Praises

• My brother, Greg, proposed to Jewel & they will get married in couple months!  I plan to come for the wedding (probably 3 weeks in March) & also renew my visa when I am back in WI.
• My friend, Kim, visited this month from NE Thailand.  It was a treat to eat Mexican, see free concert of Handel’s Messiah, and share & pray together. 
• A couple from church adopted a 4 year girl from Bangkok.  I meet them, heard their story, & rejoiced with them!  God has been stirring on my heart w/adoption, as He has put people across my path that are adopting & I tear up hearing their stories. Wonder what God is up to?
• Christmas was new & different in experience.  This month the combination of hitting culture/language wall of being sick of everything and not being with family at Christmas was challenging. Good in that it made me reflect more on what it is I celebrate at Christmas…the traditions or the true, real miracle of Jesus coming to earth to live & be among us.  I was not deprived of the Christmas spirit…sang Thai Christmas carols in neighborhood w/Thai staff, cookie decorating with friends, dressed up in costume for one of the parties, and went to a couple Christmas gatherings J
• I took the opportunity to go to beach for 4 days during the week off between Christmas & New Year’s.  I really sensed in all of my being that I just needed to get a break and get away from the city & rest.  So, it was refreshing and ready to go back to language & big city.

Prayer Requests

• Greg & Jewels Wedding:  that all details come together for them in a special way, God’s blessing on their marriage, and that I get cheap flight back J
• My roommate, Eve:  She got visa to come to YWAM training in Denver Jan 12-April 1.  She is nervous with 1^st time coming to Western country.  Pray for God’s grace & intimacy to be upon her.
• Thai Christians:  That they will be empowered by the Spirit to reach their neighbor with Good News.  That they will rely on Jesus to guide them in all truth & all their needs.    
• Loneliness:  To be real with you...need prayer in this area.  I haven’t felt loneliness like this before.  Know & experience connected to God, yet feel loneliness of not feeling connected here. It takes time to build relationship in knowing language/culture. Pray that I embrace this season and what God wants to show me through this.  That I rest not strive.  Its weakness of mine to strive.
• Teaching English in Slum:  Took month of December off because was involved in Christmas outreaches.  But, Poi, Thai staff friend, and I feel God wanting us to start back up.  Pray His guidance and we see His hand at work in lives of the Thai kids.
• Protection: Spiritual, emotional, and mental protection in the newness/vulnerability of this 1^st season.
• Transportation: God’s hand protection on my travels each day.  I take taxis, motorcycles, bus, etc, as well as pray for Witchit & his family’s salvation, my taxi driver & more God appointments!
• Language School:  That I will have patience & take in God’s grace.  I find myself putting pressure & wanting to get it now.  Yet, that I will continue to put effort in practicing with Thais.

Reflection from a conversation I had with Thai kid:  When at a YWAM Christmas program for sponsored kids, a 10 year old boy dressed in pink shorts and pink shoes, asked if I needed help.  So as this 10 year old was helping me, we were talking and he told me that he hoped to get as his gift, a Barbie.  Then, he added that he was a kathoey. The Thai Christians and his sister around me agreed saying that he was a boy but wanted to be a girl.  At this young age he ‘believed’ that he is suppose to be a girl. I gently told him that he was created a boy and that it’s good.  Kathoeies are considered the 3^rd sex here; there are beauty pageants for them & many celebrities are.  What God creates is good. He created male & female and said it was very good.  Created in His image. This boy has been on my heart that He will be lead into truth & life that brings freedom; life apart from Him is not fulfilled.  As for our Child Sponsorship program, we have over 700 Thai poor children that are sponsored much like Compassion’s sponsorship program.  The kids were so excited to have a day where they felt valued, special, & got a present.  Many of them come from rural villages or slums were they are not cared for & have time of celebration just for them was so special. What a joy it was for them to get one gift.  If interested in sponsoring a child this new year, let me know & I will get you connected. 

“But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord, I say You are MY God, My times are in your hands.” Psalm 31:14