Boomerang Vol. 11: Land of Smiles

Thailand is often called “The Land of Smiles” so here we are to greet you with grateful hearts and big grins on our faces. We pray for you regularly and are always keenly aware that our ability to be here is because of your love and kindness. We are very pleased to report that our School of Frontier Media (SFM) tuition was just paid in full. Thank you for providing the means we required to pay for this part of the program.

Our days in the SFM lecture phase are winding down rapidly, so we are checking in with you before our next transition. This training program has been an exciting, rewarding experience that has given us great skills and confidence for our work. We moved from being at a huge base in Perth with over 300 people, to interacting with a small team of a few staff persons, five classmates, and their families. Quite a change!

We have really loved getting to know the nuts and bolts of Create International through the class and interaction with the international directors and other staff members. We have received instruction on all the major relevant topics:
• Cross Cultural Communication and Research
• Developing Media Strategy
• Photography & Videography
• Arts and Evangelism
• Documentary Production & Directing
• Evangelism to Buddhists
• Scriptwriting
• ... and the list goes on.

Steve was very proud of Allyson directing her first film; Allyson was impressed with how adept Steve was with the Illustrator program; Abby got to join us in class for Photoshop week and Rachel is taking guitar lessons and writing songs! Though it's been a while, we've even both written a research paper. We've also mastered a few Thai phrases—mostly at meal times. Thai food has spoiled us forever. It just doesn't get any better than a giant bowl of Khao Soi or Moo Pad Nahmen Hoi or (Insert your favorite Thai dish here _____). . . we love them all even when the spices make our tongues numb. Pad Thai featured below.

Most YWAM schools have a practical, outreach phase, so our team is now preparing to head up to northern Thailand on the Burmese border to work on an evangelistic project for the Shan people. The Shan are an unreached group of over 6 million Buddhists who have no viable church, virtually no Christian population (less than 1%) and live under the ruthless oppression of the communist Myanmar government. With the hope that the good news of Jesus Christ can bring them freedom, we seek to clearly communicate a powerful message of salvation to the Shan. After extensive research this semester, we are currently refining the script for an evangelistic film we are making in their language and cultural style. Our team will also be making a mobilization film to motivate Christians around the world to engage the Shan people for the gospel.


Our outreach team will travel north in late September to shoot the video and return to Chiang Mai in late October to edit the video until mid December. Please pray that the team will:
• remain unified and focused even in difficult circumstances and long hours
• overcome all obstacles to successfully create an effective film appropriate for the Shan
• receive all of the remaining funding we need to pay for this time of outreach ($2500)
• stay safe and unhindered in travel for both staff and equipment
• continue to have God's heart for these great people and insight on how to best communicate His story to them.

Our Lord used a friend back home on the North Shore to provide the HD camera that Steve and the team will be using to shoot Create Thailand's first HD film!

As this outreach phase begins Allyson and the girls will return home to Massachusetts at the end of September. As you know from our previous newsletters, Samuel has been living with his grandparents in Falmouth, MA. He just started his senior year of high school and joined the Math Team and Model UN clubs. Rachel and Abigail will also be enrolled in the local school there when they return. We are so grateful and blessed for the provision of a furnished home we can afford—another great answer to prayer. After the completion of the training outreach phase, Steve will return to the states just in time to celebrate Christmas with his family!

We will take our first furlough earlier than expected and for a longer time than anticipated to accommodate Sam's education and transition to college. This timetable is a bit different than we had originally thought it would be, but we've learned you really need to be flexible. In 2010 we will be actively engaged in full-time deputation to raise the funds we need for long-term service with Create International.

Lord willing, we also intend to serve Create International in the US by mobilizing, teaching and representing the ministry at conferences and key events around the country. The practical details of this plan are being worked out in partnership with the Create International directors. We know that the Lord has us right where he wants us and we are looking forward with anticipation to how this year will work out. It is our intention to then return to the field once Samuel is safely ensconced in college, and we are waiting on the Lord for a specific timetable. We currently have an open invitation to return to Thailand anytime in 2010 and serve with the team at the Create International base here in Chiang Mai.
In this upcoming transition, please pray for Allyson, Samuel, Rachel and Abigail as they:
• adjust to new circumstances again
• start new schools and seek out new friends
• survive on a reduced income
• acquire an automobile and other needs
• pay off the loan for the airfare home ($3000)
• manage without Steve for three months.

Steve will also be very sad to be away from his family for so long and will require special attention in prayer.

Best of all, we hope to see all of you in 2010. We look forward to sharing with you about our adventures and, even better, the great things God is doing around the world today. Until then, keep those prayers coming.

You may send gifts and donations for our support to Ripe for Harvest and please designate Account #247 in the memo line but please do not include our name on the check. Send it to:
Ripe for Harvest 2824
N. Power Rd #113282
Mesa AZ 85215-1674

http://www.ripeforharvest.org/donations.htm
Ripe for Harvest is able to issue a tax deductible receipt in the USA, whereas YWAM Thailand is not.

Illustrator and Photoshop

The School of Frontier Media has been an exceedingly positive experience for us here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Each week we have a different area of concentration. Not long ago we shared some of our best photos taken in Photography week. Last week we were introduced to two Adobe programs: Illustrator and Photoshop.

Photoshop is a wildly popular image editing and manipulation program used for photography, airbrush illustration, collages, special effects, etc. Photoshop is a different palate than Illustrator. As a computer program it acts like a canvas with paints and brushes for image manipulation.


The "Greetings from Thailand" postcard featured above is my photoshop project for the week--essentially a collage of eleven different images from photos I have taken here in Thailand. Except obviously the one of us taken by my friend Barry.)

Best of all our photoshop guru, Abby, got to join us for the week and even show us parents up. Illustrator is a vector-based illustration program used to create technical art, logos, cartoon art, charts, diagrams, etc. The best metaphor for Illustrator is a program that simulates creating art by layering paper cut-outs on top of other paper cut-outs.


Abigails says: "During my parents SFM week on Photoshop and Illustrator I was able to sit in on their classes. This picture ^ is an amine girl I made on the program Illustrator."

Here are the rest of the projects we made for class.

Allyson: "For my Illustrator project I copied a photo of Venetian beads. Getting all the layers correct and the little bit of shine was challenging for a first-time user."

Steve: "This is a butterfly fairy based on a statue I saw in Singapore. My goal was to create a fun character from Asian folklore."


Abigail: "This picture is of my friend Nicola. I created it on Photoshop. First I had to take a picture of the computer. Then in the same room I took the picture of the computer I also took a picture of Nicola so that the lighting was the same. Then came the hard part I had to erase around her body and add the shadow."

Allyson: "My photoshop project is a picture of Rachel farming where office supplies grow. Rachel helped me by making the sticky note/tack trees. "

We are very excited to have these new skills with these new tools.

Atheism & the Royal Thai Police

Just a quiet little post to let you all know that all is well here in Thailand. We have been exceedingly busy with the School of Frontier Media and are now more than half way through the lecture phase of the program. The girls are now starting to make their plans to come home to the states while I gear up for the outreach to the Shan on the Burmese border. We'll have more to say on these subjects in our next official newsletter.

In the meantime, I wanted to share a link to an article I enjoyed reading recently. http://edition.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/wayoflife/08/11/o.faith.doubters.dilemma/index.html I believe this article accurately sums up how a lot of people feel today, caught between theism and atheism. I've been there so I really enjoyed this thoughtful writer's exploration on doubt. Maybe it will strike a chord with you from a time in your not so distant past. At the very least, it's bound to depict someone you know.

We'd love to upload some photos, but lately when we try we are given this message: "Sorry, the web site you are accessing has been closed by Royal Thai Police due to inappropriateness such as pornography, gambling or contain any information which is deemed to violate national security." We are also unable to upload any new photos through Facebook, which may be a related issue. Hopefully, this situation gets sorted out soon.

Thanks for your faithful prayers and timely support.

Soy Jet Cycles

Steve's short photo montage focused on the Wat Jed Yod neighborhood of Chiang Mai, Thailand with an emphasis on motorcycles. This was an assignment for "Photography Week" in the School of Frontier Media, Create International. Soy Jet is the name of the road in our neighborhood where most of these photos were shot.

Also featured here: Soy Jet Cycles

P.S., Steve is feeling quite a bit better, thanks for all the prayers. There is still some tummy trouble being treated, but the rest of the symptoms are now all diminished.

Steve is Sadly Sick

Rachel posted this on her blog so we are repeating it here for more people to read it.

This is just a quick post asking all you guys to pray for my dad. The other day he began feeling sick and he has a temperature and really doesn't feel well. He has a couple symptoms of the flu, but nothing is too serious yet. He just feels really sick, so if you could keep him in your prayers that would be great!

We have a couple days off from my parent's classes, and my dad is feeling down because he really wanted to do some fun stuff with us these couple of days, but it looks like we might not be able to. I think he's really disappointed, on top of feeling really sick.

Thanks for your prayers and support!


Allyson adds:

Hello from Chiang Mai, Thailand! I am writing to request prayer for our family and especially for Steve. He is quite sick with the flu and we are watching him carefully for the more dangerous symptoms of H1N1 (Swine Flu). Please pray that he would recover quickly, that it wouldn't turn into anything more serious, and that the rest of our family would be able to avoid it - especially the kids.

We are so thrilled to be in Chiang Mai completing our training for our ministry, but we have felt that we have been under attack the entire time we have been here. Would you please support us in prayer to resist the enemy? We know if we resist him he will flee from us (James 4:7) and are fully confident that the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world. Thank you for joining with us in prayer!

Blessings to you all,

Allyson

Boomerang Vol. 10: Chiang Mai, Thailand

To greet you in Thai we say “Sawat Dii Khrap”

It's been about two weeks and we all really love it here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We are settling in nicely and staying extraordinarily busy with the School of Frontier Media (SFM). We are getting to know our classmates—all of whom are staying to serve with Create International—and spending time with Create Thailand staff. We are privileged to be studying under the Create founders who are sharing great ways to communicate God's message of love to unreached people. With nearly six thousand unreached people groups today, there has never been a better time to use media to share God's love worldwide. Thanks for continuing to partner with us for this very purpose. We are most grateful for your ongoing support and plentiful prayers as we begin to integrate into this ministry from the inside.

Here are some newly relevant prayer requests for our time in Thailand.

#1 Our biggest challenge to date is that because the SFM training is very time consuming, we are challenged with finding activities for the girls each day. They are looking for ways to make friends and get out of the house more often. School is out for the summer here, and their home school work only takes up a portion of the day. We do live very near the Johnsons (friends here from our home church in Hamilton) and hope to get a chance to spend more time with them in the future. The girls are also looking forward to some upcoming youth group activities at the local church we've been attending.


#2 Even now we are praying for our upcoming outreach project in October. Please pray for our team as we plan and prepare for an evangelistic film project for the Shan people who live on the border of Burma and Northern Thailand. The Shan are a Southeast Asian ethnic group that live primarily in Myanmar, but have been migrating to Thailand in recent years due to persecution and lack of work. Today, it is estimated that there are 6 million Shan and they are unswerving Theravada Buddhists with no significant Christian population or church. We will be producing a number of different video projects for this unreached people group in the coming months. Right now this project is in the preproduction planning stages. We'll be sharing more about this in our next newsletter as we get closer to the date of departure. In the meantime, please pray for the Shan and their openness to the gospel and our ability to serve as appropriate ambassadors of Christ to these people.


#3 Regrettably, we are losing financial support rather than gaining momentum and the declining dollar has effected our budget adversely. Consequently, we have recently fallen behind in our financial obligations and have an immediate need for finances for:

• our remaining school fees for the SFM training
• upcoming outreach fees to create the evangelistic film for the Shan people of Burma/Myanmar
• travel and conference fees for the YWAM Thailand National Conference in early August
• our ongoing local expenses such as transportation around Chiang Mai, meals and rent.

If you are willing at this time, please consider a gift to our sending agency, Ripe For Harvest, or contact us to make other arrangements. Information about sending contributions can always be found at the top of our blog. In total our need comes to $6500 and our timetable is the end of July. We have the peace of God that He will provide all we need, even if he calls you to be a part of that provision. Our confidence is high because we have been witness to many amazing financial miracles in the past year, particularly since our departure.

You may send gifts and donations for our support to Ripe for Harvest and please designate Account #247 in the memo line but please do not include our name on the check. Send it to:
Ripe for Harvest
2824 N. Power Rd #113282
Mesa AZ 85215-1674
Ripe for Harvest is able to issue a tax deductible receipt in the USA, whereas YWAM Thailand is not.


#4 Another concern is that we are losing touch with people who have either chosen not to subscribe to our blog or have had trouble subscribing to our newsletter via Google Groups. Recently Google stopped supporting our ability to send bulk emails to all of our friends and supporters. This lead us to create an online subscription-based newsletter via Google Groups. Unfortunately, Google Groups is not without its problems and many of our support team have been unable to access the material. We need a solution soon that will allow us to be back in better communication with everyone.


#5 We have identified some of the spiritual strongholds (or problem areas) of Thailand to be idolatry, fear, lust and unfaithfulness. We would appreciate your prayers for us to be able to actively engage successfully in the spiritual warfare that is both apparent and pervasive here. We actually heard a proverb that “to be Thai is to be unfaithful” and have heard of the many broken marriages in this land. We ask for your prayers to protect our marital and family relationships. Please also remember to pray for Sam as he pursues his education back in Massachusetts.


Lastly, if we can pray for you more specifically, please let us know. We have really enjoyed praying for all of you, and love to hear how everything is going for you, too. Drop us an email anytime. If you are reading this, then you are on our prayer list. Specific prayer requests are just more effective than the generic “please bless Johnny” type prayers in our opinion! Bless you guys heaps (as they say in Australia) for being so faithful and encouraging. “Khorb khun khrap.” Thank you!

Hello Chiang Mai!

Here we are in the Chiang Mai International Airport on Wednesday night. Our flight was delayed by 3 1/2 hours, but we got here safe and sound. Thanks for praying for us.

And this is our new home at the Create International headquarters in Thailand! We are feeling very blessed by the gracious Create International staff here who have provided us two great bedrooms on the 2nd floor above their offices and work areas. We love the accommodations here especially compared to the concrete prison-like cells we had in Australia. We have windows, furniture, air conditioning, Internet access and really firm Asian beds! Oh, and we have the Johnsons for neighbors! Woo hoo!


Lastly, here is an old photo of the King of Thailand to pay him due respect.

Thanks again everyone for praying us all the way here. We will be celebrating the 4th of July with other Americans here in Chiang Mai on Saturday, going to a new church on Sunday and starting the School of Frontier Media officially on Monday morning. Of course we will keep you posted.

Bless you guys heaps!