Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Bed Bugs and Birthdays

Two very exciting things have happened to me recently!
Last night I learned how to kill bedbugs – Baby powder!
It’s incredible! I have been dousing the kids with it every night when they jump out of the bath, and last night the Thai staff were singing the benefit’s of the stuff – they say it keeps the baby’s dry, wards off malarial mosquitoes, and also kills bed bugs!
So I also powdered myself liberally, plus the mattress, sheets, clothes, headboard (just in case) and awoke bright and cheery this morning bed-bug free!
Ah, it’s the little blessings in life, you know?
The second wonderful thing is that tomorrow is my Birthday, and I am going to ride an Elephant into the Jungle! Ahhh! It will cut into my budget a bit, but I just won’t eat for 2 days or something, and it’ll be worth it.
I’m so excited!
Thank you so much friends for your love and prayers from home!
The Thai military is still staging the coup throughout the country. We see armed soldiers everywhere, but life seems to be peaceful nevertheless, Praise God.
I miss you all, and hope you are well!
Please let me know how I can pray for you - I feel your prayers everyday.
love and later!
-Jen

Monday, September 25, 2006

Home of Joy!



Living in the Home of Joy (YWAM's home for orphans in Chiang Mai)has been such a...well a joy!
The children are precious, and the workers inspire me by their dedication and love.
I am so thankful my missions role is not limited to merely writing about ministry. I can actually participate! They let me help feed and clean and read and play with the children from 5:45 in the morning when they all wake up - until...oh around 11p.m. when the adults go to sleep. And sometimes through the night.
It's not always easy, they seem to be louder, wilder, and needier than most children I know. Group mayhem is often the rule of the day, when one toddler starts screaming they all do. Nevertheless, we all get through it, and enjoy several bright spots throughout the day as well!
Here are some pic's of these darlings.

Friday, September 22, 2006

Nakhon Sawan, the Coup, and Chiang Mai

So yesterday in Nakhon Sawan, I met my Compassion Sponsor Child, Keng and his family! It was glorious! Oh he is so darling! His family is huge and extremely poor, but hard working, and love the Lord, and generally happy and healthy. Praise God for them. We all loved on eachother so much, it was great to meet eachother after writing for 3 years.

I left them last night and took the "sleeper" bus to Chiang Mai, and was wondering why we kept getting stopped by soldiers along the way (sometimes it is tough not to know what anyone is saying or what is going on =).
I arrived at the bus station at 3a.m. in the morning, and waited there until 10a.m. when my sweet YWAM Missionary friend, Kathleen (who is head of the orphanage here) came for me.
She said that the Thai military just took over the country last night, threw out the Prime minister, and the constitution, and.....some other stuff.
Thailand is such a peaceful country, and has not had disruption like this in hundreds of years. The news says the invasion and everything was peaceful, but we don't really know what is going to happen.
Soooooo I spent the day getting to know all the orphan children I will be living with for the next 8 days. The coup is happening all over the country, so we are just as safe here as we would be in Bangkok. Maybe safer.
So we'll trust God and watch the news and see what happens. It will be great living here with the kids. We will probably be spending alot of time playing and reading, and feeding and changing and cleaning.....and hopefully I'll get some writing done too =)
then I leave on Sept. 30th to India, Lord willing.
So, busy busy, but "God is in His high heaven and all is right in the world" as they say.
Thankyou so much for praying peace over this country, and safety for us here.

Joshua 1:9

God has been encouraging me with this verse lately. I hope it encourages you as well.
He says "Do not be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go."
Joshua 1:9

Monday, September 18, 2006

Adventuring



For our day off Stuart, Larissa, some local friends, and I hopped on their motorcycles and for an adventure in the back-country of Cambodia!
This is the most georgeous country!
We visited some ancient temples, and joined 100 local children climbing the crumbling ruins.
Then we visited some of the horrible killing feilds where Pol Pot murdered 4 million people during the Kmer Rouge regime of the 1970's.
When a warm cambodian downpour started we sought shelter under a hut with some monks and local people.
After the rain stopped we headed home, after buying coconut rice grilled in a Bamboo stalk. It's a local favorite, and here is a picture of us enjoying it together.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

My Little Princess


It is amazing how God knows the things our heart is missing, without us saying it.
God has been ministering to my heart this week through children. I could give several examples - but today in Cambodia (oh yes, I am in Cambodia now by the way =) I was invited to cross the border and stay with YWAMérs in Battambang for a week, to write a story about the sweet new things God is doing here).
Today they let me go to the orphanage nearby to play with the children! Our first stop was in the baby room, where I held the most beautiful baby girl. The house mother doesn't know her name or how old she is, and says she doesn't like her because she won't stay quiet in her crib.
She didn't cry though when I held her close to me and started talking to her. She reached up to touch my eyes and nose and cheeks - then she held me face in her sticky little hands and searched my eyes with her bewhildered little brown ones. I wanted to keep her so much.
I told her softly "Don't worry Princess. Jesus has a name for you. He knows how old you are. He knows everything about you, and He loves you so much."
I feel like God has been telling me that same thing about my identity. "Don't worry princess, I know you're a stranger in a foreign land where no one really knows you. But I know you. everything about you. and I love you so much.
I asked the house Mother's permission to carry the baby with me for the rest of the day as we visited other children.
She held my fingers and my heart so tight.
They wouldn't let me take her home, but I can visit again tommorow.
Praise God for that precious little one. =) Please pray that she will grow up knowing how much she is loved.
Here is a picture of her and a few other sweet kids we were playing with

Visiting the Monks



My friend Stuart visits the Buddhist monks in different pagoda's every morning. The monks are mostly young men in their 20's who are very friendly and eager to practice their English. Stuart has been making friends with them, and they always talk about the differences between Buddhism and Christianity. We are hoping and praying that they will start to "be enlightened" to the One True God.
Stuart let me tag along today and we all had wonderful conversations!

Day 3 in Cambodia



Yesterday I went with Katie (one of the girls on staff) to visit the sick at a local military hospital where many sick soldiers live and die.
Katie is praying for opportunities to organize more Christian volunteers to visit the hospital. The patients desperately need friends to love them, share the gospel with them, and serve them.
The hospital is filthy. Most of the patients have AIDS and lie on their deathbeds but have no one to help them with their most basic needs. There are no nurses to help them go to the bathroom or walk the half-mile away to the cafeteria, so many of the patients die of starvation. Sometimes people are lucky enough to have their family live with them, to help them, but many do not. Many are at the mercy of any tenderhearted person who will care.
Here are some pictures of the patients, and children who live there.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Please Pray

I have been in Bangkok for 10 days now. It is nothing like I expected.
God has been faithful to keep me busy gathering several good story's/testimony's from the YWAM missionary's here....but I really really need advice and prayer right now.
These past 2 weeks in Bangkok have been the valley of the shadow of death it is so spiritually oppressive here.
When I lived in the ghetto for a year in Chester they taught us spiritual warfare, so I have been putting on my armor and doing battle all day, but I still feel like all the life is getting sucked out of me - or I am swimming in a rip tide. I don't know what's happening. Normally I'm a really upbeat person with tons of energy and humor, but I am so weak and irritated here, I hate it.
I don't think it's just because it's a bug-infested, dusty, sweltering city; and hardly anyone speaks English; and I have no one to hug...I think its spiritual.
So please pray for me friends!
Thankyou,
love, Jen

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

The Muffin Man

Oh! One more thing about Singapore - I need to tell you a story =)
I go running in the mornings here about 5 days a week - which is wonderful because my YWAM office doesn't open until 10a.m. leaving me plenty of early morning time alone with God.
I like to run along the river and watch the senior citizens doing Tai Chi aerobics...they usually smile and wave at me even though it messes up their zen state. They are so cute.
Every time I leave in the morning or return at night to the YWAM house I say "hello" to a sweet elderly chinese man who sells orange chinese muffins and durian fruit outside our door.
Well, he is so sweet, I sometimes buy a muffin from him in the morning. But then I found out the muffins are for idol sacrifices to the hungry/angry ghost the Chinese are celebrating this month. So I have been debating whether I should act like Paul in 1 Cor. 8:4-9 where he says food offered to idols is still just food to Christians, there's nothing defiled about it. I debated this for a few days...Until one day I caught the sweet Chinese man clipping his toenails before serving the next customer! And I figuired, "well God, I think this is a sign. If idols don't defile the muffin toe jam certainly could."
So from now on I think I'll just smile and wave.