December 14, 2015
Hi everyone! I'm currently updating you from a public computer in South Korea! I meant to do one more update while still in Maui to let you all know I was leaving and the final wrap up but that last week was so crazy I never had time! But here I am after 23 hours of travel able to do one last update! Most of my team is passed out in the "relaxing room" (if you're going to be stuck for 14 hours at an airport South Korea is the one to be stuck at- it's amazing!). I'm up hoping Caleb and my mom wake up so that I can talk with them for a little! But seeing as it's not yet six am California time I can give them a little grace.
This has been absolutley crazy so far. After so many months of talking about Indonesia and learning about Indonesia and praying about Indonesia we're actually
... In January. First we're going to Thailand for a month which is why I have suggested we rename ourselves Thainesia or Indoland so as to better represent our locations but so far it hasn't stuck. But my failed nicknames aside, we're really truly on our way to Thailand. That's insane.
As I spoke to Caleb on the phone right before we turned them in, he told me to notice what it feels like in the van on the way to the airport. He said to be on the lookout for that feeling, the one that says you're about to do something crazy. He compared it to a squad in the army right before they embark on a secret mission, that adrenaline and comradery of that moment as you head into the battle, knowing that the enemy has no idea what's coming. So as we pulled out of the Maui base and headed to the airport, I took a moment and tried to see if he was right. We eleven eighteen to twenty four year olds with sleepy eyes and hiking backpacks bigger than our torsos didn't look much like the kind of army I'd send into any top secret mission, but there was something in the air. We are about to enter a spiritual battle, to dive head first into enemy territory in red light districts and areas dominated by eastern religion and the chains of poverty. And we may not look like much with our tousled hair toting around our bags filled with only four or five shirts, baby wipes, and in my case a teddy bear. At first sight the enemy may think he has no cause to worry at all. He may take a look at us and laugh, thinking we don't look like much. And he would be right. We aren't much. But there's something he doesn't realize, something that changes everything. Each of these eighteen to twenty four year olds carries something more than just a backpack and a pillow. We carry the Spirit of the living God, burning inside of us. And He can do a lot of damage indeed. You may not need to be afraid of me, but Him? Him you should be very afraid of. Maybe on my own I can't do much, but the one wo lives inside of me, well He has a pretty impressive track record. I can do nothing (except sometimes when I'm very tired I can apparantly fall asleep on a plane before we even take off which I think is super impressive but admittedly maybe not that effective in ministry), But my God can heal the sick. My God can raise the dead. My God can set the captives free. he brings hope to the hopeless, joy to the downcast, refreshment for the heavy laden. And He lives in me. In us. In this little motley group of elleven. My God is pleased to dwell inside of us. We may look like nothing special, but look a little closer, because we were chosen by the one true King for such a time as this- to go love the Hell right out of Thailand and Indonesia (Thainesia, Indoland, whatever) and kick the enemy out of places that belong to the Lord, and make him release his grip on the precious people paid for by the blood of our King. And we're going to do just that.
Please keep fighting for our team in prayer- we so appreciate it! I'll update when I can but it will not be as regularly as when I was in Maui! Thank you again for all of your prayer and support! Off to Thainesia we go!
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