Considering that these last two months have nearly passed by without much communication on this blog I'm offering a special: two for one blog posts! I know, I thought it was brilliant, too! If only all things belated in life came with double portions;
vacations...
birthday presents...
desserts....
We'll leave overdue bills and taxes out of this analogy, but I digress....
January
After a few days of readjustment to the slower-yet-somehow-busier way of life here, I settled back into working at BHJ, teaching the staff and girls during the week. And after praying about an opportunity yet unseen took a part-time position teaching English at Compassion International in Chiang Mai, while still giving me time to work with Matt Parker in coordinating things for summer teams with Destined Traveler (destinedtraveler.com).
It was good to be back in the swing of things with the different facets of ministry God has allotted me, and was very refreshing to get back into the community with theLight and all the people I had missed and was looking forward to getting back to.
The girls at BHJ had a million questions about the previous month in America, asking about family, food, snow and of course of the previously kept secret about my girlfriend, whom they had met without prior knowledge of relationship status (on purpose to hinder such cooing and clucking at the time, now received in full force).
February
Being the shortest month seemed to make it go by even faster than necessary, add in several trips to the villages and a team from America and it made for speedy several weeks hardly worthy being called a 'month.'
Thanks to God I was able to get all the paperwork together to get the stamp on my passport allowing me another month while they process the additional 11 they're allegedly going to grant me in March. I'm unworried, but when dealing with red tape, any victory is a great one and hiccups tend to be monumental.
I took a little time away from Compassion to go with the team to the villages around Chiang Dao to help facilitate, translate and be with those in the villages I've already been in contact with. Although this trip was more construction based than previous trips, I was still able to spend time with some of the people, especially the many kids in one village who Kamsen and I had spent a good deal of time with several months earlier. Aside from erecting swing sets to be used near the church and a school, we spent a lot of time in prayer over the villages and the surrounding area, asking for God's cultivation of the hearts of those nearby to His word.
In one village especially, there has been much evidence of Spiritual warfare occurring to those in Christ and seeking to further the Gospel. It strengthened my heart to hear some of the kids that Kamsen and I had earlier helped learn to pray, asking for courage and protection against the things in their village that until recently had been causes of great fear.
Wrapping up this month I'll be going up to another region of the mountains with Matt and another missionary, Lord willing, to set up some areas of contact for us to go into later with some anti-trafficking and AIDS education, of which they've been asking for.
As always,I am EXTREMELY grateful for those praying and supporting the things God has allowed me to be a part of. Please be praying for God's word to be spread throughout, and for the enemy's hold to be destroyed.
As well, please pray for health as I've been sick several times this month, from the common cold to food poisoning.
