JUly 4, 2008

 
 
 
 

Thursday Night we got to go to a special July 4th party at the U.S. Embassy here in Chiang Mai. It was a lot of fun! We sung the National Anthem, ate American food, and even had a special flag ceremony where U.S. Soldiers came in and took down the flag & did the official folding. The kids were mesmorized & had a History lesson all in one. It was a blessed evening & even made new friends. The pictures are of our family, Trent's brother Todd's family.

Also, please please please remember me in your prayers this week. I am taking an exam to complete the first module of Thai Language. I have to speak for 5 minutes in Thai & I have a spelling test & vocubulary memorization! Love, Amy

God is Amazing to Me!!

I have been in awe lately at the Lord's personal touch in my life. As Christians we always worship God because He is worthy. We pray because it is our lifeline to God and our hearts desire. But, you know, those personal touches He does in your life that just make your heart "gush" – well that is what I have had recently.

For example, Just the other day I prayed for a Thai friend. We meet many Thai people at school, but I wanted something a bit more personal. So I decided to pray about it. I go before my Father & put my desires before Him. Literally the NEXT day a family in our muubaan (community) walks up to our house and starts talking to Jackson. They have a 3 year old son. The man is American and from Carrollton of all places (very close to our home town) & he is married to a Thai women. The woman (I am ashamed to say I can not remember her name :0) and I begin talking in Thai & English back and forth. It was beautiful! She is a Buddhist & I am excited to get to know her more & share the gospel with her J I knew just then that God was showing me He loves me & cares for me! At the same time I get to share with her the passion & love & Lordship of my life – Jesus! I pray this friendship blossoms & the Kingdom advances!!!

Another example was just yesterday. It was my birthday (I turned 33!) Anyway, we were at a coffee shop having coffee & out of the blue my friend Brad walks in! Brad had been a part of our missions' team the last 1.5 & we all became like family. Anyway, he was called to the boarder of Thailand to do relief work after the cyclone hit Burma. We had no plans of meeting & he had no idea we were there. He was simply passing through Chiang Mai & thought he would have coffee. Wow! Happy Birthday Amy!!! I get to see a person precious to our family, unexpected J Nothing is unexpected to God!

Well, something similar happened to me in prayer. I was praying for God to keep my heart pure. To reveal things in my heart that needed to be brought to light. I realized that I had judgement in my heart. There is always a whisper here or a whisper there. After I repented before the Lord I asked Him, "How do I keep my heart pure Lord?" "How do I not judge my brother/sister?" One thing was revealed is to test all things against Scripture, but from there I was given 1 Corinthians 4:5 –

5Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.

Wow! How freeing that is? God will judge the motives of men's hearts. I do not know why I ever thought it was my place anyway? Wow, pride too! Forgive me Lord! I share that because I hope it brings freedom to your life if you ever go through something similar. Freedom!!!

 

Summer Read-A-Thon!

Jackson, Braden & Trinity are inviting you to their "Summer Read-A-Thon!"

It goes something like this:

Each child will be reading as much as they can for the rest of June & the month of July. They will be asking for "pledges" as incentive for reading. They will record the title of the book, page numbers & date completed for each book read.

For example, Braden just read a book called, "Mad Dog" which was 24 pgs. & he finished it yesterday June 23, 2008. We pledged him .50 per book. At the end of July we will be tallying it up & rewarding him for his enthusiasm for reading!

If you are interested in sponsoring each child or just 1 email me at thepruettgang@gmail.com & we will keep you updated.

God Bless!

What is new around here....

So, I have not been updating the blog regularly! Ahhh! Let that just be a unspoken understanding in how BUSY we are. Whew! We are so busy, but it is all great. We wake up early in the morning to pray and worship, then it all begins.

The children are up & hungry. Everybody rushing around to get ready for the day. Trent is out the door by 7:00 to make it to his Thai class. The rest of us begin a day of home school by 9:00. We read, we spell, handwriting is practiced, Science is interesting, math is the favorite, we even go through History - all in time for lunch :) Yes, it is quite a full mornnig - but the kids are going strong :)

From there I quickly throw down some "chow" & am literally passing Trent as I head out the door for school. 20 minutes of review in the parking lot, then I am upstairs to sretch my brain for a good 2 hours. After that my brain is in shock. I am learning apporoximately 30-50 new vocabulary words a day + sentence structure on how to say it correctly. That may not sound hard, but let me just say...IT IS. It is so hard making sure tones & pitches are correct & staying on track to take in new material the next day.

After class....quite honestly.... I like to zone out into the heavens for a bit. Yeah, some might call it "veg". I am too drained think of what to call it at that point. Ha ha! Usually at this point, after I shake off the traumatic shock, (ha ha) I try to go put my vocabulary to use. Did I mention I am talking at a Kindergarten/1st grade level? Yes, this is also a lesson in humility. Yes, I like to find some person to try and conversate with.

Then I go home, Trent is out the door to study for 2 hours. I put my study time in with the kids. I drill over and over for the 2 hours Trent is gone & then he comes back we all eat dinner. Showers, bed time stories... You know the rest.

This is a difficult season, but it is not torture! Ha ha! We are so excited to be able to understand the people better & even their culture as we study Thai. We will be studying Thai a few more months & then we will be off to reach more of the lost. We are truly thankful for the ability to share our hearts with the people the Lord has placed in our hearts. We love the Thai people!

Above is a picture of Trinity missing her 2 front teeth :) Oh & Happy Father's Day to all of the Daddy's out there!

God Bless you! Amy

Sights around Chiang Mai

So, I decided to take the camera around the "big city" of Chiang Mai. The pictures are not that great as I am on the back of the motorcycle while Trent is driving in most of them! Anyway, I thought I would give you some idea of where we are on the other side of the world.



This is a picture of a stoplight. I love it! In Thailand, most stoplights have a countdown clock! I love this! I think this is something America should do. It really helps chill while you are waiting...


And this is the normal school bus! Can you believe it??? Yes, children go to and from school on this nice transportation. Right before I took this picture two of the boys were playing & one almost fell off. Oh My!


And for now I will leave you with this one. It is a bridge decorated for the King of Thailand. Thai people love their King. I mean, THEY LOVE THEIR KING! He has his picture hung up all over Thailand and is usually in a gold frame. Most bridge is decorated with his and his wife's picture during various times of their lives. The King is in his eighties???

Planted for His harvest!

This evening I was in the Word & I read John 12:24-26. I began to meditate. Later, I came upon this on the internet….. I thought it provoking. What do you think?

Planted for the Harvest - John 12:24-26

I tell you the truth. A grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die. Then it grows and makes many seeds. But if it never dies, then it will always be only a single seed. The person that loves his own life will lose it. But the person that hates his life in this world will keep it. He will have life forever. The person that serves me must follow me. Then my servant will be with me everywhere I am. My Father will give honor to people that serve me. (ERV)

Thought
So much of what we want to do for God we try to do by ourselves. Our motives are right. Maybe our heart is right. Our plans are made with prayer. The problem is that we end up doing everything except the crucial thing: we are not willing to die. Our identity gets involved in pulling off our plans. Our hopes and our feelings about Christian service get tangled up in our success in the plan. Jesus reminds us that there is no harvest without death -- the seed has to be planted and die before it can germinate and grow. Jesus submitted everything, including his fears and his friends, to the will of God. It cost him his life. It won him the harvest. What have you not surrendered to God?

Thank You God for Your Holy Spirit to teach me & guide me!

BE on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour

This morning Trent and I randomly opened the Word for no particular reason. We came to Matthew 25 on the parable of the 10 Virgins.

This is such an important word to todays church! For you, for me! The virgins are all considered to be "believers", yet 5 were foolish & 5 were wise. Are we being wise?

Making it home

 
So, we now have a mailbox!!! It is:

Trent or Amy Pruett
P.O. Box 006
94 Moo 4 Chiangmai-Lampang Rd.
T.Nongprakung, A.Muang Chiangmai
Thailand 50000

Now that is quite an address!

Last night I was browning up some meat in my "kitchen". Thought you might be amused by this. LOL! But, it is actually quite nice there as it keeps the house cooler. You should try it, ha ha!


 

Finally, a snapshot of my daughter Trinity. This is her last day of being 5. Boo hoo! I can not believe it but she turns 6 officially TOMORROW! We are all soaking up this week of settling in, getting over jet lag & preparing for our crazy schedule starting up soon. Yes, homeschool & language school are on full force next week! Prayers please :)
 

Chiang Mai here we come!

 
So we have made it Thailand!!! It was great to see our family and friends in America. It was encouraging as we have come back seeking God with all our hearts, souls, minds, & strength! God is our focus & He is our motive :) We are excited to get back to spreading the gospel among the Thai people. The Lord has put this desire in our hearts & we thankful for His grace to do it. Above you see Trent and the kids in our new home playing Lego's as we are making it through the days getting through jet lag. We are currently sleeping by 8 and waking about 4 a.m. Not too bad. A few more days and the kids should hopefully be sleeping in a bit longer.

The next picture is of the boys sitting on our porch. In the background if you look closely is a little play yard. It has a few swings the kids can play on to burn off all that crazy energy :)

 

Our 3rd picture is me and Jackson sitting on the couch. It is such a blessing as we have relocated to Chiang Mai for the next 6-8 months to learn the Thai langauge & practice our skills on the people here. We are praying for salvations daily as we are "practicing" :) The Lord found us a furnished home & a nearby park for this temporary move. There are many blessing like this house we have for this time, the park & we are soaking up every minute of this luxury :) We are so thankful that the Lord keeps us.
 

We had thought Chiang Mai would be cooler with it being north - but this is NOT the case. It is extremely hot! Ugh! No ocean breeze. Other than that, this is a huge change from our previous location. I know we will be returning to that life style after language, but we are thankful for this opportunity to study Thai & have some simple luxuries :) God Bless :)

Museum Pic's

Delayed….

The first is a picture of Trent as normal as he gets, and the second is a picture where you can see the beginning of the swelling on his left – AGAIN!

We should have been arriving in Thailand today, but we are still in America. Trent has gotten ANOTHER abssessed tooth. We are not sure what is going on as neither of the teeth hurt prior to coming to America. The first tooth brought many complications as his body would not respond to medication. This time around we are hopeful for a speedy recovery! Trent's face is once again swollen (though not to the degree it was last time). It is a different tooth and a different infection. Both considered bad infections. So! We wait to allow this medication time to work so that the Dentist will be able to numb Trent up to do the work needed. So pray that Trent is divinely healed and this will all be done with – medication or not!

I must say I am a bit tired! The majority of our trip has been quite a trial. Trials on every angle! The kids are great despite that they are ready to head home.

My mom and I went to the Monday so above are some pictures to enjoy :

Daddy’s fault!

Last Sunday we had our niece Brittany & her son in town(picture above). We had a great time catching up. Brittany got to go to church with us as Trent was sharing with a group at the Methodist church.

I don't know about you, but Sunday mornings tend to be a bit hectic for me & we ended up barely making it on time. This led to the kids missing the sign in booth for children's church. So, off they go with me. They did ….ok… in the adult Bible study….. Hoping they will get to go to children's church when we go into "big church".….Sadly, time ran over & the kids never got to go to children's church. Awe!

After my kids go home from church with my niece Brittany to my parents. Trent and I went out to lunch with our friends.

When the kids walk into my Mom's house she asks, "How was church?"

The reply…..

"It was ok, but we didn't get to do crafts. (very disappointed faces)

It's all Daddy's fault because he preached the gospel too long!"

Oh yeah! And here is a picture of my kids in the snow!! It snowed in March in TEXAS! God answered my children's prayers!!! Ha! Love it!