Goodbye Eddy part 2

Last night, it was the Young Leaders Group's turn to say goodbye to their friend, Eddy. We started with Pizza at Central World, and ended in a time of prayer and encouragement for Eddy back at the church. It was one of the most amazing and wonderful experiences I have had here.

No one left hungry!

Ting sure seemed to like it!

Boyd hitting the Hawaiian pizza hard!

With Pai and his friend Jang.

Left to right: Eddy, Sontaya, and Malcom.

Greg gets attacked by a bunch of white guys.

Tank, back at church.

Pai listens closely.

We each brought a Bible verse to share with Eddy. He wrote each one down to review again later.

Son shares with Eddy.

Eddy soaks it in as his brothers encourage him to stay in the Word and to make a clear stand as a believer early in his time in basic training.

Maclcom and John.

Greg shares with Eddy that going to the military is not some accident, that God is calling Eddy there for a purpose.

We close with a wonderful time of worship.

Young Leaders!

(we missed you, Ohm!)

Goodbye to Eddy Part 1

Eddy leaves this week for two years in the military. He is going to be desperately missed. The last two days have seen us celebrate our friendship with Eddy and saying goodbye. First up was Sunday evening, as the team that serves each weekend in the slums got together for a going away dinner. Eddy had said he wanted to have Thai style barbecue, so that's what we did!

Thai barbecue is nothing like US barbecue. Here, you go through buffet lines and choose what you want to cook (kind of like a Mongolian barbecue) and return to your table, where you have a metal dome sitting on top of a bucket of red hot coals. You cook your meats on the metal dome and your veggies around the edges, where they pour water that gets boiling hot.

Vee looks like he is suffering!

The guest of honor (second from the left).

Jae and Nong enjoying dinner.

Sontaya.

Ting.

Ah Jan Winit shares a private thought with me.

Eddie with a special gift from the team.

Eddie joining in as the team prays for him.

Dead Man Walking !

What a great weekend! I had the privilege of speaking at the main service at Immanuel. I asked Ah Jan Winit if it would be OK for me to ask Ting to share his story with the group and Winit readily agreed. Ting's parents were so excited about this opportunity that they traveled from northeast Thailand to be here to hear him. I was so proud as he shared his story of bad choices and drug abuse, and more importantly, as he shared about the redemptive love of Christ and how it turned his life around. Ting is growing more and more each day and I am sure he will be a key leader in the church as he grows older.

Ting shares his story as Ah Jan Winit looks on.

Ting wasn't done there. I spoke on John chapter 11 and the resurrection of Lazarus. The theme was that Lazarus came out of the tomb still wrapped in burial cloths. Jesus commanded that he be loosed. It was not appropriate for a man who was clearly alive to be walking around in dead man's clothes. Too often, we cross that line of faith into a relationship with Christ, but we still walk around bound up in dead man's clothes, the habits and attitudes of the old man. And that prevents us from walking in the freedom God created us to know.

Ting served as a living illustration, playing the part of Lazarus.

After he was loosed, Ting sat and listened to the rest of the sermon, but as he did, he casually picked the wrappings back up and began to play with them. Just as we sometimes do with the old habits and lifestyles.

Until we find ourselves bound up in that mess all over again.

I am so proud of Ting and the great job he did this week. He will be fantastic in working with the church in the US next March when he and Sontaya go serve for a couple of weeks.

And back in the slums at Bearing

Occasionally, we give the kids at Bearing a couple of weeks of break from the regular English lessons and we have a time of just songs and games. That was this week, and the kids had a blast, as did the adults!

Fill the bottle, one spoon at a time.

Relay race!

How often to US youth groups get interrupted so the elephant can pass through?

Eddie and Ting do the three legged relay. This is Eddie's last weekend with the kids at Bearing. Next weekend, the team has a retreat and Eddie leaves for the army a week from Tuesday.

Eddie and Son.

They drafted Greg Brown and me to do the relay, too.

At the end, you have to eat two of the items on the snack table. I grabbed a milk carton, jabbed a whole in it and squirted the thing down in seconds.

Greg opted for a cookie.

Then, the rains came! This was the road going home.

Another inch or so and it would have drowned us out, I am sure. Welcome to the rainy season in Bangkok. Thankfully, another couple of weeks and we won't see rain again til February.

The kids of Imjai House

No infants at Imjai House. Just kids growing up without parents or families - other than their brothers and sisters at Imjai. (Imjai means roughly "uplifted heart")

The La Hu Conference

The main purpose for last week's trip to Chiang Mai was to speak at a pastor's conference. All of the pastors were from the hill tribe called La Hu. They have a spoken and written language completely different from Thai. Fortunately, our translator was totally fluent in La Hu, Thai, and English.

This was our second year of speaking at the conference. Ah Jan Winit was, of course, the featured speaker, and the subject was doing spiritual warfare. Ah Jan Winit decided that, since there are many ways to wage spiritual war, he would not focus just on Ephesians 6 and putting on the armour of God, but that we would teach all of Ephesians over five or six sessions in two days. Ah Jan Vee and I were asked to speak five to ten minutes apiece in each session. The other team members were asked to choose a favorite verse from Ephesians and to share that and some thoughts to go along.

About seventy or so pastors in all. Since few of them get any formal training, they actually treat this conference as if they are going to class.

Vee and me, waiting our turn. In the minutes leading up to each session, Ah Jan Winit would tell us what he wanted us to preach about. Talk about being instant in season and out!

Talking about comprehending God's love... not for us collectively, but for ME, individually.

Vee, talking about Christ's authority.

Ah Jan Winit keeps it interesting. It was fascinating to watch him this week. Like last year, he kept things very lively, a departure from his much drier and analytical style at our home church. Here, he had a wealth of funny stories that kept the pastors roaring with laughter.

Bee got to share, which was great.

I kept them on the edge of their seats with my compelling preaching style.