On to Phuket!

Hello dear friends and family!

We have moved on to Phuket this week and it is going great so far!  Our time in Phang Nga was such a blessing to us, and we pray that it blessed many Thai people as well.  I think we ended up sharing the Christmas story/ gospel with well over 1500 people during our time there!!  As most of this was in schools, we did not ask for a response most of the time, in accordance with our translators' direction.  However, it seems that some MAJOR seeds were planted during this time in the hearts of children.  Jaime, one of our Thai contacts, told us that it worked that way for her, growing up as a Buddhist.  She heard the gospel as a girl, and then through more thought, God's Spirit, and follow-up, she eventually came to embrace Jesus for herself.  We have been praying a lot that God would continue to speak to the hearts of these kids and cause them to keep thinking about what they heard.  Please join us in praying for this!!

One awesome thing that happened in Phang Nga was that on our last night of ministry, at a Christmas/New Year's party, about 10 people gave their lives to the Lord!!!  Our team was so encouraged by this!  The party was hosted by a local church, who asked for a response to the gospel message, and will be able to follow up with the new believers.  

We have been doing bar ministry in Phuket for about 4 days now.  We are volunteering at a ministry that offers jobs and training to women who are trapped working in the bars/prostitution.  It is incredibly dark and spiritually heavy here, but God has protected us and has been our strength.  There are so many hurting people in such great bondage in this place.  Please pray for God to prepare the hearts of those we meet, and also for their favor.  Not every bar is welcoming to those who don't come to party and spend lots of money there.  We also need prayer for protection over our team.  This ministry is very draining, and it is easy to believe the lies that are so prevalent here.  There is one girl in particular, "Anna," who is very unhappy and dissatisfied with her job as a bar girl.  Please be praying that she will have the courage to leave and try the new job opportunity and discipleship that this ministry is able to offer her!!  God is already helping us to establish great relationships with some women who work in the bars within a short amount of time; we are so thankful for that!  

Jason and I are also very grateful for your prayers, love, and support.  Thanks for standing with us and sharing this ministry to which God has called all of us.  We love you!!

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

Merry Christmas to all of our wonderful friends and family!


We hope your holidays are blessed with joy and God's peace, and that you enjoy precious times with your families.  We miss you all and love you very much!  It is strange to have a hot, humid Christmas that feels like summer in Houston.  We celebrated Christmas with our team last night.  There aren't really any American restaurants around here, so we cooked a revised version of pesto pasta with chicken and garlic bread.  It was funny to see some of the ways we had to be flexible with that.....like, we could only find peanuts rather than pine nuts or anything else, and one girl smashed them with a rock, as we didn't have a food processor.  :)  The evening was wonderful, with a few surprises for the students.  It made us all just a little homesick, though.


I'm sorry we haven't updated sooner!  We have had pretty full weeks of ministry.  We have two amazing Thai women to work with as contact here, Jaime and Yui.  They are so vibrant and committed to seeing Thai people come to know Jesus.  They are youth ministers at a small church that we are working with here.  Their church has a wonderful ministry going here, and we feel really privileged to be a part of it.  Our team has performed at many Christmas parties and schools so far.  We have a variety of songs, dances, and dramas that we do, as well as sharing personal testimonies.  These schools are are filled primarily with Buddhists and a few Muslims.  It is such great timing to be here at Christmas, because everyone wants us to come to their gathering and teach them about this American holiday.  Then, we get to share the gospel and the true meaning of Christmas with them over and over!  Our team has shared the gospel with about 500 or more people by now through our various Christmas performances and messages!  It seems that Thai people take quite awhile to choose Christianity and leave Buddhism behind, but we are so thankful to plant so many seeds.  We have been able to pray for many and we know that the Holy Spirit is opening the hearts of people to receive this message.  Please pray that people would not forget what they've heard, but that they would be very curious and seek to know more about Jesus.


One of the most exciting things that happened was when a young English teacher came to a Christmas party for high schoolers that we helped host.  She listened intently to everything we shared, particularly the personal testimonies of a few of our students.  She told us afterward that she had never heard these things about Jesus before and that she wanted to know more!  We invited her to attend the church and we are praying that she comes.  It would be amazing for her to know him and impact many Thai students with God's love!


We are so thankful for all of you and your love for us, especially at Christmas.  Thanks for praying for us while we are here.  Please continue to pray for our team and particularly for hearts to be open to God's love and truth.


Bless you all!  
Erika and Jason

We made it!!

Hello from Thailand!

We have safely arrived and have enjoyed our first day here in Bangkok.  We spent the day doing cultural orientation and enjoying our first tastes of delicious Thai food!  Additionally, our students headed out for a scavenger hunt while Jason and I and the Thai staff here had a leaders' meeting to go over outreach details.  Today, we will be doing a prayer walk around Bangkok and touring a Buddhist temple.  Our tour will help us to understand Thai religion and worldview, so that we can better understand how to share God's love and minister here.  We will be taking an overnight bus ride tonight to our first ministry location with Phang Nga Church, about a 15 hour trip.  Please pray for safe travels on our journey there!  

We begin outreach to younger children and high school students on Monday.  We are so excited to jump in to all that God has for us here!  Thanks for your prayers and encouragement!

Love, Jason and Erika

Heading out..

Hi everyone! 

Our last couple weeks have been filled with things, things, and more things. It seems to be the nature of DTS, especially toward the end of lecture phase. A couple of "things" I am describing are plenty of great lectures, preparing the last details and dramas, dances, and testimonies to go on outreach, thanksgiving, and having Jason's dad here for a week of teaching. That week turned out to be a powerful week for a lot of students and staff members. God ministered to people in such a unique way, bringing healing and encouragement. He also taught a lot about how to be an evangelist through the adventures that John had in the past. It was an incredible time, to say the least. 

Now that lecture phase is over, the moment we have all been waiting for has come: outreach to Thailand!  Each and every one of the team members is excited about heading off to Phang Nga in the south, as well as Phuket, and then for the last couple weeks in Chiang Rai up north. Some of the ministry we will be doing there together is prison ministry and working with prostitutes in the bars of Phuket, showing them God's love.  We will also be doing kids ministries, street evangelism, working in a smoothie shop trying to get to know local college students and tell them about Jesus :), as well as many other ministry opportunities. All this to say, we all feel very privileged to partner with God in serving the people of the world. Thank you ahead of time for your prayers and thoughts about us. We appreciate you guys. 

This is our team that we'll be with for two months! We'll be updating about our adventures on this blog; so look for news about what God is doing in Thailand here!  Please keep us and these lovely people in your prayers.  We love you all and will miss you!  Have a wonderful, blessed Christmas!

Love,  Jason and Erika