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Three weeks ago I was in Krasang, Thailand standing in front of twenty-two hundred students. Our team of Westsiders was invited to teach English at the local public high school. Each school day begins with an assembly. All of the students stand in perfectly straight lines wearing uniforms in the front yard of the school. On this day they asked me to come to the stage to introduce our team and express our purpose to the nearly all Buddhist student body. I must admit that I was afraid and it took courage for me to speak to a large Thai audience with no time for preparation.

During the assembly a twelve-year-old boy from Grace Ministries named James was standing in the front row. He is a beautiful child with ears that could make him take flight at any moment. Before coming to Grace Ministries he lived in poverty and had few opportunities. What impressed me most about James that day was his courage. Each day the school community begins with a Buddhist prayer, as would be expected of a primarily Buddhist country. Students give respect to the spirits of the school by clasping their hands together in front of their faces in a gesture they call a “wai.”

As I watched the sea of students paying respect to the spirits, I saw this twelve-year-old Christian young man with his hands clearly at his side in respectful opposition to the beliefs of the majority. I was later told that in similar assemblies the student body kneels and bows in prayer while the Grace Ministries students remain standing.

How often are we challenged in our faith and daily lives to hold to a commitment with such conviction and courage as these young people? Matthew 5:10 states, “You’re blessed when your commitment to God provokes persecution. The persecution drives you even deeper into God’s kingdom.”

Courage is about more than standing strong in the minority. It is also about pursuing Christ with everything in you and making the risky choices to do so. The pursuit of Christ can be painful and challenging, yet full of growth, joy and meaning.

Acts 4:13 says, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.”

Our courage as disciples does not come from our own skill or effort but from our association with Christ. It is through our unashamed pursuit of Him that we can have the courage of a twelve-year-old boy or a group of high schoolers from Lake Oswego Oregon.

I saw glimpses of this kind of courage over the past month as I spent time living in community with twenty-one students and six adults from Westside. Our trip was incredibly stretching for all of us. For three weeks every aspect of life was different. The experience was a complete assault on the senses, requiring courage just to function. The food, language, temperature, religion, economy, skin color, transportation, toilet, bathing, architecture, and community are all very different. It was beautiful to see our students adapt and respond to these challenges.
I saw in our students the courage to seek God openly, the courage to desire a more disciplined life, the courage to suffer with those who suffer, the courage to pursue purpose each day, the courage to risk vulnerability and honesty, and the courage to translate what they believe into how they really live.

C.S Lewis describes courage as “not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.” Coming home from this testing and tremendous experience I am profoundly encouraged by the next generation of leaders, both American and Thai.

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Follow the links to learn more about how you can get involved in the Thailand Project. 

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Tuesday night our Thailand team invited all of our supporters in prayer, finances, and encouragement to attend a dessert in their honor. The night was inspired. It was a true community effort that communicated the spirit of the trip, and the vision of what God is doing through this journey. We had over a hundred people show up and you could tell they understood the beauty of this trip. They were moved to tears. One lady came up to me and said, “This was not a presentation, but a worship service.” Praise God!

Then on Thursday night Marta and I met with three couples from our church. We told stories and shared video and it was such a blessing to me. They wanted to hear! At the end of our evening they prayed for us. I think this was a timely prayer.  It was very encouraging to me, but also I could sense the Holy Spirit working. God is on the move. It is such a thrilling adventure to follow Christ (not always easy).

We still have stories to tell! If you have ears to hear?

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In March of 2005 we began a conversation about transforming the hearts of our WCHS students. Our hope was that we would all begin to have hearts that break for the things that break Christ’s heart.

The result was a trip that turned into a journey… it is ongoing.

We have returned from the trip, but our hearts still ache for our new family in Thailand.

You see, we have fallen in love with the children and staff of Grace Ministries. These are children of extreme poverty, some are orphans, and all were at risk of exploitation. These children are inspiring. They are passionate to become leaders within their country and to change the future for other children.

What happened is they changed us. We came with a lifestyle distracted by entertainment and over indulgence (we still struggle here), now we see Christ much clearer and desire to be captivated by Him. We don’t want to be ordinary, we want to be extraordinary.

While on the trip a vision emerged. We could see very clearly that out of our admiration and love for one another we could develop a partnership that would be mutually beneficial. We would love them like brothers and sisters and tell their story to anyone who would listen. The result of our story telling has been that people feel compelled to respond. Children are getting sponsored and new buildings are being built. More children are being saved.

Grace Ministries is becoming a hub for this kind of work. They will train others to start similar types of work and more children will be saved and groomed into leadership. We will keep telling the story and churches and organizations will be compelled to support these new works.

We also benefit from this relationship. We get to go back and live with them each summer. We get to love them and be loved. We get to learn to put ourselves last.

Join the conversation - Let us tell you our stories - Fall in love

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In a number of different places in my life I am finding things are more complex than I care for them to be. Today I spent the day going through files, binders, and piles in my office that have accumulated over the past year. I am not a neat freak at all, but not knowing where something is, that I should be able to find, drives me crazy. I also get distracted by piles of papers. I wonder if there is something in that pile I have forgotten about. I fear that something will come back to bite me. I think about this until I go through the pile which distracts me from what I am currently doing, and what I am currently doing is much more important than anything that could be in the pile. That is why every once in a while I must stop and focus on reorganizing. This time I am determined to not just reorganize, but find a way to simplify. To function with less complexity and a more intentional focus on the essential priorities.

We are doing the same thing in our home. Every time our kids are in their play room they are forced to wade through the McDonald’s happy meal toys to get to the real stuff. When it comes time to pick up the mess we swim through the room for twenty minutes in order to put things back in their “proper place.” The other day I just about screamed and said to myself, “We must simplify and refocus on the essential items”… or something like that. The same goes for our garage. It is filled with plastic riding toys. Most of these were gifts that have now accumulated into a plastic mass in the middle of our garage. Forget parking real cars in the garage we only have room for the twenty plastic ones. It makes me spin when I attempt to navigate from one side of the garage to the other, getting tangled and thrown to the ground by scooters, plastic fire engines and a blow up dinosaur swimming pool.  Before I blow my top we must change things!

When we were in Thailand we put all of our essential items into a backpack that could fit into the overhead bin of an airplane. We survived for 14 days with only four outfits and a few personal items. We visited homes in Thailand that had no furniture except a straw mat in the middle of the floor. We took cold showers and ate food that had been collected fresh that morning from the market. I realize there are amazing benefits that come with being born in a fully developed country, but I must admit that I am wondering if my life is over developed. I need to learn some lessons from my Thai friends. I have made choices that add stress, confusion, anxiety, and distraction to my life.

It does not end with stuff. I wish it were that simple. In the same way that all the stuff can complicate and distract us from the core things that matter, I believe that I have complicated my inner life. I observed a deep, yet simple faith in Thailand that was very attractive. Its primary focus was on seeking to obtain a deep relationship with Jesus Christ. Does my leisure, pleasure, comfort and ease distract me (like the McDonald’s toys) from the things that are truly core. 

Am I captivated by Him? 

Am I willing to sacrifice for Him?

Am I numb from the privilege in my life, not willing to respond with a Christ-like response to the hurts in this world.

Am I self absorbed?

Am I average?

If Jesus is who he said he was, and I believe He is, then who should I be?

If Jesus did what the Bible says He did, and I believe He did, then what should I be doing?

If Jesus is so captivated by, and willing to sacrifice for, you and me, and I believe He is, then…  

Lord, help me to peal away that which is not essential.

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Our first day in the hill tribes of Thailand took us a few hours from Chiang Mai to an obscure tribal village. We were on our way to a dinner that was being provided by the pastor and a few from his congregation. The meal would cost them the equivalent of a month’s wages. Before we arrived at the dinner feast we stopped for what later would appear to be a divine appointment. Sarah our interpreter was aware of a desperate situation and she thought we might be able to help. We were traveling with Charles Harvey who runs a home for children at risk of exploitation (Grace Ministries), typically children coming from extreme poverty who are abandoned or orphaned.

We stopped our vans at Sarah’s request to meet a woman dying of AIDS. Her husband gave her the disease. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to contract AIDS from my spouse. In this situation it was likely that he got the disease from drug use or visiting brothels. The situation was sad enough, but what put it over the top was that this woman had a little girl. She was also caring for three other children (a girl and two boys) whose parents had already died of AIDS. Sarah brought us here so that Charles could meet the children and determine if he could take them in. The children were in school and Charles asked Sarah if she would be willing to bring them to the house. She left for the children while we waited with the woman. Our students walked around this very simple stilted bamboo home. Chickens walked around picking blades of grass from the ground. A humble garden was in the front of the house and a very basic kitchen with a cement floor and few amenities was separate from the two-room home. The woman was sitting on the raised bamboo porch making simple crafts to sell. Our team bought everything she had made and some partially made items as well.

It was at this point that one of the students from our team collapsed on the street near one of our vans. As she fell she vomited and hit her head so hard that it made a sound I could hear from fifty feet away. We rushed to her side and began caring for her. This created a little commotion within our team and the village. We put her in one of the vans and had to make a decision. At first the plan was to pack all of us in the vans and go back. Then we remembered the dinner that had already been prepared and the children we had not interviewed. We sent one van back. Miraculously the student had no head trauma - hardly even a bump. Within a day she was back with the team.

When the woman’s children came, our team gathered around and listened to the interchange between Charles and these precious children. Charles asked one of the girls, who was about nine years old, what she wanted to do when she grew up. The girl replied, “I want to do what you are doing, I want to take care of orphans.” This brought us to tears. After Charles was done speaking to the children a few of the adults spoke to the mother. Marta walked over to the woman and asked Charles to translate. I am sure she was empathizing with her situation. I can’t imagine what it must feel like to know you will never get to see your children grow up.  The mother said that she was at peace knowing she would be going to heaven, but she was worried about her children.  Marta spoke to the woman and said, “In the Bible it says that we should rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15), and I want you to know that I rejoice with you because you know you are going to heaven and I mourn with you because you have to leave your children.” Marta stepped forward with tears and gave the woman, also teary, a hug. Our students are observing ALL of this. All I can say is - LIFE CHANGING!

Charles said that he would probably take these children into his home next spring. One of the boys jumped in the van with us and escorted us to the village dinner. Before dinner and on the way back, Marta and I got a chance to talk with him. His English was basic yet he was courageous in trying it out on us. He also had a brightness in his eyes that I interpreted as hope and resilience.  Now that he is connected with Grace Ministries there may be hope for this little man and the other three children. I pray that when we go back to Grace Ministries we will see these four children. Grace Ministries is a place of hope and a place where God touches lives and makes them whole again, we saw proof of this.

I am thankful we had people praying for us and that we did not leave before God’s work was done. When I got home I learned that our “send team” of prayer partners met close to the time of the these events. They prayed specifically against spiritual warfare. I am convinced of God’s faithfulness. We experienced a moment when four children were saved from an uncertain future and now have the opportunity to become Christian leaders who can change the history of Thailand. Watch and see. 

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We are back from Thailand and God has multiplied our passion to include the 24 people that went on this trip. A friend of mine asked me if I was ruined and if we ruined our students as a result of the trip. He meant this in a good way. My answer is, I think He did. When you experience and share in the despair and pain of others at such a deep level and see so clearly that hope is found only in Christ it ruins your ability to be easily distracted from seeking the God solution. The Holy Spirit plants a passion in your heart to be his hands and feet and you are compelled to move out. It was clear as day again on this trip that Christ is the solution.

It is late and I need to try to get some sleep. Our body clock is still operating some place between Asia and the United States. For the next few posts I will share stories and character descriptions from the trip. I think that making the trip personal will allow you to share more deeply in our experience. Maybe God will call you to respond.

Please continue to pray as our team transitions back into our culture and processes all that God did. Pray for our amazing students that are moving out in a courageous way for Christ. Pray for the students at Grace Ministries that are doing the same. We are also praying about how God would call us to respond now that we are back in the states.  Thank you all for the tremendous support. More to come.

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Wow! God is so good. I have been blown away by the work that God has done in the lives and hearts of our team and through the power of Holy Spirit in us toward others. 

The highlight of the trip has been the relationships that we developed with the young people at Grace Ministries in Krasang. The young people on our team have fully given their hearts to the twenty four girls and six boys at Grace Ministries. The Thai and hill tribes girls and boys are about the same age as our young people so the connection was powerful. We played with them, taught english, did church together, and we had the opportunity over four days to interview and hear the stories of each girl and boy at the ministry. They all have incredibly inspiring stories that give evidence of the power of God to bring hope and purpose out of pain and despair.

Our kids are sold on this ministry. Sunday night we had a meeting and almost every person on our team was moved by the power of God to a new level of faith and commitment to Christ. I don’t have time to tell all of the stories, but I will share one interaction with a 13 year old hill tribes girl who has been saved from poverty and an uncertain future by Christ through Grace Ministries.

This young girl was born into extreme poverty in the Aka hill tribe of Northern Thailand. Her parents are farmers, and do not have enough resources to sustain their family. That is why she is at Grace Ministries. When I spoke with her through an interpreter I could see immediately that she is a leader with a passion for others. She told us that her vision is to become trained as a teacher and to go back to her tribe to develop the next generation toward a better life in Christ. She sees Christ as the source of her motivation. This young girl has a deep burden for people and is very focused on God’s calling on her life to change her village for Christ. This young 13 year old girl blew me away with one statement that demonstrated the depth of her passion. She said,”I can’t afford to spend time on leisure, because I have seen and must respond to the hurts of others.” These are amazing girls.

The last night at Grace Ministries in Krasang our girls and the girls from the home had a slumber party. We truly made lasting and life long relationships during our time.

We are now in Chiang Mai. We spent the last few days visiting the extremely poor and desperate people of the hill tribes. I will go more into that later. I have not written as much as I had hoped, but have found my time being utilized in different ways on this trip compared to the last one.

Please be in prayer for a meeting we will have over the next few days. We will be visioning with Grace Ministries, Remember Nhu and our Westside group regarding how God is leading us to partner in the future. God has given me much clarity on this trip regarding this very important link. I have felt incredible confirmation from our students, parents and staff regarding the value and impact of this mutually beneficial relationship. The next step is to flesh out what God is calling us to be and do. Your prayers are critical. You response the last post was very encouraging. Please continue to respond in prayer.

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It is currently Thursday afternoon and our entire team is sitting in two internet cafes writing emails. We have had a great day of rest after a 24 hour stint of travel. It is pretty hot and humid, but overcast. Our team is doing really well. I don’t think I have heard a single complaint even though the travel has been pretty brutal.

Our guides were stuck on a train from Burriram and have not arrived yet. We are doing fine on our own and they should be here in a few hours. We will be heading for the train station in two hours and will travel overnight to the small village of Krasang. Grace ministries is located there. We will then spend the next few days connecting with the young people. This is the ministry of Charles and Yokie.

We have a few minor health issues. You can pray for Kelby who is experiencing a minor “stomach issue.” You can also pray for Carly who has a strange rash that started during the flight over.

I read through Col. 3 this morning again and it really spoke to me regarding what is really important.

Col. 3 MSG

So if you’re serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ - that’s where the action is. See things from his perspective.

The writter continues to challenge me to dress in what Christ has picked for me: Compassion, kindness, humility, quiet strength, and discipline. “Be even tempered, content with second place, and quick to forgive any offense.”

Pray that we would seek to be where the action is.

Andy

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This morning a team from Westside is boarding a plane for Thailand for 14 days. To learn more about this trip read through the Thailand page above. Please pray for our team as we seek to be open to God’s leading and that we authentically and appropriately respond to what we encounter. It would be encouraging if you would comment with your prayers. Below is our trip in a nutshell:

Tuesday: Fly from PDX to San Fran San Fran to Narita 15hrs
Wednesday: Narita to Bangkok Crash at a hotel

Thursday: Sleep in - eat lunch at a nearby mall and catch a train for Krasang (NE Thailand) 8 hrs

Friday: - Sunday: Spend time at Grace Ministries

Monday: Morning train to Bangkok 8 hrs - Evening train to Chiang Mai

Tuesday: Arrive in Chiang Mai and head immediately in vans to the hill tribes

Tuesday - Thursday: Ministry to the hill tribes people

Thusday: Evening dinner with orphanage children (Asia’s Hope)

Friday: Briefings from various ministries in Chiang Mai - Evening cultural dinner

Saturday: Cultural Day

Sunday: Morning at Asia’s Hope orphanage - evening debriefing

Monday: Travel by plane to Bangkok - Debriefing

Tuesday: Bangkok to Naritia Narita to San Fran San Fran to PDX

Thank you for your prayers!

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