Gettin' Excited

Earlier this week, Robert Wallace returned to the States. Tomorrow, Joe Morrell and Ed Brown are coming to Thailand. The main reason that they will be here is to give us a seminar in how to start a Bible School. Since I am currently overseeing two of them, this will be very beneficial. The guys from Udon will also be joining us for the seminar.

On top of that, they will be the speakers at Antioch's revival services and Joe Morrell will be accompanying me to Kinetchu, a village about 5 hours away, to visit a church that Nicky Barnett helped start. Haven't been there in over a year so I am looking forward to their visit.

A Great Trip to the Village

This past Monday-Wednesday I made my first trip to the village in a couple months. I was able to visit Mae Hoi, the village where our Bible School is located and after that I went to another village in Mae LaNoi where Lemuu, one of the missionaries sponsored by Antioch Baptist Church here in Chiang Mai, is serving.

I had the opportunity to teach there for 3 hours Tuesday morning, 2 hours Tuesday afternoon and another 2 hours in the evening, all of which had to be translated from Thai to Karen, the local dialect in the village.

Lemuu asked me to teach on the local church. However it became clear that after we looked at the purpose of a church in Matthew 28:18-20, they didn't have a concept of making disciples. I spent the morning teaching about salvation. I emphasized over and over that in order to be saved one must repent and put their trust in Christ. After 3 hours I asked if they understood and the answer was no. I came back in the afternoon and taught for 2 more hours and asked if they understood and again the answer was not really. Over supper I prayed that God would help me make it clear to them. In the evening, I again taught on salvation and as we grew to a close, I asked the all important question, do you understand and some said yes. I then asked those who understood what they needed to do and one man quickly answered, we must do it. I asked do you think this is truth? He quickly answered yes. I asked do you think this truth comes from God or from me. He replied, "from God". I then asked if anyone was ready to repent and put their trust in Christ. Another man in the crowd quickly put up his hand. As we closed, I asked those who wanted to make this decision to stay and the rest were free to leave. Praise God, 3 men stayed and put their trust in Christ.

Please pray for PawnChai (far left), DoeWaa and PawnChai (right of me) who made this important decision. Also pray for Lemuu as he disciples them and continues to teach the others about salvation.

Some Village Pics

 

Flying by the seat of your pants...

The past few days have been filled with a few firsts in my life. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to baptize for the first time. On Monday, I performed part of a wedding for a former student at CRBS, something I had never done before. Someone told me that I might have to preach, so I was prepared to do that. When I got to the village, I found out that they wanted me to do the wedding ceremony, not preach. I wasn't prepared for that at all, but like anyone would do in my situation, I did it anyways.

The whole ceremony was quite funny. I knew the bride, but had never met the groom. I asked a number of people what the groom's name was and no one knew. So I performed the ceremony not knowing the groom's name!! I did the vows in English because I didn't want to mess up this special day. Tawm translated the vows into Thai and then we discovered that the groom didn't understand Thai. So Tim, our secretary, had to translate into Karen. Everything went smoothly and we all returned to our seat. After one of the villagers finished his part of the ceremony, he asked us to sing a song with the guitar. No one had talked to us before, the guy didn't even know if I played the guitar, he just assumed I did. Again, I accepted, but I had no idea what to sing. I don't listen to love songs very much and I definitely don't know any on the guitar. Tawm drew a blank too. We stood in front of everyone trying to figure out what song to sing. Finally, I decided to sing a worship song in English, that way the people would have no idea what I was singing about and they would think it was a English love song. As I sang, I couldn't believe this was happening, I forgot some of the words and just made them up but the audience had no idea. When it was all finished, the audience gave a loud applause. I thought to myself, if they only knew.

A word of advice... If you are planning on being a foreign missionary, be prepared for these kinds of things to happen. Be prepared to fly by the seat of your pants. The Bible says to be ready in season and out of season. In Thailand that can mean all sorts of things.

New Village and New Experiences

Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, I had an opportunity to go to the village again. I was there for the students graduation. Two students finished a 4 year Bible course and another 2 students have finished a 2 year Bible course. We had a great time of prayer, worship and discussion about the school as well.

On Wednesday I had the opportunity to travel to another village called Mae Khii Mook. This village only has a Catholic church. Samson (in the orange coat) and Johnson (a second year student) have been travelling to this village every Sunday for the past couple months to teach. He has a group of about 10 people gathering every Sunday. The older couple pictured is the first Christian couple in the village. They have really enjoyed Samson's teaching and hungering for more. We are excited about he work Samson is doing there.

After we went to the village, I brought some students back to their village. It was the worst road (if you want to call it that) that I have been on. It had huge rocks, huge pot holes and anything else you can think of on the road. I am so thankful for a four wheel drive truck because we wouldn't have made it if it weren't for 4L. I would have stopped to take a picture of the road and the view because the view was awesome and the road awesome in another way, but I was to scared to stop the truck and not be able to get going again. Roads to the mountain top villages are not always very good. This road however was horrible. After getting to the village, the students told me that this was the back way into the village. It was a shortcut that motorbikes usually use. After we got to the village the road we went back on was paved for most of the way which made me very thankful.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Tawm and I have been really busy this past week and this coming week will be very busy too. Rusty and Susan are in New Zealand for a conference and Tawm and I have had to teach their English classes in their absence. Tawm and I appreciated Rusty and Susan before they left, but sometimes you don't realize how much you appreciate people until they are gone. This past week, my appreciation for them has grown and I am so thankful that they are part of the work that is happening here in Chiang Mai.

This coming week, I am going to head out to the village for Church Revival Bible School's graduation. I am leaving Tuesday morning in order to make it for a picnic in the jungle. Wednesday they are supposed to be taking me to Mae Khii Mook Village where some former Bible School students are trying to plant a church. Thursday is graduation. It should be a good time, I am excited about it but a little nervous as it is my first time travelling out to the village all by myself and I will be out there longer than I have ever been out there before. Tawm will be staying in the city to teach some special English classes for kids that are out of school for summer break. We have made some new contacts already and hope it will be a good way to establish new relationships with people too. Please pray for my safety and that God's Will would be done in the village. Pray for Tawm as she teaches English and most importantly, pray for the salvation of souls.

Bathroom Adventures, the continuing saga

The last time Rusty and I went out to Mae Hoy to teach at the Bible School in the village, I was faced with another bathroom episode. I don't remember when exactly it happened, but sometime during the day I had to use the "facilities" (I use the term loosely as it more like a hut than a facility). I decided rather than walking 30 seconds to the "nicer" bathroom [this bathroom has a squatty potty (those who have been overseas know what I am talking about) but it is enclosed nicely so the whole world cannot see what is going on], I would go to the closer bathroom only a hop, skip and a jump or two from the classroom. This bathroom has a western toilet but if you are taller that about 4 feet, you have a nice view of the world around and vice versa too. I sat down on the toilet and learned a new lesson, check out the facilities before committing yourself to use!! As I sat down, the toilet sunk further into the ground at the same rate my weight was coming down onto the toilet, making this western turn into a squatty potty similar to the other in the other bathroom. Although I didn't check the toilet before sitting, I am positive that it was broken before I sat down! As you can see in this picture, the toilet has tilted so far over, that it is now leaning against the wall and the lid has busted off. I know as a matter of fact, that I wasn't the one that did that, someone else also had a bathroom adventure but no one has come forward admitting that it was them. Well, next time we go to the village, we will see what new bathroom adventure unfolds, that is, if they even have a bathroom to use!

The End of the World!!!

Before Christmas, we made a trip out to a new hilltribe village to help a former Bible School student. This village, like the one the Bible School is in, is Karen. If you were to read some mission statistics, it would say that many of the Karen are Christian. Before we went to this village I asked Lemuu, the former student what his village believed. He told me, everyone says they were Christian. I had the opportunity to talk to one young man, about 25 years old and ask him if he was a Christian. He responded yes and I prodded a little more by asking, how do you know? He said, in the year 1999, a man (don't know if he was Thai or a foreigner) came to the village telling people that the end of the world was at hand. If you wanted to go to heaven, you needed to baptized. He said lots of people were afraid of the end of the world and so they all received baptism and as a result, I am a Christian. As he told me that, I thought to myself, what other lies have people fed these village people. We thank God that Lemuu is working in that village helping people to understand what true salvation is.