Outreach 2013 - Gin Yut Yut!

First off I just want to say how awesome it was to be able to go up to Doi Inthanon 
and serve P'Bruce and P'Dia Taylor up in Khun Wang. Bruce didn't want to take a team this 
year, but he was willing to try taking all 18 of us and give us a shot.

When we first went up I was really hoping to be able to be a blessing to the Taylor's and 
the Hmong people up there. However, it was them who was an incredible blessing to me. 
There wasn't a day when I didn't feel blessed to be up there with them.

It was so great to meet Bruce Taylor and his wife Dia. Before going up if as had heard 
some things about Bruce that made me a little nervous to go up, but I was determined to 
keep an open mind about him and what happens up there. And I'm so glad I did. Bruce and 
Dia are two of the most incredible people of God, and are truly servants for God and for 
the Hmong. It was so crazy to see how truly devoted to the Hmong and God and just serving 
they really are. And it was so awesome to be able to be a part and hopefully bless them a 
little.

While we were up there for seven weeks we would work in Bruce's tea fields 8 hours a day, 
6 days a week. Then we would have Sunday off and get to go to the local Hmong church and 
they let us sing specials and give testimonies every Sunday. It was so much time to get 
to spend time with them and get to know them.

We also got to spend three nights with 6 different village families. We were expecting to 
be working harder then ever. Like from the crack of dawn to after dark. I was also 
expecting to not be eating a lot because we were warned that it might be like that. Out 
of the six groups, there was only one like that. I would definitely say that the house 
that I got to stay at with Steph and Isaiah was the best! P'Pong, who we later nicknamed 
Paa Taro which means father Taro (Taro is a vegetable that he would eat all the time) was 
afraid of making us work to hard so most of the time we just hung out with him and ate 
snacks and rice out the ying yang. Seriously, he would feed us so much rice every meal, 
sometimes I would have to eat 3 heaping platefuls of rice. And I don't even eat rice 
usually! But it was so much fun, and he was such a sweet guy. We all loved our time there 
with him and his family.

After that we got to climb up one of the tallest mountains in Thailand. I heard that it 
was actually THE tallest, which is easy for me to believe after climbing it.. But I never 
got a for sure answer from anyone about whether it was for sure or not. But that was 
definitely one of my highlights from the whole outreach.

We also got to eat dog our first week up there! I had eaten it last year in China, but 
for all the other westerners it was their first time. So it was a lot of fun. Bruce was 
the one who got the dog and then he let some of the students help cook it. That was one 
of the weekly meals that we would have with them at there house. Which was another huge 
blessing for us. That one meal a week was always one of the best parts. The food was 
always incredible and the fellowship was so encouraging.

The we're definitely parts of the outreach that were difficult, like showering in the 
freezing river and having to share one bathroom with 18 other people. But everyone did an 
incredible job with handling it and everyone had great attitudes. Over all it was one of 
the most incredible times I've ever had, with everyone growing so much.

Thank you all for your prayers! They are much appreciated and needed. If you guys have 
any questions or want to know anything else or would like prayer for anything or even 
just want to say hi you should email me or message me on Facebook :)

My email is sara_ann93@juno.com
My Facebook name is Annie Petersohn
And my cell phone number here in Thailand is 66-083-947-2450
That is my international #. My local is 66-091-301-2146

Miss you guys!