Moving into the Second Month

Well, I've officially been sweating buckets for a whole month now. It's pretty incredible how fast time is passing as we build relationships, do ministry and experience this vastly different culture.

Yesterday, December fifth, was a national holiday here in Thailand- the King's birthday. Everybody gets the day off (except us, we still taught English...because we always teach English) and wears bright yellow shirts, and celebrates the King who they LOVE. We went to a market in the evening and there was a concert and fireworks in the King's honour, and at one point everybody busted out yellow candles and stood perfectly still for the King's song. It was quite the experience.

I learned something interesting this week- that the word for God and the word for king in Thai are the same thing. Prajow. So, if you want to tell somebody about "Prajow" you need to clarify who you are talking about, the King, Buddha, a false god, or the God of Christianity. So, in introducing who you talk about you explain you are telling them about the God who created the world, or the God who forgives our sins, or Jesus who is God. It's caused me to think a lot, about God's character, and who this God, that I want to tell Thailand about is. This week for the first time we used the bible as a text book in our adult English class. We taught about the God who has the power to heal. Please pray that our students will continue to attend our class, and that they will learn about more than just English, but also about Jesus, and that their hearts will be soft to the truth. We had a mixed reception to using scripture.

Teaching people scripture though, has become increasingly important to me. The more I read the bible, the more I see that it is the absolute truth. My personal devotional times here have been incredible lately. It seems like every time I open my bible God is speaking some new truth into my life, that is absolutely applicable to the situation I am in. One thing that God has been speaking to me about is my attitude towards the ministries I am involved in. Sometimes it can feel like all I do here is teach English and prepare to teach English, but as I've been reading through 1 Corinthians, the verses 9:19-23 got stuck in my head...by that I mean I actually can't stop thinking about them, it seems like in everything I do they come back to me. Paul is talking about being all things to all people, in order that he might win some for the gospel. I realized being all things for all people includes being an English teacher for those who want to learn English. When my motivation shifted from getting through English classes to loving people, and serving them, in the hope that I can share Jesus love with them, somehow prepping English classes became something that is less tedious and dull, and I am learning to love. My attitude sometimes still isn't perfect, but I can see God is shaping me so that I will glorify him more, in everything I do.

One ministry I continue to LOVE is going to Checheongsaow to a church called Bethel. It is a cell church with four members in the adult Bible study, and this last week we had thirty children at the program for "dek dek" (kids). This week we a man named Matthias who was here for two weeks come with us. He taught the kids to play hockey and for the first time (in two years) we targeted young men, and realized that if there was some ministry at the church for them, they would come. Please join us as we pray that God will raise up somebody to start a ministry to the teenage boys at Bethel, and be a strong male role model for them.
(The picture to the left is Matthias teaching this boy to hold a hockey stick-they'd never played before)

At Bethel this week I had the opportunity to give a man named P' Lud a bible. P' Lud became a Christian just over a month ago, and he has been such an encouragement to me. In the first two weeks he was a Christian he read half of Matthew, and has continued to soak up scripture, and apply it to his life. Unfortunately, he only had the New Testament, and didn't have money to buy a whole Bible. Please pray for P' Lud as he wants to attend church and fellowship and grow in his new faith, but work is incredibly hard to come by in this area, and as a painter, sometimes his only jobs come on Sundays. Pray that God will supply all of his needs, both spiritually and physically.
(The picture to the right is the Bethel cell group)

Well, the time has come for me to sleep...but Thank You again for all your love and support and prayers. I am so encouraged by everybody at home. I love you all!