Hope & I have been talking a lot about the process of refinement... how challenging & painful it can be, and yet how freeing it is.
In fact, it's interesting to think about how restrictive a life of faith might seem to an outsider (and maybe that's why many aren't interested in taking that path), yet after deciding to embrace a life of faith (when you stop running, turn around, seek Christ & begin engaging with Him) the "faithful" experience can be quite liberating... Many of these "rescrictions" are mis-perceived as external & temporal while the freedom through them is internal & eternal... Kind of like the discipline necessary in child-rearing.
Hope & I are continually amazed as we listen to story after story of how God personally purifies and uniquely cultivates so many brothers & sisters around the world. Just tonight our new friend Dave poured out his story to us about how God refined his call to do church-planting in Cambodia over the last 14 years. His words spoke to Hope & I personally --reminding us that the process began before we were even formed in our mother's womb (Psalm 139), that the fine-tuning is on-going & life-long, and that His desired outcomes are rarely what we expect or can even fathom. We all have "a call" that we should continually seek afresh each day.
In my last posting, I briefly mentioned that we had the privilege of attending a sports conference in Pattaya, Thailand. We were honored to be invited after our time at ISLS in South Africa, and we had been looking forward to it ever since. We are babies in this new family of sports ministry so we weren't sure what to expect... or what kind of reception we would receive into this exclusive, world-wide, leadership conference. For the most part, though, our reception was shockingly warm because we reunited with so many brothers & sisters from all over Africa & India we had met, visited with, and even been hosted by along our journey. We also made some amazing connections with many people who we will be visiting with in the months to come and who we would love to visit & serve with on our next global mission trip. God has designed our trip to have a strong component of networking that He's already using to link the Body together in many ways.
I'm so thankful to connect with the YWAM ministries of
Pattaya Slum Ministries &
the Tamar Center... both incredible lights shining amongst the darkness of this seemingly hopeless city. Pattaya was originally a fishing village changed into resort "R & R" area for soldiers during the Vietnam War. It's "red-light" district compares to the red-light district of Amsterdam, but in many ways it's worse! Supposedly, Pattaya has the biggest sex-trade in the world! The Tamar Center's target is to minister to these workers and try to get them "off the street" by training/employing them in card-making, baking, serving coffee, hair-styling & sewing. I encourage you to look at their website and pray about how you &/or your church, community or club could support them (maybe by selling their cards through your church gift shop or buying beautiful hand-made Thai silk bedding for wedding gifts). We're thankful that God scheduled a divine appointment with Nancy Barkus to be our host for the day... an incredible woman (64-years-young) with a wonderful perspective who also reminded us that God designs all the pieces of the puzzles of our lives to fit together perfectly in His plan.
For the couple nights that we stayed in the Pattaya after the sports conference, we were hosted by the dedicated youth workers of the Pattaya Slum Ministries. These Thai ladies were very patient and wonderfully sweet -- allowing us to join them for a couple days of their "after-school" programs. The language barrier posed a challenge, but it didn't stop us from engaging with the kids and praying for many adults in the slum communities. Kiap, Moo & Arrhi shared Thai meals with us (yum!) and helped us coordinate our next travel plans... we're so appreciative of these new friends! [Make sure to check out the rest of our photos via the link to the right.}
Over the last week or so, we jumped into the backpackers' scene for the first time in the last 4 1/2 months of traveling. (It's amazing that we've been be in home-stay situations for ALL but 4 days of the first third of our journey!) We were only a bit nervous -- feeling immature because of the lack of our independent experience traveling -- yet we were pleasantly reminded by multiple travelers along the way that we actually DO have a strong "travel-sense" about us... or maybe it's just that we're strong, independent, assertive women, not willing to be taken advantage of.
For example, after a nice, relaxing weekend exploring the island of Koh Chang (off the southeast coast of Thailand), we crossed over the corruption-filled, southern-most Thai-Cambodia border (near Krong Koh Kong) and managed to politely & innocently fight for our right to not overpay for our Cambodian visas. (The border officials were angrily adiment about charging people $15 more than it should be, be we got by with saving $10 each.) We finally & successfully crossed the border (visa in hand), and we traveled by bus and over 4 river crossings to spend a few days down at the Cambodian beach-town of Sihanoukville before heading to here to Phnom Penh... It's been a crazy weekend here in the capital because the annual Water Festival brought more than a million Khmer from all over the countryside... but it's worth it to see this side of the people and to be innudated by a contemporary culture celebrating a historical tradition.
Along the way (between Pattaya and Phnom Penh), we met some amazing travelers from all kinds of places, including Thailand, Cambodia, Italy, Australia, Israel, Canada, and Sweden (to name a few), and we connected (heart-to-heart) with a Buddhist Thai guy in Koh Chang who owns a MSO (my-self-organization) that distributes & brews organic/free-trade coffee from rural Thailand. After the fun-filled border crossing, we stayed connected with 3 wonderful Swedish ladies -- Jessica, Hannah and Sara, the latter of whom also joined us for a night in Phnom Penh.
I will go into more detail about our stay in Cambodia in my next posting. However, suffice it to say (for now) that God has miraculously opened multiple minitry contacts here in Phnom Penh and even a pastor in Siem Reap... many doors opening... it's shouldn't shock me because this has been typical of our adventure thus far AND because as long as we keep pursuing His will & desires for this journey, He will provide (Matt. 6:32).
For the couple nights that we stayed in the Pattaya after the sports conference, we were hosted by the dedicated youth workers of the Pattaya Slum Ministries. These Thai ladies were very patient and wonderfully sweet -- allowing us to join them for a couple days of their "after-school" programs. The language barrier posed a challenge, but it didn't stop us from engaging with the kids and praying for many adults in the slum communities. Kiap, Moo & Arrhi shared Thai meals with us (yum!) and helped us coordinate our next travel plans... we're so appreciative of these new friends! [Make sure to check out the rest of our photos via the link to the right.}
Over the last week or so, we jumped into the backpackers' scene for the first time in the last 4 1/2 months of traveling. (It's amazing that we've been be in home-stay situations for ALL but 4 days of the first third of our journey!) We were only a bit nervous -- feeling immature because of the lack of our independent experience traveling -- yet we were pleasantly reminded by multiple travelers along the way that we actually DO have a strong "travel-sense" about us... or maybe it's just that we're strong, independent, assertive women, not willing to be taken advantage of.
For example, after a nice, relaxing weekend exploring the island of Koh Chang (off the southeast coast of Thailand), we crossed over the corruption-filled, southern-most Thai-Cambodia border (near Krong Koh Kong) and managed to politely & innocently fight for our right to not overpay for our Cambodian visas. (The border officials were angrily adiment about charging people $15 more than it should be, be we got by with saving $10 each.) We finally & successfully crossed the border (visa in hand), and we traveled by bus and over 4 river crossings to spend a few days down at the Cambodian beach-town of Sihanoukville before heading to here to Phnom Penh... It's been a crazy weekend here in the capital because the annual Water Festival brought more than a million Khmer from all over the countryside... but it's worth it to see this side of the people and to be innudated by a contemporary culture celebrating a historical tradition.
Along the way (between Pattaya and Phnom Penh), we met some amazing travelers from all kinds of places, including Thailand, Cambodia, Italy, Australia, Israel, Canada, and Sweden (to name a few), and we connected (heart-to-heart) with a Buddhist Thai guy in Koh Chang who owns a MSO (my-self-organization) that distributes & brews organic/free-trade coffee from rural Thailand. After the fun-filled border crossing, we stayed connected with 3 wonderful Swedish ladies -- Jessica, Hannah and Sara, the latter of whom also joined us for a night in Phnom Penh.
I will go into more detail about our stay in Cambodia in my next posting. However, suffice it to say (for now) that God has miraculously opened multiple minitry contacts here in Phnom Penh and even a pastor in Siem Reap... many doors opening... it's shouldn't shock me because this has been typical of our adventure thus far AND because as long as we keep pursuing His will & desires for this journey, He will provide (Matt. 6:32).
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