FECA Vision Choir - Serbia Tour 2: 2012

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

{FECA Vision Choir} Chiang Mai Tour Reports

The daily reports from Chiang Mai have now been edited and consolidated into a single report with added pictures (thanks to Slim's hard work). You may view these at
http://visionsings.org/Archives/Vision%20Tour%202012.htm
The older individual reports will soon be deleted.

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Friday, August 10, 2012

{FECA Vision Choir} Vision Home Concert

Thank you all for praying for Vision when we were in Chiang Mai. I just want to invite you to come celebrate God's goodness with us at our Home Concert on Saturday, August 25 at 7:30 PM in FEC Glendale, 522 W. Broadway, 91204. The concert of course is free and you will hear our testimonies and sings. We will have a short video too so you can see some of what we saw. Look forward to meeting you.

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Arrival information

To all Vision Parents,
Thanks for all the prayers! See you tomorrow at the Bradley terminal. Please drive safely.
- Evan and Jenny

Marshall Huang <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

>We are arriving on Korean Airlines flight KE001 Monday, July 16 at 9:25 AM at Bradley International terminal in case you want to meet us there.
>
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Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 15

Dear Marshall and Vision Team,

Thanks for this last update before you leave for LA. Have a safe and God Blessed trip home! I am praying for you. Take care and Blessings!

Warmly,

Siang Yang

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 15, 2012, at 3:43 AM, Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

> Sunday, July 15
> Today is our last day of ministry. We ate breakfast at 7 AM and Boyle's van arrived to bring Joe, Eugene, Czrilla, Nadia, Aaron, Holy, Tia, and Jessie to the airport at 7:30. It was difficult to see Holy, Tia and Jessie off since we do not know when we will see them again as we are not sure what we can do with them next summer yet. Jaspher is feeling achy and tired and Jeff is also quite tired while Jeremy is losing his voice while the girls are generally OK.
> Boyle's van returned along with Moses' van to being us to Blessings Church for their 10 AM service. There were a lot of visitors at the service so the room was quite filled (about 150) people. We had a good time of worship and they turned the meeting over to us at 10:45. We sang simpler songs because our numbers are down and several had bad throats. A. Sue shared about our trip and U. Marsh preached on Peter walking on the water, stressing on listening to God, obeying (sometimes taking risks), and keeping our focus on the Lord. For each of these three points, the kids shared their testimonies - Natalie on listening to God tell her to lead the group in worship the night God's anointing came, Andrew on taking risks at the night market and getting lost (and found), and Denise on losing focus by flying bugs at the village. God gave him just enough voice to be able to speak and be heard through the sound system. Praise God, everything just fitted together. Andrew and Cindy's rendition of heart skit was delightful. We ended the service at noon and had lunch at the church before returning back home. Ching took one van to drive Sue to the airport while one van drove the kids that wanted to go to a nearby local shopping place to buy souvenirs while some rested at the church.
> The shopping van returned about 3 and a few minutes after that, it started to rain so hard. We realized if it rained like this a week ago, we would not have been able to go to the village, again, it is God's timing. We are supposed to leave at around 3:30 to go to sing at Chiangmai Community Church, our last program here. At 3:25, the rain slowed to a light shower. Jaspher is feeling better and joined us. This also served to cool the place since the church meets at the same place we sang last Sunday morning, except this is an ex-pat and missionary all English speaking service. We only had about 15 minutes to sing and no time for skits or testimonies, but we enjoyed the time there. We returned to finish packing, e at dinner, and maybe we can do devotions before we end out to the airport. So this is our last message from Chiangmai.
>
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Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Arrival information

Hi VisionTeam!

Welcome home!

We saw some of the slides taken by Ps. Tom Cheng. They gave us a glimps of the good work you all did and the favor you enjoyed from the Lord. All praise and glory to be the Lord! May the Lord multiply your joy!

Jimmy

On Sun, Jul 15, 2012 at 3:47 PM, Marshall Huang <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

We are arriving on Korean Airlines flight KE001 Monday, July 16 at 9:25 AM at Bradley International terminal in case you want to meet us there.

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Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 16

Thank you Marshall for all your mission reports. Praise God for He has done great things through your faithfulness! Have a safe trip back.

Lily & David

From: Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com>
To: Visionsings <visionsings@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 15, 2012 3:35 PM
Subject: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 16

Monday, July 16
After dinner last night, we had a few minutes to sing to the church staff (and the students staying here): Du, Ging, En, Duke, Ping, Bee and our two van drivers, Boyle and Moses. By now, Thang had also joined us. We checked in at the airport with no difficulty, said good bye to Jaspher who is flying to Bangkok to do a one month teaching internship at Nontamburi. Received an email from Joe earlier that everyone made their flight to Kuala Lumpur on their way to Jakarta and that he and Eugene are waiting in Bangkok to board their light to Hong Kong.
We (17 of us) are now waiting for our plane to return to LAX, KE 001. This plane stops at Narita in Japan. See you soon.

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{FECA Vision Choir} Arrival information

We are arriving on Korean Airlines flight KE001 Monday, July 16 at 9:25 AM at Bradley International terminal in case you want to meet us there.

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{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 16

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 15

Marshall (and all), I read with deep appreciation all your reports. Such a blessing to follow you through your trip. How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim good tidings, who proclaim salvation. Indeed this verse is for everyone of you.

Love and rejoicing,

Jean

-----Original Message-----
From: Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com>
To: Visionsings <visionsings@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sun, Jul 15, 2012 3:43 am
Subject: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 15

Sunday, July 15 Today is our last day of ministry. We ate breakfast at 7 AM and Boyle's van arrived to bring Joe, Eugene, Czrilla, Nadia, Aaron, Holy, Tia, and Jessie to the airport at 7:30. It was difficult to see Holy, Tia and Jessie off since we do not know when we will see them again as we are not sure what we can do with them next summer yet. Jaspher is feeling achy and tired and Jeff is also quite tired while Jeremy is losing his voice while the girls are generally OK. Boyle's van returned along with Moses' van to being us to Blessings Church for their 10 AM service. There were a lot of visitors at the service so the room was quite filled (about 150) people. We had a good time of worship and they turned the meeting over to us at 10:45. We sang simpler songs because our numbers are down and several had bad throats. A. Sue shared about our trip and U. Marsh preached on Peter walking on the water, stressing on listening to God, obeying (sometimes taking risks), and keeping our focus on the Lord. For each of these three points, the kids shared their testimonies - Natalie on listening to God tell her to lead the group in worship the night God's anointing came, Andrew on taking risks at the night market and getting lost (and found), and Denise on losing focus by flying bugs at the village. God gave him just enough voice to be able to speak and be heard through the sound system. Praise God, everything just fitted together. Andrew and Cindy's rendition of heart skit was delightful. We ended the service at noon and had lunch at the church before returning back home. Ching took one van to drive Sue to the airport while one van drove the kids that wanted to go to a nearby local shopping place to buy souvenirs while some rested at the church. The shopping van returned about 3 and a few minutes after that, it started to rain so hard. We realized if it rained like this a week ago, we would not have been able to go to the village, again, it is God's timing. We are supposed to leave at around 3:30 to go to sing at Chiangmai Community Church, our last program here. At 3:25, the rain slowed to a light shower. Jaspher is feeling better and joined us. This also served to cool the place since the church meets at the same place we sang last Sunday morning, except this is an ex-pat and missionary all English speaking service. We only had about 15 minutes to sing and no time for skits or testimonies, but we enjoyed the time there. We returned to finish packing, e at dinner, and maybe we can do devotions before we end out to the airport. So this is our last message from Chiangmai. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "FECA Vision Choir" group. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to visionsings+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/visionsings?hl=en

{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 15

Sunday, July 15
Today is our last day of ministry. We ate breakfast at 7 AM and Boyle's van arrived to bring Joe, Eugene, Czrilla, Nadia, Aaron, Holy, Tia, and Jessie to the airport at 7:30. It was difficult to see Holy, Tia and Jessie off since we do not know when we will see them again as we are not sure what we can do with them next summer yet. Jaspher is feeling achy and tired and Jeff is also quite tired while Jeremy is losing his voice while the girls are generally OK.
Boyle's van returned along with Moses' van to being us to Blessings Church for their 10 AM service. There were a lot of visitors at the service so the room was quite filled (about 150) people. We had a good time of worship and they turned the meeting over to us at 10:45. We sang simpler songs because our numbers are down and several had bad throats. A. Sue shared about our trip and U. Marsh preached on Peter walking on the water, stressing on listening to God, obeying (sometimes taking risks), and keeping our focus on the Lord. For each of these three points, the kids shared their testimonies - Natalie on listening to God tell her to lead the group in worship the night God's anointing came, Andrew on taking risks at the night market and getting lost (and found), and Denise on losing focus by flying bugs at the village. God gave him just enough voice to be able to speak and be heard through the sound system. Praise God, everything just fitted together. Andrew and Cindy's rendition of heart skit was delightful. We ended the service at noon and had lunch at the church before returning back home. Ching took one van to drive Sue to the airport while one van drove the kids that wanted to go to a nearby local shopping place to buy souvenirs while some rested at the church.
The shopping van returned about 3 and a few minutes after that, it started to rain so hard. We realized if it rained like this a week ago, we would not have been able to go to the village, again, it is God's timing. We are supposed to leave at around 3:30 to go to sing at Chiangmai Community Church, our last program here. At 3:25, the rain slowed to a light shower. Jaspher is feeling better and joined us. This also served to cool the place since the church meets at the same place we sang last Sunday morning, except this is an ex-pat and missionary all English speaking service. We only had about 15 minutes to sing and no time for skits or testimonies, but we enjoyed the time there. We returned to finish packing, e at dinner, and maybe we can do devotions before we end out to the airport. So this is our last message from Chiangmai.

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Saturday, July 14, 2012

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 14

Sorry, report 14, not 13

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 14, 2012, at 8:12 PM, Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

> Saturday, July 14
> After small group devotions and breakfast, we continued our debriefing discussing culture and our lifestyle back home. But since Pastor Gampon was here, we spent some time to pray for his ministry and the churches he has planted. Our procedure is that after each person shares, we ask for a few volunteers to pray for them, that they will faithfully fulfill the decisions they made. Here are some more comments:
> - After the village, I saw how I need to be less wasteful at home, use less electricity, for example. I need to stop wanting to buy the newest technology gadget.
> - I see poverty in Indonesia but I don't really experience it. I learned to get out of my comfort zone here. I plan to become more active in my church at home and minister to my friends who live quite nominal Christian lives.
> - I feel God is calling me to minister in Thailand for my future.
> - On a mission trip, we pray big prayers but we tend to depend on ourselves back home. I need to also rely and pray big prayers at home.
> We took a short lunch break and continued the last part of our debriefing by having members of the team speak what spiritual gifts they see in each member of the team. This is an affirming time for our team members and sometimes a surprise that they possess certain spiritual gifts they did not even realize.
> We collected an offering to give to Ching and Thang to show our appreciation to them. For Pastor Gampon and the City Gate Church staff, we donated money from our budget for our staying at the church, for their cooking, and all the services they give to us, but we wanted to give individual offerings to the Ngaihtes, and collected about 8500 baht for them ($280). Ching joined us about 3 PM and was surprised and thankful for our gift to them. We finished at about 4:30 so we had some time for each person to talk to one another and commit to keep each other accountable. After dinner, listened to several of Pastor Gampon's fascinating stories how God led him to start the church and provided the church building. We then practiced our skits since some of the actors are leaving in the morning and tried to get some rest so we can sing tomorrow.
>
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{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 13

Saturday, July 14
After small group devotions and breakfast, we continued our debriefing discussing culture and our lifestyle back home. But since Pastor Gampon was here, we spent some time to pray for his ministry and the churches he has planted. Our procedure is that after each person shares, we ask for a few volunteers to pray for them, that they will faithfully fulfill the decisions they made. Here are some more comments:
- After the village, I saw how I need to be less wasteful at home, use less electricity, for example. I need to stop wanting to buy the newest technology gadget.
- I see poverty in Indonesia but I don't really experience it. I learned to get out of my comfort zone here. I plan to become more active in my church at home and minister to my friends who live quite nominal Christian lives.
- I feel God is calling me to minister in Thailand for my future.
- On a mission trip, we pray big prayers but we tend to depend on ourselves back home. I need to also rely and pray big prayers at home.
We took a short lunch break and continued the last part of our debriefing by having members of the team speak what spiritual gifts they see in each member of the team. This is an affirming time for our team members and sometimes a surprise that they possess certain spiritual gifts they did not even realize.
We collected an offering to give to Ching and Thang to show our appreciation to them. For Pastor Gampon and the City Gate Church staff, we donated money from our budget for our staying at the church, for their cooking, and all the services they give to us, but we wanted to give individual offerings to the Ngaihtes, and collected about 8500 baht for them ($280). Ching joined us about 3 PM and was surprised and thankful for our gift to them. We finished at about 4:30 so we had some time for each person to talk to one another and commit to keep each other accountable. After dinner, listened to several of Pastor Gampon's fascinating stories how God led him to start the church and provided the church building. We then practiced our skits since some of the actors are leaving in the morning and tried to get some rest so we can sing tomorrow.

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Friday, July 13, 2012

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 13

praying for my sister Sue's body, mind and heart; healing, strength and peace---the enemy would hope to discourage her; all of us---praise God we have the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ----the answers regarding how to respond to American culture, after experiencing Thai culture: really wonderful thoughts, ideas and expressed prayers/goals; they strengthen me (as one who didn't go to Thailand)----thanks to all! safe travels to each one, in Jesus' name---sister anne p.s. esp. taken by 'Hates the American culture; but God is teaching to love the American people, who need Him so badly' it's really something how every one of the expressed ideas for future application here, ministers so strongly to me.

From: Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com>
To: Visionsings <visionsings@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2012 6:52 AM
Subject: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 13

Friday, July 13
Debriefing day 1. We went around and each person shared how they heard or saw God on this tour. One common theme was the letters of encouragement we received. Many of the words were just what we needed to hear at that point in time. Seeing God through other people was significant to many. Devotions was just so appropriate as well as verses given by the parents. Another common theme is how we saw God through nature, the beauty of God's handiwork. The Saturday night when God showed up was the highlight of the tour for a lot of people. We then took a lunch break since sharing is a quite tiring and emotionally draining.
The second question is how we will react to our culture after seeing t,he culture here and how we can live a missional lifestyle when we return home? Here are a few of the comments shared (some of the comments are similar so they have been consolidated):
- The village experience changed me in showing me how much extra stuff I have and I should be grateful for what I have. I need to consistently read the Bible, the whole way through, not just randomly, and read daily.
- Idols here are easy to recognize but not so easy to recognize back home. It is easy to see opportunities here but I want the awareness back home to be more purposeful to serve God in all I do.
- Thai culture is very respectful, as a Christian I should be much more respectful of my teachers.
- I want to minister to my friend for Jesus. Pray for me, maybe even just to plant the seed and let someone else reap the harvest.
I am so grateful for what I have back home. People here seem happy living here, as little as they have and that's OK. When I work with children, I feel so rewarded and this is a passion God has given me, so I feel my calling in life is for education and I want to teach children in American schools.
- I hate American culture, but God is teaching me to love the American people, who needs God so badly. I want to live back home like we do here on tour.
We went out to a local "steak house" for dinner, spending twice our normal meal budget (over $4 a person instead of $2) and invited Ping, Bee, Pastor Tong Kam, and Duke (he is a young, shy, college student also living at church and helping Du out) to join us. The place is kind of a Korean BBQ, with beef, pork, chicken, and lots of variety of seafood which one grills by themselves. Sue had backache for the last two days and took too much Vicodin so she is groggy and did not join us for lunch or dinner. During dinner, someone called and she called us to tell us the girls' room was left unlocked with the lights and AC on and a stranger was seen leaving the church property on a bicycle. But praise God, when we returned, a preliminary look revealed nothing missing, so the girls learned a valuable security lesson. We then retired for the night so we can continue debriefing tomorrow.

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{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 13

Thursday, July 12, 2012

{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 12

Thursday, July 12
Praise God, Jeff is quite well this morning, so everyone except U Marsh, A Mei, A Sue and Jaspher went to the elephant camp. Jaspher could not go because he needs to go back daily to the clinic to get his toe cleaned and disinfected. U Marsh stayed back to work on his message for Sunday. Pastor Tong Kam came to bring Jaspher to the clinic and also went to the bank to get more cash for the remainder of our trip here. A Sue came back to have lunch with Pang and Bee. Ging, the church administrator also went to lunch but Sue did not get a chance to confront these two girls with the claims of Jesus. U Marsh, A Mei, Jaspher and Pastor Tong Kam went to lunch at the food court and had a good time talking about Tong Kam's burdens and came back home to pray for him.toto
Meanwhile back at the elephant camp, Vision had a fun and awesome time! We first went water rafting for about forty minutes. It was such a peaceful time and God's creation is truly beautiful here in Thailand. One group ministered to the steerer of their raft so please pray that Dam will come to know Jesus. After the water rafting, we saw an elephant show where the elephants performed tricks. One elephant even painted a picture! We then rode on the elephants and that was quite the experience! It was quite a bumpy ride but quite enjoyable. After the elephant ride, the oxen took us back to the top and then we had their lunch buffet. The elephant camp was relaxing for Vision and a great way to wind down from a crazy tour.
Vision spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening shopping. We got the chance to visit a ceramic and umbrella factory. We then went to Airport Central Plaza Mall to do some more shopping. One of the girls' was able to share with a transvestite shop owner. Please pray that the shopping owner will come to know Jesus and His love. Pastor Gampon shared with Czrilla and Reina his testimonies about how following after Jesus can be hard and overwhelming at times but was able to testify that God is still good despite the trials that he and his family had to face. His testimonies were a great encouragement to both Czrilla and Reina in their pursuance of God and His heart for the world.
We came back home for another great home cooked dinner, then debriefed our day and had small group devotions ending with a little time for the whole group to share. Tomorrow, we start our debriefing. This is a very important time for us to recall how we have heard God on this trip and make resolutions about how we need to,live when we return home. Pray for the Holy Spirit to guide our time together.

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 11

Dear Marshall and Vision Team,

Thanks again for the update. We praise the Lord for continuing to do His mighty works through you and among you, bringing people to Himself, and touching so many lives. May He heal all of you who are a bit sick or struggling with sore throats and voice problems, especially Marshall and may the Spirit's powerful anointing be upon you as you preach. Take care and keep up the good work, and have some rest and fun. The devotional book,"God Calling" repeatedly emphasizes that the Lord wants us to love and laugh. So love and laugh as you come to the end of your wonderfully blessed ministry trip! I am praying daily for you. Blessings!

Warmly,

Siang Yang

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 11, 2012, at 7:08 AM, Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

> Wednesday July 11
> Yesterday morning, Eric had an opportunity to share with one of the native ladies who was selling her wares and she prayed to accept Jesus. We did not hear this until we debriefed later. Also, here are some amazing facts about the second church we visited yesterday. Until a couple or three years ago, they were a small church with a handful of members. The village had a problem with drugs and alcohol, some even came to church drunk! One reason so few came to the church was because the fish in the nearby dam always came on Sundays so everyone in the village fished on Sundays. At Pastor Gampon's advise, the Lahu village pastor fasted and prayed for many days that the fish would come on Saturday, instead. He announced to the village that God was going to bring about this change. The fish then came on Saturday, and they had a larger catch than any Sundays before and the fish has been coming every Saturday since. This started a revival and the church grew to its current size of about 60 believers and is still growing in their new buildings. The people are doing well so they are able to self-support their own pastor. We met an illiterate Lahu woman who so wanted to be able to read the Bible in Thai. With no other means for her to be trained in language, God told her to get up each day at 5 AM to pray. So she fasted and prayed for one month from 5 to 11 AM or so every day, and suddenly, she could read the Thai Bible. Pastor Gampon was somewhat skeptical of her claim so he brought his Thai Bible before her and asked her to read it out loud and she did! Recently, he himself been fasting for 30 days and ended his fast last Saturday night. However, he then ate pork Monday night and the rich food caused severe diarrhea all of yesterday. Imodium did not help him and he was going so often we wondered if he could preach last night. But as soon as he started to preach, he could feel the Spirit`s anointing and he preached powerfully and his diarrhea was instantly cured. He did not go for the rest of the the service nor during the ride home, over 3 hours total. When we went to pray for the pastor`s father yesterday, our mindset is on doctors and exam while they just pray and depend on God. They pray for God`s greater glory while we usually focus on our own little needs.
> Today is our last full day of ministry. We are scheduled to sing at Commercial College this morning, a neighborhood elementary school at 1 PM, and since we liked the Agape Home for children with AIDS, we called and they graciously invited us back this afternoon. Pastor Tom leaves at close to midnight tonight for the FEC Glendale Intentional Discipleship Breakthrough retreat this weekend. Tomorrow is our one fun day as we go to an Elephant Camp for rest and relaxation. We then debrief for the next two days to praise God for what He did and seek Him for what we should do in the future and how to carry this missional mindset back home. On Sunday, Joe, Eugene and the six going to Indonesia (Czrilla, Nadia, Aaron, Jessie, Tia and Holy) leave in the morning and we sing at the Blessings Church in the morning (Marshall`s preaching so pray for him) and at Chiangmai Community Church (a English speaking church) in the afternoon with a smaller team. A. Sue leaves around lunch time for Bangkok and the rest of us close to midnight.
> We ate another delicious breakfast and found out after the strenuous past two days, about 4 of us have some stomach problems and about half a dozen or more of us have bad throats. The elementary school called to cancel due to a scheduling conflict but we see this as God's timing so we can debrief our village experience more fully. We had expected that we would be singing at the nice 3000 seat auditorium at Commercial College. Instead, they put us in the cafeteria area to sing to the students on break between classes. They set up 4 microphones to pick us up and we sang in a noisy cacophonous hallway. We started about 10:15, did the backpack skit and Czrilla shared a powerful testimony about her high school dreams and how God used it to put Himself preeminent in her life. We found out we had to end at 11, because that was when these students had to get to their next class. We had a few minutes to talk to some of these students before they got marched off to class. Denise was singled out by a girl who is a Christian who was encouraged by our singing to share Christ with her classmates. Knowing a little more what to expect, we shortened our program the next hour. We did the puppet skit and Nadia shared how she found her identity as a Junior High student in other's praises but how Jesus fulfilled her needs when she got into High School. We realized that we were there to sow seeds, but A. Mei had a chance to meet a Christian Chinese girl student who wanted her friend to hear the Gospel. With this girl translating, her friend prayed to accept Jesus. We walked back home and before lunch, had a chance to pray for those who are feeling bad. A 6 liter water bottle dropped on Jaspher's already injured toe yesterday and it started bleeding even more. Pastor Tong Kam brought him to see a doctor who cleaned up the wound to make sure it is not infected. After lunch, we debriefed the village experience and this morning, did our small group devotions and about half the group went to Agape Home while the rest stayed back to rest. We invited Pang and Bee (two nursing student girls who are living at the back of the church) to come with us. Please pray for them as they are close to receiving Jesus. They're hesitant to receive Jesus because they feel like they'd be betraying their families. The jeepnies took us to the the Agape orphanage and we just played with the kids, sang VBS songs and had a joyous time with the children. One little girl not only had AIDS but was also blind. Holy helped her with the hand motions so she was able to enjoy the music too. Ellen (one of the directors at Agape) spoke to Czrilla and encouraged her in her desire to serve the Lord by following her passion. She felt like she had some confirmations so please pray for her as she continues to reflect. We had dinner at home. Pastor Gampon came to bring Pastor Tom to the airport. He told us that after returning home, his diarrhea also returned. Apparently, God healed him only so he could deliver his sermon last night and drive back with us, grace just enough for the occasion. Jeff is running a low fever, and is the sickest among us. Pray that tonight's sleep will heal him sufficiently to go for tomorrow's elephant camp. Marshall is losing his voice due to the allergies and is supposed to preach on Sunday in Pastor Tom's absence so pray for his voice if God means for him to preach. We spent some time appreciating Pastor Tom and prayed for him before he left to go to the airport for his return flight.
>
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{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 11

Wednesday July 11
Yesterday morning, Eric had an opportunity to share with one of the native ladies who was selling her wares and she prayed to accept Jesus. We did not hear this until we debriefed later. Also, here are some amazing facts about the second church we visited yesterday. Until a couple or three years ago, they were a small church with a handful of members. The village had a problem with drugs and alcohol, some even came to church drunk! One reason so few came to the church was because the fish in the nearby dam always came on Sundays so everyone in the village fished on Sundays. At Pastor Gampon's advise, the Lahu village pastor fasted and prayed for many days that the fish would come on Saturday, instead. He announced to the village that God was going to bring about this change. The fish then came on Saturday, and they had a larger catch than any Sundays before and the fish has been coming every Saturday since. This started a revival and the church grew to its current size of about 60 believers and is still growing in their new buildings. The people are doing well so they are able to self-support their own pastor. We met an illiterate Lahu woman who so wanted to be able to read the Bible in Thai. With no other means for her to be trained in language, God told her to get up each day at 5 AM to pray. So she fasted and prayed for one month from 5 to 11 AM or so every day, and suddenly, she could read the Thai Bible. Pastor Gampon was somewhat skeptical of her claim so he brought his Thai Bible before her and asked her to read it out loud and she did! Recently, he himself been fasting for 30 days and ended his fast last Saturday night. However, he then ate pork Monday night and the rich food caused severe diarrhea all of yesterday. Imodium did not help him and he was going so often we wondered if he could preach last night. But as soon as he started to preach, he could feel the Spirit`s anointing and he preached powerfully and his diarrhea was instantly cured. He did not go for the rest of the the service nor during the ride home, over 3 hours total. When we went to pray for the pastor`s father yesterday, our mindset is on doctors and exam while they just pray and depend on God. They pray for God`s greater glory while we usually focus on our own little needs.
Today is our last full day of ministry. We are scheduled to sing at Commercial College this morning, a neighborhood elementary school at 1 PM, and since we liked the Agape Home for children with AIDS, we called and they graciously invited us back this afternoon. Pastor Tom leaves at close to midnight tonight for the FEC Glendale Intentional Discipleship Breakthrough retreat this weekend. Tomorrow is our one fun day as we go to an Elephant Camp for rest and relaxation. We then debrief for the next two days to praise God for what He did and seek Him for what we should do in the future and how to carry this missional mindset back home. On Sunday, Joe, Eugene and the six going to Indonesia (Czrilla, Nadia, Aaron, Jessie, Tia and Holy) leave in the morning and we sing at the Blessings Church in the morning (Marshall`s preaching so pray for him) and at Chiangmai Community Church (a English speaking church) in the afternoon with a smaller team. A. Sue leaves around lunch time for Bangkok and the rest of us close to midnight.
We ate another delicious breakfast and found out after the strenuous past two days, about 4 of us have some stomach problems and about half a dozen or more of us have bad throats. The elementary school called to cancel due to a scheduling conflict but we see this as God's timing so we can debrief our village experience more fully. We had expected that we would be singing at the nice 3000 seat auditorium at Commercial College. Instead, they put us in the cafeteria area to sing to the students on break between classes. They set up 4 microphones to pick us up and we sang in a noisy cacophonous hallway. We started about 10:15, did the backpack skit and Czrilla shared a powerful testimony about her high school dreams and how God used it to put Himself preeminent in her life. We found out we had to end at 11, because that was when these students had to get to their next class. We had a few minutes to talk to some of these students before they got marched off to class. Denise was singled out by a girl who is a Christian who was encouraged by our singing to share Christ with her classmates. Knowing a little more what to expect, we shortened our program the next hour. We did the puppet skit and Nadia shared how she found her identity as a Junior High student in other's praises but how Jesus fulfilled her needs when she got into High School. We realized that we were there to sow seeds, but A. Mei had a chance to meet a Christian Chinese girl student who wanted her friend to hear the Gospel. With this girl translating, her friend prayed to accept Jesus. We walked back home and before lunch, had a chance to pray for those who are feeling bad. A 6 liter water bottle dropped on Jaspher's already injured toe yesterday and it started bleeding even more. Pastor Tong Kam brought him to see a doctor who cleaned up the wound to make sure it is not infected. After lunch, we debriefed the village experience and this morning, did our small group devotions and about half the group went to Agape Home while the rest stayed back to rest. We invited Pang and Bee (two nursing student girls who are living at the back of the church) to come with us. Please pray for them as they are close to receiving Jesus. They're hesitant to receive Jesus because they feel like they'd be betraying their families. The jeepnies took us to the the Agape orphanage and we just played with the kids, sang VBS songs and had a joyous time with the children. One little girl not only had AIDS but was also blind. Holy helped her with the hand motions so she was able to enjoy the music too. Ellen (one of the directors at Agape) spoke to Czrilla and encouraged her in her desire to serve the Lord by following her passion. She felt like she had some confirmations so please pray for her as she continues to reflect. We had dinner at home. Pastor Gampon came to bring Pastor Tom to the airport. He told us that after returning home, his diarrhea also returned. Apparently, God healed him only so he could deliver his sermon last night and drive back with us, grace just enough for the occasion. Jeff is running a low fever, and is the sickest among us. Pray that tonight's sleep will heal him sufficiently to go for tomorrow's elephant camp. Marshall is losing his voice due to the allergies and is supposed to preach on Sunday in Pastor Tom's absence so pray for his voice if God means for him to preach. We spent some time appreciating Pastor Tom and prayed for him before he left to go to the airport for his return flight.

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Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 10

Dear Marshall and the Vision team,

Thank you so very much for your faithfulness in sharing your updates as you do the work of the ministry. These updates help us to "walk alongside" more intentionally in prayer.

Once again, there is much to give thanks for as is evident in the updates. The Word of the Lord will not return to you without accomplishing its purpose. You all are listening to the word, sharing the word, ruminating the word and living the word. It is all joy!

If I may share, your updates bring back memories of my own trips to Thailand, Chiangmai and the hill tribes. They are precious, and I am so glad all of you get to experience them.

Once more, may the Lord be with you all - leading, guiding, providing, protecting. And may he multiply your joy.

In Christ,

Jimmy

On Tue, Jul 10, 2012 at 8:58 AM, Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

Monday, July 9
Last night, there were several young people from City Gate Church and from the church sending team we met a week ago during the house dedication (from Nigeria, Ghana, Hong Kong, the US, etc) there and between us while walking, we passed out a lot of tracts. We (Vision) did not get to talk to people much but the others with us had ample opportunity, we just did not have a chance to hear their stories. Pray for the young man from China (an engineering student at Kunming University) we met just as we were leaving last night. He said he had spent two hours arguing with a Chinese pastor and said he was Marxist, but something touched him in the few minutes we spoke to him and sang. He kept waving to us and smiling when we left. It was a divine appointment in that brief encounter and a seed planted.
One more item from last night: it rained quite hard before we left, but after we prayed, the skies cleared and except for some drizzle, we were able to go to the night market to do the street ministry. We slept in late and got together at 10:30 to do a short team devotions and debrief the last days' activities. Pastor Tom helped us appreciate how special it was for God to come in His manifest presence on Saturday night and to choose to come when it was just the younger people and Joe there. How fitting it is that He spoke to us when our theme is "listening to God". After lunch, we packed up our sleeping mats, equipment, clothing into 3 vans. In addition to Pastor Gampon, 4 ladies from his church joined us for a total of 33. We left at 1:30 and as soon as we got I. The vans, it started to pour. During the ride, the lady whose dad accepted Christ yesterday told us how much her dad had changed already, so joyful and peaceful instead of angry. It just showed us the grace and power of God. After driving north for about 2 hours, we arrived at the first village, a beautiful place lush with greenery in the middle of nowhere. The air is fresh, it is cool and breezy, maybe Eden was kind of like this. The women, 21 of us are staying in 3 of their homes and all the guys are sleeping in the church. We had some time so we walked to an even smaller minority village (Palang or something like that) to invite them to the meeting tonight. We have agreed to buy a pig for 3000 baht ($100) which they are going to kill and barbecue for our dinner after the service, a treat for the whole village. But they also served us the dinner they had planned, chicken soup, rice and scrambled eggs, a feast for them. After dinner, those that wanted to got to see the pig killed, cleaned, including all the entrails. For us city folks, it was an interesting experience. We started our program about 45 minutes late (Lahu time) and ended about 9:30, with Pastor Tom speaking about the prodigal son inEnglish, translated to Thai by Pastor Gampon, then translated to Lahu or Palang by the local pastor. Praise God one man accepted Christ. Pastor Gampon also prayed for several in the village who wanted healing from various minor illnesses. Because of all the plant growth mingled with cooking fire smoke, Andrew C. Had a little problem breathing when the service started. A few of us prayed for him - out here, we realize we just have to pray for healing - and Andrew did fine, singing all the songs even when he was excused from singing. After the service, we ate the pig which ended up being coked by our three van drivers, Boyle, Moses (who are believers) and Ed, who is not but seems quite open. Ed is also Ching and Thang's neighbor. It was delicious with a lot left for the villagers to enjoy. We then went to bed a little about 11 PM.

Tuesday, July 10
The guys slept with all the windows open to keep it cool and it was OK. Most of us did not get bitten by mosquitoes. At 4 AM, the cocks started to crow, almost continually until after 6. If you pretend the sounds mean "hallelujah" in chicken talk (it has the same rhyme), it actually does sound like they are praising God for the start of another day instead of annoying. So by 7, we were all about awake and had breakfast at 8:30. Some local native ladies stopped to sell their hand-made handicrafts, so we got to buy some souvenirs. We took an offering, collecting about 3,000 baht to give to the church. We left to go sing at the government school were most of the children here go. We sang to about 40 kids, and A. Sue gave her beads Gospel message. Most of the children indicated their desire to accept Christ. We gave these children a small toy along with the beads. When we left the school, we saw a young boy crying and lying on the ground. He was covering his ears when we sang, and he had strings around his neck and arms. Some of us took compassion on him and prayed for him. We felt he was possessed, but when we prayed for him he stopped crying and smiled. As we left, we then realized we had some baby toys to give the babies at the place we stayed, so one van returned to give these gifts, while two vans waited at the school. While waiting, we saw a dozen young people trekking by. They were from Holland, so we had a chance to sing to them. They are not necessarily Christians but God brought them to us to plant a seed. We ate lunch and drove to the second church site, sleeping most of the way and recovering somewhat. Since we are running early, we stopped at a national park about 10 minutes from the church, the Buotong Waterfall Park. It is located in the middle of a pristine tropical forest, with water from a spring forming a waterfall. The spring is a multicolored pond reminiscent of some of the colorful pools at Yellowstone. We then went to the church and had our small group devotions. The local pastor's father is ill, suffering from abdominal pain and has a hard time urinating, so we went to pray for him. In the US, he would probably have had an ultrasound to see if he has kidney stones, but here, he suffers. He said he felt better after prayer and our singing "Our God" (with key words that our God is healer, awesome in power). We then ate dinner provided by the church. Our program started with A. Sue talking about the beads and we gave each child a set and a bookmark to the adults. They then sang and danced a welcome song for us. We sang our program, Katie gave her salvation testimony, and we performed the puppet skit. Pastor Gampon preached (so we did not have to translate a third time) and the local pastor translated to Lahu. After we sang another song and danced for us. We left at 9:25 and arrived back home at 11, tired and weary.

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{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 10

Monday, July 9
Last night, there were several young people from City Gate Church and from the church sending team we met a week ago during the house dedication (from Nigeria, Ghana, Hong Kong, the US, etc) there and between us while walking, we passed out a lot of tracts. We (Vision) did not get to talk to people much but the others with us had ample opportunity, we just did not have a chance to hear their stories. Pray for the young man from China (an engineering student at Kunming University) we met just as we were leaving last night. He said he had spent two hours arguing with a Chinese pastor and said he was Marxist, but something touched him in the few minutes we spoke to him and sang. He kept waving to us and smiling when we left. It was a divine appointment in that brief encounter and a seed planted.
One more item from last night: it rained quite hard before we left, but after we prayed, the skies cleared and except for some drizzle, we were able to go to the night market to do the street ministry. We slept in late and got together at 10:30 to do a short team devotions and debrief the last days' activities. Pastor Tom helped us appreciate how special it was for God to come in His manifest presence on Saturday night and to choose to come when it was just the younger people and Joe there. How fitting it is that He spoke to us when our theme is "listening to God". After lunch, we packed up our sleeping mats, equipment, clothing into 3 vans. In addition to Pastor Gampon, 4 ladies from his church joined us for a total of 33. We left at 1:30 and as soon as we got I. The vans, it started to pour. During the ride, the lady whose dad accepted Christ yesterday told us how much her dad had changed already, so joyful and peaceful instead of angry. It just showed us the grace and power of God. After driving north for about 2 hours, we arrived at the first village, a beautiful place lush with greenery in the middle of nowhere. The air is fresh, it is cool and breezy, maybe Eden was kind of like this. The women, 21 of us are staying in 3 of their homes and all the guys are sleeping in the church. We had some time so we walked to an even smaller minority village (Palang or something like that) to invite them to the meeting tonight. We have agreed to buy a pig for 3000 baht ($100) which they are going to kill and barbecue for our dinner after the service, a treat for the whole village. But they also served us the dinner they had planned, chicken soup, rice and scrambled eggs, a feast for them. After dinner, those that wanted to got to see the pig killed, cleaned, including all the entrails. For us city folks, it was an interesting experience. We started our program about 45 minutes late (Lahu time) and ended about 9:30, with Pastor Tom speaking about the prodigal son inEnglish, translated to Thai by Pastor Gampon, then translated to Lahu or Palang by the local pastor. Praise God one man accepted Christ. Pastor Gampon also prayed for several in the village who wanted healing from various minor illnesses. Because of all the plant growth mingled with cooking fire smoke, Andrew C. Had a little problem breathing when the service started. A few of us prayed for him - out here, we realize we just have to pray for healing - and Andrew did fine, singing all the songs even when he was excused from singing. After the service, we ate the pig which ended up being coked by our three van drivers, Boyle, Moses (who are believers) and Ed, who is not but seems quite open. Ed is also Ching and Thang's neighbor. It was delicious with a lot left for the villagers to enjoy. We then went to bed a little about 11 PM.

Tuesday, July 10
The guys slept with all the windows open to keep it cool and it was OK. Most of us did not get bitten by mosquitoes. At 4 AM, the cocks started to crow, almost continually until after 6. If you pretend the sounds mean "hallelujah" in chicken talk (it has the same rhyme), it actually does sound like they are praising God for the start of another day instead of annoying. So by 7, we were all about awake and had breakfast at 8:30. Some local native ladies stopped to sell their hand-made handicrafts, so we got to buy some souvenirs. We took an offering, collecting about 3,000 baht to give to the church. We left to go sing at the government school were most of the children here go. We sang to about 40 kids, and A. Sue gave her beads Gospel message. Most of the children indicated their desire to accept Christ. We gave these children a small toy along with the beads. When we left the school, we saw a young boy crying and lying on the ground. He was covering his ears when we sang, and he had strings around his neck and arms. Some of us took compassion on him and prayed for him. We felt he was possessed, but when we prayed for him he stopped crying and smiled. As we left, we then realized we had some baby toys to give the babies at the place we stayed, so one van returned to give these gifts, while two vans waited at the school. While waiting, we saw a dozen young people trekking by. They were from Holland, so we had a chance to sing to them. They are not necessarily Christians but God brought them to us to plant a seed. We ate lunch and drove to the second church site, sleeping most of the way and recovering somewhat. Since we are running early, we stopped at a national park about 10 minutes from the church, the Buotong Waterfall Park. It is located in the middle of a pristine tropical forest, with water from a spring forming a waterfall. The spring is a multicolored pond reminiscent of some of the colorful pools at Yellowstone. We then went to the church and had our small group devotions. The local pastor's father is ill, suffering from abdominal pain and has a hard time urinating, so we went to pray for him. In the US, he would probably have had an ultrasound to see if he has kidney stones, but here, he suffers. He said he felt better after prayer and our singing "Our God" (with key words that our God is healer, awesome in power). We then ate dinner provided by the church. Our program started with A. Sue talking about the beads and we gave each child a set and a bookmark to the adults. They then sang and danced a welcome song for us. We sang our program, Katie gave her salvation testimony, and we performed the puppet skit. Pastor Gampon preached (so we did not have to translate a third time) and the local pastor translated to Lahu. After we sang another song and danced for us. We left at 9:25 and arrived back home at 11, tired and weary.

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Sunday, July 8, 2012

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Report 9 addendum

Last night, there were several young people from City Gate Church and from the church sending team we met a week ago during the house dedication (from Nigeria, Ghana, Hong Kong, the US, etc) there and between us while walking, we passed out a lot of tracts. We (Vision) did not get to talk to people much but the others with us had ample opportunity, we just did not have a chance to hear their stories.

On Jul 9, 2012, at 7:32 AM, Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

> Pray for the young man from China (an engineering student at Kunming University) we met just as we were leaving last night. He said he had spent two hours arguing with a Chinese pastor and said he was Marxist, but something touched him in the few minutes we spoke to him and sang. He kept waving to us and smiling when we left. It was a divine appointment in that brief encounter and a seed planted. We will be leaving in a few hours.
>
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{FECA Vision Choir} Report 9 addendum

Pray for the young man from China (an engineering student at Kunming University) we met just as we were leaving last night. He said he had spent two hours arguing with a Chinese pastor and said he was Marxist, but something touched him in the few minutes we spoke to him and sang. He kept waving to us and smiling when we left. It was a divine appointment in that brief encounter and a seed planted. We will be leaving in a few hours.

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{FECA Vision Choir} Joseph & Fiona shared an album with you.

You are invited to view Joseph & Fiona's photo album: Thailand July 8, 2012

Thailand July 8, 2012

Jul 8, 2012
by Joseph & Fiona

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{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 9

Sunday, July 8
After the old people left, the rest of the team stayed to process and pray for each other, especially those who did not get letters from home. Natalie led the group in worship; it was a special anointed time and the Holy Spirit's presence was evident. After a few minutes of worship, Reina started to cry, feeling God's heart for the darkness of Thailand. Then others started to have visions (it was not a coincidence that our devotion was on Peter's vision before Cornelius' delegation arrived). Elisabeth prophesied for Eugene and Nadia, Andrew sensed an evil presence in one of the trees outside the church and we prayed to bind it in Jesus' name. Aaron saw 35 people dressed in white inside a castle with 40 some people in black trying to storm in. After a while, they succeeded. While we are not sure what it means, we think it is tied in with our plans to do street evangelism tonight and think this is a warning from God to be more prepared so we will not lose the battle. This is also about the same time the parents are gathering at the Gilmores to pray for us, a significant spiritual covering we covet. At breakfast Pastor Tom reminded the team that we are indeed blessed to have this visitation from the Lord, that we should not fear, because fear is what the enemy wants to do to discourage us.
We then left to go to the First Church of Chiangmai to sing at their 9 AM service. This was not a planned event. When we sang last Tuesday at Payab Nursing School, one of the ladies heard us and arranged for us to come to this church, a very large and beautiful church well known to the locals. The worship was traditional, all hymns, with a small orchestra and piano. We sang for a half hour with Meghan giving her testimony about putting God first and missing her cousin's wedding. We left to return home for the City Gate Church morning service. The worship was very different, all contemporary songs, loud, energetic with children sitting in front and running at the back. We sang two songs before the children left, then Natalie shared her testimony of how she found her identity as God's daughter, worshipped some more, and Pastor Tom gave a long message with Pastor Gampon interpreting. We then sang two more songs after the message. Fellowship lunch was like FEC, noisy and warm. The elderly father of one of their church leaders came to service for the first time. Pastor Gampon had been trying to witness to him without success. Today he came, sat through the service, and then accepted Christ during lunch! What an amazing God we serve!
Because of the visitation of the Spirit last night, many did not sleep well, so after lunch, instead of meeting with the youth from the church, we went to get some rest and catch up on sleep before getting ready for the street ministry tonight. We met at 5 PM and spent a few minutes to process how to accept prophetic words. We also spent some time asking God to show us who we should be speaking to. Several of us saw people wearing red shirts, green, a white short, etc. We prayed that we will be bold when we meet these people tonight to do the street ministry. Unfortunately, we did not do that. When we got there, we met a Korean group and sang with them, listened to them sing, and we sang on the sidewalk. Then we walked to the other side of the night market where there was a stage. In walking there, we lost Denise and Andrew so Joe, Jeff and Jaspher went to look for them but it was time for us to sing, so we went on short-handed. When singing, a drunk started a fight on the side which took everyone's attention from us. Pastor Gampon called security which might have saved the man who was getting beat up. We walked back to the other side where we found Denise and Andrew and waited for the jeepnies to pick us up. While waiting, we sang to a group of Chinese tourists and at least had a chance to talk to them a little. One young man is from Kunming and he said his 90 something grandfather is a Christian. We then returned home tired and sweaty.
Health-wise, this has been one of the healthiest tours Vision ever took. There have been no serious or long illnesses or disorder, with Eric's mosquito bite being the worst. Tomorrow, we are leaving right after lunch to go to one of the hill tribes. We should get there by dinner time and we will have a program at the church where we expect some non-Christians there. We will sleep over, the next morning visit some of the families from the church and then after lunch, drive to a second hill tribe. Pastor Gampon has established daughter churches at both these places. We will have our program in the evening and then drive back, arriving home at close to midnight. It is unlikely we will have Internet access for the next 2 days so do not expect any reports until Wednesday. Some of our kids are excited about this adventure, while others are apprehensive and anxious. We need your prayers.

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Saturday, July 7, 2012

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 8

Dear Marshall and Vision Team,

Thanks for the update. We rejoice to hear how the Lord is touching many, including yourselves. May He continue to deeply bless you and to bless many lives through you. I am praying daily for you and your ministry there. Take care and keep up the good work, and Blessings!

Warmly,

Siang Yang

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 7, 2012, at 7:24 AM, Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

> Saturday, July 7
> The guys and girls stayed up fairly late (past midnight) to talk and pray so we got up fairly late for breakfast after 8 and left at 9 to go to an orphanage supported by Pastor Gampon's church located about 40 minutes from where we are staying. This orphanage is for Lahu children and has about 60 kids. A local pastor supported by Pastor Gampon's church and his wife and a small staff run this orphanage. We sang our normal acapella program and Tia from Indonesia and Aaron shared their testimonies about how good God is and how He answers prayer. A. Sue shared the meaning of the color beads with the children but most if not all the children consider themselves Christians already, so we taught them how to make the bracelets so they can share the good news with their friends. Du and her friends cooked lunch and brought it here (paid by Vision) so we ate lunch together at this village. It started to get really warm, the second really warm day we have been here, but we went to look at the place where the orphans lived and the new half-completed dorm. They need about $4500 (140,000 baht) to finish the building. After seeing the crowded conditions the kids are living in, we took up an offering and collected more than $500 (15,000 baht) for the children. We played some more with the kids and taught them to since the VBS songs and left exhausted to get our clothes washed in preparation for Sunday and leaving for more minority villages and our overnight stay on Monday.
> We got together at 6 PM for dinner, did our devotions and debriefed what we learned at the Lahu village. We had a great time as we listened to each other how God has been leading the team here in Thailand. Then we read the letters of encouragement which the parents and friends sent to the Vision team members that Marshall brought with him from LA and also from the Indonesian parents. There were many tears and sniffles as these letters were read. We are about half way through our trip so it was a blessing to read these letters of support. Thank you for those who wrote.
>
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{FECA Vision Choir} After dinner entertainment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGvc43_DvMI

You might enjoy this short clip of some of the things we do after dinner, combining percussion with worship.

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{FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 8

Saturday, July 7
The guys and girls stayed up fairly late (past midnight) to talk and pray so we got up fairly late for breakfast after 8 and left at 9 to go to an orphanage supported by Pastor Gampon's church located about 40 minutes from where we are staying. This orphanage is for Lahu children and has about 60 kids. A local pastor supported by Pastor Gampon's church and his wife and a small staff run this orphanage. We sang our normal acapella program and Tia from Indonesia and Aaron shared their testimonies about how good God is and how He answers prayer. A. Sue shared the meaning of the color beads with the children but most if not all the children consider themselves Christians already, so we taught them how to make the bracelets so they can share the good news with their friends. Du and her friends cooked lunch and brought it here (paid by Vision) so we ate lunch together at this village. It started to get really warm, the second really warm day we have been here, but we went to look at the place where the orphans lived and the new half-completed dorm. They need about $4500 (140,000 baht) to finish the building. After seeing the crowded conditions the kids are living in, we took up an offering and collected more than $500 (15,000 baht) for the children. We played some more with the kids and taught them to since the VBS songs and left exhausted to get our clothes washed in preparation for Sunday and leaving for more minority villages and our overnight stay on Monday.
We got together at 6 PM for dinner, did our devotions and debriefed what we learned at the Lahu village. We had a great time as we listened to each other how God has been leading the team here in Thailand. Then we read the letters of encouragement which the parents and friends sent to the Vision team members that Marshall brought with him from LA and also from the Indonesian parents. There were many tears and sniffles as these letters were read. We are about half way through our trip so it was a blessing to read these letters of support. Thank you for those who wrote.

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{FECA Vision Choir} Lahu orphans, Saturday

These are the 60 or so orphans we visited earlier today supported by a pastor and his team. The pastor is the man on the right.

{FECA Vision Choir} Buddhist elementary school, Friday afternoon

Most of these kids raised their hands to accept Jesus. Pray that the enemy will not snatch them back.

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Trip report 6

Thanks for your many encouraging words and nice to know there are so many prayer warriors behind us. Really appreciate it.

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 5, 2012, at 11:41 PM, Jimmy Tan <jimmyboonchaitan@fuller.edu> wrote:

We are praying for you: the health issues, personal and collective experience in the midst of ministry, logistics, testimonies and sermons. We ask the Lord to supply all your need and to empower you through his Holy Spirit. May each Vision member experience the Lord's presence in deep ways through this mission trip and may your lives and testimonies bring honor, praise, and glory to the Lord.

Jimmy and Soh Kwan

Friday, July 6, 2012

Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Report update 7

Dear Marshall and Vision Team,

Praise the Lord for touching so many people with the power of the gospel! We continue to pray for you all daily. Take care and keep up the good work, and may the Lord continue to deeply bless you and protect you, and touch many more lives through you!

Warmly,

Siang Yang

Sent from my iPad

On Jul 6, 2012, at 7:02 AM, Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

> Friday, July 6
> We got to sleep in a little later today, met for breakfast at 7:45 and left at 8:30 to go to a minimum security prison for juveniles (ages 16 to 24). Pastor Gampon couldn't come with us so Pastor Tong Kam, an assistant at the church and Ging, the church secretary came with us. The prison was simple to get into, no searches, no ID required and we sang in an open covered structure. About 400 inmates filed in and politely sat on the floor the entire time. We sang, did two skits (the puppet skit and the heavy burden skit, both from last year) in between the songs and Crystal and Elisabeth's testimonies. Crystal shared how God is good as she experienced during her mother's surgery and Elisabeth talked about how God gave her wisdom to deal with a potential suicide threat from her friend. Pastor Tom than shared his testimony how God took him from a party lifestyle to a meaningful Christ centered life. When he gave the invitation, about 50 young men raised their hands to pray the sinner's prayer. Praise God! When we were done the prison psychologist contradicted everything Pastor Tom had said by stating basically that all religions are good and therefore the same. We liken this to the birds that eat the seeds the sower sows by trying to dull the effect of the message. Pray that God will keep this from happening in the lives of those who professed their faith. After this, we met the "Christian group" of about 20 kids. Some spoke Chinese, so we were able to have the boys and adults talk to them in small groups, sometimes speaking in English translated to Mandarin and then to Thai. One young boy said he believed when he was 11 but said he never prayed since he went to jail so we were able to get him to pray. Another whose wife just had their baby 5 days ago said he was falsely accused of killing someone and is in jail for 3 years.
> We were supposed to be done at 10:30 but we finally left the prison at 11:30, got home to eat lunch and leave for our 1 PM program at a small elementary school (probably run by the Buddhist temple next to the school) with about 100 students, grades 1 to 6. Joseph ran the entire program; Alice shared her testimony about finding friends and Eric and Nadia did the heart skit. A. Sue than talked to the kids about the meaning of the 5 color beads and bookmark, basically explaining the Gospel message to the kids. About 80 kids raised their hands and prayed to receive Christ at the conclusion of her short talk. Pastor Tong Kam was so impressed with the way A. Sue interacted with the children and the effectiveness of her talk he asked if she was a children pastor. We left with two vans stopping by the mall and bank so we can have those who arrived Monday exchange some money, while the rest of us returned home to nap. Shortly after we arrived, it started to pour, but God held off the rain until our ministry was done, just another indication of His goodness.
> After dinner, we had our small group devotions and spent some time to debrief and process our day. We came to realize how much we need to be praying and to realize the spiritual warfare going on in the unseen world. We ended the day by spending some time in prayer, upholding all the decisions made today, that their hearts will be fertile soil for the new life to grow.
>
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Re: {FECA Vision Choir} Report update 7

Hi Uncle Marsh, this is En :)

It's sad to hear about what the prison psychologist did, but that's the reality out there: the birds will come and eat the seeds. I'm just done myself w/ the Chinese School VBS at our church, last week. (And getting ready for another one.) Majority of those students are from Buddhist family. We served more than 90 students during the VBS, and more than 60 received Christ. Some even asked, on how to pray at home because they don't go to church.

When I prepared our small group leaders, this is what the Lord brought to me:

I will give you the keys of of the kingdom of heaven, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Matthew 16:19.

What belongs to Christ will be His, no matter what, don't be discourage; keep spreading the Word!

I really miss my children, would that be possible to send pictures that has them in it soon?

blessings,

On Fri, Jul 6, 2012 at 7:02 AM, Marshall <umarsh07@gmail.com> wrote:

Friday, July 6
We got to sleep in a little later today, met for breakfast at 7:45 and left at 8:30 to go to a minimum security prison for juveniles (ages 16 to 24). Pastor Gampon couldn't come with us so Pastor Tong Kam, an assistant at the church and Ging, the church secretary came with us. The prison was simple to get into, no searches, no ID required and we sang in an open covered structure. About 400 inmates filed in and politely sat on the floor the entire time. We sang, did two skits (the puppet skit and the heavy burden skit, both from last year) in between the songs and Crystal and Elisabeth's testimonies. Crystal shared how God is good as she experienced during her mother's surgery and Elisabeth talked about how God gave her wisdom to deal with a potential suicide threat from her friend. Pastor Tom than shared his testimony how God took him from a party lifestyle to a meaningful Christ centered life. When he gave the invitation, about 50 young men raised their hands to pray the sinner's prayer. Praise God! When we were done the prison psychologist contradicted everything Pastor Tom had said by stating basically that all religions are good and therefore the same. We liken this to the birds that eat the seeds the sower sows by trying to dull the effect of the message. Pray that God will keep this from happening in the lives of those who professed their faith. After this, we met the "Christian group" of about 20 kids. Some spoke Chinese, so we were able to have the boys and adults talk to them in small groups, sometimes speaking in English translated to Mandarin and then to Thai. One young boy said he believed when he was 11 but said he never prayed since he went to jail so we were able to get him to pray. Another whose wife just had their baby 5 days ago said he was falsely accused of killing someone and is in jail for 3 years.
We were supposed to be done at 10:30 but we finally left the prison at 11:30, got home to eat lunch and leave for our 1 PM program at a small elementary school (probably run by the Buddhist temple next to the school) with about 100 students, grades 1 to 6. Joseph ran the entire program; Alice shared her testimony about finding friends and Eric and Nadia did the heart skit. A. Sue than talked to the kids about the meaning of the 5 color beads and bookmark, basically explaining the Gospel message to the kids. About 80 kids raised their hands and prayed to receive Christ at the conclusion of her short talk. Pastor Tong Kam was so impressed with the way A. Sue interacted with the children and the effectiveness of her talk he asked if she was a children pastor. We left with two vans stopping by the mall and bank so we can have those who arrived Monday exchange some money, while the rest of us returned home to nap. Shortly after we arrived, it started to pour, but God held off the rain until our ministry was done, just another indication of His goodness.
After dinner, we had our small group devotions and spent some time to debrief and process our day. We came to realize how much we need to be praying and to realize the spiritual warfare going on in the unseen world. We ended the day by spending some time in prayer, upholding all the decisions made today, that their hearts will be fertile soil for the new life to grow.

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