Prayer

China was so amazing! I actually really don't like it there, but just the fact that I was able to go and everything that I was able to do and the amount that I grew while I was there is just incredible to me. I think God showed me that China is not where I'm supposed to be, but also that me not belonging there long-term doesn't mean that He can't use me there short-term. At first I had a really bad attitude about being there and just wanted to go back to Chiang Mai, but as things began to happen I was able to put my negative attitude aside and just watch God work through all of us. It totally changed my attitude. And me.
The first night there we had soup for dinner. Not a good start to any trip in my opinion. Then on top of that I got into a little bit of an argument with the leader when we got back to the apartment. Those two things happening on the first night was a sure sign to me that me being there was a huge mistake and that this entire trip was going to be a huge failure.. I might have a little bit of a negative attitude sometimes.
I was so wrong. China was one of the greatest experiences of this whole trip so far. After a few days I was able to see that my negative attitude towards everything was not just making myself miserable, but it was also affecting my work there. I never wanted to go to the English Corner (it was always at night so it was very cold and it was also a 30min walk from the apartment.) and I hated having to get up early when I had to go teach at the University. But after I realized what I was doing I was able to put it all aside and just put my whole self into my work, and it turned out so much better! It started to get easier to talk to people at the EC and I was able to make a few good friends, and even the walk there became enjoyable! Dodging cars at the intersections with P"Bow is so much more fun when you have a positive attitude. I even started to look forward to getting up early, which is very good because the second week I had to get up at six every morning to go teach at the Christian kindergarten. In the class I was in it was just P'Bow and I, with the teacher that doesn't speak English and the kids who don't either. It was difficult at first, but then it just became fun. Then after that we would go have lunch then go straight to the orphanage to teach classes and just hang out with the kids. Then we would go have dinner then go right to the English Corner at the University and talk to students and make friends. The EC was probably my favorite part of the trip. I was able to learn a lot about Chinese culture and life, and make some really good friends at the same time, which I am able to still keep in touch with.
I learned so much and really matured on this trip. I feel like a completely different person then when I left Chiang Mai. And I really learned again the importance of prayer and spiritual warfare. I also realized that praying isn't just something that we should do or have to do. It is something that you can really enjoy and that you can do all the time, no matter where you are or who you are with. And when you pray, things happen! It may not be exactly what you want or expected, but there will always be results and God can do amazing things in response. It has been such an awesome experience these last few weeks.
I love you all and miss you! Please feel free to message me on facebook or email me! I love hearing from you guys.

It's freaking cold!

Oh my goodness I never would have thought it could get this cold here. In the mornings and at night I actually have to wear a sweatshirt! It's very disappointing, but what can you do..
On Friday night I got to go to Loi Kratong and float a flower boat thingy down the river with P'Bow:). They usually have lit candles on them in honor of the dead, but we got two without candles and instead of praying for the dead we prayed for the Thai people and that there would be a huge revival in Thailand. The festival takes place over three days of the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, which is usually in November. Many people say it is the most colorful event of the year.
Very early Sunday morning, 3am, my group leaves on our first "trip". Please pray for us that we will be able to reach many people and really get through to them. Also, please pray for the other group who don't get to go with us because they don't have ID cards. They are not sure yet how they are going to get into the country that they are going to.. They are going completely on faith.
Today I have just been walking around the city praying for the people here and later tonight I get to go to a concert. I cannot thank you all enough for the support you have given me, financially and with your prayers. This has been and definitely will continue to be a life changing experience. I feel like I am a completely new person since getting here, and it's only halfway over. I will not be able to update again for two or three weeks. And after that I won't be able to until the end of the DTS. I can't express how much I love and miss you all and I really look forward to getting to see you guys again and tell you all about it.

Not easy, but worth it

This has been a pretty incredible week! It was our last week here in Chiang Rai, and I am so excited to be leaving in a few hours. But so many great things happened, for me and for other people. I have learned and grown so much. This week I have really been struggling with some things, yeah I know, what's new.. But I feel like I was definitely in the right place. Being here surrounded by so many people who are believers and who just genuinely care about people helped me to deal with a lot of my issues in a positive way and start to move past them.
Something really great that happened this week during class was we took an offering near the end of the week for people in Laos, people traveling to Chiang Mai, and for the rest of the expenses for this DNA conference, since not everyone had paid and some people weren't able to. I think they said that we needed almost 200,000 baht. At the end of the offering we ended up with about 300,000 baht, which was way more then was needed, or expected. It was just so wonderful to see all the giving and to see how much everyone cared about it.
Last night a bunch of us went onto the roof of one of the girls houses and lit off ten floating lanterns. It was so much fun, and when there were a bunch up in the sky at once it just looked so incredible. We were going to light off bottle rockets as well, but someone from below us came up and said we were being to loud so we couldn't:(
Please pray for me that I will just be able to fully give over every part of my life to God and not hold onto anything and not hold anything back from Him. Also I am running sort of close on funds, so I need to decide what to do about that. But I have already experience how God provides so I know everything will work out. But I would still appreciate the prayer!
Thank you guys! I love and miss you all

Golden Triangle

Today a lot of the people here at the DNA conference and I took an all day trip to the Golden Triangle and Mae Sai. The Golden Triangle is where the borders of Myanmar (Burma) and Laos meet. Mae Sai is the border of Laos and Thailand. The day overall was a blast. We all got crowded into four song taews ( Thai baht buses) and headed to a lookout spot over the river where all the borders meet, forming a triangle. We then went down to the river and all got onto two boats and got to take a tour of the river and go up to the borders. When we got to Laos we got to get out and take pictures and stuff. That is when something that I really don't like happened. When you first step onto the ground in Laos there is a little market that you need to pay 20 baht to go into. We didn't go in, we just stood outside and took pictures and prayed for the people and stuff. But the officer in charge of the boarder told us that since we had all stepped onto Laos land that we should all pay. The guy in charge of bringing us refused to pay and told us to all hurry and get on the boats. That really upset me because for one thing it is their land and we were on it. We need to respect what they want, even if we don't think it is right or it might be corrupt. Secondly, we are a Christian group and even though they may not have known that we are Christians, we still should be representing Christ in everything that we do. I paid the charge and so did four of my friends. But I am still really bothered and upset at the way we represented not just the places that we are from and our organization, but also how we were misrepresenting Christ to those people. That was the only downer to the day though. After that we went to a big market in Mae Sai and got a bunch of pictures and a few souvenirs.
I really enjoy traveling with this group because everywhere we go we pray for the city/town/country and the people in it. It has already become a habit to me and I think it is really good to pray for people everywhere you go. I had never really even thought of doing that before I came to Thailand and we visited a big temple and everyone started praying and it just hit me. It was like "Oh! I shouldn't just feel sorry that these people are so lost and don't know the truth, and I can do something about it even by just praying!" And it is really like that everywhere you go. Even just to the grocery store, you can pay for the people who show you where stuff is and the person that checks out your groceries.
I will be putting a bunch of pictures on facebook later tonight. And I really love hearing from you guys, so please feel free to email me or message me on facebook!:)

Chiang Rai conference

I am really enjoying being here in Chiang Rai. We are only on day two of the conference but I really like it. Darlene Cunningham is a great speaker, as are all of the others who have spoken. The people here are really great as well. They are all so friendly and welcoming. I have met a lot of people from all over the world, as well as a few from Washington state and found out that we know some of the same people back home. So it is really cool being able to talk and get to know other people. I'm also making some great connections with people who work with YWAM and can get me started working with them if that is the direction God wants me to go. I really feel like Thailand is where I am supposed to be, but I am still praying about it and I really appreciate all of your guys' prayers too. A lot would have to happen for me to be able to do what I want to do, like finding support and a place to stay.
I really feel like God is doing a huge work in my life and I really appreciate all the help you guys have given me. I wouldn't have been able to do all this without all of you. Thank you so much!

Chiang Rai

Hey all!
Tomorrow morning we leave for two weeks of conferences in Chiang Rai. Please pray that our hearts will be open and that we will be able to get a lot out of the teachings.  It is pretty awesome that we get to go because usually it is only for YWAM staff, but they said that our whole DTS could come.  I think we will have internet access there but I'm not sure, so if I don't respond to messages for a while it's because I'm there and there is no wireless.
Also, this week we have been having pretty intense dance classes! We have been learning three Thai dances.  Two to worship songs and the third is a Thai county song.  The country one was the most fun to learn I think.  If you have facebook I will hopefully be posting the videos of them soon so you can see what they are like.
This has been a pretty good week. The teaching this week was on church and what our roles in it are and what our spiritual giftings are.  I'm still not really sure what mine are, but I was really interesting to just sit and talk about everyone's and see what different ones there are. There are so many, and everyone's are a little bit different. No one is exactly the same and I think that is so awesome.  It just proves that we all have different roles and that everyone plays a really important role in the church. Hopefully I will be able to figure mine out soon!
Thank you all so much for your prayers, I really appreciate them a lot!

Hard week..

Well this week has been really challenging.  The teaching was on coming to God with a clean conscience.  It was really hard for me because it brought back a lot of hard memories and things that I have done that I didn't want to remember or admit, but I finally gave up my stubbornness and just admitted everything.  I am still dealing with some things but it is getting better.
I am still loving it here, I am convinced that this is the greatest place on earth! Even though it rains a lot. I just go out and sit in it or walk in it and it feels so refreshing. They also have the best coffee and waffles here, I get it every Saturday and Sunday morning. And I don't even like waffles. Last Saturday me and two friends went into Chiang Mai searching for a Mexican restaurant and we ended up getting lost and walking around the city for about two hours. Guess who was leading... My bad. Hitch hiking is pretty fun around here too. If you have facebook you should check out the videos I posted.
I'm getting pretty tired of rice and eggs though.. We have it for every single meal. The other day they made a ton of fried rice, so we had it for three meals in a row. So today I will be traveling into Chiang Mai again for more Mexican cuisine. I love going into town by myself, it's so fun to just ride around and explore the city. Hitch hiking home in the dark is a bit of an adventure though..
Sorry that this is all so randomly put in here, I'm really tired and my mind is going in tons of crazy directions all at the same time haha.
Well I love and miss you all!

Update

Hey guys,
This week has been kind of a hard one, but God has definitely been at work. Even in these last few hours I have grown and learned to trust Him, and that He can work anything in our lives for good.
I took a trip into Chiang Mai by myself the other day, just to go and relax, and also to buy a swimsuite.  I spent all day just riding around the city and wandering the mall.  I did alot of praying during that time and I really felt like the Lord was trying to talk to me, but for some reason I just couldn't focus enough to hear what He was trying to say. Finally I just went into Swensens and sat down and just tried to listen. I think what God was trying to show me was that I have just been so busy these last few weeks, filling all my time with shopping and visiting and trying to get to know everyone that I haven't been able to just be calm and spend time with Him. Once I had quieted my mind and just sat down, I just felt so at peace and like, loved. It was such a great experience for me. Then, when I was coming home it was dark and you have to hitch hike from Mae Malia back to the base. No one would give me a ride so I started walking back. I had just given up on getting a ride so I wasn't paying attention to the trucks passing when suddenly a truck stopped for me and offered me a ride. Once I got in the back I started talking to the ladies back there. They didn't speak alot of English ( the one that was fluent in English was driving) so it was sort of hard to understand what they were saying. But I was able to learn their names and found out that they teach at a school that is up the road from the base a bit. I really wanted to find out if they were Christians, but just when I was about to bring it up we reached the base. If you could pray that I get another chance to meet these ladies that would be wonderful. I haven't been able to stop thinking about them. I think I am going to go looking for their school this Saturday, and I could really use prayer in knowing the right thing to do when I do.
Also if you could pray for one of the ladies here, she has a cyst the size of a potato in her tummy and she won't know if it's cancer or not until Friday. She is being very strong and brave, but I just know it must be so hard on her.
I love and miss you all!

Good week

For those of you who knew that I was sick, I am almost all better.  Thank you for praying for me.  This week has been a really good one.  I am really enjoying my time here.  I’m so happy that I got the chance to do this.  I’m still thinking about what to do with my future.  I feel like there are so many things that I want to do and not enough time to do them all!  Right now four and a half months sounds like a long time, but I know that it will go by quickly.  I really want to know what to do after. Go or stay?  Work or college?  Missions or business?  I really wish that He would tell me now what I am supposed to do!  But this is teaching me patience and to rely and trust in him.  I found out on Monday that I will be in China for two weeks doing a mini outreach.  I’m so excited!  I would love to go to Burma too, but then again I want to go everywhere so I guess China is a pretty awesome place to start.  I think I have ruled out the military as an option though.

                The teaching this week has been really good.  A lot better than I thought last weeks were.  It’s not that it was bad the week before, I just didn’t agree with everything Pastor Sydney said.  He was talking a lot about visions and prophesy and listening to and for God.  I really liked the part about listening for God, but I didn’t agree with everything he said about prophesy.  This week we learned about relationships with family and people around us.  I really enjoyed it.  Oh and for those of you who watch the tv show One Tree Hill, one of the speakers is named Nathan Scott.  I just thought that was pretty awesome haha

Love you guys!

Quote of the week: Do you smell that? It smells like.. Up dawg!

Unsure..

Hey guys, I could really use some prayer. Lately I've been thinking a lot about what to do when the DTS is over. I'm considering not going back to the states, but I'm not sure if that is what I am supposed to do. If you pray about it and feel that God is telling you anything I would really appreciate an email or facebook message with your thoughts..

Address

I forgot to add in my last post that the mailing address here is:
Youth With A Mission Chiang Mai
P.O. Box 290 CMU Post Office
Chiang Mai 50202 Thailand
You know, in case you wanted to write me or something.. ;)

Love it here!

I love it here so much.  I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings (mom) but I really have never felt as at home as I do here.  I have only been in Thailand for about a week but already I feel as though I have grown and changed and learned so much more then I have did in the States.  We haven't even started the lectures and I feel as though my relationship with God and with other people has improved immensely.  I love the Thai people, they are all so welcoming and loving.  Even the ones that can't speak very good English, you can just tell that they try so hard and really want to get to know you and help you.  And they are all very willing to teach Thai to us.  I have picked up a few words, and it is getting easier to understand them, but I still have a long ways to go in learning it.  But it is coming pretty easily.  Thank you all so much again for your prayers and support.  This has already been one of the greatest experiences of my life and you all played such a huge part in getting me here.
I love and miss you all!

Finally arrived!

I have survived the first day here! It has been surprisingly easy to adjust. The base is really pretty, there are so many interesting plants and animals. There are also little green ghecko lizard things everywhere! Everyone here is so nice and welcoming, it's great. I really miss all you guys though. If you have skype make sure to add me! Or email me!
If I don't reply right away it's because I will probably only be online on the weekends because we have to walk or hitch hike to a cafe about 20 minutes away from the base. Or because I'm trying to figure out how to change my computer language back to English.. It's stuck on Thai and I can't understand anything haha.

Thank you!

It is so crazy to think that in a matter of hours I will be leaving everything and everyone that I know and taking a journey to a totally different country.  I am so scared, yet excited to do this. Thank you all so much for the financial and prayer support that you have given me. It means so much to me to know that you all support me in what I am about to do.
I will not be on facebook while I am gone, so if you would like to be kept updated or in touch with me email me or add me on skype!
Email: sara_ann93@juno.com
Skype: saraloraine93

Thank you all!

Leaving soon!

Hi all!
Wow, only 21 days until I leave. That sounds so crazy! And rather terrifying. I could really use your prayers as I am getting everything ready for my trip. I have my passport, and yesterday I went to Portland and got my travel visa. What I still have left to do is get my vaccinations and raise about $1,900.  Raising that much money in so little time is really stressing me out so I would really appreciate your prayers about that. Other then that everything else seems to be falling into place wonderfully. I'm so excited to have this opportunity to go to a foreign country and show God's love to these people who need it so desperately. I could also really use prayer about the traveling.. I really don't like flying and I will be on a three day journey all by myself.
I really appreciate all that you guys have done to help me on this adventure that I am on. Whether you have supported me financially or through pray, it all means so much to me to know that I have your support.
Thanks!:)

Update!

Heyy all. Just wanted to share a quick update with you guys. I am now about halfway to meeting my funding needs. That is a huge leap from where I was just a few weeks ago. Thank you guys so much for your generous gifts and also for your prayers. I really appreciate them! All that is left in preparing for my trip is getting my travel visa, the last of my funds, and just a few little things that I will need on my trip. Please continue to pray for me, I need all the prayers I can get! Thanks.

Hello!

Hi, my name is Sara Petersohn (or Annie, depending on what you prefer.)  I have just graduated from high school and am about to embark on the scariest, yet most exciting adventures of my life thus far.  On September 1st, 50 days from today if I am counting right, I leave for a five month trip to Thailand.  I will be doing a DTS with YWAM while I am there. A DTS ( Discipleship Training School) is three months of schooling and preparing for the last two months, in which I will be helping and ministering to children in Chiang Mai.

I have always had a desire to help people and "save the world", so to speak. Last August at my church's youth camp I became a christian and the desire to help people just got more intense.  So I knew that I wanted to help people, I just didn't know how yet.  Then one Sunday a family visited my church and spoke about YWAM and DTSs and I felt God leading me to do one.  So I applied to the Chiang Mai base in Thailand and the next thing I know, here I am.  50 days and $3,000 dollars away from takeoff.

I could really use all the prayer support I could get. Not just about getting my funds all in but also for peace. This is pretty scary thing for me and as it gets closer the more worried I become.