He gives and takes away….One set of students have been taken away but thank God for a new set. One of the teenagers from Church brought ten or so non Christian school friends to the Youth House last week. We had lots

Good bye Sukothai

Today I went back to Sukothai to hand in my work permit, and to say good-bye, as I left in a bit of a a rush. It was sad as I watched them all bow to Buddha this morning. Thousands and thousands of students still need to hear the Gospel.

Train to Serve (T2S)
This is the new training scheme that I am part of. Last week we went away for a week of training. Firstly let me introduce you to everyone in the picture. Starting at the front and who you know!!
Front left Hannah (from England working alongside me for 3 months) Caroline (England just finished first year language helping the Thai couple behind for the next few months.
Thai Couple behind me Buk (female) a (male) student workers at youth house in Lopburi.
In the middle Ann and Johnny Mclean (team leaders work in Nakhon Sawan) with their three kids Joshua (baby) Matthew and Bethan (never a dull moment with these three!!!

The other Thai guy Off – student worker in Pitsanuloke with his wife Pueng (means Bee)
At the very back Steve – the guy who worked in Sukothai at the boys hostel and who’s parents I stayed with when I was sick.

Where?
Where is this beach. To me it looks like a beach in Ireland, maybe I have been away to long and forget what such a beach looks like!!! It’s actually a beach in Koh Samui, on an overcast day. I think I was the only person happy that the weather was overcast, rainy and waves in the sea!! : )

Daddy Bear, Mummy Bear, and baby bear go to on hols…
This picture reminds me of the three bears it is very unrepresentative as I’m actually the tallest. We spent ten very refreshing days in Koh Samui.

And the floods followed us!!
Mum and Dad started their travels in Sukothai – floods. We then moved to Nakhon Sawan and – more floods. On the last night everyone was up (apart from me – I managed to sleep through it all!!) was up moving everything from the ground floor, for fear of flooding. Next morning we had to wadw through water which got knee deep to the main road to catch the bus to Bangkok. Thankfully that was the end of the flooding for us. Unfortunately mainy people have lost their homes six weeks later many areas in Nakhon Sawan are still severely flooded. This wa in October it is now November and the rain has stopped.

Woah your sweaty!!
That’s not quite what Patana said well at least I think not – but she sure thought my Dad looked very hot. His shirt was completely wet. I thought it was quite a cool day!!!

From the heart
A friend sent me an email asking what God has been teaching me these last weeks. This is what I wrote. It may not be perfect English and I don’t know all the quotations exactly but rather and make it a work of art I just want to share from my heart.
What has God been teaching me where do I start!!!
Lesson 1 “ be content in all circumstances”
When I first got sick – God what are you doing? Also struggling with having to leave Sukothai and the people there not understanding. Was I content with being sick no not at all at first. But then I realized it was a time when God wanted me to be still, I couldn’t do much but listen to him and Christian music. I began to appreciate the small things in life the beauty of his creation. The beauty of a rose a butterfly. It gave me lots of time to pray.
Lesson 2 “Be still and know that I am God”
Lesson 3 Be patient. I can now see that God has been pruning me to allow this fruit of the spirit to bear more fruit in my life. (john 15 and Galatians 3) At the time it was painful but now I can see that it was done in complete love, my Father loves me very much. – lesson 4
“My ways are not your ways” – lesson 5
You don’t have to understand everything but trust God. I thank God that in his grace I am beginning to catch a glimpse of what he is doing in my life, why he has allowed what he has allowed in the past few months. “I will not test you beyond what you can endure” lesson 6 It was a struggle for me to come back to Sukothai b/c I struggled with loneliness so much the last time but I trusted God eventually and this was fine this time. I learnt to be content in the circumstance of not having many people about. However it was difficult sometimes and now he has taken me out of this situation, where I’m part of a huge team who love and care for me so much and they are nearly all from the UK so I can communicate so well with them.Lesson 7 can’t remember the exact reference at the mo but where it talks about the different parts of the body and it says when one part rejoices all should rejoice with it when one part suffers all suffers. I have been really touched by the love that my brothers and sisters in Christ have shown me over the last few months. I have never experienced this type of love and concern before. It really shocked me and I felt weak, and such a burden. Then I read these verses and realized that they were following Christ’s commands – praise God. Learning that it’s ok to be weak it’s ok to depend on others. This has been difficult as I’m usually the strong one I’m the one who is normally giving the advice being strong. It was hard at first to accept my weakness but I thank God for this.
Lesson 8 - The devil is real and the devil attacks. The devil doesn’t want me here and the devil doesn’t like me being close to the Lord. The devil has been trying his hardest over the last few days to discourage me through various events, but God is stronger I can almost feel his arms draw tight around me, thank you God.
“It’s not the trials that make us strong but what we choose to do with those trials” These were the words of a song that really encouraged me. What did I need to do with these trials bring them to the Lord. I am still quite weak physically and this is frustrating sometimes what will I do I will bring it to the Lord in prayer, so far he hasn’t taken this weakness away but he has drawn his protective arms closer around me

Woah that’s quite a list!!