Thailand, I love you. Let me count the ways… 1. As soon as we landed we were awestruck just by the size of the airport- an exciting event for one of our first experiences in Asia. 2. We were greeted by Mr. Panya, our wonderful Thai taxi driver who spoke very little English, but smiled a lot. 3. We have not ceased to eat delicious things since our arrival. The fruit at the “Weekend Market” is great, and the curry dishes we’ve tried have been outstanding. Yum. 4. We have the option of hot showers at the facility where we are staying (called the NRTC, the Nancy Ross Training Center, which is part of YWAM Thailand)… FYI we have not had the option of a hot shower since we left Kona, so this feels pretty luxurious. 5. You can get a legit, one-hour Thai massage for 120 Baht- that’s the same as $4 in the US. 6. God has such a heart for the people of this nation. We are thankful to get to see this corner of the world, and we are gaining new understanding about how he loves his people everywhere.

So, come experience Thailand for yourself, and you’ll be counting the ways you love this place!

Tomorrow morning we take a long bus ride to Cambodia. That is where our next team is located. We cannot wait to see them! I don’t even know if I’ll be able to sleep much tonight, because I’m that excited about seeing them. It’s such an incredible feeling to show up in the middle of some crazy place, where we’ve never been before, and be reunited with friends who are really happy to see us! We’ll get to stay with the Cambodia team for a few days, then we’ll come back to Thailand, sleep here one more night, and then fly from Bangkok to visit our next team. It’s such an unbelievable privilege to be trotting the globe, encouraging our friends, and taking part in the ministry they are all doing. We are very, very blessed indeed.

Thanks everyone for your prayers, and your hellos on Facebook. Please pray for us when you think of it! We love you and miss you all. We hope we can come to your corner of the world sometime soon!

Our team has had a great time there so far. They started their time in Bauan, Batangas, where we met them and spent our first three days. Then we travelled with them to Nasugbu, by bus, a couple hours away. Everywhere we went the people were incredibly friendly and eager to meet the “foreigners,” as they called us. Our team is doing a great job in their ministry opportunities, and people are deciding to follow Jesus. It is unreal to get to be a part of all this.

Aside from joining in on the ministry times at churches, schools, and communities, Johnny and I spent one-on-one time with every person on the team. I met with all the girls, and he met with all the guys. It was such a precious time to hear from each of them about how they’ve been doing, the ways they’ve all been growing, and to encourage them to keep doing their best. We really love what we do (Thank you Lord!).

We head to Thailand and Cambodia next…stay tuned for more updates soon! Check out more photos from the Philippines here.

PS. we’re going to get you guys back just when you least expect it!!! Jake Kennedy we love you!

I just uploaded a new album to our photo page! This was Andy Byrd’s 30th birthday celebration down at Old Airport beach here in Kona! We had a low-key get together for him with a bunch of really good friends! Be sure to check out some of these shots!

(Here is a photo of them with their 3 kids, below)

When Johnny started scheduling the guest speakers that we wanted to come teach on the call2all DTS that we are currently leading, we knew immediately that we wanted to bring Jeremy and Molly here to teach in our school. But a few different circumstances seemed to prevent it, so we thought for quite a while that they wouldn’t be able to come.

But, as I’m sure you’ve suspected from the title of this post, they’re here now!

After a while of uncertainty, the Wests arrived in Kona this past Saturday afternoon. It was so exciting to go pick them up at the airport and welcome them back to Kona! They’ll spend part of the week teaching in our school, and part of the week training DTS staff. They are really skilled in the area of developing leaders, so we are looking forward to the opportunity of our DTS staff learning everything they can from these two! Plus, Johnny and I have so much fun with them, so we’ll be taking them to Orange Tree for frozen yogurt and hitting the beach if we get the opportunity! We are so thankful to have this week with them!

These hens will be laying eggs soon enough, and we are looking forward to the farm-fresh-egg-omelets we’ll be enjoying later on. We are also excited to watch each little hen’s personality emerge- wonder who will have the most charisma!? And which will be the best egg-layer?!

Please come by and introduce yourselves to our new friends!

So we had a movie night, complete with banana nut muffins that I basically turned into cupcakes because Johnny requested that I make some cream cheese icing for them. Yum! We propped up our pillows and settled in to enjoy the movie we had heard so many rave reviews about. What was our conclusion?

We loved it!

It is rare that a movie will leave you so inspired. We saw the heart of God in so many aspects of The Blindside. It is based on a true story about a teenager, Michael Oher, who was basically homeless. When given an opportunity to experience a much more promising life, a much more abundant life, and then given some help from people who loved him, Michael succeeded. But the great part is that the Touhy family, the people who took this teeanage kid into their home, admit that their lives were more impacted and changed than Michael’s.

Another thing we loved about this movie was the comedy in it! Seriously, we thought they cast the younger brother, S.J., flawlessly. And Sandra Bullock seemed to effortlessly portray the mom in this story, Leighanne Touhy. If you haven’t seen it, we highly recommend renting it! I won’t tell too many details for those of you who have yet to watch this touching film…but the heart of God that is depicted throughout this family’s story…oh, words just cannot express.

Every Tuesday night we go downtown in Kona to heal the sick, pray for people, share God’s love, and preach the message of the Gospel to the people of Kona. Some nights it’s sweet and easy, some nights it’s hard. Some nights people are welcoming, some nights people scream, swear, shout, or just plain ignore us. Tonight was just another night, but the Lord has been doing things in us this week about breaking through to true faith in him, and killing off all the unbelief in our hearts.

Tonight, four people met Jesus for the first time on the streets of Kona. Four people will never be the same! There is rejoicing in heaven, and there is rejoicing here on earth!

I’m going to bed – but I just had to share that with you all. God is good, revival is coming, and there is a generation rising up like the world has never seen who will be UNASHAMED of the gospel.