Last Day In Los Angeles

Well, I think I'm well over due to finally update my blog seeing I'm leaving tomorrow to Thailand, again sorry for another delay. It’s been another busy couple weeks and getting ready for this trip has been draining and stressful to be honest. I've never really had to prepare for anything quite like this and its been tough for me because I really have no idea what I'm doing haha. None the less here I am and I can say that I'm ready to go and now that everything is done I can finally start relaxing slightly at least for our next two days of flying. Once we get to Thailand it’s going to be busy.

The last two weeks we haven't had a regular speaker which has been an adjustment, but we've been busy doing practical training for our outreach locations. Last week we had Bobby Bo our Outreach Coordinator for Thailand here teaching us about Thai culture and giving us a rundown of the things we will be doing once we get there. We've also spent a lot of time in prayer ahead of time for Thailand and the people that God is going to bring us in contact with. It’s crazy to think that I'm going to Thailand, I have no idea what 11 plus hours on a plane is going to feel like, I didn't even know planes could fly that long without stopping haha. Then we have a 2 hour layover in Tokyo and then another 6 hour flight to Bangkok. I think like any trip the best part is finally getting on the plane and knowing everything is done and you can just breathe for a bit and that’s what I'm looking forward too.

Once we get to Thailand we spend a couple days in Bangkok getting orientated and then we take an 11 hour overnight bus ride to Chang Rai in northern Thailand. We will be spending all of our time up North and along the Burmese border. We will be doing lots of different stuff while we are up there such as teaching the Bible, open air evangelism, doing dramas and teaching English. I’m sure we’ll be doing lots more than these things also, but we will get a better idea once we get there. I’m not sure how often I’ll be able to get access to the internet while I’m in Thailand so my consistency with my blogs probably won’t look a whole lot different than it has been Hah....

Thank you all again for reading my blog it’s encouraging to know that people care about what I’m doing and want to keep in touch. I appreciate you all even if I’ve never met you, by reading this you are a part of the things that God is showing me and the ways I have seen Him move and work. I wish I had more to share with you but honestly most of the stuff I’ve been working through these past weeks is how to deal with stress and live out patience. Don’t get me wrong I needed these past two weeks to finally break my bad habits and prepare me for what this new adventure is going to bring. I feel that I’m ready, I still have a couple things to do before getting on the plane, but I truly believe that these last three months have been a time of refining to get me ready for this moment. It sounds like I’m going to war, which in reality I am. I’m not exactly walking into to an open country to Christianity with 0.5% of Thai people calling themselves Christians. Our team is up for the challenge and our God is bigger than any stats or percentages and with that we are ready to share His love and His truth to the people of Thailand.

Our team will definitely need your prayers and support. I greatly appreciate all you who have taken time out of your day to pray for me, I’m truly blessed to have people like you in my life. I’m not just saying this to sound spiritual or be pleasing with words. Without your prayers I stand alone and no man can go to war by himself and that’s why you are so important to me. Thank you for standing with me, thank you that you care, I wish I had something I could give back to all of you for that. I will be also praying for all of you, even if I don’t know all of you, but thank you again.

I feel like I need to just encourage anyone who reads this. Take advantage of your day today; cease any opportunity you have to pour out love on someone. Even if that person has wronged you, buy them a coffee or write them a letter of encouragement. You will truly be amazed at how God can use that in someone’s life. Love is the greatest weapon we have against the enemy and Love truly does conquer all things, Jesus’ life is a testimony of that. Don’t let little things get in the way of your friendships with people at work or at school, it’s not worth it, life is too short to waste time over silly things like that. Bless someone today, I challenge you with that. Maybe a co-worker, a friend you’ve lost touch with or drifted apart from or a family member or someone who may be driving you nuts. Go out of your way and bless them this week and just watch what God does.

Thank you all again, God keep you today!
Adam

The Past Three Weeks

Hey everyone, I've had a lot happen these past three weeks I’m sorry, I owe you all yet again another apology for not following through with keeping this blog up to date. I want to also thank you again for your prayers and support, it means a lot to know that I have people who want to be a part of the things I’m learning and going through.

I'll start back at how the Injustice Conference in Salem, Oregon finished off. It was a really rainy week up in Oregon, but the conference was such an eye opener as I shared in the previous blog about how we experienced Injustice the very first night. Throughout the rest of the week we learnt about different forms of injustice in the world and what our role as Christians is in bringing justice. One of the nights that really shook me up was when an organization by the name of Project Revelation came in and hosted an event. The main theme of their message was that the greatest injustice in the world is the fact that there are still 2 Billion people in this world that have never heard the name of Jesus once. It was a really interesting night and many people responded to this calling to go to all the nations. There was lots more that happened during that week, we took a trip up to Portland, and raised awareness on sex trafficking. The group I was in just so happened to get off the train in the worst part of the city, we had some pretty cool experiences from that night. We drove home the Friday of that week and got home Saturday night, everyone was drained from the travel and all the information we took in that week.

The following week my parents came down, and it was an amazing time with them to say the least. God showed me so much through their time here about myself. My mom decided to bring me a copy of my adoption story on a CD just for the heck of it, and gave it to me the first day they were here. I listened to it that night and that story has never come alive for me like it did that night. I wasn’t hearing it from just the perspective of my mom; I began hearing it from Gods perspective. To think that God loves us that much that he would pursue us so relentlessly. I really began to see God’s character through my parent’s story of my adoption and how He goes through the same things they went through to adopt his children out of the world and into a new life in his Kingdom. It was such an amazing night for me and I got to talk to my parents about it late into their first night here. It was a really awesome time for me to be with my parents and I’m learning so much about how I sometimes get so hyped up about stuff and act selfishly. I don’t think it’s a matter of not thinking things through, it’s just I get so anxious to make sure everyone else experiences what I experience, which isn’t fair since we all have different backgrounds.

I also got to show my parents around L.A while they were here and show them some of the over glamorized areas of the city. I’m so glad they got to come get a taste of what YWAM is all about because I know I probably wasn’t doing the best job at communicating it to them. They were here during our time with Art Collins who ran our lectures for that week on the topic of servant hood. He was a man of his message; he was very generous to us. Art bought us doughnuts every single day during our breaks and even took everyone out for supper to In-N-Out, which is the greatest fast food restaurant I’ve ever been to. It was a really great week for my parents to be able to sit in on our classes and I think they got a pretty good idea what YWAM was all about from it.

They left last Monday and that day our new speaker began teaching. His name was Stefan Hugo and he was from South Africa and he was teaching on the Holy Spirit. I think everyone in the entire school was nervous about this week because no one knew what to expect at all. The Holy Spirit isn’t a very common topic in church and I’ll share with you how Stefan opened up his teaching Monday morning. He pulled out a can of dog food and asked who wants some; I need to people to come try this dog food. Two people went up and tried it reluctantly and if they could withstand the taste they would have to go share it with someone else. Some people really liked the taste and others couldn’t keep it down. After we finished with the dog food he reached into his bag and pulled out a bag of chocolate and announced to the class that what we just ate was not dog food. He actually cut up some chocolate bars, mixed them into a clear jelly and put it in a can and printed out a label for dog food. Then he explained to us that this is how Satan deceives people when it comes to the Holy Spirit he puts an awful label on Him so no one wants to see what lies within. It was a pretty great way to break the ice about such a touchy subject and the week was amazing. I won’t go into detail for those of you that aren’t comfortable with this subject, but if you have questions or are interested in what happened send me an email at... (adamwowchuk@hotmail.co.uk)

Last Thursday, Charlenn (my girlfriend) flew out here, which I was so excited about and still can’t believe she was actually here. We got to experience L.A. rush hour traffic together which was wonderful, not to mention I was late picking her up because of traffic on the way there. I was so happy to finally be able to talk to her in person because I’m really not the greatest person when it comes to being consistent in my Skype calls or texts and she will attest to that. We had lots of great talks over the four days she was here and we actually went a lot of places as well. On Friday we went to Venice Beach together and took a homeless guy named Will out for lunch and got to hear his story which was so amazing. It was so neat to see how much he appreciated us taking time just to sit down and here his story. We got to share our testimonies as well and encourage him as well. We talked for about an hour and a half and then we prayed for him. It was so humbling to see how just taking time to talk with someone instead of just putting money in their cup and leaving them could encourage them. I know we’ll never forget that time with Will.
Over the weekend we got to do lots as well, we went to China town and the fashion district, which I really wasn’t a fan of. With our Justice Focus track here on our base we also helped put on a night of raising awareness at a local coffee shop on Saturday night. Sunday I took Charlenn to the church I’ve being going to since coming to YWAM and we spent the rest of the day with a girl named Kayla Carter and her Mom and Grandmother. It was really great to get to hang out with them and they were very kind to take us out for lunch and ice cream after church. We spent most of the day with them and they took us to Hollywood just to walk around for awhile and then we just spent the rest of the day hanging out in the sun at the base.
It was such a great weekend for me to finally just slow down and relax after taking in so much information and going through so much. We have two weeks left here in Los Angeles before we leave for our outreaches, which is crazy to think about. These next two weeks I’m sure will be the busiest yet in order to prepare ourselves for all that we will being doing in our separate outreach locations. I’m so excited to head over to Thailand, but the thought of being away from so many people I’ve become so close with these last three months is hard.

This week we have Graham Hackworth speaking and last night he took us to the beach to do his lecture under the stars which was really cool and one girl got baptized in the ocean, which was really neat. He is a very interesting man with a brilliant mind I have a feeling we are going to be seriously shaken up by his message this week about cultures. I have to get to class we start right away so I hope that you all have a great day and that God will bless you. Thank you again for your patience, I’m sorry I haven’t followed through on my word. You guys deserve better from me and I’m really working on my integrity of speech when it comes to keeping in touch with people. Thanks for your prayers and support!

Adam