Sarah is holding weekly bible studies for the older girls at the Christian Edge. Jackie has been preparing lunch, so it’s a Girls Only Bible Study and luncheon. The girls are loving it, and Sarah is being used of God to teach these girls.

Next week the Christian Edge and Tampa YWAM are presenting a Summer Theatre Camp at the Edge. Art, Ellen, David, Cynthia, and others will be teaching the kids singing, dancing, acting, and silk screen printing t-shirts. We are so excited to provide this to kids in this area!

So lives are being touched, and we know that God has great things in store for this community! We are very excited as we anticipate all that God is going to do, and so thankful that we get to be a part of it!

Please pray for us over the coming weeks as we pour into the lives of these precious young men and women.

Written by Marion, YWAM Tampa Staff

Little did I know that God’s plan was to move me out of my comfort zone into the unknown. The very thought of not working for six months was very daunting. I felt as if someone had pulled the rug out from under my feet. Instead of trusting the Lord, I became fearful and worried. I asked God to give me three signs, and boy, did He flood me with lots of signs. Finally on September 5, 2010, I answered His call, and I told Him I would give six months of my time just to be with Him.

I finally made my way to YWAM Tampa on January 10, 2011. I must say I was not prepared for my stay in the woods. Hardly any street lights, and gravel roads. Wait a minute! Am I in America? I nearly went out of my mind after barely five days. No nearby shopping malls, no Borders, no movie theatres – I was so miserable.

The first month of DTS, especially the first week, was harder than I expected. I wanted to quit and fly back to Malaysia. Everything was so different, and I missed working very much. I missed my team and the “power” to spend money, too. I started to doubt if I have heard His voice correctly. Maybe I made a mistake? Maybe I was crazy? Maybe I was irrational?

Every morning, God led me to a nearby stream during my quiet time. I asked God why I had to do DTS in America when I could do my DTS in Penang, Malaysia. That would certainly save me plenty of money! He simply answered, “Sit with me.” As I spent more time with God, our relationship became increasingly intimate. I was falling in love with Jesus all over again. I felt like I was on a honeymoon with Him, and I found myself cherishing each moment with Him. He restored, refreshed, healed and affirmed my identity in Him during this time. I did not realize how much I formed my identity through my work until I had to give up my career. I finally understood the meaning of having an intimate relationship with Jesus.

I remember gazing into the sunset at Khao Lak beach during the last 2 days of DTS. The array colours of the sunset reflected God’s holiness and the splendor of His glory. As I sat and stared at the lighthouse amidst the rolling sea, I sensed God was telling me His faithfulness never stops, like the roaring waves. The lighthouse reminded me that God’s words are a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. That God always guides us. Then He spoke to me, “ Get ready for an adventure!”.

I had the privilege of sharing my experience with YWAM in a cell meeting in Malaysia. I was surrounded with working adults, and discovered I was the only one who was “unemployed”. I told them I may be “poorer“ with “lesser” money to my name but I was much at peace in the Lord. I found lots of joy in serving Him, learning to trust and to have faith in Him. In this season, I am more than happy to be in His Majesty’s Service. My journey with Tampa DTS may have ended on June 4^th, 2011. It has been an interesting yet restful experience. My journey with Jesus does not end here. I am happy to go on adventure with the King of all Kings.

Written by Mee Gee, PA DTS 2011 Student

New Friends

We arrived in Chiang Mai on April 13, just in time for the team to enjoy Songkran, or Thai New Year – a week long, nationwide water fight.  Then we spent the next two months traveling from Northern Thailand to Southern Thailand.

Is it nap time yet?

Friend to Friends in Lampang

We started out in a little Thai village called Ban Kharm, in Lampang Province. Our hosts were Jumnong and Tdai Sorser, directors of the Friend to Friends Project. They provide under privileged village children with an opportunity for education, and also work in community development in the home villages of these children.

Construction Work

English Camp

We stayed in the village for 3 weeks, teaching English at the local school, visiting Karen villages, prayer walking, gardening, building toilets and a stairway to a church. Most of the team slept on the floor and took cold showers and loved every minute of it.

Stairway to Heaven- Well, just to the church

While Sean helped the team with the English Camp and the other projects, Anne and the kids spent a lot of time walking through the village, visiting neighbours and praying for the people of the town to know Christ.  After we left, N’Tdai called to tell us that there were two new Christians in the Karen village of JokBok where we had ministered in the week before. Praise God.

Teaching English (Sean Translated)

Taa in Phitsanulok

Our next Destination was Phitsanulok. Sean drove the truck from Ban Kharm to Phitsanulok while the rest of us took the train. It’s about a 5 hour journey. Our host here was N’Taa, an awesome Thai church planter who is faithfully serving God as a Team of One – he has been in Phitsanulok for 3 years, ploughing the ground and planting the seeds! Faithfully. N’Taa has an awesome vision to see the people of his city and region come to know Jesus, for churches to be planted, discipling and equipping new Christians for service, and to see them be sent out as missionaries.

Out team helping Taa’s ministry

English Club

As we settled into our 10 day stay with N’Taa, we had to shift gears from a Village mentality to a City mentality. Prayer walking through his neighbourhood and city during the day, teaching English to a small group in the late afternoon, and then hanging out with the local skateboarding and breakdancing groups at night. The team learned lots of new moves as they spent time with these awesome young men and women!! One night, as the team was performing the drama that they had written and choreographed themselves, a young man started asking N’Taa questions about them meaning of the drama. A young woman also came to listen. By the time the night was over, both of them had given their hearts to Jesus, and N’Taa set up a bible study with them every Saturday.  This is the first fruits of N’Taa’s new church!!

The Beginning of a Church

We ate regularly at the food court at the Makro near N’Taa’s house, and a lady who served us food each day asked N’Gift (We have been very involved in N’Gift’s life for many years now and it was fun watching her step up as a leader), our translator, who we were and what we were doing. When she heard that we were Christians and were teaching English, she asked to come along. Soon, N’Taa’s house was filled with the family and friends of the young men and women the team was ministering to!

We performed music, drama’s and puppets

And again, after we left things really began to take off in the ministry. In early June, Sean visited N’Taa and learned how things had been progressing since we left. He now has 12 people coming to his Saturday Bible study, including his next door neighbour who gave her heart to Jesus after N’Taa prayed for her and she was healed! Several other people want to be baptized soon.

We ran kids clubs over 2 separate weekends

As we reflect on these events, we are humbled. We cannot take credit for these new Christians. It’s all God’s work. We obeyed His call to be Salt and Light in the world. We obeyed His call to GO and He did it! We rejoice that these baby Christians now have their names written in the Book of Life!

Group Hug

Phang Nga

Then it was on to a little town called Khok Kloi in Phang Nga province. The team had a 17 hour bus ride, extended by a few hours due to the bus breaking down early on. But they enjoyed themselves. It’s all part of the awesome outreach experience.

“The Forty” School

We worked 2 weeks with Phang Nga Church/Phang Nga Cornerstone Center and Ban Santisuk. where we happily rejoined the other half of our team. P’Yui and P’Peter were our hosts. They took good care of us, and gave us lots of work to do. More English Camps and school days for the team – at 3 different schools – Thai Muang School, Khok Kloi school and a School in a Burmese slum.

We went with the Burmese kids to the Beach

Our close friends Mark and Dorien run Ban Santisuk orphanage where we gardened, moved furniture, and played with the kids (Songs and puppet shows).

We also took the Burmese kids to the beach where we cleaned up all the trash on the beach. Sean had to leave early because a jellyfish stung Samantha.

The beach is more fun when you are with friends

A highlight of our time with PCC was the first day we visited the school at Thai Muang. It is made up of poor Thai children and Morgan Sea Gypsies. At the end of our program, we asked if any of the kids would like to give their hearts to Jesus. Forty – yes, 40!! – raised their hands. At this point P’Yui and N’Gift stepped in to explain in greater detail what this meant, the commitment these children were making. After being asked a third time if they were sure, all 40 of the children insisted they understood and wanted Christ as Lord of their lives.

40 New Believers

WOW!! What an awesome harvest! This school become very fondly known as ‘The Forty’ to our team, and we made sure we visited them again several times before we left.

Again, we are humbled to see what God is doing. We can’t take credit for this. Others have been faithful to obey the call to plant the seeds in this school and community. Others have lovingly preached Christ to these kids. God simply gave us the awesome privilege of being there on the day the HE brought in the harvest!!

No, not the baptism, just a waterfight

7 of our students expressed a desire to be re-Baptised. Either they had only received an infant Baptism or else felt that when they were Baptised that it was not with a full understanding of the commitment. They approached my dad (Art Sanborn) and I and asked the two of us to Baptise them in the ocean. The waves were very strong and it was fun, exciting, and incredibly difficult for my dad who is a recovering quadrapelegic to Baptise them. I’ll see if I can post the video of it to YouTube soon.

Seven Ocean Re-Baptisms

Debriefing

We wrapped up DTS outreach at a lovely beach resort in Khao Lak, Phang Nga Province. It was sobering to be here 6 years after the Tsunami. Nang Thong Beach Resort was wiped out by the Tsunami – only the pool remained -  and the manager of the resort told us how she was severely injured and was in therapy for years. Many of her family and friends died in the disaster.  Khao Lak was one of the hardest hit areas in Thailand. Several people told us their painful stories and others expressed their fear. We prayed that God would bring them peace and protect them. We saw a lot of relieved smiles.

Written by Sean Sanborn, Training Director

I saw people get saved. I helped orphan kids see that people loved and cared for them. As we ministered I saw many people – businessmen, church attendees, students – find peace. One night, the Lord allowed me to step in and save a man from killing himself. All this was part of a long journey, and God showed me so much! The truth that was poured into me over the past five months, from guest speakers and staff, will be with me the rest of my life. I can never thank the Father, or the people who took the time to make this happen, enough.

There is one story that stands out to me. We were ministering at a church in Southern Thailand. An orphan boy attached himself to me. He was sitting next to me before the service started. One of the girls from the team came and sat on the other side of him. I looked down at him and he smiled real big. He looked at me, then the girl, and back to me.

He said, “My new mom and dad!”

My heart sank…what could I say? I looked into his big brown smiling eyes and asked myself “how can you become so attached to a child that’s not even yours?”

I told the other student what he had said.

I turned to the boy and said, “We’re not married”.

He promptly responded, “Well, you should be!”

So he knew that we couldn’t adopt him. But he still called me “paw”, which is father in Thai. He fell asleep in the arms of his “mom” that night as we were praying for people. I then carried him to the truck that would be taking him home. I felt a very deep pain watching him go. Then God said to me, “Now you have a small understanding of what I did for you”.

God taught me so much in one moment, from one little orphan boy. More than I could try to teach myself in a year.

Written by Richard, PA DTS 2011 Student

We decided to stop by the Principal’s office and see if there was anything we could do to bless the school.
“Can we help with anything”, we asked.
The Principal replied, “Do you want the younger kids, or the older kids?”
“Whaaaaat?! Older kids I guess.”
“Ok, you have them for two hours. Thanks so much!”

Well, its not normal in America for sure, but me and my other young friends taught about 30 kids in their classroom that day.

We could feel the spiritual tension and the enemy and his anger, because the kids were not cooperative. It was almost a nightmare for the first hour and a half. But at the very end, they quieted down to hear my teammate tell her testimony. The kids speak a southern dialect of Thai, and the only one in our group that spoke Thai speaks the northern dialect. He did his best to translate, but it seemed pointless. Then all of a sudden he began to translate perfectly, and all the kids became silent! Afterward, he said that four years ago he had this dream: ‘that I was here in this very room… translating for these kids in their dialect!’

Before we left, we prayed over them and their Principal.

Written by Sarah, PA DTS 2011 Student. You can read more about Sarah’s DTS outreach experience on her blog: The Tom Scott Project

*Editors note: At ‘The Forty’ School, 40 of the children gave their hearts to Jesus, so we made a point of visiting them several times during our stay in Phang Nga. Please pray for the children at ‘The Forty’ – for the Word of God to be sealed in their hearts, for mentors and disciplers to come into their lives so that they may Reach their Destiny In Christ.

I thank the Lord that although we had no furniture to enjoy at our host’s house, it was a peaceful sanctuary for me, and I felt totally refreshed the morning after we arrived. Every morning there was a constant cool breeze that blew in from the rice field behind the house. The neighborhood was extremely quiet – a perfect atmosphere to have an incredible quiet time – even though we were a few blocks away from the commotion of the city. I was feeling frustrated that we had worked so hard in Lampang, but we hadn’t seen a single person become a follower of Christ**. I kept asking the Lord to use us to bring people to himself, even if it was just one person.

Each evening in Phitsanulok we visited either a group of skateboarders or break-dancers that our host Taa has been ministering to for 3 years. We had so much fun watching them skate or dance and also just hanging out and talking with them. The third time that we went to visit the break-dancers that there was this unexplainable, unspoken buzz among us which I can only explain as the Holy Spirit’s anticipation of what was about to happen. It was like we were totally focused on the mission of sharing Christ’s love and Gospel with those kids, and we were expecting the Lord to do great things. We hung out for a while and tried to learn some moves, then we asked if we could do a presentation for them. We started out with the classic cookie skit to loosen things up, and then we performed “Chains”, a dance/drama that Chelsea had written. What a perfect atmosphere to do that skit. We were on an actual dance floor, outside, with no special limitations. We had a great stereo to blast the music, the moons and the stars were shining above us and a group of young dancers were our audience. Even though our “dance” was nothing compared to their moves, there was a spiritual and emotional truth that really drew their attention. After we finished, Chelsea shared her testimony followed by Ben, and then we went back to having fun with them.

I noticed that halfway through Ben’s testimony, one of the boys had gone over and started talking to Taa. After about an hour, I noticed they were still in an in depth conversation, and there was a girl listening too. We had to leave because our taxi had arrived but Taa was able to stay and talk. Later that night I asked how the conversation went. The first words out of his mouth were, “They both accepted Christ.” Those words were like music to my ears. I had been longing and praying for one person to become a believer, but God went above and beyond and saved double of what I had asked for! I was so excited! I can’t even imagine the celebration around the throne in heaven that night. The entire night was a blast, but an ending like that made the night so much more amazing. Our God really is mighty to save, and I am so glad and thankful and honoured to have been a part of His work in the lives of those 2 people. Praise the Lord! The End.

Written by James, PA DTS 2011

**Editor’s note: The same night these 2 gave their lives to the Lord, our hosts in Lampang called to tell us that 2 people in one of the villages we visited had also given their lives to Jesus!!! Praise God for His work! Praise God that His word never returns void, but it accomplishes it’s purpose.

My life was impacted by the whole Outreach to Thailand. It is hard for me to decide what had the greatest impact. Was it helping build a bathroom and stairs in the Karen village, and teaching at the English camp in Lampang? Or perhaps it was shining the light of Jesus among the break dancers and skate borders in Phitsanoluk? Driving from North to South Thailand with Sean which was very good because he explained a lot about spiritual warfare and being a missionary. Was it sharing Jesus with kids at schools and orphanages in Phang Nga? Or was it the day of spiritual warfare on the mountain in Khao Lak? All of these experiences changed my life, and I am never going to stop being a missionary. I love working for God.

Written by Ben, PA DTS 2011 Student