First Update of 2010

Hey everyone,

Happy New Year!

We hope you are all well in this new year and have some good new year resolutions to fill :)

We have been on the road since 26^th December, first travelling 6-7 hours to a place called Nakhon Sawan (about 4 hours out of Bangkok). We came to this place to run a Christmas program, but we ended up staying for about 4 nights to help with some other things that came up, and to have a time of resting too, which was nice! After this, we went to Bangkok and stayed at Karis’ family’s house for a week and a half. This was also a relaxing time for us, and a chance to spend some time together without the distractions of ministry. During this time, we also had a chance to go to a lovely beach wedding, the first wedding we’ve been to since our own.

Now, we are between Bangkok and Chiang Rai (in a place called Phitsanulok). We left Bangkok on the 11^th and drove here to visit some good friends of ours who we will hopefully be working together with in the future. Tomorrow (Wednesday 13^th) we (along with these friends of ours) will travel to Chiang Rai to plan, set up, and help run the Orientation camp for the next DTS. If nothing else comes up, we are planning to leave Chiang Rai towards the end of January, take our friends back to Phitsanulok and then go home to Ubon, where Ice and Pedro are at the moment.

In the last month, Ice and Pedro have been helping out in the YWAM Ubon internet café and being “discipled” by one of our friends to get them ready for their DTS. Our leader has talked to a Thai DTS in Khon Kaen (another province in Isaan) and we will find out more information soon (about school fees and whether Ice and Pedro will be able to learn there). Please pray for Ice and Pedro at the moment, while we are away, because it is hard for these two teenage boys to live a godly life when we’re not there to help guide them. We are looking forward to getting back home, spending some time with them and helping them through the trials that have come up in the last month, but until then we need to trust them into God’s hands. Please pray. Thank you to those of you back in Ubon who have been helping to take care of Ice and Pedro while we are away.

We also want to thank everyone who has been supporting us in the last month through prayer, financial needs, and encouragement. We have grown a lot in the last month by seeing God’s faithfulness come through for us, to the point of Him providing money even for diesel for our car to do all this travelling. It has been an important time for us in our relationship to rest and spend time with just the two of us, plus an important time for us to prepare our ministry by the relationships we have been able to build in the last month. We believe that our trip to Chiang Rai in these next 2 weeks will also be an important time for us to build more relationships, serve YWAM Chiang Rai, and catch up with some of our old friends :)

So once again, thank you. Everything we do here would not be possible without our God and the support of our “backbone” – YOU and everyone else at the other end of this email :)

May God bless you all and give you a fresh start to the Year 2010.