God’s love and hope shines through the murky waters

TCCC staff still serving their country - iServe!!!

I can see the hurt and pain in my friends' lives due to the loss of their homes, cars and other possessions. Living at the guesthouse, they are surrounded by the same people, yet something is different: they are not in their home. I had that feeling when we were on vacation; it is nice to be somewhere else but you always want to come home at some point. No one knows how long the water may remain – possibly longer than a month. So the staff worry about the damages to their homes and vehicles and how they will restore these things once the water is gone. Despite the loss that the TCCC staff have endured and how they have been affected, the staff are giving thanks and continuing to serve! It’s amazing how they are letting God use them despite how they have been affected. They are looking at the situation with God’s eyes and thinking of this time as a rare opportunity to serve others and show people who God is. TCCC has been able to order some boats from the US. The boats in Thailand are hard to find during this situation so it’s great that they are able to get some from the States. Whenever they get on a boat and go to the affected area (Mueng Ake) they have shirts that say “iServe” (like an ipod or iphone) that they wear! The police have blocked off some areas to the public but when they see the iServe shirts the police are happy to let them through. All the help they are providing costs money but they are serving and helping knowing that God will provide! Such faith! Money for boats, food, supplies. As well as once the water leaves, money to restore lost applicances, furniture, personal belongings amoung other things. I am amazed by this community and how God works the most through hard devastating times. I’m sure we will all look back at this time and see how God’s glory shone brightly through the murky waters of the flood.

Check out this video that shows you a glimpse into what is happening in Thailand:

http://help.ministrynetconference.com/

I encourage you to not only watch the video but also read below where there are some statistics about the floods and how you can respond through prayer or donations. I’m praying God opens up your heart to Thailand. Is God speaking to you today?

Please continue to be praying for the nation of Thailand!!!

Flood Update - November 8th, 2011

I just have to say that God is so amazing and kinda funny & ironic. Janna and I kept hearing that our area where our home is (in Hoganka – Dindang area) wouldn’t be at risk of flooding. The government was working hard trying to protect Bangkok. Also we live on the 4^th floor of our home. Most people that were in the areas at risk of flooding were moving their belongings to the 2^nd floor so it was a blessing that we live on the 4^th floor of our building. If Rangsit flooded, then maybe we would have something to worry about. And the wall in Rangsit WAS holding so we weren’t worried. Funny thing is, as soon as we left, we found out apparently it may flood in our area too and that we would be safer in the South (which is where we were headed). Amazing how God works isn’t it? Always protecting us J

Outside the church - flood coming

Front of our church - flooded

On Wednesday, October 26^th, the flood came to Mueng Ake/Rangsit area. It came to our church and it came to our friends houses. Since the flood has come to the Rangsit area in Pathum Thani, there is a possibility that it will reach Bangkok. The government declared a holiday in Bangkok for the first week of November until November 6^th. The TCCC office also closed until yesterday, Nov. 7^th. Our friends and family who lived in Mueng Ake are all safe. They moved to the guesthouse for 2 days and then some of them even headed to their hometowns. P’Kung went to the South, P’Por went to the North and Kong stayed in this area at the guesthouse. Other staff dispersed to various locations such as E San, Chiangmai, Chumpon etc. This has made it harder to figure out how to train our leaders with them being in three places. However, they all needed to come back to help with flood relief work so we are thankful to see them again. Soon we will talk about how we can still work on DRIME and help serve with the flood situation.

P'Por & P'Bum's car under water

The TCCC has teams that have headed to the church in boats to help people in the Mueng Ake area, and to check on the church and people’s homes. They have moved tables, chairs and motorbikes up to the second level in the church. The most recent update on the water is that it is now a little over 2 meters high. P’Bum and P’Por’s cars are also under flood water. Today we have been told that the plan is to have 3 different teams for flood relief. One team will be taking food and supplies to the people of Mueng Ake. The second team will be somehow getting the rotten water out of the church (and cleaning up I think) And the third team will be staying here at the office/guesthouse and cooking food to take to the other locations.

The most recent information that I have heard is that:

-          24 provinces are currently flooded.

-          64 out of 77 provinces in Thailand have been affected.

-          529 people have died (in all of Thailand)

-          Approx 2.9 million people have been affected by the flooding in Thailand including our friends and family.

The other day I was telling our friend Hack when I was leaving the guesthouse that I was going home and he responded to me, “I don’t have a home”. I was like well here (the guesthouse) is kind of your home. He said, “My home is in Mueng Ake” Aww. My heart breaks for all of them! I love that everyone is together and serving, worshipping, and giving thanks together despite all that is happening in their lives and their country.

With the flood situation, it’s basically been a waiting game. Noone knows for sure when it will come. Lots of people make guesses but they usually aren’t correct. We will have to wait and see what happens. The water is around 2 km away from our area but it has been that same distance away for a couple days now. The water travels very slowly, but it is coming. The speed the water travels depends on the area and if there is buildings etc or if the level of the land is higher or lower. In the Hoganka/Dindaeng area it is higher than the main road and surrounding areas. So we are hoping and praying that the water will go around our area because it is at a little bit higher level. Maybe we will be like an island. Haha! That way we can still be the flood relief centre and cook from the office and send people in boats from the office to help and serve the community of Mueng Ake. As of now our area is still dry. Praise the Lord! 

Hoganka area getting prepared for the flood - Top left our home with sandbags, top right & bottom left - stores with not much supplies on the shelves, bottom right - raising up parked cars on sandbags.

Please continue to pray for Thailand!!!

A little break - the Adventures of Janna and Samantha

Janna and Samantha's Adventures

Well well well, it’s seems like so long ago Janna and I started our adventure of visiting a friend’s farm, getting our visas renewed and having a little break from our 4 ½ months of DRIME work, on the beach.

Milking a cow!

We started off our vacation visiting a friend’s home for a day and a couple nights… Our friend Kong’s (who is different than our leader named Kong as well haha) family lives on a farm in the country in Prachuab. It was nice to break up our travels by stopping at Kongs house because it would have been a long bus ride straight to the South otherwise. It was also great to have a familiar face pick us up at the bus station. We had fun at Kong’s house! His parents are so sweet! We couldn’t really communicate much with them because they only spoke Thai but they were very sweet and generous and loved having us around (for some reason haha).We got to experience a couple cool things on Kong’s farm. I got to milk a cow!!! How many people can say they milked a cow in Thailand? I can! And it was my first time! Granted, I wasn’t very good at it… but still it was a fun experience. Also along with 40 cows, Kong’s family owns a pineapple field. We didn’t get to go out and pick pineapples because it was raining in the morning but we were able to join Kong and his dad, aunt and uncle in picking up the tops of the pineapples from the fields. When people harvest the pineapples they cut off the tops of them and leave them in their fields. The cows really like eating them apparently and they are free so that’s why we were collecting them, for the COWS!!! J It was pretty fun, tho, if I ever were to do it again I would wear different clothes (pants and running shoes). We also got to play a game of dutch blitz with our friend Kong which was fun (even tho Kong won haha). We haven’t done that in a while because Janna’s cards got moldy from her drawers and she had to throw them out. So sad! But we had fun at Kong’s house!

Our friend Kong

Saturday morning Kong took us to a bus station where we were headed to Ranong to do a visa run and then to Chumpon to stay overnight because we had to wait for the boat in the morning. That was our original plan. When we got off the bus in Ranong it was around 3:15pm. We were like, “now what?” We looked around for someone to ask. In the restaurant right beside where the bus dropped us off there was a Thai man named Pom who spoke English! He told us that the Thai immigration closed at 3:30pm. But he could help us book a place to stay for the night in Ranong and do our visa run with us in the morning! So, we made an unexpected stop for the night in Ranong! But praise the Lord for sending someone to help us! We stayed at a cute little hotel and we were able to take a walk and explore a little and see the hotsprings area.

view from M.T. Resort's restaurant

The next morning we woke up early to do our visa run. Pom took us to Thai immigration and helped us with our paperwork. There we met Pascal, a man from France who had been living in Thailand for 12 years (so he had done the visa run thing a few times before :P – more like many many times before lol). He was also going across to Myanmar to do his visa run and he knew that you had to tell them you want to get right back on the same boat you came on or you would have to wait an hour for another boat. So we kinda just stuck with him, since he knew what he was doing. It was nice to chat with him as well! God kept providing people to help us! I was amazed by how He was providing. Like I know He does but somehow when it actually happens I become amazed all over again! Our visa trip to Myanmar (Burma) was super quick and then we were on our way to Chumpon. We took a van from Ranong to a train station in Chumpon and then a song tow (truck) to M.T. Resort (which we thought was called N.T. Resort but apparently it’s not. haha) What form of transportation have we NOT taken on this trip??? :P When we got to the resort, it was amazing! We had a view of the ocean in our little bungalow and the staff we so friendly and helpful with everything! They even had a little restaurant by the water! It was very pretty! We walked along the beach and the pier and were even able to get internet for the first time since leaving home in Bangkok! It hadn’t been that long but our days were packed so it felt like it had been more days than it had been.

Travelling in a "Song Tow"

In the morning we got up early again (to check out) and then took a boat to the island: Koh Tao. Apparently the accommodations that Janna had booked had not been completed online because we didn’t choose which dive we were doing with Big Blue. So Janna called the resort and they said someone was waiting at the pier in a blue shirt (that’s helpful :P) to pick us and other people who arrived at the pier up and bring them to Big Blue Diving Resort. We headed towards people with signs but we didn’t see any for Big Blue. However even people from other resorts are helpful, they always ask “Where you go?” and then they helped us find the truck to Big Blue. On our ride to the resort we met Michael, a Korean (I’m guessing) from Australia with only a slight Aussie accent and is going to be living in Thailand for 2 months doing his dive masters at Big Blue. Then he’s travelling around Asia for 4 more months. We got to Big Blue and someone asked us what we needed help with. We told them we’d booked online but we didn’t know for sure if it worked. Apparently you can’t stay at the resort unless you are in a diving course because it is a diving school. We wanted to do the Discovery Dive (one day dive) and he said they could work something out with that for a few nights but they don’t normally do that. Janna kinda wanted to become fully certified to dive on her own anyways so she decided to take the course. And I only was doing the one day dive; mainly because of my ears and my back.

Discovery Dive

After my ear infection in June, the doctor had told me to come back and see him if I ever decided to go scuba diving (or if I was going to be flying) so I did. The doctor in Bangkok said I could scuba dive as long as I told the instructor that my middle ear could not equip the pressure well. So when I got to the dive resort, I had to go to the doctor on the island to make sure I was okay-ed for scuba diving. (liability reasons mostly) Oh doctors stuff! I’ve had too much of that this trip! But it was quick and easy – almost too quick and easy. Looked in my ears, asked me to blow on this tube (b/c of my asthma) checked my heart with a stethoscope and sorta karate chopped my back and said “good” and that was that. I was in and out in about 5 mins.

Snorkeling Tour: met Fiona & Shane from Ireland 

My time on the island was a lot harder than I expected or thought. With Janna taking the scuba course I was alone a lot. I kept myself busy by snorkeling and doing the Discovery Dive and I would see Janna in the evenings. But she was tired and had homework so we couldn’t really relax together. And I couldn’t just go to the beach by myself that would be weird. Which those first days were okay and fun… I think I had enjoyed the snorkel tour the most… Scuba and my ears and being underwater just made me nervous. But I kinda got the hang of it and my ears never exploded – praise the lord! Panicked a little my second dive because I was looking at a fish and then all of a sudden I looked up to see where my instructor was and a big school of fish swam by and I couldn’t find her. I did a complete 360 degrees turn and then tried to calm myself… The thoughts going on in my head were, “Oh my gosh, you are lost underwater, no one knows where you are and you are far down under so much water!” But I tried to calm myself because I figured panicking under water was not a good idea.

God was stretching me even on vacation and equipping me for who knows what but for something that’s gunna be hard to come. This part (at Big Blue) of my vacation was one of the hardest vacations I’ve had. I haven’t fully processed the why of it all… But I definitely didn’t feel relaxed or rejuvenated. I felt emotionally and physically exhausted.

On Nangyuan beach

Therefore the fact that the office was closed for another week due to flooding was kinda a blessing in disguise… We were able to extend our vacation a few extra days due to the fact we didn’t know if it was safe to go home or not. We had the opportunity to go to a beautiful island called Nangyuan Island and I was able to feel a little bit more refreshed from the hard part of my vacation at Big Blue.

Before we came home we checked with our friends about the situation at home in Bangkok. We had called P’Natti a few days before but she told us to call her before we planned to come home to make sure it was safe. We did just that and she confirmed that it was okay to come home (and a good thing too because I missed our home! We had been away from it too long). That along with the fact that the bus didn’t cancel our tickets, we knew that we could get home safely. (The bus would have cancelled our tickets if the station was flooded – so we knew it wasn’t!) At around 9pmTuesday night, we arrived at home and were so thankful to come back to a dry home! Praise the Lord! Home at last! And praise him for having the opportunity to have adventures in Thailand!

Miss you!