This is an emergency update: please stay tuned and be regaled with tales of Zac's lack of attention to detail as well as information about our major outreach. Not necessarily in that order.

First things first. I promised to let you know about our major outreach when I had more information about what all I can share online, which turns out wasn't a major worry after all but better safe than sorry. Anyways.

First off our Faith Outreach. Exactly what it says. Not even the leaders know where we are going. One of the staff from the base who will not be joining us will choose two locations, and then when we get to the bus station, said staff member will give us envelopes with our tickets in them, and that's when we find out where we are going. We will spend the whole time in prayer and letting God lead us to where we need to stay, who we need to meet, and what we need to be doing. We leave for that on September 11. Needless to say I am super stoked to do this as I have never really just completely gone out without an idea or plan. So we are praying a lot in prep for this and I would ask that you really remember our teams (2 teams for this) as we step out into God's will.

Then the first week of November we will head out for our Major Outreach. Again, stoked. We will go in the same 2 teams as our Faith Outreach. The first two weeks we will be in Thailand. The other team is heading to Southern Thailand. The team I'm part of will be heading to Sukhothai, which is the very South of Northern Thailand (or the very North of Central Thailand). We will be working with some ministries there and doing evangelism, but not so many details given out at that point. Then we will join up for a week at a as of yet unknown location in Thailand. Then for the next two weeks we will be working in two different cities in Cambodia!! Sweet right? Again, not so heavy on the details, but that's where we are headed. So please add that month (November & first of December) to your prayer list as well.

Now the emergency part. I miss read my email, or rather rewrote it in my mind when I gave out dates from memory rather than looking it up. But my next school payment is due on the 11th of September. So yeah, next week. As of right now I have had an anonymous donor give 5,000฿, and I have $98 transferring to from on PayPal subscriber and will have another $48 after the first. That comes to just under 5,000฿ before ATM fees and my two visa runs I will need to make before the 11th. So basically what I am saying is that I am just about 20,000฿ or $670 short of being able to go on the next outreach.

So I am asking for two things:
1. Prayer: God will provide the funds, but prayer is the catalyst for that to happen. Please join me in that. And also, just as importantly, pray for the outreaches. Funds don't matter without prayer cover to go on the trips, and if for some reason God decides not to provide the funds then my friends here still need the prayer cover. There is no such thing as wasted prayer, so please join me in praying for these things.

2. Consider giving. This is not to those who are already supporting me. I'm not asking for more from any of you. This is for those who have thought about it, but haven't. I'm asking each of you to listen to your heart. If God prompts you, give. If he doesn't, don't. I'm not asking for pity gifts, just for each person reading this to allow God to use him or her or them if He wants to.

Again, thank you all for staying with me through this in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks as well to each of you that responds to my emails with words of encouragement, they are very welcome and lift my spirit each time. Love and peace.

Repentence - Rapid ministry - Rest

Hello again all. I realize the once a month thing means a long time between blogs, but it ensures two things. One, I focus my time on being at the DTS (discipleship training school) and two, I actually have something to write about! Again, this will be more of a week by week thing so I can keep my thoughts in line. Now to pick up right where we left off:

Week 6:
Repentance and Fear of the Lord. Guy named Paul Wilcox came and spoke, originally from Australia/South America (he's an MK). As you would expect it was pretty intense. But good. We started out by looking at the nature of God vs the nature of Sin. Basically the idea of that was if you understand what Sin actually is, you will fully understand why God can not allow it in His presence. To make that clear, understanding Sin, NOT all the different ways we can sin, but what the essence of Sin is. Also the differences between Trial and Testings, and the differences between God's testings and Satan's testings. Also the difference between confession and repentance and why we must do both. We ended the week with a time of confession, and then celebration of our freedom in Christ. Good stuff, Good stuff. That Saturday I received a call from a friend saying that he was going to take care of the money I needed so that I could continue in the DTS. So thanks to God for providing and thanks to my friend for being willing to be used by God to provide that.

Week 7:
Outreach!!! We spent half the day Sunday in prayer and intercession, then went out for out first outreach. It was two weeks, but we did two different things for each week. The first week we went to a village quite close to the mai city of Chiang Rai (actually closer than the base we stay at). There is a ministry there called MMF. The are expanding their campus to include housing and a conference center to save money on putting people up and renting space to hold conferences as their ministry has grown. So the majority of our group during the day helped out building a removable shelter so that they can make their own bricks and not worry about rain. The other part (self included) went to teach English/Thai to the children of Burmese migrant workers at a school that the ministry partners with. We also painted their playground equipment to make it look nicer. On Thursday evening, we invited all the churches in the area to come and spend a night in worship, which went really well. We sang, we danced (we stole things ;-P), and then several of our people shared and we ended the night praying as a large group. Great stuff. Then on Saturday we loaded up and went to Chiang Khong Thailand, which brings us too...

Week 8:
So we all rode a bus to Chiang Khong, but then split into two smaller groups to go to our respective sites. The other group rode in the back of a truck for an hour to Chiang San, while my group rode in the back of a truck 20 minutes to a village just outside of town. It was up in the mountains and very very beautiful (I guess now would be the time to point out that my main camera is broken, no phones were allowed on outreach, so I have no pictures, go to my facebook and look for pics that I have been tagged in, sorry). The other group painted all week. Our group was a little bit different. It was a challenging, but good week. We got there Saturday evening, and then found out we were in charge of Church Sunday morning. So we prepared for that, I got to teach the adult bible study one of the parable of Jesus in a fun style that I like. Also, we did the drama, danced and we had two testimonies and our leader shared the main message. (again, we decide who is going to speak through prayer) After church we rested a bit, then in the evening walked around the village meeting some of the people there. This was how we found out about the witch doctors that live in the village and don't like the Christians and pray to the spirits they worship continuously against the church there. So there was a lot of spiritual warfare going on that week.

The church was adding on a covered area to cook food, for the kids to play to put stuff when it rains, etc., So the guys in our group helped with that. But the leader of the church had found one small job for the girls, that was completed rapidly, so the girls spend most of the rest of the week praying which was great. We were only there until Thursday (technically Friday morning cause that's when we left), but we managed to finish the add on, have some times of great worship, both with the church and as a group. I had the chance to teach much of the church one style of intercession. We also got to hike to a beautiful two level (actually three, but you couldn't see the third from the bottom or second level) waterfall. I climbed it and jumped of and nearly broke my butt bone (worth it). Also picked up some sort of infection between my toes. Right now soaking my feet in this sodium solution that dyes my feet brown and my nails like a brownish purple color (s0 cute!). But all in all it was a great two weeks.

Week 9:
This past week has been rest and debrief. Each day we have met together for a few hours just to talk about everything that has been happening, both on outreach and the first month and a half of DTS to see how everyone is tracking. It has been wonderful.

I also found out where we are going for our first outreach... but I'm not sure how much I can post online about it, so I will send out a mid month update giving full details about that. Also, I made a mistake in my last post. In the prayer request section, I put that i was missing $1,1oo in tuition, which, yes, was true, but that was how far I was away from meeting the 50% paid before first out reach. So for my prayer request section, I will outline what's gonna be happening as far as that goes. Lectures start new next week, and if I have scheduled myself right, I should be writing my next blog the Saturday before the next outreach. Thank you all for keeping up with me month to month! Love you all.

Prayer Requests

~ Smooth transition back to lectures and going all day ~
~ That God would continue teaching me about him and bringing my character in line with His ~
~ Wisdom for what to do about my visa (more about that in the Post Script) ~
~ Funds for my visa ~
~ Appx $1000 for tuition before September 31st ~
~ Appx $1000 for tuition before October 31st, then the School will be paid for ~
~ We resume going to the university next week, please pray for the students we encounter ~
~ Annie will be coming to visit next week, I'm excited!!! but please pray for her safety as she travels, and that I don't allow myself to get to distracted by it during lecture next week ~
~ That God will reveal to me in His timing what I am going to be doing after DTS, and patience for me to wait on that timing. Ok, mostly the second half because we all already know that God will take care of the first ;-) :-P ~

Thank you again for taking care of me through prayers and through finances. Thank you for reading these blogs and responding to me about them (it really does encourage me to keep writing them). God bless you all

P.S. - September 5th or thereabouts, my current 3 month visa runs out. It will cost me approximately $300 dollars to go to Laos and get a new one. Or I might just go to Mae Sai the next few weeks to get my temporary 2 week visa until major out reach which will begin in Nov. So, do I pay the $300 for a visa that is too long as I'll only get 2 months use out of it and have to miss part of my lectures to get, or do I travel to Mae Sai every other Saturday until we leave the country. I am calculating the cost effectiveness of both options, and praying that God will show me what to do about it. So same as above, please pray for wisdom for what to do, as well as the funds to do it.

DTS: The First Month

So Much to say! But I'm not gonna write a book which I'm sure you are glad to hear. But I will put it in a week by week basis so I can keep myself in order.
Week 1:
June 16th we started our introduction week. These first three days we did team building games and get to know you games to help build community and familiarity among our group and the staff. We also had times about sharing what brought us to the DTS and where we were in our relationship with God. All of it together really helped bring the group into a pretty good level of comfort. As far as students, there are four single guys, 5 single girls, and one married couple with their daughter. Even better is that one other guy and I are the only native English speakers among the students. The staff is also more balanced towards SEAsian people, with only 2 whiteys in it. So that is even more awesome.

Week 2:
Orientation. About as exciting as it sounds, but necessary. Also had fun going out on the Thursday to see different ministries around the Area.

Week 3:
First week of actual stuff. The week's focus was the Father Heart of God. A man from New Zealand came and spoke. His name is Kieth Wagener. It was a great week, and God really moved in all of our lives. Basically it was a study of how God loves us, and what it means when we say God is our father.
Out side of the Lecture part, each day Mon - Fri we wake up at 6:00 and do exercises at 6:15. Lecture is basically 10-1, and then we do various other things to finish up around 8:30 pm most nights, sometimes later. On Friday we finish at 6pm, after we eat dinner. Through the week we do different things like, sports, outreach, book reports, worship, intercession, preparation for our big outreach (which right now means learning a dance), learn about YWAM's foundational values, Journal, Memory verses, quiet times, bible study techniques, small groups, and church. That's most of what we do each week.

Week 4:
All the other stuff, lecture time this week was about the Authority of the Bible. The speaker was Eleen Hartzler who is originally from Canada, but now lives in the Northern part of the Chiang Rai Provence. She taught on what the bible is here for, the scope of years that it covers. But her over all point was the questions that the bible answers about God and His relationship with us, and our Conditions vs. Position as children of God. So really good stuff. (plus she let me copy her collection of U2 CD's, she gets a few bonus points for that for sure)

Week 5:
This past week, a guy came who is originally from Colorado, but has been living in the Philippines for the past 15 years, Dustin Campell. He came and talked about Hearing God's Voice. About the different ways God speaks to us each day, how we can get better at actually hearing and paying attention to God's voice, as well as the things in our lives that will keep us from hearing. It was pretty powerful stuff. And he brings it boldly saying what God has put in his heart to share. He doesn't make any bones about it. It was good stuff.

We have one more week of class this next week, then we leave for our first outreach at which time I will have to have the first half of my tuition paid. So far everything has been great. SOOO much information, but the staff is really good at giving us times to sit back and process what we have been learning, what's going on in our heads, and what God is saying to us. This has been so far above what I could have expected, and I am stoked for the next few months.

Every Tuesday we are going to a local university to work with the students, and my group and I think we have found a place that we can go to consistently and minister. Please be praying for opportunities for us to meet and share our lives with the students. The idea we got was a place for the students to come to as a shelter and a break, so pray for us to be faithful to God's vision for what we are doing.

Prayer requests:
~ Energy: we go hard and there is a lot of info given each day. It's fun, but it's taxing ~
~ Tuition: I am still about $1,200 hundred dollars short ~
~ Relationships: with fellow DTSers, staff, and people we encounter ~
~ That God will continue drawing me closer and teaching me about Him ~
~ Tuesday outreach at Chiang Rai Ratchapat University ~
~ Our two week outreach that starts next week ~
~ That God would continue to move in mighty ways among us ~



Love you all. Remember that if you need to get a hold of me, zacwhertvine@gmail.com is the best way to reach me. See you in a month!

zac

And We're off!!

Yay! Update! 'K, it's out of my system now. So here is how I've been spending the last few weeks. I arrived back. Went on a goodbye trip with friends, had an interview, filled out paper work, visited Laos to get a longer visa, visited friends, went to the movies (X-men and Super 8, AMAZING!!), saw more friends, moved my stuff into storage, cleaned my house, settled my house contract, turned off the internet (which cost me an additional $94), and probably some other things I'm forgetting. Sound busy... it was. Still gotta pack tonight to :-D

But it's all worth it, cause tomorrow I leave for Chaing Rai. When I first joined up, I didn't have a complete clue about what it was gong to be. I thought a lot of lectures followed by some practice, but when I had the interview, I got a clearer picture. They train people to disciple others by discipling them. So I am soo much more excited to get there and get started. I have never actually been discipled before, so I am excited to go through the process. I have also felt that is going to be a time for me to really focus on my relationship with God, and that I need to cut some distractions out of my life to really get the full impact of what God wants to do in me over the next six months.

As such, no Facebook (outside of telling you when I update my blog, and only for that purpose). I will be checking my emails, but only once a week and that will be the best way to contact me with something urgent. I will also update my blog once per month per usual of what is going on and what God is doing and showing me. They will probably be short updates so I don't get all introspective in your faces, but if something cool happens, expect details.

I can't wait to see what happens, and I know it will be so much better because of all of your prayers, so if my name comes to mind, please say a short prayer asking God to give me wisdom, guidance, patience, and an heart open to him working in me.

See you on the other side!

Standing at the edge, taking the last step

So, I'm sitting here in my friend James's apartment in Santa Monica, listening to the quiet sound of traffic and reflecting on the past two months. It has been good to be back in the US. It was great to see so many of my friends around the country and see places I've only heard talked about. It was even better to see all of my family and extended family. I miss all of these people very much when I am gone.

But the fact remains I am leaving tomorrow to go home. My heart wants to be back in Chiang Mai. And no, not just to see Annie (though that is a significant part of it). But I miss Chiang Mai. I miss Thailand. I miss the markets and the food and the culture and the people and more than all of that all of my friends. My Students, the teachers I've worked with, people at Baan Kanoon, the J-girls, the Career families. I miss it so much.

But I am still a little nervous about going back. I don't have everything worked out and situated for the training camp, I didn't reach the goal I set for myself in fundraising, and well, yeah, things haven't gone like I planned. But I know in my heart that this is where I am supposed to be, and some times that makes me nervous. I have never been this sure about something in my life.

So as I go out, for those of you who have committed to following me in prayer and financially and just by keeping up with this blog, I know that God has a path laid for me, and that it's my job to walk it with His guidance. So please pray for me:

• That I stay on that path.
• That I stay in the truth of the word.
• That I rely on the Holy Spirit for His strength and patience and love.
• That I will keep my body and mind pure and focused on Christ
• That I will spill the love and grace and knowledge of Christ out in the lives of those around me
• That I will keep to these basics (K.I.S.S. right?) so that I get out of the way and let God work.

As I go back with the intention of starting new groups and reaching the villages I live in, Pray that:

• God will bring me those who are hungry for Him.
• God will bring those that desire to tell those around them.
• God will open the hearts and minds and doors of those I am going out to meet
• God's Spirit will envelope the areas that I am working in that that there would be a mighty movement of faith in Him.
• we will see an entire community come to genuine faith.
• Leaders will step up and take the message to their families in a way that all Thai hearts can understand.
• The enemy's movement will be restricted, that the "powers and principalities" will be stricken down, and the power of the One True God seen in all His followers.

Pray for the national believers for:

• Boldness to share with their families
• Hunger and thirst for God and his righteousness
• An urgency to grow in their faith
• The ability to communicate this new faith to those around them in an understandable fashion

I need your prayers, we need your prayers always. Looking at the life of Jesus, He did nothing without prayer. NOTHING happens in any ministry if Christ is not present, and He is most powerfully present when those who follow Him call His name, and then the earth moves. So please, please keep us in your prayers. These requests above will never change. We will have others that come and go, but we need these above daily.

I can't wait to share with you all the things God is going to do in Thailand. Thank you for partnering with me to help me go and do the work God has laid before me. Together with your prayers and other support, Northern Thailand is about to be affected, and prayerfully we hope for all of Thailand to follow suite.

It's been a good ride

Well, hello again to all you out there. I am currently in Stillwater Oklahoma, visiting the greatest public university you can attend, OSU, and my little... well, I take that back, my younger brother. So far I have been to Seattle, Chicago, St. Louis, Sullivan, Lynn, Osage Beach, Bolivar, Springfield (MO), Bentonville, Coweta, and here. It has been a great trip so far, but I am worn out and ready to be home.

I'm also approaching the part of my journey where I will really be gearing up my fundraising, so I am coming back to you all who have been reading and supporting me thus far to ask for some prayer coverage for the next month. That God would be putting people in my way that I need to talk to, and that I would be alert and ready to talk to them. I know what I need to survive, and I know what I need so that I can start getting a head on bills, actually get insurance, and start saving back for emergencies, a vehicle and all those things that will come with time. I will speak at my first church this coming Sunday, so if you could start there.

Thank you all for your support so far. If you know of any churches in the Southern Oklahoma area that would be willing to let me speak, if you could shoot me a phone number that would be awesome. Let the fun begin!

Hoooooomward bound, I'm bout to be... Hooooooomward bound

Greetings to those of you out there who carry me through your prayers and support and suffer through my written ramblings! I wouldn't be here without you!

So when I last left you, I had just confirmed that I was going to attempt to join YWAM, getting ready for a Valentine's Day party, and preparing for the end of semester. I'll cover YWAM at the end of the blog, so keep on truckin'. As for the Valentine's Day party, it sounded like a lot of fun. That's right, I wasn't there. I was in the next room sick as a dog, knocked me down and out for a whole day, and then took a few days to go away completely. But the students had a good time eating candy, cooking together, and studying.


We had another couple of normal weeks, and then the first week of finals we had a big end of semester party, ordered pizza and cheese sticks (sooooo good), and just hung out together. I also said goodbye to all my students since I won't be teaching next year, almost cried but managed to hold it together. Then finals came and went, and all of my work for the University for this semester is finished. The past week I have been rushing around, saying goodbye to everyone for the summer, and for next school year as well as getting ready to head home on Monday.

I have begun the application process for YWAM, which is applying for a 6 month training seminar that starts in June. I'm on a time crunch with this as I will only have 2 months to raise the cost of the seminar, as well as find monthly support to sustain me (bills at home and such) while in the camp and after the camp is finished. I am enormously excited at the thought of actually being able to simply go and share, not have to do lesson plans, and go to work, but just go and build relationships daily in my community and build groups who are excited to share the good news with those around them.

Prayer Requests:
Ton Kla: Will, Yo and Annie are all wanting to continue studying this summer. So pray for their opportunities to study together and for Mandy to be able to facilitate that.
Mandy: for peace of mind as she is only a few months away from finishing her time here and for what to do next
Will and Yo: that they would draw closer to God and have a better understanding of who He is. also that they would be able to find good internships for their next semester of school.
Annie: that she would continue to grow in her faith and trust in God. And that she would be able to find constructive ways to use her time this summer (studying, working or whatever she finds to do)
Me: Safety while traveling. Good times with friends. That God would provide the opportunities and open doors for me to raise the funds I need, or winning numbers. either one ;-)Rest and recuperation so that I can head back here refreshed.

Thanks, hope to see as many of you in person that I can. Look for the next update mid may!

zac