Back from a glorious two weeks in Thailand! We had our East Asia Midyear conference the first five days in Cha am and then took a week of team vacation time afterwards on the island of Koh Samui.
***To view pictures in full size, just click on one and it will take you to a slide show of all the photos in this post! ***
Midyear was really restorative. Each team had coaches who flew in for the sole purpose of helping us process the year so far and begin thinking about the second half of our ministry and what will come after. Cool small world story: my team's coaches were the Priolas, Cru staff in San Diego who lead the movement at UCSD where Tynan attends. I had heard bits and pieces about them from him so it was a neat blessing to meet them in person and spend time with them. They really ministered to our team well and we were super blessed by the time and effort they put into coaching us.
The focus of the week was "Refresh." Our MC dubbed the worship team the Refreshments, we got goodies (aka junk food) from the States each night, and received solid teaching from several different speakers. It really was refreshing physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Every team came in in a different place, but I think we were all worn out in some way. To come together and have everyone there to rest or help us rest was an incredible experience. Hearing stories of how God has been moving in some of the hardest places to do ministry was also really uplifting. To think he is using kids just out of college to bring the good news to the ends of the earth is absolutely mind-blowing and humbling.
I got to spend some quality time with people I had met at various other conferences and trainings and it was fun to hear what God had been teaching them so far. It's crazy how different our experiences of culture and team and ministry are just from one country to another. It makes for some really great stories!
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| Your choice of Firm or Soft pillows! |
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| Team thai iced coffees |
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| Team with our coaches the Priolas! |
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| Christine's crib |
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| With the Priolas |
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| View of the hotel lobby |
The second half of our Thailand adventure took us on a 6am flight to an island off the southern tip of Thailand, Koh Samui. For the week we were there I basically read by the pool, swam in the pool, slept, or ate. It was glorious!
Some highlights included: feeling the ocean breeze again, thai iced coffee, finally getting mexican food, fruit and granola and yogurt every morning at the breakfast buffet, riding elephants, always being warm, sitting in the infinity pool and watching the waves, having time to slow down and really process through some things with the Lord.
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| View of the pool and ocean from the lobby |
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| Hanging out with all the old, sunburned European couples |
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| Twins! |
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| Jacob- elephant whisperer |
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| My elephant Bang Bang! |
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| Our elephant guide |
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| Guys at the waterfall |
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| Paradise! |
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| Roomie photos part 1 |
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| Roomie photos part 2 |
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| Roomie photos part 3 |
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| Roomie photos part 4 |
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| Glorious Mexican food for our last dinner in Thailand |
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| Breakfast of champions |
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| Thai flag on our ferry from Koh Samui |
Our vacation ended with a lovely 30+ hour travel day back to Japan. Five loads of laundry and a couple nights of 10+ hours of sleep I'm back on track and thankful to be here again. I was admittedly tired of Tokyo and ministry when we left for Thailand, but being away awhile made me appreciate afresh all the things I love about Japan and the Japanese. God knew what I needed to regain a passion and vision for this place. I'm thankful he provided the time and space away so I could be reminded of why I'm here to begin with.
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