Laurie Ishii

Copied and pasted my blogs from myspace…

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Applied for my passport…

Anyway, I went and applied for my passport yesterday… I’m excited cause I’m sure that I’m going to Bangkok as long as my passport goes through and all the finances come in.

The only thing I’m concerned about now is that someone told me that there are BIG FLYING BUGS in Thailand. I HATE BUGS. ANY kind of bugs. I hate anything that has more than four legs. One of the girls that went to Bangkok last time said that she didn’t see any flying bugs but that she had some crazy weird semi human bug in her hotel room. Unfortunately, that does not make me feel any better at all.

She said that Charity is not afraid of crazy bugs and that she killed the semi human one. So I am going to demand that Charity be my roommate on the entire trip!!!

Oh Lord, help me… I’ll be SURE to check the mattresses for BED BUGS too. And I don’t even care if it’s summer there, If there are bugs I think I’ll need to sleep fully clothed including socks and long sleeves and sweats. Heeeebie jeeeebie!!!! I’d take rats, mice, snakes or lizards ANY DAY over insects….

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Bangkok Trip – How you can support…
Current mood: excited

Ways you can pray, support, and where to send donations if felt led….

Okay, this is crazy – I’m getting kind of nervous and excited at the
same time – well…my friend Rebekah told me that I may have to get
SHOTS before I go (yuk) – when I got a flu and pnemonia shots last
year I got SO SICK within 24 hours of getting the shots. Because of my
compromising immune system I tend to be a bit concerned about stuff
like that, those of you who know the battles I go through with even
just face cream!!! Lol

She also told me that it can take up to 6-9 months to get a passport
(?) so that I should get it ‘express’ – but it costs more. I am so
glad that people are helping me with this stuff because I am totally
CLUELESS!

I have also been getting the headaches again for the last week and
have been taking imitrex almost every night. I only have one left
which means that I’ll probably have to go to the hospital again
soon…but Charity, Annie and Do are coming over to pray for me this
afternoon for my health so maybe I won’t have to…but being prepared
for a trip like this is something to think about too….

Now, Rebekah said that I need to let people know where they can send
support if they feel led to – I would SO APPRECIATE ANYthing God puts
on your heart to give.

You can make checks out to:
Laurie Ishii
PO Box 93275
Los Angeles, CA 90093

Or if it’s easier to do by paypal – www.laurieishii.com

I believe that God is going to do AMAZING things on this trip!!! First
please pray that my passport will go through and that if I have to get
shots that I won’t get sick!!!

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, for all your encouragement, PRAYERS
and support!!! I’m so excited…praise God…

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Bangkok!!!
Current mood: excited

Well, I am feeling more strongly (good english) sure (and have ever since I heard about the trip) that this may be something that the Lord wants me to do. I have also received so many positive responses from so many people when I mentioned the possibility of my going to Bangkok – it actually surprised me!

I know that if God wants me to go on this trip that He will sustain my health – He always does… my immediate concerns are getting my passport (I’ve never had one before) and my airline ticket.

Okay, Charity said the trip dates will be Jan.6-16th
Jan 6-12 Bangkok
Jan 13-15 Cambodia
Jan 15-16 Bangkok

She also said that I should get my passport SOON (ASAP) cause I guess they take long now…?

But what I need to raise money pretty quickly for is for my airplane tickets – $1,000 by the first week of November when Charity is going to purchase the tickets. Eeeek! So, I suppose if the finances (quickly) start to come in, that will be a confirmation as to if I’m supposed to go or not!!! Lol.

So we’ll see what happens! I have about a month! This would be my very first ‘missions’ trip. Actually, my very first trip overseas, too! I just want to go where God wants me to go…and if Thailand is where He wants me to go, well so be it! Praise the Lord!!!

P.S. If anyone feels led to give toward my Bangkok trip please go to my paypal at www.laurieishii.com Thanks so much!!!

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Please pray about me going to Bangkok!

Well, last week I had breakfast with our friend Charity from
Nightlight LA and Annie from Nightlight in Bangkok – and Annie was
sharing some of the wonderful things that are going on in Bangkok with
the prostitutes that work in the bars out there.

I’ve shared some of this before but for those of you who don’t know,
Annie and her team out there go to the bars in Bangkok and talk to the
prostitutes in the bars, sharing Jesus with them and letting them know
that that they can help them by giving them a job and a place to live
so they don’t have to work in the bars prostituting.

Annie and her team have helped over 65 women get out of the bars and
these girls have received Jesus as their Lord and Savior and they now
work making jewelry – the jewelry is really beautiful and you can buy
it online http://www.nightlightbangkok.com/ and learn more about what
they do.

(I wish we could do that with the prostitutes that we rescue – but
somehow I don’t see any of the women here wanting to bead necklaces
for money rather than prostitute…)

Anyway, she was also telling me of some of the crazy spiritual warfare
that goes on there – because of all the idolatry that goes on – blood
pacts, covenants, dedication to spirits, etc. you name it. She told of
this one poor young woman who’s only 18 and she’s just been THROUGH it
- has a tormenting spirit and oh man I won’t even go into the whole
story, it’s crazy.

Oh! It was so cool cause last trip when Annie was here she asked if
she could take one of my testimony tracts and have it translated into
Thai – and she brought me a copy of it translated – it looked so
trippy! But she said I could take it and make copies, so since Daryl
and I go to alot of Vegan restaurants that are Thai and we always wish
we could share Jesus with the people at the restaurants we frequent -
at least now we can give them a tract in their language!

Well, Annie said it would be neat if I could come and share my
testimony sometime. Charity said that she and a team are going to
Bangkok again in January and it would be great if I could go with
them…

Now it’s weird because I’ve said it before – but I’ve never really had
a desire to travel anywhere – I know it’s weird. I suppose it’s partly
because of my health problems, but really, even before my health
problems, I’ve never really had any desire to travel. Even after I
became a Christian…until about a year ago, when I heard a guy speak
about being a missionary in Iraq. That excited me. I would love to go
to Iraq! I would love to live as if I would never know whether today
would be my last…

Daryl doesn’t want me to go to Iraq. But I talked to him about going
to Thailand, and he is supportive of that. Especially because January
I will be celebrating my 40th birthday – so he wanted to do something
big for my “BIG 40″ – letting me go to Thailand is big…:)

Now, we’d just need a LOT of people PRAYING about this. I’ve been
praying, I will continue to pray – I want to be SURE to know if God
wants me to go on this trip because I want His covering… I need
people praying for me while I’m there, I need to raise funds – the
trip costs about $2,000 – that’s just to go to Bankok, but the team
will go to Cambodia also, so if I decide to continue on with them to
Cambodia that’s more $ and what I am most concerned about is my
HEALTH…

The enemy attacks my health more than anything – when I travel to go
speak somewhere and I have to fly – many (most) times I get sick just
taking the flight – two or more hours – laid up in the bed…I’m FINE
speaking but as soon as I’m done, back in the bed – it really is a
thorn in my flesh!!! Or sometimes (preferably) I’ll get really sick
either before or after a trip.

So I’ll need LOTS of prayer if I feel God wants me to go to
Bangkok!!!! So I’m asking people to please pray that the Lord will
give me wisdom, and I know that He will provide finances as well if He
wants me to go.

Please also pray for my health again!!! I’m still in bed (again)
today, it started Saturday morning after the outreach – I felt really
worn out…but I always feel worn out after the outreach – even people
with good immune systems feel worn out after the outreach! I usually
expect to feel a bit drained until the weekend’s over.

But today is Tuesday and I’m feeling worse than ever!!! My whole
body hurts and my joints ache so bad. My eyes burn and I am so
fatigued, my throat hurts, my sinuses are stuffy and I feel like I
have the flu but I know that I don’t – this is how I feel when I have
a FMS/CFS flare up.

I have company though…Sunday we took home a chubby min-pin named
“Ziggy” – (we’ve been calling him “Piggy”) he looks like a pot belly
pig’s body with a doberman’s head – he’s so funny! He is SUCH a good
dog, we’re babysitting him for 3 weeks. I LOVE him!!! I hope I don’t
get too attached. I feel SO SICK, but as sick as I feel, I take him
outside for walks in my pajamas, hug on him, kiss him – he is so good,
he doesn’t whine or beg or bark except when he’s supposed to like when
someone knocks at the door…he’s so mellow!!! Potty trained too!

Thank you for your prayers!!!