Sunday, January 29, 2012

Hey All!

It has been a busy, crazy week here! And God is good.

Firstly,
after much prayers the situation between us and the opposition by the
teachers has been resolved!
Praise God, thank you all for your prayers and words of encouragement.
They have been so comforting to me the last few days. :)
We have been given again free reign to preach and teach the Bible, as
long as it is not during English classes. The kids are coming around
again to study.

Urt is coming often to learn guitar from Luke and then study the Bible
together.
He seems to follow Luke's leadership and does everything he does. It's
very cute.
The other day our translator lost her shoe in the river. As soon as
Urt heard about it he jumped into the river fully clothed to help her.
Haha. Also, after our Bible study about the Holy Spirit living inside
of believers and Christ telling us to do what he did, Urt went home
and prayed healing over his Dad in the name of Jesus. Today we saw
them out in the village together, His Dad all smiles It has been
amazing to see Urt walk out the Christian life with no direction from
us! He just does what he sees in Scripture. He has been bringing his
friends to know Christ as well. :)

Luke and I were able to spend the eveniong at Lamod's house the other day!
It was wonderful. She has been praying daily and studying, but not as
often. She does not like to study alone, I think. And gets confused
with some things in the Bible. It's hard for her when we are not there
because she has no one to ask questions to.
But her faith is still growing strong! She is very busy going to
school 50 minutes away from Nahong everyday. But wants to know more
and more about living like a Christian.
Pray that her desire to be a missionary to her people wouldn't be
squelched in school!
At the end of our visit her Mom, Gail Dee (who is a good friend of
mine in the vilage), asked us to pray over her. She has been having
anxiety problems. So right there with Lamod's family and best friend,
we prayed over her and her household. It was incredible.
Pray that her parents would take the leap and come to know Jesus too!

This wek was Boy Scout Camping week. Which we like to sometimes call
"the death march" Haha. Amazingly though, this year went very well!
There is typically a lot of fights and humiliation of the students
that happen at this event. This year my heart was at peace much more
and I had so many great conversations with the teachers who came!

One of the teachers, Kru Tuk, expressed to us her fear of ghosts the
other night. And one ghost specifically. Pray that she would listen to
the power of Jesus and let him set her free of these ghosts.

Unity in the team is well :) Thank you for all of your prayers!
There is one student I need you to keep praying for me to have
patience and wisdom with as our time here goes on! Sometimes I feel
worn to the thinnest. But somehow God always comes through for me. I
feel a lot of us are getting tired.

On a bad note- sometime this week, throughout al of the hiking rivers
and driving through mountains, I put my back out pretty bad. This is
not normal for me!  Everytime I move I have pain and it's been hard to
push through and do ministry like this. Especially today being sports
day at a Youth Hostel in Menajong (which we still had a great time at
despite me not participating). I keep joking that God is just teaching
me empathy towards Luke.

Luke and I were able to have some us time yesterday :)
Lisa left our team to fly back to the states (this was prearranged)
yesterday. She will fly out next week, but is spending her last week
in Chiang Mai with her husband :) Tom is returning to Nahong next
Wednesday. And so Luke and I drove with them down to Chaing Mai,
dropped them off, and headed back up the mountain just us 2.
Spoiler Alert: Chey is very proud of Luke!
As of 3 weeks ago luke did not drive stick shift, much less in the
mountains. Yesterday he navigated the truck perfectly through the 2nd
biggest city in Thailand and the winding  mountain roads safely home
to Nahong. But I'll stop bragging now... ;)

Pray for us (Myself, Luke, Joanna and Tirzah) as the staff holding
down the fort while Tom is away. Tom is very respected in the village
and the team.
In his absence Luke will be leading our team.
I have also taken over the finances from Lisa. So you can pray I don't
get mugged. Haha.

Our new translator arrives on Monday.
We drive to Chiang Mai and get Tom back on Wednesday.
And Sat or Sunday our dear friend Taa comes to Nahong!
There is the next week in a nutshell.

Love to you all!
I have been missing my family and friends so much this week,
you are always in my thoughts and prayers.
Love,

Chey.



Cheyenne Clark
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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Prayin' Time Please!

Hey Everyone!
I'm currently in Mae Chem (about 45 minutes from Nahong) and so I can actually write a complete update!

We just got back from a trip into the mountains to a small hill tribe village called Menagee. We were invited to come by a good friend of ours in Nahong, who last year we were able to share with about the Messiah. She thinks very highly of us and attributes blessings in her life to our prayers for her. We have a dinner with her next week and pray that she is open to us sharing the full Gospel with her! Her heart has been opening to God over the past several years.
Anyways, the trip was to a "student day" party hosted by the school there (a one room bamboo building) where her son is the head teacher.
*Last year we were able to pray blessings over her son before his teacher' exam, so this meant a lot to him to have us there*
It was a fun day. Very hot in the open sun. The trip was treacherous. And I can now say I will buy a Toyota truck! Not only did it climb clay roads in the mountains today, but crossed through 2 rivers! I rode in the truck bed and needless to say my rear end hurts now. Haha.

On a more urgent note- Serious pray is needed here this week as we try to discern a situation that has risen up within the School.
As some of you know, one of my students gave her life to Christ last week. She was the one who saw miracles.
Since around that time some of the Children have been acting strangely, avoiding Bible studies and not coming to our home after school.
When we asked this girl why not, she told us she wanted to study the Bible with us so bad, but she was afraid of one of the teachers.
By asking around we have found out that our students have been threatened by Teachers, that if they hang out with us besides English class and sports they will get a beating. This is not okay!
It is not at all in the character of this person to say things like this to the children. In fact this teacher has been one of the closest to us the past couple years. She has even asked many questions about who Jesus is and calls us like Family. In my heart I feel this person is trying to protect us from someone else. It's very aggravating to not know who is opposing you!
But we know ultimately who opposes us. It's thrown me into much more intercession for Nahong. Please join me in this!
Things have been going incredibly well this year and fast pace as we have been ale to pick up right where we left off. Not only that, but to see the few believers here have grown on their own. Now something is blocking the progress and needs to be prayed out hardcore.
There is so much fear going around, it seems. Please pray for freedom for the Thai's to worship the One True God!

Encouragingly, Urt ad Lamud seem completetly nonplussed by these treats and have been faithfully studying and worshipping with us.
Yesterday Urt and his friend, Sam (who gave his life to Christ thru Urt last year) came over. Luke was teaching Urt to play guitar and I was just hanging out with them. After the guitar lesson Urt asked us to teach him more about the Bible.They asked us how they can know the same power the apostles had (this was after reading Luke 9, where Jesus sends out the 12 to heal and preach). We told them all they had to do was ask God. So right there they prayed for their hearts to become a "Spirit house of God". They were pumped, and of course we were too!
Pray Also that I would get more time to see Lamud (as she is in high school now in another town and doesn't get home til late).

Please pray for me as I lead the girls in our team. Unity has been very difficult to keep at points and I am doing my best to maintain my relationship with God so I can pour into them as well as the Thai's. God has been faithful. The Bible is my escape. I need divine insight and patience every day here!
Luke and I also haven't gotten much time together since we have been busy with ministry everyday. I'm praying that God will bless us with a "date" soon. :)

Love to you all! Please let me know how things are going back home. ~ Chey.

Cheyenne Clark
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