Leaving Once Again

Hey everyone! Tomorrow we are all leaving (together as one big group!) to the village that my group was originally going to- Maesariang :)
If this name sounds familiar its because Ricky, Rob, and I have already been there to do our first project. We won't be in the same exact place but about a half hour from there. We'll be there till December doing more of the same work we did in these past villages and hopefully we'll have internet access so that I can keep you all updated. Please continue to keep us in your prayers. Thank you and God bless.

Ps. How you like my beard now!? :)

A Day Visiting

On our daily visits to the villages we saw many people who needed help. Most needed a change in diet others in lifestyle and still others needed to hear about Jesus.


Here is a shot of Nola (Missionary from Australia) befriending a little Hmong girl who seemed to be cared for by a lot of the villagers. That was real neat to see.



The following is a video clip of a senile woman who lost the use of her limbs because of muscle atrophy. She still, however, has the use of her vocal chords and seems to moan as a way of communication. We prayed for her and gave her son (who takes care of her) some different ways to bring his mom back to health. It's so hard for me to see this and try and give these people hope. I know it sounds very cliché to say this but really, the only hope I know we can truly give them is the hope that we have in Jesus! :)

Out in the Villages

Our first time away from home base for more than a couple of days was to the little nearby mountain village of Buakjan. Home to about two-hundred residents, Buakjan has a small community of about 30 Seventh-day Adventists and a nice little church.




The other group went to Panakuk but by the second week that we were out that group came and joined my group. We were all very thankful for that, things are just more fun with a larger group. And with this larger group were we able to go out in more groups to visit the sick and good news deprived :) On our visits we administered natural remedy treatments and shared with the villagers about God and all the advice He's given to us. It was so awesome to just go up to people's homes and ask if we could spend some time talking and sharing with them. If we tried to do this in the states I'm pretty sure it would be days before we'd find someone who would let us in, let alone have time for us. I must say that even though these people live in very primitive conditions, they picked a good spot to live as far as AMAZING views go! :)

Our First Project

Our second week here, we (Ricky, Rob, and I) were sent to Maesariang to shoot an interview with a very old gentleman who gave us a wealth of knowledge on the Karen situation.


I will soon begin work on the Karen Documentary that I've been put in charge of and this interview was a key part of the documentary.

This old fella (Phu Ta Mu) is 91 years old :) but is extremely young at heart and is in good shape for his age! His wife is the young girl with the pink shirt to the right of him (she's around 21!)

Maesariang is about a 5 hour drive from home base but the drive is pretty sweet, except for the fact that in order to keep cool we had to keep the back of the truck open and we got covered in soot from the exhaust LOL!


Poor Ricky got it the worst.

Nearby Town- Mamali

The closest town (shopping area) to us is called Mamali and its about a 15 minute drive. We go there when we need to get more food or other necessities.

Here's a shot of the inside of one of the markets, it stunk so bad in there- probably because of the rotting fish they have laying around LOL!

My favorite fruit is Mangosteen! (which also happens to be the name of my girlfriend Heather's sports team at Southern :-) Here's what one looks like.

My friend drew the logo for Heather's team and then I beefed it up a little in Adobe illustrator. So here's the final product. Hope you like it Team Mangosteen ;)

Morning Worship

Drinking Coconut Water

Around the Mission Training Center

Or as Phoebe calls it (The Ranch...but you have to say this in a very Montana accent LOL!) Here's a picture of Rob Dykes strumming some tunes while we get ready to eat.
Kelly McClug (a fellow NY'orker) is showing us how a person would receive a Russian Steam Bath and Melissa Miranda (our Mission Leader) is explaining how to give one.
Here's Sia Chi (probably not spelled right but sounds like it) keeping the grounds nice and trimmed. He's one of the Thai workers here at the MTC (Mission Training Center for those of you who already forgot :) and can speak a little English.

Here's Ying and Pastor Phamor giving a lecture for some class I'm sure which one. Pastor Phamor was teaching us in English and Ying was translating to Thai. Ying is going to be my groups translator when we go out to the villages again. This is a good thing because she speaks English well and makes great Thia food! Pastor Phamor is an awesome guy. He's done so much for us and has so much life in him. I think he's in his 60's but has the energy of a 30 year old LOL! He lets us come to his house (a 15min walk) to use the internet and just chill. He's very on fire for the Lord!

Here's a shot of the Boys Dorm- the place were I dream at night :)

Always Catching Up :)

So I'm sorry that I left you all hanging for more pictures and info on what has been going on here. We were split up and sent out to Hmong Villages up until today!(Hmong is pronounced Mong) and I wasn't able to explain what was about to happen before we left. So let me catch you all up to date and then I'll post some more pictures. So the two groups were all sent out about two weeks ago to two separate mountainous Hmong villages to share with the churches all the knowledge we learned during our intense Medical Mission Training...feww thats a lot of 2's LOL! Let me give you a little run down of the schedule of a typical day. 5am- Group worship, 5:45am- exercise or kitchen duty, 7am- breakfast, 9am- Leave to visit other villages, 1pm- lunch at village, 3pm- continue to visit and give health treatments (massage, hydro-therapy, etc...), 5pm- Go back to Main Village, 7pm- Eat supper (usually fruit or rice- something light), 8pm- Evening meeting (we usually shared a part of the 8 laws of health and then a Bible study) , 9pm- get ready for bed, 10pm- lights out, 7 hours later- Do it all over again! Needless to say we had quite the packed day :) We are now back at our original Home Base and are recuperating before we are sent out again but this time to farther villages and in three smaller groups. We'll probably be leaving in about 2 or 3 days so please to continue to pray for our health and mental well-being :) Until then I'll try my best to post pictures and video of the past month. I miss you guys and love to read the comments you all post, so keep them coming. I feel more connected to you guys when I hear from you :) Oh yeah the second week out the other group met up with us at the village I was staying at, so that was a blessing :)