YOUTH RETREAT IS TOMORROW.

What: Retreat 07 - COMA
Where: Buda, Twin Oaks Ranch
When: Be at ACC at 1.30, July 26-29, Buses will be back on Sunday at 4.30
Who: YOU and all of your friends
What to bring: if you are reading this now, it’s too late, but sleeping bag, toiletries, swimming stuff, bible, clothes, and other fun stuff.

See you all there!

Dear Austin Team,

I just wanted to thank you again for coming and served with us here in YWAM Krabi. It was a privileged that God brought your team here and your team have been blessed ministry and my family so much.

On the last Sunday there were more people attended at the Church and after finished the Church service I had bible study with the girls (Oil, Mew & Ploy) and I gave them the bible. Also the kids are coming to play sport at my home every evening, they keep asking me that when you coming back again? And I said you need to pray to God to leads them back here again in the future. On this the next Sunday there will be two more families coming to the Church. Praise the Lord!

My Mother & Father really enjoyed using the washer and they wanted to thank you again for blessing us. And the Cat just gave the baby on July, 16. There are two little catties (they are so cute) I will send the picture later. I found the one video tape and please let me know if you wan to get it.

On the next month we will have one team coming and serve with us so please be praying for us and I will keep sending update and share what God is doing here in Lamthab.

I’m looking forward to hear from all of you. May God bless you and family.

Blessings,

Radt

www.ywamthai.org/krabi

www.myspace.com/Amazinglove4radt

This is steven here in the Central Plaza mall in Bangkok. It is our day off and we are enjoying it in air conditioning and with buying a lot of stuff.

We are leaving for the airport around 10PM tonight, our plane takes off around 1AM Bangkok time on Saturday, July 14th. It is 3PM Bangkok time right now, we will see you guys in around 40 hours or so in Austin.

Hope to see everyone there!

(Not all the updated entries have been put up, from july 7 - july 12 or so, but they will soon enough. We also have some raw video that I will edit for your enjoyment. One will be actual ministry video, the other will be WAR IN KRABI with all boss videos. If you don’t know what that means, you will.)

-Steven Chang

This morning we went to the school. 8:50 sharp we walked across the street to the public school to teach our first lesson and possibly tell them of the gospel. The air was already hot and humid. HAHAH. We went to the second floor of the complex and were assigned our classrooms.
Jen Jen, Emily, Bethany, Steven, Lauren and I received the lower level class of 11th graders. There were about 25 students in the class who all were about 18 years of age and knew a minimal amount of English.
We started off with an icebreaker to get an understanding of how much English they knew. Lauren started with her name, her age, her favorite food, her favorite sport, and her favorite animal. I went next by writing my name on the board, answering the same questions that Lauren did and then having the class repeat my name without much success. We then asked the students to describe themselves by filling in the blanks: i.e. my favorite sport is ____. We went though about 10 people, at most, before realizing that they had a very minimal grasp of English and that it would take the whole fist hour to go though everyone. We decided to try something different. “I have never” sounded like a good idea as it took very little English to play the game and it was fun, possibly allowing the class to loosen up. The rules of the game are that you have one person in the middle that says “I have never______” and everyone who has done that action has to get out of their chair and move to an empty chair. The person left in the middle has to say some thing that they have never done. At first the students were very timid, especially the boys who had a some what “stuck up” attitude. About 10 minutes into the game the students began to get the hang of the game but were cheating by switching seats with the person next to them. Therefore the person in the middle would stay in the middle for over 3 turns. We enacted the rule that you could not switch seats with the person next to you. The game got so much more interesting after that. Everyone started running around and playing the game with enthusiasm. It was a SUCCESS! We then played “Screaming Vikings” where a person is in the center and they point to a person telling to do things like “monkey” to “airplane”. All of the students tried even though the words were hard to say and the actions were had to remember. Interrupted by the bell we then took a short ten-minute break. During the break we took pictures with the students and danced. When we came back to the room it was a surprise to see that half of the class was gone. The boys had apparently gone out to lunch and were not coming back, which was somewhat of a downer.
We decided to take it up a notch with the English. We gave each of the students a half-sheet of paper and asked them to draw the most beautiful thing that they have ever seen and then use one sentence to describe it. I drew a beach, Emily drew a piece of pizza and Betho. Each person described their picture, which were mostly flowers. The last person to go was Betho. She drew a picture of 2 cliffs. She they labeled both cliffs, one as “us” and “unholy” and the other “holy” and “God”. She then described the separation between God and us. She then drew a cross that connected the 2 cliffs. She told every one that because Jesus died on the cross we can be united with God and therefore have eternal life if we believe in him. This was definitely a highlight of the day. After that we sang “Father Abraham” and taught the students the hand motions, which they thought were hilarious. We left the classroom after that to go watch soccer with some of the students. They took us to the field where we learned that they really liked to play volleyball. Form this they decided to take us to the courts and play volleyball and to play “Ta Craw” – a game played like volleyball but with only your feet. We played for about 15 minutes before we went to lunch. We ate really hot Pad Thai. After that we went back to Radt’s house where we took a rest.
In about an hour Jie, Emily, and I went back to the school where we met some boys playing ta craw. I played for about 30 minutes before being hit in the face by the ball by Jie, which was my signal to leave. While leaving a girl I had met gave me a bag of fruit. Twenty minutes later Emily and I went back to the school, dragging Josh with us. We met the girls who were in our class earlier that day. We tried to communicate with the girls but the language barrier was so bad that we usually had to resort to hand motions to get our points across. We talked about songs that we knew and how they love Rain, a Korean singer. They also taught us how to say I love you in Thai, which sadly I forgot…already. It was really awesome when the girls used what little English they knew to tell us that Jen Jen and Emily were beautiful and that peter and I were smart. Later on I play soccer with Jie and Peter, against the students. We lost terribly. Mean while the students from our class invited the four of us to their house (which Emily declined because she “didn’t know what to do”.
Finally I went back to the house and watched Hitch. After a long day in the heat we all had headaches and people started getting heat rashes from all the sun exposure. We had dinner later and then had a team meeting where we went over what we were going to the next day in class. (Steven and Betho were falling asleep during it but it’s ok b/c we were all exhausted) HAHAHA.
That evening all the guys went back to the guy’s dorm to find a surprise waiting for us. There was a HUGE spider on the wall, which Peter pointed out. It was at least 4 inches long with the legs included. I was the person in charge of killing the monster. We called it “Boss Number 3”. Being extremely smart, I was going to kill it with the spray bottle – which wasn’t that strong at all. I sprayed it and it sprinted down the wall and disappeared. We searched for that thing for at least 20 minutes. Everyone in the guy’s room was scared out of our minds, but we decided to let it go and pray that it wouldn’t come back and eat us alive while we slept. After washing up we met “Boss Number 4” the cockroach of death. We found it on Enoch’s mosquito net. I again being extremely smart and forgetting that cockroaches could fly, decided to try and herd the roach down the net so we could kill it. It out smarted me and flew at my face! I then yelled in a very manly way and then ran under my mosquito net and laid I fear while the rest of the guys tried to kill it. Again the roach tried to attack me by going under my net and running straight for me. Running around half blind I managed to escape the grasp of the cockroach and live to tell the story. Peter later killed the insect and we all went to bed in fear for our lives. What a great day!

~michael

[Just kidding]
July 5th, 2007, in Krabi, Thailand.

I am currently writing this in the girl’s room while watching “The Pacifier” with Thai subtitles! Today is a pretty lazy day so I’m writing about yesterday - A bit more exciting topic. My Thailand experience has been pretty good – actually the whole trip so far is pretty peachy. I’ve met a lot of new people, built new relationships, traveled to new places, tried new yummy foods, learned new things, applied loads of bug spray, sweated buckets, and I’ve overall had a great experience.
The team started off yesterday with a breakfast consisting of toast with jam/butter. Actually we arrived at Radt’s house really early in the morning, at about 5 AM. Jen Jen, Alice, Betho, Emily, and I all played “Hot Seat”, pigged out, and laughed. A lot. I think the guys had loads of fun umm… avoiding getting eaten alive by bugs and catching a frog and a BIG moth.
Anyways, after breakfast sometime, we visited the (get ready for this) THE Lamthabprachanukhrag School. It’s located across the street from Radt’s house. For a while, the team just watched the Thai kids play a game called “de graw”. It’s like a mix between volleyball and soccer. Basically, the two teams compete against each other and use their feet to kick a wicker ball over a net. Some of the kids are. So. BEASTLY. In the best way possible of course. Example: Number 88 on the white team did flip like moves to kick the ball over the net. It was amazing. I took pictures with a gaping mouth and sporadic murmurs of, “AH! THAT’S SO COOL!”
At one point, after awhile of the team just standing around with each other and watching the kids play “de graw”, Radt’s dad pulled me over to a group of kids. I thought he was going to introduce me… but I was wrong. The girls (and a few guys) just took out their cell phones and [click click click] all started to take pictures of me. Can you say awkward? I certainly can. Anyways, Alice and Enoch urged me from the side to start model posing for the pictures, until the cameras struck them. Muahaha. Sooner or later, the whole team was posing for cell phone pictures. It seemed like Americans don’t come to Krabi very much – or at least this school. Well, we watched more “de graw” games, wrote down our names for some of the paparazzi, and tried to talk to some of the kids.
We went back to Radt’s house after a bit and gathered out volleyball and football. We were playing in the dirt road of the entrance way but then later moved on to the bastketball courts for some team ball-throwing time.
After coming back from hanging out and before dinner, we went to the slums – the free housing close to Radt’s house and gave out clothes we purchased in Austin to the families and offered our prayers. Michael, Betho, and Jen played volleyball with a group of kids, mostly girls. Steven, Peter, and Jie threw the football around with a big group of cute little guys :]. The rest of us played with some of the kiddos running around… some of them wearing no clothes xP. But they were cuties. Right now actually, some of the guys are playing football with them outside! How nice . Radt and Apple were especially helpful while talking with the families. Yay for translators! Nay for language barriers. We then went back to the house for a great dinner – actually every meal Radt’s mother has cooked for us has been fabulous. Thank God for their gift of hospitality and comforting smiles. Even though we don’t speak the same language, I can tell that they’re a sweet couple and children of God. What wonderful blessings we have run into during this trip ^.^.
Well, a portion of the team is in the girl’s room – with all the fans on – watching “Hitch”. We’ll keep you updated faithful readers! Thank you so much for all the prayers. I thank God for all of you and the things that I’ve went through.

I love you all!
Miss you,
Ominous Oriana.

PS. The “Ominous” originates from the Lose Points game. Hehe.