Our Decision to Leave Thailand

Per usual- we've been a bit late in our blog updating....but there has been some good reasons for our absence!  Big changes have taken place over the last few weeks and months and we're writing to offficially let you know of a transition within our lives and ministry that has completely taken us by surprise.  

In light of recent events, and with the prayerful advice of both our American and Australian support/guiding communities, we have decided to leave Thailand and our roles in Destiny Rescue.  In fact, by the time you will be reading this, we will have already returned and began life again in Australia.

This is a decision we have made for both personal and ministry/professional reasons.  And while it may seem abrupt in its notice, it is a decision that has been made with serious prayer and thoughtful interaction with many wise voices in our lives and ministry.

We feel this is the right decision for us for personal reasons. 

We feel this is the right decision for us for professional reasons.  

It is now clear to us that Destiny Rescue was not the right fit for us.  We honor them for their service to Christ in rescuing trafficked women. We are also so grateful for the relationships we formed with the good people and friends that are part of the organization. Finally, we are so thankful to the Lord for the incredible, though difficult, opportunity it has been to learn much and serve the people of Thailand. We have had the chance to share His love and goodness on a daily basis with over 90 of the young women in the production project as well as see many of these girls come into vibrant relationships with Christ- the supreme goal and definition of freedom in the first place.  These stories and other highlights from our last year we are compiling and will be sharing with you in the days ahead.

We've felt that the initial step for our family was to 'land' back in Australia, around our Youth with a Mission (YWAM) and Australian church community on the Sunshine Coast until God makes our next steps clear.  Here we have a place to 'debrief', be around a healthy support network and healthy community, and just begin to do life normally as a family.  And its been incredible to see how God has looked after us!  Here are just a few incredible ways God has shown his faithful love and provided for us already!

• God's Provided a Smooth Transition for Our Lives in Thailand-  God prepared the way for us to be able to completely finish off our time in Thailand well, including selling all of our household items (and car!) in 48 hours!  Incredible!
• God's Provided a Place to live-  Having no real options to go for, God opened up the doors for us to be able to live in a completely furnished, spacious apartment- in a resort!  Unbelievable!  And the best part is- its right across from the beach :)
• God's Provided a New Car- the newest car we've ever owned!!  

Needless to say, we feel very much at peace despite this very abrupt and challenging experience- We feel God's presence each step of the way- and we know that nothing sup rises Him!
 

Thank you so much for your continued journey with us.  Over the next few weeks, we'll be updating this- our BLOG- on how things are progressing, and we'll continue to send out newsletters as well!   There's much we are excited about, so please stay posted; as always in His Kingdom, the best is still yet to come!

Blessings from the Pennington Family- Dan, Catrina, Eva and Aidan

1st Quarter Report

We recently submitted our first-ever 1st Quarter of the Year Report on the progress of the production house project we're managing here in Chiang Rai.

It was a chance to stop and take a snapshot of where were at and where we've been over the first 3 months of the year; as well as look ahead for the good things yet to come.

So here's a bit of the report by the numbers and some of the highlights that YOU have been a part of!

278- Total number of girls rescued from situations of sexual exploitation and trafficking currently employed in this project.

132- Number of new girls added to the program in the first 3 months of this year!  (and looking to reach  that number again for our 2nd Quarter Report.....)

$64,328 USD- Amount of invoiced income that's been generated through this project in just in 3 months.

10- Number of 'satatilite' projects currently being managed under this production project.  This includes projects in: 

-Burma

-Laos

-Bangkok

-Chiang Mai

as well as Cambodia (which, is technically their own project, but still fall under our oversight currently)

11- Girls in a business development track, developing leadership, management and skill expertise to run their own businesses or a satalite production project.

61- Girls in weekly English language classes.


Needless to say, it's been a big quarter!  Its been super exciting for Catrina and I to be a part of this project and serve as the doors open to us, as well as to see the girls everyday who's lives are being changed and empowered to live lives to the fullest.

Thank you for being a part of this journey with us!

Mom and Dad Come to Thailand

Last month we had the privilege to host Dan's parents, Dave and Teresa Pennington here to visit us in Thailand!  It was mom's first time in Asia (since spending time as a child in Okinawa) and their first visit to Northern Thailand.  As well, it was an amazing privilege to introduce them to what we're being a part of doing here.

As well, it was significant time with the grandkids, and Dad's first chance to meet our little man Aidan! (They loved each other right off the spot, instant connection!)  This was the first visit mom said that she felt Eva really "recognised" her and attached to her right away- even running up and grabbing her leg in welcome at the airport.  This is the stuff life is truly made of!

We made a whirl-wind trip of their visit- starting off by meeting them in Chiang Mai where we spend the weekend, went to the zoo, petted tigers at the Tiger Kingdom, and enjoyed some good Mexican food and got their first taste of the Thai night markets.

We then made our way to our hometown of Chiang Rai where the action real got started.

We had a chance to introduce them to plenty of our workmates, thai staff and the production house were managing, meals at the Destiny cafe (training and employment centre) as well as a special dinner out at one of our lovely kids' homes in a nearby village.  They even got to tag along with us to a local wedding of one of our Thai staff- complete with an hour off-road trek up to the village in the back of a four-wheel drive!

As well, the weekend they we're in town happened to be Songkran Weekend, likely the biggest of the big Thai national holidays, particularly in northern Thailand.  Its a celebration of the Thai new year as well as the start of the plentiful rainy season all in one, and the whole of the nation pretty much shuts down for a long weekend of water throwing, dancing in the streets, plenty of music and...plenty of water!  The tradition of 'water throwing' started as a gesture of good luck that has progressively grown to drums of ice-cold water, water guns, and a whole lot of craziness!  Folks will even open up unlocked car doors to throw water on you while you sit in the unending traffic!

So that was an exciting and memorable addition to an already significant trip.

To top it all off, on one of the last days of their visit, they had the opportunity to meet the girl they have sponsored through Compassion most of the last decade.  It was a special privilege to meet her and her family in her home village as well.  Both mom and dad confessed it to being one of the most memorable moments of their lives.

It was a special privilege to host my parents, especially in our new context where we have a chance to 'be in the thick of it'.  I am so blessed and honoured by them and their legacy. Besides, its not everyday you get to have a water fight with your dad in Thailand.

(P.S- As a great book-end to this story, my parents were also able to help their Compassion sponsor child begin her first year of university studies, which started this month.  An amazing story of life redeemed; from poverty to having an opportunity that most of us take for granted.)

We Haven't Disappeared...

Hey everybody-
Just a quick shout out to let you know we haven't forgotten about you or this blog!  It's just been SUPER busy this past month (and i've got a whole heap of posts to come to tell you why) including...

- Dan's parents' visit, on mom's first trip to Thailand (and Dad's for awhile) and the fun and impacting stuff we got up to...
- The Business as Mission Global Congress we attended in Chiang Mai along with over 500 delegates from over 41 countries, all active in creating jobs, freedom and redemption throughout the world through business!
- A visit from business consultants who have been a part of the journey with us here....
- As well as a 1st Quarter 2013 summary of the work that we've been a part of  (...oh yeah...be excited)

So see....we haven't disappeared just yet :)

Can't wait to get you all properly up to date.  To tide you over, check out a latest little snapshot of one of our newest projects in Bangkok! (an amazing voice over on the first part, don't you think?)

https://vimeo.com/65801696

Blessings fellow sojourners!

Tongue Thai-ed

Since our arrival in Thailand, we've understood and appreciated the value of knowing and speaking the local language.  If your going to live and serve cross-culturally, it's Step 1; no way around it.

Our realistic goal is to be 'comfortable' in speaking Thai (meaning we can carry a basic conversation with most anyone, buy what we need at the shops, and communicate and build relationship with our Thai co-workers and women we're working with) within our first 2 years.

Now, nearly 6 months after moving here, we've started our first official Thai classes with a local Thai tutor, Mrs. Wan.

Mrs. Wan is a precious lady who's taught Thai to many of Destiny Rescue's foreign staff members.  She's originally from Bangkok, but has lived in northern Thailand for most of her life (so she's familiar with the 'local dialect' and can correct it when necessary!).  She has a daughter our age who's married to a kiwi (New Zealander, for all my north american counterparts) and who runs her own language school in Chiang Mai.

Dan meets with Mrs Wan for a one-hour Thai lesson two times a week, Catrina does one for now, until we can afford more (but she's also a quicker student; by Mrs. Wan's own omission....)

The reason we haven't started Thai tutoring in earnest until now, is that in our first few months here, we wanted to know what the options available to us were; were we to do a 2-week intensive course, did we just want friends to teach us, did we need to take a college class?  Our role within Destiny Rescue was flexible to the learning we wanted to do, but did not provide a package or requirements as such to learn Thai.  So we started with a local friend coming over and teaching both of us; but it was haphazard at best, and it was upon us to develop the lesson plans as such and direct the course of the learning.  So finally, we knew, if we were going to learn Thai, we had to strike out and make it priority.

Now you can be a part of this process with us!  Along the side-bar of this BLOG, there's a section where you can donate (through paypal, or through a tax-deductible donation if you wish; just let us know via email) to our 'Learning Thai' fund.  $30 a month about covers it; and this was more than we originally budgeted exclusively for language learning.  But once we started, we knew this was a wise investment of our ministry time and resources for this season.

We'd be blessed to have your partnership with us in this (or other available) projects as things move forward!  Keep an eye on this space, as we'll update this regularly as opportunities come up.

Prah-jawh- you- khap kun

Thank you and God bless you!

The Power of a Praying Woman or (Man)

One of the roles that i (Catrina) have taken on since being here in Thailand is running the ladies Bible study for the Falung (foreign!!) women that are here volunteering and serving with the ministry. We are currently working through the workbook attached to Stormie Omartian's book 'The Power of a Praying Woman'. Probably not a book or study that i would have picked out for myself to do, but when we arrived here the group was already halfway through the study. It never ceases to amaze me how much God speaks to us through His word. Every week when i go to prepare the study and read over all of the verses i am deeply encouraged and challenged through what i read. This weeks topic has been about Anxiety and anger, which if we are being honest we all struggle with to some extent time to time. The memory verse for the week is Philippians 4:6-7 'Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus'.

Its so hard to not be anxious at times here, every day i am faced with new situations and things i don't know how to do. Its very humbling constantly having to learn everything and not knowing what everyone around you is saying 95% of the time! Things i took for granted in Australia are just not here, and in a lot of ways i feel like a child. Through this though i am learning so much about dependance on God and relearning in a desperate state the importance of prayer. (still at times though im scared to go out the back door because of the huge Tukay gecko that appears there, which is about 45cm long). SO all this to say, im thankful, thankful for God, thankful for Stormie Omartian and thankful for the wonderful ladies that i get to learn from and grow closer to God with!

In other news...we just celebrated a year of Aidan!! It was his 1st birthday on Friday 8th March and we had a great little party for him at this little Thai waterpark that i found by driving down the wrong road one day!

Ride to End Slavery, 2013

This month Dan had the opportunity to participate in a bit of a dream since moving to northern Thailand....riding around northern Thailand on a 135cc motorbike.

The trip's called the 'Ride to End Slavery' and its an annual fun raising and advocacy trip for Destiny Rescue.  The trip begins in Chiang Rai where we introduce the work and projects of Destiny Rescue, before setting off for a tour of Destiny Rescue's other projects throughout northern Thailand, Laos and Burma.

Since moving to Thailand, Dan's wanted to take part in the ride.  Destiny Rescue graciously gave him the time off work to join the ride and just pay his own costs along the way.  As well, he was able to help out with logistics a bit and helping to book the accommodation. And so (as a bit of a consolation gift for turning 30 a few days before...), Dan set off on a 7-day moterbike tour through the roads of northern Thailand.




Originally, the trip was to include visits to Thailand, Burma and Laos.  However, on the first-day, Dan and the team had their first set-backs.

Laos wouldn't allow the bikes across the Laos border (they'd had even had to get special permits and passport documentation ready to go).   As well, on the first day of the ride, there were 4 moterbike crashes with the riders!  One crash even resulting in one of the team members being unable to finish trip due to sore-ness and bruising from the wreck.  It was a rough day all around!

They eventually hobbled their way to the closest border town, and unexpectedly found a quiet hostel where the team could regroup.  In Dan's own words, he picks up the story.....

'We layed out a map of northern Thailand and basically asked the team of 9 riders- "where do you want to go?"  What resulted was likely the best and most memorable ride of Ride 2 End Slavery history.....

The tour took us through lush jungles of northern Thailand, around some of highest peaks in south east asia, Thailand's largest lakes, as well as its most memorable and often hidden locations.  We visited Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city, as well as Pai (pronounced Bye), a scenic holiday destination location for locals and westerners alike.  Drove through small back-country roads crowded with cows as well as world-class motorbike mountain roads.  Went off-roading a few times looking for waterfalls, meandered through crowded local markets, and even got attacked by gangs of monkeys at a buddist temple.

We visited a business-as-mission pizza shop run by some church planters.  Amazing pizza, and amazing business- that exists for the sole purpose of engaging with locals about Christ and being a platform for discipleship Christian growth.

As well we had the privledge of visiting Wii's home village and spending time with his family.  Wii was our local guide for the trip, and is one of the most valued national staff (his brother, Sagay, is the national director for Destiny Rescue in Thailand- as well as managing the projects in Burma and Laos).  Wii's family are subsistence farmers who migrated from Burma a few years before Wii was born.  His family are now recognized leaders in their Lahu village and active Christian pioneers, sending missionaries to neigboring villages and into Burma and China.  It was a special privledge to meet them, spend time with them, and soak in this local expression of the global church that we would otherwise never have the chance to know about.

We shot Wii's dad's village-made gun- think Civil-war era muzzleloader- as well as his hand-made bamboo cross-bow.  We swam in the local swimming hole, and even explored a cave and found a snake (then we left the cave....).


All up, the trip was truly unforgettable.  It was an amazing privledge to ride with these guys, experience the wonder of northern Thailand together, and do some really fun stuff.  The team of riders grew close together through the ride and were a great fun-lovin group of guys.  As well, I had the privilege to 'bunk' with Wii in the places where we stayed and got to really know and love this quality individual and young leader.

I encourage you to get out there and live an adventure once in awhile.  Its not always easy taking risks and going for big dreams.  Sometimes its alot of hard work.  But sometimes it pays big dividends.  And sometimes, it even gives you the excuse to ride around on a moterbike for a few days.

Commin next year?