finished FINALLY!!!!

About 4 years ago, the highway circling the city of Chiang Mai was torn up in order to change all the intersections into underpasses. That way, traffic would flow much better. At first I thought this is gonna be great!! As soon as the intersections were torn up, the workers proceeded to work really hard for about a month. Cranes, bulldozers, tractors, you name it. But after the hole in the ground was big enough ensuring that no one could cross at any intersection, the workers took a break. Not for Christmas or any other holiday, the workers took a break that lasted for 2 whole years.

I still scratch my head and think why? Rumor has it that the companies were given 4 years to complete the construction. Since the underpasses would only take 2 years to complete, they could take a 2 year vacation. It makes no sense to me. Why tear up the road and force everyone to make u-turns to get where they want to go if you aren't going to complete the intersections as quickly as possible? But that is a questions you just don't ask. When you live in a foreign country, you learn not to ask why sometimes because the answers usually never satisfies.

Now that the underpasses are finished, I'm satisfied. Now we can actually get somewhere in a half decent amount of time. Just wish it would have happened 2 years earlier.

Next problem.... what to do with all the motorbikes/scooters???

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

 

Been Awhile

It's been a while since Owen made his video debut so I figured as he turns 7 weeks old today we'd celebrate by posting a video. Its a lot cheaper than buying a gift, plus he still not interested in a lot these days. The best part of this gift is that people all over the world can enjoy too.

Standing Room Only

Today, one of my dreams and I think the dream of every missionary or pastor happened at church today. When all the kids came down for morning worship (the kids have Sunday school during adult Sunday school and during the preaching part of our services), we didn't have enough seats for everyone to sit down on. As a result, some of our young adults had to stand in the back. Counting everyone, we had 46 people in attendance which is a new record (outside our special Christmas outreach) during the song service, we had 46 people present. I thank God for that and for answered prayer. One of my New Year's resolutions was to make a more concerted effort to pray for the growth of our church. We had 13 first-time visitors today. One of the weaknesses of our church is that people don't really invite their friends. Today we had 5 of our regular attenders bring a friend, more than any other Sunday that I can remember.

Quotes and Stories

Over the past few months, I've been reading some books about preaching and they recommend recording or inventorying all the good quotes and illustrations you get from different sources. However they don't really tell a person how to go about doing that.
In one of John Maxwell's books, it seems to me that when he is finished with a book, he gives it to his secretary and she goes through the book and copies everything he has highlighted or noted into some kind of system. Unfortunately, I don't have a secretary that can do that and I am pretty sure others of us don't have that luxury either, so I was wondering if anybody has a system that works well for them. How do you go about recording good quotes and stories? If you have any advice, let me know.

Hello New Year!!

Instead of saying Happy New Year, Thai people say Hello New Year. As I reflect on the year the was, have been really seen God working in our lives and in the lives of those we minister to here in Thailand. We rejoice over those who were saved and those who were baptized over the past year but like I told our church last Sunday, I believe that God wants to do even greater things in us and through us in the year to come.

With the start of the New Year, I have decided to make some New Year's resolutions, something I have never really done before. I am also planning on making a change to the way I've been preaching. Over the past year, I have been preaching through the book of Matthew and doing a couple of short series here and there. This year I am going to try to do more topical series. I haven't really preached this way before so it is going to be a challenge. We are starting the year off with a series of sermons called "Doing it for Each Other". Last week we talked about loving one another, this week we will be talking about encouraging one another. Other topics in the series are serving one another and praying for one another. Although I don't have a computer person to make some cool logos like some of my friends in the states, I pray that this new series will make our church stronger.