Hey all! We’re back!
We are all recovering from our trip, but we are very excited to spill the stories as we get back into the swing of Carpinteria:)
In the meantime, stay tuned for a huge slideshow on thaiunit.com
-Lazo
Worship Songs in Thai from chris lazo on Vimeo.
Thank you for your prayers! Here are some new things that have unfolded since the last post:
1) We took Mulch to the ER room today, and he came out feeling a lot better. He’s moving around now, and is not just confined to bed.
2) Matt preached the Word of God this morning, and I (Lazo) co-led worship with Pinu and the Thai worship band. Ron was excited to see the worship atmosphere much better than it has been in the past. Not because of the worship team, of course, but because we have been bathing it in prayer. Praise God!
3) Ron spoke on communion, and we partook along with the three combined orphanages. This is especially revealing. For a long time, there has been in place a false doctrine in the Christian church in Thailand that you must be water baptized before you can partake of communion. We know this to be false and unbiblical, but the Thai’s do not know this, and even when they are confronted with the deceptiveness of this awful doctrine, they are still fearful of taking the cup and bread. Ron has been battling this heresy for a long time, with the truthfulness of the Word of God, and has on several occasions, confronted local ministers concerning their false teachings. So, it is a BIG deal for communion to be shared at Baan Immanuel among 160 children and Thai staff members. There were long lines, actually…
4) We blessed the staff and all three orphanages with our black Reality shirts! Pictures should be coming shortly.
5) We spent most of this morning praying for all the children of the orphanages, and for individual staff members and their wives. They have huge work ahead!
I (Lazo) have two prayer request to ask of you, friends.
1) Please pray against dissention, anger, ill-feelings, strife…you get the idea:) As we are nearing the end of our trip, the enemy would love to turn petty frustrations into divisive accusations. As stated earlier, we want to finish strong.
2) Please pray for the staff and children at Baan Immanuel to stay true to their first love. You may not be aware of this, but the people at Baan Immanuel are actually very blessed by God. They went from utter poverty in past years, to a very decent home to reside in. Satan sometimes uses the blessings we get from God, to pull us away from God. Please pray that Jesus would remain their first love.
We love you, Reality Family:)
It’s been a crazy week!
We spent much of last week visiting Ron’s other orphanages throughout Thailand. All of those orphanages have come to Baan Immanuel for a huge tournament with games ranging from Tanak (volleyball with your feet), American Volleyball, and Soccer. Last night, all the kids got decked out in beautiful attire and did wonderfully choreographed dances. Tonight, we are renting out an entire restaurant buffet, and taking every single kid to eat there….about 160 of them!
Here’s some other things you might want to know:
1) The rest of the team actually made it into burma, for a little downtime. It was actually more spiritually dark than Thailand, so we came back soon.
2) When we gather to worship, the orphanage’s worship team plays some old songs that we recognize (Lord I Lift Your Name On High, Once Again, Holy and Anointed One), but they sing them to Thai words. We (frongs, as they call us) sing in English, and it results in a rather beautiful mixture of sound. It kind of reminds me (Lazo) of Acts 2, when all of the languages are redirected to praise the King….the reversal of Babel.
3) We all picked up a gigantic snake….except Aubrey.
Aaron Feeney is doing very well at the Thai language, and the kids love him and his hair.
4) Last night we gave out Ice Cream cones to the orphanage…you should have seen their little smiles:)
5) Zoe and Mulch are battling sickness…please pray for them
6) Aubrey and Brandon have won the approval of the Orphanage in the sporting world
7) Matt Annand is preaching to 3 orphanages tomorrow morning (Sunday) for church. He will be speaking about God’s attribute, jealousy. Pray for him to be led by the Lord, and careful with the Word of God.
Here are some random pictures…I hope you enjoy them:)
Zoe and Lazo went across into Myanmar today to bring gifts and financial help to a new orphanage there. They worship Jesus under constant threat of persecution from their neighbors and corrupt government officials. You couldn’t easily discern that, however; the joy in the room is indescribable…
Burmese Orphans Worshiping
Burmese Orphans Worship from chris lazo on Vimeo.
In addition to persecution, they are deeply impoverished, barely getting enough food every month. Their meals consist only of rice, and they are fortunate if they get enough of that. Sometimes the neighbors will complain of them worshiping the Lord, which brings harassment from the Burmese police who have confiscated their food portions and money.
It costs the equivalent of $300 a month to cover the expenses of the orphanage, including food for forty children, and three staff members. To put this into terms that are more easily grasped: If every one at Reality Carpinteria committed to give them 20 cents a month, the entire orphanage would be able to function, support staff, and feed kids (both spiritually and physically) every month. Imagine if everyone at our church gave a dollar a month…
These staff members have left everything behind in hope of serving Jesus by loving on orphans. One of the staff members spends her weekdays traveling to Thailand to go to Bible school (because these types of schools are illegal in Burma). She then goes back to the Burmese orphanage on the weekends to teach the kids what she knows. This is her life. These are her kids.
Hello friends!
We’re sorry it’s been so long! We are trying to update the blog on a regular basis, but our schedule is arranged around what the Lord calls us to do any given day, and it (our day) changes rapidly, and sometimes drastically.
Here is what has happened in the last couple days:
1) Soccer games. (We beat the Thai Soccer team on the first day! That gave us reason to buy yellow and blue soccer jerseys for Team USA:)
2) Zoe and I (Lazo) went to visit an orphanage across the border in Burma, a persecuted country. No one else on the team could go except us and Pinu (a staff member at Baan Immanuel orphanage), because we were the only ones that weren’t white. (More on this later). Oh, by the way, I saw the toys you (Reality) gave them for Christmas. They were hanging, still in wrapping, from their ceilings, and from what I hear, they were extremely excited about them.
3) While Zoe and I were in Burma (Myanmar), the rest of the team did an outreach to the Red Lahu tribe. Aaron Feeney and Brandon gave their testimonies, while the rest of the team did a powerful drama with Matt Anand playing the main role. The team handed out candy to kids, and they also had worship. At the end of the day, 27 people gave their lives to the Lord, kids and adults:)
4) We went to Chiang Kong (a different orphanage), and loved on the kids there. We also took them out to a fancy restaurant. They’re so cute, it’s almost unreal.
5) At our hotel in Chiang Kong we prayed for Laos (listed by Open Doors USA on its international watch list of the ten top violators of religious freedom in the world). http://www.opendoorsusa.org/content/view/432
6) On our way back to Baan Immanuel, we all took boats to the coast of Laos, for a closer look.
7) We stopped at the Golden Triangle, the section where Thailand, Burma, and Laos meet. We prayed over the countries.
We stopped by a Bible College with many students from around the area, who want to be equipped for the work of the ministry. We gave them encouraging words, and worshiped with them. They then treated us to lunch, and even chopped down their sugar cane for us!
9) Bethany is back and has been doing these these things with us!
10) The boys tried to do laundry today, but a group of the teenage Thai girls stopped us dead in our tracks, and refused to let us do our own laundry. They said, “boy no do laundry.”
So we washed their dishes:)
We’ll be back in four days to tell (and show) you everything:)
Well, now that we’re wide awake from our 41 hour traveling experience, we have already been knee deep in mud and kids! We had a little run-in with the Thailand officials at the airport over the medication we were bringing in (even though it was legal, and permitted). Though much of it was confiscated, there were still many bags (filled with medicine) that went overlooked (praise the Lord!).
Oh yeah…Bethany couldn’t get on the plane with us because her passport had too soon of an expiration date, but the embassy has allowed her to come, and we will be picking her up on Sunday:) Yay!!
Our second day consisted of tree chopping (for the guys), and cleaning the kitchen and cutting veggies (for the girls), as well as hours of loving on the sweetest, cutest, most precious children you have ever seen in your life!
Enjoy the slideshow, and thank you for your travailing prayers. We are so thankful for all of you!
Thank you for your fervent prayers!
More to follow after we recuperate.
Hey everybody! It’s 3:45 AM, and we are drinking Starbucks, eating McDonalds, and charging hard in the Singapore airport. There will be more updates (and more frequent) as soon as we can find a place to use our laptops, but we just thought we would let you know we are ok for the most part:)
Praise Him.