Bible Fund

Hi everyone!

This is a QUICK QUICK update, but I just spoke with my friend Pat -- he says he knows of 5 people who need Thai Bibles. Anybody want to donate to a Bible fund?  The money comes to me, I give it Pat, he buys the Bibles and gives them to the people that need them. If so, you can just mail a check to my home address (which I don't want to post here. Send me a message on Facebook? If you're reading this, you probably know how to get a hold of me...but if not, leave a comment)

Also, please pray for
1) Summer School that starts up tomorrow
2) A group of boys from the detention center are being baptized on Tuesday! Pray for them.

THanks! Love ya all --

In Christ,
Amber

A Baptism

One of our little girls, Naam-fone, was baptized today :) :) :)

It was very special day. We went to a big waterfall.

This is Naam-fone!

This is the view out her back door! (So beautiful)

"I want to be baptized because..."

Love this picture! *taken by Brittany Gray

Whew!

HI everyone!

This has been -- a long past week and a half! Working with the textbook project (especially last week) we have made some ground. The Lesson 1 draft is done and ready for presentation! I am hoping to get Lesson 2 done by Friday (but that may be pushing it quite a bit.) It is so exciting to see some progress in this.

Please continue to pray for the Friday night prayer group, as 2 Thai women are seeking.

Also, if you remember, a few weeks ago I posted about a women who was being terrified by the demons. She is a cancer patient, and was unable to take treatment (but is now able to). She is from the mountains, so she comes to Chiang Mai for treatment and stays with some relatives or something are neighbors to "Hope". God told Hope to go to her neighbors house a few weeks ago, and that is how she met "June". Hope and some other believers prayed for June, and that night she had nightmares and the demons told her to stay away from those Christian people. Now June is scared of Hope because she is afraid of the demons. Last week, God told Hope to go to her neighbors house again, but she didn't know why or that June was back in the area. She went and when she got to the house and walked in, June turned to her relatives and said "why did you invite her over!" and they said "We didn't tell her you were here!". Hope said, "God told me to come, so I had to come".Please continue to pray for this situation, as God is obviously directing and leading it and wants this women in His eternal kingdom!!! June is still scared. And pray for Hope that the Lord would give her guidance and wisdom in showing Christs love to a women who is sincerely afraid of her.

Also, we have one sweet little girl from our school who will be BAPTIZED on Saturday!!!!!!!!! :D Her name is Naam-fone. 

The school year is coming to a close, we finish on Friday :(
Next week Mackenzie, Emma and I travel to UDON to VISIT OUR RELATIVES (can't wait!) and then head up to Laos (about 2 hours away) in order to renew our Visa's. Please pray a blessing on our family, and a blessing on our travels. I am really excited. Most of the plans are up in the air right now though, which is pretty much Thai style, but I am a little nervous about things going smoothly with the Visa process -- I am praying it will go smoothly so we don't have to cut short our time with family (we need to be back to Chiang Mai to help teach Summer School), so would appreciate your prayers regarding that front. Will tell you more about summer school soon.

Here are some pictures from today! We did class pictures. Mom and Dad, can I say you rock? It's really hard to get a group of kids to smile and pay attention. Kudos to you. These pictures are mostly the silly ones. I think if you click on them they will be bigger.

Ha -- this is one of my favorites. James -- our monkey.

Last weekend we were quite blessed, a few days after my cast was removed (thank you Jesus for healing my leg!), Mackenzie, Emma and I went swimming (great ankle rehab!). THEN Emma wanted to get her hair cut, so we went to the beauty parlor, and Mackenzie got her hair cut too. The lady decided to give us all rides to go and get Thai massages (also, surprisingly, great ankle rehab!). Then THOSE ladies decided to DRIVE US HOME. We probably wouldn't've been able to do all of that without their kindness. And all of this cost us less than $8. It really was quite a blessing. We still are talking about it. Here are some pictures from the swimming:

BeAUTIful EMMA

ALSO I just need to say, we have the *best* neighbors in the entire world. They really are such wonderful people, we are so blessed and glad to know them, they are like family.

They take us to places like THIS

(Kenzie took most of these, BTW)

Want to send out some quick prayer requests:

1. For the textbook project, that God would continue to orchestrate and lead (and bring more people on board)
2. For the kids and their year end tests
3. For our wonderful neighbors
4. For the Friday prayer meetings (I've been attending these past 3 weeks -- I love it.) Pray for Pohn and Daeng.
5. I shared a story about a little boy who accepted Christ a couple of weeks ago. His mother wants him to move to Bangkok with her (he is currently living with his Christian Aunt and Uncle). He does not want to go. She does not want him to be a Christian. Pray for this little boy.

Also, my cast came off on Tuesday, I am slowly limping around. Pray for a fast recovery. Moved back into my room tonight, life feels organized again.

Good night! (or, er, morning!)

The Body of Christ

a few pictures of the past couple days:

Love her!

Some of my favorite girls. (I think I say that about all of them).

A mural Mackenzie and I had an opportunity paint. They would like us to come back, so we are praying about a theme we can use. It is a government school, and we want to paint to glorify God, so are asking for guidance and a theme from the Lord. :)

I thought this picture was awesome. This is Rob, our 'knows how to do everything' handy-man! He set up the mural painting for us.

These are a bit older, and I THINK Emma dear took all the following of the kids

This is what the public transportation looks like :)
If I remember, I'll try to post another picture of the inside sometime
but this was too great not to post :)

After the inside acrobatics,
they demonstrated their climbing abilities...

Mackenzie has been laminating, and laminating, and laminating.
Shall I say it again?
Laminating.

My housemates and I had a creative writing 45 minutes. It was fun. Just wanted to share this poem:

The Body of Christ.

Thinking of the woman at the well
and thinking of her willing heart.
A women in despair who believed this man
who told her all the things she had ever done.
Running to tell those who cut their eyes at her.
The fingers locked around her throat
were loosened,
and she had forgiven.

Thinking of the 7 lepers
and their desire to be healed
and the one who returned.
This was more than a sickness
that was healed
it stemmed from a heart
overcome
with what had been given.
Lord, thank you,
for what you have given.

Thinking of the disciples
who were expected to receive brother Paul
after he had killed so many loved ones.
No longer, he is Brother Paul.
Teach us how to pray for those who persecute
our family.
And Lord, let us be people full of grace.

Thinking of Jonah
and how he was given the honor
to deliver honey-filled words
with the protection of his Father
to bring redemption to an unbelieving nation
But the hardness in his heart hindered.
And I am glad to know his story,
but Father, let us learn from his folly.

Let us be like King David
dancing in joy.
A voice to sing with and hands to serve with.

Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within.

Above all,
this man Christ
who has seen you
who has opened his arms
and sacrificed for all.
Lord Jesus, in my heart
give me love
so I can be more like you,
more and more like you.