Our first week in Thailand was spent at Baan Nam Kem helping at the Community Development Center with Jason Goh.  It is a tremendous project with over 200 Burmese children that are being taught and fed daily. Also, there are dozens of Thai kids that are loved on in an after school program. We built some marker boards for the classrooms while the rest of the team taught the kids and had a huge field day.  We were also able to connect with some friends.  It is always great to come back to projects each year and develop long-term relationships.

We like to take time on each of our trips to let the teams get to know the history of the country they are serving in.  It helps them grasp the culture better and understand the people in a greater way.  It is also a time to allow them to see the beauty in each country.  Each of the countries we serve in are proud of their country and heritage and it means a lot to them when we share an interest in those things as well.  Plus, it would be a shame to travel half way around the world and not see Dracula’s Castle on your way back to the airport!  Here is some of the beauty of Romania.

We headed back to Campulung and spent the remainder of the ministry time preparing for a community wide carnival, and then hostin the carnival.  We had a great turn out, 300-400 people from the community showed up! We cooked around 500 hot dogs too.  The Gospel was presented and we were able to give out tracks and DVDs with the Jesus Film in Romanian.  We will never know the the full impact of the carnival, but it reached a lot of people.

On Monday we went back to Rogova and worked at the feeding center. The team got to love on the kids and Pastor Jeff gave a great Bible lesson to the children.  It was a beautiful time of ministry.  We couldn’t find Reaghan and Adam, one of the youth.  We found them in the kitchen washing all of the dishes from the kids.  That makes a parent’s heard proud to see your kids serving with you having to ask them.

We arrived safely in Romania to meet the team.  Then, we traveled to some villages/towns where we have partnered with church plants.  We had the opportunity to be a part of a Saturday evening worship service in Rogova, Romania.  Then, on Sunday morning we had a great service in Severin, and a wonderful time of fellowship and lunch.  That evening, we travelled to Lupsa where we were part of a church service and amazing time of testimonies.  It was great getting to all squeeze into a small church and see how much energy was in the room.  What an amazing way to spend Father’s Day!

After I dropped the team off at the airport in Bangkok, I boarded a plane to Tokyo.  I had a wonderful trip to Japan and I was blessed to spend time with some great people.  I was able to meet a friend of mine from South Carolina who flew in to visit our project in Karuizawa, along with Bruce O’Neal.  While in Japan we were able to attend several church services in Tokyo and meet some incredible people.  We spent our time with Lavern Rodgers, who is the longest serving missionary with the BBFI.  He has been in Japan for 67 years!  It was great to just listen to him tell stories of the years of ministry in Japan.

While we were in the morning church service we were made aware that the great granddaughter of Saigō Takamori, the Last Samurai, was in attendance.  Obviously Hollywood took some cinematic liberties when they produced the movie, but it is based around him. You just never know who you are going to meet on a mission trip, or anywhere in life.  Or, what you will do.  In between hearing stories from Lavern, and visiting the youth camp that MANNA supports, I got to knock down a hornets nest from the top of the 3rd story of his house.  It was the size of a watermelon! Here are some pictures from our stay there.

During our trip to Thailand, we were able to work with several soccer clubs that are used as an outreach.  We helped with some English Clubs and multiple church locations and shared our testimonies. We attended a church service that was in Thai and Thai Sign Language.  I was able to play the bass guitar with the praise team as well.  Then, we took part in a Pakistani service.

We had an unbelievable time in Myanmar with the people.  We work in two villages with the Akha and Lahu tribes.  We operate a school and help feed the people. On this trip we provided clean water systems to the villagers, did lice treatments, foot washings, and fed both villages.  It was such a wonderful time of fellowship with the believers and a chance to serve them. We were also able to show the Jesus Film in Burmese.