Big C's Big Adventure: Eddy On Leave !

For those of you who have followed the growth of Young Leaders Group for the past year and a half, Eddy needs no introduction. Young Leaders started with Eddy. Eddy is one of the young men from our church that I first met when I came to Immanuel three years ago. He was drafted into the military and, because he was a pretty young believer, I was worried about his ability to maintain his Christian walk when he was in the army, surrounded with lots of new temptations. I asked if he would be willing to meet with me once a week until he reported to bootcamp. We would get together and talk about what it means to really live as a Godly man. He agreed, and I told him he could bring a friend if he liked. He brought his two buddies, Ting and Sontaya, and I invited my friend Greg Brown, a missionary here at the time. The five of us formed the first meeting.

The intent was to meet until Eddy left for the army and that would be that. The other guys, though, said they really felt they needed to continue to meet, and we have done just that. Today, young leaders numbers better than twenty with fifteen or so meeting every week. There are churches in the U.S. who are interested in starting their own Young Leaders Groups and Immanuel Church has just formed a Young Ladies group, to give our girls the same opportunities the young men have. I have had constant contact from parents and other adults in the church about the real impact they see Young Leaders Group having in the lives of our young men.

And all of this started with Eddy. Today, Eddy is still stationed at a base in Lop Buri, a few hours north of Bangkok. He serves in the Thai Army Airborne, and he loves jumping from airplanes. He has seven months remaining in his army service, after which he plans to return to Bangkok. This weekend, he was on leave, and his friends were thrilled to see him again. He even found time to join us in our weekly trip into the slums.