Around the World and Back Again.

Yes, I have been back from Thailand for almost a month and a half; And yes, This is a bit late in coming. Hopefully though, I'll now get you a much better report of my trip, now that I've had some time to process.

So much happened in Thailand, I could probably write a novel. We toured the city of Bangkok, and Chiang Mai, Stayed in Baan Nam Kem (near Phuket), And had the opportunity to visit some Christians in a remote Karen village. We rode elephants, played with tigers, saw a beautiful sunset on the beach (followed by diner served to us on the beach) and visited with multiple ministries all over Thailand. Needless to say, we had a blast (Which isn't to say that there weren't hard times as well)

The most challenging and encouraging aspect of the Christians we encountered at the various ministries, was the incredible sense of faith they had. We were over in a third world country, where people hardly have enough to get by. Yet, the faith they had that God would provide surpassed what I've seen in most Christians here in our land of plenty. If you think about it, here in America, we don't really need to trust God to provide our needs. For the most part we have things covered. In Thailand, if God didn't provide for them, they did without. They needed to trust him for even their basic needs. Not surprisingly, He was faithful to them.

We visited a community center down near Phuket run by a missionary from Singapore named Jason. Jason had felt God calling him to build the center after the 2004 tsunami completely devastated the area. He had no money going into the project, but he had faith. He began receiving calls from people wanting to donate large amounts of money to him, before he even told anybody about the project. He has this amazing story of how God provided just what he needed, at just the right time, but never in excess. It was this idea of manna, where if you have too much blessing, it will spoil. He always asks God for just what he needs, but never more, and God has been faithful for six years. This was easily the most memorable experience for me. I have been really challenged by this idea of manna, and am trying to play it out in my own life.

Trips like these are really easy to enjoy, but then return and resume life as normal. The hardest part about this kind of experience is to allow it to transform your life back home. I can't say that my life has been transformed, but by Gods grace I can see active changes to the way I view and interact with the world around me.

Thank you all so much for your prayers about this trip, God is truly amazing , and I am truly small in comparison to the world around.

Cheers

The Other Side of the World

In five days, on Tuesday Nov. 2nd, I will be waking at 3am so that I and a group of ten other people can head to JFK International Airport that we might fly twelve hours into the future and arrive in Thailand.

This is very exciting, and also very nerve wrecking. I expect to be challenged in ways I never expected, and hopefully in a few ways I am expecting. The prayer of my heart is that I come back with a greater awareness of God and his love, and can apply that to my life and the realationships I've developed with the people around me.

This being said, I desire your prayers. Prayers for safety and growth, and prayer that I would be open to Gods voice in my Life. There are also specific things you can pray for also:
- Preparation. I want to be as wholistically prepared as possible. With the stuff that I need to bring, and I want my heart in the right place before I go

- Pray for our group of interns. We are about to head to a place where we will be with eachother 24/7. To be honest, there is alot of tension within the group right now. some issues have come up that are really straining relationships. Pray for reconciliation.


I thank you all for your support in this way, and hope God blesses you as you stay here.

Cheers!

Alright I get it, I'm not really the blogging type. As you can tell by the crazy gap between my posts. But, I suppose I'll take some time out of my hectic life to tell you about a few things that are going on in my life.

This lovely picture to my left is a snapshot from family fun day. This was a fabulous time where we opened the property up to the community and had games, hayrides, wagon rides, pony rides, food, a film showing, and lot's of fun. This was a day planned by us interns and we got to use it as a time to fund raise as well. over the course of two weekends, we raised over two thousand dollars!!

This is the last week for field trips, which means that after Friday, I will never again have to give a presentation on turkeys to a bunch of rowdy little preschoolers. It has been fun however, and I have enjoyed being the "Turkey Guy" for a couple weeks. The end of field trips means the end of the turkeys for me. I will enjoy not having to worry about those feathered creatures.

Another update on horses: I got to run on a horse through the open pasture! After a group trail rise the last weekend, a couple of us took the horses out again and had some fun trotting and cantering. A canter is just slower than a gallop. I'll be honest, I was holding on for dear life, but it was awesome!!

A little more than a week ago, some of the other interns and I had an adventure in Philly. We drove down after field trips to see the band, "Two Door Cinema Club" in concert at the First Unitarian Church. It was a great show, and we drove back that same night, arriving back at the farm after 3am. A fun adventure.

Well, at the beginning of the year, we interns filmed a movie on the book a Joshua. Here it is for your enjoyment:http://vimeo.com/15676456

Cheers!

Well, the horses are gone.

So, the story I'm about to tell takes place roughly a few weeks ago, but I thought it's never too late to share a good story, right?

My subconcious senses told me that a damp and overcast morning awaited my return to the world of the wakeful. I wasn't ready for that, so I decided a few more minutes slumber would be just the thing to combat the dreainess that I was sure to face in the near future. Fate would make other plans.

"Chad," a soft voice pierced the stillnes. My limp body wasn't ready to respond. "Chad, the horses are gone."

"What do you mean gone?" I didn't really want the answer. There was no logical solution to the dissapearance 16 creatures with the combined weight of over 8 tons that I could reasonbly process at that moment.

"They're gone, I think they've escaped." Shelby, and Alyssa seemed to be in earnest. Of course, this could be a joke. We at Three Springs liked to have a deal of fun now and then.

"I think they're for real," not the reassurance I wanted TJ. His muffled voice shot over to me from his dark bunk.

Begrudginly I realized that this problem wasn't going to disapear the same way my hope for a few extra moments of bliss had. Action had to be taken, as painful as that was.

"Alright, I'll help you look for them," slowly I got up and put my sweatpants on. The cold would not have mercy on an act of goodwill.

The ATV took a bit of coaxing to get going. It wasn't any more ready for the day to start than I was. Finnaly it found life from somewhere deep within it's bowels, and let out a deafening roar. We were off, not knowing what awaited us up the hill. The biting chill soon brought tears to my eye's. I could feel the blood rush to my nose and cheeks, trying desperately to fiend off the sting. The fields were blanketed by a dense cloud as Shelby and I crested the hill, keeping our vision from extending too far.

We came into the first pasture. It was as empty as the tomb of the good Lord himself. To my left I could see another pasture, as empty as the first. My stomach was moving up into my throat slightly. Ahead the far pasture loomed, a white wall sitting forebodingly in front of us. Gradually our vision probed the dense cover before us. Little by little hope was fading. This might be a long search after all.

Suddenly, before us was revealed from the thick of the fog, a tall dark beast, grazing lazily at the grass. One by one, 16 of the most beautiful beings that I'd ever laid eyes on were displayed before me. Never had I been more happy to see those God forsaken horses. I looked back at Shelby who sheepishly yelled to me over the roar of the ATV engine,

"I swear they weren't there before."

Of course they weren't. Luckily the elusive horse snatching fairy, perhaps striken by guilt, had seen fit to return the horses in time for the morning trail ride.

Cheers

More preschoolers?

Well, field trip season is in full swing here on the farm, and I, the "Turkey Guy" am very busy. This coming week, we have four straight days of field trips. This means I will be giving roughly two dozen talks about turkeys. Did you know that Ben Franklin wanted to make the turkey the national bird? Or that turkeys can have heart attacks? Resulting in fields of dead turkeys at the time the air force was trying break the speed of sound.

When a field trip comes, we gather all the kids on the pavilion and get them outfitted with name tags. Then we split them into groups and I start presentations. I make the kids act like turkeys, and then let them hold turkeys. It's great. Then we get to get lost in our giant corn maze, followed by a diesel power hay ride (the smell is fantastic,) which ends at the "pumpkin patch" where kids get to pick a pumpkin to take home. Obviously they all want the big one, and the adults stand around and laugh at them try to pick it up. Exhausted and hungry, we finally get to send them home.

In other news, our intern group finished our Project on the book of Joshua, which was a film reenactment of the story. It was complete with a dramatic battle of Ai, slow motion stoning of Achan, Gold-lame-jacket-wearing-God, and dance battle for the conquest of Canaan. I hope to get it up on vimeo soon, we'll see.


Well, that's all by way of update.

Cheers.

Jewish Studies.

Well, last week in our study of the Old Testament, we brought in a guest teacher to help us brush up on our knowledge of Jewish studies. It was fairly enlightening how knowing the culture of the time really helps you better interpret the traditions of the people of that era. For instance, we discussed the translation of the word law, a word our culture associates with judge. Definitely a word with a few negative connotations. However, the meaning of the Hebrew word is more aligned with, "Loving guidance of a compassionate father." I like that so much more. The Romans chose the word "law" because in the Roman culture of the time, the people loved the Roman law. Thus they thought it'd be fitting. This view of the law, or Torah, brings the character of God into a slightly new, and more glowing light.

We had our second and third groups come in this weekend. A JR. High group at the farm, and then a senior citizens group down at the Linck Hill Inn. Both groups were larger than the capacity of the location, which made for a very busy and tiring weekend. I took like a million hour nap today after the group left. LHI was particularly tiring because you have to serve each person individually like a restaurant, where as at the farm, it's just a buffet line the kids go through. It was a good change of pace though, and I enjoyed it. This week Field trips start, which means we'll be even busier than ever. For field trips, each of the interns is paired up and placed at a post. The pairs then switch off, one person doing one day, then the other person doing the next. Except me. I'm the only one assigned to turkey presentation duty (which I mentioned in my last post,) which means I'm on for every field trip.

Let me quickly run through this weeks schedule, just so you get an idea. Monday morning we have off, because we are coming off a full weekend of retreats. Tuesday and Friday we have field trips coming in the morning, and a retreat coming in Wednesday morning and staying until Thursday. Then another retreat coming in this weekend. On top of all this, we have cleaning days, daily chores, work projects, and three hours of class everyday to fit in. I'm getting tired just thinking about it.

Well, in the spirit of being busy, I need to go work on my Turkey presentation so that it's ready for Tuesday.

Cheers

Thank God it's Monday!

Oh how blessed it is that the weekend is over. Not the usual sentiment I realize. However, this past weekend saw 110 senior high kids on the farm, all of whom know how to make a lot of noise at 2:30am.
This was our first group as interns, and throughout the weekend, I belayed, led a mountain bike trip, and was on kitchen duty. It was really great, but I for real slept in til like 8:30am this morning (the horses got a little extra time in the pastures!) One of the best parts of the weekend was the opening worship session on Friday night. To start, their worship leader had this amazing voice, like for real! It was awesome to be in a small room with a 110 kids praising God, and he really revealed himself to me. It was totally unexpected and really caught me off guard.
Upcoming this fall, we have a full lineup of field trips from local schools coming to visit the farm during the week. Each year they come up with a new theme for the field trips, and this year the theme is turkey's. I get the distinction of being the "turkey guy." This means, I'll be educating 1200 school kids all about turkey's! So in the future, if you need to know about the bird that Ben Franklin wanted to make the national bird, you know who to ask.

Oh the Mysterious Majesty of Horses

It was pitch black when when myself, a fellow intern, and the horse hand Mike climbed over the fence leading down to the gate by which we would let the horses out for the evening. Off towards the barn these great black shapes loomed back and forth, snorting with discomfort at the presence of strangers. We swung the gate wide open, and Mike sauntered in to urge the horses towards the pasture.

Meanwhile, my fellow intern, Corrine, and I waited anxiously by the gate. Thoughts of our possible imminent danger flashed through my mind. Slowly a steady rumble moved toward us. Suddenly we were face to face with a herd of horses galloping past us into the dark of the night. That moment was so powerful to experience, a taste of the wildness, and might of God.

The next day I got to chase that same herd of horses on an ATV and coral them back into their pen, and then we went on a trail ride the day after. It's been suh-weet with the horses, basically everything I've ever dreamed of.

What a long day!

Dear Friends and Family,

I experienced some real farm work today, and I must say, it was thoroughly enjoyable. We spent a few hours "Throwing Hay," (I'm getting to learn all kinds of farm lingo,) Which is when you stack hay that's been baled in the storage area. This entailed climbing high in a million degree barn. In case you don't know, hay is quite sharp and my arms are currently burning from being pricked all day.

This evening the regular Thursday youth group came to the farm and all us interns got a chance to participate. We had fun playing baseball with eggs and wrestling in ketchup, baked beans, mustard, pears, and a variety of other foods that are great, except when your in them.

Before all this, however, we started our day (at 8am per usual) with a continuation of our study in Genesis. This year we will be going through the whole old testament looking at the narrative of the authors. It's super so far, and it's really neat to see what God is revealing to all the Interns through the course of the read. We had fun discussing the Nephilim and Sons of God.

That's about it for now, cliff jumping and horseback riding this weekend, as well as some more rock climbing tomorrow.

In other news, I've decided to take requests. so if you have any specific questions, or don't understand what I'm writing, please email me questions, and then I'll answer them! clb732@gmail.com. Also, I have a couple pictures uploaded on FB.

Cheers,

Chad

Dear friends and family,

Well, here it is, my blog. By which you will know all about my life for the next nine months. this will be quick. I am here at three springs (see pics on FB) and if you want to send me stuff ;) my address is 874 Linck Hill Road, morris PA 16938.

Today was our first day, we climbed a rock wall, got certified for belaying, went swimming, played spoons, and had our first session of class. We will be going through the old testament and have been assigned the book of Genesis for the first week, aack!

So far I am having a great time, my fellow interns are fantastic, and God has been abundantly good and gracious. Thank you all for your prayers!!