Update from AngSila

Hey Team!

I hope all of you in Prince George are enjoying the snow and chilly weather! Believe it or not, I miss winter and all that goes with it! Weather in Thailand is as hot as ever and just to prove it we went to the beach on December 25^th. I trust you all had a joy and rest filled Christmas Holiday!

The Christmas Season in Thailand is a busy one and somewhat of a harvest time for God’s Kingdom. In light of that we have participated in a few outreach efforts in these past weeks.

On December 12 AngSila Church held a Christmas celebration outreach that literally closed the street in front of the building. This is the big event of the year for church and community members; there were door prizes, guest performers, testimonies, music and food for all. Our team was in charge of organizing the children’s performance of the nativity story. We had costumes made for the wisemen, shepherds, angel, and Mary and Joseph by a woman in the community and the children looked amazing. Couple that with Sara’s brilliant beards that she made out of yarn and face masks for the shepherds, the headbands and tails I made for the sheep and horse, and the star attached to a fishing rod that we used to lead the children across the stage and you have the unique and ridiculous show that was our Christmas production.

In the days leading up to the production our team was busy learning a traditional Thai drum dance that we performed for everyone. There was a team of around 12 boys from the community who played Thai drums that they learned to play from a university student in the community named Golf (pronounced Gop) who is studying traditional Thai music. Through all our work with Golf we have had many opportunities to minister to him. Golf believes that there is a God but he is not yet ready to give up his Buddhist beliefs and follow Him, so please pray that he will see the value in doing this and will experience God’s love in such a way that he can’t ignore it.

Since we have been here we have been doing a weekly kids club outreach in a neighborhood near the church that we call Soi 3 Ministry. We bring mats and set up our show on the side of the street and go around and advertise to the children. We teach English and Bible stories and many children, parents, and grandparents come. For Christmas we had an extra special celebration. We made sugar cookies and brought them for the kids to ice and decorate, and we set up a screen and showed an outreach film called MyHope Thailand. The pastor of AngSila church came with us and gave a short message. We were able to get shoeboxes from Operation Christmas Child in AngSila this year and all the children at Soi 3 received one. Because Thailand is a Buddhist country Christmas is not recognized as a holiday so for most of these children and families it was the first time they had heard the story of Jesus’ birth and celebrated the event.

The week before Christmas there was a focused three-day outreach all across Thailand. The outreach was called MyHope Thailand, and it involved Christian families or individuals opening their homes to their non-believing friends, having them over for dinner, sharing their personal testimonies of Christ and showing the MyHope video. In our community we were involved with the outreach by supporting the Thai people in preparation and prayer. Because we can’t speak the language and the presence of a foreigner at the event would only distract, our role was to set up the projector and movie in advance, help with other preparations and pray for the Christians doing the outreach. One evening we spent the night interceding in prayer for a couple (P Go and p Oi) from the church. We felt that it was an evening of significant spiritual battle because as we prayed and P Go and Oi shared, just outside their home and the church where we were praying they were setting up for a large Buddhist ceremony and on a big screen they were showing a movie on the life of Buddha, the soundtrack of which could be heard for many blocks. The man who organized the ceremony is quite vocal against the church in AngSila. He runs a sort of radio in AngSila, which is him sitting in a building down the street speaking anything he wants into a microphone that is broadcasted all over the town. Often he speaks about us as we walk by and speaks out against Christianity as a “foreigner religion”. Please pray against the influence of this man on the people in the community. Another evening MyHope was held at the boys ALH home and the boys invited all their friends from school. We spent the afternoon before the event playing basketball with the boys and helping/learning to cook Thai food for their dinner. It was a fun afternoon. As a result of the outreach 9 people accepted Christ in AngSila. Often people here have no problem accepting Christ, but find it more difficult to commit to coming to church and making changes in their lives; please pray that this will not be a difficult thing for the new believers.

That’s about all I have by the way of an update for now. Please pray that my team will continue learning to love one another and live as a community that reflects Christ. Please pray for me specifically against missing the support of my family and friends at home. Thanks Guys!

Carmen

My address:

Carmen Ricard c/o Karen Sanchez

PO Box 25

Bang Saen, Chonburi

Thailand 20130

*I can be reached at this address throughout the whole time I am in Thailand as the missionaries meet together once a week here and can pick up mail for me and bring it back no matter what city I am in.

News!

Hey Guys!

Please forgive me I know it has been more than a little while since I have written last! I’ll spare you the excuses and start filling you in. For starters..I am now in Thailand with my team! We found out a few weeks into training who our teams were and where we were going. Once the teams were announced TREK training really began to take off. I haven’t ever experienced such a focused time of learning and seeking after God. I was time and again blessed and awed by the way He worked through the lives of TREK leadership, guest speakers, mentors and other TREKkers to teach me and show me things about myself. God also coaxed me to look inward and examine my heart.

A Bit About My Team

My team consists of Thomas VanWart (age 22), Sara Falk (age 21) and David Loewen (age 20), which makes me the youngest (at 19). Thomas is the team leader and is from Hillsboro, Kansas. He is just finishing a four year degree from Tabor Bible College and has quite significant travel and ministry experience. Sara was raised in Peru, where her parents were missionaries for 16 years. She is finishing her degree in cross-cultural Ministry from Bethany Bible College (Saskatchewan) and TREK is her internship. Dave is from Abbotsford and is doing his internship for his third year of Cross-Cultural Ministry as well. He has done TREK before and went to Thailand so is already well versed in the language and culture!

Thailand

Our overall time in Thailand is being split into three different cities. We are working with the MBMSI Missionaries of Team 2000, which consists of three families that have been here for about nine years. The team has since started three church plants in one larger area and we will be circulating among those church plants. We will be spending the first two months in AngSila with Ricky and Karen Sanchez. AngSila is a small fishing village with a quite distinct culture of it’s own. The church here has recently split from the larger and original church plant in Bang Saen. The Life Centre (TLC). Following our two months in AngSila will be two months in Chaochensao with Dave and Lousie Sinclair-Peters, and two months in Bang Saen with Andy and Carmen Owen. Our last few weeks will be spent doing various summer camp projects in the area.

We’re here, but what are we doing?

Our schedule since we have been here has been full and ever-changing. For the first few days the boys and Sara and I split and each took on a household of missionary children. Looking after Connor and Isaac Owen was a delight and a good way to adjust to Thai culture and get over jet-lag. We are now fully moved in to our homes in AngSila. Sara and I live in an apartment about two blocks away from the church. Our room has a small fridge and it’s own bathroom and is overall quite wonderful! The boys live just a few blocks away with a Thai family and are loving it. A lot of our energy since we have been here has gone into language study. We have Thai lessons four times a week. We are also teaching English in AngSila Church to church members and anyone else who wants to learn just as often. Language learning has been known to turn into boisterous and fun times of information exchange where the English-speakers try to figure out the best way to explain English words to Thais, and the Thai-speakers try to figure out the best way to explain Thai words to us North-Americans. There is also a baking class that has been started at the church for women (and men) in the community so last Tuesday Sara and I found ourselves teaching 7 or 8 Thais how to make brownies in the church propane oven! This week I am down on the schedule to teach an aerobics/exercise/dance class at the church to women in the community as well, so pray that all the moves I learned from my mom on sports day in elementary school will come back to me!! Our team is very involved in the weekly events at the church but is also involved with the Abundant Life Homes (ALH) which are orphanages started by the missionaries of Team 2000. There are two homes, one for girls and one for boys, each with a Thai woman living in the house and being a mother to the children. We teach the kids swimming lessons and do one overnight stay a week to give the moms some time off. Needless to say they are eventful evenings!

A Few Sweet Events

This past weekend our team got to spend Friday and Saturday afternoon/evening in a city called Pattaya about an hour and a half drive from where we are. Pattaya is one of the worst cities in the world as far as the sex trade goes and there are a couple ministry organizations set up there to work with prostitutes. Our team joined church members there for an event called Pattaya Praise. It was a weekend long praise and worship concert, part of which was held right downtown in a mall courtyard in the midst of all the nightlife. The boys from the ALH performed some unbelievable breakdancing and the girls performed some traditional Thai dances. The second evening the girls also performed a hiphop routine and Thomas, Dave, Sara and I learned the dance and performed it with them. Our team also had the opportunity to perform a DRIME (Disciples Ready In Mobile Evangelism) routine for the audience that we learned at TREK training. DRIME is a sort of drama/dance set to music that tells an evangelistic story. It was so wicked!

Today was actually a HUGE day for Christians in Thailand as it was the official opening of the Mennonite Brethren Foundation of Thailand. There was a huge celebration service at TLC in which everyone was involved. The Team 2000 missionaries were feeling quite grateful and excited for all that God has done in this nation.

A Few Things to Pray For

Pi Poi – This is my Thai teacher. She is a wonderful woman and is a fairly strict Buddhist. As we get to meet with her four times a week in the church for Thai lessons please pray that God will soften her heart and that we will be willing to allow Him to use us to show her His love and that we’ll get an opportunity to share the Gospel with her. Last night she cooked a wonderful dinner for us and she won’t accept much in the way of payment for Thai lessons so pray that we a shown ways to bless her.

Learning Thai—We are all striving to learn the language. Pray that God gives us ears for the tones and the ability to form all the strange sounds with our mouths. And with 72 characters a good memory would be a prayer request as well.

Thanks/Praise—We have been so well received and welcomed by everyone here and it is truly a blessing. Praise God for the generosity and hospitality of the Thai people and the solid relationships between us that have already begun. Also, there is so much vision and purpose here in Thailand and it is a joy to see the presence of God so strong in such a predominantly Buddhist nation.

Thanks for being patient with me, everyone. I will do my best to give more frequent and brief updates in the future. As always, email/facebook me if you want to know more about something or have any questions. I’d love to hear from you!

Carmen

cricard@pgonline.com

Picture (L to R): Me, Sara, David, Thomas

My First Week of Training

Hello Team!
As of yesterday I completed the first week of training. So much has happened that it is hard to believe I have only been here and known these people for seven days. This week has been mainly focused on giving us lots of opportunities to bond with fellow trekkers. Monday through Thursday we attended seminars that went into more detail about the program and introduced us to all the MBMSI staff we will be working with. On Friday we headed out in rental vans to spend the weekend in Whistler. The idea behind that was to give us a change of environment and a chance to get to know one another better. We had a photo scavenger hunt in the village on Friday and on Saturday six of us went on a 16km hike! The hike was beautiful. We crossed many waterfalls and streams throughout the whole thing. In the evenings we spent time sharing our testimonies and the stories of how we came to the TREK program. The first few days were a little awkward getting to know everyone, but after this weekend I feel much more comfortable.
The upcoming week.
I am super excited for the week that is coming up as the theme is “Hearing God's Voice”. Hearing God's voice is not something that I am too familiar with so I'm excited to hear what the Bible says on the subject and how other people think and feel about it. Please pray this week that as people share and I learn from their experiences and the Biblical truths they present, that I will be able to grasp what I am learning and apply it to my life. I don't want to hear each message and just understand it without allowing it to change my thoughts and actions. I've also been feeling extra tired lately (I've been taking evening naps!), so please pray that I will be able to sleep and feel rested when I wake up. Thanks Guys!
Carmen

Ps: I also discovered I have the skills to attach pictures, so here's one of my small group (LtoR: Me, Cheryl, Nathan, David) during the photo scavenger hunt in Whistler.

Hello Friends and Family!

As many of you already know I am currently in Abbotsford, BC and will be spending the next 10 months doing a short term missons program with the Mennonite Brethren Mission Service International (MBMSI), called TREK (www.mbmsi.org/trek/overview). I've decided to start a blog to keep everyone updated on what I'm doing and how they can be a part of my ministry.

Getting to TREK
In August of 2008 I went with a team of 10 from Westwood Church on a short term mission to Thailand. It was my first time out of North America and quite an eye-opening experience for me. While we were there we had a chance to work in both an urban church plant and an even newer church plant in a rural area (near lots of rice and fish farms!). I had never experienced third world conditions or seen missionaries work in a country where Christians are persecuted. I loved getting to know some of the people there and being a part of the ministry that was happening. While I was there I heard from one of the MBMSI missionaries we were working with about a program called TREK. That was the first time that the idea of doing a longer mission occured to me. Over the next year as I attended school at UNBC, TREK was in the back of my mind as something I would like to do in the future. This summer, as I was working as a volunteer at Ness Lake Bible Camp, I revisted the idea of doing the TREK program and tackled my reservations about going. I decided that it was something I wanted to do, and my reasons for not applying were insignificant. I applied midway though August and received an acception letter a few days later. As I started making my plans known and talking it over with people I trust, I began to realize that I was being called by God to go on this TREK mission.

In Abbotsford
So here I am, in Abbotsford, starting the 8 week training phase of TREK. I'm currently living in the Mark Centre (www.markcentre.org) with thirteen other TREKkers. We will all be training here together until November 6, and then we will be split into teams of four or five and sent to Thailand, Mexico or Ukraine for 7.5 months. (We find out our team members and assignment locations just over a week from now.) After our assignment phase we will return to the Mark Centre for a two week debrief. The training portion is geared towards strengthening our personal relationship with God, our relationship with other believers, and our relationship with other people groups in the world. We participate in all sorts of activites like group bible studies, bible memorization, personal quiet times and silent retreats, work duties, worship times, book studies and guest lectures and will cover topics like hearing God's voice, personal holiness, team/church building, evangelism, spiritual authority, cross-cultural training, and other practical mission-field preparation. The MBMSI mission is to see “holistic church planting that transforms communities among the least reached”, and while we are on TREK we will adopt this mission as well as the TREK mission of becoming “disciples who make disciples”. On the assignment portion of our program we will come alongside full-time MBMSI missionaries and help with church planting, teaching English, running kids programs, serving in orphanges etc. We also have reflection papers that we are required to write and send in to TREK leadership throughout the assignment phase.

Want to Join Me?
I would love it if you became a part of my journey through TREK and the ministry that I will be involved in. There are a few ways you can do this. First, there is no doubting the fact that I will need prayer support throughout my time in training and on assignment. I will be faced with many challenges in the field and in training and continual prayer that I will trust God with my life and actions, listen and obey his commands in my life and overcome obstacles would be greatly appreciated. Also, you can support this ministry throught the giving of your resources. The cost of TREK is $9500 for the ten months. I'm looking for about 20 people who will pledge $50 a month from September to June. If you are finacially able and willing to contribute you can send me an email with your mailing address and I will mail you a support form, or you can visit the MBMSI website at www.mbmsi.org and donate online. (My participant ID is 997539 and my project code is C7731). If you'd like to make a one time contribution you can phone the MBMSI office or just send a cheque in the mail to the MBMSI office with my name, project code, and participant ID on a separate sheet of paper. (All donations are tax deductible.) Finally, your words of encouragment and updates on what is going on in your life while I am on assignment will mean all the difference to me. Send me a message via facebook, email, or simply by post, on what you are doing and how I can pray for you! If you would like to receive newsletter updates in the mail, again send me an email with your address and I will see to it that that happens!

Thank you for being a part of my life and this new ministry opportunity! Feel free to email me any questions you may have.

Sincerely,
Carmen Ricard
cricard@pgonline.com

MBMS International
302-32025 George Ferguson Way
Abbotsford, BC V2T 2K7
CANADA