So much has happened over the the last week! Birthdays, Water fights, and the work of our Heavenly Father!

I had my 19th birthday on Sunday the 23rd, so two days ago! This past week I was feeling really homesick, and missing my family a lot. I was excited for my birthday but at the same time, I knew that I would miss my family even more!  I had no idea what to expect when I woke up Sunday morning, but what awaited me that day was more than I could ask for! I woke up to see that my phone had been "stolen" and that I wasn't allowed to leave the room until one of the girls escorted me down to the main floor.  When it came time, I was lead down stairs to see all the DTS, and my mom and dad on facetime, singing me happy birthday! The whole dining area was decorated, and there was crepes and ice cream for breakfast! It was so special, and tears of joy were definitely shed! Everyone had dressed up, and it felt like being with my closest family!  We then went to church, which always is special, and then ate a local restaurant, where I swear I had one of the best meals since we have been in Thailand!  We then came home and I was able to relax for about 30 minutes, until I was ushered back down stairs for another surprise! We played some games, and then E-E, one of our contacts here, came in bearing a huge pot, that of course  wasn't allowed to look in! But much to my surprise, when the lid was lifted, I saw the most beautiful homemade strawberry cake! It was chocolate inside with strawberry slices and chocolate chips covering the out! It was amazing! After eating cake and talking for a while, playing more games, I then was told we were going to dinner, (I think I gained 5lbs. in one day if that is even possible! ;) ) We went to this grill your own BBQ place, it was all you can eat, and amazing! All for around $5! We then went to the night market and looked around, and at the end of the night we tried grilled octopus tentacles!  A perfect ending to a perfect day! I was so blessed, and so amazed at how much went into this day! Even though I wasn't with my immediate family, I got to spend it with my incredible Dts Family! I couldn't have been happier to welcome in the new year of 19, than to share it with these people!

Then today at the Ywam school, we had just such a wonderful day, teaching Bible stories and English, and just playing with the kids! Then after lunch we had a huge water fight! Everyone against everyone! It was definitely one of the highlights to see the kids so happy, constantly laughing and smiling! I just feel so blessed that I have this opportunity, to be in Dts, to be in Thailand, to meet these kids. They are all so special and I love them all so much! I can't even think of the day when we will leave for the last time!

This Friday, we are really trying to show the Jesus film in one of the orange farm compounds! The problem is we have to get permission from the owner, and one already has said no, so please please pray for open doors!! And a huge crowd to see it!  I still haven't been able to get anyone to visit G, and I have emailed 4 different people.  It is really frustrating and hard for me, because being 4 hours away I literally cannot do anything. Please pray for quick responses and that action would be taken to bring G into freedom and to Christ! 

It is all happening so fast! We only have 3.5 weeks left of outreach! It is really crazy how the whole Dts is flying by! But I am so glad I have the memories and pictures to hold on to! This has really been a life changing experience and I can't wait to finish the next weeks as strong as I started!! 

May God Bless you!

Eliana

Hello fellow supporters! It's time to get involved and be a part of changing some kids lives! We are in dire need of supplies for the Ywam school here in fang, as well as money for food!

This school is a safe place for these kids to come and get an education for free, while there parents work in the orange farms. If it wasn't for this amazing ministry these kids would be forced to go and work with their parents, or stay at home without any education at all. The school is solely based on donations from the ministry leaders supporters.  We have raised enough money to buy them the rice cooker they need, but there are many more things the ministry is in need of...

• School Supplies: Pencils, Notebooks, Paper, Markers, Books to read, Children's Bibles, Teaching Curriculum, etc. 
• Paint! I will try and take some pictures of the buildings to show you how gray they are! We thankfully have a few artists on the team and want to paint the outside walls and inside classrooms, with murals, drawings from the kids, their hand prints, and Bible verses! 
• Building Materials! We want to build the kids a small playground in the Jungle area near by, nothing fancy, just a tire swing, a balancing rope, and a big tepee that they can have class in and play in during the breaks!
• Money for food! The school provides complimentary lunches for the children every day and that can add up! Each week they spend about $100 on rice alone. 
• Support for the families of the ministry, we want to bless them financially! 

If any of these areas spark your interest you can email me directly, eliana.j.jirucha@gmail.com and I will make sure your money is used to better these children's futures! All money that is donated will be used for one of the above projects.  $20 in Thailand can go a really long way, so any amounts are accepted!  We would like to get started as soon as possible so please email me by Tuesday night.  

Let's join together to make this School a brighter, happier, healthier, atmosphere filled with God's love! God has given us a heart for this ministry and these children and we want to bless their lives and their school! We see how much Jesus loves them and we want to be demonstrators of His love! 

Thank you so much for all of your support! I look forward to hearing from you and being able to tell you the testimonies of the work we have done! 

On this Valentines Day we are celebrating His love for us, and the amazing ways He demonstrates this eternal love. I think our whole group is shouting praises to Him for His mighty hand and the work that He is doing while in Thailand.  Last night, we had the opportunity to go on a house visit to a compound inside an orange farm.  It was a place that the team wasn't able to go to until now, because the owner of the orange farm had forbid it.  We went and visited the parents of two school children.  They welcomed us into their 2 room home with lots of smiles and sticky rice!

We started talking to them, telling what Jesus had done in our own lives. We started with creation, how God created the whole world, the man and the woman, and that when they disobeyed God, sin entered the world. We then went to Jesus, and how sin separated us from God, so He sent His one and only son, Jesus, to stand in the gap so that we may be reunited with our Heavenly Father.  We were so excited, so on fire, and then we were like "Oh yeah, have they ever heard of Jesus before?"  Ee-Ee, our translator, told us that No, they had never heard of Jesus, they had no idea who He was.  We were sitting their with our mouths gaping open, but I think because of hearing that our fire grew more intense, the love we had for these people spread in our hearts like a forest fire.  We kept going, sharing the love of Jesus Christ, we read John 3:16-17, and then after we shared and shared and shared what God laid on our hearts, I got a second of boldness and said "Can you ask if they want to accept Jesus??" and we waited, and waited, as Ee-Ee translated and then they spoke and then Ee-Ee spoke some more and finally, the moment of truth... "Yes!" she said, "They want to accept Jesus as their Savior."  

We made sure they understood what we had said, and they knew what they were saying yes to, and then we lead them in a prayer of accepting Jesus Christ into their lives, as Lord and as Savior, repenting of their sins and asking for God's mercy and forgiveness.  What a beautiful moment, a time of rejoicing in Heaven, all of us were grinning from ear to ear, welcoming them into the family of Christ! 

That's a great story, and an incredible moment, but it doesn't end there.  A neighbor lady came in half way through and sat there listening, and she said she wanted to hear more about Jesus, and then outside there were 4-5 people listening the whole time, because they were to shy to come in.  AND THEN!! As we were leaving, the husband of the neighbor lady called to Theo, and told him that he had been listening the whole time and that he wanted us to bring the whole team and come back next week to tell him more about Jesus!!

It was such an incredible, amazing, blessing, and privilege to be a part of welcoming two more Shan refugees into the Kingdom.  I know that the angels are rejoicing and that there is a party in heaven.  God's hand is at work here in Fang, in Thailand, in the World, and I am filled with gratitude when I think God is able to use me, a sinner, an average american, that He can speak through me to bring the gospel to the unreached. Please pray for the two who came to Christ tonight, Boe and her husband Lang, as well as for the seeds that were planted, pray that they would grow and that we would be able to reap the harvest!

All for the Glory of His name, 

Eliana

Here's a visual look into what I've been up to the past few days
as well as a few oldies from Chiang Mai. Enjoy!

Baptizing a Shan Lady, Welcome to the family!:)

Testimony at Church in Chiang Mai

Praying over Chiang Mai on the top of the
Mountain over seeing the city.

Our Chiang Mai Church Family

This Kid<3

Alphabet Games

Teaching at the Ywam School

Piggy Back Rides

House Church

Surprised to see some Children from school

Day two in Fang and I couldn't be happier! Last night four of us went on a house visit about 25 minutes outside of where we are staying! We went into the rural area where the night sky glistened with stars! It was beautiful, but more beautiful than that was the experience we had there! A young boy and a young girl, probably in their early twenties, they excepted Jesus as their Lord and Saviour!! They had been thinking about it since Christmas, but what a privilege is was that our group was there to witness it and to pray over them! We sang worship songs in norwegian and englished & listened as they worshipped in their own language! It was truly a wonderful experience and I feel so blessed to be a part of it!

This morning we went to the Ywam school again! This time we prepared 2 bible stories, one for the younger kids and one for the older. I was with the younger kids who learned all about David & Goliath and that there is no fear when we have Christ Jesus on our side! Theo, Channah, and I were then in charge of teaching English to the middle kids! We are supposed to teach three hours of English a day, 50 minutes at a time, so we have three sessions per day, two in the morning and then one after lunch. For the first hour I taught them the alphabet and was able to draw pictures that went along with the letter and we also played some games with the letters as well!  Channah then taugh the kids the colors and after lunch Theo worked with them on simple addittion and counting! We had a whole hour for lunch where we got to play with the kids and bond with them more! We were all exhausted after running around, giving piggy back rides, picking up kid after kid, but we all were loving it. As we watched the kids drive away we all had huge grins on our faces, we were so in love with these children and so excited for the weeks to come!

Tomorrow we will have a short Ywam staff meeting and then we will go to a baptism! In the afternoon we may be handing out clothes to the children, but I don't have all of the information so I will update you tomorrow night!

Thankyou for your prayers and support! Please continue to pray for our team as well as the ministry here in fang, the Shan refugees, and our friend G from Chiang Mai! We are still praying that one of the ministries there will get in touch with him and help get him out of prostitution! We are also in prayer for a rice cooker for the school because the one they had broke and their gas stove is leaking which is dangerous and could potentially cause an explosion! So please pray for God's provisions in this!

Be blessed like you have blessed me!

Eliana

After a 3 hour drive up North from Chiang Mai, we made it to Fang! Our new home for the next 6 weeks! We are staying at the outreach center, a 3 story building with a pristine view of the jungle and hill tops! The showers are cold, but when it is 80 degrees Fahrenheit and humid, it's more than tolerable and actually quite refreshing! The staff of the Ywam school along with Tore, our contact in Fang, had a welcome dinner for us! We had a Shan dish, noodles & sauce, kind of like a twist on spaghetti! We also tried the tamarind fruit, as well as a fruit nobody new the name of, it looked like a rounder kiwi but tasted more like a pear or apple! Anyways it was a perfect first evening! We 

are so blessed that we have a stove to cook with so this morning for breakfast we were able to have oatmeal! :)

My heart is exploding with love and happiness after this morning! We went to visit the Ywam school we will be working with for the next 6 weeks! Some of the kids are Shan refugees, others Thai, and others are Karen refugees.  The school is a safe place for the children to be while their parents are working in the orange fields! They are taught bible stories, English, Thai & Shan! As soon as we got out of the car children came and jumped on us hugging us, just wanting to be loved! It brought some of us to tears to see their beautiful smiling face and to hug them tight! After multiple hugs we had a prayer meeting with the staff and then taught the children a bible story! We acted out the Good Samaritan, sang songs, and drew pictures! We then were able to just play with the kids, paint their faces, play soccer, give piggy back rides, and give endless amounts of hugs!

Tonight we will go to a house visit to meet one of the local families! Continue to keep us in your prayers!

• Prayer for Unity in the team
• An openness to the gospel for the Shan people
• That we will see God's hand at work through healings, miracles, and salvations
• That we can be a blessing to the community and encourage them in their walk with Christ
• For safety, health, and protection

I will add pictures asap! God bless you like you all have blessed me!

Eliana

My heart is so full of the joy of the Lord as I write this tonight! We went back to do evangelism to what is called Thapae Gate! It is the place where G has his bench.  Ria and I were so excited to meet with him again for the last time before we went to Fang! Last time we got to pray for him and were excited to see what more God could do through us! Ria and I split up but we both ended up getting to him, Ria was talking to him when I got there and telling him about how he can get out and how we want to help him, he was listening but I wasn't sure how he felt.  We told him about lighthouse ministries who helps rescue prostitutes out of brothels and get them out of the streets and bring them healing along with the love of Jesus. We told him he could help him and we shared God's heart for him and how much God loves him and see's his heart. We asked him about the dreams he had when he was a kid and he said "I don't ream I just wanted to be cool like the rest of the people."  What a heartbreaking fact that is, that we as humans are just searching for acceptance, we all have the desire to be loved and to be wanted and to "fit in". He then told us how he used to be an accountant and a receptionist and that he taught himself English so that he would be better at his job, but somehow the job had failed.  We encouraged him and said even though we were leaving we could talk to people that can come and get him out and that can help him find a job.  The next words he said were like music to my ears "If you are giving me this opportunity, I need to take it" We just kept saying yes! yes! we are going to help you! We are going to find you a job! We are going to come visit you after we come back from Fang! We got his phone number and are going to give it to Lighthouse Ministries so that they can work with him and find him a way out! He let us pray for him again and once again expressed his thankfulness to us and the ways his eyes lit up you could see how happy he was! I felt so blessed, even though we had been the ones to be a blessing I felt like I had been blessed by him, by hearing his story, by being his friend, I was blessed! I want to cry and laugh and shout and dance for Joy, I just praised God as I walked back to the market! For me this was worth the whole outreach, if I was able to help him get out of prostitution and into healing and eternal life and love with Jesus, I would be more than content! My heart is so happy and I just can't stop smiling! Please, please, please, join us in praying for G! Pray that God would continue to reveal himself to G, and that he would feel an outpouring of love from his Father God, and that Lighthouse Ministries would be able to find him a job where he is happy, safe, and appreciated! Do not underestimate the power of prayer, prayer changes things, your prayers can help change his life and bring him into the kingdom of God! I praise God for this Divine Encounter! 

Ria, G, & I