I love being in Thailand. The longer I am here, the fonder my heart grows for the people.  The Thais need Jesus!!!  But, there is a specific group of thais that I would like to write about….the prostitutes. I have a challenge for you tonight. Later this evening a large group of us consisting of Christina and me, a visiting team from South Africa and Bible School students will be heading to the streets to minister to the prostitutes. This will be a brand new experience for all of us.

So this is my challenge to you…Please pray for us while we are out. We will be gone from 8 o’clock pm (3 hours from now) to probably 10:00 or 11:00. If you could stand with us in prayer for those few hours it would be appreciated so much. And it would be even more encouraging if you could leave a comment on this post letting me know that you will be praying. That way I can let our group know. Also, I know that I don’t need to mention this, but, please don’t just pray for us, but pray for the women we will be talking with. Pray that they would realize that they can be set free in Jesus’ name! That there is hope for them!

Thank you so much!

It is now October and in Thailand this month  marks the time for the “great” Vegetarian Festival of 2009. Or in other words, marks one of the darkest spiritual times of the year in the country.

The Vegetarian Festival a.k.a. the Gin Jay Festival is celebrated by Buddhists of Chinese descent and is started with the raising of a pole at Chinese temples around the country which signal the nine gods (I’m not sure what these gods are) to come down to earth. This event is a very colorful and dramatic celebration which takes place during the first nine days of the ninth lunar month of the Chinese calendar. The 9-day event is usually in late September or early October. During this time, devout Chinese Buddhists dress in white clothes, convert to vegetarians and observe a certain list of ten rules in order to purify their minds and bodies. Besides a strict vegetarian diet and temple offering, some other “(demonic) highlights” of the festival include acts of self -mortification such as climbing knife – blade ladders, walking on hot coals, a ritual of bridge – crossing and a street – procession in which mediums dressed in pink and are in a state of trance have their cheeks pierced and bodies spiked with various types of sharp objects. I will also mention that Brian said all of this is done without any bloodshed.

To me, all of this information makes me want to pray more and harder for the Thail people and for our team. Satan is always on the attack. I have already been experiencing some fear and both, Mary Beth and I, have been experiencing bad dreams. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but, Brian says things like these usually happen even more during this time of the year as results from such strong demonic forces around us. But, we know that we are children of the Most High God and we will not give in to these attacks. Please pray for us!

Wow, I cannot believe that a whole month has gone by since the last time I posted anything! Eeks!

I’m just gonna start out by saying that the month of August was an awesome and quite the emotional month. It is very hard for me to put into words every thought and emotion that has been rolling around in my heart since I’ve been here. I specifically had set the month of August to pray about what the next step is for my life. I felt desperate to hear from the Lord. Am I supposed to stay here in Thailand longer, or should I listen to this, sometimes almost overwhelming, homesickness and take that as a sign that am I to go home? And if that’s the case, then what? I really believed He would show me by the end of the month…but, before I get into that part any further I want to share what else happened this last month -

Tyndale Stubenrauch’s 1st and Chase Garsee’s 17th birthdays were celebrated. I love both of those boys dearly!

Tyndale with his lovely mama, Mary Beth, on his birthday!

Chase and me on his birthday  ”showing off our farmer’s tans”.

The Stubenrachs, the Garsees, and myself all went about fifteen hours north to a place called Korat. There, we met up with a few other great missionary families to have some fellowship and ministry time together. It was wonderful! So refreshing for everyone. The Lord was gracious to bless us with His presence the whole week we were together. Plus I made some great new friends, especially Margaret, who is such a godly young woman and fellow horse lover .

In the evenings a group of us went out to pass out tracts and evangelize. We had a lot of great responses! But, specifically, a certain man was born-again. Praise God, na (Translation: Right?!) ?! We spent a week in Korat and then on the way back down towards home, we spent another week in Bangkok so the Stuben’s and Garsees could meet with their social workers to work out adoption details for adopting their Thai sons. Bangkok is huge and it feels like there’s no room to breath . But, we had fun together hanging out and having some down time, aside from some of the stress of adoption issues. One day, Colton (18) & Chase(17) Garsee (my newest brothers ) and I spent literally TEN hours in one mall and we still had not seen every store by the end of the day! We had fun but, needless to say, we were pretty tired that night. Well, I guess not tired enough, cause if I remember correctly we still stayed up pretty late : ) .

Now, to get back into what God is doing in my heart…. While in Bangkok we stayed at a Baptist Guest House for missionaries. One morning, while washing dishes in the kitchen, the Lord confirmed in my heart that I am supposed to stay in Thailand longer. After wrestling so much between my love for being here and homesickness, I am excited to have peace and confidance that this is what I am supposed to do. Thank you so much to everyone who has been seeking the Lord along with me about this. I love you all so much and I appreciate your support more than I can say! I cannot give an exact length of time that I will be here, because that part is still up in the air for me (not God), but, I do know that I will be here for at least a total of a year. It is going to be interesting to see how it feels for my Dad to come in October and leave without me, but, I am thankful that God’s grace is and will be  sufficient.

So, that’s what has been going on around here! I hope everthing I wrote made sense . God bless!!!

The Hoars, Lavornes, Stubenrauchs, Garsees, Barron, Freddy, and Me! A great bunch of people on fire for God!!

Hello from Thailand!!! I am officially here . Wow, what a great journey to a great place filled with great people.  It feels so good to be back with Brian & Mary Beth (MB) and their family again.  Tonight we had a very nice fellowship, worship, and prayer time with the Garsee family and Christina (fellow single girl ) I truly believe that the presence of the Lord was and is with us. It was encouraging to be with everyone.

 I haven’t really taken any pictures yet, but, I hope to start tomorrow. I did put one up of my little friend though – www.megan-picturesfromthailand.blogspot.com .

Thank you every one again for your prayers! I apologize if this post was poorly written, but, I am struggling with heavy jet lag at the moment.  

And oh, did I mention that it’s very hot here????…and that I have no air conditioning in my room? Thank the Lord for fans!!

Students attending the Loka Senior Secondary School

My father recieved an email this morning  from our field coordinator in Sudan, Dickson Mutiso, informing us of some very sad news. His email said that one of the students from the Loka Senior Secondary School (LSSS (a Global Response Project)) was bitten by a snake and died.  This young man was a 2nd year student and doing well.

We would appreciate it if you would please keep his family and the rest of the LSSS student body in your prayers. Thank you.

Only one week to go till the big day…

So many emotions are whirling inside of me the more I realize that the day of departure is coming closer and closer.  I feel excitement, anticipation, joy, thrill, sadness, a pinch of stress, and a butterfly or two in my stomach.  I praise God for this opportunity of a life time that He is giving me. I don’t feel deserving of it. What have I done to deserve such trust? I am deeply humbled. I can only hope and pray that I will represent Him well. 

   I want to publicly thank all those who have committed to praying for me while I am away and also to those who have generously given their financial gifts to help make this trip even possible. There are not words enough to describe my gratitude to you.  

 I look forward to sharing with everyone my experiences and what I believe the Lord is speaking to me. May He bless you abundantly! 

Love,

Megan

On Monday, we left for a place called cleftRock to get away as a family so Dad and John could unwind from their most recent trip to Sudan and also to kind of prepare for my upcoming trip to Thailand. cleftRock is a retreat center for pastors and missionaries and their families. It is a wonderful, beautiful, and peaceful place set back deep into the woods. We had a great time together taking walks, listening to the birds, praying, eating junk food, playing games and of course, taking pictures . Below are some of the over 100 photos my brother, John, and I shot while on a walk together.  I took most of them because, well, I was a little bit hoggish with the camera that day . But we had a very special brother – sister time together. 

If you like any of the pictures we would really appreciate that you do not use them without our permission. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as we enjoyed taking them! God bless! 

The house we stayed in

This was the perfect name for our little hideaway 

John took this close up of the Iris – It was one of the only Iris’ there still in bloom

John wanted to take a shot of the parking sign He has a good eye cause I certainly wouldn’t have thought of it! 

I really like this pic of a fence that John took too

I took this one

John took this great picture

cleftRock was started by a couple who wanted to give pastors and missionaries a place to find rest, counsel, and quiet. Their own son was a missionary along with his wife and children in South America. Back in 2003 he was killed by guerilla rebels. His parents brought his body back to cleftRock to be buried at his favorite spot on the property. The next few photos are of his grave site and of the place surrounding it that was made for people to come to think and reflect. His family is still serving as  missionaries in South America. 

As this post is written, my father, Tom, and my brother, John, are in Sudan with the rest of our team coordinating and distributing food, clothes, blankets, hoes, seeds, and other essential items to more than 1,200 people in the Internally Displaced People’s Camp in Loka. As far as we know, everything is going very well. As of a day or two ago, GRN had also been able to hire a team to dig a desperately needed water well in the area. We were able to work with a group from Yei, Sudan to dig the well. My Dad called yesterday at the moment they hit water and it was almost too hard to hear his voice because of the sound of water spraying everywhere! We praise the Lord for His goodness. Thank you so much for your prayers!

Without your financial help and prayers this distribution could not have taken place. Thank you for your help. It is very much appreciated!

Please continue to pray for my father and brother as they are in Sudan. We look forward to being able to share much more information with you about how the distribution went when they come home. God bless you!

Progress Report! – Right now I am working on getting my visa application out so I can actually get into Thailand. I am praying that it goes through smoothly and without a hitch. I am also praying that they will grant my request for two visas instead of just one because one is only good for 60 days or something. If I am able to get two, the process of trying to stay longer will not be as much of a hassle.

Prayer Need – In the past few days I have been chatting with the family I  will be staying with, and I have found out that they have opened their home to two young Thai girls (ages 10 and 9). These girls come from a very sad home situation. Their father is a drug addict, their mother is a prostitute, their grandfather is a alcoholic and the grandmother is so old and feeble that she can barely move. They also have several younger siblings that have no clothes and their playground is a dump. The youngest is a year old. 

The Lord has softened the parents hearts enough to allow the two oldest girls to leave so they can finally go to school. They had their first day yesterday!  It is everyone’s prayer that these girls will be able to lead a new life and come to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. Not to mention that is our prayer for the whole family. It would be wonderful to see God free them all from the life that they are currently leading. 

Because the oldest children are no longer at home, there is the concern that the other children are not being taken care of at all. The 10 year old had pretty much become their mother because the real mother is barely ever home. 

When you think about this family, could you please lift them up in prayer? This is just one family out of so many in Thailand that need Jesus.  Please also pray that the Lord will give the Stubenrauchs and Pii Thak (single Thai women that I will be sharing a house with) wisdom and discernment with these girls. I would also appreciate prayer because i have learned that I will be with these girls a lot and I really want to be a good example to them of Christ and as a sister and friend. Thank you!

I have some wonderful news to share. GRN has raised almost $20,000 for the IDP Camp in southern Sudan!!! This is truly an act of the Lord. It has been amazing of how many people have responded so quickly to reach out to these people. To date we have been able to give about 200 children food supplements!  Pretty soon my father and my brother will be going back to get everything else. And praise God, we will also be able to drill a well!!!! We’re hoping that enough money will come in so we can also buy bags of food for the village. Thank you so much to everyone who has helped by praying and giving your sacrificial gifts!

As many of you know, my father and a friend recently returned from Sudan. While they were there, our GRN team had an opportunity to visit a new IDP (Internally Displaced People’s) camp that has settled in Loka (Home of GRN Sudan). The situation is critical! These people were displaced by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The LRA had raided their village repeatedly in 2008. During these raids, they abducted eleven people (two were found dead, three escaped, and six children remain missing).

These people have nothing. They are boiling leaves and eating them as their main source of food. Malnutrition is setting in, and the planting season has just begun, with little hope for making it till the harvest. Disease and infection are common. Rainy season has just begun, which means the mosquito population will increase and malaria will take it’s toll. Water is also a major concern. Loka already had too few wells and adding this many people to these vulnerable wells is making the water situation very unstable. The need is great!

Both my dad, Tom, and my brother, John,  will be returning May 5th to take much needed aid (Blankets, nutritional supplements, secondhand clothes, mosquito nets, medicine, hopefully a water well, and food items) to this camp.

Please watch this video and if God puts it on your heart to help, then please do. You can do so by going to GRN’s website www.grnconnect.org  and clicking on the “Partner With GRN” tab or you can send a check to GRN with “IDP Camp Sudan” written in the memo (address is on the site).  We promise that EVERY PENNY will go to help bring aid to these hurting people. This is not about us, it’s about helping those in need.

To catch just a glimpse of what the LRA do to the people they attack and abduct, I encourage you to watch (with *discretion) this video. It’s a whole hour long but please trust me, you won’t regret watching it. And please, don’t just watch, but try your best to DO something about this whether it be through the foundation this video is from or through us at Global Response Network. 

*Warning – Please use discretion : Very graphic and a swear word is used in this film. But, please don’t let that stop you from watching it. The point of the film is so much more important.