How this Happened - their story
Greg & Becky Ouellette

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Some history – Becky and I have always told God we were open to going wherever He wanted us. But in the past 2 years we felt more of a sense that it was time to begin asking Him about that again. We have never had a ‘burden’ for a specific place in the world and with my job being what it is I often wondered ‘how in the world would I ever know where we should go!? Goodness, with technology and air travel being what it is… Where can’t we go??!”

July 2005 - We decided to start with what we had – our summer vacation. So this past July we took our four kids with us on a road-trip to Vicente Guererro (Baja, Mexico) and lived with some missionaries from our church. We felt that this was a bit of a proving ground for us as a family– getting our feet wet. Beck and I had been on numerous short-term teams before, some with one or two of our kids when they were young, but none with all our kids together. We saw God’s hand in it. The kids loved it!

August 2005 - Upon our return we had a telephone message waiting for us from someone we had heard about but didn’t know personally. He was asking if we “would be interested in joining a long-term church planting team to south Thailand. I know that’s kind of a big question but give me a call back if you are interested.” Uh… YES, that was a big question!! I was interested but wasn’t going to commit to anything like that unless I knew God had confirmed it. But I was curious (and Beck was VERY interested!), so we called them back and set up a time to meet.

We told our kids right away and began praying with them. We decided to take steps toward it and listen to God as we did.

End of September 2005 – One Monday while at work at TWU, I swung by the newly relocated prayer room just below my office to check in on it. I turned on the lights and noticed that someone had left a letter on the table in there. As I glanced at it I saw the word ‘Thai’. It was a prayer letter from a missionary in Thailand! Turns out it was from the national director of the organization that was listed on the orientation manual that we were given by the couple that invited us to be a part of the long term team. I thought the odds of that a bit unusual – especially since most of TWU didn’t really know about the new prayer room yet so it was unusual that anything would be left in there at all! And in all my time at TWU there have rarely been letters left in the prayer room, and then for it to be one from Thailand… and then one that was specifically connected to the organization we would need to get our visas with… well… it was a little odd. So I took the letter! (…to show it to Becky ☺)

One week later I was in the prayer room again. Not thinking about Thailand. Just trying to listen to God about the day ahead. I was frustrated that my mind kept jumping to all the things I had to do that day. I glanced at my watch. 5 minutes left before I needed to go. I though ok – I’ll just try to be still and listen with these last few minutes. In less than a minute, a thought crossed my mind: “Put the prayer letter back”. I still hadn’t put it back from the week before. At first I thought it was just my own thoughts thinking through the things I needed to do that day – but then I stopped and wondered if maybe it was God speaking to me. So I got up and put it back. As I did, I glanced down at the open Bible sitting there on the table. My eyes fell right to the top right hand page. I just stood there. The very first two verses said this: “If I rise on the wings of the dawn and settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast”. Ps 139:9,10.

I knew. As I read this, I felt the Spirit confirming in me that this scripture was God’s answer to my questions & prayers about Thailand… I live in the East: where the sun rises… Thailand is on the far side of the sea from where I live. God knew the questions I had about needing to know that it was HIM who was guiding us and not just Beck and I with our idea that we had to go to Thailand.

One week later we were again meeting with the couple who invited us to be a part of the team and I told them the above story. The husband immediately sat up and asked, ‘When did that happen?’ Last week, I told him. He then proceeded to tell me their church had a farewell party for them that same week where they had given them a picture of a ship on the sea and the scripture printed on the bottom was the EXACT same scripture reference!

I knew that God knew the questions in my heart on this and it deeply impacted me. He knew that I wanted to hear from him specifically from scripture. He knew that I wanted a scripture that was given us as well as to this other couple (I had told no one about that). And as time went on there were more and more confirmations (pastor, family, friends, circumstances, specific scriptures and a deep sense of PEACE). God was indeed saying “Step toward this!”. He answered each question in my heart one by one.

(Beck knew all along of course …It just took me a little while longer to catch up!!)

October 2005 – I spoke with my supervisor & co-workers and shared what was going on. Didn’t really know a firm timeline yet, but felt a strong sense of peace to step towards this. We spoke with our pastor and a number of other people and then applied with MBMSI (Mennonite Brethren Missions & Service International).

End of November 2005 – We were officially accepted by MBMSI! And realized that we needed to begin preparing as early as January 2006!

Currently – By faith, we have FULLY stepped toward this and we have God’s peace about it. A deep-seated stabilizing peace! We have seen God provide someone to take over my job at TWU! I phased out and they phased in from January till April. At the end of April I was officially finished 12 years at a GREAT job. I will miss TWU. We have seen him provide renters for our house. We have seen him provide a place for us to house-sit for July and August. Currently we are in the midst of all the preparations that are involved in moving to another country! …trying to work through the things we have left and whittle it down to 12 hockey bags (the limit we will have when we fly to Thailand). We are now in a place where we need to trust that God will provide for our living expenses while still here in Canada as well as the monthly pledges needed while we are living in Thailand. We need to have 100% of our support pledged by August 1st. We are nearly there!!

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Why Thailand?
It’s a question that I have asked myself a number of times. Why would God ask us to leave perfect jobs that we felt that HE has led us into? My job at TWU is something that I have LOVED: it’s custom-fit to both my interests and abilities. Beck is a teacher at a school (within walking distance) where our children attend. We live with one set of grandparents and the other set live just a few kms away. The majority of our family live very close by (some within blocks!). Close cousins all around. We back onto a beautiful park and have an amazing neighbourhood! (…and if I stayed at TWU for another 10 years our kids would have got a free education!). So why leave??

Three reasons.

I keep coming back to that second one lately. He loves them deeply. It’s made me very curious to know more about these people he loves so much. I am eager to take this next step… to be generous with my life… to keep “open house” in the hopes that by so doing we will prompt some Thai people to open up with God, this generous Father of ours in heaven! (Matthew 5 – the Message)

When are you going?
Our team is planning for an early September 2006 departure (or possibly the very end of August)

Are you going alone?
No, we are part of a team that is made up of our team leaders and their 20 yr old twin daughters, another family similar age to us (with children of similar age and interests!) and another single woman. It has been amazing to see how this team has come together! God has also provided at teacher who is willing to come for the first year to teach the children on the team while we learn the language.

Want to partner with us?

  1. Receive our regular updates from Thailand & write us back occasionally! Call (604.852.0151) or send an email ( ) and we will add you to the list.
  2. Be a part of a team of people who will commit to praying for us and for the Thai people that we live among. Call or send an email and we will stay in touch with you!
  3. We need a person or family to be our “Home Base Connectors” (we’ll work on a niftier sounding name) – these people would help get our newsletters out to the non-email crowd. Call or email us and we will explain the details.
  4. We need people, life-groups & churches that are willing to pledge monthly or one-time financial support. We need to be fully pledged by August 1st. . Once we are fully pledges we are allowed to purchase out flights for Thailand! To get involved in this way mail in the tear-off from our prayer cards (if you have one) or call MBMSI (866.964.7627 or 604.859.6267) or go online to http://mbmsi.org/visit/gbouellette. Our project code is CO497. Thank you!