A great evening

While in Khao Lak, we met a group of Canadian young people, serving with missionaries here for a month. We invited them to join us on the beach for a cookout and they did. A great, great evening!

Oat, cooking up chicken, crabs, and fish. So good!

Just relaxing and visiting with our Thai and Canadian friends.

Wrapping up the evening with a time of worship and prayer. Doesn't get much better than this.

Khao Lak - July 2009

Whew! Another trip to southern Thailand is in the books. It was exhausting, but such an incredible and rewarding experience.

Late Sunday night, nine of us took off in the church van, driving through the night to Khao Lak, the small town in the south that I had already been to three times in the past year. This time, our objective was just to spend time with three local pastors, encouraging them and meeting with some of their people in their homes, to encourage them, as well. It is remarkable how much folks appreciated our visits.


Derrick Adame is a young man from Riverside, California. He came to Thailand for five weeks last January while Jason was here. We've stayed in contact since. When I found out about this Khao Lak trip, I pestered Derrick til he decided that maybe coming back for three weeks really WAS a God thing. He arrived late last Saturday and in less than twenty four hours, was on the road to Khao Lak. The photo above is me, Ah Jan Winit and Derrick while we were visiting with local fishermen.

One of the pastors we worked with is Ah Jan Anchala of Pak Ping Christian Church. I have worked with her several times now. Her church is one of the strongest in the area. Here, she is pointing out on the map, the areas of this province that still have no church.

Ah Jan Anchala has adopted this little girl. Her father was killed in the tsunami before she was born and her mother abandoned her to go start a new life in another area. Anchalali can already sing Jesus Loves Me and can pray in English. She is a sweetheart!

Most of the team from Immanuel. Back row, left to right: Nong (the church administrator), me, Lian (a Chinese girl who was roommate in college to one of the other team members, and who was visiting Thailand) , Derrick, Ah Jan Anchala. Front row: Ah Jan Winit, Isra (nicknamed Oat, he is leaving in two weeks to attend the University of Nebraska), Vee.

Pak Ping Christian Church. The church was designed by Noi, one of the members of our team, and was funded and built in part by Immanuel Church.

Ah Jan Winit carries his fiddle with him everywhere, and as soon as music starts, he joins right in.

At Mt. Zion Christian Fellowship, where we stayed each night. In Thailand, as in most of Asia, you do not wear shoes indoors.

Church service at Mt Zion our first night there. The church can comfortably hold about thirty. It is located in something like an American strip mall.

Our last evening of the trip. The background doesn't even look real, does it?

The slum ministry continues to grow...

Over FORTY kids in Ja Rurat today! How amazing. And there were some regulars who could not be there.


After I taught today's Bible story, the kids were ready to answer Vee's questions about it...

Over forty kids. I couldn't get back far enough to show them all.

Sometimes its better not to even ask.

Showing off today's masterpiece.

Ting and Mewi help teach at Bearing slums.

Ja teaches the 'intermediate' kids.

The more advanced kids and young adults.

I am teaching the more advanced class about answering the question, "Are you busy?"

Loose in Laos

Sunday evening, Vee and I drove (yes, I drove!) through the night to the far northeast corner of Thailand, on the border with Laos, to attend a radio conference. After attending the conference Monday and spending the night, Pastor Winit instructed Vee to take the 'scenic route' home, so I could see a part of the country, I had never seen before. We traveled west along the Mae Khong River, the border between Laos and Thailand for three or four hours before turning south, through mountainous central Thailand, headed for home. Tuesday, we drove some seven hundred miles. I think it best to just let the photos do the talking.

(Oh, and these are all with my new SLR camera, which sure does take nice photos!)

So very proud!

Today was a day I have been looking forward to for months. I knew I was scheduled to preach at the 8:00 a.m. service this morning and I had been working on a message from II Kings 6&7. I felt strongly about the message, but what I was really looking forward to was something else.

Last winter, as part of the Christmas parties in the slums, some of the guys on the team put together a short drama that was a huge hit with the kids and the adults who were there. Since then, I have been wanting to have them put something together to present in church. I really believe in encouraging our people to use their gifts for the Kingdom, especially our younger folks, who were are training up as leaders for the next generation.

Anyway, today was the big day. Son, Ting, Mewi, John, and Sanit followed up my sermon with a skit that personalized the message. In it, Son, Ting, and Mewi were in an apartment having a great time of Christian fellowship and Bible study while in the apartment next door, Sanit was a non-Christian, lost in her own loneliness and despair.

The whole drama was everything I had hoped it would be, moving Pastor Winit to tears as we brought the service to a close. I was SO very proud of these guys for the wonderful job they did! Afterward, I was overwhelmed with the comments from people there about how moving the whole service had been.


Speaking about Aram laying siege to Samaria and the people starving to death. It doesn't start out as a 'feel good,' message, but the end is all about hope.


My friend Ting. I asked him to share his story today and he was amazing. He seemed totally comfortable up there and he spoke plainly about a past of alcohol abuse and meth addiction, and about a life totally transformed. Young people all over Thailand need to hear this young man's message of hope and redemption. I keep saying it over and over, but I am so proud of him and ALL of them.

Sontaya as director and narrator of the drama.

Sanit pours her heart out, while next door, her Christian neighbors go right about their lives, oblivious to her pain.

Sanit was just wonderful.

Milestones

Big days in the lives of friends here. The 4th of July was Sontaya's birthday. Friday night I asked him what he was doing to celebrate and he said, "Going to work." I asked what he was doing after work and he replied, "Going home and sleeping."

That was not going to be acceptable, so I asked him to come by and we'd go get dinner. I got a small birthday cake as well, and he was just thrilled. Must have taken a dozen pictures of the thing and could barely bring himself to cut it. Today at church, he told about how much it meant to him to celebrate his birthday.

Just another lesson that, when you feel led to do something for someone, don't let that moment pass. You never know when it will turn out to be especially meaningful for them.

Today marks another big day for a friend. Vee's graduation from Bible College becomes official. Bible college here is extremely demanding and Vee has worked so hard for so long to achieve this moment. I am thrilled for him and once again reminded of how blessed I am to count him as my friend.