With our Debriefing Coming to a Close, We Will Be Home for Christmas!

It has been a wonderful and restful past few days here at Bulstrode. We are staying at the WEC UK headquarters, which is a beautiful mansion in the English countryside.



We went into London which is only a short train-ride away on Saturday, but have spent the rest of the time debriefing, and resting and reflecting on what we have learned on this trip.

While we are anticipating coming home, it has been super awesome being able to have some time to reflect on what has happened. Some people have felt a clear confirmation on their call to ministry on the trip. Some have a definite place and ministry they have in mind. For me personally, I was hoping that God would use this trip to place a specific country or people group on my heart, and while that did not happen, I am totally okay with that, because instead He taught me that I am called to ministry, and even though I don't know the specifics, He will reveal those at the right time. We all learned so much through the different missionaries and ministries we encountered along our journey. Each one like a piece of the a puzzle taught us something to add to our learning experience. Each place and the people in it have a little piece of our hearts and we will never be the same because of it. We have all been changed in different ways, and I know for me I will be forever grateful for this experience.

We will be heading home tomorrow morning (minus Miriam who left for her home, Sri Lanka, today). We are all excited to be coming home and looking forward to spending Christmas with our friends and families!

See you soon and Merry Christmas from England!

-Emily & The Team :)

Monday, December 10 in Amman

Every morning we meet for breakfast and devotions at 9:00 am.  Breakfast is usually a Jordanian pastry (Jordanians love sweets), pita bread, eggs (fried and hard boiled), cheese, olives, nutella, peanut butter and strawberry jam, cereal, juice, tea and coffee.  This morning eleven members of the team went on home visits to members of the congregation.  They are bringing food coupons to the families and visiting with each family.  They will probably have tea with the families and pray with each of them.  Tomorrow the rest of the team will do the same.  I believe our team will experience the heart of this ministry here in Jordan by visiting the refugee homes.  Tonight our women will present the program for the Women's group at the church.   We will be doing a skit based on the parable of the Sower and the Seed with a short Bible study on this passage to follow.  We will spend time worshipping the Lord through song, and then we will try to teach the women to pray aloud in their group (They have not been able to get the women to vocalize their prayers so please pray for us as we attempt to help them break the sound barrier).  We will close with prayer and a time of refreshments and fellowship.  The NWC women will present a 2 hour program for the Girls Group at the church on Tuesday evening.  Again, please pray that we can be light and salt while we are here and that we can bless the resident missionaries and the congregation.  It will be a short time and we will be home and we all want to finish this race well.  Blessings and love to you all!

More shots from Jordan

The Treasury at Petra (sideways, sorry!)

Roman Ruins at the Citadel in Amman (place of Uriah's death)

Part of the team before ministering at the church on Sunday night. 

Some Images from Jordan

Some Bedoin Tents Viewed from the Road

The team floating in the Dead Sea!

Jordan!

We have our computer charged and we have internet! We have been in Jordan for three days. On Day 1 we visited Medaba and viewed the mosaic map of the Holy Land on the floor of St. George's Orthodox church. From there we traveled to Mount Nebo and were able to see the Promised Land from where Moses first saw it. Then we went for a swim in the Dead Sea, although, one could hardly call it a swim as you cannot do anything but float in the Dead Sea. The students tried beauty treatments with the dark muc of the Dead Sea. Better than a spa! We then travelled south to the Edom area of Jordan and Petra! After a wonderful buffet dinner and a much needed night's sleep we went to Petra! The students rode horses into Petra. They walked the last mile in through a deep wadi cut between high walls of stone. We went early in the morning so the site was very quiet. They explored the site for a couple of hours. In one of the tombs they sang Silent Night and our Christian Jordanian guide sang a verse in Arabic. It had great acoustics and was a very moving experience. Some of us rode camels or donkeys on the way out & we learned about Jordanian bartering with the boys selling soveniers near the Treasury entrance to Petra. Then on to Amman. We have been in Amman for two days. The first day we visited the Citadel of Amman which is the site of the murder of Uriah the Hitite ordered by King David. We ate lunch in a falafel shop and visited a Roman theater along with 2 museums. Last night we participated in the local church service. Today we will do home visits to Iraqi refugee homes bringing them food. Many of these families were ordered from their homes by terrorists. They left a middle class or upper middle class existence to flee to Jordan where they are not allowed to work and their children are not allowed to go to school unless the Jordanian government has declared them legal. They are waiting for the UN to call them to place them in other countries. They are in a desperate situation. We hope to bring some hope to them today.

A Baptism and Life in Lat KraBang!

Emily, Katee and Cierra Here! The three of us have been separate from the group staying with Filipino missionaries at the other Santisuk site in Lat KraBang. We have had a great month of teaching university students English at night time. We have done fun things with students like visit them at the university, go to an amusement park with them, the Crocodile farm, and the beach. This past Saturday we got to experience a very exciting thing for Christians here in Thailand. Two students from the school, Cierra's students, got baptized! They had been attending the church and school before we got here, but we were able to be there for their baptism. It was so exciting to be able to be a part of this special moment in their lives. Both of the boys come from Buddhist families and one was involved in a gang before coming to Christ. The way they put it was, "Two bad boys became good boys because of Christians." They have been discipled by Don Don, the Filipino missionary who runs the church at the school. Don Don has been teaching basketball at the local high school, which is how both came to know him. It has been a joy to get to know them and see the transforming work of Christ in their lives, especially knowing that they will go on to shine the light of Christ to those around them in Thailand. Here are photos of their baptism:

We are loving life in Lad Krabang and currently decorating the center for Christmas! We will see you all then! Blessings!

Our Time In Thailand is Swiftly Coming to a Close

We are in our final week of teaching English at Santisuk. We have 3 more days of English classes this week. Last Friday night we had a "potluck" Thanksgiving dinner and a church service. Turkey is very expensive in Thailand (about $10/lb.) so we had duck instead. Some of our team made mashed potatoes. These were enjoyed by our team and the Thai church members as well. We leave for Malaysia this Friday. Leaving will be bittersweet. Our NWC students have gotten very close to their Thai English students. It will be very hard to leave them. We will have rehearsal tomorrow night to prepare a program for the university in Malaysia. Please pray for us as we put this program together. We are all currently well and ready for the next phase of the adventure the Lord has designed for us.