Love it out...

Each morning our team starts the day with breakfast and scripture study together, squished around the one large table in the hostel breakfast area. We have been reading through the book of Acts and there are so many practical lessons from the life of Paul and the stories of the early church. In reflecting on the early church and Pauls relationship with them, there is a consistent theme of encouragement. In his various letters to churches Paul often gives encouragement to the church and tells them of how he is encouraged by their faith, as he mentions in Romans chapter 1. 

"For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith, both yours and mine." - Romans 1:11-12

At the end of the meetings we have been sharing with the team the messages of encouragement that have been sent in. It has meant so much to the team to hear from the church at home, to be prayed over, and  to be encouraged. This morning we got several messages, including one from a youth leader who sent a word of prayer. In this prayer he wrote "... I pray that they might feel like they are able to love out the gospel, despite the language barrier." He noted in a follow up message that he meant live it out, but that love it out might be even better. After a full day of seeing this team interact with the church members in Lampang through ESL, Kids Camp, sharing meals, and meeting together for worship, I would have to agree that the team was loving out the gospel, despite the language barrier. 

As much as you all have been an encouragement to our team, I hope that these stories are also an encouragement to you; that you would be encouarged by the faith of our Khmu brothers and sisters in Lampang, that you would be encouraged by the way the Holy Spirit is continuing to foster relationship between the Lampang church and the church in Prince George, and that you would be encouraged by the faith and servant leadership of the youth on this team who are humbly following Jesus and boldy sharing the gospel. There are too many stories to be able to share them all through these posts, but here are some of the highlights from today.  

Today was the first day of doing kids camp at the church. The kids from the church family all came to the church to spend the day with us, they are currently on their summer break. We started off the morning with some songs, first learning a song in Thai with actions - getting to shout "Hey" as loud as you can is fun no matter what language you are singing in. Then we introduced the kids to the VBS songs that we know from Ness Lake Bible Camp, in addition to the camp classic - Pharaoh Pharaoh. 

We then did some ESL activities, starting with simple introductions and moving up to being able to ask some basic questions and give answers. I was so impressed with how quickly the kids picked it up and what they knew already - they are definitely faster with English then we are with Thai, though they are very gracious with us. Though as Silas said, "Language is Local, Memes are Universial". As we learned throughout the morning and afternoon, 6 7 is popular amongst kids all over the world. 

Though we prepped a lot for the trip, there are some things that have come up that we did not anticipate. One being teaching more English than planned and needing to come up with activities on the fly. Lauren had the brilliant idea to use the Cupid Shuffle to teach right and left. We had learned to line dance a bit last year as a youth group as part of our Easter celebration - not knowing then that it would come in very handy when teaching ESL a year later, God is always working ahead of us! It was so fun to dance and laugh together while learning the steps:

Google Translate has become my most used app on my phone. Though not perfect, it allows for all of us to be chatted with the kids and youth at the same time. It was so cool at one point in the afternoon when all the team, kids, and youth were working on the craft from Lauren's lesson and chatting with one other. We were debating if we needed to come up with another activity to fill the last 45 minutes of the day. But looking at the team and the kids building relationships through conversation laughter side games, and coloring, we decided to follow the Holy Spirit who was at work and just let the team love out the gospel. 

After taking some time to eat a meal together as a team, where yes some spicy food was sampled (ask Tyler, David, and Cadence about it when you see them), we went to the house of the church member Somkit. The church and every member have been so welcoming to us and are very generous hosts - they too are loving out the gospel as they invite us into their homes. We shared a time of worship together were we sang some songs at the same time in different languages, what a beautiful melody. This was followed by the sharing of testimony. We heard how God has transformed Somkit and his family, from being reliant and focused on alcohol, he has turned to God and shares God with his coworkers and family. David and Cadence also shared testimony about how they have seen God at work and what God has been teaching them. The night wrapped up with the laying of hands on Somkit and his family as we all prayed together. 

Thank you for following along in our journey and reading out increasingly long updates. I hope these stories are an encouragement to you and your faith and that you will continue to be a partner in loving out the gospel. Here are some quick things from today that you can be praying over:

• Pray for Somkit and his family, his wife is expecting their third child. Please pray for a healthy and safe pregnancy. 
• Pray for Faa, she is doing an amazing job with all the translations back and forth, pray that God would continue to give her the words she needs, both in English and Thai. 
• Pray for the team as we continue to build relationships.