August 2009

Greetings from Thailand,

We have had a very busy month recently. Being busy is sometimes a really good thing, but at other times it can be a little too much. So what have we been busy with?
Mid-July we went to Chiang Mai (a city 3 hours from Chiang Rai) to pick up a young man who will be helping us with the School of Biblical Studies (SBS). He comes from Oregon, USA and will be staying with us for about a year and a half. He is a great guy and we look forward to working with him over this next period of time. His name is Jake and he’s 24.
While driving back from Chiang Mai I received a phone call asking about an opportunity to teach in the Discipleship Training School (DTS) is Bangkok from July 20-24. After praying about it Cy and I both felt that we should go. I had one week to prepare a 15 hours teaching on Spiritual Warfare. It was a lot of hard work, but it was a lot of fun to learn and then teach what I had learned. We talked about spiritual warfare being as simple as TRUTH vs LIES. We were fighting the lies with the truth. It was a very tough week, but very fruitful. One day and a half was spent on confessing the lies that everyone was believing in and replacing them by praying the truth over them. One girl even dealt with some issues with the occult and witchcraft in her life. It was the first time that we cast out a demon in Thailand and God was glorified immensely. Cy and I were both impressed with the power of God during that week of teaching.
After teaching Friday the 24th we went to pick up my (Rob’s) parents who were arriving to spend two weeks with us. The following day we brought them to Chiang Rai. We showed them everything that there was to show and took them elephant riding. We even got a group photo of the four of us holding a 13 ft python. After that we went to discover the Southern region of Thailand, going to Phuket and Krabi. Both places were beautiful. We stayed in a hotel for 23$CAD a night and rented scooters for 7$CAD a day. We explored the island of Phuket for 4 days before heading to Krabi.
In Krabi, Cy and I participated in the YWAM Thailand National Conference which was held there for four days. God challenged us to deepen our intimacy with Him while aiming our efforts to reach out to Thailand that is in great need of Jesus. We were encouraged to pray and worship and fellowship with YWAMers from all over the country as we spent four days together. God really used that time to encourage us and inspire us.
Now we have returned back to Chiang Rai where we will be starting a time of staff training for the SBS. We commence in a week with the two families (American and Swedish) and Jake. Please pray that God would equip all of us to lead and teach well. We’re really excited that after 2 ½ years of being in Thailand we’re about to start the SBS, the reason why we came here to begin with.
We pray that all of you are doing well and that God’s continually drawing you into a greater friendship and intimacy than ever before. May God’s will be done in all of our lives.
Blessings,
Rob and Cy
See our pictures by the link on the left