Friday, September 11, 2009

Two years already!

Wow! We can't believe we've just celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary! We are blown away that we get to be celebrating it in such an incredible place, surrounded by so much beauty....We are so blessed! We are planning on taking a day off this weekend to formally celebrate, since we have both been very busy this week.

Tonight is my (Liz) last teaching in the township. I finish tonight and then head back tomorrow to Muizenberg to stay with Brian until we leave for outreach in Thailand in 2 weeks. We felt that it would be good for me to be with the DTS team for the next 2 weeks to continue bonding with them and be in on the preparation time for Thailand. I am mixed with emotions as I realize that my time here with the Titus Project (the teaching team I have been working with) is coming to a close. It is a new thing for me to be in this transition of moving from one outreach team here in South Africa to another team heading to Thailand, with very different people, culture, and ministry opportunities... However, I have great anticipation and excitement for what lies ahead. I already feel my heart growing for the Thai people and for the opportunity to work along side them.

Once again, thank you for your words of encouragement and prayers! we love you all!

Friday, September 4, 2009

More on Thailand

I just wanted to post a brief update to let you all know how things are going, especially as it relates to our outreach in Thailand.

Both my DTS and Liz's Titus program are continuing to be amazing experiences! It's hard to believe that I only have 3 more weeks in my lecture phase, which makes it just as hard to believe that we've almost been in South Africa for 3 months! Time certainly has flown by! Liz will finish Titus on September 12th and then have some down time prior to Thailand - which I know she will need considering how busy her program has kept her. It has been a huge blessing getting to spend a few weekends in the townships with Liz and being able to see her preach and teach.

As for Thailand...we've made some progress towards some of the specifics of our outreach. Right now it looks like we'll be flying from Cape Town to Bangkok on the 27th of September and returning to Cape Town somewhere around November 28th. When we arrive in Bangkok we will initally be staying at the YWAM base in Bangkok to receive an orientation on Thailand and its culture and people. We will stay in Bangkok for 3 weeks. After that we will travel north to Chiang Mai, which takes about 11-12 hours by bus (curious to see what kind of bus we're talking about!). We will be in this region for 6 weeks and are still working out the details of what we will be doing there but I believe for part of that time we will be staying in some of the hill tribe villages. This is also an area that is a primary source for human trafficking so we could be doing some work to help combat that problem. We will update the blog as we learn more. Anyway, class is about to start so gotta run but as always, our love to you all and thanks for keeping us in your prayers! Love, Brian & Liz