DECEMBER UPDATE
December has been quite the ride! We started off the month with a focus on learning more about Disciple Making Movements. Josh and Cassidy have been teaching us the trainings and we are going out to malls and other places to make connections with buddhists who seem open to learning more about Jesus. We make a meaningful connection, often sharing a bit of our story and get their contact and follow up with them. We are really feeling encouraged at how well so many of the people we make connections with are responding.
(L) Adam and Josh talked and played worship music with some actors doing a special event at the mall. (R) Kayla and Panchika while we were reading the parable of the Prodigal Son.
Josh and Cassidy met Panchika (above) at the Japanese restaurant where she is a waitress. They really connected and after a few follow ups Panchika said yes to an invitation to come over for dinner and read a story about Jesus. We had an incredibly fun time playing Uno, eating Lasagna and reading the parable of the Prodigal son. She was super eager to hear a song on the guitar so Adam played a worship song he knows in Thai. She seemed touched and really connected with the story of the prodigal son and the father's radical forgiveness.
We are excited to continue to share Jesus with her and to find many others to read stories about Jesus with and share about how He has changed our lives. So simple and yet so profound.
Adam organized a Christmas outreach where they went to a nearby slum to pass out food, pray for people and share the gospel.
Pearls of Thailand
Pearls of Thailand now has a house! We are so excited to launch into this year helping women who want to leave prostitution with job opportunities, learning sewing and English skills and most of all learning about Jesus and His immense love for them. Pray for financial provision and also strength and energy for the team.
The crazy story...
Thanks to a generous Christmas donation from one of our supporting Churches we were able to plan a beach vacation with Josh and Cassidy to the south of Thailand before Christmas. Our trip got off to a bit of a rocky start with a storm preventing all ferries from crossing to the island, so we were stuck in a random city for two nights waiting. We made the most of it and two days later we were on the bus to the ferry when Adam got a very surprising text.
Our visa had been canceled along with everyone else in the Bangkok branch of our organization. We would most likely need to leave the country as soon as possible. The situation was that Thai Immigration has been cracking down on the misuse of Volunteer visas (good), but our legitimate and well run organization got caught in the cross hairs due to a change of address of the office not being filed and the inspectors showing up to a suspiciously empty building (bad). All the attempts were made at finding a logical solution but there was no way forward. So we stayed one night at our beautiful beach hotel and then the next day flew back to Bangkok and then on to Cambodia for a one night stay. It was expensive and stressful but once we got the plan made it all went smoothly, praise Jesus. We are now on tourist visas which will lasts us through the next few months. We made it home on Christmas Eve Eve and had a wonderful Christmas with our team and our families via FaceTime.
Next Steps
We are excited to spend the next few months really pouring ourselves into discipleship and Pearls and we feel the Lord's peace despite the craziness. We have had a plan to make a visit to the USA this spring in the works for a while and the visa situation has firmed up our plans (haha). We will come back in March to introduce Jubilee to all the friends and family who have not yet met her and celebrate her 1st birthday. Then we will spend several weeks support raising and sharing our vision with new churches and contacts. We are excited for what is being built and we know the Lord will provide all we need. If you have any church or individual connections you think might be interested in partnering with us please let us know. We are so excited to connect with each of you and introduce you to Jubilee!
Prayer Requests:
Pray for the connections we have made, that they would continue and that they would quickly move from causal friendships to a hunger to know more about Jesus.
Pray for us to stay healthy, there have been some bad colds etc. going around lately.
Pray that all the visa/organization stuff would get sorted quickly and that we wouldn't have any more difficulties.
We love hearing from you, if you'd like to reach out you can just reply to this email. If you are interested in seeing more of our daily life please follow us on instagram @kaylacoupe and @coupetroop. We also try to post our IG stories on Facebook Stories)