The Daily Sched

Dear Friends and Family,

Our time in Thailand is flying by! It is hard to believe that we are in the middle of our second week and only have a few more days working with the Garden of Hope. We have been busy serving in various ministry opportunities which has been a good transition from the many preparation talks we sat through last week. Here is a run day of a typical day in Thailand:

We have our team meetings in the morning at our home, the YMCA. These meetings tend to be a time of praise, reflection, discussion, and prayer of the previous day's activities. We spend about two hours for this time and it really sets the tone for the entire day.

For lunch we typically eat at a Thai market place where ordering consists of pointing and nodding, or one of our fabulous drivers arranges the food for us. It is always an experience, but we are getting much more familiar even though sometimes we end up eating something we did not mean to order.

We come to the Garden of Hope (GoH) drop-in-center which is in the perfect location on Loi Kroh Road, one of the most popular tourist and red light areas in the city. We have devotions with the GoH staff and then split up for various activities for the afternoon. We visit the slum homes of the children who come play with us, we do prayer walks, we teach English, we play with the kids who come by, and we pick up trash on the streets. We are all wearing these bright purple shirts given to us by the GoH, so hopefully we will start to spread the word about their ministry and services. We share a delicious homemade dinner at the drop-in-center with the children who come everyday, women, and any other person who is in the area. We are all learning a lot from the Thai culture's great hospitality.

The evenings are full with going to the bars and playing uno with the women working there, going out on the streets and playing with the kids we find, staying at the drop-in-center to play with the kids here, and going out to talk with any other farrangs (foreigners) that we may see to talk up the GoH.

We arrive home late at night, completely exhausted, trying to pen in our journals the happenings of the day before we fall asleep.

Thank you for your continual prayers. We are going to be sad to leave the Garden of Hope at the end of the week, but we are also looking forward to learning about another ministry in Thailand, Remember Nhu.

We are all doing great and are learning a lot. I am sure we will have many stories to tell.

On behalf of the Thailand Team

Love

Laurie Brown

up

Update #2, Wednesday, May 21
Time flies when you're surrounded by children and ministry opportunities. These past days have seen us transition from preparation talks to engagement with children, with vulnerable young women, with visitation teams going out to homes, with language teaching, (this time us teaching children and young people English) to going out in teams to collect trash (in the name of Jesus!). This last event was a happy surprise for the locals as they were amazed watching us (Farrong--foreigners) help to beautify their city in areas which need a little help, where perhaps people had given up just a bit. People came up with big smiles and brought us bottled water as a way of thanking us and it was a good pr moment as we were wearing our Garden of Hope Purple T shirts, and as we walk around the neighborhood, folks are starting to get the idea there is a team of young Americans serving the children here, doing crafts, playing fun games and investing in valuing them as persons. It's nice to get the smiles and greetings as the days pass. Well, it's time for another wonderful Thai meal we eat all together, from a common pot, children, adults and who ever is here to join in a common meal.
Keep us in your prayers.
In Christ,
On behalf of the team,
roger newell

Update #1

Greetings HeavenandEarthlings, from Chiang Mai! We are overwhelmed with the beauty and complexity of this place. We are humbled by the compassionate ministry of Garden of Hope, and their creative, thoughtful ministry to vulnerable women and children. Last night some of planned for the party tonight while others began to visit with some of the people the Garden of Hope seeks to serve and support.
Tonight we are getting ready for a pizza party for 20 or so children, ages 2-14, who frequent the streets around here. We are excited.
In recent days we have been getting some invaluable preparatory talks and dialogue, ranging from the history of Prostitution in Thailand, the differences between folk Buddhism and Buddhism, to the contemporary political crisis in Myanmar and the pressure this puts on vulnerable persons in the hill country just outside our city of Chiang Mai. And then when our heads and hearts are full, it's time for a meal--and the food is amazing and varied. Already I've tasted some fruits I didn't know existed and they are scarey tasty.
So far no one is sick, though a couple of us are a little sniffly.
Tomorrow morning we go to a Thai school with our Thai tutor (did I mention we've had language lessons each day?) and she will show us off to her students and we will try to teach a little English, George Fox style.
Thanks for your prayers. Keep them coming. We are very grateful.
In Christ, on behalf of the team,
Roger Newell

First day: the really long flight

Here is our team, and after much preparation and anticipation, today is the day we finally leave. Keep us in your prayers. 

Top row, left to right: Reese, Roger

second row: Mell, Becky, Sue, Ken, Ryan, Mat, Tyler, Abe

third row: Kari, Keely, Meg, Linnea, Hannah, Rachel, Laurie

bottom row: Dot, Candice, Marie