Kim and Jeremy in Thailand

God has been working in so many ways to show us that He wants us to go to Thailand. We weren't exactly quick to pick up on things, so I'm glad He made it so obvious for us! Here are some of the ways we have seen Him lead us to Thailand:

In March, I (Kim) was able to go to Thailand, China, and Japan. This was intended to be a purely leisure trip; I was visiting friends in each country. Before I left, Jeremy and I had felt God leading us away from St. Louis, but didn't make a connection. In fact, we literally said that we would start praying about where to go next year after I got back from Asia. In Thailand, I was able to spend a significant amount of time at the school since the friends I was visiting work there. I heard many conversations, some meant for me and some not, about the needs of the school and specifically needs in technology. Also, I had a consistent nagging feeling of, "I could live here." God worked through the enthusiasm and passion of the people already at Grace to really get us thinking and praying about the possibility of going to Thailand.

When I came back from Asia, we did a lot of praying and both Jeremy and I felt like this was an opportunity we needed to pursue. At the time, I had enough air miles to get two tickets to Asia. However, I had several strikes against me. I wanted tickets only four months in advance (they are released 11 months out) during a peak travel season (summer) for two people (only two seats are released on each flight) on a less popular route (two flights a day-one Pacific and one Atlantic).

Checking availability online showed no availability during the first half of August, and scattered single seats available during the second half. We figured we'd have to go on separate days, both arriving after the school year was underway. The first three agents echoed the same availability I had seen and tried to book me tickets, but kept running into trouble. The fourth agent said, "Here's two seats together on August 2nd. Would you like those?" God had freed up tickets where there weren't any!

As an added bonus, late in June Northwest called me and said that Korean Air had changed their schedule so our itinerary now involved two layovers over 14 hours each. That made for 30 hours of flying and 30 hours of layovers, and they offered to change the tickets for free. Once again, there was no room on the flight, but God provided a way, and now we have only two flights instead of five to get to Bangkok, and the itinerary is eight hours shorter. Thank you Lord!

Shortly after booking the plane tickets, we went to the Wheaton College Gospel Choir concert. Jeremy and I were both members of the choir in college, so we had several friends still there. Before the concert started we mentioned to one that we were moving to Thailand. She looked at us in suprise and said, "What is this with everyone moving to Thailand?" It turns out that not only are four Wheaton students going to be in Chiang Mai this year, but the choir was taking a missions trip to Bangkok over the time we will be there. So the secondary theme of the concert was Thailand, the needs of the people in Thailand, the work that God is doing in Thailand...we couldn't have asked for clearer confirmation than that!

Now that we were feeling pretty sure God wanted us to go, we started to look for a missions board. We emailed Wycliffe after seeing opportunities at Grace on their website. A few days later, we got a call from Jamie Farr. He had just come back from Grace, having spent the last five years there. He and his wife had been there since the school started and he was excited about getting us there!! We didn't learn until arriving at training just how much he had done, but I don't think we would have been able to get to Grace so soon without him being our advocate. There were other people at Wycliffe too who helped us so much. God definitely used that whole team to get us there in less than four months. We are so thankful for them!

With the applications underway, our next project was housing. We needed to find something affordable, close to the school, and furnished. Soon we got an email about a missionary family who would be on furlough during the year we'll be at Grace. They were looking for Grace staff with no kids to sublet their home, and we fit the bill. It's two stories, four bedrooms, and fully furnished-down to sheets, towels, books, dishes, and a cat! Also, we can use their car (if we get up the nerve to drive in Thailand!) and they live close to the school. Everything is only $250 per month. Even the staff of the school said we wouldn't find another opportunity like this, and we are so thankful for God's provision!!

God continues to provide miraculously in our finances!! For example, there was the day that we found out training with Wycliffe would cost about twice as much as we anticipated. Yet on the same day, we had an email from a church we visited almost two months prior promising us support in almost the exact amount that training would cost. God continues to provide people to be a part of our team, and we are so thankful for each of them because we couldn't do it without them! At the end of July, God more than doubled our support in a week's time through pledges from several people and a church!! This was after we had asked several people to pray since we were only about 35% supported three weeks before leaving, but two weeks before leaving we were at 70%!! We are excited to see the way He will continue to provide for our finances.