You Are the God of This City

It’s been a great week here in Bangkok. We have been super busy, but we know God is doing amazing things here!

Josh and I attended our first Unite BKK. It’s a social event used to allow Thais to invite their friends to a fun night at the church. Chris did such a great job planning the event! We had an Open Mike Night and many people came and many participated too! Thais love karaoke, so the event was a big hit! Many who participated sang and danced, and Steve and Chao even lip synced and danced! It was awesome! Joom did an amazing job sharing her testimony about God’s love, and David challenged everyone to take the next step in their relationship with God, such as attending church instead of just our outreach events, joining a small group, or whatever the next step for them may be. It was so much fun and a great message for all of us.

We also attended our first all staff meeting. I cannot even begin to describe how awesome our team is here! Everyone here works so hard! David is an amazing leader. Jen does an awesome job heading up the preschool program here. Steve, Michael, Chao and Kathy are doing amazing things in Comm 110. Tiffany is an amazing cook, who prepares all the food for the Cafe and all of our events. Witt and Brittany are amazing at everything they do. They hit the ground running as soon as they returned from the States. They helped out with Unite BKK and are in the village currently translating for a medical mission team from Chattanooga. Cortney and all the ladies serving in the red light district pour their hearts out weekly to the ladies they meet there. Chris and Riki are amazing at planning our outreach events. All of these are just a few of the things our team members do. I am so thankful God has given us such a wonderful team here in BKK.

Josh also preached on Sunday for his first time here. If you attend LifePoint, we are several weeks behind you in the sermon series. Here in Bangkok, we are talking about the Revolution series, and Josh preached about being committed to the church this week. He did such a great job, and I really think this will be a great series for our church here. We are excited to see everything God has in store here in BKK.

God has also been putting several people in our path. Please pray that we will use each opportunity He puts in front of us. Kathy mentioned on her Facebook about a Mexican food booth she found. Word has gotten around about how good it is, and I think we have all tried it out. It’s hard to find good Mexican food around here! Last week, we went to see if it lived up to the hype. It did! But we also had the opportunity to talk to the owner for a few minutes. He is Pakistani and speaks English. He was eager to talk to us, so please pray we we use this opportunity in the future to glorify God.

We also met a man, who lives in our building this week. He is an architect and a businessman. He speaks English and went to college in the States. He is staying in our building while his house is being renovated. He was extremely nice. We met him in the elevator, and he drove us to the BTS that day so we didn’t have to pay for a taxi. We were able to talk to him so while he drove us too. Pray for God to cross our paths often and allow us to grow this relationship. We are so excited for what the future holds here!

Settling In

We are continuing to settle into life here in Bangkok. We rented an apartment in the same building as David and Jennifer McCaman for 2 months and are hoping to move into their apartment when they head back to the States. Our kiddos are sharing a room and have done amazing with adjusting to it!

Our new apartment!

Sharles’ new bed.

We had an awesome Valentine’s Day shopping at Ikea and getting things for our new apartment! We even had pizza and a Dairy Queen Blizzard! Yes!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

We have had so much fun hanging out with our team and learning new ways of life here and have gotten to meet several new friends along the way! We are so excited for what God has in store for us here!

Sharles and Josiah having fun together.

Here is a funny story for you too…Josh went and got us a Thai dinner one night from a new to us restaurant. I was focused on feeding Brayden his dinner, so I hadn’t started eating mine yet. Josh helped Sharles get hers open and they both started eating. Sharles started eating, then started making this awful growling noise. We were both saying, “What is wrong with her?” We had never heard her make a noise like this before. I noticed her lips looked a little red, and I looked at my food. I told Josh there were red peppers in it. He said, “It’s not hot, so I don’t know why she is acting like that.” So I kept feeding Brayden his carrots. When I finished feeding him, I looked at my red pepper filled tray and began to eat my food, and then I thought I might breath fire! It was soooo hot! Then, I remembered Josh said David ordered food for him from the Noodle Guy the day before and realized he must be immune to the hotness! Poor Sharles! Haha!

Adjusting to the Change

We made it safely to Bangkok! The flight was not as hard as we thought it would be. Don’t get me wrong, it was still draining, but our kiddos were amazing. The only meltdown we had, was at immigration in Bangkok, and Sharles was so ready to go to bed! I would call that a successful trip! She was pretty happy the rest of the time! Our kids are adjusting well to the 13 hour time difference so much better than we thought they would too! They both slept all night last night, which is such an answer to our prayers! They have adjusted to everything so much quicker than we thought they would.

We hit the ground running as soon as we got up the next day. We started looking for an apartment and have seen several, but still haven’t settled on one yet. We are still trying to get acquainted with the city and transportation, but are hoping to have an apartment this week. Please pray for God to show us where He wants us to be.

We have been getting around pretty well. We haven’t ventured too far, but we have managed to eat every meal! I even managed to cook dinner last night! We also took our 1st BTS (elevated subway) ride today to take Sharles to the park! I must say, we, mainly Josh is doing a great job getting us around! I am still too overwhelmed to know what I am doing! Ha!

We also made it to our 1st LifePoint BKK (Bangkok) service on Sunday. It was awesome! Sharles warmed up to everyone so much better than I ever thought she would. She went to her class with another little girl and 2 other little boys. She seemed to enjoy herself! Michael preached this Sunday after they just returned from the States. He did a great job sharing the Biblical truths of tithing! After church, they order lunch and we all sit together and eat lunch. We saw the LifePoint Cafe and enjoyed a smoothy from there on our way home too!

Although not having our own place yet has been frustrating, we are still enjoying it here. We have had lots of good family time swimming and playing too! We are looking forward to everything God has in store for us here. Please continue to pray for God to show us the perfect place He has for us to live. Pray for LifePoint and the work it is doing here. Pray for us to keep our eyes open for every opportunity available to share the Gospel with those around us.

~Brittany