Back in Seattle-

We've been home for about 6 days now and are very happy to be here. Our bed feels extra comfy and our showers extra hot....all the little things we miss while we are overseas! We've experienced some jet-lag this week, but it really hasn't been too bad! Zara is sleeping really well and seems so happy to see all her toys and be sleeping in her own room. We are also glad she has her own room back after sharing a room with her for a few months!
Tonight we have our DTS graduation. It is our final event with our students and a final time to share together before we all go our separate ways. There is a mixture of relief and sadness as we end this time with them. It will definitely feel empty around here for a while as we have all gotten so used to being together and living in this community.
Please pray for our transition and for our students. Many of them feel nervous about going home and trying to explain all that they've just experienced. Many are also in the process of making future decisions. We are going to take it easy the next few weeks as we settle back into our life here.
Thanks for all your prayers and encouragement during our time away. We look forward to seeing many of you soon and catching up with our Seattle friends in the next few weeks!

Heading home....

We've come to the end of our time in Thailand....We have had a some great last days with our team here. We were able to go to a beach for our last 3 days and have some time to relax as a team and debrief our time here together. It has been good to share together all that we have learned and process how we will apply those things as we go back home. We all feel a mixture of excitement about returning home to our friends and family and a sadness about leaving this beautiful country. Please pray for us if you think of us....we have long travels getting home (we leave in about 24 hours and it will take us about 27 hours to get home...) and as we transition to life back at home.
Thanks for all your prayers.
love, the rupps
ps. thanks for all the comments and birthday wishes :)

Amanda's birthday dinner

I had a really fun birthday. Not only did we get to ride elephants, but some of our closest Thai friends came over and made one of my favorite Thai dishes for dinner….phad thai. Phad Thai is a very traditional dish and is made by mixing lots of ingredients with fresh noodles and stir-frying them all together in a wok. Then you top it with bean sprouts, lime, green onions and chopped peanuts, and spicy pepper, if you desire. Our friends brought all the ingredients to our house and we cooked together. It was fun to watch them in action….we kept asking if we could help and they kept saying “just sit!”



These friends are very special to us as we met them 4 years ago on our first trip to Thailand. We have kept in touch ever since and seen each other every time we have come here. It's really neat for us to have a friendship that has continued over many miles for many years.
We all enjoyed a delicious meal and I enjoyed a memorable birthday in Thailand!


p.s. we know there are some of you that have been keeping up with us via our blog....would you mind leaving us a comment to let us know you are out there??? sometimes it's hard to know is anyone is actually reading this :)

Reminders of home....

We found this reservoir on the campus of Chiang Mai University....it really reminded me of Greenlake in Seattle and made me miss home!

A few pictures from the market

Tuk-Tuk Ride

Zara's first ride on a tuk-tuk....a very fun way to get around (but not the safest !:) She really loved it!

Yummy Brownies (by Amanda)

it's been a hard couple of days for me. i fluctuate between desiring to take in the moments that we have here, treasure our time and enjoy it all and just wanting to go home where things are more comfortable, i know what's going on, i speak the language well and have many friends around that know me well. i find myself living in this constant state of frustration with myself....never doing enough, or trying to do it all and feeling like a failure at everything. and then i get frustrated with myself for being this way! why can't i just go with the flow, relax, be thankful? often i find i need a bit of perspective and pictures of hope to pull me away from being consumed with my own world. i need to see things outside myself. i need my heart to be softened to care for those around me more than i care for my own comfort. i need to see my own heart and repent and be moved to action and to love out of the love i have been given. please work in my heart Lord.
i was able to see some pictures of hope today. it was a hard day for me with zara, she needed a lot and i felt like i didn't have a lot to give. but i was also able to step outside myself and it was life-giving. we met with an organization today called Hope for the Nations. they have opened a home where young girls who are single moms can live. these girls all come from desperate circumstances....being disowned for being pregnant, being forced to drink poison to kill their baby unless they ran away, being shunned by their communities, being at risk for being sold into prostitution....etc.....The couple who runs this home have a heart to see these girls become whole and to begin to break the cycle of poverty in their own lives. They are given a safe place to stay and they live in community with one another as they learn about Christ, learn how to take care of their babies, and learn to handle the responsibilites of finances and jobs. the goal is to open small businesses and to train the girls in different fields that they are interested in so that they will have means to provide for their children. the first venture is to start a bakery that will sell baked goods to local hotels and cafes. so today we had the privledge of spending time baking with the girls. they are just practicing and learning the basics and we had so much fun just being able to do this activity together. we made brownies, cookies and coffeecake....it was really fun to have a taste of home and some of the sweets we have missed!


i felt hopeful as i was with these girls and as i looked at their babies....lives that could have been destroyed but are in the process of being redeemed. it showed me once again what a little bit of love and security can do to dignify someone and cause them to see the beauty and value in themselves. and it reminded me that while i often feel i have little to give, i can look into somone's eyes and smile and listen and let them know they are worthwhile and for that moment, that may be enough.

Chiang Mai (by Zach)

We've been in Chiang Mai now for a little over a week now. It hasn't gone quite as we expected it to go, but it's still been good. We've had a number of things planned that have either fallen through or have gotten moved back. There has been some frustration, but I really think that we're making the best of the situation. Our team has been able to meet quite a few people, which has been really fun. Tomorrow night we're inviting our neighbors over for an Ice Cream Social. How social of us...

We've been learning a lot about the issues of prostitution here in Thailand, and specifically the northern part of the country where we're located. I think I've learned more about this issue this time in Thailand than I learned my other 4 times combined. It was more of a focus for our team coming here this year, and so we've tried to make it a priority in terms of how we're spending our time.

Last week we met with two different organizations who are working with women coming out of prostitution. The first one is called Garden of Hope. It's an organization that provides training and skills for the women, so that they have other means of creating income. The other organization that we heard from was International Justice Mission. They are a large organization that does some incredible things around the globe. In Thailand, their work invloves rescuing women (and girls) who have been trafficked and are now being held against their wills as sexual slaves. Both organizations are doing great work here, attempting to be a part of the solution to an issue that is overwhelming here in Southeast Asia--the sexual exploitation of women. I apologize if the language seems graphic, but the issue itself is inherently graphic. There are no easy words to describe what is happening here.

It's been a very eye-opening week for our whole team. The issue of prostitution is a very obvious one here, as the city we're in is littered with bars proudly selling women. There are so many layers to the issue: Who are the girls? Where did they come from? How did they get here? Who's making the money? Why is it ok for men to purchase women so openly? What happens after the girls' value is diminished (with old age or disease)? One of the most disturbing things we learned is that the blatant prostitution that we see is only a very small part of the extent of the problem. Western tourists make up only a very small percentage of the overall number of people soliciting prostitutes here. (Thai nationals make up 95% of the customers)

The challenge for me personally is to continue to have hope in the One who is bigger than all these issues. It's too easy to focus on the surface circumstances and get completely overwhelmed by them. The issue seems too big to do anything about it. And the reality is that I can't "solve" the problem by myself. There's a quote from Mother Teresa that says: "In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love." That's what I'm seeing as the mission for our team here. We've done a lot of praying, a lot of learning, and had a lot of conversations. On some days that doesn't seem like enough, but we're doing all that we can.

Last night we went on a prayer walk with a couple people from Garden of Hope in one of the main areas of prostitution here. The two people we went with had spent quite a bit of time in the area, so they were very familiar with everything. As we walked down the street, girls in the bars came running out to see our two guides. It gave me a boost of hope/faith to see that happen. Our guides were loved and respected by the girls because they had been coming to this area consistently over a 6-month period. It helped me see the power of doing a few small things, and how those seemingly small things can make a huge difference.

Moving!

Hey everybody... Our time here in Chiang Rai is coming to an end quickly. Monday afternoon we'll be getting on a bus and taking a three hour trip south to Chiang Mai. Our last couple of days here will be fun. Tomorrow (Saturday) we'll mostly just be around the Youth Center, hanging out with the kids we've gotten to know over the last month. It's been fun to see our team really get to know a lot of the kids. It seems like each of us has 2 or 3 that we've really clicked with. It'll definitely be a hard transition as we have to say good-bye to the kids. On Sunday, we'll be visiting a church up near the border of Burma. We'll take a brief visit across the border and visit Burma for little while. Gotta get Zara into as many different countries as we can!

The focus of the second half of our trip will be very different than the first half. We will have two main types of ministry that we're working with:
1. We're working with a couple different organizations that work with women coming out of prostitution. Most of what we'll be doing will be centered around education (us getting educated). Because we're only there for 3 1/2 weeks, our involvement will be somewhat limited. But we're really praying and hoping that our eyes would be opened to this enormous issue that is so prevalant here in Southeast Asia. The organizations we'll be working with help to provide education and training for the women, enabling them to get jobs. The issues surrounding prostitution here are myriad, so we're hoping to get a glimpse into this problem.

2. The other thing we'll be doing is hosting an English club for University students at a University that is very close to the house where we'll be staying. Basically all students here really want/need to learn English, so that's an easy way for us to meet people. Our desire is to build relationships with the students we're able to meet. When we came here 4 1/2 years ago, we met some friends that we still keep up with, and who we'll be seeing when we get to Chaing Mai. We hope that our team can also build lasting relationships with people here.

Thanks for your continuing prayers. We appreciate them. Things have been going really well. You can be praying that Zara does well on the bus ride Monday.

a few more photos...

The team playing the thai version of duck-duck- goose with the kids

The boys having a great time in the water

Zara and friends

Little village girl

Not that different.....(by Amanda)

I think there is this settling in thing that happens when you are in another country for 2 months. At first you are on a bit of a high, noticing everything that is new and different and amazing and taking it all in. You have lots of energy and enthusiasm and are willing to jump in and work with all you’ve got. You’re fascinated by the culture, the language, the different foods (spicy seafood potato chips anyone??) Then there is a bit of a shift that happens. You start to settle in and realize, ok, I’m going to be here for a while. This is starting to feel more like real life. I’m starting to come down from the high and my energy isn’t quite so strong anymore.
I think this is where I am at and I also sense this settling in our team. The roosters and crazy barking dogs are more a way of life, the language doesn’t catch you off guard as much, the food seems normal and having rice at every meal is now what you expect. You get used to talking in broken English and making large hand gestures to communicate. You are used to being stared at and also laughed at. It’s all just the normal way of life here.
I like being able to come to other countries for longer periods of time because this settling seems important. It’s not as easy to romanticize another place when you are there long enough to feel some frustration. The joy you noticed in the people at the beginnig is still there, but you also start to notice the sadness too. You start to realize that people really are all the same and the same problems that exist at home exist here too.
And it’s good to see these things. It makes the people here more human and me more human. It makes me realize we are all just doing our best to cope with life day to day, deal with our problems, love our family and the people in our lives, work hard at our jobs and develop some sort of meaning.
I had a long talk with my friend here the other night. The sun had gone down, the moon and the stars were shining bright and we just stood breathing in the cool night air and sharing our souls. She helps manage the youth center here. She also is just working hard to take care of her 3 kids, love her husband, and manage her friendships well. As we talked I just got this overwhelming feeling of solidarity with her. Our lives look so different on the outside, our cultures have just a little bit in common, we are clearly from different worlds, but life and the struggles are so much the same. How do I stay true to the things God has called me to? How do I take care of my children and balance my own life and desires with caring for them? How do I deal with relational difficulties in my work? How do I live faithfully and maintain joy even when things are hard?
And so the journey continues to live well and love well, whether across the world in Thailand or sitting in my home in Seattle. May God grant us the courage to feel deeply and be responsive to the calling and desires he has place in each of our hearts. And may we encourage others in our lives to do the same.

Lately (by Zach)

This past week has been a good one. Last Sunday night our students spent the night in a village. It went really well for them. It wasn’t too primitive (they had electricity), but it was a good first experience in a village.

The next morning I picked them up and we all went fishing—but not like any fishing that I’ve done before. On the way back from the village we stopped at a small river (maybe 2 feet deep at the most). The way the people in the village fish is basically this: weight down a large tarp in the river, keeping one edge of the tarp out of the water. Then we essentially walked on our hands and knees towards the tarp in the water, herding the fish towards the tarp. Once we got to the tarp we lift it up, sorting out the rocks and keeping the fish. We did this over and over until we had walked upstream probably a ½ mile or so. By the end, we had caught a lot of fish. Then we stopped, built a fire, and roasted the fish over the fire. As I stopped to look around, I was in awe of the scene around me… In the middle of nowhere in Thailand, being guided by a man who we didn’t share a single word of language with, beautiful hills surrounding me, perfect stillness. It was really a moment to treasure. I was thinking about how it contrasted with the busy-ness of life back home. It made me realize again what a privilege it is for us to get to lead these teams and go on these trips.

The rest of the week was spent finishing up some concrete work, and then spending some time playing with the kids here. We only have one more week here in Chiang Rai before we head south to Chiang Mai for the final month of our time in Thailand.

I feel so privileged to work here with Pastor Luka. I think this is the 7th team that YWAM Seattle has sent here, and it feels so great to partner with a ministry that is doing so many amazing things. Because the nature of our trip is short-term, it’s nice to know that we’re partnering with a ministry that is working toward the long-term good of so many people. Luka’s vision for his people is broad and far-reaching, and yet incredibly focused. He realizes that for people in Akha villages to be successful, they need to grow in so many different ways. They need to hear, know, and live out the Gospel, but they also need very practical things—nutrition programs, better health-care, ways to generate income, better education. And he’s doing things that are effecting change in all of those areas. It’s been great to come back here over the past few years and see all the progress that is being made.

Zara has been a bit of a challenge the past few days—not sleeping so well and being a bit cranky during the day. Nothing too bad, but harder than she’s been so far on the trip. The kids are all really sweet with her, but i think sometimes she gets a bit overwhelmed with all the people grabbing her and wanting to hold her and touch her. If you could keep her and us in your prayers we’d appreciate it. You can also be praying for our team to keep its focus as we change locations (Feb 5th). As we approach the 2nd half of the trip, it’s quite easy to start thinking about home and lose sight of what we’re here to do.

zara has a crowd watching her wherever she goes!

eating ice cream and loving it

zara having fun with Luka's mom

making new friends....

Another blog to check out-

In case you're interested in reading more, our Thailand team is writing a blog with different team members taking turns writing posts. If you'd like to check it out, here is the address:
http://www.ywamseattle.org/outreach/thailand/

Settling In....(by Amanda)

We've been here in Thailand for about 10 days now and I think we're feeling settled into our life here. It has been so good to be here, especially reconnecting with friends and familiar faces from past visits. The first part of our trip we are living in northern Thailand in Chiang Rai which is a small town surrounded by many hill tribe villages. We are living at a youth center where kids from the villages are given the chance to live and receive education so that they will have a more hopeful future. We have worked at this center 3 other times so the kids know us and it's so fun to see how they've grown since the last time we saw them. Our team is helping to do various projects around the center....they worked in the tea field this week and pruned all 5000 plants....they have been working for 3 days laying cement in what is to be the new tea factory. The center has plans to process and sell the tea they are growing in order to create more income and become more self sustaining (right now many of the kids are supported monthly from people in the US) We are so happy to be able to be part of this work that is making a long term impact on the kids and their families and villages.

We have been enjoying lots of sun and warm weather!!! :) (we are not missing seattle weather right now) It has been so fun to be able to let Zara run around outside all day and to have freedom from being bound indoors. She is doing amazing. She is a real superstar here with everyone wanting to touch her smooth white skin. The kids at the center just love her and she has them playing ring around the rosie with her and singing jingle bells (her 2 favorites right now!) She welcomes everyone with her sweet little smile and is making friends very quickly. She is very entertained with having 60 kids to run around and play with! It has been neat to see this new world through her eyes and to see how she responds. She was tentative for about 2 days and then she settled in easily to this new community. She amazes me with her resilance to all this change.....

The pace of life is so different from what I am used to and I am finding it refreshing....well, now I am.... The first few days I felt irritated at the long days, lack of freedom (it's hard to communicate, I can't drive myself anywhere, I can't get on the internet to write home!) It's a strange feeling to be a foreigner and so out of control. It reminds me what the refugees I work with in Seattle must feel on a daily basis. It can be so tiring when the simplest task takes a long time to do. But yesterday as I was spending the morning with Zara while the team worked, I just sat and looked at her for a while. I stared at her little face and mouth, I listened really closely to what she was saying. I played with her and did whatever she wanted to do and just let her lead me. We walked around the yard, picked up rocks, took out all her toys, ate lunch and ice cream and it got all over her mouth and clothes and it was so nice that it didn't matter. We walked around in the dirt and ran under the sprinking hose and just enjoyed the day. And I found myself so happy and so content and noticing more and seeing more than I had in a long time....And I wouldn't trade this for anything.....

We made it....

Just wanted to write a quick note to let you know we made it to Thailand safely!! It was definitely a long trip, especially with Miss Zara.....I think she was very confused why we were on the plane for so long!! She didn't sleep very much during the trip so we were in constant entertainment mode, which got tiring, but thankfully our team helped us out a bit and gave her a change of scenery!
Overall, things went very smoothly.....except for one major mishap....we realized last night at 4am that we had left our computer on the plane!!! a few moments of panic but we called the airlines right away this morning and they had found it and had it waiting for us.....Thank you Lord....
Our team did great during our travel and customs and immigration all went very smoothly. We had an orientation today and now we're just trying to stay awake until we can let ourselves go to bed. The time difference here is 15 hours ahead of Seattle.....
It is warm and sunny and it felt really neat waking up in a place that is so familiar to Zach and I and to be able to have Zara with us. Pray for her if you think of it, I can tell she is confused and a bit insecure. We are doing our best to reassure her and give her what she needs as she gets adjusted.
Thank you for your prayers and we will update as we can!

Counting Down....

Well, we leave for Thailand one week from today....It is hard to believe this time next week all our packing will be done and we will be sitting on the airplane on our way! There are many emotions as we prepare to go....sadness as we are ending this time in Seattle with our students and will be separating into 2 different teams....excitement as we will get to see friends that we have made in Thailand over the years....hopeful as I think of the adventures that await us....nervousness/anticipation as this will be our first time taking Zara to Asia.....dread as I think of 20 hours in a plane entertaining a 20 month old!!!
Please pray for us as you think of us this week. Of course there is much to do and many lists to check off.....many things to worry about as I try to sleep at night....and yet I hope to be present as we are still here and as we seek to end this season well and say goodbyes for a few months to those that we love.
We will be updating as regularly as we can while we are away.
Thanks for your prayers and for caring for us....

Learning to cook....

Here is Zara with her favorite Christmas present- her retro pink kitchen. She is loving it and has a great time making us cookie, coffee and eggs every day! We had a wonderful, relaxing Christmas in our home in Seattle. It was a special time for just the three of us to hang out and enjoy being together.

Advent Prayer (by Henri Nouwen)

Lord Jesus,
Master of both the light and the darkness, send your Holy Spirit upon our preparations for Christmas.
We who have so much to do, seek quiet spaces to hear your voice each day.
We who are anxious over many things look forward to your coming among us.
We who are blessed in so many ways long for the complete joy of your kingdom.
We whose hearts are heavy, seek the joy of your presence.
We are your people, walking in darkness, yet seeking light.
To you we say, Come Lord Jesus....
Amen.

Christmas tree fun

We had a great time cutting down our Christmas tree with friends on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and there was snow on the ground and mountains all around. Zara had fun as well, although she thought it was very strange when we cut down a tree and then placed it in our house!