surprise!

41 and counting…

so we are sitting on an airplane right now and have been up for 41 hours so far with about 12 more to go! well, we have had a nap or two for an hour or so. we are on yet another adventure… this one all began about 10 days ago as we were seeking god about where to go next. we were in malaysia at the time. our plan was to be "tourists" for the month of august and head back to life impact in thailand for the month of september. so here we were throwing ideas around… vietnam, laos, cambodia, etc. however nothing was sitting well. out of no where we had the idea of going back to thailand and being with life impact until we felt more sure of where to go. we instantly felt peace about this decision and both felt god had just spoke that to both of us. what peace!
we hopped on a boat and headed north about 12 hours later. over the next few days we started to feel god calling us "home" and that he was calling us back to life impact right away so we could say our good-byes. we had NO IDEA that this was his plan and it sure wasn't ours. but again, that peace came back when we were making the decision to go home. the bible says that it is a "peace that surpasses all understanding." total freedom thats for sure.
just a side note… during this time back with life impact god continued to speak huge to us about just what he is preparing us for as we go back home and it is so exciting we can barely contain ourselves. he had us up till 4 in the morning giving us vision. our god is alive and speaks! anyways more on that later with another posting!
so we began the process to try to get home which was another thing that we had to lay at god's feet and trust that he would iron out the details because all the flights were full until august 31. this date would be too late to accomplish some of what we wanted to be home for… anyways god came through more than we can imagine and all of a sudden we are on buses and planes and trains back to good ol california!
and to top it all off… we haven't told a soul back home so it's gonna be surprises all around! we can't wait to see you all!!!!!
love you guys!

if his grace is an ocean we are all sinking

malaysia

after our friends flew out of indonesia back to the states we headed to malaysia... we stayed for a few days in kuala lumpur and did some city tour stuff while trying to figure out some more travel plans. one place we spent some serious time at was the mall where we found free internet... how people figured out traveling before the internet is beyond me! this mall was absolutely huge... 12 or 13 floors. complete with an amusement park, bowling alley, and a pool hall. below is a picture of the elevators in the mall.
we decided on heading to langkawi, malaysia for a little r+r together. langkawi is an island on the west side of malaysia on the indian ocean. it was absolutely beautiful. after a few days we began a long journey back to thailand by ferry, bus, train, and bus again. about 36 hours of travel later we were back in thailand and back with life impact! so here we are... for now at least. reconnecting with people here and seeing where to head to next... always an adventure. thank god for the internet!

our last boat trip posting... promise!

this sweet video is of matt jumping off the rock cliff at about 60 ft. okay, just kidding, he's in the boat wearing the goofy hat, wishing he could jump but realizing that at age 27 and with broken bones, all you can do is sport awesome hats. these guys were crazy but it was awesome to see them from the dingy. check out the water in the second picture. it was absolutely beautiful. third pic is of our entire team. def. a trip of a lifetime, even if we were too old to jump! :)

Gili Island

out of all the islands we visited, Gili was our favorite! its so tiny and there are no cars or motorbikes anywhere on the island. people travel by walking (which we did and took us an hour and a half to get around the entire thing!) and also by bicycle and horse and carriage! (pictured below) there are no roads, just dirt paths everywhere. they live a very simple life which of course matt and I were attracted to right away. then we realized how small the island really was and decided that after about a month or so, we would probably have a sever case of island fever. so rest assured, we are still planning on coming home! :)
the second picture is us and some local kids who we gave bibles too. third pic is of one of our boat man named Putu. we begged him to climb the coconut tree so he did. i'm still amazed how fast he got up and down that thing... and how high he was. i don't think american bodies can even move like that. :) there was one attempt made by crazy carl who got his name for obvious reasons, and he made it like 10 feet but then couldn't get down and ended up jumping! we learned two things: first, the trick is to keep your body away from the tree and second, it's a lot harder than Putu makes it look! the last picture is of us walking around the island.

village on lombok

we passed out these books throughout the month of july with surfing the nations. they are the bible in comic book form and written in indonesian. it's a pretty cool way that surfing the nations came up with to be able to take it to places where they don't want the bible. we gave these out to people on lombok where it is basically all muslim.
we also gave out clothing and got annihilated by the people wanting to get their hands on our donations. it was quite the experience. below is a picture of a local fisherman from the village we were visiting on lombok. the first picture is us arriving at the village... you can see our boat in the background.

desert point current

this is a video of "crazy carl" jumping off the boat at desert point in lombok. the key here is to not let the current sweep you past the ladder at the back of the boat because, as you can see from carl swimming, it is impossible to swim against the current and get anywhere. we had quite a few cases of our surfers getting swept out to sea while surfing here... luckily fishing boats picked them up. pretty crazy!
this situation among others provoked chris and i to talk about "wisdom vs. wuss." chris is the leader of surfing the nations (the group we have spent the last month with) and is 26 years old. being the "old men" of the group, we kept wondering what happened to our invincible attitudes... you know, the ones that lead us to the hospital on more than one occasion. we were laughing and debating whether we are old and wise and don't ignore the possibilities of stuff going wrong OR if we just became wusses in our old age as we watch all the 18 year olds do everything without looking back. what happened to us? it isn't near as fun!
of course after having this conversation, chris proceeded to go free diving in a cove that we were anchored in. he was determined to catch us dinner... which he did. however, along the way he had a more than a close encounter. he was diving down about 30 feet and then 15 feet into a cave, without air mind you, when he had a shark (the size of him) come around the corner and start right at him while speeding up. he quickly back peddled while keeping his spear aimed at the shark ready to jab at it if it gained anymore. how he didn't lose his breath i will never know. the guy can hold his breath for close to two minutes under water! so anyways, he lived to tell about it and one of the locals was with him and freaking out!

home sweet home

this was home for 7 days as we traveled to different island in indonesia. some of the islands visited were sumbawa, lombok, nusa lembongin, and gili. definitely the highlight of being in indonesia for the both of us.

monkey see monkey do

a loss for words

so after having my body temperature soo high from a fever for a few days i decided it was time to shave my head again... the mop was keeping all heat in. however, there was one minor problem with this... the only clippers we had with us were some beard trimmers that we bought for traveling. these clippers, we discovered after one week of traveling, weren't even sharp enough to trim my face. i know i have thick hair but seriously? anyways, desperate times call for desperate measures! i was going for it. anything to feel better! i started the process and it turned out to be a nightmare. it took about an hour before the clippers broke all together and this was the result i was stuck with! at least it was about 40% cooler right?

cheap has it's limits

matt here...so i got pretty sick in bingin… one of the nights i was sick we were trying to go to bed when a cockroach ran across my head. we proceeded to try and sleep with the light on so no more would come back. unfortunately this brought on the onslaught of mosi's (or skeetters or mosquitoes) because our hut was open at the top to the outside. after dealing with them for a few hours at 2 in the morning we finally decided to kill the light. we were just falling asleep when we heard a giant thud on our bed and we both jumped up and flicked the light on to see a giant rat running across our bed. this was the last straw! feeling like crap and being so tired didn't help the situation. we got up and went and slept out on a cement deck where we hoped the rats and cockroaches would stay away. a long night to say the least. after this we decided to upgrade our room to try and get me out of the elements a little bit to help me get better. just having our own bathroom rather than having to run out of our hut and down some super steep stairs in hopes that one of the two toilets weren't in use every time i had to go. which was often. very often! oh yes so having our own bathroom in our room with real walls was like heaven on earth. it was an unexpected expense but well worth the $10 a night. the picture below is from the room...

gifts in bingin, indonesia

we spent the other day giving out gifts to some of the kids in the village. the picture of kristine is with some kids showing off their new gifts. the picture of matt is with a really sweet grandma we met named leanne. and the last picture is taken at low tide looking back at the beach village where we are staying.

bingin, indonesia

here are a few pictures from the last couple days... this is the view from where we are staying. pretty incredible. the second is of travis (a guy on our team) with some local grandmas that we hung out with and gave clothing to for their families. travis and i have had some awesome conversations and he has been one of the reasons why it has been made clear that god wanted us here with a bunch of surfers. the last picture is of kristine and the leader of the team (who is the oldest besides kristine and i) and the youngest girl on the team. they are 23 and 16! kristine has really been connecting with these girls which is also a total answer to prayer. thank you all for all of your prayers!

indonesia

so we didnt realize we hadn't been able to send our last post that said where we are and what we are doing... so real quick... we are in indonesia now and working with a group called surfing the nations. you can check out their website to see what they are all about by clicking on the link on the right side of our blog. it is pretty funny that we are here in this surfing mecca place working with a surf organization and we don't surf! right before we left thailand to come here we started wondering if it was the best move because it wasn't going to be cheap and we aren't surfers! but then we were reminded about how we felt god calling us here for some reason. so here we are and man god has all ready been using us in a huge way! it has been amazing! wish we could share more right now but time is short. we will try to post more specifics soon!

Bingin

hey everyone! it's so nice to write. we have so many stories and pics and we've only been here for two days, but there is NO WIFI!! i know, i know, it's like, "come on people its 2010!" but seriously, that's how it is with a ton of things here in Indo. so i have to make this short cause internet is hard to find and when we do, it's expensive!! but indo is beautiful. matty's already been surfing once! waves are suppose to get big here, so not sure how that will look. def. out of my league. i was scared to go in just to jump waves cause they are MASSIVE. anyways... the group is smaller now. just ten of us in bingin and matty and i are definitely like the "ma and pa" of the group!! can you believe it? we feel soooooo old. but yeah, we are the oldest by like 8 years or something like that! we were both cracking up and can't believe we are in this situation. it's great though. like i said, so many stories that we can't wait to share with you. thank you for your continued prayers and support! we love you and will really get a chance to catch up in august once we leave indo. xoxo, k

game day on the land

we had a game day on the land that we got to put together for the kids... they had a blast! kristine was in her element running the thing like it was summer camp. lots of games and laughs!

picture of jesus

i was reminded of a song today by ben harper titled "picture of jesus." we were in the middle of a long leg of traveling driving on a bus through thailand with about maybe 100 other people… pretty much all foreigners. we have learned something about foreign travelers… they all smoke. well not all but probably about 90%.
so after a man goes in the toilet on the bus it begins to smell like smoke throughout the bus… pretty potent. so kristine and i put our shirts up over our nose and begin the stages of the normal second hand nicotine headache… naturally. after he comes back and an hour or so goes by he begins to get up again, cigarette in hand, to "use the restroom" again. right away someone jumps up behind us and taps the guy and says "i hope you aren't going in there to smoke." the guy plays dumb and and says he is just using the toilet. well what do you know it smells like smoke again once he goes in. so the guy behind us gets up and confronts him in the bathroom… not angrily but just gently reminds him that there are people on the bus that would rather not smell that and that it is a non smoking bus. the guy had his hands full because the smoker was being confrontational yet he just continued to stick up for the few. maybe it didn't even bother this guy but he saw us with our shirts and cared enough to go and fight the battle for us. he was a true picture of jesus to us that day.

planes, trains, and automobiles

well more like buses, trains, and ferries! it took us about about 30 hours of travel but finally reached an island in thailand called koh samui. it was bittersweet leaving life impact because while we were so exhausted and ready for a little husband and wife time, there was still so much to be doing... not to mention the kids wouldn't let go of us when we were trying to leave! it helped to know that we have plans to be back there in september.
so here we are... living it up on an island and spending $12 a night to stay in a bungalow less than 100 feet from being literally in the ocean. it's amazing! what a great little break to refuel ourselves before we head off to indonesia to team up with another organization for a month or so.

pyramid

perception

we saw another level of poor today as we crossed the border into burma or myanmar if you want to be politically correct i guess. myanmar used to be one of the richest countries in the world and was flourishing according to my understanding. then complete corruption happened. the whole country is now run by the corrupt army. there is no middle class. EVERYONE is poor... extremely poor. it is so bad that the burmese people try to flee and cross the river into thailand (this is the second picture) and stay in refugee camps and villages that have been set up here in thailand. however, the conditions of these are horrific. these refugees have it beyond rough here in thailand yet this is what they choose rather than being in burma. just last night we were told about how the burmese army will shoot into these refugee camps from helicopters to kill them. they try to get them back to burma to plow fields to prepare them for mining the rubies and then they kill them. they view their own people as disposable. the army has so much control that when we went we were only allowed to stay until 5pm because they don't want foreigners there. in fact, as you are walking across the bridge 99% of the time someone will come up to you in normal clothes and try to be real friendly and find out about you and why you are going into burma. these are spies that get paid about $3 a week by the army. compare that to the $5 a month salary a school teacher makes there.
also, just a crazy food for thought. we checked out some of the buddhists temples and discovered where all the money is! there were huge containers filled with money at the feet of each idol. meanwhile the country is starving. the fist picture is an example of this.
so many of the people that life impact is now responsible for come from burma. they are extremely friendly people... even while we went through the town people would shout "hello" to us and smile. yet they are so oppressed. it is all they have ever known. the country has been like this for about 60 years now. let's all remember to pray for burma.

for all you golfers (carolyn) and all you wanna be golfers (larry and rich) :)

my husband swears that I can't multitask... i think this proves him wrong. here i am practicing my golf swing AND mowing the lawn all at the same time!

Benjamin's heart buddy

this is our little buddy david. he was an orphan but now has parents of his very own and a rather large family. :) david has a heart condition and has had multiple surgeries already with more to be done. he went without any oxygen to his brain and i'm not sure if they know fully yet the results from that. he is the happiest little boy ever. in the video i am saying "suwadee krup" which is the way the men say hello in thailand. usually one says this while placing their hands in a prayer position and either bowing their head, or raising their hands up like as high as their nose. david does his own little version... watch carefully, it's quick!! :) he also has his own version of 'raspberries'. he's one special little dude.

emergency shelter

the emergency shelter is one of the projects of life impact... it is a safe home for single mothers to come. the women usually have been through something very traumatic and have found themselves with a baby and no where to go and no means of making money. all the women live here (this building is just like most buildings here where there is a business downstairs and the family lives upstairs) and raise their babies together while they learn how to sew. one of the burmese staff at the children's home knows how to sew very well and she teaches the women. they have been making handbags and we are in the process of finding out the best way to sell them to help fund the shelter. this whole project just started a few weeks before we got here and there are 8 women and babies all ready.
one of the needs they had for the shelter was a small stereo for the women to listen to music while sewing. they also needed a new sewing machine. one of you met that need and the women were so incredibly thankful. in fact, the sewing teacher said after we told her she would be getting a sewing machine, "i so happy, i so happy. i no sleep tonight."

for those looking to give...

for those of you who have been asking how to go about donating, you can do it a few different ways. on the life impact international website it walks you through it if you want. the two easiest ways would be to send money through paypal or send a check to an address in thousand oaks, ca (this is where their office in the states is). here is the link. just click this :)
also, you can specify if you want to buy a particular need on the list and they will use your money specifically for that. also, if you poke around on that website and find the needs list, ignore it. it is outdated... just refer to the one that is here on this blog.

lady boy massage?

hey there! kristine here writing from a local coffee shop that is very similar to starbucks. have my hazelnut "frap" and listening to the Norah Jones they have playing. totally in my element and loving every minute. this place is the one spot that feels like america... it's surreal. matt is getting a half hour massage on his back... well trying to. we have tried twice before to get a massage on just his back but have yet to succeed! lol we try to explain, they shake their heads and say yes, yes, yes, and then start massaging his feet!! it's hilarious. so we had a third attempt yesterday which was probably one of the funniest moments we have had here in thailand. we walk in to the massage place and ask if we can have a massage just on his back and how much it would be. two ladies walk over to us and one answers us in a very deep masculine voice!! matty did so good keeping a straight face, but i'm sure mine told all. it was like i was in shock and couldn't move. matt was still trying to figure out if the lady was going to be the one giving the massage or if the 'lady boy' was going to do it.(a lady boy is a common site here and is a transvestite) well it didn't take long and when the man lady came over and put 'her' hand on matt's back he was like, "i'm outta here!" i was dying. i knew what he was thinking and we were out of there so fast. while cracking up i asked him, "What, you didn't want a massage?" he was like "HECK no!" amazingly his back didn't even hurt anymore...as a matter of fact, he said it had never felt better! LOL :)

most recent needs

hey guys... a lot of people have been asking about how they can help and be a part of this organization that we have teamed up with here in thailand (life impact international). so below you will find their most recent needs list that they have. hopefully this will help those of you that were asking about it to see where the are needs. also, i just want to reassure anyone who is considering giving that this organization is beyond legit and changing lives everyday... literally.

Baby’s Home-7 babies:
Baby Safe Home Play area and mat flooring- $800
Rent for the month-$156
1month supply of wipes- $82
1month supply of diapers-$180
1month supply of formula-$300
1 month’s salary for a care giver (mom)-$125

Emergency Shelter- 4 single at-risk mothers, 1 family
Rent for the month- $218
Play area and mat flooring for the children- $700
Sewing Machine for vocational program/emergency shelter (At-risk woman and young girls)- $150-$325
2 water coolers (for the land and emergency shelter)-$100eachx2= $200
Bicycle- $125

Land-
Chainsaw- $320
Bamboo & Wire for temporary secure fence- $200
Start up repair costs- $3,000

Safe home- 22children
Rent for 1 month- $250
1 month’s salary for a house mother- $125

Cyclone Nargis Orphanage (Burma)- 49 children
Budget for 1 month- $1,500

University Scholarship for poor village students:
Tuition for 6 months- $250, $320, $650 (3 students)

a brilliant idea!

matt here - kristine and i were laughing about how we catch ourselves trying to speak the foreign language we know with the thai and burmese people here. so when we are trying to communicate with them kristine tends to want to speak in spanish because it is foreign to her yet she knows it and i want to use sign language because it is foreign yet i know it. however, this would get us no where with these people! all that to say, we have decided that everyone in the world needs to know sign language! every language has a word for say "ball," yet there would only be one sign for ball no matter what language you "speak." it's brilliant! everyone in the world could communicate so easily! just know your native language and then sign language and you will be communication with everyone. not to mention, i could tell the guys at the land that a i need a tool and not have to search the whole 23 acres for it myself! hahahah

any given day...

kristine here - alot of people have been asking us, "what do you guys do on a daily basis?" it's a good question. there really is no answer because it literally changes day to day. For example, one day we were all at the land and the men were working when we got a call that a mother of two children already with Life Impact had given birth that morning and didn't want her baby. so some of us went yet again to the same Burmese clinic where we got baby long life and were going to see what the situation was. We had just arrived when we got another phone call saying that one of the burmese girls that lives at the children's home but works at the women's shelter teaching them how to sew, got picked up by police and is in jail. so half of us went to the police station to try and get her out. this of course isn't every day, but often at any given moment on any given day, things happen and when they do, they happen fast and sometimes all at once. this is where God's grace and strength come in and all you can do is pray and watch Him work.
updates are: the mom who doesn't want her baby has been a little manipulative. meaning she has called Life Impact there saying she doesn't want her baby, but when they got there, she said she now wants to see her other two daughters. sidenote is she has another daughter that's two. so story goes like this. she was with a man, got pregnant, there was not enough food for them so she started breastfeeding her two daughters and the man got angry she was using "his" baby's milk to feed her other two children so would beat the two little girls. that's why Life Impact has them. Now she has another baby with this man, and he's out of the picture. he's gone to Bangkok and word on the street is that when they leave to go there, they don't come back. So now this mom wants her two little girls to take care of the other two children so she can go "work." A lot of factors play into this situation. first you have mom's history, which probably is a pretty messed up childhood herself and then you have the fact that they are starving and in survival and it's just like, where do you even begin? and how do you help this lady the most? and think of her kids...they are at so much risk. IF they survive past the age of 3, then they have a lifetime of starving, working, raising their younger siblings, stealing until they are old enough and then will either be sold for money, or used as a sex slave to feed their family. it angers me. I have to remind myself that anger will do nothing. compassion and love are the only answers. we can't fix all of their lives here on earth, but we can give them jesus, a gift so great, and they can know that one day, there will be no more pain, no hunger, no evil, no sorrow, no survival... none of that. Jesus can heal them and love them and he is all they need.
the other update about Po Po, that's the girl that was arrested basically cause she is Burmese and beautiful. as we drove there, the driver stopped suddenly and pointed to the ground and there was one of Po Po's shoes all torn up and broken. i felt my heart just tighten. i thought, "no way, it can happen just like that? one random day the police decide to be mean so they take her and can do anything?" yup. that's the way it works for the Burmese. they have no rights. they can't walk in the street alone, they can't ride in a car or on a bike alone, or they will be picked up, thrown in jail, and then deported back to Burma. and this is the life that they choose to have...makes you wonder about the awful things going on in Burma. she sat in the jail for about 2 hours waiting for us and our biggest fear was to get there as fast as we could cause the longer we took the more likely it would be that some police officer or some guy in jail would rape her. I was praying so hard. and again so very angry. if we had gotten there and found out that she had been touched, i was about to kick some serious police butt.(most of them are shorter than me anyways) we got there and she had the biggest smile on her face when she saw us. she told us that she was okay, and no one had touched her. i can't even write this without tearing up. she said, "i no scared, jesus with me. i pray. i no scared." talk about faith. we found out that to get anyone out of prison is about 8000 baht. that's about 240 bucks. after talking a very long time with them, they let her go for free. as we were walking out, one of the police that had picked her up said, "see i have good heart" and pulled out 1000 baht to give her and said, "go buy a new pair of shoes." just disgusting. we were so proud of Po Po cause she wouldn't take it!! the girl has some dignity and won't play into their control games. the other police said he didn't want money, just her phone number, and it's a good thing he said that in Thai (Po Po only knows some Thai). Po Po told us later that as soon as she got put in, there was a man waiting outside that offered to pay her "bail" if she would sleep with him. she said, "i so angry and shouted NO!" but just kept saying how angry she was at him. she's a very strong girl for being about 4ft and 80 lbs. she's smart too. can sew anything, knows english, burmese and thai, and goes to a computer class to learn more. i absolutely love her. the moment we stepped outside of the police station when it was just us, i saw her take a big sigh, and she just held on to Lana (one of the girls) and just said thank you thank you thank you. then she said, "i sorry to waste your time..." and again my heart broke. it was so unbelievable. someone who had gone through all of this, is still thinking about others and their time more than herself. i get cranky if i haven't eaten in six hours cause there is so much to do, and here she is concerned about wasting our time. a very good lesson for me. and quite the experience. I don't know the last time you've been thrown into jail for being cute and american, but maybe next time, when we get so worked up over little things, we can at least be grateful that we don't have to worry about that happening on any given day.

squatty potty

this is the new squatty potty that i (matt) installed out at the land. it is the pink thing in the corner and these are the toilets here in thailand. use your imagination... it's called a "squatty potty." they have a couple buildings at the land as of right now out there and the last week or so we have been working to get those buildings livable so there are people out there at all times. unfortunately some of the brass fittings for the irrigation system on the land have been stolen so they need people living out there for security. we also installed lights on the property and continue to work on the perimeter fence. we are hoping to finish the gate tomorrow!
i have adopted the role of head foreman out at the land which is quite hilarious! first because i don't know anything about construction and second because my fellow workers don't speak my language! it's quite an experience trying to figure things out and then somehow relay it to the workers... but i am mastering the art of charades.
the "real" foreman for the whole construction of the land came out this week and will be moving here with his family in the fall. they are from california and have four kids under 6. we really bonded and he is an amazing guy!

pink is the new black for harleys

exhibit A... the whitey mobile. she's a bute.
this is a morning that we documented the kids with their new school uniforms and backpacks that were donated. you can hear in the background the "morning announcements" that go off every morning at 6am.
exhibit B... kristine. isn't she adorable? :)

to the least of these...

hi everyone! so sorry it's been too long since our last update. it's been crazy busy. i don't really even know where to begin. I guess the biggest news is that i was able to go get some great footage of the muslim slums and also skyblue...sounds like a fancy restaurant right? yeah, it's a dump. probably one of the most shocking scenes i've ever seen in my life. as you can see from the last two pics the people there have actually built their homes on top of the trash and live there so they can be the first to go through it and gather the recycling, food etc. out of it. the sad thing is that they don't do that themselves but make their children do it for them. seeing this dump was heavy for me. to think that the children live there, and this was their home just took my breath away. the smell alone was awful enough. i've never seen, touched or played with kids that were so dirty. one kid i could see his bones prominently in his chest and no exaggeration probably 25-30 flies on him all at once. it's hard to explain the scene and i can't wait to show you more pictures. it was an amazing experience...very heavy. matt hasn't seen it yet, so we will be back. and this time i will be prepared with clothes, food, water and maybe a toy. as we were leaving we literally went through our car and gave them everything we could. scrounged up enough water bottles for each of them to have, and they were estatic. i mean like jumping up and down with the biggest smiles. like we just told them they were going to disneyland. all over a waterbottle. it just baffles me.
the first two pics are of the muslim slum. the lliving conditions here are not much better. multiple people, sometimes even families live in not much bigger than 10x10 space. they have to pay to be there, and are overlooked by the muslims. I could feel the oppression just walking through there. the children were as darling as ever as they always are. broke my heart.

long life update

so long life went to chiang mai for surgery but it turns out the doctors wanted to wait to do the surgery... he is set for june 25th. he is now back here with his caretaker and getting used to having people touch him and hold him and talk to him. he is adjusting really well! please pray for him as you think of it.

everything glorious

yesterday we got to got to be a part of something so heart wrenching yet glorious. the pictures above are of a little boy named po thet say... which translates to "long life" in english. he was conceived 10 months ago... his mother (a burmese lady) did not want him and took an abortion pill to kill him. after 5 months she began contractions and she went to the burmese refugee clinic here to essentially get what she thought was a dead baby out of her. po thet say was born weighing in at less than 2 pounds and alive... a miracle. the mom still wanted nothing to do with him and left him there the very same day at the clinic. this is the clinic that we went to yesterday to pick him up... he has been there ever since. the conditions are pretty bad there and they are understaffed. basically he would get fed when nurses "had the time." otherwise, he would lay on the floor of an office (where we got him) all alone. now 5 months later, it is miracle that he is still alive. he should only be 1 month old if he had stayed in the womb the normal 9 months. this is why the nurses decided to give him his name "long life." even they were astonished.
po thet say is healthy other than not being able to see as of right now. we picked him up yesterday with the idea that as soon as life impact could find a thai care giver to look after him in the hospital in chiang mai, he would go and get eye surgery and should be able to see. the cost of the surgery is about $2000.
so by 2:00 yesterday, there was a new addition to the family here at life impact... long life. and this is a great example of just how this organization works... they see a need and meet that need. giving kids a new life. before yesterday, long life was an premature orphan baby lying on the floor of some office with no one to feed or hold him... he was rejected. and later that day he had new life. a family that would love him. people to hold and feed him. people that wanted him.
we had an opportunity to try to lighten the load here for the staff... long life spent the night with us last night. he will again tonight. but tomorrow...
he is going for eye surgery in chiang mai!!! one of the thai staff here at the children's home is going to chiang mai with him to act as a care giver! yet again, the staff is meeting the need and rearranging to make it work. all the details have yet to be worked out but by monday, long life will have new eyes!

"my eyes are small but they have seen
the beauty of enormous things
which leads me to believe
there's light enough to see that
YOU make everything glorious" - david crowder band

truckin'

bambooyea!

this is a video of some of the work we are doing out at the land that life impact just purchased. in the fall, they are going to begin construction to build homes on the land... this is huge because right now they have 4 different homes throughout town. once buildings are on the land then everyone will be together and they can begin having family style living in small homes. the kids and the staff are sooo excited about this land and they say it is like the "promised land." it has an orchard with fruit to pick, a creek, and a pond. it's beautiful.

perspective

this is a picture of kristine passing out clothing to the kids. every month or so the kids get to trade in their old clothing for new clothing... and when we say "new," they are clothes that might not even pass the goodwill inspection. some have holes, some don't. however, you would think these kids are receiving gold! they are so grateful. the thought doesn't even cross their minds that it isn't brand new or it has a stain. it's all about perspective. for example, we were talking about how we feel so blessed here and how we have conveyed that on this blog... but we didn't even mention the cockroaches we come home to every night, the over 100 degree temperatures, the bugs, the smells, etc. one might wonder how we could think we are blessed but the good far outweighs the bad. we have seen god's faithfulness so much and our perspective is that we are sooo blessed... beyond belief.

An Update in Kristine's Words!

Today we got a little break from the very busy schedule and got to sleep in and relax. It has been awesome. The people here are amazing...especially the children. they are so precious and each of them have this incredible story. God literally has hand picked them to be here. I love them already so much and i've just started to be able to pronounce their names!!! :)
It rained here so its been a little cooler (we are in a little town called Maesot now) but still very humid. the heat is unreal. i've never been so hot in my life. Matt and I usually hate being in a car, and it's so funny cause here the car has AC and so both of us are like, What? a car ride? hallelujah!!" I've never been more grateful for things like AC, water we can drink at any time, more than two places to eat in a whole town...i'm serious, there are two restaurants. it's going to be a long month. :) little things we take for granted that are just convenient for us and they either don't have it, or it takes a lot to get it.
I promised myself that I would keep this light hearted, but I will admit to you that I spent some time this morning in tears. the kids and the hearts of the people here are unreal. there are no words to describe it. I wrote in my journal, just baffled how these people can have so little and yet be so grateful and giving and just full of this incredible joy.
Matt and I bought them a movie, cause every friday/saturday night is movie night, and it resulted in dancing, screams of delight, hugs and a bunch of thank you's. I wanted to buy them 100 more!
I have so many stories to share for those who would like to have a reality check, or their heart broken, or maybe just to see/experience an unreal kind of love... like to hold in your arms, the cutest little girl who was thrown in a passing car by her father in burma cause he knew they wouldn't survive and just wanted to know that his little girl would live... yeah, those kind of stories, just let me know. there are about 30 more...basically one for each child.
It's a bit overwhelming, and the need is so great. Just keep praying for these little ones. Rejoice that they have been rescued and pray for the ones still to come. Pray that God will keep providing safety for them and finances. They just bought this awesome piece of land and will be building on it next year. it has tons of fruit trees and areas for the kids to run around in and the thought is to have them in "houses" where they can build more of a family like environment for them. It's truly a promised land.
I know we seem so far away, but really do think of all our friends and family often. we love you guys and just are so thankful for all your prayers and support!
talk to you so soon!
xoxo, k

home for a while

we are now in a little town on the border of thailand and burma and have met everyone here at life impact international. we have been over whelmed by how blessed we are. god has taken care of us every step of the way above and beyond our expectations. we are spoiled. the people, the kids, the food, the accommodations... it's all been amazing!
we have been getting educated by the girls about the human trafficking here and everything they are doing to fight the problem. what a huge problem! but they are saving one kid at a time out of a life of slavery. every child's story is absolutely heart wrenching... we have to fight back tears each time one of the girls tells us of yet another story of where the child has come from and how god opened up the doors for life impact to save them. this organization (life impact) has a heart of gold. they are doing so so much and we have only seen a sliver of it... and they continue to say that it is only by the grace of god and his desire to free the oppressed that it is all being done.

thailand bball

this is the day

a little taste of chiang mai, thailand

chiang mai!

so minor change in plan... we have spent the last few days in chiang mai and it has been absolutely amazing! we flew in with no problems whatsoever and got through customs and immigration sooo smoothly... no questions at all. to our surprise our ride was a bit late which made it interesting trying to comminicate in a different language. they showed up shortly after and are great great people! they put us up for a few nights here because they had some stuff to get done in town so we have been living it up and doing a few touristy things... it has been so good to do this to get our bearings straight and get some sleep before heading out of town today.
also, to any who are worrying about the current political situation here (larry white!) it is no worries at all.
hey kristine here! have just showered and am dripping sweat already! where to start?? Between tuk tuks (crazy travel carts), chiang mai zoo, ngong (sp? crazy but very sweet tasting fruit, 6 dollar massages, and so much more!! its hard to describe in words how awesome it has been so far. God has been sooooo good. we have experienced no jet lag, which is a miracle in itself and have just been super blessed by the girls here and the people are amazing. matt and i have already fallen in love with the little thai people here...especially the women who are a whole head and shoulder smaller than me! and weigh about 80 pounds! anyways, have to run for now...kop koon ka (thank you) for all the prayers. we have definitely felt them.

are we there yet?

hey guys! well we just got done with our 12 hour flight to taiwan and are waiting a few hours for our next one into thailand... to our surprise we have internet in this airport! so we made the first leg of the journey... kristine slept as well as one could on a plane and matt slept as bad as one could on a plane. this could be due to the fact we had a terminally ill hacker right in front of us, a whaling baby right next to us, and an overmedicated snorer right behind us. luckily the meals were wonderful... wait scratch that. we survived on our snacks that we brought on the plane! needless to say, we are both in a fog!
also, we were talking on the plane and just wanted to let everyone know who gave us money as a wedding present... that money was saved for the last year and a half and it is helping us do this whole trip. thanks so much! what a wedding gift!
next stop... thailand!

small to some and giant for others

well, here it is people. it may be a small step for most these days but it is a giant step for the yt's (that's us... get it? Y...T...)! we have taken the plunge into the world of "social networking." sorry it's not facebook but that would just be over the top! as we embark on this new journey to southeast asia, we felt the need (and have been advised) to somehow keep in touch with y'all. so here we are.
we want to make it clear to everyone that our intentions are not to draw attention to us or build ourselves up. we come humbly. we feel completely blessed.
the only thing we want to build up through this page is the GOD we are serving... it may seem strong to some and we hope you don't write us off as a result. but the truth is that we wouldn't be going on this adventure if it weren't for HIS grace and mercy.
we have been given an opportunity to go somewhere and be a part of what GOD is doing in a place that neither one of us ever really imagined we would go. we are so excited we can barely contain ourselves! the excitement of the all mighty creator of the universe using two nobodies like ourselves... what a feeling!
this journey started last summer when more and more things started pointing us to southeast asia. we continue to not have a plan... other than joining up with a couple organizations and have open hearts and hands. again, this excites us! how could it not?
so we invite you to "comment" on this site and communicate with us... update us, encourage us, share life with us!