Closure

It's been about a month since we've been back from Thailand and I realized this blog never got a proper closure. It might not matter to anyone else, but I think this blog deserves it! And even if no one comes across this right now, I'm hoping some of the members would come back to reminisce on what we did this summer hehe.

And I promise this post will be short!

So here it is: the final entry of Thai-No-Mite's blog (from me at least ^^)

Jumong- this little one left the world a little earlier than we might have wanted, but he is luckily spending time with our Heavenly father! What a happy angel :)

And all these pictures pretty much sum it up :) Isn't everyone's smiles so contagious?!

In a place I thought would be so dark turned out to be filled with so much love and joy. And our team was blessed with the opportunity to do God's work in this beautiful country. Our awesome dad is taking care of His children in Thailand and I'm comforted in knowing that :)

So until next time....!
- Euna Kang

The final leg - Chiang Rai!

Hello friends, this is Jihye (really this time)

I hope you guys are all doing well back at home. We muss you guys tons but at the same time, we don't want to leave Thailand just yet! It's been amazing so far and we're so thankful for everything God's been doing and all the people He's allowed us to meet.

We're staying at a Youth Development Center for the Ahka hill tribe people with Pastor Luka and Pee Ghan and gosh, their hospitality is awesome ^^ we have such a beautiful view of the mountains and the sky is always in HD with the biggest white clouds and the kids, oh the kids. I love them so much T_T they're so welcoming and funny and athletic and kind and yes, I hope to get to know them even more during our 2.5 weeks here.

Quick recap, we usually play sports with them since they have basketball, soccer, volleyball, and ping pong, but yesterday, when we were all gathered for a program the power went out due to a freak thunderstorm. But we believe, it was God's doing because we got to bond with them so quickly in the dark. We had a few candles but we didn't need them much. We did random stuff like poke each other and run around, taught them the cup game, some english and korean terms, hand games, and we even got to see them bboy and sang one direction with them! This one guy knew the lyrics better than we did x) But I know it was a part of God's plan because as soon as we were done and going to sleep, the lights came back on! :)

I'm hoping to post some pictures soon, but in the meantime, thank you for reading and continually praying for us. All glory to HIM! <3

UPDATE: the next day- Saturday, we had our program since it was cancelled yesterday, and oh my gosh, it was SO GOOD! We praised with the kids and wow, they sang their hearts out! It was cool because they sang a lot of the same songs we knew like Blessed Be Your Name, I Could Sing of Your Love Forever, and Deep Down in my Heart in Thai. And get this...this is a shout out to my home church's youth group--In[2]Him, we sang One Way!!! Man I was going to tear up of happiness haha. It was so fun just jumping up and down and shouting praise songs with them. It felt just like my home retreat.

Anyway, I could go on about how God's presence is so great here and how His love keeps overflowing around us, but I'll end it for now :) hope you guys are pursuing Him daily and finding Him in all parts of your life ^^ lets keep doing kingdom work together family <3 peace!

First Day at Chonburi! (older post)

Kandace Glenn (made a mistake and thought it was Jihye's sorry!!)

We made it to Chonburi!  It’s been fairly relaxed here.  The first day we just toured the center we’re staying at and met the kids at the orphanage.

Here’s a picture of our team on the first day.

 Our main focus here is teaching English at a local elementary school and playing with the orphans. 

I feel like we’ve been so spoiled this whole trip. All the people we meet treat us like royalty—for example, we get nice rooms with AC and reeeaaalllly good food.  Also, the weather is a lot cooler here in the countryside than it was in Bangkok. 

God has been doing so much work and all of us on the team have been mad blessed….and it’s only the first week! In our nightly “Bible studies” our team has been going through Ephesians.  One thing that really stood out to me in Ephesians 3 is how we are to be “rooted and established in love” (vs. 17).  I have definitely seen our team come together and we’re learning how to love God in a community aspect.

Please keep praying for us!  Pray against sickness, spiritual/physical tiredness, disunity, etc.

Love you guys

The Slums

Philicia Tucker

At first when we heard that we would be going to the worst slum in Bangkok, all I felt was fear. Fear of crime, rats, having dirt floors, etc. My heart was not right when I should know that I have constantly asked God to challenge me and continually spoken that He was my protector and provider. Thank Jesus that even in my doubt and fear He is faithful and sees beyond the circumstance. When we got to the slums and where we were staying I realized and I think most of us thought the same that it wasn’t that bad. There were no dirt floors and most of us were more annoyed by the rooster in the morning than the rats at night haha. It hit me when Pastor Ruth said welcome to our ministry and thanks for coming. This was a ministry not some way to get over my fear or too see how much I could take. It was not about me. Once again I see that it was about Christ and what He is doing in Thailand. Two things stuck out to me the most. One, the slums translated from Thai is community, which is exactly what these people were. I saw how people gave us the best they could by giving us drinks or taking us around or giving us a place to sit, when they had nothing. They knew each other and looked out for one another. The second to last day I was teaching English with Mott (the guy who lived with us in the slums) and I was moved by how many times he just stopped to say hi to some kids or the older women. As we taught, I could see how much he cared and loved playing with these children. I remembered in the Bible when the women who had a little and gave all that she had to Jesus. Jesus praised and honored her compared to those who gave a lot and giving was not even a burden to them. I understood that these people knew how to be thankful for even the little things. They knew how to love even when they had all the reasons to be selfish. They have given so much and blessed us so much that goes beyond physical gifts. What an honor it is to meet these people and to worship and pray with them. Two, Jesus said to his disciples that to enter the kingdom of heaven you must be like little children and to humble yourself as little children is the same as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Mt 18:3-4). I have a better picture now of why God calls us to be like children. I saw how the children of the slums where just as bright as the orphan kids and just as bright as the children from the refugee family. These kids were quick to learn, carefree, and just wanted to be loved. They were not weighed down by their circumstances. God just wants us to allow Him to love us and we need to be trusting in our Father even in the hardest of circumstances. He will give us peace that passes all understanding and a joy that gives us strength. That is what I saw in the children a peace and joy that was not effected by where they lived, what they ate, or what they would do in the future. I want to be like them and we as children of God should be like them. Overall, I am constantly seeing how much God loves these people. It was overwhelming how much wrong and darkness I saw in Thailand, but now I am overwhelmed by how much of God’s love and presence is here. It makes me want to love this place just as much. More I know Him more the more I love Him and those He loves.

Rewind, Pause, Replay!

HELLO!! Euna here again (no applause please bahaha)! I will apologize for Joe because of our last post LOL. I actually saw a pig head like that in person and it was so scary... but anyways! I offered to write a recap post because we weren't able to update for a while so here I am :)

Our last post was posted right before (literally) we left for Chonburi, so I guess I'll start from there and update everyone with what we've been up to. *deep breath* HERE GOES NOTHING!

MAY 18TH, 2013 - JUNE 5TH, 2013
- so we rode the car for about 1.5 hours to Chonburi, where we stayed at a nice lodge :)
- and to sum up what we did there: we taught English at a local school for 4 days, we played with the awesome orphanage kids, we went to church and shared short testimonies, had VBS (which included awkward singing and hand motions... sigh I feel bad that the kids had to witness that LOL), performed a skit for the church members, cleaned two ponds with lily pads, helped set up a foundation for concrete flooring for the kids to play on, prayed with the kids, went swimming with the kids, and basically just spent a lot of time being blessed at the orphanage center.
- I really miss everyone at the orphanage right now and I can't believe how quickly the two weeks passed. Our team will definitely never forget the times we spent with the kids. They were so happy and full of joy and I know for a fact that each and every one of them stole a part of our hearts. And we felt sososo loved while being with them and that's a gift on its own. We could see that they had hearts full of gold and they were really beautiful inside and out :D I was sad to leave them but I know God has a plan for each of them and I have faith that they're in good hands (well, of course they are! who's better than the Creator of this universe, right?)
- and oh boy, the kids we met at the school we taught at... they really treated us like we were celebrities! Haha they were constantly asking for autographs and following us around just to shake our hands or say hello... these kids were so welcoming and awesome. and smart. and cute. and fdjakf;a just everything. I miss them just as much, and although we didn't get to build close relationships with every one of them, I know for a fact that God was present with our team to show His love to them while we taught in each classroom :) I genuinely wish I could go back to see them, but like I said before, I know they're in good hands and I feel so blessed to have taught such cool kids B)
- and next: the SLUMS! Our team actually got to go to Pattaya for a day before heading out to the slums to rest up and relax. Fun day :D After, we came back to Bangkok on the 29th of May to stay at the slums for about 5 days. We were expecting the worst of the worst but once again, God blessed us and provided us with a decent place to stay. The bathrooms were a bit difficult getting used to (mostly the squat pots) but overall, it was pretty okay! Just a few bugs here and there along with some rats running around and maybe a few loud chickens that loved to scream in the middle of the night but no biggie.... *twitch*

LOLOL jk hahah. Like I said before, it really wasn't that bad and although the rats and chickens bothered us a bit, we pulled through! God protected us and we were able to have an amazing time in the community there. We taught some English and Korean (people love the Korean culture in Thailand!) to some kids and adults, and we spent a lot of time with Pastor Ruth and Pastor Inchain (I don't know how to spell his name T__T). They have a lot of ministries around the area and we were able to meet a lot of people during our stay! We lived with a brother named Mot and he was seriously so awesome. He welcomed us so warmly, and along with everyone else we met there, Mot was so loving and we were able to see his love for God. Pastor Ruth and Pastor Inchain also taught us some Thai instruments and it was really fun. There's so much about the Thai culture that intrigues me and learning about the music here was definitely interesting. I guess I never realized how important it is to spend time with people until now because I now understand how much of a blessing it is to be with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Even if we were playing one song with Thai flutes for an hour (which was kind of tiring haha), I still felt extremely happy because we were able to talk with such amazing people. Again, it has only been 3 days since we've seen everyone we met at the slums but WE MISS EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM! Seriously, they poured so much light onto our team and the amount of blessings we received while being with them still blows my mind. God is SO good and if it weren't for Him, we wouldn't have been able to experience all we did. We really pray for everyone we met so far and we ask that you all pray for them too! :) Thailand is said to be full of darkness, and although there is a lot of corruption, we still see so much of God's presence here. It's truly amazing and it just comes to show how real and good He is.
- quick side story: I was teaching Korean to a boy named Gaim, and after going through some of the basic phrases, I asked him what else he wanted to learn. And without hesitation, the first thing he asked was how to say "I love you, mom and dad". It really blew my mind because I didn't expect it but I just thought it was amazing. mad respect :)
- But yeah, we left the slums on Sunday and had a few chill days until now so that's what we've been doing!
- We met up with Sophia two more times (another extremely long story which I feel someone else should write about) and did some outreach work in the Red Light District again. Definitely an experience none of us will forget. *there's never enough prayer for the victims involved in sex trafficking
- Everyone who hosted us so far have treated us out to nice restaurants, sites, etc. and I guess pictures would be a better representation of what we did (look on Facebook? haha). but yeah, we are SO BLESSED to be experiencing what we are here in Thailand! All thanks to the people God had led into our lives :)
- We fly out to Chiang Rai by plane tomorrow morning at 7 and we're pretty excited! We have about 2.5 weeks left and I'm so excited for what else God has in store for us. I don't know when we'll be getting wifi again but we'll definitely update again.

SO YEAH!! I left out a lot of details but there's a couple of pre-written posts that some girls wrote so they could post it after the recap :) those will probably be a lot more in-depth but I'M ALSO HOPING THAT THE GUYS WILL WRITE SOMETHING MEANINGFUL HERE ;D hehehehe (I kind of regret offerring to write this post LOL so much to say but so little time) (I actually wrote a lot though..) (is anyone even reading this fjdkasl;df -__-) (I bet none of the guys on this team will even read this) (sigh)

And because I really need to sleep, I won't be able to post up pictures for now. I will when I can though, and I'm sure the others will post some up too! dsalkjf; peace out and GOD BLESS :) God is amazingly good! All the time! :)

<3 Euna Kang

Hi, my name is Joe. I am in Bangkok?? I only have five minutes to write this blog so it will be short and sweet. We visited the refugee family yesterday for the last time. It was sad. But to cheer you all up here is a picture of a pig face. ENJOY. We are leaving for Chum Buri tomorrow and will not be able to post as frequently but continue to pray for us and for the people we will be interacting with.

PIG!!!!!!!!!

Day 2: Blessed

Our second day has come to an end! Woohoo!
Joe and Jeremiah told me to sleep and write in the blog tomorrow, but... I don't want to listen to them. useless leaders. hahahahahha just kidding. But yeah, in all seriousness, I really want to write this right now because today was a pretty big day. God gave us an incredible opportunity and I know a lot of us were affected by what we saw tonight.

So as most of you know (if anyone is reading...heheh), we are currently in Bangkok with Pastor Paul. And today, we got to meet a sister named Sophia, who mainly works with victims in sex trafficking. She has an amazing story and with it comes a strength I've personally never seen before. It's crazy, because as she was sharing a part of her life with us today, I saw so much of God's love pouring out of her. It's so clear that she finds herself and all her strength within our Father and it was such an amazing experience getting to speak with her. Such a blessing as well :) She even gave us a chance (which we all carefully took) to walk in the streets of Bangkok where sex trafficking is pretty prominent and that was... really something else. I could tell we were all taken aback from what we saw but I think we did pretty well. I won't go too much into it but it definitely opened my eyes. We were able to watch while Sophia spoke to and loved on those who stood on the sidewalks and it was so encouraging; she was basically the light God provided while we were in the darkness :D (is that too cheesy haha...) But yeah, she really is awesome and I truly felt God speaking to us through her.

But throughout the whole day, as we all saw the overwhelming amount of love Sophia has in her heart, I realized something as a thought passed my head: this love is just a small part of what God has to offer.

I can't even imagine... Sophia said it herself- "I am human and I am imperfect." Still, the amount of love she exerts is incredible, and it undeniably touched our hearts. But just thinking of what we felt today and thinking of God and all the love He has for us is unbelievable. Man... HOW blessed are we?! We fail Him every day yet He continues to provide us with His love. And speaking with Sophia and seeing her big heart really reminded me of why we are all here. I mean, it's only day 2 in Thailand and we're already learning so much. But that's God for ya, right? :) So awesome.

But yeah, I guess that was the highlight of today ^^ We also went back to the refugee house to make dinner for the families and it was so heartwarming because they greeted us so openly! It was a little difficult yesterday because it was when we were all trying to open up to one another, but it was definitely a lot better today. God gifted them with a special kind of happiness and it's super encouraging to be around them so I'm excited to head back again tomorrow! It's always a good time there (of the 2 times we went, at least LOL). ...So yeah I guess this is the perfect time to post pictures from today!

Stolen from Sophia's instagram haha, but I like this picture a lot :) This was after talking with her at a cafe.

Our team at a cool cafe oh yeahhhhh

Caleb opened this at a restaurant to see what it was and we saw all these ants infesting the salt T_T

We met with Sophia at this really cool airport themed mall!

haha some of the cute girls at the home we visited

Our beautiful sister, Kandace, playing with some of the kids :)

This is kind of random, but before heading to the streets with Sophia, she told us to praise in our heads to drive out whatever fear we had in our hearts. A song that automatically came into my head as we were walking was Hosanna by Hillsong. I'm actually listening to it right now as I check out for tonight! It's one of my favorite songs and these lyrics kept replaying in my head as we walked.

Hosanna Hosanna

Hosanna in the highest

Hosanna Hosanna

Hosanna in the highest

Heal my heart and make it clean

Open up my eyes to the things unseen

Show me how to love like You have loved me

Break my heart for what breaks Yours

Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause

As I walk from earth into eternity

......blah omg I just realized I wrote so much... or too much T_T I'll just end it here. I tend to write a lot... I'm so sorry. Haha but if you read this all, THANK YOU! I'll sing for you (even though no one seems to like it when I do). But enough about me! It was such a fun day and I thank God once again for being SO good. He is continuously bringing blessings to each and every one of our lives, and we can't thank Him enough. I'm super excited to the rest of this trip! This is only the beginning.

Good night/morning/afternoon/evening!
- Euna