New Beginnings

Many months have gone by and many times I have wanted to write but wanted to wait for the right time. Coming back to America was hard but living in NYC is even harder. I didn't want to bore/burden you with my worry and troubles but I will sum it up for you now that the storm has calmed a bit. The transition was definitely a lot harder than expected and because of this I took the time to attend a debriefing in Palmer Lake, Colorado. The place that I went to is called Missions Training International and I cant express the enormous help that it provided me. What this place offered I recommend to everyone coming back from being away for a short or long amount of  time....it provided counseling, rest, the comfort of truth and fellowship with other missionaries, among much more between me and God :)
When I returned from this trip I felt better equipped to face the difficulties that did not change but were now expected and faced as normal. My heart was strengthened and given the encouragement needed to move forward and face the challenges that lay ahead. Since then I have moved twice and attended a certification program which will enable me to care for the elderly and those that need care at home...Home Health Aide :)
The agency I will be working for has already placed me in a home with an autistic child. I have no experience with this disability but am looking forward to learning and helping in any way I can.
This is just a quick update and not sure if anyone reads my blog any more because I haven't written in so long but wanted to say something about where I am at and also one more thank you for the enormous support in love, prayers and encouragement. God bless you all and may we continue to encourage one another to do good for the glory of God.

Hope you have a Merry Christmas and may the peace of God rest in your hearts during such a busy time of year!

With Love,

Doris

Hosting Volunteers

For almost 8 months I have been going back and forth on facebook with this girl (Tisha) I have never met before regarding volunteer work. She claimed she knew me at a party but I knew I was not at that fellowship. She said I friended her on fb but I do not remember that so I came to the conclusion I did it by accident, considering we have a mutual friend. Finally after waiting for Gods perfect timing she ended up coming out to volunteer with a friend. When they first arrived I was sure I had never met her before and she was sure I did. After some puzzling contemplation we later realized that she had the wrong girl and had never met me before. It was quite funny to come to the conclusion we didnt know eachother but God had us meet for His service and glorify his name. What an incredible time of showing Gods love! This was my first time hosting volunteers and preparing a schedule for them. It was challenging at times for them as well as for me, having little experience hosting/setting up a missions trip. They were very flexible and open to the schedule and speed of service. Thank you Tisha and Rachel for coming and being a blessing. The children loved you and I was refreshed by your fellowship and company. Many blessings as you continue to follow the Lord's leading in your life. Much Love! Doris



Copy of My Animoto Video

Same Same But Different

  A couple of weeks ago I saw a cage full of bunnies. They were so cute I couldn’t help but to lean in and get a closer look. All the bunnies started pressing through the cage except one. I realized they were all hungry and were waiting to be fed. They were so eager that even the ones in the back were fidgeting around trying to find their way through the crowd. The one that wasn’t pressing through stuck out to me so much. He was just a bit behind the rest and sat there waiting patiently. It was pretty cool. I couldn’t help but to be amazed at how peaceful he looked compared to the rest. The bible says…. Psa 46:10  Be still, and know that I am God.” I was also reminded of the scripture in Psalm 23, “The Lord is my Shepherd….I shall not want.”

In times of uncertainty and not knowing when the things that we need will come through we can be assured that the Lord will not forsake us and that he knows our needs better than we do. He will provide.

The Lord does not allow these times of waiting so that we squirm and he can watch us one more time fretting. He allows times of waiting so that it can be an end of future worrying and fretting.  The rest and comfort that comes in his timing of provision reveals one more time that He is God and He will always provide for us, for HE is our Shepherd.. To show us we never need to fear or wonder IF…but know HE is God and HE will!

For the last couple of months my schedule has been the same…school and H2O orphanage. Although the educational system in Thailand needs a LOT of work we do see some progress with the students. When we arrive on the grounds they greet us in English and show an eagerness to learn. I think the amount of time that has been invested has given them a greater confidence in learning a new language. I have truly enjoyed my time at the Umphang Primary School and have seen the benefits gradually. This town is so small and as soon as we started working at the school we had the opportunity to get to know all the kids in town as well as figure out who their parents are. We have been a part of numerous functions that have allowed us to experience the ways of Thailand and build relationships with people we might have never seen. In the beginning I wasn’t sure how helpful I would be in teaching English but the little that has been done has on several occasions been recognized as a blessing from my God. The teachers are all Buddhist and know that I am Christian but they recognize my God and thank him for the help.

A couple of weeks ago I had to stop using my motorbike because of mechanical issues. I was asking around to find a rented automatic motorbike and this is not easy to do in this area. One of the teachers agreed to rent me out her bike for a small fee and I was so grateful to her. As I was saying thank you to her she replied to not thank her but to thank my God who was providing it for me! It astonishes me the subtle and few remarks that are made about our God. They may not know him but my prayer is that they have seen Him through us in our short time here.

Recently we hosted volunteers from NY. They came with supplies from donations made back in the states. The children were really blessed and we now have two big drawers full of craft supplies. Thank you Tisha and Rachel for your time and labor of love!

Regarding pictures: I am not sure why I can not post pictures on this blog. It loads but does not allow me to post the pics . I think the location and site just arent in harmony :) but if you would like to see pictures please feel free to visit my facebook page. Thank you to all who have been following and supporting along the way. Will post again soon.

PS. I know I wrote a lot...making up for lost time I guess:)

Loving Memories....

When I met Ron I was a bit taken back. He was so real and said what was on his mind and yet gentle. He would greet everyone personally. When he said God bless you it wasn’t just words to greet you with but it came from his heart. Ron was all heart! I really don’t remember how I started going with him to the shelters...he probably just asked me to go and I said yes. It was in going with Ron to different shelters and working with Raven truck every week that God really birthed in me a heart for the homeless. I was always cold to them with the wrong perception of who they were and how they got be where they are. In serving them and praying for them I was able to hear their stories and my heart softened to them...all a part of God's plan. Shortly after this I met my father after 9 years at the altar on Christmas Day. This was a real shock and at the time he was homeless and drug addicted for over 25 years. He was at church praying that God would reconcile him with his family. I was the first one God brought to him to be reconciled with. I had no idea how to help him but I wanted him to be in good hands…so I approached Ron that evening and asked him to help me. Ron spoke to him very firmly and told him about God being able to help him if he really wanted the help. Ron made some phone calls and brought him down to the Bowery mission. Ron would visit and check up on him. Although my father ended up leaving the mission Ron did everything he could to encourage not just my father but me as well in the process of having him back in my life again. Ron was someone I could depend on. I watched him with people and saw a love that was committed and willing to help anyone who wanted help. In continuing to go to the shelters with Ron I developed some good relationships with some of the women that he knew. He would just bring someone up to me and say pray for her.  I remember Angel being one of them. She was one of the worst cases I had ever seen. I thought many times talking to her what is the point Lord she has been around for a while is she really going to change? One Christmas evening Angel walked into the mission and when she saw Ron she just started weeping. He gave her such a warm and loving embrace while she wept in his arms for a long time…then Ron looked at me and said take her to the next room and pray for her. I was sad that Christmas myself …I thought how am I going to encourage her? I spoke to her about the love of God and I prayed for her...oddly enough I felt better after praying and we had dinner together afterwards. 2 months later Ron called me at the school I was attending, now called Summit International School of Ministry, and told me that Angel was finally ready and agreed to be put in a program and that she was in Teen Challenge getting better. I cried and praised God for the great news and was so thankful that Ron never gave up on God for her. He believed for everyone…he believed there was no one Jesus couldn’t touch, heal, make new and give new life to. This made such an impact in my own faith for God to not just help people but help me. It was in visiting the shelters that I became hungry to have my own sanctuary with God. To know him and his word…to have an intimate walk with him that would change me. Ron supported me every step of the way. He sent me care packages, birthday cards (always more than one…one wasn’t enough to tell me how much he loved me), phone calls and NEVER failed to tell me how special I was and encourage me to follow God all the way. Ron would have done anything for me and was always asking me if I needed money and if I was okay. Afterwards I went to visit Times Square Church and ran into Angel whom I did not recognize at all!!! She walked down the stairs and my mouth dropped! I said Angel is that you? She gave me a big hug and with the biggest smile said “I got filled with the Holy Ghost!!”  We were jumping up and down and praising God together. God bless Angel and watch over her. There is nothing God can’t do when we believe him. The word of God says if you only believe you shall see the glory of God. God I thank you for the faith that Ron had in you and the many people that know you because of how you used his life. I pray that I would give you the same devotion in your purposes for my life and never fail to tell the people around me that they are loved not just by you but by me too. I love you Ron!

A letter from Laurie… (Laurie was a friend of Ron’s that hung out at the mission. He always picked her up and brought her to church….she was too sad to go to the funeral so I asked her to write a letter that I would post….. We miss you Ron!!)

Dear Ron,

I have known Ron for 4 years. Ron helped me a whole lot. When I was on drugs Ron prayed for me and took me to Bible study (Times Square Church New Believers Class). He was my teacher. He helped a lot of homeless people come to church to get with the Lord and stop their mess and get there self together. He also would bring them to the altar and let them cry out to God.  He would pick me up and say “C’mon Miss lady let’s go to church, we got to go, got to go, got to go!!” I will always miss Ron because he was my best friend, the man! God bless him, he is in a better place, in God’s hands. PS. He never failed to take me home and make sure I was safe.

Love,
Laurie

Birthday Bash!

This month I turned 32. I thought to myself what am I going to do? I can get some friends together and go out to eat or just stay in and watch a movie...not very exciting huh? Then I thought about how some kids at H2O never celebrate their birthdays because they dont know when it is.  I thought why not throw a party for them...so the planning began. I bought gifts and candy, planned games,  made enough cakes for all the kids to blow out the candles together and my favorite.... face painting :) Friends joined together helping out one way or another....I was super blessed to have such a great birthday and to be able to bless them in a small way. Thank you to everyone who contributed and donated to help make this happen. The work here may not seem like a lot and at times we have more time on our hands than we would like but Im starting to see more and more that the consistent contributions in someones life everyday can make a big difference. It is not about the quantity(how much I do) but about the quality(do it with all my heart unto the glory of God) When we first came here it took a long time for the kids to warm up to us. Took them 3 months to address us and say our names but now as soon as they see us they say hello with smiles...something I think we taught them :) Little by little we are showing them love and consistency...this is Gods love. It's something we can depend on and rely on. Gods love will never let us down and will endure forever. As I have freely been given so shall I freely give. May my hands and heart be open to Gods leading in what he wants to do for the rest of our time here.

Flexible February....

My 41/2 month puppy “Happy” was so sad that I was not taking him for a walk. He was peaking his head through the pillars watching the world pass him by while he was stuck up on the balcony. That was his view. My view was, I know I haven’t taken you for a walk yet as I normally would have done by now but today is a special day and I have something better planned for you. You see Vinnie, Golden Retriever/his best friend/neighbor was having a b-day party and it didn’t start till 6:30, an hour in a half after his usual walk. I wanted to surprise him and the whole time Happy thought I was punishing him or neglecting him….maybe he thought I forgot about him. It’s so funny as I thought about this situation that I thought how many times I have had the same puppy dog eye face at God. Because of his timing he withheld something or because he had something better in mind he would not let me have what I thought was the best. I also thought how many times I thought God is not thinking about me or has forgotten me….how little faith Happy had in his owner…how little faith I have had in my Maker.

Happie and Vinnie

English Teachers and Friends (These women are so good to us!!)

Can you guess who that is on the poster? Heehee... Teachers never told us they were putting our pictures up there..lol!

Joy Selby(US Volunteer),Peter Willis(President of H20), Me (US Volunteer)

Pretty much healed by the time I thought to take a picture...lol!

and eyes and ears and mouth and nose....head shoulders knees and toes, knees and toes..:)
love these kids!

happie makes me happy:)...not so small anymore!

English Camp was great! Kids had fun and had an intensive course to prepare them for the O-Net test that is a required national test for all schools.

Just to give you an update on what is going on here…I got bit by a dog! Sounds bad and it did hurt but I am okay. It was at the school while I was going to class. This dog has tried to bite me 2 times before and the 3^rd time it succeeded. I went to the hospital immediately to get rabies shots. I am now on my 3^rd one (5 total). Unfortunately this is not the 1^st time the dog has done this at the school with little kids!!! It was a sad decision I had to make to not work there anymore especially because I know the kids love me and I love them..but for now it's the best.

So I was left again with another change…what am I going to do now? Thinking that something good was being taken away from me and leaving me at a place with not knowing what I was going to do. Kinda like happy…he thought he wasn’t going for a walk but something better was going to be given to himJ. Shortly after waiting on the Lord for direction and through prayer I spoke with Esther about not going back to the school. I brought up the kids that don’t go to school at the orphanage because of learning disabilities and sicknesses. I asked her if she would mind if I spent time teaching them what I taught at the school. She was thrilled at this idea and said that this would be better than teaching at the school because these kids need special attention and have less of an advantage. They have a strong desire to learn and feel neglected because all the kids go to school and they don’t. So I will start this week teaching the kids at the orphanage and would love your prayers on this. I am not experienced with teaching children with learning disabilities but I will try my best to get to know each one and the best way to help them learn. I thank you all for your support in this time of transition and also learning. Joy and I are the first long term volunteers at this organization. It has taken all of us time to learn what they need and how we can best help them. We have tried a few things… some with success and others need work J but all in all I think this time is ground breaking and preparing a road for more volunteers and giving H2O experience they need for the future. God Bless You All!!!

I adopted!!......a puppy:)

I was reading Psalm 145…the Lord is gracious and compassionate slow to anger and rich in love…..I was thinking about how in the world did I end up with a dog? I definitely did not think about the responsibilities. Yet it doesn’t change nor can compare to the joy and blessing that this dog is to me in this time. He is a friend and blessing from God without a doubt! I ask the puppy, happyJ, how did I end up with you?  It happened so fast. I think about the first reaction to seeing this poor small puppy that was cold and hungry. I could not help but to pick him up and care for him. Give him a bath and love him. He would fall fast asleep in my arms and he was too vulnerable and cute for me to let him go and try to survive on his own with no mother to feed him milk and no father to protect him. The orphan dog came to the orphanage and was instantly adopted by us all.

As I read God's word I hear this is the call that He has for us all, to be slow to anger, rich in mercy, compassionate and gracious. If I would of thought about all the things that I would have had to do with the dog I would of maybe not gotten involved, although I think it would have been impossible for me to let him go. This happens when we let our worries and fears get in the way of the compassion of God. I think there are times we are not led to do things and other times when the pulling is so strong we cannot help to stretch out our hands to help someone in need.

We recently went for a border crossing to get our visa’s stamped. We have been here over 3 months already! The lady at the Thai end of the border offered us umbrellas because it was sooo hot and we had to cross a bridge. We gladly and gratefully accepted the umbrellas and started to walk. As I started on my way so happy that we had an umbrella, a little boy in a hurry rushed right past me. He was moving pretty fast but there was something that was holding him back from going really fast…it was a huge load on his back bigger than himself. He had to cross the bridge with this load and I’m guessing because of the heat and weight he was just trying to cross as quickly as possible. It was then my heart went out to him and I didn’t know what to do but I was drawn to him. I started walking faster and trying to catch up to him. I was fascinated by this boy and my eyes were stuck on him as I prayed God what do I do? Do I help him? Can I help him…it looked pretty heavy. I can’t even communicate with him. Would I culturally be out of line? Many questions rushing through me but the whole time I’m getting closer and closer and finally I say hello and give him my name.

Doris: “Hi, my name is Doris” J

He started talking in his language

Doris: “Can I help you? This looks heavy.”( I start to lift the load.)

Boy: Firmly in his language he spoke some words and clearly did not want me to touch his load and started walking faster.

I would have given up out of embarrassment but I was drawn to this boy and I knew I was to do something. So I just walked with him and held the umbrella over his head to protect him from the sun. Then he slowed down and before you know it we were walking together and talking but not understanding anything the other was saying. A family we walked by started talking to me about how strong he was and then she asked me if I was Christian? She said she was a believer and had a smirk on her face like she knew I was. By the time we got to the end of the bridge, he left quickly. I thought he did not like me at all and felt maybe I pushed too much to help and maybe I should have left him alone…I followed my heart and left it at that. He might of not wanted my love offering/umbrella but I gave it to him because I clearly could see he needed it.  We were at the border of Burma no more than 10 minutes. Walking back to cross the bridge again guess who met me and walked back with me…..His name is William and he brought 2 more friends to walk with us. It seems that it’s their job to lug heavy things back and forth from one end to the other. I laughed along the walk back with them, shared my snacks with them, got their names as well as practiced my Burmese that I had picked up along the way. I told them that Jesus loved them. They laughed at my English but knew what I was saying in Burmese about the Lord. At the end of the bridge we parted and they in unison thanked me with smiles. It was really sweet!

This is your neighbor. The one who you have compassion on, the one who is in need, the one who hasn’t heard, the one who doesn’t have anyone to talk to, the one who needs prayer, the one who is hard and unfriendly. The one who needs to know someone cares. The one who doesn’t know what true love is, the one that Jesus leads you to and puts in front of your path.

God will put people in your path and we are always given an opportunity to show love, kindness and Jesus to the world and each other. We may not be able to talk to everyone, or carry everyone’s load but if we help the one and are listening the ONE who speaks to us and guides us then we will meet many neighbors throughout our lives that the Lord will show his love to.

Then the king will say to those on his right, "My father has blessed you! Come and receive the kingdom that was prepared for you before the world was created.

When I was hungry, you gave me something to eat, and when I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was a stranger, you welcomed me,

and when I was naked, you gave me clothes to wear. When I was sick, you took care of me, and when I was in jail, you visited me."

Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, "When did we give you something to eat or drink?

When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear

or visit you while you were sick or in jail?"

The king will answer, "Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me." ~~Matthew 25 :34-40