Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope it was wonderful for you all!
There have been lots of Christmas celebrations here: I think five parties already and there are four more next weekend! Crazy stuff.
Expect a longer update soon: We've been doing a lot, and I've been thinking a lot, I just need to find the time to write it all down. But for now, here's the chorus of a song that I've been thinking about recently:
"To hear with my heart/To see with my soul/To be guided by a hand I cannot hold/To trust in a way that I cannot see/That's what faith must be."
How's your faith these days?

What am I doing here?

The title makes this sound much more theological or something than it actually is: I realized the other day that I have never given you all a thorough explanation of what I'm doing/how everything works over here. So I guess I should do so.
The organization (for lack of a better word...) that I'm working with is called the Love and Care Project Foundation. It is a Thai foundation started by a married couple; Rodney and Phimpha Wojciechowski.
Rodney is originally from Minnesota while Phimpha is Thai. It is a very small foundation, more like a family than anything else. The workers consist of Rodney and Phimpha, a Thai couple who lives with them (Anon and Dang), and then random volunteers who come and help. Right now, besides me, there are three volunteers from Australia.
The main ministry of the Love and Care Foundation is to take care of children who have no other place to go/no one to take care of them. Right now there are 13 children on the property (which is called the Timothy house). They range in age from 2-16, and there are 5 girls and 8 boys.
The physical set-up here at the Timothy House is pretty simple: there is a building that was originally going to be an office where the children all sleep. There is a dorm building mostly finished that the kids will move into eventually. This building has about a dozen good sized rooms, so there will be plenty of space for the kids. Besides these two more modern/western style buildings, there is an open area that serves as a kitchen/dining room, as well as a couple huts. There is a fish pond in the yard, a garden out back, two cows, a dog, and several chickens. [edit: since I first wrote this, there are fewer animals living here...but we will have beef for Christmas!]
Along with working with the children, there are always other people that need helping. Phimpha is the head of the women’s' ministry with the local church, and random people call all the time looking for help with their problems. (for example...giving people rides random places, moving straw in the back of the pickup truck, cutting rice, giving advice, going with a young girl to the police station to report a crime, taking in a disabled man whose family refuses to take back from the hospital...you never know what a day here will bring.)
Most days I ride in with Rodney to drop off the kids at school in the mornings. Then I either go out with Rodney and Phimpha as they help out people or run errands, or I stay at home and help look after the two 2-year-olds who are the only ones too young to go to school. If I'm at home when the kids get out of school, I get a chance to hang out with them before dinner, and I'm nearly always around to play with them after dinner before bed. It is neat to see how much the kids are like every other kid I've ever met: they love to play and laugh and have fun.
Well, I assume you are all tired of reading now, so I'll sign off. Thanks for reading! :)

Mailing address

For any of you who want it, this is my mailing address here!
Love and Care Project Foundation
PO Box 2
Klong Hat, Thailand 27260

Here's one of the girls at the house here! I have no idea how to spell her name--you pronounce it sorta like "doy" ... she's great :)

Hello all! Just wanted to let you know that Luke got out of the hospital on Friday! Thanks for your prayers! He is doing very well hopping around on crutches...still keep him in your prayers as he has some recovering to do still. I think he goes back to the hospital in about a month to get the pins taken out of his ankle.
This weekend we had the first two Christmas parties! They were a lot of fun! Lots of Christmas carols and food and people. And, at both parties I ended up singing in front of everyone with the three other volunteers that are here. We sang Joy to the World, and now Phimpha is having me look up the words to more Christmas carols to sing for Christmas. So that will be interesting! Fun, but makes me a little bit nervous...not quite like singing with the worship team back home where someone else is in charge picking out the music and making sure things run smoothly.
Well, I should go figure out how to ask to print these lyrics! Hope you all are enjoying your weekend and the week before Christmas! :)

Prayer Please!

Just a quick prayer request: one of the kids--Luke---fell down the other day and broke his ankle. He is in the hospital recovering---he should hopefully return home on Wednesday. He is doing pretty well, but still has lots of healing to do.
I will keep you updated as much as possible! Thanks!

Greetings again! I have not been on the internet in a week, so I feel like there is a lot to say. But most of what I have been doing isn't all that interesting to read about: been playing with kids a lot, helping out with dishes and laundry and mudding/sheetrocking a dorm.
Last Saturday we picked up Christmas child boxes from Samaritans Purse that we will get to hand out to kids in the village/church around here. That will be fun! We're going to be a part of 4 or so different Christmas parties this month, which will be cool! there will be one in the village, one with the church, one with the kids' parents, and at least one more, but I'm not sure who that's with...I guess I'll find out when it happens!
That's how life is usually around here: don't always know what's going on until shortly before it happens.
but I've got to run! I have taken a couple pictures that I'll post soon....here's one of the kitchen area and a hut next to it for two Thai workers who are living here right now and below it a picture of the dorm where I'm living. I will post more soon! :)

random thoughts

This morning was spent cutting rice out in the rice fields....interesting stuff....a lot of the rice had been out in the field too long because the guy we were helping couldn't afford to hire someone to help him cut it. so it had just died in the hot sun. Puts a whole new view on the verse in Matthew “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
Lots of people are ready to hear God's word, but who's going out to tell them? They won't be there forever...
food for thought.

on another note, a random fact I learned at dinner time last night: the Thai phrase for it's time to eat when translated means "eat rice". so even when they have something else for dinner, that's what they're saying: eat rice. gives you an idea of how much they eat it! I think I've had it about 3 times a day since I got here.....good thing I like it! :)
well, that's all for now! Hope you're all doing well back home!

I'm here!

Hello all!
I am alive and well in Thailand! Things here are going well, learning lots of new things every minute, so it's a bit of information overload, but it's all good!
Been eating a lot of new interesting things---half the time I have no clue what I'm eating even when someone tells me! But it's been great to meet all the kids here--they're all sweet and fun to hang out with! I got to play soccer with a couple of the boys the other day, which was a lot of fun! I'll have to pull out the frisbee soon and see if they enjoy that as well.
Tonight we have a prayer meeting at the church in the area, so that will be neat to go to! And I'll also be helping to make a Christmas card that they send out to the believers all over Thailand. So that's exciting!
Well, I've got to run! I'll try to get up some pictures soon.
Hope all is well back in the states!!
~Andrea~

Well, tomorrow's the day! Leaving the house at 6am to get to Boston about 7:30 for a 9:30 flight! Pretty exciting!! Well, that's it I believe. I will update this as soon as possible once I make it there alive. ;)
~Andrea~

Thanksgiving

"You have done so much for me, oh Lord, no wonder I am glad! I sing for joy!"
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Travel Plans

Hello Everyone!
I booked my new flight! I will be flying out next Saturday (the 26th) and arriving in Bangkok late at night on the 27th. This means I will be home for Thanksgiving! I'm pretty excited about that, though I am rather anxious to head out as well...
Well, I guess that's it! Updates will follow once I'm actually on my way!!!

It's Here!!

The long awaited passport has arrived! Soo thankful that it was not lost somewhere in the mail!
Next steps from here: trying to figure out when exactly to leave. The flights for t next couple days are wicked expensive, so probably not leaving until Wednesday at the earliest, but the there's Thanksgiving to consider...so we shall see. Lots of thinking and planning will commence! I will post updates as I know them. Thanks all for your prayers!

Psalm 100
A psalm. For giving grateful praise.

1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

a hitch in the plans...

Hello Everyone!
As you may know, I was supposed to leave for Thailand today. Unfortunately, this did not happen because my visa/passport has not yet arrived in the mail. It should be here soon, and United seems to be pretty good about changing flights (I'm on hold with them right now...) so I should be off in a couple days! Just wanted to make sure you all are aware of what is going on!
I will post an update once I reschedule my flight, but I might wait to choose a departure date until I receive my passport in the mail so I don't end up doing this again.
Thanks for all of your prayers!
~Andrea~

Prayer Requests from Thailand

"And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people." --Ephesians 6:18

I asked Rodney for some ways we could be praying for them, and here's his reply:
"For Safety for us, as we are constantly under attack from
satan in many ways by many people. Phimpha's life has been threatened
many times. Pray For our children that they will grow up in Christ
and become servants of God most high. Pray for Phimpha's new position
appointed by God into the woman's group. He made her the leader by
sending the power of the holy spirit down. Pray that she can hear
clearly and be guided so he can use her the way he wants to. Pray that
we can bring the Christians back together again as they have been
separated and can not work together. Mostly Pray for more workers as
the field is so ripe but so few to help the harvest. Anyone can help
here. Do not look to others. If God is calling then make the decision
to come and let go of your comfort zone."

Donations...

Hello Everyone!
One week to go! Crazy!!
So I recently got information from Rodney on how you could donate money to him and Phimpha in Thailand. I'm going to post it here in case any of you are interested! They could always use donations since they are always taking in more kids or giving away what they have to people who need it.
Have a fantastic day!
~Andrea~

To donate choose either of the below methods.

Rodney Wojciechowski Through pay-pal if you are familiar with them and
have an account with them. Mark it as a "Gift" Please so they do not take fees out of it.
Use either email address:
Rodney: rodski@gmail.com
Phimpha's: omega_921@hotmail.com

Or send a check to Rodney's church. You must put " Rodney Thailand"
in the memo area of the check so they will forward it to him.
Make the check out to Maranatha.
The Church address is:
Maranatha Assembly of God
24799 Forest Boulevard North
Forest Lake, MN 55025-7215,

If you need it for a tax deductable gift it should go through the Church Maranatha.

Why Go?

So at this point, I assume you already know that I am going to Thailand for six months. If you didn't know that, you probably would not be on this blog.
What you may not know is why I decided to go. So basically, here's a bit of my thought process behind this decision.
Starting shortly before I graduated I began to feel like God wanted me to do some sort of overseas missions. But I had no idea what that would look like or where He wanted me to go. I had already committed to spending last schoolyear helping out with the mock trial team at UNH, so I spent lots of this past year praying and trying to figure out where exactly I was supposed to end up. Last spring, I got the chance to sit down with one of my friends from UNH and discuss different opportunities to go overseas. One of these opportunities that she suggested was to go to Thailand to work with a couple (Rodney and Phimpha) who help out abandoned children, refugees, women in need, and pretty much anyone who could use help. After considering many other options and praying and thinking a lot, I decided that this was the place that God wanted me to go. I still did not know if they needed help though, so I sent off an email to Rodney. 20 minutes later, I received a reply saying that I could come the next day if I wanted: they could always use help! I couldn't have asked for a clearer answer.
So here I am, several months later, finally making the last minute preparations for my trip! I leave in less than two weeks (November 15th) and will be in Thailand for slightly less than six months (until May 9). I will try to update this blog as often as I can while I am over there. Feel free to leave comments/questions and I will figure out the answers---or email me/facebook me if you want! Sometime before I leave I will post some things to pray about while I'm over there, but for now, prayer for last minute preparations would be great! Thanks so much!
~Andrea~

“Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. …..
Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”” (Mark 10:21-22, 28-31)