Shoe Outreach pictures

Here are a few pictures from two shoe outreaches we did on the Northwest side of Thailand. You can see many more pictures by following this link: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.533011539553.2013110.111200417&type=1&l=4943c7f1b3

5th day

I have been here in Thailand 5 whole days and there are so many thoughts running around my head I feel like I could write a book. I could write about how exciting my life is right now because I feel like I lead the most exciting and rewarding life of anyone in the world now. I could go off on how strange it is hearing so much communication but understanding few if any words. I could start rambling about driving in Thailand and how opposite it is but how it’s not that difficult to get used to. I could tell you about the roads. About how narrow and windy they are. I could write about how taking a 2 track path mountain road to the rice field was exciting to me but how to them it is just another day on the way to work. How parking along this road and walking across the creek and across the rice fields to help thrash, bag, and carry out the rice back to the pickup all along in flip flops was so exciting to me because it is all so new and I’d never imagined I would get to do these things. Or I could try explaining how a cold dip shower is so refreshing and a hard bed is so comfortable. I could tell you about how hard of work it was carrying the 70 kilogram bags of rice along 12 inch wide ridges of the rice fields, across a creek, and up the hill 1.5 kilometers to the pickup. But really what I want to tell you is about the people here. About the God I serve. Why I get so much joy from doing this work He has lain out before me. I want to stress how grateful the people are here. How they do not even realize what a blessing they are. Ps. Tirason, his wife Niwapon, Tundi, and the others that help are completely selfless. They were constantly asking if I was doing good. They kept telling me to rest. The more they wanted me to rest the harder I wanted to work. They give everything they have to provide for children not even their own. Jesus says, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” Mat. 19:14 They are doing right by God and God will bless them beyond their imagination in His Kingdom. Here on earth they are in need for reasons unknown but I believe it is so we have the opportunity to be a part of their good and faithful work. Praise God for this opportunity! I am infused with an energy, a longing, a desire, to help in whatever way I can. God is working in me. Jen, Aon, Ya, and I all felt the same. They all feel this way when they go there. There are no words to describe it. It feels like I have been in the presence of God himself the last two days and I feel like I’m radiating His glory! I feel like laughing, crying, shouting, and jumping for joy all at the same time. Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.” Math 16:24-27 Thank you God for letting me find my life! Let me accomplish great things beyond my wildest dreams for your Kingdom! Humbly yours, -John