The Journey Begins

After two weeks of rest, I'm leaving my love Maggie Talley along with very beautiful and very Asian Thialand tomorrow and will be heading to Kenya! Time here with Maggs has been such a blessing. I am rested and ready to go! Woohoo!

When I get to Kenya I'll meet Mark at the airport in Nairobi where my flight lands. We'll meet up with a Kenyan friend of Mark's and stay in Nairobi for 2-3 days before heading to the orphanage in Gatura. Hopefully we'll be able to buy a guitar and a djembe (drum) so we can make some music when we get there! These things would be a great gift for the kids at AMCC as well.

As soon as we reach Gatura, Mark and I will walk around to become familiar with the territory. We'll try and locate a coffee shop with internet near there so we can communicate with you guys back home! ...Till then!

P.S. Please remember to pray for my and Mark's travels and for a great first impression with John Muhika and the kids! Much Love!

Visit to Om Kuay

I had a really neat weekend that I wanted to share with you all!
I had an opportunity during a break from work to visit a Karen village
west of Chiang Mai in the mountains where the ministry started a
church and helps out a few times a year.













Basically we drove 3 hours to an area called Om Kuay and then took a very discrete dirt road through the mountains to a small village of
about 30 families. They are Karen people who are subsistence farmers
and only obtained some solar electricity a couple years ago and that
only in a few homes. For more info on the Karen people see http://www.joshuaproject.net/peoples.php?rop3=104775.
They have many sub groups within their language but they are one of
the main groups who are oppressed in Burma so there are many refugees
in Northern and Western Thailand as well as in Laos and southern
China, but this particular group has been in Thailand for a few
generations and they are Thai citizens.














The mountains were incredible and the village was the epitome of
idyllic. For your imagination: wooden houses on stilts along a dirt
road, crumpled old women with crimson woven skirts and black teeth,
chickens and cows and dogs roaming, 20 ft tall poinsetta trees lining
the dirt road, smoke rising from wood fires every family and
incredible valleys on each side. On Friday I helped bag food and we
cooked over a wood stove and ate together in the pastor Ajarn Jan's house.
















Saturday was Children's day in Thailand so we did a morning
full of games and snacks and a children's program and in the afternoon
taught about Jesus and they learned the Nativity story to act out.
Saturday afternoon we passed out food and gifts to every family and
presents from Samaritan's Purse and the children were ecstatic to open
notebooks and pajamas.



































Saturday evening was absolutely freezing but
peresverance reigned as neighboring people and villagers gathered for
outreach and to worship Jesus under the stars and around camp fires.
Sunday morning I had the privilege of worshipping with them and I bet
all of us wish we could worship like that everyday! Those same
crumpled old ladies can jump and dance like I have never seen. So much
joy and love for their Savior, please see my pictures to see how much
fun it was.

My role on this trip was basically as the novelty who holds the babies
and oohs and aaahs at all the differentness and everyone tries to
marry me off to their son (i got 2 proposals), but I was floored to
see some of the people I work with serving God in this village. I live
with this guy Eh who I don't really know that well except I know he
hangs out with the boys and drives the truck, but watching him preach
in the Karen language and love the people in this village was awesome!
I already knew Joy was good with kids but this was the best kids' day
I have ever been to! It was just a blessing to me to watch them
minister and made me want to speak THai better. (I did know enough to
reject the marriage proposals though)

I don't know why I get the opportunity to know these people, they are
counted among those who have lost their lives and found a new and
abundant one. PLease pray for people in OM Kuay.

As for little ol' me, I am stil teaching and tutoring and learning
Thai. I tutor this Japanese guy and it is hilarious because he speaks
NO English so I basically dance around and draw pictures for 2
hours.(exhausting!) I can now read about half of Thai writing and can
probably write most of your names! yA!!
I had a great talk with one of my students on friday. I hope it
encourages you all that spend time with international students in the
US because she became a Christian while studying at a high school in
OKlahoma of all places through and international outreach! SHe is 16
and her parents do not let her go to church here but she reads her
Bible and her American host family still plays a huge role in
encouraging her to follow God. It was cool to get to encourage her and
talk before and after class about Jesus!
Also, for all of you- have students from other countries in your homes
and love them and welcome them! (pretend I am a prophet and I am
teling you to do this!)

Okay, please pray for my cute kids, 2 are having skin problems and as
I learn more about their lives my heart breaks for their need. Also, I
have an important meeting on THursday where I might get a chance to do
something I really want to do(I will be less vague if it happens) and
I need your prayers. I also need prayer for loving people and working
through some cultural differences and communications. (I amd not that
good at it).

LOVE and joy and peace to everyone!
Maggs

Hello all! Welcome!

This is my first post ever on my first blog ever! This blog has been created to relate and communicate to you all while I'm away on my first 6-month-mission-trip ever! Whoo hoo! The Lord is good!

Throughout my time in Kenya I will be sending news updates about what the Lord is doing, pictures of all kinds of people and curiosities, and things to pray about all via this blog. So if you're ever interested in what the news is or how you can pray for Mark and I and the 41 kids at the orphanage, or just wanna see some native Kenyans and African culture, visit this blog.

You can also comment, express your concerns, post prayers, give ideas and encouragement etc... on this blog site. PLEASE DO! It will be good to hear from you all while I'm away going through strange emotional times (as the books say) and trying to get ahold of "ki swahili" and the Kenyan culture.

If you're reading this now I can't tell how much I appreciate your support! Thanks for caring and praying! I need it! I don't leave the country until Feb. 10th, but I'll be posting again soon.

Praise be to the one true God whose desire is to feed the orphans all over the world! Praise Him who uses His people to do His will and gives unending joy with peace beyond understanding! The Lord is good!

your brother,

-Nick

Don't forget a quick stop in Bangkok to visit the Royal Palace and temple with the Emerald Buddha!

Happy New Year!

So the time came for another Visa Run and I jumped over to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to wait in line this time. Spent a few days in the city and I am proud to say I have it down. I loved navigating the fairly well structured subways and monorails there. Visited the Petronas Towers, which a few years ago were the largest buildings in the world, and this crazy cave temple called the Batu caves.




Celebrated New years Eve in the Cameron Highlands, where there are gorgeous hills for hiking and tea planatations for miles.
A little lonely traveling alone though, looking forward to returning to my good ol' Chiang Mai.

Visit from Nick Jackson wooohooooo!!




































































Hanging out with kids, hiking on Doi Suthep, little time at the beach, my birthday, watching me work, sitting next to fat smelly men on the truck taxi = awesome and encouraging!!

Merry Christmas!

Wow I have now passed my four month mark!
Honestly, it is difficult for me to summarize and lately I
don't fully understand my own thoughts let alone have the ability to
communicate them through a mass email. Don't think I have forgotten
about you because I think about each of you far more than you would
even believe.















As of late:
-still living with my awesome children and enjoying them as much as ever
-teaching part time at Chiang Mai University Language Institute and
some occasional children's camps
-taking Thai class with my precious tutor Bee who is now my friend
-teaching kids on the weekends at two churches
-meeting tons of people from all over the world doing all kinds of
cool stuff and trying to make meaningful relationships with them
-trying to eat something and somewhere different for lunch every day
-running and trying to relearn the guitar with my free time
















So my first holiday away from the US… Coming soon and on my thoughts
is a feeling that I am missing Christmas or skipping it or something.
I don't normally go crazy over this holiday to the extreme, I don't
have an extreme amount of sentimentality, am not a very talented gift
buyer or giver, and sometimes I am turned off my the American media
version of Christmas; but I never imagined the opposite in a place
where there is a complete void of the entire holiday (at least in its
real meaning- I did see Santa stuff at the market). Children will be
at school, work will go on and food will be rice and noodles as usual.
I will miss my family and at a time when most of us have that on the
forefront of our minds, though I am surrounded by many people, none of
them really know me. I realized the other day that no matter what
house or state or part of the family I have been with on Christmas, I
have been with my brother for 18 years straight and this is the first
year for that to change. But I praise God who "sets the lonely in
families" (Psalm 68:8) for he has given me a breakfast date with some
other girls working here and an invitation from a New Zealander couple
(the associate pastor at the English church I go to who I just love
and want to be adopted family) to join them for Christmas dinner! I am
so encouraged by their hospitality and for a God who sees me and
provides. I will also be spending New Years in Vietnam which will be
very fun!

Otherwise, life is continuing in its strange way here. Lately I have
been squirming over circumstances that are uncomfortable and
stretching but exist so that I can serve and love just because God
says to and not according to my conditions.















To those of you who have supported me financially in the past, I would
like to let you know that this part off my budget has been going
towards medicine for the kids, my visas that must be renewed, my
motorbike and Thai lessons. If you would like for more details I would
love to let you know more and can give you a copy of my budget and
expenses. I am so thankful for God's provision while I have been here.

If anyone is considering a last minute Tax deduction, the ministry I
work with has had two churches cut funding this month and the
construction of the new home (as the current one has tons of termite
damage) has been put on hold. Any donation no matter how small will go
to the kids that I work with every day (and my future home as well!)
Please go to www.saltministries.com for some info (some a little
outdated but generally helpful) on the foundation and send checks to:

SALT Ministries
P.O. Box 58145
Jacksonville, FL 32241

(you can make a note of "Children's Home" in the memo)

If you think of me, please pray for:
-my next visa run where I will be spending some time praying about
future decisions and being near to God
-funding for the new house especially the boys as they have a pretty
limited accommodation
-My Thai students and friends to be drawn to God
-the children's health and knowing God's love
-My relationships with those that I work with in the ministry
(cultural and language barriers, love and patience, etc.)

I am so thankful for all of you who are praying and have been so
supportive of me. I miss you a lot right now.
Merry Merry Christmas!
Maggie