Missions Blog

We have a large team of 14 guys this year and for 12 of them it's their first time in Panama for the Men's Work Mission Trip. We started off the trip nice and early in Pittsburgh airport at 4am and the lines for TSA took a little longer then usual but we all boarded our plane successfully. We had safe travels to our first stop in Atlanta, and then we boarded the last plane to Panama. It was a smooth flight which was beautiful out and some great views from the plane. There was some awesome cloud formations and seeing God's beautiful creation from up high was quite amazing. We landed safely at our last stop in Panama City airport and thankful to the Lord we had no problems and safe travels. Immediately the big difference from home once you step outside the airport in Panama was the temperature change, it was very hot out and humid. We got picked up by a small bus by the Word Of Life Camp at the airport and we headed to grab some lunch for our first meal together in Panama City as a group. The food was excellent and the views of the the city was wonderful. We stopped to take a group photo and back into the bus to head to the youth camp we went. It was about a 2 hour drive there and we finally arrived at the camp. After getting unpacked and settled into our rooms, we got to go and see the big projects we will be working on all week and excited to get to work as a team. We ended the night by eating dinner at the camp and then going to the new hotel with the entire Panama mission team gathered together as a group, and Jon Fowler spoke to us about what has all been going on at the camp and future plans. He then prayed over everyone to end a perfect day serving the Lord. We are all so thankful and blessed for this day God has blessed us with. Please continue to pray He unites our team to accomplish all the work for this week at camp. We have church tomorrow morning with everyone and then we are excited to get started working for the week ahead. Thank you to all our family, friends, and Bible Chapel family for your continual prayers and support, we truly are blessed to be the hands and feet of Christ Jesus!

Evangelistic Dolls — Dee Teaches the Girls to Share the Gospel

Dee Johnson has a gift. She has a way of taking the most important truth in the universe and making it feel like the most natural thing in the world to talk about. And this morning, she handed every girl at Faith House a tool to do exactly that.

The lesson centered on evangelistic dolls — handmade cloth dolls, each one wearing a strand of colored beads, each color telling a piece of the gospel story. Flip the doll one way: she is lost, her face downcast, carrying the weight of sin and shame. Flip her over: she is smiling, covered in grace, alive in Christ. Simple. Brilliant. Unforgettable.

Dee walks the girls through the gospel story, bead by bead.

Dee walked them through each color. Yellow for God and Heaven — “God made you in His image. You are Princesses of the High King.” Black for sin — the separation that began in Eden and runs through every human heart. Red for Christ’s blood, shed because God always had a plan to buy us back. White for restoration — the debt canceled, the shame wiped clean. Blue for the Resurrection — the third day, the empty tomb, the Lord who knew exactly what was coming and walked toward it anyway. Green for new life — the life He is still completing in each of us. And yellow again, at the end, for Heaven — because the story that started with God ends with God.

One doll carries the weight of sin. Flip her over — and she is smiling in grace.

Then came the moment Dee had been building toward all morning. The girls got to practice. Each one picked up her doll and, one by one, began sharing the gospel with the girl sitting next to her. In Karen. In Burmese. In Thai. It didn’t matter.

Dee and Joelle hand out the dolls — every girl gets one.

Pure joy as the girls share the gospel story with each other.

Dee watched with a proud heart. “It gives me life to hear them sharing the gospel using the dolls,” she said, “because I know they will do it.” Not someday. Not maybe. They will do it. These girls live at the edge of the world, on the border of a nation in darkness, and now they are holding the gospel in their hands and they know how to share it.

Deborah picked up her doll, turned it over, and said with a wide smile: “Sharing Christ is so easy with the dolls.” And little Zuzu, examining hers with wide eyes, announced to anyone who would listen: “Mine has a hat!”

Holding their mirrors — daughters of the King, made in His image.

Everyone gets a doll — even the littlest of these.

These dolls were made by the women of a Virginia Baptist congregation, stitched together by hand and carried across an ocean and an international border so that girls at risk of trafficking could hold the gospel in their hands. That partnership — women in Virginia, girls in Mae Sot, one Body across every border — is exactly what the kingdom of God looks like. There may be many states, many nations, many languages. But there is only one kingdom, and it is advancing.

Dedication of the Wall — Glenn Brings It All Home

All week, we have been walking through the book of Nehemiah together. The rubble. The resistance. The rebuilding. The obedience. And now, on the final day, Grandpa Glenn stood up and turned to Nehemiah 12 — the dedication of the wall.

The wall is finished. The people are gathered. And what do they do? They celebrate. Loudly. Visibly. So loud, the text says, that the joy of Jerusalem could be heard from far away.

Glenn asked the girls questions. He got them talking. He pulled the lesson out of them rather than just delivering it to them, because that is who Glenn is — a loving Grandpa. And what emerged was beautiful.

The lesson rested on three pillars: Celebration, Thanksgiving, and Dedication.

Celebration is rejoicing at what God has done. The wall did not just provide safety — it restored something. It was a visible sign to the watching world that God’s people had been faithful, and that God had been faithful to them. For these girls, Faith House is that wall. It is safety. It is family.

Thanksgiving is not a vague “thank you for everything” prayer. It is specific. Nehemiah thanked God for specific people, specific provisions, specific miracles along the way. Glenn asked the girls: What specific things has God done for you this week? The answers came slowly at first, then faster. There was a lot to be thankful for.

Dedication is the act of turning it all over — ourselves, our futures, the walls we have built — back to the One who made it possible. “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God — this is your true and proper worship” (Romans 12:1). Not a one-time moment, but a posture for life.

The mission was never just to build a wall. Nehemiah knew that. Glenn knows that. And now these girls know it too. The mission is to live as a distinct, faithful people who reflect God to the nations. That is what Faith House is. That is who these young women are becoming.

The Heart Mobile — Kathleen’s Capstone

All week long, after every lesson, Kathleen asked the girls to write something down. What did you learn? What scripture spoke to you? They wrote their answers on strips of paper and carried them to every lesson, and all week long the girls kept asking the same question: What are all these strips of paper for?

We kept smiling and saying: you’ll see.

On the last day, they saw.

The moment the mystery was revealed — every strip of paper had a purpose.

Each girl — from the youngest to the oldest — sat down and assembled her own heart mobile. Every strip of paper, every scripture reference, every lesson from the week became part of something beautiful that they built with their own hands. The whole week, woven together, hung in the shape of a heart.

A week of learning, woven together in the shape of a heart.

Maria, the founder of Faith House; little Kumu; and Mae, translator and teacher.

Kathleen, thank you. Thank you for the vision to see the whole week as one story, and for the creativity and love to give each girl a piece of it she can hold in her hands and take home. That is a gift that came straight from the heart of God, through yours, to theirs.

The Banquet — A Feast for Our Warrior Princesses

Every year, the night before the team leaves, Faith House holds a banquet. It is a tradition as sacred as any ceremony. The team sits with the girls, and for a few hours, the only agenda is to be together — to talk, to laugh, to eat too much, and to speak life into every young woman at the table.

This year’s spread did not disappoint. Whole fish over an open fire. Thai salad. Chicken wings with sweet chili sauce. Vegetables. Cashew chicken. Rice. And — because no warrior princess banquet is complete without it — chicken nuggets and Coke.

They absolutely loved that.

They also loved Uncle Bill’s flamingo party shirt, which deserves its own mention in the historic record.

Sharing a meal and a moment — Sally and the girls around the table.

Warriors and missionaries together on the lake patio, the fire tree blazing behind them.

But the highlight of the evening — and no one saw it coming — was Ajima.

Ajima is what the girls call “Big Sister.” She is the oldest sister at Faith House, one of the college girls supported by BBright.org, studying Tourism and Hotel Management. Sometime between lessons and the banquet, she had been knitting. And at the party, she presented Grandpa Glenn and Uncle Bill each with a handmade knitted hat — because Pittsburgh winters are cold, and she was not about to let them go home unprepared.

Ajima — “Big Sister” — presents Grandpa Glenn with a knitted hat for the Pittsburgh winter.

Uncle Bill gets his hat too — Glenn and Bill fully in the party spirit.

The girls loved the hats. Glenn and Bill got into the spirit. And the whole party celebrated the fact that somehow, a woman in Mae Sot, Thailand had found time in the middle of a mission week to knit two hats for the men who had come to serve her community. That is the kind of love that goes both directions.

We wrapped up around 10 PM with full bellies and full hearts, and more smiles than we could count.

Breakfast — and a Bible Worth More Than Gold

The next morning, after breakfast, Bill noticed one of the girls’ Bibles. On the front — a sticker: Always Pray.

These girls do two devotions a day. Ajima leads in the morning. Glenn, while he is here, leads in the evening. They are not going through the motions. They know God’s love story. They are living inside it. They are the example — the standard — that the rest of us should be reaching toward when it comes to staying connected to God’s Word and His direction for our lives.

Glenn showed Bill his Bible — the girls had drawn a picture inside it. A picture of themselves and Glenn, together at Faith House.

The girls drew a picture of themselves and Grandpa Glenn inside his Bible. Some things are worth more than gold.

Some things are worth more than gold. And sometimes, a picture drawn in the margins of a well-worn Bible says more than a thousand words — and is worth every tear of joy.

Until Next Year

That is the story of Day 5. That is the story of this week. The last morning always comes too soon — but what we thought was a trip turned out to be something else entirely. It was a homecoming. And we will carry it with us.

Seeds were planted in Mae Sot, Thailand that will outlast every one of us on the team. The gospel was taught and practiced and held in small hands that will carry it across borders we may never cross ourselves. A wall was built — not of stone, but of young women who know who they are, who made them, and what they are for.

To the congregation at The Bible Chapel, all of our supporters, and everyone who prayed for us: thank you for sending us. Thank you for praying for us. Thank you for being the kind of church that says yes when God asks for something hard. We carried you with us to Mae Sot, and we brought a little piece of Mae Sot home to you.

With love from the team — Dee, Brenda, Glenn, Joelle, Kathleen, Sally & Bill.

Boundaries — Bill & Glenn Teach the Girls to Guard Their Hearts

Some lessons you learn from a book. Some you learn from a sermon. And some — the ones that stay with you — you learn from a man who has lived them.

This morning, Bill and Glenn stood up together and taught the girls of Faith House one of the most practical and deeply scriptural lessons of the week: boundaries. What they are, why they matter, and what God’s Word has to say about them.

Bill opened with a picture the girls could immediately grasp. Think of a fence around a house. Think of the lines on a sports field. Those lines don’t ruin the game — they make the game possible. They keep things fair. They keep people safe. Boundaries in our lives do the same thing. They tell us what we’re responsible for, what we’re not, and how to treat the people around us with honesty and love.

The lesson walked through the laws of healthy boundaries — not as rules to memorize, but as wisdom to live by. A few that landed especially hard with the girls:

You reap what you sow. Good choices, consistently made, build a life of trust and respect. Poor ones carry real consequences — not as punishment, but as the natural shape of the world God made. “A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7) is not a threat. It’s a gift. It means your choices matter.

You are responsible for yourself — and to others, but not for them. You can walk alongside a friend through hard things. You can listen, support, and love. But you cannot carry their choices for them, and they cannot carry yours. “Each one should carry their own load” (Galatians 6:5) — and “carry each other’s burdens” (Galatians 6:2). Both are true at the same time.

You have power over yourself. Not over what others do or feel. But over how you respond, how you speak, what you choose. And that is enough.

Bill and Glenn talked about respect — that honoring someone else’s “no” is just as important as having your own “no” respected. They talked about motivation — doing good from love, not fear. They talked about speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), and being proactive rather than reactive when your boundaries are tested.

And they talked about the Golden Rule — “Do to others what you would have them do to you” (Matthew 7:12) — as the foundation beneath all of it. Every boundary, rightly held, is an act of love toward yourself and toward the other person.

It is not a small thing to watch two men — men of integrity, men who have walked through life and come out the other side with wisdom — sit with a room full of young girls and say: your “no” matters. Your heart is worth guarding. You are worth protecting. For girls who have not always been told that, it lands differently than words on a page.

“Guard your heart — for everything you do flows from it.” Bill bringing boundaries to life for the Faith House girls.

Bill with some of the Faith House girls — a man whose life speaks as loudly as his words.

Heart Talking — Kathleen Brings It Home

After the lesson, Kathleen gathered the girls to fill in another section of their Identity Mobiles — this time around the theme of boundaries. The heart is nearly complete now. Section by section, day by day, these girls have been building something that is entirely their own — their values, their goals, their identity in Christ, their voice.

You could see it in Kathleen’s face. The quiet satisfaction of watching something she poured herself into come together in the hands of the girls it was made for. The whole team has marveled at the care and creativity she brought to this mobile. We are so deeply grateful she is here. She has given these girls something they will carry home — a tangible, beautiful reminder of who God says they are.

Game Time!

What time is it? It’s GAME TIME.

If the worship songs show you the passion in these girls’ hearts — the games show you everything else. These girls are competitors. Natural, full-throttle, will-not-go-down-without-a-fight competitors. The energy in that room was something to behold.

But here is what made it beautiful: in the middle of all that fierce competition, if a girl stumbled, if a team fell behind, if someone hit the floor — the other girls cheered them on. Across teams. Without hesitation. These are not just players. They are sisters. And sisters look out for each other, even when the candy is on the line.

The energy in that room. Pure, unfiltered joy.

Cone on the head. Balloon between the legs. Real joy doesn’t require WiFi.

Sisters. Competitors. Champions. All three at once.

Tea Time, a Cartoon, and Then — Joelle on Obedience

At 3:30, the afternoon slowed down in the best possible way. The team and girls gathered in the air conditioning, settled in with tea, and watched a cartoon together. Rest. Laughter. The simple pleasure of being cool and comfortable and together.

But before Joelle stood up to teach, the ladies gathered for something that set the tone for everything that followed. They prayed together — the full armor of God — speaking it over themselves, over the girls, over this place.

The armor of God — prayed together before the lesson began. You do not walk into this work unprotected.

Then Joelle opened Nehemiah 8.

The scene she described is one of the most extraordinary in all of Scripture. Ezra stood before the entire community — men, women, children old enough to understand — and read the Word of God aloud from early morning until noon. Hours. And the people did not drift. They listened. They leaned in. They wanted every word.

When they finally understood what God had been saying to them, some of them began to weep. The weight of it — the gap between what God called them to and how they had lived — landed on them all at once. And in that moment, Nehemiah stood up and said something that has echoed across three thousand years of history:

Joy. Not in spite of understanding their failure — but because of finally understanding who God is and what He calls them to. The people went and celebrated together. And then, in the same chapter, they discovered something written in God’s law that they had never done before — a festival where they were to live in simple shelters of branches for seven days. They had comfortable homes. They could have reasoned their way out of it. Instead, they obeyed. And the Bible says there was tremendous joy.

Because that is what obedience does. It opens a door that reasoning around God never reaches.

“The joy of the Lord will make you strong.” — Joelle walking the girls through Nehemiah 8.

Then Joelle did something that took courage. She told her own story.

Not long ago, she was praying about her job — where God wanted her, what He was calling her toward. And in that prayer, she felt something that made no logical sense: quit your job. The job that sustained her. That paid her bills. That was safe and comfortable and known.

“But God,” she told Him, “my job is what sustains me. How can I quit and still survive?”

And the answer that came back was quiet and clear: “I can’t move you into something new if you won’t let go of what you’re holding onto. I will sustain you — not the job.”

She let go. She obeyed. And God showed up — just as He promised He would.

A woman sharing her story honestly. The girls heard every word.

Joelle moved into Nehemiah 9, where the people remembered their history — the times God showed up, yes, but also the times they turned away, grew stubborn, forgot. And instead of God walking away from them, He stayed. Patient. Kind. Full of mercy.

She asked the girls: “Have you ever felt that God no longer loved you? Have you ever felt abandoned in a moment when you knew you had failed?” Quiet fell over the room. These girls know what abandonment feels like. They know it in ways most of us will never have to. And the answer — that God does not leave, that His mercy outlasts every failure — did not land as theology. It landed as truth they needed.

God is doing amazing things through Joelle. You could feel it in the room.

God is doing something remarkable through Joelle. Her willingness to share not just the Word but her own life — the fear, the obedience, the faithfulness of God on the other side of it — is a gift to every girl in that room. And to every one of us watching.

Dance Party & Night Swim

And then — thirty-five minutes of pure, unscripted joy.

The music went on and the dancing started. From the oldest girl to the youngest, from the team leaders to Grandpa Glenn himself — everyone was in it. No performance. No audience. Just people who love each other, moving together in celebration of a day well lived and a God worth celebrating.

Thirty-five minutes. Every age. Every person. All in.

Then the pool.

Dee didn’t ease her way in. She jumped — literally — and immediately started teaching girls to swim. Bill organized water volleyball, racing competitions, and breath-holding contests. A note on that last one: the girls won. Every time. Bill was not prepared for this. The girls absolutely were.

Grandpa Glenn was in the water too. Steady, watchful, present — as he always is.

And at some point in the evening, a little girl made her way to his arms.

Naw Mua Wah — the youngest and newest member of Faith House. When she arrived, her condition was so fragile, so broken by what she had come from, that they had to shave her head just to begin caring for her properly. She came with nothing.

Tonight she was in the pool, in the arms of Grandpa Glenn, learning to swim.

Safe. Held. Unafraid.

The amount of joy and light that radiates from this little girl — given everything she has walked through — has a way of making your own troubles feel very, very small. She is here. She is loved. She is flourishing. And watching her trust the arms holding her was one of the most quietly beautiful things our team has witnessed all week.

“He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul.” — Psalm 23:2–3

Day 4 is done. Boundaries in the morning. Hearts nearly whole by midday. Laughter and candy and sisters cheering for sisters in the afternoon. Obedience preached from a life actually lived. And a night swim that ended with the smallest, newest girl held safe in Grandpa Glenn’s arms, learning that the water is nothing to fear.
God is so good.
— Dee, Brenda, Glenn, Joelle, Kathleen, Sally & Bill

Devotional at Borderline Coffee

Down the street from Faith House sits a quiet little gem called Borderline Coffee — a peaceful spot that teams on this trip have come to love. Tucked away from the noise and bustle of Mae Sot, it has a tree growing right up through the middle of the shop, handmade cups, a proper French press, and the kind of unhurried atmosphere that makes space for real conversation.

It had been closed the first couple of days of our trip due to Songkran — Thailand’s beloved New Year celebration. But today? It was open. And it was perfect.

After a few days together on the ground, the team was beginning to open up in deeper ways. This morning Dee and Joell each shared something hard — and beautiful. Stories of tragedy, loss, and the very real presence of evil in the world. And yet through every one of those broken places, the same thread ran through: God showed up.

He takes the broken pieces and makes a stained glass window.

The morning’s devotional centered on gratitude — not as a reaction to good circumstances, but as a deliberate choice to remember what God has done. A few anchoring thoughts from the study:

• Gratitude is a posture of the heart before it is a feeling. It takes discipline to give thanks in all circumstances — not just the easy ones.
• Like Israel singing on the far shore of the Red Sea, or the one leper who turned back to thank Jesus — thanksgiving turns memory into worship. It anchors us to what God has already done, so we can trust Him with what is still to come.

Borderline Coffee — a peaceful place amid the bustle of Mae Sot, with a tree growing right through the middle of the shop.

Handmade cups and a French press — the simple things that make space for real conversation.

Nehemiah Lesson — Building Together

We arrived at Faith House to find the girls already waiting for us, dressed in their purple “Arise and Build” shirts, ready to go. There is something about seeing that kind of eagerness — it fills you right up.

We opened with worship and prayer, and then Dee took the girls through a review of Nehemiah Chapters 1 and 2 before moving into Chapter 3 — one of the most visually powerful chapters in the whole book.

In Chapter 3, Nehemiah organizes the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. What makes it remarkable is this: every family, every group, every individual was assigned to rebuild the section of wall directly in front of their own house. They didn’t work on someone else’s piece. They worked on theirs. Their home. Their responsibility. Their contribution to the whole.

Each girl wrote Nehemiah 2:20 on the yellow strip of her Identity Mobile, alongside her own individual goals — her words, her handwriting, her dream placed right next to God’s promise.

Then came the building project. Dee passed out boxes and a glorious pile of craft supplies — glue, pictures, paper, stars, yarn, craft pens — and each girl decorated her own box however she wanted. Her piece of the wall. Her self-expression. Her identity.

When every girl was finished, they brought their boxes together and assembled them into a Wall of Jerusalem around the Worship Center, each one taking her place in the larger whole. It was one of those moments that you watch unfold and think: this is exactly what the kingdom looks like.

No one built alone. No one was left out. Every box mattered. Every girl mattered. They celebrated with a worship song and a dance, and the wall stood.

“We his servants will start rebuilding.” — The Wall of Jerusalem, built one box at a time by the Faith House girls.

Here is a closer look at some of the individual pieces — each one as unique as the girl who made it:

Kumu — one of Faith House’s newest and youngest girls, building her piece of the wall. She belongs here.	Rose — one of Faith House’s older girls and a worship leader, who leads with her voice, her guitar, and sometimes the piano.

Each girl built her own piece of the Wall of Jerusalem — her goals, her identity, her handwriting.

Swim Time!

The girls of Faith House carry a lot. They are learning Thai on top of everything else they navigate — the weight of troubles at home, the grief of broken families, the shadow of civil war in Myanmar. They face more before breakfast than most of us face in a week.

So when the vans pulled up to take everyone to a rustic swimming resort about 20 minutes outside of Mae Sot — the excitement was something to behold. For these girls, an afternoon at the pool is what a trip to Disney World feels like for a kid back home. Pure, uncomplicated joy.

After a delicious lunch, the afternoon was spent in the pool — swimming, teaching the girls water games, splashing around, and resting in the cabins. Rest is not wasted time. God designed it. And watching these girls laugh freely in the water was one of the most restorative things our team has witnessed all week.

Grandpa Glenn kept a watchful eye on everyone — as Grandpa Glenn does. He may or may not have been spotted quietly enjoying a popsicle when he thought nobody was looking. The world will never know.

It should also be noted that Uncle Bill was gently reminded — more than once — that perhaps the little ones did not need to be thrown quite so high in the air. Noted, Bill. Noted.

He restores my soul — an afternoon of pure, well-earned joy.

Brenda’s Lesson — Don’t Come Down from the Wall

After the pool, the girls gathered once more — hair still damp, hearts still light — and Brenda took them into Nehemiah Chapters 4 through 6. If Day 2 was about starting to build, Day 3 was about what happens when the enemy tries to make you stop.

Nehemiah and his workers had barely reached the halfway point when the opposition escalated. Sanballat mocked them publicly. Conspirators plotted to attack. Rumors spread. False accusations flew. And through every wave of it, Nehemiah did the same two things: he prayed and he prepared.

Brenda asked the girls: “Have you ever been made fun of for something you believed in — or something you were trying to do?” Hands went up. Heads nodded. These girls know what that feels like. And Nehemiah’s answer to ridicule and threat wasn’t to argue or retaliate — it was to turn to God, keep building, and refuse to come down.

The builders never laid down their weapons while they worked. Half built the wall. Half stood guard. And Brenda reminded the girls — they’d talked about this sword before. The Word of God. The sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17). You build and you stay armed. You don’t put it down.

Then she brought it personal.

Brenda and Dave at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro — 19,341 feet up, American flag in hand, and yes — a Terrible Towel. Pittsburgh to the top of Africa.

In 2019, Brenda and her husband Dave climbed Mount Kilimanjaro — the tallest mountain in Africa, standing at 19,341 feet. Six days up. Two days down. Eight days without a shower. Every morning: wake up, hike four to five hours, make camp, do it again.

On the final night, they woke at 11:30 — not in the morning. At night. And hiked through total darkness toward the summit. No light but their headlamps. Thin air. Bitter cold. Every step a choice to keep going.

They reached the top just as the sun was rising over Africa.

And at the summit? Dave pulled out an American flag — and a Terrible Towel. Because they’re from Pittsburgh, and that’s just what you do.

Brenda told the girls: “We reached the top by accomplishing our goal for each day and sticking to our tasks. At the end, we had to really focus. It was very cold and very dark. But we were persistent. And that is how you reach your goal.”

Then she wrote two versions of FEAR on the board:

“Remember the LORD, who is great and awesome.” — Brenda bringing Nehemiah to life for the girls.

Then came the activity: “Walk to the Promise.” A strip of masking tape stretched across the room, and at the far end, a sign: God’s Promise. One girl at a time walked the line — while the others played the roles of every force that tries to stop you.

Round one: distractions. “Come sit with us! This is boring! You’ll miss out!” Round two: resistance. Girls standing in the path, pool noodles and pillows, making the walk hard. Round three: threats. “You’re going to fail. People will laugh at you. It’s too hard.” And each girl walking the line had to say out loud: “God strengthens me. I will not quit. I’m staying on my path.”

Walking the Promise — one girl at a time, through every distraction, every resistance, every threat.

Every girl walked. Every girl made it to the sign.

The Internet Came Back — and So Did Uncle Dave

And then — right at the close of the lesson — something unexpected happened.

The internet came back on.

Brenda pulled out her phone and called her husband Dave. The man who climbed Kilimanjaro with her. The man in the photo with the Terrible Towel at the top of Africa. And when his face appeared on that screen and the girls realized what was happening…

They lost it. Cheering, waving, calling out to him. Pure joy. A man they’d just heard stories about, suddenly right there in the room with them — grinning back from thousands of miles away.

Dave was a hit.

So it has been decided: next year, Uncle Dave is coming to Mae Sot. The girls have already made their feelings on this very clear. The cheering said everything.

Day 3 is in the books. Gratitude in the morning. A wall built together. Laughter in the water. Persistence preached and walked out on a strip of masking tape. And a surprise call that brought the whole room to its feet.
God is so good.
— Dee, Brenda, Glenn, Joell, Kathleen, Sally & Bill

Start the Day off Right With Worship

There is something that happens when you worship alongside the Faith House girls that is simply impossible to put into words. The smiles on their faces, the joy in their voices, the way some of them close their eyes and lift their faces toward heaven — it draws you right in with them.

If the entire trip had been only this — just gathering together to sing and worship with these girls — it would have been worth every hour of travel. There is a sweetness of spirit here that ushers you into the presence of God in a way unlike anywhere else. A small piece of heaven, right here on earth.

God inhabits the praise of His people. This morning, we felt that with our whole hearts.

Joelle and the Faith House girls sing: Maverick City Music — I Thank God

First Lesson — We Are Builders

Kathleen opened the first teaching session of the week with the book of Nehemiah — a book the girls had never studied before. In fact, when Kathleen introduced it, they had to take a moment together just to find it in their Bibles. That was a sweet moment in itself.

Maria had expressed a desire for the girls to grow in their understanding of their own value and in their ability to set meaningful goals. That desire pointed our team directly to Nehemiah — a man who knew exactly who he was in God, prayed with boldness, and then got to work.

Kathleen began by holding up a safety helmet and asking the girls if they knew what it was for. She used it to introduce one of the most powerful pieces of spiritual armor God gives us — the Helmet of Salvation.

Salvation, Kathleen explained, means “being rescued and brought into God’s family.” God loves these girls so much that He made a way for them to be with Him forever through Jesus. That helmet — the assurance of who they are in Christ — protects their minds and hearts.

From there, Kathleen introduced the story of Nehemiah and the theme for the entire week: We Are Builders. Just as Nehemiah was prepared by God for an important purpose, so is each girl at Faith House. Throughout the week the girls will work together to build three things:

• Their Identity — how God made each of them uniquely and wonderfully
• Life Goals — plans to help them become who God designed them to be
• Strong Boundaries — the rules and guardrails that keep them safe and protected

Kathleen walked the girls through Nehemiah’s powerful 4-part prayer — a model they can use anytime:

1. Praise God for who He is
2. Thank God for what He has done
3. Confess what you did wrong
4. Ask for help

The girls then began the week’s centerpiece activity: their personal Identity Mobile — a rainbow of heart-shaped strips, each one built on throughout the week. On this first strip, each girl wrote down her own strengths — what God has placed inside her that makes her special.

The girls writing their strengths on the first heart strip of their Identity Mobile — “I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

We fitted each girl with a hard hat and a t-shirt that reads “Arise and Build” — a name rooted in Nehemiah’s own call to his people. Seeing them geared up and grinning from ear to ear was one of the highlights of the day.

Arise and Build — our builders, equipped and ready.

Naw Mua Wah — the youngest girl at Faith House, rocking her pink construction hat and ready to build.

Fun and Games!

Every good building crew needs a break — and Joelle and Bill were ready to deliver. The girls got outside for a relay cone game that had everyone sprinting, laughing, and cheering at the top of their lungs. The focus of the game was simple: teamwork and cheering each other on. The girls took to it immediately.

We cranked up some high-energy worship music to keep the energy going — including one song that became an instant favorite with the girls. If you want to feel the energy of the moment, give it a listen here.

Pure joy — relay games, laughter, and cheering each other on.

Goal Setting — Dream Big

Sally led the afternoon session, tying the day’s theme back to Nehemiah Chapter 2. Just as Nehemiah stood before the King with a prepared heart and a clear plan, Sally challenged the girls to dream big and take steps toward their own goals. The four steps — straight from Nehemiah’s own story — are:

1. Care about something important — What matters to you? What breaks your heart?
2. Pray and think before acting — Nehemiah didn’t rush. He prayed for days and asked for God’s wisdom.
3. Make a plan — Nehemiah asked for letters, supplies, and permission. Goals need real steps.
4. Get help and start working — Nehemiah didn’t build the wall alone. You don’t have to do it alone either.

Then Sally shared something that stopped everyone in the room. She told the girls about one of God’s names in Hebrew: El Roi — “The God Who Sees Me.”

God sees you. Not just in general — you, specifically. Your name. Your face. Your dreams. Your hurts. He sees it all, and He cares.

Sally had spent four months before the trip personalizing gifts for every single girl at Faith House — boxes with their names on them, bracelets, pen holders, and more, each one made by hand. When the girls opened them, it was like Christmas in April. Some girls held their boxes quietly, reading their own names. Others lit up with the biggest smiles.

The gifts carry a message that no circumstance can take away: God sees you. You matter. You are known.

Christmas in April — the girls opening their personalized gifts from Sally.

Each bracelet a reminder: El Roi — The God Who Sees Me.

Four months of quiet, faithful preparation. That is what love looks like. That is The Bible Chapel family showing up — not just in person, but in every handmade gift that traveled 8,000 miles to land in the hands of a girl who needed to know she is seen.

Day 2 is in the books. These girls are builders — and they are just getting started.
— Dee, Brenda, Glenn, Joelle, Kathleen, Sally & Bill