A New Year in Thailand

Family time at Immanuel last night, as a hundred or so of us gathered to greet 2010. A pretty wonderful experience.

Worship team gets ready.

Boyd, Thank, and Son.

Mewi and Ahjan Vee share a song.

Grilled seafood to go with lots of other great food. Most of this, we brought back with us from Khao Lak, fresh from the sea.

Ting does his thing.

Will shows Sontaya some New Year's love.

John, Ohm, Boyd.

A father and son moment as Thank and his dad sing together. You watch it and wish all young men were able to have this kind of experience with their dad.

Thank under the stars.

Son and Rainy.

Will working the grill.

Rerk and I having a great time.

We count down to the new year with a time of prayer and a look ahead to 2010. These are all such incredibly special people.

More images from Khao Lak

More faces and images from Christmas in Khao Lak.

Khao Lak Zion Christmas Party

First order of business was a Christmas party for the community around Khao Lak Zion Christian Group, our host church. The church is tiny, with usually a dozen or less attedning on Sunday, so it was a big deal to see over three hundred come for the food, fun, games and gifts for the children.

Can't have a party without balloons.

Stuffing small gift bags with school supplies.

Irony... A Billy Graham poster next to a spirit house.

A few Christmas carols.

What did I win?

Rerk and Od bust a dance move.

Vee sharing his story and a message of Christmas hope.

But What about Rerk?

I know there are folks already asking that question. If you have been away form the blog for a while, go back a couple of posts and you will find that Supparerk (Rerk) is what my U.S. church family at Pleasant Valley would call a 'seeker.' A senior at one of the top universities in Thailand, Rerk has been going through some life issues and ended up at Immanuel Church two weeks ago with questions. Eight days later, he was in the van, headed with our team to Khao Lak for five days...

God used that time wonderfully. I'll let you check through the photos and decide if you think he had a good time. God has really knit our hearts together and we talked about everything you can imagine. For Christmas I got him a Thai copy of Purpose Driven Life, and Greg Brown got him a Thai Bible. Each day, he reads on chapter in PDL and I do the same in an English version. Every evening in Khao Lak, after everyone else had gone to bed, we stayed up and talked, sometimes for hours, about that day's chapter and about the Christian faith in general. Rerk is exceptionally intelligent and his questions and observations have been wonderful.

He is still waiting to take that final step of faith, but he seems as certain as I am that it is a question of "when," not "if." He still wants to read through the entire Bible one time before making this commitment. I am not sure Rerk's timetable will end up being the same as God's, but I am very content to continue to patiently walk alongside as he continues HIS journey to Christ at HIS pace. Please keep praying. In the meantime, I am having a LOT of fun!

A local school where we sang and played games with the little ones. Rerk has a true gift with children and they instantly love him. He still has not been to Ja Rurat slum community in Bangkok with me. That will happen in a couple of weeks and I can't wait for that!

The Christmas party at Khao Lak Zion.

Rerk, Bee, and I climbed a 'mountain' to get a view out to the ocean. If nothing else, I am getting exercise hanging out with these guys!

Walking this trail side by side. In more ways than one.

Rerk jumped right in, helping lead the kids in songs and dancing. Sometimes we were in front of as many as three hundred people and he was totally at ease and enjoying every moment.

He's in there, somewhere.

Rerk and his new buddy, John.

Rerk translated while I told the children a Bible story.

In his element.

Rerk and Od teach the children some dance moves.

He could not resist. I think he was in this thing two seconds after he laid eyes on it!

Busting a dance move at the Zion Christmas party.

Bagging sticky rice with Bee.

When he is focused on what you are telling him, believe me, you know it!

A little soccer with the guys in the community.

A pretty nice way to end a day.

Keep praying for Rerk, that he will soon find himself at a place where he realizes deep down that these people he has come into relationship with, that this Jesus they serve... it's real and that he wants it for himself more than anything.