November 30th, 7:06am

I left my house this morning at 4am and am now on my first flight for my journey to Thailand. This morning at the airport was really stressful, I got up to the desk and the lady said I didn't have a visa and that Thailand was now requiring it if someone was staying for more than 30 days. Long story short, God worked it out and I was able to come.. It was looking like I wouldn't be leaving. So that is so awesome :) In the midst of all the frustration and sadness I looked down and saw the ring my mom gave me Sunday for this trip.. It says 'fear not' and I have a big feeling that this trip is going to be a learning experience and a chance to grow in my trust in God. I must decrease, He must increase and for that to happen I need to fear HIM more than the situations I am put in.

Please pray for the Casebolts and I as we start this very long trip back to Thailand!
You all are amazing and thanks you everyone who showed up at the airport SO early this morning and prayed me through that hard situation. You all mean so much to me :)

Back to Thailand?!

Well, everyone.. Something big is about to happen! I am now going back to Thailand for seven weeks to help the missionaries I stayed with this summer move back to America. This means I will be gone for 2 months all together because two days after I get back I will leave for the trip to the Dominican Republic. This is so exciting yet crazy, please pray all goes well and that I can continue to receive financail support for my trip to the D.R. :)

Getting ready for January :)

Funds and Prayer partners are coming in for my trip to the Dominican Republic and it is awesome to see God providing :) This weekend I was foolishly discouraged because the cut-off dates are getting close and I wasn't even near my goal and thought I wasn't going to make it..
Saturday I had $300 but, after church and babysitting on Sunday I was over $500 in my support, which is super exciting because my first $730 is due next Sunday!
I'm so dumb to worry that funds won't come in on time, if God wants me to go, I will. If not, I won't. I just need to trust Him & pray for the others trying to go :)

Thanks again for your prayers & support! Again, please email me for my address or information on the trip :) grace.colwell@yahoo.com

Dominican Republic 2011

Hey all! I'm SO excited!! :) Just wanted to let you know that I'm currently preparing & praying about a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic this January. The trip will be one week long with Dr. Brent Evers and his dental team. This would be my second time to join in on this trip & will also be exciting because the DR is the first place I went for an over seas mission trip two years ago. Please pray for me as I begin sending out support letters, getting shots and practicing my Spanish :) For Gods Glory- Grace.

If anyone needs my address in order to send support funds please email me grace.colwell@yahoo.com

There will be a day...

There will be a day... with no more tears.

No more pain. And no more fear.

There will be a day.. when the burdens

of this place will be no more.

We'll see Jesus face to face.

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well.. I have a lot to catch you up on. English Camp was this weekend, and I had many opprotunities to share the gospel with others :) It was very cool to have a group of students listen as I told them who God is and what He has done for me.. A couple of them seemed very responsive, so please pray that the Holy Spirit works on their heart!!

Sunday night after camp I went to church with Rich and got to share my testimony, which was also really cool. Even if I don't know what to say or when to say it, God knows. And He can work through my short comings. We had a few students over for a party that night, along with Nueng and her family (the people from the farm who we prayed for about God sending rain)... It was a great night and Nueng said her mom had told her God cares for them a lot to have sent rain! :) So awesome.... Then tonight she came over and brought me some gifts from her friend and her. It was so sweet!! I couldn't help but cry when I sat down in my room and looked at everything again. She gave me a blue fish, its beautiful! I told her I'm going to name it 'Rain' to remind me of how God provided for them. She liked that idea. I believe God is working on her heart and I am confident that He will save her. :)

My heart is very overwhelmed tonight. Full of different emotions. I'm sad and I'm happy. I'm excited yet I my heart is heavy... I did not expect this to be the case, I thought that this week would be very hard for me. I thought that I would be counting down the says till I got home with my family and my normal life. But that is not how I feel at all. I'm so sad to leave them. I'm so sad to say goodbye to my new friends, and my brothers in Christ Benz & Amp. I hate goodbye.

I'm SO blessed to have been able to come on this trip and do everything that we did. I'm so blessed by what I've learned from the people God has put in my life this month. This trip has been foundational in shaping my future plans.. God has definitely answered many prayers and questions throughout this trip. And even though I have not heard a voice from Heaven say 'Yes, Grace you are supposed to be a missionary for sure, the door is open..' I have not found any closed doors for what my passion has been growing into this past year. I have not heard God say no. Everything from this trip has made me more passionate about mission life and serving God in a far away land. Thank you for your prayers, I can't say much else right now because I think I should sleep.

Here is the plan for the next 3 days, so you can be praying!

Tomorrow morning our whole family will get up and leave for Khan Kaen at about 7-8am. We'll hang out there until 1pm and then Vicki and I will say goodbye to the boys, plus Benz and get on a bus for Bangkok. SO SAD...The ride is 7 hours so by the time we get to the safe house, we'll probably just go to sleep. The next day Vicki and I plan to have one last girls day together around town which will include lots of eating and a massage! :) SO excited to be with her. We also hope to go to starbucks and have a Bible study together. That will be awesome. Then after sleeping for like 4 hours at the safe house with the IMB team, we'll all get up around 2am Thursday morning and ride taxis to the airport. We have to be there by 3am!!.... The team and I will then fly out of Thailand at 5:45 am.

• Please pray for Vicki and I as we say goodbye to each other, It's going to be SO hard for me. :(
• Please pray the team and I have a safe flight back to the United States, and that once we separate in Seattle I won't get lost while finding my connecting flight :)
• Please continue to pray that I see Gods hand in my life as I continue to work toward becoming a missionary for the rest of my life. THANK YOU!! :)

Tonight I was talking to Caleb and reminded him that Heaven is our eternal home, and we won't have to ever say goodbye to anyone again when we go there. There won't be any more tears. There won't be any more miles between us.. Anyone who believes in Jesus will get to be happy and together forever.... Thats what gets me through times like these, and thoughts of future goodbyes. I know that my family and friends will get to live in Heaven together forever, and I can not help but tell others about Jesus so that they can share in this gift also. I don't wanna stay somewhere because it's comfortable. I don't wanna stay somewhere because I'm too sad to say goodbye to my loved ones... I want to GO and tell others so that they won't have to be separated from My God for the rest of time. The pain I'm going to experience because of leaving is far smaller than the pain they will have if they aren't with God forever. I love them too much to not go. I love them too much to not give this life, in order to tell them about the next one which will never end.

Now I'm leaving on a jet plane.

I don't know when I'll be back again..

Oh darling, I really hate to go.

Ate durian tonight!

If you don't know what durian is, watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQj-hFfmYkQ

It's raining, it's pouring :)

This morning has been awesome! I fell asleep before 8 and didn't wake up till 7:30! And I came out to Vicki making Mango Muffins! While we waited for them to get done I went for a run in the neighborhood--it was SO good to run. Then I got back and ate the muffins. They were like Heaven! Best I've ever had, yum :) Then after breakfast I watched Rich murder bugs with this thing that shocks them to death and sounds like fire crackers-- it was good to see that they make those for places like these. Anyway!...

After that we went out and had worship time on the porch and it started to sprinkle. This is a HUGE answer to prayer because it has not been raining pretty much at all (Its rainy season which means they need it for the rice.. Yesterday we told that family we spent the day with that we were going to pray for rain, and on the way home we prayed. A couple hours later it started raining!!)

So for it to rain again today was AWESOME! Not only was it needed, but we all went out and played in it together :) First it ws just Caleb and I, but soon after that R & V joined in for a few minutes. So fun :) I love it here, it's going to be sad to leave! This family means so much to me.