Noteworthy

Thai Womens Prison

Yesterday I had one of the most moving experiences of my life.  I had the opportunity to preach at the womens prison here in KhonKaen, Thailand.

The pastors wife, Marielle, runs a weekly Bible study with about  30 women.  She started this ministry about a year ago.  Marielle shared with me some details of the conditions...

• The reasons for the women being in prison vary from drug related charges to murder.
• This prison holds 1000 men and 140 women, in two different areas of the facility.
• There are no individuals sleeping areas or bathing areas or bathroom facilities for either section (men or womens section).
• If a woman enters the prison pregnant (or becomes pregnant by one of the guards), they are allowed to keep their babies with them but are given no more food rations than any other inmate. The babies are treated as inmates as well and do not receive medical attention of any sort.
• Marielle is raising up one of the women to be the leader of the Bible study.  There is always the possiblity that the government or prison staff could one day refuse her access and she has been working diligently to train leaders in case that situation would one day arise.
• The one leader she is training has been in prison for 3 years.  A local government official in her village arranged for drugs to be planted on her because she had crossed him. She received a life sentence for drug possession!!! 

Yesterday two of the Swedish Bible school teams, Marielle, Maria Amritzer and I had the opportunity to minister to these 140 women prisoners.  The teams sang and did a traditional local dance (the Papaya dance).  The ladies loved it and joined in.

Then I spoke to them about God and His desire for relationship with them.  30 women gave their life to Christ!  I had to hold back the tears... 

Like Marielle says, these new converts may be in prison but they now have true freedom!!!

PS.  For all of you moms (and families) who have students on the trip, everyone is in good health!  Just thought you would want to know... because I sure would.  I am hugging them for you and telling them how proud I am of them.  And I truly am proud!  They are an amazing group of young men and women!

A Day in the Life of an MCM Ministry Student in Thailand

Thought you might be interested in knowing a typical day of our team...

Breakfast is at 7 am.  We are staying in dormitories about 10 minutes from the church.  So each team gathers in the lobby at 6 40 (again, this computer is in Thai and I cannot find all of the right buttons). We encourage each team member to have their own time with God prior to this, so that we are individually prepared for the day.

After breakfast we gather as a large team for worship, prayer, a short devotional and then practical instructions for the day.  (ie. Do not stand in the sun unless you have to.  Drink both bottles of water you are given every day...about 4 liters.  And so forth...)

There are several outreaches in the morning. Then lunch. And another outreach till 3pm.  We walk back to our rooms to shower (yes!  showering twice a day is a real privilege.  On the trip to Ethiopia, the team had to use cups of water to bathe.  Sorry, Debbie Lynch!  I am sure you are thinking this must not be a real missions trip...HA!)

We gather back at the church at 5 45 and walk to the festival grounds for the evening meetings.

After the meetings (about 9 or 10 pm) we walk back to the church for dinner and then to the hotel for a good nights rest.

Wish I could show you more pictures, but I can only jump on the church computer once a day and do not have access to the photos being taken.  But check Cullens blog, as he has more access to all the tech stuff since he brought and iphone and laptop.

Speaking of which,it did occur to me to ask Jeff if I could bring his iphone but I thought he might not survive two weeks without it.  Once you get used to technology it is hard to go back...(insert smiley face here as I can not find the right keys.)

Just want to thank all of you who are joining us by praying.  It is so important and the team here in Thailand is grateful!

The One

If you have been at Allison Park Church for any length of time, you will know that our mission is to love the one who is hurting, lost and disconnected from God.

Yesterday I had the chance on one of our outreaches to minister to  a couple of girls and our motto came to my mind.

One girl came up to me at an outreach.  I knew in my spirit instantly that she was involved with prostitution.  (I read that it is estimated that 15 % of the total economy in Thailand is from prostitution. )  I would not guess this girl to be more than 15 or 16 years old.  I talked with her for some time and asked her if she wanted to pray and accept Jesus.  She was a little hesitant and told me she believed in Buddha.  But she agreed come to the festival tonight...

The other girl that I cannot get out of my heart and mind was a young girl who was deaf.  She recently lost hearing in both ears.  I was a little uncertain about why but I believe it was due to some illness or injury.  I prayed for her and she said that some of her hearing had returned.  I encouraged her to continue to call on the Name of Jesus when she went home and also invited her to the meetings.  She told me that if Jesus healed her, she would come. 

God keeps bringing the face of these two young Thai women to my mind. My heart breaks for them.  I am believing that they will come to know Jesus and that their lives will forever be altered by that encounter!

Thailand!!!!

Tomorrow I leave for the Signs and Wonders Festival in Thailand.  I will try to blog as often as possible while there.

As Jeff mentioned on his blog, there will be a few of us recording the adventure!  Hopefully, these different  "voices" and perspectives will give you a fuller picture of the experience.

Our trip begins by meeting at the church at noon.  We fly to New York - then to Hong Kong- and then to Bangkok.  Then we will have a 6 hour bus ride to Khon Kaen, which is located in the northeastern part of Thailand.  We will not arrive until late Monday afternoon. 

I have tried to make extensive lists:  phone numbers, where things are located, and so forth. Alissa is usually around when I have been away for ministry and she helps the guys in our family locate things.  (My youngest two are notorious for misplacing their shoes.) But the Leake men are on their own for two weeks!

I just want to end this post by thanking my generous husband for this opportunity. Not only was he willing to take on this additional responsibility of running the household, it was his idea and nudging in the first place.  Jeff is amazing!

I am excited to see what God will do in the lives of the people in Khon Kaen!  Please join us in your prayers.

Here we go, Steelers, Here we go!!!

When I was growing up I was a Dallas Cowboy fan.  Yep!  I cheered against the Steelers in all those games in the 70's.  (My parent's home district as missionaries is North Texas, so the choice seemed obvious.)

When Jeff and I began to date, this became a problem.  I realized that if was to keep this relationship, I had to recant and repent from my evil ways. 

I am saying this tongue-in-cheek, of course.   Sorta. 

My husband taught my children from early on that the "D" in Dallas really stood for devil.  He would laugh but he was quite intent on making sure that our kids bled Black n Gold!!! 

These days the intensity of his dislike for Dallas has waned.  He is more of an anti-Patriot now.

As for me, I have fully embraced my Steeler team and have now been a die-hard fan and member of the Steeler Nation for over 20 years.

Looking forward to a WIN tomorrow!  Let's go, Steelers!

I am getting O L D

I picked up my oldest son's senior photos before Christmas.  And it made me feel O L D!  I think I am in denial.  How can I have a son who will be 18 in two weeks???

I have recently connected with some friends from high school through Facebook.  They have been posting some photos of me from that time in my life.  Some of the photos make me laugh (my kids laugh harder!) and some of them have made me cringe.  Yikes!  What was I thinking when I wore that??!! Ha!

But even though I am starting to feel old, I wouldn't go back to high school...or college...  I have many great memories but I wouldn't trade experience for youth.  God has blessed me and I am grateful!

Christmas "Adam"

So one of our family traditions that started years ago is that on the 23rd of December we remind each other that the day is Christmas "Adam".  (because everyone knows that the 24th is Christmas "Eve" and of course, Adam came before Eve!)

Corny, I know. 

The older three now roll their eyes but it was hilarious to them when they were younger.  And it still is funny to my youngest two (ages 9 and 11).

We have several other Christmas traditions and I am checking my lists to make sure I am prepared:

• On Christmas Eve, the kids and I have a newer tradition that began the first Christmas Eve we moved into the new church building.  We get to the church early to make and set up and light about 200 luminaries.
• On Christmas Eve, after the services, and after the kids are tucked in bed, Jeff and I watch a It's A Wonderful Life", his favorite movie.  Jeff is always pumped up after these services and takes a while to unwind.  So even when we had a 10 pm service and got home at 11:45 pm, we would stay up and watch the movie.
• On Christmas morning Jeff has made the rule that Christmas does NOT start before 7 am.  This is after the year that Caleb woke Jonathan up at 4 am and they both came into our room wanting to start the day.  The older three would be happier if the time was moved back to 9 am!
• The very first thing we do is to eat a family breakfast.  I have an egg, cheese and bacon casserole that goes in the oven at 6 am.  We eat the casserole, cinnamon rolls, orange juice, coffee and grapefruit.  Well, Dave and I eat the grapefruit.
• The grapefruit is a tradition from my mom's family.  When she was younger, they were not able to afford grapefruit on a regular basis and it became a Christmas treat.  And so, Dave and I continue the tradition.  :)
• After breakfast, we gather in the living room and Jeff reads from the book of Luke about the story of Jesus' birth.
• Then we open presents.  I think I have mentioned it before but the Spencer tradition opening presents is the "one at a time" method.  That way everyone can see who gets what from who.  (Jeff's family always  passed out all the gifts and opened them simultaneously, which is a fun kind of chaos.  And then we ask each other who got what from who!  :)   

So, this is some of our family traditions.  What about you?  Does your family have Christmas traditions?

I want to wish you a Merry Christmas from the Leake family!

A Word of Advice

I took each of my three oldest aside last night with these words of wisdom, "If ever in your life you decide to wallpaper, don't do it!!!!!"

I spent 5 hours last night trying to scrape off a wallpaper border I put up 8 years ago.  Wow, what a pain.  I tried several different chemical removers.  Boiling hot water.  And plenty of "elbow grease".  A few people have given me suggestions:  Downy and Fantastic are two of them.  Haven't had a chance to go and buy those yet but I certainly will.  Still have quite a bit of glue residue left and I am very tired of working on this project.

I am updating my kitchen from its original country sort of look.  The face brick and painted white cabinets were here when we moved in.  And so was floor to ceiling pink and blue striped wallpaper.  It took me two weeks to get the wallpaper down.  You think that would have taught me a lesson.

But I thought perhaps the former owner had not pre-treated the wall like you are supposed to do.  So I did pre-treat the wall before I hung the apple border.  But it obviously did little to help me in the removal process. AAACCCKKKK!

It took me less time to rip off the backsplash and one full wall of face brick than it has to get the border down...

Joe (not the plumber but the contractor) is here to help me make a few changes to update my kitchen.   

So I keep the goal in mind as I go to the store to buy whatever it will take to get that glue off...

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, part 2

A few weeks ago, I got an email that asked if I wanted to be part of a test for Mr. Clean Magic Erasers.  Apparently someone from their company had read my blog about how much I really enjoy the Mr. Clean Magic Erasers and thought I might be a good candidate to test the new Mr. Clean Magic Eraser with Febreeze.

Yesterday the UPS truck pulled in front of my house with a good sized package.  Inside I found all kinds of stuff to test their product vs. the "leading all -purpose spray".  Their claim is that their product erases 3 times more grime per swipe.

So included in the kit:

• two ceramic tiles
• crayons and a marker
• a 2 pack box of Magic Erasers with Febreeze scent
• the "leading all-purpose spray" - which turned out to be Clorox Clean Up Cleaner with Bleach (they had placed a white sticker over the label but it was quite easy to see the original label)
• and a wooden spoon tied with ribbon to a recipe card for chili

I am assuming that I am to use the crayons and marker to write on the tiles and then test the two products. 

But the wooden spoon -- was that a free gift for my participation?  Or am I supposed to follow the recipe for the chili and put that on the tile as well?  Ha!

Seriously, I really do like this product.  I'll have to let you know if the addition of the Febreeze side to the original tool actually improves it or not. 

Oh, How He Loves Us!!!

My husband woke up early this morning to find me in the dining room weeping. 

I had been awakened very, very early by a sore throat so I decided to make a pot of coffee and have my quiet time since I was already up.  I put on my headphones and was listening to worship music as I was reading and journaling when a song by Kim Walker reduced me to tears.

It is called "Oh, How He Loves Us".  (You can find it on Jeff's blog today).  I love the declarative nature of the song.  I am moved by the intensity and passion of the musicians on the stage.  And the words just pierced me through and through.

Here are a few of the lines:

    He is jealous for me
    Loves like a hurricane
    I am a tree bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy
    When all of sudden I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by Glory
    And I realize just how Beautiful You are and how great Your affection for me

    We are His portion and He is our prize
    Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
    If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking
    So Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss
    And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
    And I don't have time to maintain these regrets
    When I think about the way He loves us!

"Maintaining regrets" is alot of work.  It drains me spiritually of vitality and confidence.  And it is certainly beneath the inheritance God has intended for me. 

I was totally overcome with gratitude at the love and mercy and patience of God this morning!!!