Leaving Thailand tomorrow...

Hello everyone! I had such a busy week this week. Thanks again for your continued prayers and thoughts!

This week we asked the pastor if there was any kind of practical, physical work that we could do to be a blessing to the church. We ended up painting the entire church building! I'm not sure of the dimensions, but it has 2 floors, plus another floor that leads to a rooftop. It took 2 days to paint, but it was really fun. It was also really scary! I found myself lying on the roof ledge on my belly painting below me, and staring into the street below. God definitely kept us all safe! One day this week, a group of guys also went to work on a house of a former church member. They basically live in a bamboo hut with no walls. The guys were able to put walls up and really meet an important need for this family! It felt so good to bless people in this way.

We continued to teach english in the afternoon this week, and it was fabulous. I really enjoyed being a teacher and I'm going to miss it. On Tuesday, there was no school (I'm not sure why), but a ton of kids came over to the church just to hang out with us! It was so sweet! Because we were working, we couldn't spend as much time with them as we wanted to, but for a couple of hours in the afternoon Rachel, Darcey, and I did crafts with the children. They were coloring different pictures illustrating Bible stories and I so desperately wanted to explain to them what they were coloring. The language barrier can be so frustrating. Anyway, Wednesday was our last day of teaching (and Mike and I were able to share the gospel in our class, YAY!), but yesterday was our last day at the school. We had the opportunity to perform our dramas, songs, and also present the gospel. It was amazing! We did songs like "Every Move I Make", "Lord's Army", and we ended up doing 4 dramas. The children seemed to love everything we did. I think the most amazing moment was when we were singing "Jesus Loves Me" to the crowd of kids (about 100 of them), except we sang: "Jesus loves you"... Some of these children this week have grasped a little that there is a God that created them and loves them, but some of the children just have no idea. It was such a huge thing, some of the little ones heard for the first time that day that there is Someone named Jesus that really loves them. After our program, the pastor spoke for about 30 minutes. It wasn't translated, so I don't know exactly what she said, but Wuut said she was talking about creation. With Buddhism, that's almost where you need to start. You can explain how God created the world, and eventually get down to the gospel message, but they are still stuck at the fact that God even created the world. At the end, the pastor prayed for the children and I looked out and saw all of the children with their eyes closed, their hands folded and just lost it. I so desperately want these children to understand how valuable they are, how they are loved, how precious and special they are... The last thing we did at the school was go back to our respective classes to take pictures. Mike and I also gave a farewell, which caused both of us and most of the girls in our class to cry. It was a really really emotional time. I hugged so many children and told them I loved them. And they really loved us too. It pains me that we have developed these relationships, and now we have to leave. But I know that seeds have been planted, and hopefully more YWAM teams will be sent here to work with the school. Please be praying for that. So, our farewell ending up being incredibly sad and depressing... and the little ones didn't really understand. Wai, the little 3rd grader I have grown especially attached to, told me: "Pope gun my", which is "See you later". She didn't understand at all that I was leaving forever, and that I will probably never see her again. I hope I do, though...

What an amazing time I am having here. Even though yesterday was so sad, it was also so incredible... I know that these children have been touched and struck by our love for them and willingness to come here and teach them. There has been talk today about some of the girls possibly coming over after school to see us one last time. I hope that they do!

Well... as always, there's so much more to say. It's likely that I won't have internet access the entire 2 weeks that I'm in Cambodia, so you may have to wait to hear about my orphanage adventures. I'm really excited about this next part of our outreach, and experiencing something new. It would be so easy to stay here now that we're all comfortable in our atmosphere and surroundings, but I think it's great that things are going to be shaken up a bit.

Thanks for your prayers! I love you guys...