We just finished up our team to Vietnam and it was a great experience for everyone.  We started off the trip with a great time of fellowship and worship at church with both Vietnamese and other believers from other countries.  2 people were saved that morning!  What a way to start a trip. Later in the trip we got to work with a new school MANNA has begun helping this year and a feeding program in Saigon.  The school is called Saigon Redemption School and they are working to help tutor kids that have fallen out of the school system and help them learn to read and write.

We then helped the missionary organize a new building he is moving into with another school.  We helped move boxes of supplies, clean, and move around furniture to help them setup.  To end the trip, we spent time as part of a youth camp for Vietnamese kids.  It started off a bit crazy as the police showed up and wanted to know what was going on and why we were gathering.  A group of us got away and prayed for those who were working for the police.  Fortunately, the Lord gave us favor and we were able to host the camp unhindered.  By the end of the camp 15 youth accepted Christ as their Savior and 10 of them surrrendered to go into the ministry full-time to help their nation!  It was amazing sight to witness and a tremendous blessing.  Here are some pictures of the trip:

We just finished up another great team in Thailand.  This time we were working at a children’s home and school on the western border of Thailand, by Myanmar.  It is hard to communicate all that happened, but here is an overview.  We spent 4 days helping teach the kids in the mornings. We taught them about magnetism, chemical reactions, made some parachutes, and a lot of other fun things.  One night we had a ladies night where Kim gave the devotion to the mothers and girls while the men went and played soccer with the guys.  Another night we had a youth night and got to minister to them.  The last day was a large field day with games and events.  Kayli and Reaghan helped with the music each day.  One of the days we were able to go into Myanmar (Burma) and visit a new church plant and after school program that the national pastor here has started.  I had the opportunity to preach at church on Sunday and we spent time fellowshipping with the church members.  Now, off to Vietnam for the next team.  Here are a few pictures of the team in action!

Our first group in Thailand left yesterday and our next group arrives tomorrow.  It has been an amazing time in Thailand already.  We worked with some great missionaries here.  The group was able to spend a day working with refugee kids and putting on a fun day of crafts, lessons, songs and food.  We went to the International Detention Center as was able to encourage some of the refugees there.  In Bangkok we visited a public school as was able to help teach English to the kids.  Another day was spent with part of the team working on painting a church while the rest of the team went to a prison and worked with the inmates.

We also went to Chiang Khong in northern Thailand where we were able to engage a village.  We spent one day putting on teaching, crafts, games and a soccer clinic.  The next day we had church services, roasted a pig to feed the church and eat with them, then we handed out water filters to families in the village.  Here are some pictures of this portion of the trip.

I recently had a medical team in Guatemala.  It was amazing to see how the Lord used the team.  They saw 800 patients in 5 different villages and 5 souls were saved!  We took water filters and food baskets to a dozen families too.  I love to see how the Lord uses specific people on the trip. We had several pediatricians, one who specialized in neonatal care.  They weren’t sure how the Lord was going to use their specialty.  As it turns out, a mom with month old twins shows up at a clinic and another woman who was pregnant came too.  They had an ultrasound machine and she got to see an ultrasound of her baby for the first time!  This lady had miscarried her previous pregnancy and was worried it might happen again.  The doctor’s care and the ultrasound was excactly what she needed at that time.

You may not know exactly why you are going, just go.  It will become clear soon enough!  Thank you for your support. Here are some pictures from the trip:

I had the priviledge of leading two teams, back-to-back, to Guatemala in March. The first team was a Christian school from Kentucky, the other was a homebuilder from West Texas.  Both teams were amazing.  We spent the weeks feeding kids in multiple villages, painting a church and playground, delivering water filters and food baskets to families, and attending church services.  It was amazing watching the Lord work through the groups and in the groups.

One crazy thing happened on the trip.  I grew up in a small town in the Texas Panhandle on a farm 20 miles from town.  There was a farmer near us (maybe 5 miles away) and he had a son named Michael.  Michael and I were the same age and went to school together.  We were best friends. However, after 1st grade, Michael moved away and we didn’t to see each other again. This past summer, Michael married a woman that works for a homebuilding company and was sending some of their employees on a mission trip with me.  As it turns out, a mission trip to Guatemala reunited me and my best friend as a child 33 years later!  How crazy is that?

You never know what will happen on a mission trip.  Here are some pictures from these trips.  This Saturday, I head back to Guatemala with a medical mission team.  In March, I think I spent 8 nights in my own bed.  I’m hoping to increase that number in April!

Kim and I have returned from Thailand after spending 2 weeks with a team of 38 people.  It was an amazing time and a great group of people.  The first part of the trip was spent in Bangkok helping our missionary partners there.  We handed out several thousand tracts and invited people to their English class outreaches. There was even a Buddhist monk that asked for a tract! We visited a public school and were able to help teach English and share our faith with over 300 Thai kids.  Then, we helped fix up a futsol court, handed out water filters to 20 refugee families, attended several church services and got to see what the Lord is doing in Bangkok.

The second half of our trip was in southern Thailand where the tsunami hit.  We were able to do a variety of things.  One group held a Vacation Bible School for 2nd and 3rd graders, another group taught a baking class to some teenagers, others taught sewing skills to a different group of kids, while a group of us poured 60 cubic yards of concrete for parking and a foundation for a new youth room.  We also washed the kids’ feet and gave them all new shoes. (Around 200 kids) We attended a church service and several of us played the music for the morning worship.

It was hard to leave, but it is good to be home to see our daughters too.  Here are some pictures.

Last week I was able to be a part of a team in Houston to help rebuild some of the homes that were destroyed in the Hurricane Harvey flooding.  It can be overwhelming looking at all of the destruction and the number of homes to be rebuilt.  But, you have to focus on the ones you can help. Our team worked on about a half-dozen homes.  We helped sheetrock the home of an elderly couple and one for a widow that had no other resources to do so.  In another part of Houston, we helped clean out, install sheetrock, and performed electrical work on the homes of people that worked for the school district.  If we can help repair their homes, they can focus on educating the kids in Houston.

We had a couple with a semi that picked up a load of mattresses that had been donated and delivered them to a warehouse in Houston.  Also, we were able to distribute about 4,000 lbs of bottled water to a homeless shelter and others. It is awesome seeing so many people with different gifts and abilities coming together to play a part.  Hearing the stories is heartbreaking, but seeing the hope and the outreach from the church is encouraging.  Here are some pictures from the week:

We finished up with our second group in Nicaragua.  It was a great trip and we did a lot of different things. We held a Vacation Bible School for 3 days at a church in a village.  We also had a baby shower for the pastor’s wife and conducted a youth event. Needless to say, the ladies stayed much cleaner at the baby shower than the guys did at the youth event.  We also hiked to some remote houses and delivered food and water filters and shared the Gospel with the families.  Then, on Sunday we had the privilege of being part of an ordination service. We also visited a new church location and a church in Managua.  Finally, we took all of the pastors and their families for a fun day on an island in Lake Nicaragua.  We wanted to bless them and encourage them in their work.  They loved it! And, we loved the chance to fellowship with them.

We had the priviledge of helping lead our home church on a mission trip to Nicaragua.  It was their very first trip to Nicaragua.  We had a great time with them all week.  We were able to be a part of the very first Bible Club at a new church location.  It is great to be able to see the beginning of a new work. We spent the week visiting churches and feeding centers in 3 different villages.  In each village, we helped feed the kids, put on a skit, performed a puppet show, sang songs, and several people gave their testimonies to the adults.  After we spent time at the projects, we took water filters to villagers and helped share the Gospel and encourage them.  It was another great week with some great friends.

We had an amazing week in Guatemala.  We had almost 40 people in this group and they were great.  We took them by some Mayan ruins so that they could learn the history of the region.  Kayli and Reaghan even got to do some impromptu gymnastics lessons with some Mayan kids at the ruins.  That was a first! Then, we were able to do lice treatments, feet washing, Bible songs and lessons, feed kids, and deliver water filters and food to villagers in a Mayan Village.  We visited a new project on the coast and worked with the kids and made additional home visits.  On another day we helped work on a new church building, feed kids, help build a house, and provided additional water filters and food baskets for families.  On Sunday, we went to church with the orphans and then took them to the zoo and served them dinner.  It was awesome seeing the impact the Lord had in the lives of the people that came and those we came to serve.