San Lang

San Lang is the lady whose home we meet in front of when we work with the children of Soi 107 in the slum area. She comes to church every Sunday, a very, very long bus ride from her home. I had told Vee several weeks ago that I was eager to hear her story and learn from her how she came to be a believer and how she connected with Immanuel Baptist. I finally got her to sit down and tell me her story through Rin and Jenny (Jenny is a career missionary with Pioneers who works with the Immanuel team each Sunday). What San Lang told me was fascinating.

Left to right: Rin, San Lang, Jenny.

San Lang said that seventeen or eighteen years ago, "I was a drunk." She was an alcoholic who spent her time wandering around the slum areas drunk. One day a woman from Immanuel Baptist who lived in a community not far from Soi 107 was walking through the community looking for chances to share the gospel with people. She came across San Lang and could see she was drunk, as she usually was. This woman asked San Lang, "Do you want to quit drinking? I know how you can."

San Lang blew her off that first time, but a week later, they met again. Again, San Lang was drunk. This time, though, the other women shared the gospel message with her and told her, "If you are serious and really never want to drink again, I want you to go home and pray to Jesus and ask him to set you free." Late that night, San Lang did pray that prayer. She didn't feel any different at all and assumed nothing had happened, but when she woke up the next morning, she had no desire to drink for the first time in many years. She has never had a drink since.

That was an act of grace on God's part because San Lang still did not fully understand the gospel, nor did she fully believe. Finally sober, she decided to apply for a job, and she decided to test Jesus. She said, "Jesus, if you are real, please get me this job." She was 48 at the time, and in Thailand, it can be very hard to get a new job at that age. Now, testing God is not a good idea for believers, but he honored San Lang's request, and she got the job.

For her, though, something was still missing. She had started getting rides to Immanuel an attending church and a church friend told her she should follow the Lord in baptism and she agreed. On the day she was to be baptised, standing near the baptistery in the church, she began to weep. She had no idea why. She wasn't sure if she was happy or sad. The pastor who was baptising her was thrown off by the sight of her crying so hard, but he went ahead and led her into the water. San Lang said he asked her if she had received Jesus into her life as savior and Lord, and she said she had. He lowered her into the water, and she said that as she came up out of the water, it was as though she was a completely new person. She felt clean for the first time she could remember.

What an amazing story. And it is made more so by the fact that she wants so much for the rest of her community to know the hope she has. She asked Immanuel to please come out and start some kind of church to reach the lost, which is where the whole children's ministry started and where the idea of a new church plant, which is now being planned out, first started.

I am also touched by the thought that this other woman would go out by herself to meet and share with others. Because she was faithful, she met San Lang. Because she met San Lang, literally hundreds of lives may well be changed for eternity.