Prayer Requests

  • - Wisdom in teaching
  • - Aquiring my new visa
  • - Language School for Diane, Drew, & Anna Ford
  • - The women in prison that I have been visiting

Friday, February 29, 2008

My Week

The Caynor's have had friends visiting all week so I have had a week "off" so to speak. I started off the week by going to the Egyptian Embassy for a fellow ABWE missionary in another country. She is planning her vacation and Bangkok has the nearest Emabassy where she can apply for an Egyptian tourist visa. I went down and picked up the application form and mailed to her. Sometime in April I am expecting her to send the filled out form back to me as well as her passport so I can take it to the Embassy so they can process her visa. I treated myself to lunch at subway and then found the latest English copy of TIME magazine. (I don't know why I bother to look for American news - everywhere I look all there is is the latest on the Presidential race)

One of the missionaries with City on a Hill that is still doing his Pre-field work just got engaged this past Thanksgiving. His fiance is already in Thailand working with a different agency. Her name is Deanna and she has been working with a ministry that ministers to the girls that are caught up in the sex trade. The ministry offers the girls a non-threatening place to come get help and to start to build a new life. The girls often start coming to the centers to learn free English. About 6 weeks ago our team was finally able to get in touch with Deanna. (she was in the states for a few months until Jan-Feb) She is such a wonderful girl. We have all been so blessed to get to know her. She and her fiance will be a great addition to our team! Anyway, last night. I was able to see a part of their ministry. I really liked what I saw and, Lord willing, I may become more involved with that ministry in the future.

Tonight, we are all going to a Fillipino wedding. I was invited, but I don't know either the bride or the groom. All the Thai pastors will be there, however, as well as many of our Fillipino friends. So it should be fun. Tomorrow is our Quarterly Team Meeting, and it will run all day. This coming Monday Lesa and I are flying up to Chiang Rai(See Map) for 3 days so I can cross the border and re-new my visa. I will write again when I get back from Chiang Rai.

Happy Leap Year!

Monday, February 18, 2008

Visa Run

Hey Everyone,

I don't know if I have mentioned this before or not, but part of the conditions on my year-visa is that I have to renew it every 3 mo. by going out of the country and coming back in. I don't need to stay out for a certain amount of time, I can just leave and then turn around and come back. I will need to renew it again by March 4. Lesa and I are planning to go up to northern Thailand to Chang Rai (see map). We will stay there for a few day with a couple of missionaries in the area. The missionaries will help me cross the border and back again. We should also have enough time to visit their mission and do a little sight-seeing. I would appreciate you prayers for our flight there and back as well as the prevention of any unforseen complications.

Thanks,
Bethany

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Answer to Prayer

Wow! I can't belive we are approaching our 5 month mark. At times it feels like I have only been here 5 seconds. At other times it feels like I have been here for 5 years - haha. I think I have pretty much gotten over the initial culture shock, but the missionaries that were already here tell me it never completely goes away. Instead you have periodic "culture days." You know, those days where you can't seem to communicate with anybody, you can't find anything, and you come home at the end of the day frustrated and tired. Wait a minute - I had days like that in the States. What's up with that?! Oh well, I guess when you look at the over all picture, some things are the same everywhere we go (we just get to use fancier names for it overseas)

These past few weeks I have been asking for prayer regarding wisdom on the taking on of additional ministries. Wisdom pertaining to "what kinds?" of ministry and "how much?". During the recent conference we attended, God dropped something in my lap. One of the other missionary families on our team is in need of a homeschool teacher. Their 2 youngest children will not be returning to the school that they are currently at. While the parents are not in language school, they are both actively involved with other ministries, and do not have enough time to do all the teaching themselves. Their son will be going into 4th grade and their daughter will be going into 6th grade.

I do not as yet know when we will be starting to work together (these kids will start the next school year sometime this summer), but in the mean time I will be working with them on the logistics of my working with 2 families. The Caynor's for some time now have also talked about letting their kids have more freedom as they are growing up and do not need much constant "care/teaching" as they are capable of doing almost all their schoolwork on their own, and they are even looking at the possibilities of enrolling Ricky in a school next year so he will have the chance to participate in sports and other extra curricular activities. So my time spent during the week with their kids will most likely shift quite a bit.

Both families are very excited about this next school year, as am I. Who knows what the next few months will bring? God is starting to open the doors for many new and exciting posibilities for all of us. Please continue to uphold us in your prayers as well as this most recent developement. As always please pray that we seek out God's wisdom and guidance as our goal remains to serve Him the best way we can and make the most of where He has placed us.

In Him,

Bethany