AT THE HALFWAY MARK - Days One & Two

Major Challenge – How to put so much into such a little space! Hopefully these sampling of photos will give you a little sense of “what’s happening” in this Conference center in Chiang Mai,
Thailand because of your prayers and gifts. DAYS ONE AND TWO are behind us. Here are a few glimpses. Blessings!

THEY START ARRIVING AND ARE WELCOMED

BLAST OFF!

OPENING THE WORD (note the cool Karen shirt - I've been adopted!)

ILLUSTRATING THE GOSPEL COLORS (in living colors!)

AND THE "GOSPEL HEART"

GETTING A PRIZE

PRACTICING TELLING THE STORY WITH THE GOSPEL HEART

AND HAVING SOME FUN - MISS ELLIE'S CRAZY HAT GAME!

AND TIMES OF PRAYER, PRAISE & WORSHIP

AND DOING THEIR HAND PRINTS TO BE SENDING BACK TO COS. "HANDS JOINED AROUND THE WORLD"

AND A PERSON'S GOTTA EAT! RICE ANYONE?

AND THE MAN WHO HAD THE VISION FOR THIS WHOLE THING - BOONCHU

KEEP PRAYING. WE'RE ROUNDING SECOND. STORY CLOTHS AND WORKSHOPS TODAY AND A COMMITMENT SERVICE TONIGHT. AND THEN THE WRAP UP FRIDAY MORNING.

THANKS FOR TRACKING WITH US AND PRAYING FOR US!

...AND THEY CAME!

Yes, they came. Because we got home late last night, we didn’t have time to give you a real overview of the great first day (actually, evening) of the conference. But to give you an idea, HERE ARE THE FACES of those for whom you have prayed and given. They listened and they worshipped. AND WE’RE OFF!

SUNDAY CHURCH AND MONDAY SET-UP

Sunday, we had the privilege of participating in a Karen Worship Service. As you can see, it's open on all sides, allowing for nice breezes to cool everyone off. To begin the service, the "COS Choir" sang, (watch out, Ron Matthews!)

Fortunately, the Youth Choir balanced things out...

Two cute little girls brought the offering up and bowed for the prayer.

And then a famous international preacher let'er rip,... the message being salvaged, no doubt, by a gifted translator.

After church, we stopped off to eat, and did our best to control a couple members of the team. Honest, it was Coke. Promise!

And then we headed back to the hotel in our faithful Taxi-Van...with the open back. Francesca is really getting used to it!

And then today, Monday, we headed out to the Conference Center to get everything set up. Here we are putting together the 200+ colored "Gospel Hearts" that had been prepared by TONS of faithful COS volunteers. THANK YOU!!!

Awaiting the Karen attendees for the final step.

And then those GREAT BANNERS, with their warm greetings and pictures AND HANDS from the COS kids.

Let's put 'em up!

Everything is set. As we left we prayed over all of these empty chairs which will soon be filled by 200+ Karen children's workers. Some are coming on foot, taking 2-3 days to make it here. May God bless them and impact them so that they can make an eternal impact in the lives of their precious children.

IT ALL STARTS TOMORROW AT 7:30 PM. Stay tuned!

DID YOU KNOW...? A miscellaneous fact.

Notice anything about this picture? Maybe you didn't know this either. THEY DRIVE ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD OVER HERE IN THAILAND!

TRYING AGAIN: PICS OF SATURDAY'S VISIT TO THE CONFERENCE CENTER

OK, finally able to get these pics up that weren't cooperating last night. So these will give you an idea of where all of the training and activities will be taking place.

FIRST VISIT TO THE CONFERENCE SITE AND MORE...

(12:30 am, Sunday morning - Thai time)
And we're off and running!
In prep for the Conference (for you newbies, training Children's Sunday School teachers from over 200 churches of the Karen tribe in Northern Thailand,) we were able to accomplish two important things today (Saturday):
1. VISIT THE CONFERENCE CENTER where the Gathering and Training will take place, and
2. MEET WITH THE TRANSLATORS and the Conference Center Leaders with whom we will be working.
Below you will see some pictures of the Center which is really quite nice. Seeing it was a HUGE help in getting a "lay of the land" and in figuring out how we're going to organize both the large plenary sessions as well as the smaller "hands-on" breakout sessions. You'll also see some pics of the really cool "Taxi-bus" that has been getting us all over town. It's "air-conditioned" in that there are no side windows nor is there a door in the back. Lots of wind to keep us cool! The driver is a great guy who doesn't speak a word of English. Lots of sign language and pointing goind on! Fortunately, Boonchu, the Karen Christian leader who is at the origin of this whole conference, is around to help with the communcation.
TOMORROW we will be participating in the Church service that meets in the Chapel on the grounds of the Conf. Center. We'll be singing a couple songs and Tom will be giving the message.
So PRAY FOR THAT AND ALSO FOR the planning that we'll be doing in the afternoon. We need to make some changes and some deletions to the already-planned training sessions due to what we learned in the meetings today. We're remembering one of our key words, "FLEXIBILITY."
SO, ENOUGH WORDS; HERE ARE SOME PICS (a small sampling!) OF OUR DAY.

OOOOOPS! Our apologies. The connection here stopped letting us upload any more pictures after these 3 (showing you our means of transportation.) So, NO PICTURES OF THE CONFERENCE CENTER. Rats! We'll try again tomorrow. Thanks for sticking with us over here!

All aboard! Step right up. Boonshu will give you a hand.



And here's our great driver.



Getting back safe and sound tonight after a nice dinner out with some new Thai friends.



God bless! HAVE A GREAT SUNDAY.