

Love in Christ,

Mission: Thailand '14

Wednesday and Thursday

We thank you for your continued prayers. If any of you have been missing photos, Doug Lane has been posting many to his facebook wall.

It has become extremely apparent to us, the idol worship in this country. Temples are all over, decorated in gold with pictures of dragons and what not. But what has really hit our hearts deeply, is a 17 story Buddha statue being built. We couldn't help but be reminded of the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego from the Bible. This is a country that needs to be claimed for the Lord and His Name needs to be lifted up. I hope you will pray for this country. We believe Jesus Name has power like no other!!

Wednesday: We served alongside the Hoaglands and their ministry to HIV families in various villages. We spent time bringing them food, praying with them and singing worship songs with them. The hospitality from these people was incredible. They had very little and yet wanted to bless us with fruit and drinks.





We spent the evening with the Shoulder to Shoulder kids at the girls' home. This time our team prepared a program for them in which some of us shared out testimonies and so did the kids! Our nights with them are so special. These are amazing youth. We are all so blessed by the Antolec's ministry to them.

Thursday: Work Day! We were finally able to see the new land that the Antolec's purchased for a home for them, the boys and the girls. This land will allow them to all be on the same space of land. There is also so much room for development on the land by them or other ministries and most importantly, whatever God has in store. It was a beautiful piece of property. We helped create a foundation for a water separator. What we did in 3 hours would have taken the workers around 2 days to complete.





We headed back to the Night Bazaar as a team and got some American food for dinner (ha ha): pizza and ice cream! No more bugs....Did we mention Shenay, Bethany and Scott ate bugs on Sunday?

Lifting up His Name,

Mission: Thailand '14

Tuesday

I know we are behind! We have just been so busy and that is a very good thing.

Tuesday: We arrived at Mengrai school and prepared for our teaching time for the 12th graders. Around 50 were selected to participate in our "Intensive English Program" (as you can see in the picture from our last post). Now mind you, this is a Buddhist school that we are working in. Just before we were about to start, we changed the song we wanted to teach to "How Great is Our God." We taught them the chorus and the kids sang with us! It was amazing to see God in this school where just moments earlier they had prayed to Buddha as a school.

Everyone's sessions were fantastic (crafts, English and & games). Their English is limited, but we had translators with us (other people working with Shoulder to Shoulder) and were so blessed by the students. We met some students that were Christian! The huge blessing was at the end of our time, the head of the English dept. gave us an open invitation to come back whenever! They have no native English speakers as teachers at their school and really love when native speakers come to help their students with English. Bill (missionary) was really stressing good relationships and God worked that out 100%.

Straight from there we hopped on a trolley ride that brought us around to temples in Chiang Rai. We used this time to prayer walk the land where all of the temples are. We also met some other people in Susie's (missionary) prayer group. It is incredible to see people from ALL over the world that have hearts for Thailand, especially the children.

After the prayer walk, we went to the Antolec's (Bill & Susie) home and had some team time which we have most days. We use this time to talk about how people are feeling, what they see God doing and to debrief about our time.

They live right next to the home for the boys and the home for the girls, so we all met up and walked down to the street market. We bought dinner and brought it back to the girls' home. It is fun to eat with them because large mats are brought out and we all sit in a huge circle and line the food up in the middle. This particular night was another huge rain storm that ended up shutting the electricity off. Candles were brought out and so was one of the student's guitars. The night turned into a beautiful worship night with songs being sung in Thai and English. What an incredible evening!

Love from Thailand,

Mission: Thailand '14

Sunday & Monday

Sunday: Today we experienced a Thai church service. We were thankful there was an interpreter there! It was great to meet other people and see the students again. They served lunch to us and we experienced our first real rain shower since arriving (it is the rainy season). The rain came down in sheets, instantly making a pond between buildings. We had to move because the roof did not cover the entire area we were sitting in. Just as quickly as it started it ended though. One of our team members was able to teach some of the people at church drums. They are currently in need of more drummers, so it was awesome for one of our team members to be able to help them on that path.

We spent the afternoon preparing for our first teaching day (Monday). It was nice to get everything organized and set up. Our supplies had been mixed up between bags, so finally getting it arranged helped us plan out our teaching days.


We ate dinner at the Night Bazaar which is an outdoor food and vendor place. It is amazing how inexpensive food is.....dinner for 50 baht which is the equivalent of under $2!


Monday: Today we began our teaching. Everyone was excited and some of us were nervous as well. Mengrai School has 1,200 students! The principal wanted to introduce us to ALL of them at the beginning of the day. From these students, only 36 were selected to be a part of our program. We ever got our own poster!

We split up into three groups to do games, arts & crafts, and teach English. Everyone had such a blast and the students and teachers loved it and were so happy we were there!!!

Some of the students from Shoulder to Shoulder who were previous students at this school (now at University) helped out in our groups. It was awesome to see how receptive all of the students were to our group. This is the first time we have worked with the school, and one of the missionaries stressed that our time here is about building relationships. Tomorrow we will return to work with another group.

This evening we are actually going to another school to teach English and then spending dinner with Shoulder to Shoulder students.

It is safe to say, everyone is loving it here. God's presence is so real. It is evident He is working in our hearts and teaching us as we serve His people. We believe the following is our mission while here-John 6:29:

For His Glory,

Mission: Thailand '14

(Our team at the Pittsburgh airport last Thursday)

We are here!

Just a quick note to say that after over 24 hours of traveling, we are safely here! We met up with everyone today and got to meet some of the students from Shoulder to Shoulder. Everyone is currently getting settled into their rooms now.

It is HOT! Today the temperature had a feel of 110 F, but they're transitioning us all in slowly to it. It is a beautiful day here, and we can tell we're going to have a blast with everyone. Looking forward to what God has in store for everyone on this trip.


-Mission: Thailand 2014

June 2, 2014

You've come to the right place!

This is North Way's official blog for the 2014 Thailand team. We are leaving in exactly 3 days and couldn't be more excited (and nervous I am sure!) We are very excited for the opportunity to be working alongside missionaries that our church supports. It will be amazing to see what God has planned for Thailand.

from here

 In case you missed what we are doing, here are a couple key points to get you caught up:

• We are working with two missionary families from Chiang Rai, Thailand.

• One of the families mentors students in their home, teaching them about God, giving them a place to live, food and access to education (which is no longer free after 9th grade). We will be helping with a project on the new land that they recently bought so they can build a new home for these students! We will also be spending some of our evenings hanging out with them. 

• The other family works with a village of 9 HIV families, bringing them food/supplies and praying for and ministering to them.

(We will be helping both of these families out with each of their ministries)

• We have the opportunity to teach English, play games and do crafts with two different schools (one high school and one elementary school).

Your prayers are imperative to our trip and we are so grateful for them. Thank you! We will try to update this blog as often as possible.

Thailand 2014 Team

(From left to right: Doug Lane, Audrey Lane, Bethany Lammott, Jake Lammott, Shenay Jeffrey, Scott McCabe, Missy McCabe)