Where you lead me I will follow

April Update

2009-04-27T07:45:00.000-07:00

Hey guys. This last month in Thailand has been awesome. It's now hot season and its really... hot. It can get up into the 40’s but it feels like the high 40’s. We are lucky if it gets below 30 at night time.
What better way to enter the hot season with the worlds biggest water fight, Son Kran. The holiday comes from Thai tradition. Each year families get together to pay respects to the elderly by pouring water on there hands. If you look at some of my pictures you can check out how that looks. Well what I think must have happened was an old lady must of taken the kids water and dumped it on them and then started a big water fight. Out of this, we now have the worlds biggest annual water fight. Here in Bangsaen which is a very good spot for Son Kran , we had water fights for one week straight. The traffic was unbelievable. I cannot even explain to you how crazy it is, it is definitely the best holiday I have been apart of. This main road outside our church is packed for miles down, and everyone is in trucks throwing water at people and dancing. Thai people dancing are very funny to watch I am sorry for not getting a video but it is quite amusing. Although most of them are very drunk, which would explain most of it. As well people would run around smearing this white clay substance all over your face. I do not know exactly where this comes from I just figure it is just an excuse to touch people. One funny story from Son Kran. Monks are absolutely off limits to hit with water, usually. As this Song Taow was driving by, which is like a bus but in a truck form, we through water at it obviously because Son Taows are fun to hit because everyone is dry. That and open windows. Well there was a female monk in there and we didn’t realize until I looked and saw her very angry. Don’t hit monks not good, unless it’s an accident or pretend it is. During the nighttime there were concerts down at the beach. We saw, Thaitanium, which is a Thai rap group. Got to meet them actually after there show, talked to them briefly. We also saw Potatoe, you have to say that with a rising tone or else it doesn’t make scence. Just say it very enthusiastically. This was fun rocking out to songs that I had no idea what they were saying. Son Kran was awesome, loved it.
Another thing you should all know was we had visa troubles again. Although that is all solved now because we flew to Malaysia on Tuesday to extend our Visas so we can stay in Thailand for the next month of our time. I have received some messages of people wondering what is going on in Thailand. To be honest it is played up, I feel anyway. There was a state of emergency, but that was more less for the politicians. They are not going after people or anything. There was a confrontation with the army and the army did open fire and there were 3 people I believe that were killed. It’s not that bad though, I live 45 minutes outside of Bangkok so in no way am I affected by it and I was in Bangkok during some of the protesting and it wasn’t that bad. If you are planning on traveling to Thailand, don’t worry you will be fine. As well I don’t know if I mentioned this in my last message but 10 people were baptized in Cachengsao 3 weeks ago. If you want to check my video’s and pictures I have them posted up. Praise God for this. This community is being transformed. I really want to see neighborhoods transformed like this in Vancouver.

One more month for my time in Thailand. I may be writing you guys when I am back in Canada. This has been an amazing journey and I am sad to see it come to an end here. I have really come to love it here and I feel it may be a bit weird going back into our culture. God has taught me so much in these past 9 months. Dave asked the question, “In this time in Thailand, what has been the biggest result of it?” My answer is simple, I feel like my relationship has deepened with Jesus. Some of you may hear this and go, “Yah, easy for you to say you have been on missions in these last 7 months.” Just so everyone knows, something I learned being here, and Kenzi said this as well. I learned Missionaries have lives. It is actually no different than being at home. Not to mention Thailand is only 2.5 % Christian, but growing, praise God. My relationship has deepened to the point where my love for God is wanting to move out in action. My whole life as a Christian I constantly have people telling me, “ you need to read your bible, pray, tell people about Jesus, and serve him.” Obviously those things are true and it takes discipline. I am at the point though that nothing else matters than God. My love for Him is so deep that I want to serve him, I want to pray, I want to read my bible, I want to obey him and I want to tell others about him. This is coming out in a love for him. I don’t want to waste my life; I want to use it to bring glory to God. I do agree that we need to set disciplines for ourselves. But I think there is a point where this needs to be real and we actually want to do it. You do not need to go on a special program for this to happen. A great testimony is my buddy Kevin Johnston. I am so thankful that God has put a guy like him in my life. That guy is going hard for the Lord out of love for God. He did nothing this year other than reading his bible and listening to sermons. His love for God is unreal. The bible is going to answer why this happens, why this love for God outflows in our life. It all comes down to the holy spirit. He is the one who changes our hearts. 1 Though because of sin, our love and worship for God is damaged. We are likely wanting to love people, things, and experiences rather than God. A lot of people like to worship things as though it is a god. We like to poor ourselves out in praise and action to demons, people, things and experiences that we love in place of God.

God created a plan to free us from this false worship and join us in a reconciled loving relationship. God planned from the beginning to send His son Jesus or Immanuel “God with us in flesh”. That was the plan that we know of from Genesis 3 when Jesus was prophesied. Jesus Christ, God in flesh lived a perfect life as an example of our life of love for God and others. He died on the cross in place of us sinners and then three days later rose again to bring us a new life so that God the spirit would indwell in lost sinners, regenerating us and sealing us as Gods possession.
Romans 5:5 “Gods love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
In John 21 Jesus asks Peter 3 times do you love me. Peter kept replying yes Jesus of course. But do you really love me, I mean just last week you denied me three times, so again are you sure you love me. We need to ask this to ourselves as well. Do you really love Jesus? Is this love being shown through your actions? Can people tell you have been changed by the gospel?
John 13:35 Jesus said, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” There is this phenomenal article written by times magazine that you must read. I will post the link at the bottom. This known Atheist said in Time magazine and I quote, “ As an Atheist I truly believe Africa needs God.” He is not referring to Islam or anything like that. If you read the article he is talking about Christianity aka Jesus. This article blows my mind. THE GOSPEL IS CHANGING LIVES! Jesus is healing the sick! Jesus is freeing people from there sin! This thing is real! We cannot waste our lives. We must live missional lives in our communities. What are we waiting for? If you love God let this outpour through your life. People need to know about this Jesus. People are clueless; they have no idea what kind of God this is. I talked to some friends from the gym today; she thought Buddhism and Christianity was the same. I had to explain to her, MAI CHAI, aka NO there different. Buddhism you make merit, Christianity is you have faith and through that faith your heart is changed, your mind is changed to want to do the work of God. We are not based on a work system; if we were I would be going to straight to hell with no hope. Lets move towards Jesus. You must be getting spiritually fed. Please, please, if you are not involved in a local church, or a community group, get connected. We need to feed ourselves daily and we need to fellowship with other believers. We need to here preaching and we need to worship God. We need to be constantly reminded of the truth. Here is a great definition from a Pastor in Seattle, Mark Driscoll, he wrote a book called Vintage Church,
“The local church is a community of regenerated believers who confess Jesus Christ as Lord. In obedience to Scripture they organize under qualified leadership, gather regularly for preaching and worship, observe the biblical sacraments of baptism and communion, are unified by the spirit, are disciplined for holiness, and scatter to fulfill the Great Commandment and the Great Commission as missionaries to the world for God’s glory and their joy.”
This starts in the church and then we scatter into our neighborhoods and share this great joy! I know to many people who have so much pride in there hearts that they wont submit to Godly authority in the church. This needs to be prayed about and repented of. There are Godly saturated biblical churches out there but people keep making excuses on not to go. Please get connected. Be a member, submit to Godly authority, go get fed through preaching and worship and join a community group, a bible study and be fed. You get fed and you take that passion and love for God into your neighborhoods.
Do we truly love God? Have we been transformed by the spirit through the death and resurrection of Jesus and sealed in his possession. If so our lives will reflect the love of Jesus. Our love will show towards God and others.

Josh

1. Vintage Church-Mark Driscoll
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/matthew_parris/article5400568.ece

March 30 Update

2009-03-30T00:28:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone it has been a while it feels like. A lot has happened since I last messaged you. We had our team retreat. It was a great time to rest and have fun. Luke Haidle our TREK leader and his wife Joanne came to visit us and follow up for a week. It was a great time to just draw near to God and have almost no schedule. Snorkeling was amazing. A beautiful place called Koh Samet. Nice beaches and we went rented motor bikes and rid them in a thunderstorm which was fun. Luke is an awesome guy, very intelligent and really funny. As well the MEI team came for 2 weeks. They are a school from Abbotsford. That was fun having them here. Although we didn't get to spend to much time with them as our retreat and going to Chachengsao interfered. The MEI team did a VBS in Bangsaen where TLC is and in the north where the Kumu are. Now our team is living in Chachengsao. We moved here last saturday. God has really put something on my heart to share with all of you. I am not sure exactly how it is going to come out because I do not make rough drafts for this thing as I am sure a lot of you can tell with my terrible spelling. Last week we lived in a camp site in the boonies of Chachengsao. It is a poor area but it was a beautiful place. Watching lightning storms in the distance everyday got me. Wow unreal since I am from the city of Vancouver we don’t see lightning storms to much. We had two VBS’s. One at the camp site where we were living. Now this place is a dark place I would almost call it. There is a lot of spiritual stuff that goes on there. In fact we talked to one guy one time who tried to intimidate us with his evil spirits. We wouldn’t have any of that because our God has authority over all spirits,

Colossians 2:13-15 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Therefore instead of running away afraid we shared the gospel with this man. Every year they have a big spiritual ceremony where they cast evil spirits in to people and it gives them power. Some of you after hearing that may go, “Hear we go with the spirits, freak.” Well just so you all know they do exist, infact I have witnessed them, not to mention we are told in the bible. So this place is a very hard place to come into. There was once a cell group of “believers” but a lot of them fell away accept Pi gai and Pi Gal. They have two sons and they have been believers for 7 years. I have tons of respect for this family. They work hard. They wake up every morning at 1 am to work. Pi gai is a very good husband from what I have seen, praise God because you don’t see that a lot here. You can tell with interactions with other people in this place as well they are not as happy as most Thai people and don’t welcome us in to warmly. There are a few stories that I won’t go into about rumours made up about the christians here. Pretty much were supposedly here here to kidnap there children. Anyways, we had this VBS and it was awesome to see kids come out. We had maybe 20 kids at this VBS. As well we did prayer walks for this place. We are not giving up in this area, Bob and Chris who are the missionaries here go into the school every week, so the gospel is still being layed out there. Another VBS was at Pi Nats neighborhood. Pi’ Nat has just recently moved out to Chachengsao because God has called her there. She is now devoting her whole self to the church in Cachengsao. Pi’Nat is new so she does not know many of the neighbors so through this VBS the parents can get to know her and trust her more. We had about 50 kids come out. We had tons of fun with the kids and some of the parents came out as well. I thought in my mind after this was over, ok we did the VBS’s there over what did this accomplish. Obviously we gave the kids entertainment, told them about Jesus and had fun. But something else I realized is we are reaching out to the neighborhood. We are helping Pi’Nat reach out to her neighborhood. Through this we bring in people get to know them and then we trap them and tell them the gospel. NO, totally joking. In a way I am joking. I am serious about telling them the gospel but please don’t trap them and try to shove it down there throats it doesn’t usually work that way. We are told to love our neighbors and it is good to be in good relationships with them. But we are missionaries in our neighborhoods right? That means you guys reading this as well. Luke 9:6 “And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.” 1 Corinthians 9:16 For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel.  1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.  1 Peter 4:6 For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does. Through those scriptures we are told to preach the gospel and why we are to preach the gospel. We cannot keep this thing to our self, in fact I would say it is a crime to do so. Reach out to your neighborhoods. God has called you to be where you are. I don’t know how that may look like. It may not be VBS’s ok, maybe you have a bunch of grumpy old men who never come out of there caves. You may have to be creative. You are missionaries in your work place. Be a regular in your community. Go to the same coffee shop to get your coffee. Become friends with the workers there. Be a regular at a gym if your into that. Be a regular at whatever because that is where you can start relationships with people and then share the love of Christ with them. Do not be ashamed of the gospel.

Romans 1:16 “ I am not be ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of Christ for the salvation of those who believe.”

God’s waiting for you to act. It may be difficult but the gospel needs to be lived out in our actions and speech. That only works if the gospel has truly transformed you through the Holy Spirit. I have seen this thing almost from scratch. I am seeing God transform lives here; I am seeing God create a church here. All of it is Jesus, this is not any mans doing here. People just obeyed the call showed up here, made relationships in the community, told people the gospel and then the gospel leaked out from there. God has provided greatly. Bethel Church. We now meet every Sunday for fellowship, prayer and hear the word preached. Wednesday we have kids club there and then a prayer meeting following. Every Thursday we have believers in the city come out to study the bible and we have a kids club. We are seeing the gospel transform communities here. Now there is a lot of prayer into what is going to happen next. There is a vision to get a church in the city of Chachengsao. Pray for this, pray that God will give the leaders, Bob, Chris, Pi Nat and Louise wisdom into what to do next. Church’s generally don’t go to far in this city. People have found it very hard. This is a very strong Buddhist city. I am excited to see the future for Chachengsao because the gospel is making a break through. Unfortunately I wont be here to witness it but I am thankful that God has chosen me to be apart of this thing in a small way. God wants to use you as well know that. But do you want to be used by him, you need to step out in faith and just go for it and let the spirit lead you. I am currently living in Chachengsao for another two weeks and I am really excited to see what is to come. This week we will be going on a boat from 8 am to 9 am and going through the canals of chachengsao, praying and worshiping our creator. We will be praying for words of knowledge and wisdom to see what God has next for this city. Praying for the communities and observing and getting acquainted with the city. Next Sunday 10 more people will be baptized here in Chachengsao! Very exciting, I am really excited. We had 7 people baptized in the summer and now we have 10 more! Praise Jesus for this work he is doing. I will take pictures and put them on facebook if you want to check them out. Then we are back in Bangsaen in time for easter and please be in prayer for that because it is a great time for outreach to celebrate together the life of Jesus and his death and resurrection on the cross. After that is Son Kran! So excited for that. Just so you all know it is about 40 degrees now in Thailand. Very hot. Every year on April 13 for a whole week we have a huge water fight. It is the worlds biggest water fight. Two more months for our team here in Thailand, continually to be in prayer for our team. Pray for me as I consider what is next in my life. I feel confident in where God is calling me I am just not clear on how it is going to look for next year. God bless you all, lets keep are heads focused on Jesus Christ and be constantly pursuing him. Josh

March Update

2009-03-15T05:45:00.000-07:00

o a lot has happened this past month. First of all my family and Kevin my friend came to visit. It was awesome seeing them and being able to show them a bit of thai culture. Plus me, Caleb, kevin and Josiah had some fun times. Time flew by though and they are now back in Canada. And then we had Kevin stay with us for 3 weeks, he was pretty much another member of the team for a bit. He got to help us out, plus it was good for me and Caleb to have some more guys around.
I just want to talk about what has happened in the last week. This team of 2 men called DMI came to Thailand. There goal is to teach people like us how to share the gospel with people. This whole week was dedicated to going out and telling people the gospel of Christ. What we did was we went out in teams and shared the gospel with people after being trained. Did God ever do miraculous things. Last week sunday, I got to share my testimony with some of the bboys ( break dancers). After I shared my testimony Bank who is the leader for the break dancing ministry that goes on at TLC shared the gospel with 5 of the kids. Bank has a sweet thing going for him. He is the best break dancer in Chon Buri, he is fricken good. It's kinda crazy. Anyways he has brought in a lot of kids to the church and a lot of them have become christians. Including these 5 kids who Bank unpacked the gospel to.
Monday morning we went out into Angsila. We had about 6 people come to christ there. But, one in particular who I want to talk about. I told you all about this married couple named Oi and Go. They have a daughter who is a christian. We shared the gospel with Pi Go and after and awkward 2 minutes of silents he answer, "Ok, lets do it". Man, this brings so much joy to my heart. We have been praying for this man for so long. We hang out with him all the time and he is an amazing man and I just praise God for saving this man. He also said that now he has to go and get his wife and get her to come to christ. Pray for Pi Oi, I think it is a matter of time before she accepts Christ. Already Pi Go has been reading his bible. He has the desire to want to know more. I love that. If you are a christian you need to be in the word. You can't have real faith if your don't even know what you believe. You need to know who God is, God is revealed to us through his word. Pi Go, want's to know more about what he believes. He want's to know the mystery which is revealed in the scriptures. Praise God. Thank you for your prayers.
Tuesday we went out into the University and invited people to come back to Pi Ghays coffee shop. We ate together and then split up into groups and shared the gospel. We had around 10 people I think come to christ that day.
Wednesday was a huge thrill for me. Me, Aschleigh, Bob and Pi uh oh went to a Burmese factory. We got there Bob said who want's to share the Gospel. When will I ever get the chance to share the gospel to 15 people from Burma, in a factory. I said I wanted to then I shared the gospel. We had me speaking then Uh Oh translating into thai. Then if they didn't understand a word in thai one of the believers from Bethel church translated it into Burmese. It was great we had 2 new people come to christ there.
Altogether God saved about 20 people this last week. Now we have the task to desciple them. The easy part is done, now the hard part is getting them connected to a church and get them growing in there faith. So far we have had some of them come out to church and are already growing closer. Please pray for these people, even if you don't know there names it is ok.
I learned that we need to share the gospel more. I heard a scary statistic the other day. That Vancouver is only 2 % christian. That is scary. I am not 100% if that is true but I heard it from a pastor who said he did research on it. We need to share the gospel a lot more than we do. Learn how to share the gospel as well. Your close friends who aren't christians, explain to them the gospel. Romans 1:16 tells us not to be ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation to those who believe. God is just waiting for us to share with people. Don't think you will offend people because there is nothing more loving you can do than tell someone about what Jesus did and why he did it. If you believe the bible than you believe the unbelievers go to hell. I know some unbelievers are reading this and to you that may be offensive for me to say that. Our sin needs to be punished which is why Jesus died in our place so if we believe we receive that free gift of salvation. People need to hear the gospel. Jesus has saved you, now he want's to use you to share his gospel with others. I would even say it is a crime to keep your faith to yourself. By God's grace you have received to be in relationship with him,We need to go out and bring more people into the kingdom. We must tell others about it. Don't keep this to yourself. If you are a christian when people meet you they should know, yah that is a follower of Jesus. The thing that intrigued Pi Go and Pi Oi was they said, I see a difference in how christians live. It is true as christians we should be living differently. Knowing we didn't do anything but God is the one who is transforming our hearts. If you are a unbeliever and you are reading this I encourage you to go talk to someone who you know is a strong christian and ask them to explain the gospel to you. Remember, to come to God, we don't need to be cleaned up. I know a lot of people who say, well I don't want to change my life, I am not clean enough to come to christ. No one is clean ENOUGH. We are all dirty. Come as you are, let God change and transform your hearts. To the believers who are reading this, tell your friends about Jesus. If you go to school tell them there. In your work places tell them. I promise you, if you step out in faith and share this with them you will see things happen. God is just waiting for you to do it.

February 4

2009-02-05T06:02:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. These last two weeks for me have been great. This week God blessed us a lot by sending us to a place called Ban Kruit. There was a missionary Conference there, with missionaries from Mongolia and China. Our job was to look after there kids while they had meetings. The ages ran from 1-15. I had the older kids which was awesome because we just did fun stuff all day. This place was beautiful, I really got to sit in God's beautiful creation. We stayed at a place on the beach and the ocean was so nice. The first night we were there we all went into the ocean in the middle of the night where there were 7 foot waves crashing over us. Well I was suppose to be body surfing but I pretty much just got rocked. Caleb was actually bleeding from the head because he got turned up and smashed on the ocean ground. It was awesome. Any way's long story short the week was phenomenal and we really blessed these missionaries. As we blessed them they blessed us, it was great.
I want to talk about 3 people that are unbelievers rite now. I say rite now because I believe that is going to change. Our cell group at Pi Ghays coffee shop has been going very well. One guy named Mick is very close to accepting christ. Unlike people in North America, in other countries becoming a christian is a huge deal with the family. Here is his dilemma. His family is Buddhist and in some buddhist beliefs the parent's believe that if there son becomes a monk for a week or two they will have a better chance at making heaven. Now they never truly know if they will make it, they just try to do good and hope for the best. Mick is an awesome guy and he takes this very seriously as we all should because it is our salvation we are talking about. He love's his mom and does not want to disappoint her. Be praying for him because he has big decisions to make. The holy spirit is definitely working in him because he is asking a lot of questions and I think the only thing holding him back is his mom.
The other two people are Pi Go and Pi Oi. They are a married couple and have a beautiful daughter who is a christian. God is working in both of there hearts because they have been asking a lot of questions as well. Caleb had an hour and a half conversation about God with Pi Oi last week and I believe she is very close to accepting Christ. She comes to church and coming to church is probably the worse hobby to do if you don't actually care about what is being taught there. I don't know why any person on there own will would come to church for fun. No, I believe the holy spirit is working in her heart. Now Pi Go her husband has just recently been intrigued by Jesus. He has tried praying and he has been asking questions as well. It is very evident that God is working in there lives, please pray for them. I am really excited for these three. We have been hanging out with Pi Go and Pi Oi quite a bit, they are so much fun, in fact in about 1 hour we are going to the beach to barbeque some shrimp and eat sticky rice, should be good.
God's grace is so amazing isn't it. That He would intervene in our lives and lead us on the right direction. I know that's what happened to me. I was headed down a very dark road if I had continued what I was doing. Jesus had other things planned for me, I didn't choose this, He chose me and as I try to grasp that I fall in complete awe. I don't deserve his grace at all. As you know I have been reading through Hebrews and I am in this section that repeats itself a lot. I encourage you guy's to read through Hebrews if you haven't, it goes through the old testament and how God fulfilled everything through Jesus Christ. In these verses that I am going to write, it is taken from Isaiah and it is prophesying the coming of Jesus and of the New Covenant.
Hebrews 8:10b-12
10. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws into there minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
11. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord' for they shall all know me. from the least of them to the greatest. 12. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more."
Man I love these three verses. Back in the old testament people would rite the law everywhere. On there foreheads, in there house, on there gates etc. Everywhere. But this new covenant through Jesus Christ, he will write it on our hearts and our minds. So my desires were never for God. I never use to want to read my bible, go to church or tell people about Jesus. But God changed my desires. As we persue him and develop our relationship with the living God he will transform our hearts and mind. This thing starts to shape together. It is not about religion about trying to do this and that. It simply will not work. In fact in Hebrews 9:26B says "But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself."
He did it all. IT IS FINISHED. There is nothing we can bring to him, our good works he doesn't need it. He has appeared once and for all. The sin is put away, every sin we commit past, present and future has been forgiven, man, praise Jesus. God will transform our hearts, let's just focus on persuing Jesus first. Verse 11 just simply talks about us as believers telling other people what they need to do to know the Lord. Whether you have been a christian for 20 years and you have a bible degree, went to seminary, you know the Lord just as much as the person who just became a christian. You can know Jesus deeper, you can have more knowledge of him and be in a deeper relationship but you both still know the Lord. Once you accept him you know him, he is not going anywhere. Once you accept christ, he is in you, you know the Lord. They shall all know him from the least of them to the greatest. I heard a really good analogy for verse 12. Think about a baby, I know most of you may not have one but just picture this. A baby takes it's first steps. Before those first steps there were so many fall's. But when the baby takes it's first steps, you rejoice, you get so excited, you just want to show everyone. Sometime's the baby will fall and it will be bloody and there may be tears but when that baby is walking you are so excited. When the baby is walking you don't even remember the falls because you are just so excited that the baby is walking. That is just like our God, we fall so many times but when were walking he is so excited and is rejoicing, in fact, he doesn't even remember the falls! Where do we find something like that, where in this universe can we find something like that. Praise Jesus, if you are a christian this should get you excited and put you in awe of our savior. I want to finish with one more verse for you guys. I could write for ever about Hebrews I would like to but I know most of you have already stopped reading this letter because it is far to long but that is okay.
Hebrews 10:21-22
"And since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22. let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water."
Where do you draw near to God the most? Where is that place where you connect with God the most? What keep's you from drawing near to God? Ask these questions to yourself. Write them down, find those places where you draw near to God. He will transform your heart, HE WILL, trust me. Let's draw near to him guys. Let's draw near to God with a true heart.
I am really excited. Tomorrow my family comes along with my friend Kevin. Pray for there safety as they fly. Continue to pray for Thailand and our team. I am nearing the halfway mark in my time in Thailand which is crazy to me. Time is just flying by. As I am soon to think of my future if you guys could pray for me in that decision. I really want to follow God's plan for my life. My life is his so I want to do what he wants me to do. Pray against any fear or doubt that I am good enough. I meen I know I am not good enough, thats obvious, but trust that God can use me, that God can use a sinner like me to carry out his glory into this world.
God bless you all, keep perusing Jesus
Love you all
Joshua

Jan 14

2009-02-05T06:01:00.000-08:00

Hey, guys. Hope you all had a good christmas and new year. My christmas in Thailand was different. First off there wasn't three feet of snow out side. Christmas was busy, didn't really relax to much. New years was good. A bunch of us from the church started the night off by playing games, one included a massive game of dutch blitz. Later we went to the beach where there were fireworks. I have never been so close to them in my life. This is Thailand so they pretty much shot them rite above my head. One exploded literally like 20 feet away from me. It was awesome though. Two guys from our cell group came out. Mick and Oi. It is so good to see them coming out to church and engaging. The gospel is definitely working in there hearts. Mick has been asking a lot of questions and they both see a big difference in the way we as christians live. Pray for them God is working in there hearts.
January 2nd, we got to go to Bangkok. This was a lot of fun to get away and see more of Thailand. We had the opportunity to check out the grand palace. I have pictures posted of it on my profile if you want to look at them. We were in Bangkok for 4 days. Came back on the 5th.
On the 6th I was off to Chachengsao where the Bethel Church is. We had our normal cell group on wednesday. I will briefly talk about that day than I want to share a story about a guy named Art. We started with the normal kids group. Things went smoothly. Kids were themselves, crazy as usual. These kids can get really crazy trust me. They are little rats, thats what I like to call them, love them though. The adult cell group went well. Not as many people this time but it was really good that there wasn't. The last few weeks there have been so many new people that we haven't been able to go deeper with the other believers. This time Pi Nad had the opportunity to go more in depth. You can have a lot of people attending church but it is nothing if the believers aren’t growing with Jesus. We did have a few new people. Which leads me into my story about art. This is the soul part why I wanted to write an update letter to you guys. This guy Art has a wife and a daughter. He worked in Bangkok at a hotel. Life was alrite for him. I am sure he was just living life, probably never thought about Jesus or wanted to have anything to do with him. Well God took everything away from him. His job, his home and his money. A week ago on new years he ended up at the Mouban (Village). He showed up at Bob and Christine's house on new years. He ended up accepting christ as his savior. Now he wants to go hard for God. He wants his life to be all about him. He wants to live for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I got to talk to him a bit. He speaks pretty good english. His wife and daughter ended up going north to live with the wifes mom until things are sorted out. Well she is now coming down to Chachengsao to come live with her husband. Art told his wife that he has chosen to give his life to Jesus. He told me in his Tinglish. I want her to know the God.
I have been reading through the book of Hebrews. I just read chapter 7. It is comparing Melchizedek to Jesus. Melchizedek was a high priest. I am not going to talk about the whole chapter it would take way to long but I want to talk about how the high priest Melchizdek leads to Jesus Christ. If you know your bible than you will know Jesus is known as the great high priest. What high priest would do is they would hold your life and compare it to the law. And the sins you would commit they would slaughter an animal and send him off. They are human. They sinned and had to sacrifice daily. I want to compare Levitical high priest to Jesus. This is going somewhere which will connect to my story about Art.

Heb. 7:23-24
Levitical High Priest- Many in Number
Jesus the high priest- One

Heb.7:23-24
Levitical High priest- Temporary
Jesus the High priest- Permanent and eternal

Heb.7:26-27
Levitical high priest- Sinners who had to offer sacrifices for their "own sins".
Jesus the high priest- holy, innocent; offers sacrifice only for others.

Heb.7:27
Levitical high priest- Had to sacrifice "daily"
Jesus the high priest- Sacrificed "once for all"

Heb. 7:27, 9:11-14
Levitical high priest-Offered sacrificial animals
Jesus the high priest-"offered up himself"

Levitical high priest-Entered holy places through a man made tent and by means of the blood of goats and calves.
Jesus the high priest- Entered the holy place of the presence of God and by means of his own blood.

Hebrews 7:26-27
" For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. "

Jesus is here. He is alive. He sacrificed once and FOR ALL. Don't believe the lie that you need to clean yourself up before you come to him. He says COME AS YOU ARE. I am so fortunate to live in this time. Just think before Jesus came, people would only hope and wait for him. They knew he was coming in the Old Testament and that is what they were hoping for. Now us, 2000 years later. Jesus has come, he died on a Roman Cross once and for all. We have no need to hope, he did it already.
Hebrews 7:18-19.
"For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 ( FOR THE LAW MADE NOTHING PERFECT); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.''

I have no idea where you guys are at, but maybe for some of you this needs to happen. Maybe God has to take away the things that are important to you for you to draw near to him. Art, he has nothing left. Money failed him. He is in a time of suffering, which can be the grace of God which it is in this situation. The only one who last forever is the God of the universe. The one who invites us all into a personal relationship with him. He doesn't invite us into religion. Religion does nothing good for you. What you need is Jesus. It all about Jesus, its only about Jesus. The law does not making anything perfect and it does not change hearts. The law is holy and we should by the transformation of the holy spirit live by the law but our sinful hearts is going to get in the way. The only thing that will change hearts is Jesus, the holy spirit. Yes I said it the holy spirit, some of you may think he is weird but he is actually God. The law is there to show us how much we need a savior and how messed up we are. He is the one who transforms lives, he will renew your heart. I am not saying because I have Jesus I have it all together. I don’t, I am so far from, it is not even funny. Being a Christian is not having it all together. It is in fact the opposite. It is saying, “ Jesus I don’t have it together, I cannot do this on my own, I am full of sin, I need a Savior because I am wicked.” Some of you may not be able to hear, the bible speaks of that. But for those who can hear rite now, what is it going to be? What other choices do you have? Maybe God has to take away all that is important to you, which is the grace of God if it brings you to him. ART has absolutely nothing! He is living in a place where people in North America would say is unlivable. But you know what? He is in a better spot than say Oprah. Oprah may be one of the riches people in the world but she doesn't have Jesus. God showed him grace, the only option for him was to take everything he has and look, his eyes were opened. Come on guys, I am pleading with you, take your life seriously, think about it. For some of you, maybe something tragic needs to happen in your life. I don't know. But we are invited into a better hope introduced through Jesus Christ, therefore we draw near to him.

Praise the Lord, thank you for your prayers. The Orphange is now under MBMSI foundation. We flew to Malaysia on Sunday got back Tuesday. We received 90 day visas. Continue praying for Thailand, the orphans, Chachengsao, Bethel, the boys Cell group, TLC, Angsila, and our team. Lot’s you can pray for. As well keep praying for language. I have picked up a bit but I would love to know a lot more so I can communicate more with the Thai people.

Love you guys

Josh

Christmas in Thailand

2008-12-28T02:14:00.000-08:00

So it is about to be christmas in Thailand. Much different then home. Rite now it is -9 at home with a foot of snow, while in Thailand it is 34 degrees and I haven't seen rain in about a month. Things are much different. I like to think it is more accurate weather anyways to when Jesus was born anyway, it isn't really suppose to be cold. Truly though I miss the cold and I love sow. Although for Thai people it is really cold. 30 degrees with a breeze is there winter.
These last two weeks have been really busy for us here. We have been doing lots of planning for the christmas out reach. Our first one was in Chachengsow, close to the Bethel Church. The night was a success. We had lots of fun. It was filled with skits, Break dancing, prize auctions, and people hearing the gospel. A little cool story that happened. Pi Ying, one of our friends from TLC church was wishing for this fat boy, she loves fat kids, to win a prize. She promised him that he would win a prize. So why not pray, so she prayed that he would win. She was sitting there when they were handing out the bike saying, 268, 268, and then they called his number. She was really stoked. More excited than the kid. Anyways what happened was on wednesday during the cell group at Bethel, the kids mom took the bike and biked over from her village to the village where Bethel is to the cell group and she accepted christ and became a christian on that day.
The second christmas out reach was on saturday. This was for the kids around Bangsaen. Again as success. A little bit of a gong show actually. There were about 250 kids. It went really well. The Trek team put on a skit. It was a funny skit but it got across the meaning of christmas. Me and Caleb got to teach a bunch of Thai kids "We wish you a Merry Christmas". That was a lot of fun. At first we were doing Rudolph but we quickly realized that was way to hard for them, so quick good change.
The third one happened on Sunday. This was the TLC christmas event. This went again really well. We had about 350 people around there. We had awesome skits. We did our christmas story one again. Me and others did the Everything skit. We had the bboys break dance, and also with some other people including Kenzi they did an awesome dancing skit about Jesus. We sang christmas songs, we gave out prized and shared the gospel. A really fun night.
Being in Thailand for Christmas has been harder than I expected. Two weeks ago I actually found it quite hard. I saw that it was snowing at home plus all the stuff that comes with christmas is happening. Also recently I have been thinking a lot about my future, what am I going to do when I go back. Some of my friends told me Josh just focus on Thailand. Don't worry about your future, God is going to take care of it. My pride got in the way and I kind of shrugged it off. Than in a sermon I was listening to, it was talking about being where you are. I really felt God telling me. Josh be where you are, if your mind is somewhere else you are going to miss all the blessings that I have laid in front of you. Than it dawned on me, for that week I was so focussed on home that I missed the things God has been blessing me with.
This has been good for me, to be away for christmas. If you listen to people talk, including me, just listen, to most people christmas is about family and friends. I am not saying it is a bad thing, I love getting together with my family at christmas, but its not christmas. This is what the Angel said to the shepherds.
Luke 2:10
And the angel said to them "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ[a] the Lord. 12This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
A savior has been born. A savior that saves us from our junk. Christmas is about Jesus being born into this world, so he can eventually pay the ultimate price of being crucified on the cross.

Hebrews 4:14-16
14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,[e] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Jesus had to come in human form. He suffered even more than us. He knows. He understands. He sympathizes. He was tempted in every way. Jesus, of course being born in a manger, the most humblest of places, was born into the world, as God in flesh, to suffer like us and to be put on a roman cross and crucified. So that we may approach his throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need. Jesus is inviting us into something great. The invitation is for all. It is up to you weather or not you want to take that invitation.
Hebrews 4:1
1Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it.

We are invited in the Gods rest. Life is to hard. There is so much crap in this life and God is sitting there with his hand out say, haven't you had enough of this crap, come to me, let me take off your burden, how long will you wait to enter my rest. There is a plea for everyone to enter Gods rest. Do not mistake me saying, if you accept christ, life will be easier. That is a lie, trust me I can proclaim to that. But I will tell you there is more joy, fulfillment and it less lonely. God bless you all in this time. As christmas comes I ask that, for christians out there, as you wake up in the morning and gather around the tree that you first pray. Praise and thank God for this wonderful gift he has given us.
Keep praying. I am learning the power of prayer. Your prayers are being herd. It is amazing to be able to see these prayers being answered. Keep praying for Bethel, TLC and you can also pray for some of the orphans. Few and Peh. They aren't feeling well, they are sick. And when you have HIV it is a battle when you are sick. So pray for them. Gem, the girl I told you about who accepted christ a month ago. Her mother passed away last week. She is feeling lonely and scared at her home. So pray for her that God will comfort her as she sleeps and just for what she is going through rite now. And you can always pray for our team. The last two week have been busy, so these next two weeks should be good. O one last thing. Our Visas. We have a little problem. We can only get 15 day visas in Cambodia. This was recently changed. A couple months ago you could get 1 month visas but now they shortened it to 2 weeks. So, we need a lot of prayer. It is not really in our budget for us to go to cambodia 2 times a month. Our other option is fly to malaysia which is not in our budget either. We trust that God and know God is in control and he will handle this in the way he wants to but please pray.
Thanks everyone, Love you all
Have a good Christmas where ever you are.

Joshua Olsen

Bethel Church

2008-12-28T02:13:00.000-08:00

You know, our God is mighty to save I can tell you that. I have tons I could write about rite now but I just want to focus on the Bethel Church. On wednesday we did our cell group there just like normal. And let me first say in the 3 weeks before this one every week 3 new people have come to christ. First we did kids club. God really broke my heart during that time. It was unexpected. There were these 3 girls that really got me thinking. This one girl just jumping on me, wanting a piggy back, go on my shoulders and cuddle. Always trying to get my attention. And I thought, this girl is looking for a daddy. These kids either have parents that don't want them or they don't have a father. They have rough, rough circumstances. And this girl was looking for a dad. So I gave her the attention because God put this deeply on my heart. It really breaks my heart. You know what though, we have a father. He is the father to the fatherless. He is God. One that will never leave us. One that we can count on.
After the kids club we had the cell group, Which for the first time was at new building that you can see pictures of on my profile. Crazy thing happened. This Burmese woman has connections to this factory. 30 Burmese people came to the cell group! They came to hear the Gospel. Man to see this was unreal. We usually have about 15 adults at the most. This time we had about 40 adults and 40 kids. Pi Nad preached the gospel. At the end when she asked if anyone wants to receive christ, this guy jumps up and says, Yes I do, with a big smile on his face, jumping up and down. Another man comes up and then 1 woman. Again 3 people coming to christ. We prayed, then we ate together. And you know what was amazing, The Old believers and when I say old I mean 3 months. They came together and served these people. It was amazing to see. I pray that when these people receive christ it will be true in there lives. I saw that in there lives on wednesday. Praise God. Keep Praying. Also pray for this sunday. We will be having a christmas outreach event in Chachaensaow. We are expecting around 300-400 people to come, to here the gospel. Pray for the souls of the unbelievers there. They they will be opened and will receive the truth. Every Soul needs a savior. You know, when people become christians here, it is no easy thing. There are huge sacrifices and persecution. I know this 14 year old girl who accepted christ 2 weeks ago, and her grandma beat her for it. People get persecuted in some way all the time here. Whether its getting beaten, rejected, thrown out of the house, put in prison or even the worse being killed in some countries. My prayer for the christians back home, is that they will start taking there salvation more seriously.

Hebrews 4:16 "Let us then draw near to the thrown of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need."

Thailand Update after 1 month

2008-12-01T06:52:00.001-08:00

Wow this month flew by. A little run down for you guys on Thailand. Please be in prayer for this country. As I am sure many of you know from watching the news there have been protestors you have been occupying two of Thailand's biggest airports. They have been shut down for a week now and by the time the protestors leave, when ever that is, it will still take them a week to open the airports again because they have to repair things and check everything. There are two groups. One anti government and one pro government. Thailand has been facing a big economic crisis and there is huge fear that this shutting down of the airports is going to devastate Thailand. The anti-government protestors will not leave the airport until the prime minister steps down. This is called a coup where they try to over run the government. It has been happening for the last 6 months but this is the worst it has gotten. There has been grenades I believe it is something like 6 people killed and over 50 injured some sevearly. Be in prayer for this country because there is a lot more going on as well not just what is happening with the air ports. That is just a little bit of what is happening, if you want to know more just look it up on google.

It has been two weeks since I have written and man a lot of things have happened. A cool little story that you can praise God for is, me and Caleb have been praying that we will meet some guys. There are a lot of girls here and a strong lack of girls especially in the church. Well God answered that prayer. I want to tell you about this little coffee shop that is in the middle of these dormitorys for the University. This women from the church here opened this coffee shop. It is a long story on how she got it but it was truly from God. Anyways she rents this building and it has a spirit house rite by it as well. The owner of the building has kept it there. It is a pretty famous idol because someone won 10 million baht by praying to this idol. So a lot of people come to this idol to pray and there this woman named Pi Ghay is there with her bible, praying. It is just a total light in a dark place kind of thing, it is awesome what she has going on there. Anyways we went there for coffee and she told us about these 6 people who want to hear about Jesus, who he is, what he is about. Nothing to big but just want to know a bit about the gospel. Which is amazing. And we asked her, well are any of them guys, she said yah they all are. So praise God for that, nothing wrong with girls but I need a few more guys around me. I believe the spirit will move in there hearts when they hear it and please pray for there souls that there hearts will be open and that something will trigger in the soul. We have just developed relationship with them. It is sweet, for instance today we played soccer with him and a bunch of his friends and we are going to try to make it a routine thing to just go and play soccer with them and even through that simple thing, developing relationships with them, we will get the chance to tell them about Jesus. Every thursday we are going to have a cell group at this coffee shop, so please be in prayer for that. A cell group is just where we do some worship and talk about Jesus and fellowship together.

Now to Bethel. There are always tons for me to talk about here. I am sorry if this is to long for you as I know you guys are very busy with your lives. But God is doing unreal things there! Let me try to summerize it shortly. 5 people have come to christ there in the last 2 weeks. The first week we went to the cell group there, there was about 10 older people and about 15 kids. Last wednesday there must of been 20 adults and 25 kids. It is unreal how the spirit is moving in that area. This sunday we had the first sunday church service in Bethel. That was amazing. We just all came together to praise the name of Jesus together. Praise God for what he is doing there. Keep praying, I just imagine how many people are praying for Bethel, and they are definitely being answered. A big thing you can pray as well is not necessarily for more people but for growth. Lots of people is great but its nothing if there not growing. I pray that these people coming to Christ will be real and authentic. As they grow closer to God and the spirit changes there hearts more and more people are going to be impacted.

I am going to finish with this. On friday we learnt a bit more about Budhism. We also went to this budhist temple where I saw some freaky stuff. Just a little back ground on Budhism. The Budhism in North America, well they do not really follow it like the people here. It is deffinetly a lot more serious here. The thing that breaks my heart about it is there is so little hope for them. We went to this temple and we went through this place called Hell where we saw all these statues of punishments that Buddhist people believe they will get when they commit a certain sin. You can see these pictures on my facebook page, but I worn you they are quite disturbing I tried to save you from the really bad ones. They hope that if they pay money to these spirits that there merit will be recognized and therefore won't be punished for this certain sin. Let me tell you all that if this were real we would all be screwed. They do not know for sure if there merit is ever enough. It is so opposite to the christianity and the gospel. They believe that they have to do good things, good works and then the spirits will see that. There are spirit houses everywhere. It is tough stuff. They are stuck in this bondage of never knowing if they are good enough. We are told that no one is good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven. We are also told that our good works are filthy rags. There is NOTHING we can do we are essentially screwed. Here is the gospel, Jesus abolished that. That who ever will come and accept him, will inherit eternal life. The only way is through Jesus Christ. There it is, people want truth, people are always looking for self help, there it is Jesus. No he won't make your life easier, not at all. Life will start to make scence. I mean everything in this life is meaningless, the only thing that has meaning is God. He is the only thing that will fulfill your heart. Everything else is just temporary. You know, Praise Jesus that he died for us. We do not have to worry if we are going to hell or heaven. We know through Jesus we are forgiven. Jesus knows we cannot do it on our own. He knows and I am pretty sure every one knows that. It is just weather or not we want to accept it. My heart breaks for the people here, they never know if they are good enough. And the answer is no they aren't, no one is ever good enough. It is only through Jesus and through Jesus I guarantee you your heart will be transformed. Every soul needs a saviour. Remember that as you walk down your hallway at school or when your at work. What ever you do remember, there soul needs a saviour. That saviour is Jesus.

Thank you for your contiunal prayers. Keep praying for Bethel, for TLC, for the 6 guys, and for me and my team. Praise God, glorify his name in everything you do.

Josh

Listen to this song, it is a powerful song and remember is as you go about your day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqxmQ_42KhY

Week 3 in Thailand

2008-11-20T06:41:00.000-08:00

Alrite so this last week flew by. Time seems to be going like crazy. I cannot believe it has been two and a half months since I have started this journey. This week was a good week for me. There has been challenges going on with in the team but God continue's to reveal himself to me. I first want to talk about how three people came to christ this week. Last friday a girl named Gem accepted christ. It was an amazing thing to see and be a part of. What was really encouraging is she said the thing that got her was when we went to the beach and we had a time of prayer and she just so happened to be there. She said when she herd us pray it moved her. Now that was crazy for me because that was the last thing I was even thinking about. It is so amazing how God can be working in peoples hearts when you don't even know it and he can be using you at anytime. So praise the Lord for that, she accepted christ last friday. She has asked us to pray for her, so I would also ask that you pray for her as well. Again her name is Gem and at home she has to wy the idols (which is almost like bowing down). She also has the duty to feed the idols. Now a lot of people in Thailand do not have the freedom to worship God like we do. Some people get beaten by there parents or completely seperated from there family, they get cut off. She has asked prayer that God will give her the strength to overcome this fear of her parents. Her parents do not know she is a christian that is why she has to keep wying the idols. If she does not then her parents will be very angry and she will have to explain her self, which she wants but as you can imagine it is really hard.

Praise God that last night two more people accepted Christ in the Bethel Church. Your prayers are helping thank you. Unfortunately this sudden Nauseous, headache sickness came over me yesterday. It was only a day thing but I had to stay behind. It is amazing to see fruit being produced, wow praise the Lord. Keep praying that more and more people will come to Christ in this country. It seems like the holy spirit is spreading like wild fire.

This week we also started our english classes. So far we have about 7 students and it should grow as time goes on. As people learn english we are also developing relationships. Through that we hope that they will hear the gospel. What is encouraging is that Gem became a christian because she started relationships with people through english classes. Please pray for that, not necessarily people. That is not what matters. Pray that relationships will grow deeper as they have already started.

As for our team, there have been challenges rising up. Some people are going through some things so just be in prayer for our team. This verse really stuck out to me in Romans 15:5-7

"May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, 6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God."

This is huge for me and should be for you. We need to treat each other with the attitude of Christ Jesus in order for us to see the glory of God. If our team can treat each other with the attitude of Christ Jesus how much more can you do out in the world. People will see that and be encouraged and want to know more. I want this for our team, please pray that God will teach us how to have the attitude of Christ Jesus to one another.

Thank you for all your prayers. Praise the Lord Jesus Christ, in the dark and good times. Every soul needs a savior lets pray together that people will seek the savior out.

Your brother in Christ

Josh

Bethel Church

2008-11-14T01:32:00.000-08:00

These last 10 days have been amazing. I last wrote when I came back from Pattaya. Two nights ago we went to a place about an hour away from where I live called Bachin Sal. It is a very poor village. Here is a picture on how poor it is. This one family had to swim to there bathroom in dirty water. They live over a creek/swamp kind of deal. This place is POOR! They have NOTHING! It is one thing hearing about it and then seeing it. Some of them have Jesus though and that is so much more than what Bill Gates or Oprah has. So much more, so much more to live for.

This one lady named May lived pretty much outside. I don't know how to explain it, but she had absolutely nothing. Well a month ago, a team from prince George came and built her a house. She was extremely blessed. We got to paint her house that day. We also met some kids from the village. Man, to here what they go through will break your heart. Here is the amazing thing about this village. Ok so about a year ago there were no believers in that village. A church plant was started there. Now there is a church being built in that village and people are coming to christ. We met in this home where we worshiped God and opened the bible with about 15 other believers! All these people are new believers. Just think about in another year what God can do! We got to witness this church being built it was amazing what God is doing. Praise the Lord. There are so many people here who have not herd the Gospel and when they do they cannot ignore it. I am so excited that we will be getting to live in this area for a month and serving along side this church in Bachen sal. God is moving, the spirit is moving in that village. These people have been treated so poorly and have so little that when they find out that there is something more out there they are amazed. Someone who loves them deeply and gives them hope. I am so excited in what God is doing here. Don't think that you have to be in a different country to serve God. Do it where you are. Please do not just read this and think, o that is awesome praise God. Be a light in a dark place, where ever you are. There is so much evil in this world but evil cannot overcome us. John 1:5 " The light shines in darkness and darkness has not overcome it". Start up bible studies with your friends, grow together. Tell your friends about Jesus. Invited them to bible studies, even pray for them. Mark 6:11 "And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you, when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them. "
I have seen awesome things here, people are coming to christ only because people are telling them. So many people in Vancouver have herd of Christians but they have no idea what Jesus is about. It serves as a great injustice that somewhere along the line someone Hi-jacked the gospel and changed it to a stupid religion about what you wear, how you act, what you do. It is so much more than that. In fact that is the opposit in what God taught. You know the people who taught that were the people who killed Jesus. Lets go christians, we serve an amazing God, lets go, 3-6-5.

If you all could pray for Bachin Sal ( I am totally spelling it wrong)
Pray that more people will come to christ there. Pray for the Bethel Church. As well pray for our team, there have not been any big problems so far, Also for language. I am learning a lot, it is deffinitly a really hard language but your prayers are helping because we are deffinetly progressing. thanks for your prayers, keep praying.

Here is a song to listen to. This song was actually made in Pattaya, Thailand. The place I told you about last week. If you were at Passion you have herd this song, it is called "God of this City"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOUh87QMOAQ

Pattaya

2008-11-09T06:49:00.000-08:00

Last night my heart broke for this town Pattaya. I just want to write about this because it is good to be aware of what is happening so you can pray for this town. As well God taught me some things that is not going to be popular, you may not even like me saying this. Pattaya the biggest sex trade city in Thailand and one of the biggest in the world. I saw Old white men, with little boys and girls. Prostitutes, tons of homosexuality and a lot of Transsexuals. This was one of the darkest towns I have stepped into. It was really hard to see and I was disgusted. Although something I learned that maby we all need to here is God loves them. God loves the pedophile, God loves the prostitute, God loves the gays, God loves the transsexuals, just as much as He loves me. Who am I to judge them when I am just as bad. Sin is sin, the only thing that separates me from them is Jesus Christ. By accepting Jesus Christ I am forgiven. Please be in prayer for the city of Pattaya. Pray that God's spirit will move in that town. The thing that was so amazing was in the middle of the mall there about 100 Christians gathered together and we worshiped. It was a concert. It was absolutely unreal for me. The fact that we are in one of the most perverted cities in the world praising the name of Jesus. God is working in Pattaya and pray that even more people will come to know Christ, even the pedophile. Just think, ALL are accepted into the kingdom of God if they just turn from there evil ways. How amazing is that. How amazing is God. Praise the name of Jesus, forgive us Lord for we are not worthy.

November 6

2008-11-06T03:16:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. Are team has arrived safely to Thailand. Our first two days were really nice as we stayed in a hotel. The first day we arrived then went straight to the life centre where we met a lot of the church at the life centre. On Tuesday we arrived in Angsila where me and Caleb will be sleeping for 7 months. Angsila is a small fishing village, about 10 minutes away from Bang sen, which is where the Life Centre is. Angsila is an interesting place. It is deffinetly not Vancouver. But I like it, we get a bigger expierience living here. We shower with buckets, so bucket showers and that is how we flush as well. We quickly learnt that it is very loud. They literally go to bed at 1 am and then wake up at 5 am so ear plugs are going to be my best friend. As well at 6:30 am they have a Budhist chant. There are speakers around this village and a Monk does some chant over this village. It is a very Budhist part of town. We have not encountered any rats yet but I am anticipating them at anytime. I know I make it sound really bad but it is a sweet place. It is also rite by the orphanage. We met a lot of the orphan kids on Sunday at the life centre. They are so cool. Every morning we take a Sung Tow, which is a pick up truck made into a bus kind of and takes us to the life centre. This picture below is Angila, rite outside of the church we are living at.

So yah, our first 4 days have been great and God has blessed us a lot with putting amazing people in front of us. The people here are amazing, you have to experience it yourself to understand. I know it has only been four days but already you can see the difference in attitudes with Thai people and North American. We deffiently feel welcomed. Already I feel like I have been here longer than I have just because of the relationships that have already developed here. Something that is a difficult thing being in Thailand is language. The Thai language is the 5th hardest language to learn in the world. We have learnt basic frases such as...Saw wadee Krap, which meens hello. Sabai Dee Mai Krap, which meens how are you. Khun Chuu Aroi Krap...Which meens what is your name. We learnt a few more. Also they have a different script then us. We have had 2 Thai classes so if you can be in prayer for language learning that would be good. We realize that we are not going to be able to speak Thai fluently by the end of our 7 months. It took the missionaries here a full year of 8 hour a day classes to start to be able to speak fluent Thai. We are all passionate about wanting to be able to speak as much of the language as possible. I appreciate all your prayers, keep praying as we have entered in this place where nothing is familuar to us. I will give you all a full update in a couple weeks as I get settled in more to this new culture. Love you guys, if you could send me your emails as well that would be great, my email is j_money_90@hotmail.com

Prajao Oai Pohn

God Bless

Josh

Thailand

2008-11-03T06:19:00.001-08:00

So I arrived to Thailand yesterday at about 2:30 pm in Thailand, which is 11:30 pm in Vancouver. Jet leg is deffinetly in affect. As soon as we stepped out, we felt that hot air. Its a different kind of heat here, I kind of like it, but it is extremely hot. It is still kind of surreal that we are here but these last two days have been awesome.

Yesterday, we got to Chonburi, than went straight to church at the life centre. That was interesting, we just got off a 22 hour plane ride and it was about 4 pm in Thailand about 2 am our time. We were pretty tired. It was sweet though, we got to see the break dancers, they are so good. We met a guy named Bank, he was sweet, he taught us some moves. I found out I really do not have the body for it, it just will not bend that way and I have no rhythm. After church and getting to know the people there we went to our rooms and past rite out.

Day 2. This is was an awesome day. We had breakfast than went and got foot massages. Dave Sinclair who is our missionary here, part of Team 2000, he told us we have to get foot massages and go to the beach today. So we did. We got foot massages and this was the highlight of my day. I had never laughed so hard in a long time. We were speaking with these ladies giving us the massages, finding out how to say words and stuff. They were laughing really hard at I think me and calebs hair on our legs, cause we are so hairy? I think I dunno. This one thing happened where I was trying to say I dont understand in Thai. Well I ended up saying I love you. As a joke she closed the curtain and I freaked out and then we all started laughing really hard, it was really funny. Anyway, the massage was amazing, but the best part was just having fun with these ladies we had never met, it was awesome. Later that day, we met this sweet girl named Uh Oh. Now if you are wondering why these people have names like this it is because when they are young or born not to sure, but there parents give them nickly names and you call them that for the rest of there life. It is kind of cool. So we met Bank, Uh Oh, Wow and Art. And this other guy briefly named Odd. Uh Oh showed us around a bit. We went to Monkey Hill, where we saw tons of monkeys which was cool cause I had never seen a wild monkey before. I also realized they have tons of wild dogs, that just wonder around. After that we went to the beach. Man that was awesome, the ocean was so warm. It was beautiful, I loved it. We also ended up going to the night market, expierienced some Thai culture it was alot of fun. Yah I am really tired, so I am going to bed, just thought I would give you all a little update of what my first days in Thailand were like.

Josh

October 29

2008-10-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

Man, this morning was a great morning. Our team, and Brazil woke up at 6 30 this morning to go to a prayer meeting, with the elderly people at Central heights church. Amazing people, than after they took us to A & W for breakfest. It was just amazing to connect with people who have gone through life, they are in there 70's-even 90's. They had amazing stories and they just loved on us. I got to pray with them as well. There is something special when older generations and younger generations can just come together to praise God. Just through talking and praying. It was a really cool morning.

I know I said my last update would be the last one till I am in Thailand but God has helped me realize something. If you read my very first blog, I talked about how I was walking and these versus of Luke came to mind I had herd earlier that day.

Luke 12 verse 24 and Jesus is talking and says "Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than birds!" Then later in verse 28 Jesus says "But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith."

That day was one of my most memorable days on my training. God had never spoken to me so clearly before. For me that message was clear, that I needed to put my trust in God.

Then the second week of Trek training, God spoke to me again on the silent retreat. I went back to that scripture in Luke from the first week, I was told Josh, either give me ALL or NOTHING. If your going to trust in me give me all of it, not just little pieces, give me EVERYTHING, SURRENDER TO ME.

Now 6 weeks later, I have found myself having to put all my trust in Him. I am going to be going on a plane in 2 days, to a country that I am unfamiliar with, don't know how to speak the language, don't know fully what I will be doing, all I know is I am going on a plane on Saturday Morning. And Brazil team, well they don't even know when there going to leave or what they will be doing in the next month. The only real thing I can do, is put my trust in my father, that He has control and his way is good. Now if you connect the two, surrendering and trusting. Well in order to surrender, you have to trust. How can you surrender your all to someone if you don't trust that person. And the opposite, if you trust, than you have to surrender because if you aren't surrendering you are obviously not trusting. That is the theme for me in the last two months, TRUST and SURRENDER.

Last Week of Trek Training- Prayer

2008-10-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

It is now October 25th and we are heading out in about 6 days. Time has flown by from the day I was thinking about doing Trek until now and I cant believe it has come this fast. To be honest it still has not hit me, I don't really feel like I am going anywhere. If you guys could just pray for our team as well as Team Germany, Team India and Team Brazil. Now team Brazil really needs a lot of prayer rite now. As of 2 days ago there Visas got rejected. They tried pleading to them at the Brazil embacy in Vancouver but would not budge. The most likely to happen is that they leave early December. The reason being, a tourist Visa for Brazil has a maximum of 6 months. We trust that this is in God's hand and he is doing something in this. God does not operate under time, this just goes to show that we have no control over what happens it is all in the hands of God.

I am really excited to see what God has in store for me in Thailand. Pray that God would essentially wreck me. I don't mean physically, I mean spiritually. Humility, strength because it is going to get hard and there are going to be times where I don't want to go anymore this is where I need God's strength to help me and not rely on my own. If I rely on my own strength then things aren't going to go to well. For our team. This is huge, we want to be a solid team so nothing can get in between us because were are going to have a lot of things thrown at us and we need to stay strong in order to cary out our ministry. As well for Thailand, pray for the country that God will truly be shown. It already is, God is doing some cool things in Thailand. In fact Thailand has gone from only 0.5 % Christian to 1.5 % Christian in the last few years which is awesome. God is in charge of this team, so whatever his will is for us pray that it will be done. Thanks so much for your prayers, it is truly needed. Next time I write in this blog will be in Thailand most likely. You are all more than welcome to attend the commisioning service, which is being held at CBC Chapel, On Thursday October 30 at 7 pm untill about 9 pm. Remember, I am only going to another country to share God's love on others because I was called there. You are all doing the same thing but in Vancouver.

Love you all, God bless

Joshua Olsen

Trek Training: Week 6

2008-10-19T19:35:00.000-07:00

Normally I write about what I have learned from our theme this week. But to be honest at the top of my head I wouldn't be able to tell you what I learned this week. It seems that in the last 6 weeks, I have been just thrown with a lot of stuff, a lot of good stuff, but it is so hard to take in everything we have learned in the last 6 weeks. This week I was in a real time of doubt and distance from God. Some people would say, O that's from the devil. That is evil blah blah, but you know what, most of our suffering or times of separation are usually from God. People would then say O why would God do that if he cared about you so much. Some people don't understand that through suffering God can be showing us mercy through that. Highly unpopular view but it is true. God is our father, suffering molds us into who we are. If we went through life and everything was all good and we didn't have any pain we would turn into spoiled brats. Like those kids from who get everything handed to them. You know the type of people I am talking about. This isn't a new thing, everyone knows the world is screwed up. I think everyone would agree that somewhere along the way something went wrong. I mean people are always writing books on how to be happier, look at Oprah. She is always coming out with a new book on how to be happy. We all know it never works. The only way we can find true meaning and joy is in Christ Jesus. But God never says that we won't suffer, in fact he says we will, following Jesus isn't a less painful life, it is just less lonely. I think back to all the suffering I have had in my life and the result of it has ended in being closer to God. This week, it seemed like I couldn't find God anywhere. I felt so distant from him. I felt like I was just getting into a routine and rather than actually focusing on what matters. I have been thrown at with all these questions that I have been wrestling with and ended up forgetting all about Jesus and what he did. Just the simple illustration of the cross. For example, in the last few weeks for me working out, I have felt that it has become a routine where I don't come prepared and I don't give it all I got because it has just become another thing in my life. I got so use to it, I forgot the actual point of working out. Until the other day, Jordan told me, you need to go hard, don't leave that gym until you cant lift a thing. Just that reminded me, wow I totally forgot about actually working out, like actually giving it all I got. Then today at the gym I was just woken up with a sermon by pastor Matt Chandler. Sometimes you need that. Just a person to come along side and point you back in the rite direction. God just simply reminded me of the cross and about how much God loves us and what he did for us. We get so rapped around certain logistics that we sometimes lose site of the cross. I even questioned is God really a fair God, then this week I just herd a bible verse talking about how Jesus died for us. I have herd it millions of times but there is always new things that God speaks through his word. You know what came to mind. Try asking Jesus if he is fair, the one who died, bled for us, and still said forgive them for they no not what they do, and still shows love to those who are crucifying him, tell that to Jesus, if you think He is an unfair God. He leaves the choice up to us, either we want to be with him or we don't, the choice is in our hands, not anyone else's, we need to stop making excuses for ourselves to keep continuing in our sin. Lets stop pretending for a second and lets be real with one another. Stop and actually think about life for a second. There is so much more to it then money, cars and materials. I mean if that was it how sad is our lives. It is absolutely pointless.

Two weeks now until I go to Thailand. I can tell you I am really excited. It is going to be a hard 7 months though trust me. I know it is not going to be easy, there are going to be times where I feel so far from God. Or I will be just so tired and feel like I cant go anymore. There are going to be times of suffering and pain. There are also going to be times of rejoicing and joy. There are going to be times of fun. But you know what, in it all, God is good. Through it all God will be rite there with me. I know he will never abandon me. Check out this video this is what is all about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U00AwIHcTOw&feature=related

Psalm 94:14, For the Lord will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage.

Walking in the spirit

2008-10-08T22:07:00.000-07:00

Something I was thinking about today was what made my heart change. Like what was it that made me want to do what is rite. What made me change my thoughts and way of thinking. I remember not to long ago about 2 years trying to be better. I was trying to do the rite things, I wanted to do but I couldn't, my mind couldn't understand, I was not walking with the spirit. PastorSs and teachers are going to teach things from the bible, we are going to read the bible and it is going to tell us to live a certain way, but what makes us want to follow that way. What is it that changes are whole concept on life. I know Jesus has changed the way I think about everything but what makes my heart change what makes it real? Cause I struggled with this in Highschool, I was always asking, How can I do this? Jesus I want to do this but I cant. I was really thinking about this today because I know there are so many christians and I was one of these who believe in God, but was I legitamitly Standing in it. Not if I believed but actually STANDING in it. I know I wasn't, I knew of Jesus, and liked to hang with him when I felt like it, but thats like one of those friends you hang out with when no one wants to do anything, when your bored out of your mind and you have to phone that friend that isn't the popular one. You all know what I am talking about... I know alot of you want to stand in the gospel. Not just know it, but actually stand in it. We try so many things, we try to be better, we will say for example, I am not going to do this anymore, what ever this is, doesnt matter. Then before you know it, your doing it again. Or even if you don't do it again, there is still something missing. You can do so many rite things, so many good things yet be so far from God. There is a scary verse Jesus says that really has got to make us think,
Luke 13:25- When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ' Lord open to us', then he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from. 26 Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. 27 But he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of evil!

Is this you, knocking at the door, eating and drinking Jesus presence, but not actually walking with him, or let me put it this way, we can know about your favourite sports athlete. For instance Roberto Luongo, you can know all about his background, all his stats, his wifes name, his kids name, what school he went to etc... You know of him, but he has no idea who you are. And you know about him, but you dont have an actual relationship with him, are you getting me here?... So there is a difference with knowing who Jesus is, and actually standing, walking, in a personal relationship with him. He is inviting us in, but we have to choose weather we want to be in relationship with him. Lets be real here, life is short, and this isn't a scaring tactic, this is real, this is eternity were talking about. There is a difference in believing and standing. Now what makes us stand in Jesus Christ, thats what I wanted to get at.

1 Corinthians 15:1 - Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand.

SO are you STANDING in the gospel, not do you believe, but standing. The thing that changes are heart, our way of thinking is the holy spirit.

Acts 1:5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit many days from now.

We were designed to live in the world in the spirit. Through Jesus Christ and the cross the door has been open to the spirit.

Ephesians 1:17-18 says it all here, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, may give you a spirt of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the ope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints.

John 16:13, When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but what ever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

Guys we need to be walking with the holy spirit. Think of it like a wild goose chase. You are chasing the goose all over the place, its quite an adventure. The holy spirit doesn't follow us, we follow the holy spirit. When Jesus left the earth, he gave us the holy spirit. We need to realize that. This doesn't mean we aren't going to sin, were screwed up, sinful people, but the holy spirit will give you the knowledge and understanding. The spirit will change the way you think trust me, well actually don't trust me, but trust the bible, because it says it in the bible. Romans 7:25. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Do you get this? This is amazing, thanks be to Jesus Christ our Lord, that he died on that cross, so we can be forgiven from all our sins. See because before they were judged according to the law, now we are judged under faith, with grace. See the law shows us what sin is. But once Jesus died on the cross in Matthew 27 it says the curtain of the temple tore into two. This opening up the way of the spirit. Our flesh wants to sin, but the mind serves the law of God, and what do you think makes are minds do that? The spirit. We need to be walking with the spirit. Last thing, do not focus on your sin. Do not dwell on it. I know alot of times I am like, K I am not going to do that anymore, what ever that is, then I end up doing it again. Focus on the spirit, who will lead you on a path of righteousness. As you walk in the spirit, you will see a difference. It is the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead! Think about that. Man, that should get you excited.

Trek Training: Week 4- The Church

2008-10-05T20:49:00.000-07:00

So this week we learned about the church. In this culture we have our thinking that the church is a building where we go on Sunday's, hear some one speak do some worship then peace out. In some church's even now a days you have to even dress a certain way, in some church's if you wear a hat, a due rag or a bandanna then you have defiled God. Which is not true. Now you have the legalist church's where there are alot of rules, cant do this, cant do that, dress like this, talk like this, be a fake pretty much, it can be a very detrimental thing. Then you have church's that are really heavy grace, which is good and its true God has alot of grace but people take advantage of that and just have the attitude that I can do whatever I want because God will forgive me. Now Romans 6:1 - What shall we say then, are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? By no means!

The church has a bad rep behind it but thats our fault. Acts 17:24- The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man.

We find two places in 1 Corinthians where we are told what God's temple is. 1 Corinthians 3:16- Do you not know that you are Gods temple and that Gods spirit dwells in you.

1 Corinthians 6:19- Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the holy spirit, with whom you have from God.

I think the bible is pretty clear on where God's temple is. We are the church as believers. It is not some building made by man. Alot of people believe that because they walk into this building and think they are all good with God, stepping into a building is going to make them rite with God. Now Hebrews 3:6 goes on to say that we are his house. So we are the church, not a building. We are God's home, God's home is a group of people. It is an invitation going out from God almighty to come inside is home, to find rest, to drink, to be fed. God is standing by the door asking us to come in. And hopefully once we start to understand that more we can start meeting groups of believers at peoples houses for small group. Grow and learn with God together. Church is not just a Sunday thing. Its an everyday thing or as my bro's Kevin and Jordan would say, a 3-6-5 thing.

I want to also talk about how important the church is to God. The church is referred to as the Bride of Christ. First and for most, God sacrificed his son for the Church. If we are the church and Jesus died for our sins then he died for the church. That is how much God loves the church.

Ephesians 5:25- Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church and gave himself up for her.

So God loves the church and so should we. Before I write any more on the church something we have to realize and I include myself is, the church is NOT ABOUT ME. I emphasize that because the way our culture is, we can be very selfish people, the Church is about Jesus not us. On that note alot of people complain about the church. I would agree that some church's need to change and may be doing a poor job. Reason's being, could have poor doctrine, arent missional. It is important for church's to be missional, going out into the community, that is what God commands us to do, we hear the message, we live it out and bring it into the community. But there are alot of great church's out there that people like to rag on. The reason being there is something we don't like about it. Such as, I don't like that type of worship style, I don't like the style of the preacher, I don't like this I don't like that alot of Wah, wah, wah, complaining. Again thinking the church is about us. Now this is not new. When God was leading the Israelites from the egyptians the Israelites did not want to rest, God was inviting them but they didn't want accept his invitation so God lets them wonder in the desert and even then God provided for them, feading them, literaly birds falling from the sky for them to eat, bread etc... They just could not see God blessing them there hearts were so hardened and they went on complaining as they eat, not much has changed. If it is that big of a deal for you then switch church's. Now I know this feeling of being angry with the church at times. But just realize like no marriage is perfect, neither is the church. But we all have one common thing, we all love Jesus. That is the great thing about church, all around the world no matter what language you speak there is a sense of connection because of the spirit and the fact we all love Jesus. I love it. I mean you can just go up to another christian and give him or her a big hug and it would be fine but if you went on the bus and gave some random stranger a hug, he would first think your high, then probably knock you in the face. Church's aren't perfect, if you ever find one that is please tell me, the only perfect church is in heaven. Instead of complaining about certain church's and gossiping about them, you can make an attempt to do better in the church. Because yeah we can complain all we want about how we want change, if so, do something about it. Get involved in a church, make a difference in the church. I know alot of people who claim to be Christians but aren't actively involved in a church community. And then guess who are the ones actively complaining about the church, the ones who aren't involved. I encourage you to get plugged into a church, start going to home groups, serve in your church's. Trust me there are always open positions for people to serve in the church. Also find a church that is suitable for you. Today I went to Mars Hill Church in Seattle. I love the work God is doing through Pastor Mark Driscoll. He started a church in Seattle and its a very modern church. Rite in the city. We need church's in the city. We need Christians in the city. Alot of Christians like to run off in there little communities, or something that I have seen alot of christians in Abbotsford, not saying that we dont need christians in Abby, but we need alot more in the city of Vancouver, lets be in the world but not of it. We need more Christians in the city. Anyway, Mars Hill is a very modern church, it has electric guitars, drums and louder music then we are use to in church. As I looked around it was so awesome to see College students, people my age fill up the building. I know when I go to church and I look around I mostly see older people or families. Rarely do I see people my age going to church. I pray we will start seeing church's rise up in Vancouver where we can see church full of college students. I actually deleated alot of what I wrote on this note, the reason being I caught myself describing a church that I want and think should be like. Again thinking church is all about me. Perfect example on seing how we think about church. You know what, it doesn't matter what music is playing, just as long as its always about Jesus, thats all it should be about, Jesus, he is are main focus, and what I wrote is I hope to see more modern church's rising up, which I think would be sweet, thats what would be ideal for me, but if I don't find a church like that in my area, I am not going to decide not to go to church, and detach myself from that church. Just remember church is all about Jesus. I am so excited to see the future of God's church, he is doing some amazing things in the church that are really exciting, so get involved, get plugged in and love the church. This is what God has put on my heart from this week and what I have learned, this week we are going to be talking about spiritual authority, should be fun. A very touchy topic for alot of Christians, we don't really hear alot of preaching about this in church because well some people may get freaked out and run, but the spiritual realm is real, it is among us, and I am excited to learn about that this week. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, please continue praying, I appreciate all the prayers that I am getting.

Trek Training: Week 3

2008-09-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

This has been a pretty crazy week for me. Thing's happened this week that really affected me. Stuff I haven't been introduced to before, it was kind of cool. This week was based on Personal Holiness, where we had 5 sessions on it. Again a big theme seemed to by surrender when Randy Friesen spoke to us. The willingness to surrender my life to God. It's a process I am continually working on. The two things Randy said that keeps us from God is #1 Pride and #2 Fear. And keep taking risks, its about taking that jump. He made an analogy on bunji jumping. People can prep you, encourage you to jump, but it is actually up to me to take that leap of faith and just dive in. So true in our faith, you can read your bible, go to church, listen to speakers, that's all good but are you going to just listen and read and think those are some sweet words or are you going to jump and live it out. Your the only one who can jump, no one is going to jump for you. On friday we had a whole day of teaching on suffering. We went through the bible which showed us how just because you are a christian does not mean you wont experience suffering. Jesus didn't tell us, come follow me and your life will be easier. In some cases its harder. A life with God isn't easier it is just less lonely. Different examples of people in the bible are first of all Jesus. Look at Jesus life, it was full of suffering. Look at the Gethsemane prayer in Matthew 26. Jesus literally fell to his faith sweating blood, now that only happens to very few people when you are under extreme anxiety. He prayed asking if it is YOUR WILL let this cup pass over me. Notice that he prays, Your Will, not mine but your will. That is how we should pray, not demanding God to do things but asking him under his will. And what the cup means is sin, it wasn't the pain Jesus was scared of but the fact He was going to take the weight of the worlds sin on himself. So Jesus he suffered. That is just one part where he suffered, read about Jesus, alot of suffering. Job, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Habakkuk, Hosea. Romans 5:3-...We know that our suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because Gods love has been poured into our hearts through the holy spirit who has been given to us.

God will Help us THROUGH our struggles but not around them. Very true, we are going to go to suffering but through that we grow. If your a christian and you haven't suffered then you should check your relationship with God. Don't believe the lie that if you become a christian that your life will be easier, or that your going to get rich and live in a big house. It's a lie, its not true, we suffer, life is hard, we grab on to God which helps us through the suffering.

Wednesday we found out our teams which was exciting and the place where I am going. If you don't know it is Thailand. We will be leaving on November 1st so just another 4 weeks to go. God has been doing some sweet things over there so I am pretty pumped to be apart of that. On saturday we got woken up at 5:30 am, where we did something called the amazing Trek. Pretty much the same thing as Amazing Race. We went all over the place , doing some pretty sweet stuff. It was really fun. We started really poorly, going the wrong way twice which made us an hour behind everyone else, but we kept going and caught up to first place then was in the lead for most of the time untill the end where we got beat by Brazil, by 10 mins. Which ended at 7 30 pm. We did this in our Countries. So there was Team Germany, Team Brazil and Team Thailand. It was really sweet to do it with our teams, it helps alot to see what we need to work on as a team. Our connection as a team is really good. Im really excited about it. If you could pray for our team that would be awesome. Mostly for our unity as a team. Nothing is more important than staying together as a team. If we don't work as a team then the 7 months in Thailand will not be good. I am confident were all going to work well together, it showed through the Amazing Trek. Also that God will prepare our hearts for leaving and that we will be ready. Thanks so much for your support and your prayers.

Josh

Thailand

2008-09-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

So I just found out I will be going to Thailand. You can start praying for our team, we have 6 people on our team Jacquelyn, Caleb, Rachel, Aschley and Kenzie.

Team Assignment:

Learning the Thai Language

Making friends in the community

eating spicy Thai food

going into slums and teaching english using the bible

assisting church plants in 4 locations

running kids club

participate in a cell group at the university

Sports Camp

Colossians 2:2-3, "That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Second Week at Trek

2008-09-21T21:09:00.000-07:00

This week was mainly about hearing Gods voice. On Monday Tuesday and Wednesday we had sessions about hearing Gods voice through a variety of things such as, Scripture, a Teacher, worship, in our thoughts, dreams etc. From Thursday at 1 pm till Saturday at 1 pm we had a silent retreat. This was a very difficult thing for me to do since I love to talk and being silent for two days to me seemed like it would be pretty boring. This was just a time to quiet down are busy minds and find a quiet place where I could just be with God. The first day I opened the scripture and started studying Romans. I hadn't really herd God speak during the first day. And when I say speak I don't mean this audible voice came down from heaven, things that God just puts on your heart in thoughts, dreams, scriptures things like that. As I shared in my last blog, God spoke to me directly about trust. I was told sometimes we have to go back to the same scripture that it came out of because maybe we didn't listen to what God said the first time. Aka I am still lacking a lot of trust. Even though I kept praying, God I surrender all to you, take everything my life is yours. Apparently I still haven't made that full commitment because when I went back to that scripture I was told Josh, either give me ALL or NOTHING. If your going to trust in me give me all of it, not just little pieces, give me EVERYTHING. A lot of cool things happened on this silent retreat and I am going to admit it was difficult but I also learnt how necessary it is to just get away from people and just sit in silence and be still with God. We see Jesus doing this constantly. He is always going off to be with his father. I love in Mark 1:35-39. What happens in these versus, Jesus goes out to a desolate place and there he prays. My guess is for a very long time because his disciples were looking for him, I love this, Simon is hunting for Jesus, He cant find Him anywhere, eventually he finds him and goes up to Jesus and says "Everyone is looking for you." Almost like shame on you Jesus for making us wait, trying to make Jesus feel guilty... Jesus doesn't have time for Simon and he responds saying "Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out." Anyway, point is Jesus goes off alone to be with his Father, He does it again later on in the gospels. In North America we are always busy, we always have something to do, and if we don't, we have to find something to do. God speaks, in fact God is always speaking. I challenge you like in my last week's blog to just have some quiet time and be still with God. Not for two days but maybe just an hour out of your day. God is really opening my eyes to alot of things. Even today while I was at church, I just had a thought about the church, this is totally random but I looked around during church just at people worshipping. I was just thinking how frustrated God must be with this scene. How many people do you think are in that church service singing these songs to God but once they walk out of those doors its peace out God I'm doing my own thing. It really broke me down and kinda got me frustrated almost like God is bringing me in closer to what He See's. This week on wednesday we get our countries assigned to us. Either Brazil, Thailand or Germany. I am really excited to see where God places me and who He sending me with. Gods moving, Gods working in amazing ways and I am really excited to see what He has in store in these upcoming weeks.

Represent Jesus Christ 3-6-5.

First week at Trek

2008-09-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

This first week at Trek has been interesting for me. I have been staying at the Mark Centre in Abbotsford. This is where I will be staying for the next 2 months of my time at Trek before I am sent out. Monday and Tuesday we just got an orientation kind of thing. On Monday evening we got an awesome opportunity to read through the whole book of Mark as a group. I found that really cool just to see how everything ties in together. You start to see a pattern of how things play out. You really see how Jesus does not come to speak to the religious people. In fact the religious people were starting to get angry at Jesus and eventually nailed him to the cross. Mark 2 verse 17 says Jesus is talking and says "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners" All of us are in need of a physician. We are all sick and need a savior, and Jesus is rite there saying here I am here to help you, not condemn you. He is reaching out his hand saying here I am here to help you just let me help.

On Wednesday we went on a 3 day retreat to whistler, just a time for bonding and to hang out. It was pretty fun, but at this point I was still having a hard time connecting with other people. Today which is Friday I went to the gym. I was first going to go to apollo gym which is about a 20 minute walk. When I got there I found out the membership was just ridiculously expensive so I just decided to go to the gym which is 15 minutes away from the Mark Centre but the opposite way of the apollo gym. So I had about a 50 minute walk just listening to a sermon by Pastor Matt Chandler. As I finished my workout and walking back to the Mark centre I just started thinking about the sermon I had listened to and this verse came to mind that Matt Chandler had said. It comes out of Luke 12 verse 24 and Jesus is talking and says "Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than birds!" Then later in verse 28 Jesus says "But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith." God takes care of the ravens, who are pretty much rats with wings, how much more will he take care of us! This is something I have just forgotten and it makes me realize how little my faith is. Really I have just been doubting God and pretty much thinking he isn't going to take care of me. He loves us so much, so much it is hard to comprehend. Trust in God, He's going to take care of you. I don't need to worry about tomorrow, I know God is good and He is going to take care of me no matter what happens. Once I dawned on this I just surrendered all to God, something I haven't been able to do. There is going to be crap in our lives, God never told us it would be easy. Whoever said being a christian means rainbow and butterflies is lying to you. Something God does though is help you through struggles, Jesus doesn't get us around our struggles, but helps us through them. Just read Matthew 26 where Jesus is in Gethsemane, He went through the greatest pain imaginable, and God didn't get him around it but helped him through it. Something I haven't done in a while is just be alone and let God speak to me and he did today. I encourage you, whoever is reading this to just take time out of your busy schedual and just focus on God and let him speak to you. Really how much do we actually take the time to do that. Were talking about the God of the universe our creator. I know this is difficult for me to do but when you do God will speak to us, we just need to open up and let him speak.