Christmas Pen Way La

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Snow, lights, family, fires, freezing weather...

Christmas was a lot different this year, but we could not have asked for a better one! The morning of Christmas Eve, our team headed of to a men's prison. Individually we were told to prepare a quick testimony or message we felt we wanted to share.  Sometimes questioning if it was relevant, nine young women sharing to 150 men, we knew it was an open door from God. He was preparing a way for these men to hear what Holy Spirit had to speak through each of us. This prison ministry exceeded any expectation we may have had. The men were attentive, respectful, and full of smiles.

That night, everyone involved with Abba House, about 50, went caroling. In Thailand, Christmas caroling uses different traditions. Once we arrived at our first house, after an amusing ride on the song tao, everyone danced and sang out a couple of the songs we've been practicing together. After our singing, the residents open up their doors and welcome us with decorations, hugs, and food! After a long night, caroling to 10 houses and in the center of the marketplace, and 10 baht ice cream from McDonalds, we took the song tao back home.

Christmas day our team woke up, played Christmas music, and opened our stockings that "Santa Jacque" brought from Kona. Our team had a gift exchange, too. It was a good beginning to our day.  Throughout the day, everyone from Abba House was put on different teams and we played different field day games such as balloon toss, sack races, and punched down a pinata. After all our games we had a giant barbeque, which consisted of a lot of meat! Our team contributed and cooked a turkey and mashed potatoes to show them some of our tradition. To end the night, we played bible jeopardy, performed Christmas skits, gave a group gift exchange, and then ended it off with a dance party.

This Christmas really brought us back to the main focus of Jesus' birth and loving each other. Our family has grown here and we've been so blessed to meet these wonderful people in Thailand.

May God bless each of you this new year!

-Catherine Willis

and so it begins!

Hello friends and family!

Our first week at Abba House has been an easy adjustment.  Starting off our mornings with team prayer and worship prepares us for our full day. Coming to Abba House, we thought we would only be working with young women rescued from the sex slave industry, but instead we're also teaching men and young girls english and forming quality relationships. God has given each of us a heart for our students, and we have been blessed by each of them.  For our english classes, we split up into three groups: advanced, intermediate, and beginner. It's such an encouragement watching our students eager to learn because they desire to communicate with us and to progress with their futures.

Today marks two weeks since we arrived here. We have already felt at home and have grown in relationships with the staff and students. All of the men have impacted us. Each of them have such unique personalites, and watching them for the past two weeks, it's been a blessing to see their desire for God and for people. One day we bought them ice cream for 6 baht, and the next day the treated us to fruit and snacks in return. They have servant hearts and love to make us smile. Worshipping with Dave, Francis, and the guys is always a good time. We sing songs in both english and thai, and there is always usually dancing and pure joy. Thailand team shares messages with the men every school day, and it's special to communicate our love for the Lord to them and hear their response.

There are about 19 beautiful Thai girls that live in Abba housing. They are so easy to love. Whether it's playing volleyball, tickling each other, braiding hair, or simply laughing, they crave our attention. We teach them english as well, but our favorite time with them is simply showing them love.

Thank you Jesus! We have been healthy minus our leader Jacque! She is slowly recovering, but God has kept the rest of us healthy and able to keep going full force. Everyone of our teammates is gifted in unique areas.  We have tactic girls, journalists, photographers, hospitality, and most of all, just serving hearts. Each girl was strategically placed on this team, and we help each other together with God as our stronghold. We're unique as an all girls team, but God is using us big ways.

-Catherine Willis

Abba House

What a blessing to be settled into our new home at the Abba House. The people are beautiful! Thailand is called "The Land of Smiles," and we have seen that within this community. The joy from their smiles and sweet spirits has already touched our hearts. All the children were awaiting our arrival and now it's amazing to live as a family and start this journey together.

(Photo Credit: Abbie Boyles)

The founders, Joyce and David, welcomed us with a beautiful room, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and even free wi-fi! We are so thankful for this home provided for us. Nid and Francis, the house managers, are a wonderful married Thai couple who helped us get to know the students by introducing new games and translating the Thai language. Famai is our wonderful chef, and we also have a great pastor, Ed. Dave is the only other American with this organization. He has commited one year to help this organization and rooms with the only little boy, La. Abba House is currently filled with 19 young girls, and 10 guys.  Since the Thai language will take some time to learn, we are excited to have our translator, Oh, from Chiang Rai living with us. She is a beautiful woman who comes from a Christian Hilltribe, and is the daughter of the pastor. We are blessed to have another sister living with us.

Our time at the Abba House will be fulfulling.  Tuesday through Friday we have our day full. 

Here is our schedule:

11-1 lunch and preparing the lesson plan

1-2 sharing bible verses and testimonies 

2-3 worship

3-4 teaching english to the guys

5-6 supper

6-7 teaching english to the girls

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday we have off, but we will be doing other ministry.  Other ministry consists of prison ministry for men and women, visiting the crippled children's home, and going to talk with those involved with prostitution.  Teaching english is extremely important in Thailand.  When applying for a job here, knowing english will be extremely beneficial and is highly looked upon.  It will advance your probabilty of getting the job. 

So far, we have been able to visit the night market, along with the Sunday market.  This morning we attended a Thai speaking church with a translator.  Only 1% of Thailand are Christian, making this ministry significant. 

                                                                  (night Market)

                                                                  (Monk down town)

We are looking forward to start tomorrow! 

Thank you for your continued prayer and support!

-Catherine Willis

Starting the Journey

Aloha friends and family,

We're the team of eight girls and our leader, Jacque, who are passionate about stopping human trafficking.  We've traveled from Tajikistan, Canada, and the United States and gathered together in Kona, Hawaii where we accomplished our lecture phase of the Justice DTS. For our outreach phase we decided to journey to Thailand to help stop this injustice.


This past Monday morning, at 5 a.m.,  we left Kona and began our travels. From Kona, we flew into Honolulu, Tokyo, Taipei, and then our destination, Bangkok, Thailand.  Between these layovers, we traveled for 28 hours!  Our plane ride was an adventure.  We flew with China Airlines which was a two story plane, movies, and four meals! 

When we arrived in Bangkok at 1 a.m. on December 15 (note the time change!) we were greeted by Max, a Thai man from The Nancy Ross Training Center.  He drove us to the center in a song taew, and it was quite the ride!  Drivers are pretty agressive in the city!  

After a short night of sleep, we had an orientation where we learned about the Thai culture and we also toured the suburbs of Bangkok.  We ate a traditional thai meal with thai tea at a local restaurant called the Turtle Bakery. There were so many markets and street vendors around the city! 

Tomorrow evening we're headed to Chiang Mai to stay at the Abba House to spend a month helping the organization.

Sawadee kha! (Goodbye!) 


-Catherine Willis