Unbelievable Camp Plans

Went with Ah Jan Vee and Thanee to Mae Wong, a small town four hours northwest of Bangkok. Thailand has a three day holiday in April called Songkran, the Thai New Year. This year, during Songkran, the slums team will be going ti Mae Wong to aid a church we work with in hosting a youth day camp. The three of us were on a planning trip.

Mae Wong is a town of just about 750 people, but with a surrounding population of a couple thousand more. I had been thinking of fifteen or twenty kids. Ah Jan Joe of Mae Wong Christian Church told us that we should be expecting about three hundred. The local school has over three hundred kids and they will all be very excited about this. And we will also hold evangelistic services for the adults in the evenings, and Joe expects 150 at those. This is a HUGE undertaking, but what an amazing opportunity!

Grilled rat, at a roadside food vendor's stall.

Orange County Choppers has nothing on this guy!

Tapioca root coming in from the fields. Tractors with tapioca rolled by every few minutes.

Mae Wong Christian Church.

Mae Wong-style play pen.

Ah Jan Joe with his young'un.

We'll host the camp on the grounds of the local school. What a great setting, with this giant soccer field and a very large covered shelter.

Well, we may not use ALL the amenities.

Thanee, Ah Jan Vee, and Ah Jan Joe lay plans.

A great setting.

A Great Day at Baring

Greg Brown teaches English to the young leaders from Immanuel and some young adults from the community. Some months ago, we realized it would be a great idea to offer English instruction at Baring for young adults from the church, while the younger kids from the community are studying, too.



The existing area where the kids study.

The new area, which will double our teaching space. The awning may be ready next week.

Vee and Thanee arc welding the frame.

Assembling the frame.

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OK, I know these next three photos are posed and kind of cheesy touristy deals, but these three young leaders have come to mean a lot to me and I just wanted to be sure I had some photos of us together.

Eddie. Just a great guy. Plays guitar in the 8:00 a.m. band and is a relatively young believer. His English is very basic now, so it has been tough being able to communicate with him, but as I learn more Thai, we are getting closer to where we can talk a little, and I am excited about that.

This is my buddy, Ting. Honest to goodness, that name is short for 'Meeting.' Anyway, Ting is probably the coolest person I know. The dude just oozes cool. He is a fine guitarist and loves God with abandon. Like Eddie, he is just learning English, so even though we get along great, communication of any sort was a challenge. My Thai lessons are starting to pay off, though, and I am hoping that as the Spring progresses we will be able to visit more and more fully. Ting is going to be a real difference maker for the Kingdom of God.

Son. Superman! Son just loves God. Period. Ah Jan Vee once told me that he never, ever asks Son to help out at the church. Son just always shows up on his own and gives every minute he has. A great sense of humor and developing English skills makes him so much fun to talk to. And He really connected with J when he was here. Son also has a wonderful way with kids. He is clearly meant to be a real leader in the church.

At a retreat we all went on in December, I happened to glance over at Son's Bible, while Thanee spoke from the book of Jude. Every bit of the margin on both pages was filled with his scribbled notes. In Jude! That told me a lot about Son.

Chicken fingers for supper again?

The boys' turn to wash dishes.

Partyin' At Ja Rurat

We made the decision heading into 2009 that the last Sunday of every month, we'd have a small party for the kids at Ja Rurat. The regular Bible story, but after that, just games and snacks. Today was party day!

Teaching an age-appropriate version of the story of David and Bathsheba. The focus was on the fact that all of us sin, even David, but that when we seek his forgiveness, God is quick to forgive.

Ah Jan Vee leads a game.

Connected kids.

Fern is the girl on the far left. A little older than the others, she had quit coming, but I have been after her to come back when I see her in the community. Last week, she came and helped the adults paint, but today she showed up and participated. I felt like we needed something to make her feel wanted and needed, so I gave her my camera and asked her to be my official photographer. A quick lesson in how to do it and she was taking photos everywhere. The rest of today's Ja Rurat photos were taken by Fern.

Ah Jan Vee had the brilliant idea to have photos from the past few weeks printed as actual photographs. The kids love looking at their own faces. Next week, we'll use them to make posters we can hang in the commons area where we meet, and back at church.

Lots of snacks.

That hit the spot!

Ah Jan Vee helping out.

Thank you, God, for a fun day!

Amen!

Sprucing up the Slum

What an amazing sight awaited us when we arrived at Ja Rurat this afternoon! A work day called by members of the community to liven up the commons area where we meet every week. A group of fifteen or so young adults were busily painting away. The difference in the place is impressive. It is so wonderful to see the folks taking an interest in their own community!

Nok and I teach the kids, while the work team is hard at it.



They even added a chalk board we can use in teaching the kids. We hope to start teaching English lessons soon, so that will be incredibly helpful.

My buddy Fern, helping out with the painting.

I taught again on David. Here, we are quizzing the kids on last week's lesson on Jonathan and David and giving prizes for correct answers. It is surprising how much they recall, considering they have never had any teaching from the Bible before this.

New helping out my man Ohm. I met New in 2006 at the Baptist Student Center when I was volunteering there. We have stayed in contact ever since. New now works as a flight attendant for Saudi Airlines, but is back for a two month furlough. He has joined us twice to work at Ja Rurat, and it is clear the kids have stolen his heart. He loves doing this work.

Meanwhile, Back at Baring...

Work continued on expanding our area at Baring. Last week, we took out the banana grove and smoothed the ground. This week, it was time for us to spread gravel and set up the frame for the awning we'll cover the area with.

Brother and sister act. Ting and his sister Sanit, helping level the area out by moving some gravel around.

Erecting the frame. The awning will be stretched over it and we'll put tables underneath, giving us almost twice the room we currently have.

Don't try this at home!

Vee does some arc welding. Note the state of the art welding mask. That would be a small piece of cardboard.

Ah Jan Winit gets into the act.

This expansion is exciting, but it is just a temporary fix. In the near future, we want to get a piece of land in the area, to be permanent home for the work we are doing with the kids, and also as a home for a future church plant.

New Opportunities

A new, and exciting opportunity has arisen for the Baring community. Recently, a friend of Thanee's told him about a Christian radio station he was listening to at work. Thanee checked it out and discovered is was a low power local station operated by Bangna Life Church, not too far from Baring. Thanee contacted the pastor and arranged for us to meet him. Today, after going to the slum at Ja Rurat, Vee and I went and picked up Ah Jan Winit at the church and we went to meet Thanee at Life Church.

Meeting the pastor of life church, one of Ah Jan Winit's old students.

In the operating studio of the station, on the top floor of the church's building. The pastor explained to us that he had done a lot of door to door canvassing in the neighborhood, and that the church had received a very cold reaction from the community. But, once the radio station began broadcasting, they have become increasingly popular within the community, and they have seen forty people come to faith in the past year. Today, a woman showed up at their church service. She said she had been listening to the station while doing her ironing, since the day they signed on. She told the pastor, she had come to faith in Jesus some weeks ago, and now felt it was time to publicly acknowledge that.

D.J. Thanee

Vee and Thanee looking over letters that have been sent to the church because of the radio station over the past year.

A basket full of letters from people in the community.

The pastor explained that the station has a fairly small signal radius, and he strongly encouraged Immanuel to establish a station in the Baring area. Because we want to plant a church there, this could be a huge step toward reaching the people in the community. Life Church's broadcast is a mix of Christian music and teaching from the pastor. Presumably, we'd have something similar.

We are far from committing to anything, but the possibilities are very exciting.

Clearing the Banana Grove

At the Bearing slum area, we have been running out of space for a long time. Our goal is to eventually purchase a lot in the community and build a structure for the kids ministry and - in the long term - a church. For now, though, we need some more elbow room. At one end of the two homes we meet in front of, there is a grove of banana trees planted a long time ago by the lady who lives here and serves as our 'host.' She gave us the go ahead to clear out that area and level the ground to give more space for tables and such for the kids.

So today was work day at Bearing. While the kinds ministry went on as usual, part of the team grabbed machetes and hoes and rakes and went to work.


In the background of the above photo from September, you can see the front edge of the banana grove.

Son and Mhewy hard at work,

Thanee is his stylish self, as he leads the project.

As soon as Vee and I returned from Ja Rurat, we joined in the fun.

Photographic proof that I did work. I also have the blister to prove it, as do most of the folks there today.


Derrick Adame eating a Thai ice cream sandwich. I am not kidding. In Thailand, when you order an ice cream sandwich, you get scoops of ice cream on a hot dog bun. Which, when you thing about it, makes more sense than the American kind. Oh, and this is long bean ice cream. Vanilla ice cream with pieces of raw long bean, a close relative of the green bean. Not that unusual when you realize that the most popular topping on ice cream here is (not kidding again) corn!

Derrick is a really great guy from Riverside California. He had a real desire to come to Asia and see the mission field for himself. Through some contacts in his home church, he arranged to work with some missionaries here, and he just took off by himself and came and spent a month. He went with J and I and Chris Mills when we went to Sangkhlaburi, but he stayed there when we went home. (He has a gift for language that is uncanny, and is obviously a genuine 'gift'.) Derrick got to live with Karen people near the Myanmar border, and really blessed on family in particular, by providing them with a new gas stove and providing the materials for a concrete sidewalk area around their house for the daughter in the family, who has Cerebral Palsy and is confined to a wheel chair. He's really made a difference here, and Thailand has really made a difference in him. Derrick leaves for the U.S. this week. Everyone here genuinely hopes he comes back!