fish massages, free starbucks and sweat

Merry Christmas USA! While ours draws to a close, yours is getting under way. Shout out to the lovely Goodrich's that I had the delight of talking tonight (their early morning)! So encouraging!
The title of the blog says much of what I have done for Christas today. We got a fish massage, which includes tiny fishies biting off the dead skin on your feet. It tickles so much.
It has been a trip of a week. We quickly adjusted to everything in Bangkok that at first surprised us. To sum up the week, we have learned to enjoy the tastes (food and coffee), learned NOT to make eye contact with anyone on the street (they believe you want what they have to offer), and how to barter. "No, I don't want to pay 250 baht for that...how 'bout 175?" That's less than $10USD for either. Many come for the obvious cheapness of things.
Much has happened, but must be saved for a sit down coffee date. I have a few already planned with you reading this.
We have talked to more people than I can count on two hands, including a twelve year old Thai girl I talked to about Jesus, pretty sweet!
Tomorrow, we jump on a bus for twelve hours to reach a place called Chiang Mai.

Thank you for your prayers! We feel much support and covering, but please continue it. The Lord delights in hearing you lift others up to Him!
Pray for health, protection in this dark country, and just the Holy Spirit to guide us!

Love,
Jordan

A journal from my first day...

It is the end of our first day and we are sitting and chatting with some people from England.

We have seen so much that we are all overloaded with things we have never seen before.

I strongly believe it is good to get out of your element. To see cultures hugely different from you own. To realize where you come from is not the world. To realize what you believe should be tested so you rely more on God.

This place hounds you to buy everything and it takes everything in you to resist.

Honestly, I have too much to write, but am having a hard time expressing it. I am doing well and my team mates are good too.
Please continue to pray for health and protection, that all we see will fade as we look to Christ.

Bye Bye.

This is a picture from our school's commissioning night. All the trustees of YWAM Oxford and base staff come around us and pray. They pray for protection, health, and anything else they feel. We are one team down (off to India...17 hours of flight time for them) and five more to go. It is a little bit crazy what we are all walking into over the next two days.

Living out of my backpack again. Only cold showers, non western toilets (also known as: squatty potty), really good Thai food (Thai Cafe in Stillwater ain't got nothin' on this stuff), dirty city streets, beaches, red light districts, poverty, no air conditioning, hot/humid Thai summer (which is similar to Oklahoma's summer...oh no), buddhas everywhere, temples on every street corner, backpackers searching for satisfaction, a team of five trying to live life together for two months, and so much more.

We leave tomorrow at 3am on Sunday. That is 9am in Tulsa, OK on Saturday. We fly to Melbourne, Australia. Then to Bangkok (a 9.25 hour flight).

I will talk to you all soon, maybe in February.

So you're going to Thailand?

As you know, my team and I (pictured above) will be getting on a plane to backpack around mainly Thailand, but also Laos. We are doing this to share Love. During these last three months God has taken each one of our hearts and poured His love, grace, acceptance, adoration, discipline, and much more into them. Now we are going out. We are called to go out and share it, not to keep this goodness in. We will be staying in hostels, praying, fasting, worshiping, praising, reading the Word, talking, inviting, listening, and mostly walking out what we feel the Holy Spirit is telling us to do/say. We want to be like Jesus, full of compassion and being real with people. It is going to be a trip. We hope to experience Jesus in phenomenal ways.

Please keep us in your prayers!

Protection/safety

Boldness

Being a light in a very dark place

cookies and coffee

A big thank you is in order to some wonderful friends! I got a huge package in the mail and inside were all the necessary items to remind yourself it is Christmas when the weather, lack of usual family members and festivities is telling you otherwise. Thank you Swanson Family for the sugar cookie mix, hershey kisses, icing, sprinkles, cookie cutters, etc. Below is a picture of my small group making cookies! We LOVED it! It was also great that on this particular day it was chilly and rainy. We put some wood on the fire and listened to Christmas music. AGAIN, THANK YOU!!!!

I know I talked about coffee last week, but today I found the espresso machine I used back home in Tulsa. That's right folks, the amazing cherry red La Marzocco.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I will keep you updated on life in Thailand.

G'day Mate.

Hello!

I have a request. Five of our staff are in need of MONEY (that's right money...the M word) to head out for outreach. We leave next Saturday for our different countries (India, Thailand, Australia, Fiji, and New Zealand) to proclaim the Love of God! My request is that you pray and see if the Lord would have you give. All donations would be so appreciated!

My money is taken care of thanks to many wonderful donations and the money I earned while making coffee.

Go to: http://www.ywamoxford.org/pay-online/

scroll to the bottom of the page and select donations

and for the "purpose" write Backpackers DTS outreach

Thank you.

Coffee brings me so much joy...

Hello dear ones!

This week has been so fun. Our speaker this past week was amazing. You know how much I enjoy hearing people's stories. He began the week by taking time to tell his story (side note: have you ever heard of Joy Dawson or read her books? Our speaker this week was her grandson). He is twenty seven and has great wisdom. He talked on relationships. Good stuff.

One of my favorite parts of this week was the fact that it was Angels and Mortals. It means we all draw names and the person we get, we are to bless them all week. They are known as your angel and you are their mortal. My angel who happened to be my roommate and fellow staffer, contacted my friends on facebook and asked them if they could just tell me how much they love me! So thank you friends who responded! It was an awesome blessing this week. I was wondering why I was getting so many nice messages...

This week was also marked by going to a coffee shop by the ocean. I tend to not get my hopes up about coffee shops here. The espresso machines they use are usually not very good. Having come from a background of barista-ing, I know what I like. This shop won me over the second I walked in and saw their machine was a La Marzocco. This is the lamborghini of espresso machines and the first one I have even seen in New Zealand. I love coffee. I am starting to believe part of my calling in life somehow involves coffee or being a barista; mix in a little geography/cartography/environment (all three really go hand-in-hand) and rock climbing and you have three things I am truly passionate about. Here is a link to the coffee shop called Lyttleton Coffee Company. The homepage shows some neat pictures of it. I love getting excited about the small things!

On another note, I am jumping on a plane on December 18th for an eight hour trip to Bangkok, Thailand. Oh my! I have no words, honestly.

I need to go hang my laundry right now. Hope all is well! Love ya'll.