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Rainy season is here! That is wonderful news for the hottest province in Thailand-the place we now call home. But rainy season also means one other thing-bug season. For the past 3 weeks we have seen over 3 different types of bugs. They are harmless, but many. My first reaction to seeing hundreds of bugs on our bathroom was horror, but now its normal for me to take bugs out of my hair, from under my pillow, or off my towel. Sometimes I would hear scratching noises under my pillow and wouldn’t sleep until I looked underneath and saw a bug trying to stay alive.
Its been a full week since I’ve been here, and I can say that this has been one of the most different mission trips I have ever been on so far. The main reason is that this is not the place that I have dreamed about going to. It has not been of me in any way and there is not anything I can boast of. I did not have any desires of my own to come here. I never had a heart for the Asian people or nations. I had my own ideas about missions and was planning out my own mission life. A life in a poor village of Africa. But God said, “Let go my child…leave it to Me to decide where you should go.” It was not without tears, but God helped me to let go. “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.” Proverbs 16:9. I thank God that His plans are greater than my own and that He did not let me go the way I wanted to go, but instead, kept me on the path of His will for me and gave me the necessary desires for a people and nation I never planned on coming to. God was teaching me to trust Him in this new step of my life. To believe that His plans are greater than I could have ever dreamed of for myself. “For I know the plans I have for you…” Jeremiah 29:11.
Before coming to Thailand, Anita and I used to take care of an elderly couple. Unfortunately they have since passed but they do have two sons. One of which lives in Thailand. As we were making plans to come here, we thought how cool would it be if we could one day visit Ken. We knew he lived in the North of Thailand. We emailed each other back and forth a couple of times and had tentatively agreed to during the course of the year somehow see each other.
The other night, Tanya, Serge, Anita, and Staya had to get physicals (I think we’ll blog about that funny story at a later date) for their work permits. I tagged along to buy fruit while they were at the clinic. We LOVE our fruit here. It is freshly picked and very inexpensive! And it’s a great cool snack after they’ve been refrigerated. So we’re packing in the vitamins with this deliciousness and the kids enjoy it as well.
God knows the desire of our hearts!!! (Anita)
Written by Slava KachkovskiyThis morning I was thinking about the question that Raimund asked us to answer: “What do I want to do this year in Thailand?” That was an import ant question that I wanted to answer too. When I thought and prayed about it, I wrote down some of the desires of my heart and one of them was to meet some Russians and to share the gospel with them.
**Just a little update!**
THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!
Today was the very 1st day of seminar with teachers!
Well, we didn’t quite get 125 teachers, but there were about 90 or so, but we were told that some more teachers will join in 2nd or 3rd day.
We apologize for not updating our blog…1st reason is that we have no internet at home, and 2nd is that we are extremely busy with the seminar.
I know that many of you are praying for us and for this seminar, and we understand how important it is, so I just wanted to type up just a little bit of information to update you on what is going on here. (((will post pictures when we get better internet))))
A couple of weeks ago God granted us the amazing opportunity to go to a Burmese refugee camp and visit the Avoda sister school in Mae Sot. It’s a two hour ride from Tak. It was AMAZING and showed us how different the lives of Burmese refugee families are compared to the Thai. Their living conditions, as you would expect, are not the greatest. This community is compromised mostly of Muslims, so it is by God’s grace that so many children are allowed by their parents to go to Avoda, a Christian school.
This whole week we were heavily preparing for the English Seminar for teachers that we will be hosting next week. A TON of work needed (and still needs) to be done. Things invented, sketched, printed, glued, assembled etc. It was very stressful especially towards the end of the week because this Saturday (3/16/13) we were having a test run of our program.
A NEW SUNDAY SCHOOL BUILDING (Serge) 3/17/13
Written by Slava KachkovskiyNow we have been given a different building where to have our Sunday school classes. So today was the 1st time we used it for Sunday school. The building has walls that are partially cement and the rest are made of split, long bamboo sticks, and they have gaps in between. This is a nice thing here in Thailand since it gets VERY hot during the day, so normally you want any building to ‘breathe’ and have constant air flowing through, unlike our previous building where we used to have Sunday school. It was very hot there.
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NEW REPTILIAN FRIEND (kind-of) (Serge) 3/17/13
Written by Slava KachkovskiyToday on the way to church service as I were walking with Tanya, we spotted something move in the leaves and then saw something jump on the bamboo. At first I was looking at the place where I thought I saw the thing jump, but didn’t see anything untill I got much closer. And I saw a cool new reptile: the chameleon! It has camouflaged itself to the color of yellow bamboo, so it is hard to spot him from far away.
God’s ways are DEFFINATELY not our ways!
Ap.Paul was on his way to the synagogue in Phillipi (Acts 16). It was probably an early and warm morning. He had his goal – the synagogue. He traveled this road before. He walked with his friends Silas without paying much attention to the surrounding noisy market sellers. But little did he know that God had a different destination planned for him, and it sure wasn’t a “place of prayer” (Acts 16:16). It was a prison where Paul had a divine appointment set by God. An appointment for the prison guard to cross paths with God’s servant (Paul), and God used his vessel that was fully His and He saved the prison guard and his household.
Many of the Avoda children are quite talented. Many of them can draw very well. Often you can walk into the kitchen and see three or four children just sitting together and drawing, coloring, sketching for fun. Some are just drawing abstract, someone is drawing a portrait of Anita Miteiko, someone is just doodling, and others just drawing from a picture. And even those who don’t draw, when they see other children drawing, they try it themselves. And I’m surprised to see how good these children are at drawing!
“Sanki”
This month few boys at Avoda had birthdays, and our team decided to do something special so they would remember it.