The group that had the most fun at the conference!
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Remember us?
All of the families who participated in the conference.
The group that had the most fun at the conference!
The group that had the most fun at the conference!
Saturday, March 15, 2008
from teresa
I have so much I could talk about that was significant to me on this trip. One of the youth asked me in the middle of the week why I was the one teaching the younger kids. I'm not really sure how that happened exactly, but my first thought was that I was the shortest, so it made the most sense : ). Seriously, the younger kids amazed and astounded me in their knowledge and depth of insight. They were able to handle the changes in schedule that happened daily and were able to follow my impossilbe tangents and random comments (I try to filter them, but it never really works). They asked great questions and were always eager to volunteer to read or help in any way. I had random moments during the week where I was sad that I was not getting to know the older youth better, but God blessed me in that the last couple of days when I was able to spend more informal time with them.
The second thing that was significant to me was the afternoon that we went to the orphanage. This was the day that held the most uncertainty for us as leaders because we did not have a lot of detail beforehand about what we would be able to do at the orphanage. So, since the leaders had no idea what to expect, we could not communicate to the youth or prepare them in any way. But when we got to the orphanage and learned that we had a couple hours to do whatever we wanted, I loved that the youth took the lead without any questions. We as leaders were able to step back and watch them do what they do best. I know that many of the youth are used to doing similar things in the countries where they serve, but it was significant to me because they were officially on "vacation" during their time in Chiang Mai and they could have easily protested, but instead they served with glad and grateful hearts.
I could go on and on. God blessed this trip in so many ways! I praise Him for putting 8 "adults" and 31 kids into one place to learn from and encourage one another! What an awesome God we serve!
The second thing that was significant to me was the afternoon that we went to the orphanage. This was the day that held the most uncertainty for us as leaders because we did not have a lot of detail beforehand about what we would be able to do at the orphanage. So, since the leaders had no idea what to expect, we could not communicate to the youth or prepare them in any way. But when we got to the orphanage and learned that we had a couple hours to do whatever we wanted, I loved that the youth took the lead without any questions. We as leaders were able to step back and watch them do what they do best. I know that many of the youth are used to doing similar things in the countries where they serve, but it was significant to me because they were officially on "vacation" during their time in Chiang Mai and they could have easily protested, but instead they served with glad and grateful hearts.
I could go on and on. God blessed this trip in so many ways! I praise Him for putting 8 "adults" and 31 kids into one place to learn from and encourage one another! What an awesome God we serve!
Friday, March 14, 2008
from kevin
I want to thank all the MK's for their enthusiasm, flexibility and maturity, which made a big difference in what we could do and how much we all enjoyed each day. Being able to take everyone on the afternoon activities was a great blessing. I never would have guessed that at this age (not like Storm who is really old) I would find myself searching around a 700+ year old city on the other side of the world with 7 youth and one adult. Coming in 2nd (what?) in the Amazing Race, behind the team who picked all the clues...(shady) Go Monkeys!
I learned that I'm not very flexible (ok, I already knew that), but I saw how being flexible and open minded pays off big time and doesn't have to require stress. God was in control of all our circumstances, and He showed clearly that He was and still is doing an enormous amount of work for our good. It was so easy for me to take things for granted like safety, conveniences, the MK's attitudes and the week's inique experiences. I grew very attached to our little community at the hotel, and I miss it very much. I look forward to following the Lord's work in people's lives who I was able to be a part of for several days.
Oddly enough, I have grown more sensitive to RBI's since leaving Thailand. Did you know that:
-Texas has changed it's capital 13 times
-Ghandi was a lawyer before before becoming Mahatma
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
we're home...
The Team (or the majority of it, at least) made it safely back to Peoria Sunday afternoon. We'd like to thank everyone for all the prayers and words of encouragement while we were in Thailand. It was an amazing trip and we're all very grateful for the experience.
Later this week different members of the team will be sharing their experiences and stories, so please check again soon.
- Thailand Team
Later this week different members of the team will be sharing their experiences and stories, so please check again soon.
- Thailand Team
Saturday, March 8, 2008
headed back to the states
Just a quick note before we head to the airport...
Had a great last day in Thailand! This morning we said goodbye to Peter and LaNae who are headed to Taiwan to see some of their family. Lyall and Teresa hung back in Chiang Mai while the rest (Kevin, Kim, Kari, and Storm) went down to the Maetang River.
In an attempt to refamiliarize ourselves with the States, we had dinner at Miguel's, a local Mexican restaurant, followed by a stop at Starbucks (you're welcome, Storm). While at Starbucks we struck a conversation with a woman at a table and learned that she was a missionary here working on the border between Thailand and Burma - she and another missionary witness to both armies and visit IDP camps throughout the border region. She had a very fascinating background...
After that we pulled a quick stop off at the bazaar, picked up a few last minute things, and completed our last walk back to our hotel. Although we are very excited to be heading home, it has been an amazing experience and we are all a bit sad to see it over.
To our newfound friends throughout the world - below are our email addresses. Please drop us a line sometime and let us know how you are doing, if there is anything we can pray for you about, or if you need an emergency resupply of snickers, dingdongs, or reese's peanutbutter cups. It was an honor spending this week with you and we are thankful to God, and to you, for this experience.
Until next time...
Peter Huang
petra041175@yahoo.com
LaNae Huang
ldietzpt@hotmail.com
Teresa Forsberg
Termfor@aol.com
www.termfor.blogspot.com
Kim Turner
nurse4kids07@gmail.com
Lyall Sutton
lyall@bethanycentral.org
Kevin Gustafson
kevin71481@yahoo.com
Kari Rabenhorst
kari_rabenhorst@yahoo.com
Storm Huse
shuse@aol.com
Had a great last day in Thailand! This morning we said goodbye to Peter and LaNae who are headed to Taiwan to see some of their family. Lyall and Teresa hung back in Chiang Mai while the rest (Kevin, Kim, Kari, and Storm) went down to the Maetang River.
In an attempt to refamiliarize ourselves with the States, we had dinner at Miguel's, a local Mexican restaurant, followed by a stop at Starbucks (you're welcome, Storm). While at Starbucks we struck a conversation with a woman at a table and learned that she was a missionary here working on the border between Thailand and Burma - she and another missionary witness to both armies and visit IDP camps throughout the border region. She had a very fascinating background...
After that we pulled a quick stop off at the bazaar, picked up a few last minute things, and completed our last walk back to our hotel. Although we are very excited to be heading home, it has been an amazing experience and we are all a bit sad to see it over.
To our newfound friends throughout the world - below are our email addresses. Please drop us a line sometime and let us know how you are doing, if there is anything we can pray for you about, or if you need an emergency resupply of snickers, dingdongs, or reese's peanutbutter cups. It was an honor spending this week with you and we are thankful to God, and to you, for this experience.
Until next time...
Peter Huang
petra041175@yahoo.com
LaNae Huang
ldietzpt@hotmail.com
Teresa Forsberg
Termfor@aol.com
www.termfor.blogspot.com
Kim Turner
nurse4kids07@gmail.com
Lyall Sutton
lyall@bethanycentral.org
Kevin Gustafson
kevin71481@yahoo.com
Kari Rabenhorst
kari_rabenhorst@yahoo.com
Storm Huse
shuse@aol.com
Friday, March 7, 2008
something fishy is going on...
This time tomorrow we will be sitting at the Chiang Mai International Airport waiting for our flight. We have had such a great week and we just thank God for allowing 10 people from Peoria, IL (8 here, plus 2 that are here in spirit) to be able to come all the way to Chiang Mai to be a part of this conference. Amazing.
Today was a great team-building day and we ended the evening with our final team dinner (Peter and LaNae leave in the morning to head to Taiwan). It was a great meal and we were blessed to have shared it with Catharine Coon.
Below is our flight information. Due to tail winds, we should shave off about 1 hour from each leg of the flight, so we're looking at a total flight time of about 18 hours.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support this week. We look forward to heading back to the States and sharing our many stories with each of you. We will try to post once more prior to catching our shuttle to the airport, but if not, we will see you all soon!
Sunday @ 01:55am Depart Chiang Mai (KE 0668)
Sunday @ 11:40am Depart Seoul Incheon (KE 0037)
Sunday @ 10:30am Arrive Chicago O'Hare
Today was a great team-building day and we ended the evening with our final team dinner (Peter and LaNae leave in the morning to head to Taiwan). It was a great meal and we were blessed to have shared it with Catharine Coon.
Below is our flight information. Due to tail winds, we should shave off about 1 hour from each leg of the flight, so we're looking at a total flight time of about 18 hours.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support this week. We look forward to heading back to the States and sharing our many stories with each of you. We will try to post once more prior to catching our shuttle to the airport, but if not, we will see you all soon!
Sunday @ 01:55am Depart Chiang Mai (KE 0668)
Sunday @ 11:40am Depart Seoul Incheon (KE 0037)
Sunday @ 10:30am Arrive Chicago O'Hare
Thursday, March 6, 2008
thailand super-sized
Is the week with the MKs really over? Seriously? Man, that was way too quick...
As of 11:00pm (Thai Time) on March 6th (today) in the year 2551 (that's right, it's not 2008 here in Thailand, but don't worry b/c you're not missing much - no flying cars - but I can tell you that the Cubs still haven't won a World Series) our time serving the missionary families of World Venture is officially over. And today was a great way to finish it off...
Sticking with a good routine, the kids showed up at around 8:30am in the Cave. We had some great youth led worship time, followed by a fun game with Kim where everyone got a chance to mention someone else in the group that had a positive influence on them this week. After we broke into our two age groups, Teresa taught the lesson to the younger MKs and Kim shared a her testimony and a great devotional with the older MKs about not being ineffective or unproductive in our knowledge of Christ. The TCK (Third Culture Kid) Coordinator also came and spoke to the kids and shared some great insight into the week and for their trip back home. Also, the staff of World Venture presented us with some gifts to thank us for serving this week. It has been such an honor to work with both World Venture and SAM, two organizations that have gone above and beyond to support us this week.
After lunch we headed out to the Elephant Camp where we watched the elephant show and then took elephant rides. The show was a lot better than most of us expected (the elephants danced, played soccer, painted, built a wall, played harmonicas... really, you just need to check out the pictures). After the show we loaded up onto about 20 elephants and took a 30 minute elephant ride around the camp (Kari got some great shots of everyone on the elephants). On the way back to the hotel we also stopped off at the Asia Craft Center and the Butterfly/Orchid Farm here in Chiang Mai. When we got back to the hotel we passed out goodie bags to the youth and kids with things their parents had emailed us that they liked.
Much to the non-delight of Peter (although he went along and was a great sport about it) the Team went to dinner tonight at McDonalds! That's right, McDonalds. What's so special about the McDonald's here? Well, not too much but they did have Double Big Macs and pineapple pies! So we scarfed down some healthy dinner and then headed on back to the hotel.
At 8pm we hosted our last event with the MKs - movie night in the Cave. We watched The Ultimate Gift and it went over very well. The movie was really good, but the kids also really liked that the hotel staff brought down mattresses and laid them out on the floor. The Team brought down the last of the goodies and we had a buffett of candy bars, dingdongs, smarties, oreos, and other assorted treats. Good times.
And of course we have more pictures...
The boys (Kevin and Storm) would also like to take this opportunity to apologize to the girls (Kari, Kim, and Teresa) for wrongly accusing them of resetting their alarm clock. When the boys returned to their hotel room last night they discovered that someone had changed their wake-up time to 7am, which would have made them late to breakfast the next morning. The boys, assuming it had been the girls since they were the only ones with access to their room key, went ahead and hooked the girls up with a 4am wake up call from the front desk. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the girls had nothing to do with the alarm clock...
Oops.
We're sorry.
The boys would like the girls to please read Collosians 3:13 and Matthew 6:15.
As of 11:00pm (Thai Time) on March 6th (today) in the year 2551 (that's right, it's not 2008 here in Thailand, but don't worry b/c you're not missing much - no flying cars - but I can tell you that the Cubs still haven't won a World Series) our time serving the missionary families of World Venture is officially over. And today was a great way to finish it off...
Sticking with a good routine, the kids showed up at around 8:30am in the Cave. We had some great youth led worship time, followed by a fun game with Kim where everyone got a chance to mention someone else in the group that had a positive influence on them this week. After we broke into our two age groups, Teresa taught the lesson to the younger MKs and Kim shared a her testimony and a great devotional with the older MKs about not being ineffective or unproductive in our knowledge of Christ. The TCK (Third Culture Kid) Coordinator also came and spoke to the kids and shared some great insight into the week and for their trip back home. Also, the staff of World Venture presented us with some gifts to thank us for serving this week. It has been such an honor to work with both World Venture and SAM, two organizations that have gone above and beyond to support us this week.
After lunch we headed out to the Elephant Camp where we watched the elephant show and then took elephant rides. The show was a lot better than most of us expected (the elephants danced, played soccer, painted, built a wall, played harmonicas... really, you just need to check out the pictures). After the show we loaded up onto about 20 elephants and took a 30 minute elephant ride around the camp (Kari got some great shots of everyone on the elephants). On the way back to the hotel we also stopped off at the Asia Craft Center and the Butterfly/Orchid Farm here in Chiang Mai. When we got back to the hotel we passed out goodie bags to the youth and kids with things their parents had emailed us that they liked.
Much to the non-delight of Peter (although he went along and was a great sport about it) the Team went to dinner tonight at McDonalds! That's right, McDonalds. What's so special about the McDonald's here? Well, not too much but they did have Double Big Macs and pineapple pies! So we scarfed down some healthy dinner and then headed on back to the hotel.
At 8pm we hosted our last event with the MKs - movie night in the Cave. We watched The Ultimate Gift and it went over very well. The movie was really good, but the kids also really liked that the hotel staff brought down mattresses and laid them out on the floor. The Team brought down the last of the goodies and we had a buffett of candy bars, dingdongs, smarties, oreos, and other assorted treats. Good times.
And of course we have more pictures...
The boys (Kevin and Storm) would also like to take this opportunity to apologize to the girls (Kari, Kim, and Teresa) for wrongly accusing them of resetting their alarm clock. When the boys returned to their hotel room last night they discovered that someone had changed their wake-up time to 7am, which would have made them late to breakfast the next morning. The boys, assuming it had been the girls since they were the only ones with access to their room key, went ahead and hooked the girls up with a 4am wake up call from the front desk. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the girls had nothing to do with the alarm clock...
Oops.
We're sorry.
The boys would like the girls to please read Collosians 3:13 and Matthew 6:15.
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