Up Down and All Around

This year has been hard, but throughout the year God has been teaching me so much. I know Him better now, and still want and need to know Him more. I understand myself much better. I know the things I am capable of more clearly, and just as importantly I know more where my limitations are and it's slowly translating into forward motion, progress, growth and overall healthier living.

God is good. I know what the next step is in my journey here, which is finding a longer term teaching position, and improving my credentials so I can keep it so that I can impact the lives of the people around me. Showing people the love of God is so much easier than trying to describe it.

I want to thank you all for your prayers, for your comments, for supporting me as I live out the life that God has for me. It is the encouragement coming from everyone back home and all my friends here that has kept me here at times, and I can never thank you enough.

As I take steps over the next few months to continue sharing the love of Jesus with my neighbors, coworkers and other friends, please keep my financial situation in your prayers and please consider committing to partnering with me.

I need to raise about $5,600 over my monthly living expenses in the next two months. This will pay for my new visa, plane tickets to come home, a visa for my girlfriend, a school to get a teaching certification and the dowry for the wedding.

If you would like to give a one time donation:

1. click the PayPal link on the right side of my blog, or if you would like a tax deductible receipt
2. Mail a check made out to "YWAM Montana" to

501 Blacktail Rd.

Lakeside MT  59922

Please Do Not put my name on the check, in the MEMO line write Donation for Project #3806. This will ensure the funds make it to me, and YWAM will send you a receipt. If it is posted before January 1st, it will count towards this years tax records.

If you would like to commit to monthly living support, please send me an email:

zacwhertvine@gmail.com

 

Thank you again for your help. Please continue that God would work in the hearts of my friends, and open the doors for me to show Him to those around me. 

Merry Christmas!!

Almost two months is bad form...

So. I got in a bike wreck.

I hit a truck because I couldn't see the road they were turning into. Came off, landed on my shoulder and rolled into a ditch at around 30 or 40 mph. Unforeseen to say the least. But God showed up through it all in a big way. I didn't hit the concrete electric pole I should have, didn't get hit by other traffic, and the ditch had a little but was not filled with water and I landed... feet down, though not exactly on my feet :-).

The principal of the school I had just started at the day before happened to go that way that, which he usually doesn't, and helped me at the scene. My new 'boss' came to the hospital, paid my bill, and took me to the police station all late in the evening, and the worst of it was two stitches. Police and everything got cleared up that day, bike fixed in 4 days, phone dead (means no camera so no photo u but a friend has an extra I can borrow. Yeah, God was looking out for me in a big way.

Teaching is challenging, but usually in a good way. I have found my problem age group. First and Second grade. Pre-K and Kindergarten, I'm alright. 3rd grade and up, no big problems. First and Second grade like to drive me to violence. Good thing God had been teaching me patience for the last 5+ years.

I'm now also teaching at the temple behind my house to two of the monks! And as I become more accustomed to the demands of elementary school and before, they will help me set up some free classes for the villagers around my house so that I can get to know some of them! Super exciting!

December I will continue teaching, will help at at least one Christmas day for some kids, maybe two, have a conference on teaching young children, and of course Christmas!

 Praise God for all the great things that are happening as we are looking towards the new year!

As the new year is coming, it brings with it the end of my budget! Yay for another year in Thailand!

As I am looking at my budget for the next year, there are 4 things that will really affect my budget.

1. Next month begins my process to renew work permit and visa. So that I can continue to stay and work with YWAM and everyone else, I have to go through this process.
The fees total is approximately $800 US

2. TEFL/TESL/IELTS certification school. This is a school that will train and teach me how to be an effective English teacher, and give me an internationally recognized certification as a trained English teacher. Experience is great, but more and more I am needing this to move forward. The school is in March.
This also will be about $800 US, including room and board, 4 weeks of class/practicum

3. Plane tickets. I really want to come home. I want to see my family, see all of you who keep up with me, and severely need to go out and increase my support base. And hopefully I will be coming home end of May, because I have to wait for my Visa to be extended before I can head back.
Two round trip tickets and a tourist visa will be about $3,500 US

4. Wait... two round trip tickets and a tourist visa? Well, that's because I'm gonna be bringing my prettier half home with me to meet everyone. Yeah. I'm wanting to get married. And that is why I really need to be remaking my budget to accommodate there being two of us. As she is just about to graduate university she will be looking for a job as well, but not sure what that will look like yet. We want to have a ceremony here, for our friends and family, but also one in America for my friends and family So we are looking at how to pay for those as well (everyone ready for the dollar dance?!).
 Also, in this culture, I should be paying a bride price. But her mom would be happy if I would just take care of her last semester fees, which comes to about $500 US


Now, with my monthly income, I had started saving up to pay for the school and Annie's visa, but the bike wreck took all of those funds. So I need your helps... all your helps. As this holiday season is warming up, please add me, well us, to your Christmas list!

Please be praying for us as we work on the timing of everything. I finally got all of this financial information from all parties this week. I will have a break down of those expenses above, as well as my projected budget for next year finished this week. If you would like either or both of those, just shoot me an email to zacwhertvine@gmail.com

Flux: My Life's Other Constant

Yeah! Dodgeball!

The first being God of course. So, since the end of August to the beginning of October, things have been busy and shifting and just a whole lotta fun. The month actually started out kinda slow and picked up. So to keep things readable I will just give the highlights:

Teaching - It has been steady-ish. But the place I was working at was really taking their time, and not showing much initiative in getting me the proper paperwork, which was making me nervous. I was approached by another lady about another teaching position, so I went to talk with her. The long and short of it is, 15 hours a week in the mornings, a work permit (which we have already started the process on), 10,000 baht a month, plus housing. Which means I will be moving back to Hang Dong where I want to be anyways, She also has connections in the next town to the south, and I will have afternoons and evenings to do ministry. Plus the house is near North Chiang Mai University, where I used to teach, so I will be able to pick up on some old relationships there as well.

Spelling Fruits

Ministry - Am still starting conversations, but not meeting with much interest. But been able to talk a little bit deeper about my faith in a couple of my classes talking about why I am Thailand. Please pray that the seeds I am throwing out there would find fertile soil and that the Holy Spirit would really be guiding me to the places I need to be going.

Volunteering - This month I was able to help out at two different English camps, one with friends from church and one with a school I randomly got connected to. They were fun, and got to make some new contacts as well.

I also had the chance to go with some friends on an overnight bike trip through the mountains near here. Praise God that we made it back in one piece after some of the road conditions we encountered and the sheer length of it. But it was fun, got to know several of my friends better and just had a blast. It was nice to get out of Chiang Mai for a weekend and do something different.

So in the next couple of weeks I will preparing to move again. I will start the new job at the end of this month for the second term of school, November to the end of February or first of March.



In my next update, I will be detailing what my plan is (Lord willing) for the next year, So be on lookout for that! Love you all, thank for all your prayers and support! See you in a few weeks.

Flying...

Time that is. Flying. By... Quickly like. The thing about working at different places is how much time speeds up. No excuse for waiting a month and a half again.

Things here are moving fast, and going well. The teaching isn't exactly steady, but it's going well. Right now I have a group of professionals, one architect, and a group of monks and students at a Buddhist University. And have two more potential students which will fill my teaching slots for the month. The teaching is going well, but in talking to my students, and talking to others around in the past month and a half, I'm running into a lot of closed doors. I have had one conversation that started heading down a spiritual path. But it's a start.

I did go to a conference at the beginning of this month for all of YWAM working in Northern Thailand. It was awesome. I got to catch up with with a lot of people, and the speakers were excellent. And it planted some seeds of how to move forward, that fit in the vision that God has given me. I know that I want to move out of the main city, and head south, and it looks like some doors are opening up that direction over the next year and a half. Right now I'm struggling condensing it so that this isn't a 1000 word essay. Plus everything is soo up in the air, but please be praying for me in that, that God would move it along in His time, either forward or shutting it down.

Basically, I am finally getting in a rhythm, and ready to add a few more things in. So my prayer requests for this month:

1. Pray that I will meet the right people, and God will open the doors to share His Good News, and that I will be ready when those opportunities present themselves.
2. Pray that God will show me the direction forward and give me discernment and courage to follow it out.

Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. I need all the prayer I can get!  Love you all! See you soon! Exclamation marks!!!!!!!!

Not leaving just yet...

God provides, though not always exactly how we expect. A month and 11 days ago, I let you all know where I was at financially and where I needed to be. At that time I was considering either getting a full time job here, and doing ministry in whatever time I had leftover or returning home and getting a job or going back to school. So I sent out a call for help.

The goal I set for myself to be able to stay was an additional $500 dollars a month minimum. I received pledges for $160. So I went back to God and asked what I should do. He said go try again at the language school, but not for a full time position. The first time I went there, with CV in hand, references and dressed to get the job. And I never heard a peep back from them. So I thought, what do I have to lose? I went back, and asked them about my old application, and they had lost it completely. So I filled out a new one, and when I finished, started talking to one of the teachers, who ended up being the director. He hired me on the spot for as many hours as I want.

CEC is run by a Christian couple, who use their business to reach out to the students who come, and so they also encouraged me that if I want to do any ministry with the students, I am free to, so long as I was teaching English first. I also have complete freedom to teach as much or little as I want to, and after a trial period, if they still want me on, then they will take care of all my paperwork for visa's and my work permit.

I also had to move out of my house, as the landlord sold it. So I have found an apartment within walking distance of the school, which is nearly $30 cheaper than my old place, even though it is downtown Chiang Mai.

So to conclude:

1. With the new pledges, and teaching part time I am at my goal to be able stay and do church planting.

2. At this center I am encouraged to do ministry, and will have new students for more opportunities.

3. I am at a cheaper apartment and close to my classes.




God does provide in big ways. I have been moving and settling into new routines the past two and a half weeks, hence the delay in this post. I have also been invited to start teaching an English club once a week at the University where I used to work, so that my turn into a great opportunity as well.

I feel like this is the right next step, that I am where I need to be. So now I am waiting on what God is going to do. Thank you again for all your support!

Still getting everything settled as of yesterday, the 14th

I'm not ready to move back to America

My supporters and friends,

I am at a hard crossroads in my life. God is opening people's hearts and starting to do great things here in Chiang Mai. More and more people are willing to talk about their beliefs rather than just hide behind the statement all religions are the same. There is a hunger and thirst for something more that is stirring in Thailand.

The core of what I am doing, in relational evangelism and wanting to see God start a Church Planting Movement through my ministry, is to go out to eat with people, go to coffee shops, go to where people are and to take trips with closer friends to get even closer. The Thai way of growing a relationship is to go out and about with people. But I can't afford to do this.

Currently, I get by each month. I pay my rent, cell, electric, trash, internet bills, and have enough left over to put gas and clean oil in my bike and usually eat and see a couple of movies. But I have no emergency money. I can not take care of things that break or need to be replaced. I have no savings. Every little thing that has a price tag is struggle between which do I need more, this or food more.

I have two dreams for what I want to do here in Thailand:
1. I want to see a Church Planting Movement take off, and see people grow in deep relationship with God. To see lives transformed all across Northern Thailand.

2. I want to get married, and have a family.

At this moment in time, both of those dreams are possible, but just out of reach because of my current financial state. I can barely take care of myself month to month. My ministry is up in the air as I usually have to decline invitations to be with people because of a lack of funds, and I can't seriously pursue an engagement with the girl I love.


I am asking God to do something big this month. I need my total monthly support to be doubled at the minimum.

The average single missionary here needs to make between $25 - $30,000 each year to be effective. I am on track to make $9,000.

I believe this is where I am supposed to be. I believe in the vision God has given me, and I believe that greater things are still to come. Please pray for me, that God will provide the support needed so I may continue doing what I believe God has called me to do- to show God's glory through my life

Back to Regular Scheduling

A brief recap, for those who are unable to follow me on Facebook, the big even we were planning did not get off the ground. Everyone involved was excited for it, but we simply did not leave ourselves enough time to negotiate all the red tape involved. But I feel it was an important step forward and has opened some doors should we want to pursue another event like this in the future.

Campers and Team

But we still had a team of DTS students come and help us out for a week. The helped me get to know a few local pastors and run a camp for the kids of several local churches. The camp itself was the big event that we could not have done at all if not for the willingness of the students in this team. It was a two night camp aimed at encouraging the children who are believers in their faith and growth as children of God and in their ability to share that faith with their friends and families. About 40 kids came in all.

Majority of this last month was spent preparing and finalizing plans for this team, I had no idea how much time and planning went into something like this. Better informed for the future now! And my mom came for a visit during the past two weeks, so the first week she got to tag along as I helped out with the team, and then last week I took off to spend time with her and enjoy Song Khran.

As I am going back into my regular scheduling, please be praying for me. I need to be firm in my goal here of discipling those who are willing to be discipled, and not get distracted by being busy. I am going to resume my prayer walking times and really trying to build on the couple of relationship opportunities that I have here in my community.

Thank you for all of your prayers and continued support!