The Final Month of Outreach!

Hello friends and family! 

I am so excited to share with you about the last month of outreach! It was so incredible, these pictures and memories don't do it justice! 

First off I would like so say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who prayed for me in regards to my ear infection! God completely healed me 100% in the Philippines because of His faithfulness and your prayers! 

Since my last update I have said goodbye to Thailand and hello to another family in the Philippines! It was really tough to say goodbye to the staff and children at the children's home, I honestly didn't expect to get so close to all of them! Each one of them felt like a brother and sister to me!

Hello Philippines!! My lovely friend, Jenae, and I flew a week later than the rest of my team(due to my ear infection) and came back in full swing to say the least! We were blessed to be a part of the high school ministry in Manila and then the next day we packed up everything to run a week long camp in Naga, Philippines! 

Camp Lokahi was quite the experience! I had the privilege of leading a group of 10 youth in a small group during the week! Our theme for camp was Moving Mountains! Which was something I was currently going through at the time! There is no way I could have gotten through camp without the strength of God! It was such a wonderful week, from getting to know the people, see 28 youth be baptized, and see a total of 160 kids eager to know more about our awesome God! We also had our first open air, which consisted of reaching out to the local community, performing skits, dances, and worship, as well as feeding all the families that came to our program! It was awesome to see everyone put into action what they learned at camp! 

Our last week in the Philippines we held 2 more open airs, helped the Naga YWAM staff with bar ministry(building relationships with women that work at the bars) and got to build relationships with the Naga staff and their families! It's so crazy how they felt like family in such a short period of time! 

I would say my favorite part about the Philippines was the people! They all are so happy, fun, and love to just have a good time! Oh! And the passion they have for the Lord is so outstanding to see! It's so cool to see that the same God that is doing amazing things in Minnesota is the same God, doing the same things on the other side of the world! Whoa, we serve a BIG God! 

It felt like I only caught the main highlights in this post but I am so excited to go home and share even more! 

On June 1st we got back on a plane and headed to Hawaii for our last week of debriefing the last 5 months! 

I can't believe I only have a few more days left before this adventure comes to a close! I will be returning to Minnesota June 9th! 

Stay tuned for what's to come next! :) Once I'm settled in at home I plan to post again! 

To God All Praise and Glory, 

Megan 

Month #2 Of Outreach!

Sawadikaa (this means hello in Thai) friends and family!

It is crazy that it is almost May! This month of April has been jam packed with so many different experiences and new places! I am so excited to share with you some of the highlights! 

After the Hill tribes we stayed at a church in Chiangmai called City Gate Church! We stayed there about two and a half weeks! We got to share testimonies on Sunday's, share our sign dance, and help keep the church clean! 

One of the day's a group of us went to a main hospital in Chiangmai! We got to sing, perform skits, and simply just make the kids laugh! Lots of the kids were suffering from cancer or other life threatening diseases! Most people in Thailand are Buddhist so they believe that that person must have done horrible things in their past life to deserve being so sick! It was so sad to see all these kids and families seem hopeless! You could feel the heaviness in each room, so it was a true joy to make them smile and laugh!

We also had the privilege of leading out an extended weekend camp for the kids in the church as well as some hill tribe children! My teammate Juliane and I taught the younger children about the fruits of the spirit! It was such a fun week! The kids were so fun to get to know and you could just tell how eager they were to learn more about God! 

These past two and a half weeks we have been in Phang Nga, Thailand in an orphanage with about 14 kids! We have been running a soccer camp for them but have also had lessons about being united in the Spirit, what it means to be family/part of the body of Christ, and how to have faith in God, one another, as well as ourselves! I have definitely found a new appreciation for what teachers go through on a daily basis! I only had to plan two lessons and to be honest I was pretty exhausted haha! It was so fun and rewarding though to see the kids be engaged in each lesson and really have a fun time learning new things each day! Their laughter was honestly one of my favorite parts! 

We did lots of arts and crafts to keep the kids engaged!

The whole crew!

These kids were soccer super stars!!

Being a super hero was just an added bonus this week!

We performed a variety of skits! This one was about not finding satisfaction in earthly things but in God alone!

Some extra adventures we went on on our off days were also pretty spectacular!

We got to see an elephant show and ride elephants one day!!

We had a fair share of exploring night and day markets!

The guys on our team made us mango sticky rice and handwritten cards just because, one evening! It was very sweet (both taste and the jester)! 

I have had many coffee dates with Jesus! We have been living under a coffee shop so the temptation to get coffee has been real! I have loved my time spent here as well as getting to know the friendly staff here! Every time I order I alway got a Carmel Frappe! The staff here know it as "Megan's usual" haha! 

We got to take the kids to the beach a few times! It has been so nice to be back by the water! One night we went "crabbing" which consisted of kids running like crazy tackling crabs so that we could eat them for lunch haha! The other times we went to the beach we played beach volleyball, soccer, and the kids swam! 

Unfortunately I also got to spend a fair amount of time at the doctor this past month! I have had a really bad ear infection that has been lingering since the beginning of the month! I haven't been able to hear out of that ear and have experienced quite a bit of pain! However! God has been so faithful and I've realized because I have had this ear infection it has caused me to relax and take it easy a bit more! That's part of the reason I've been able to have a lot of coffee dates with Jesus, which I have cherished that time so much! 

Prayer requests:

My ear infection is gone(praise God!) however I still am unable to hear and still have pain every once in awhile! Please pray that God would completely heal me 100%! 

Please pray for my team and me because we leave for Naga, Philippines this Thursday!!! Yay!! :) 

Please pray that we move forward united, pray that we would all be healthy as we have a long day day of travel, and pray that we have an awesome last month of outreach!!

Thank you again for all of your support and prayers!! 

Stay tuned for what the month of May will bring! :) 

To God All Praise and Glory, 

Megan

The First Month of Outreach!

Hello family and friends! 

I hope you all had a very Happy Easter!! :)  

Thank you for your patience in regards to me posting on my blog! My team and I just got back from the Hill Tribes in Thailand yesterday and I haven't had wifi until now!

Here is what I have been up to this first month of outreach!

We left March 15th for Chiangmai, Thailand! We stayed in the city for a few days and then left for Omkoi, which is about a 2 hour bus ride away from the city!

This was our home for about a week! No plumbing, phone service, Internet, beds or running water for showers! But on the other hand plenty of quality time with God!

We did a lot of field work while we lived there, including clearing 2 fields! We dug about 200 holes total so that they can plant during their growing season! 

These photos above are from the first Hill Tribe we went to!

These are from the second Hill Tribe we went to!

These pictures are from the last Hill Tribe we went to! In summary we did 7 church services total for the Hill Tribes! It was so awesome seeing God use us to share the Gospel even though we couldn't communicate very well with the Karen people! Our services consisted of our testimonies, teaching songs, skits, and sign dances! We were able to give the proper medicine to those who were sick or hurting as well! The majority of the time we just took in their culture and way of life! I learned so much about how to be hospitable and caring to people I don't even know! They were all so kind and eager to feed us and house us! 

God has once again taught me so so much this past month! I really have found my passion and joy in missions! I didn't think my smile could get any bigger, but anytime I hear from other missionaries/speakers or think about how much joy there is that comes with sharing the Gospel with others so that they may be saved, I just get filled to the brim with happiness!!! God has shown me what I want the rest of my life to be like and what is most important! I am so excited to see what this month of April will bring!! 

Thank you so much again for the prayers and support!

I would like to encourage you all to find that one thing that sets your heart on fire! Life is too short not to pursue the desires and dreams that God has placed in your heart! 

To God All Praise and Glory,

Megan