Hello Bangkok! November 7, 2009

Well, we are here. Finally here!!! It has been an amazing 3 weeks. There is so much to tell, I hardly know where to begin.

We left Atlanta on October 11th, arrived in Bangkok on the 13th and went directly to the apartment our team had secured for us. It is in a building connected to a hospital (which turned out to be a good thing a few days later). There are mainly businesses n the building, but a few floors are apartments. We are n the 23rd floor. The view is amazing.

 

view from our apartment

view from apartment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OH…you can now see ALL OF OUR PICTURES on Flickr, go to Wills Family Photos

we also have lots of videos here at the blog, just go to the page that says VIDEOS. You can find it at the top of the page, its a tab titled VIDEOS.

 

Anyway, we were here only two days when Bobby got very sick. Either food poisoning or some new bacteria. He was in bed for two days and we thought he might need the hospital our building is connected to, but thankfully he got better within only two days.

On the 18th we left for Hua Hin and Cha Am for a retreat with our team. It was great to go to a hotel and see the ocean. We were missing hot water showers! Again, lots of picture at Wills Family Photos

After a few days there, we (are you ready for this?)…came home to Bangkok.  HA!   How cool is that to say we came home to Bangkok! So here we are now, looking for a house to live in and learning to live in this wonderful new place. It is overwhelming at times, a mixture of extreme emotions – both elation and sometimes helplessness. All in all though, is the grand peace that we are in the hands of God and He is trustworthy.  We praise Him that we are here and finally in the presence of the people He has called us to reach. Opportunities abound.

Right now, Bobby is in language school full time. The kids and I start next month. We needed a month to refine our homeschooling schedule. We begin in December doing both, so we have to finish school by noon in order to get to language school from 1-4PM daily. Please pray for us four to learn the Thai language quickly.

We love you all and thank you for your prayers and support. Please pray for the Thai people. The darkness here is evident everywhere. Spirit houses are everywhere, literally. That is another blog soon, we have already come against the enemy and the hold he has on these people.

Please pray for their freedom to be reality in Christ. Christ alone saves.

love, paula

 

 

“Beautiful Feet” October 8, 2009

On Tuesday evening, a sweet friend sent this to us and we are still in awe of it. It surprised me so profoundly, I was speechless for hours.

God is working long before we even know it. I love it when He shows us that so concretely.

When He gives us a glimpse…it is so beautiful and powerful…and encouraging.

Thank you Lord, and please bless your sweet daughter Tiffany Bennett for such love.

O LORD, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago.

I don’t know when God put it in your hearts for your family to serve Him on the foreign mission field, but I know when He put it into mine.  It was the summer of 2006.  I was a counselor at Woodlands, and I often found myself on the third floor of Lakewood, washing clothes that had been ripped, stained, and worn out as I served my precious campers.  I coveted the time alone, where I could spend a few solitary minutes with Jesus, while my clothes thudded noisily in the dryer and the muffled shouts of free time raged on the floors below.  I would sit on the washing machine with my pocket-sized Bible, and He and I would share our hearts.  Then the dryer would buzz and I would toss the wadded up clothes into my broken laundry basket and head back downstairs.

One afternoon, as I was finishing up my laundry routine, I closed the door behind me and looked over at the neat rows of shoes that belonged to your family.  A well-loved pair of chacos, some close-toed shoes for the kitchen, a pair of fluorescent rain boots, a couple dirt-caked pairs of tennis shoes, some tiny little girl crocs…many others that I don’t remember.  I thought about the diversity of gifts and personalities those shoes reflected, the places they had traveled, and the ways they had been worn out for the sake of the kingdom of God.  And as I stood there, I started to pray.  I prayed that God would make your family messengers with beautiful feet who would bring His gospel to the nations.  I prayed it every time I went up those stairs for the rest of the summer, and again every time I went back down.  I didn’t have any grand strategies to send out missionaries to speed the fulfillment of the Great Commission.  I’m not even sure I meant it.  I definitely didn’t expect to remember it.  I just wanted an excuse to talk to Jesus for another minute.

I doubt I would have remembered it at all, if it weren’t for the steady stream of emails and support letters that came a couple years later.  My heart warmed with joy as I read each step in your journey of training and support raising.  The way your family has grown in love and concern for the Thai people has been a display of God’s wisdom and faithfulness.

So as you step off the plane and your feet touch Thai soil, know that heaven is watching to see a dream fulfilled that was birthed in the heart of God long ago.  Know that angels have waited with bated breath while God told them stories of the ways He’s longed to use your family among the Thai people.  Know that He spoke fondly of this day in a quiet moment years ago, when He and I ran out of things to talk about.  When my heart was eager to listen to anything, so long as I could hear the sound of His voice, this was what He wanted to share with me.  This is one of the great and unsearchable things He promised to tell those who call to Him.

So in the name of Jesus, may you set foot in this foreign land knowing that the ground you walk on has been paved with the prayers of many saints, from many more angles and for many more years than you know.  May you trample the plans of the enemy underfoot as you move forward boldly with the truth of the gospel.  May you stand firm because your ministry in Thailand has been founded on a sure and solid foundation.  May you walk in confidence knowing that your feet have been anointed to bring the good news.

And in your quiet moments with God, when the conversation slows and you run out of things to talk about—when your hearts are tired from ministry but not tired of hearing His voice—know that these are the moments when He daydreams about the beauty of your family’s love for Him.  These are the times when His heart is ravished by your willingness to follow wherever He leads .  This is what He’s been bragging about for years to whoever would listen.  He has planned this marvelous thing in perfect faithfulness, since long ago.

BYE BYE “PERSONAL” MOBILITY… October 6, 2009

Well, a few weeks ago we sold our 2 cars. First was Bobby’s car, then our van. The Lord again made it happen in perfect time. He amazes us frequently.

I grieved at the van going. I spent so much time in it and it was like home to us. I loved that van. I even video taped it going away. That is crazy!Here, you can see it…

I thought…”bye bye mobility”…then felt quite convicted because you know what? God is clearly giving us tremendous mobility, like across the planet kind of mobility. How small I think sometimes.

We won’t have a car in Bangkok. We will be on public transportation. Mingling with the Thai people, getting to touch the city and the people. While I grieve at the loss of autonomous, private, comfortable, immediate mobility………..I like God’s idea of mobility better.

In HIS right hand are pleasures forevermore, seriously.

Here is a brief glimpse of what my new daily mobility will look like…I took this last year when we were in Bangkok.

Its not about us… September 22, 2009

I love this…These are the words written on the steps backstage at KidsQuest at our church, Perimeter Church in Duluth.

Sunday as I waited backstage before going on to teach about blessings, I was moved when I read these words.

Remember why we do this.

Its not about me.

REMEMBER

WHY

WE

DO

THIS

NOT ABOUT ME

THANK YOU LORD FOR YOUR GENTLE REMINDERS.

Blessings in Birmingham… August 9, 2009

We have had a fantastic weekend!

We traveled to Birmingham to visit a supporting church, Briarwood Presbyterian Church and to join them for a David Crowder * Band concert! It was such fun.

We also got to meet a new church family, Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church. What a blessing to be with God’s people who have a heart for the nations. We got to stay at the mission home in Trussville again, such a warm and cozy home! Thank you First Baptist of Trussville. This is what it feels like to be covered by love and support!!!

our family at the DC*B concert at Briarwood

We cooled off on Saturday at the mission house with the slip-n-slide…you HAVE to see this 1 minute video to really appreciate the depth of fun and craziness. Thank you Hank for creating this video.

TRAINING COMPLETED!!! July 31, 2009

Hello friends! We completed our training last week and moved back to Atlanta.

It was bittersweet to leave CIT. We were there almost 6 months and made such amazing friends, but we are also thrilled to have completed the training and now feel better equipped to cross cultures with the Gospel. This move was a little easier, I guess we are getting better at it! This makes 6 moves in 14 months.

The most exciting news of all is that we’re now at 92% !!!

Praise the Lord for such provision and thank you for giving so sacrificially to His work. We have only 8% left to go.

We thank God for again providing for our needs. He has linked us with a family from our church that has a beautiful basement apartment in their home they use for ministry. They offer it to missionaries and have graciously allowed us to stay with them while we complete support raising. It is close to our church and a fantastic treat for the kids…the family has 3 kids, a dog, 2 cats and they take care of horses. Hank and Grace are really enjoying it!

We thank You, Lord.

We got to do some fun things recently…we spent a day  with teammates who were in briefly from Bangkok…

We also have a new teammate to be, Nate Wallace. He will be joining us in Bangkok soon.

us, Nate & The Nicholson's

Hank and Joy

Grace, Joy, David and kids at concert

Please pray with us for the people of Bangkok and for the Gospel to reach them quickly. Please also pray for us to complete the support raising process quickly and begin transitioning. Thank you all so much for praying for us. The Lord’s hand is very evident and we are humbled by His love.

Only 2 weeks to go…then our time at CIT will be completed July 12, 2009

Well, we have only two weeks left at CIT. We’ve completed four of the five Bible Intensives modules. We did Studying and Using Scripture Effectively, Old Testament Survey, New Testament Survey, and Acts. We have one class left, Survey of Doctrines. The kids completed their Equipping for Cross Cultural Living and Second Language Acquisition classes. We are excited and “full” in a sense! We’re eager to keep moving forward!

family photo after church recently

Our support has really grown in the past few months. We are so thankful! We are now at 88% of our monthly support requirements and have only $780 dollars per month left to raise. We feel the Lord is calling us to be in Bangkok by/in November. So, we have a bit more to raise, but we have a great peace that the Lord is driving this endeavor. It has been His all along and He will complete it we are confident, in His perfect timing.

Please pray for us and these last few percentages of our support. Please pray for the Lord to raise up the people and families He has chosen to be part of the team that sends us to Thailand. Please pray for us to finish well here at CIT and to transition well as we leave. We have a few months between now and when we mobilize, please pray that we stay focused and implement what we’ve learned here.

Thank you all so much for praying for us.

-paula

us at Greenville Drive Baseball Game!

This is the true story of something wonderful that happened June 27, 2009

This is the true story of something wonderful that happened.

 

grace

While Grace was playing with her friends in their bedroom (their mom outside the room working on the computer) the girls realized the door was locked and they could not open it. They frantically alerted the mom and this began lots of activity on campus with several adults trying to help. I walked by their apartment and saw what was going on. I tried to open the door myself, but soon went to summon the maintenance man. Meanwhile a few dads were considering the window and how that might be a way to get in. The whole time the mom kept telling me how odd this was because the door did not have a lock on it. Neither on the inside nor the outside of the door – no locking mechanism. I didn’t put much into that at the time, the girls seemed to have calmed down inside and were playing or doing something way from the door.  Half-an-hour later, with a screw driver and some force, a CIT employee pried the door open. He said he had no idea how the door locked, or “got stuck” because there is no lock on it.

 

A few hours later we found out why the door locked…

When the girls realized they were locked in and no one could rescue them right away, one of them got very scared and began to cry. Trying to comfort her, Grace began to tell her that Jesus is here…watching over us…protecting us…He will take care of us…. The girl told Grace she had not asked Jesus to be her savior yet. Grace led her to pray and ask Jesus to be her Savior, to come into her heart to be her Lord.

The mom of the girl came to me and told me of this. Later that night I took Grace for a walk and asked her about it. She confirmed all I had heard. She said, “Mom as soon as we finished praying, they got the door open”.  Big smile.

 

I tell you all this to give God glory for controlling all things, even doors that need to get stuck for a little while. I also want to thank Him for the journey Grace has been on dealing with fear herself recently. All of that primed the pump for her to be able to minister to her friend.  We had hung verses above her head in the bunk beds so she could read them when she woke up in fear. It was happening nightly until only two weeks ago. Lots of prayer went up and lots of tears. We found the verses telling us to be strong and courageous, telling us of God’s great love for us and to not be afraid because He is with us. All of these she has been leaning on the past month. They were the ones she shared with her friend. I praise You Lord.

 

2 Corinthians 1:3-6

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows.  

the girls on an adventure...

  

sweet friends

PRESSING ON… June 7, 2009

 PRESSING ON!

family picture May 2009

 

For most of May, we went home to Atlanta to be with family and to speak at churches. It was a busy and very enjoyable time. Now we are back in North Carolina at the Center for Intercultural Training. Bobby and I have begun Bible Intensives and the kids have started their cultural training. We will be here for 8 weeks before our training is completed. Hard to believe we’ve been here since February! Time is flying!

 

God is so good, so faithful.

 

He has answered many prayers for us and helped us in ways that have grown our faith even more of His perfect plan for our family.  Hank and Grace have several kids their ages/gender in their culture classes. That was a big answer to prayer. 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our support continues to grow, another demonstration of His faithfulness. Financially, we are now able to focus on completing our monthly support requirements. We are at 78% of our monthly budget. We need to raise an additional $1500 per month to complete the goal. We praise God for raising up our team of prayer and financial partners. Perhaps He is calling you to join us – if you haven’t already. Thank you to everyone who is giving so sacrificially. God bless you all!

us at the King Tut exhibit in Atlanta

 

 Bobby and I have  felt the Lord leading us to pray to be able to move to Bangkok in November. Would you please join us in praying in this specific way? Please pray for us to be able and ready to mobilize. Please pray for our teammates in Bangkok and for the lost souls they are striving to reach. Our hearts yearn to be working with them. 

FACILITATING CHURCH PLANTING MOVEMENTS April 25, 2009

Well………………….we completed the CORE 5 . We are very, very blessed!

CORE 5 completed. Finishing Facilitating Church Planting Movements

This week we finished Facilitating Church Planting Movements and wrapped up three months at CIT. Now we go home for 3 weeks before returning for two more months of intensive Bible training.

We are still processing all we’ve learned in church planting movements. The course was designed to help missionaries develop a biblical philosophy of ministry as well as some basic church planting skills toward the strategic fulfillment of the Great Commission through facilitative church planting ministry. 

We read a lot and discussed a lot and even researched and prayer-walked a city in NC (Ashville).

We considered different models of church planting including the traditional model, the cell church model, and the house/simple/organic model.

We also studied missiological strategies of church planting and sought to evaluate our target country and the challenges we will face there in planting churches. We read the books “Church Planting Movements” by David Garrison, “Essential Vision” by The Alliance for Saturation Church Planting, and “Cultivating a Life for God” by Neil Cole. Other sources we studied and/or read were “The Discipling of a Nation” by Montgomery & McGavran, “DAWN 2000: 7 Million Churches to Go” by Montgomery, “Search and Rescue” by Neil Cole, “Organic Church” by Neil Cole, ”Natural Church Development” by Christian Schwarz, “Houses That Change The World” by Wolfgang Simson, and “The Global House Church Movement” by Rod Zdero.

There were more, but those are the highlights. As we continue to process through this, we will blog further about it. Suffice it to say we are thinking differently about what constitutes a church and what the Word offers as direction for church planting. Its not simple, but its incredibly important.

facilitating church planting movements group

Thank you again for your prayers. We are weary and tired and are looking forward to resting a bit before more training. We love you all. God Bless you for your heart for the Lord and for His heart for the nations.

-Paula