A New Believer :)

March 27, 2011 Champ becomes a believer. March 26 2011, Pizza Party- Champ and his friends from SPU. Back row Oom, Champ, It Front row Me, Twang, Way, Aeuy

February 5 Brownie Party

December 25 Singing Christmas songs at Owens' house

November 20th- Christian Concert at Central World

Me, Aeuy, Champ, Twang

Anytime a person chooses to become a believer in Jesus Christ my heart is filled with joy. It is an extra special filling of joy when I see a Thai person become a believer. Yesterday I had an extra extra special filling of joy when Champ (freshman at SPU) became a believer. I met Champ back in September 2010. He was a friend of one of the students that I know well (Twang).

Champ was first exposed to the Gospel when he came to a Christian concert that I invited him to at Central World in November. He came with 2 other friends (Twang and Aeuy). I remember Champ telling me during the concert how much he loved the Thai Christian songs and that the songs gave him goosebumps. He told me he was interested in knowing more about God so a few days later I gave him a book that explained more about God.

The 2nd time Champ was exposed to the Gospel was when he came to a Christmas party at my supervisor's house. That night we ate lots of food, sang some Christmas songs, and Tim told the story of Christmas in Thai. I remember Champ telling me again that night that he had goosebumps as he listened to the story and he also got some tears in his eyes. I knew the Holy Spirit was working on Champ.

The 3rd time Champ was exposed to the Gospel was when he came to Canaan (my church) for a Brownie party in February. We mainly played games that night, sang some Christian songs, and fellowshipped together. It was his first time coming to Canaan.

The 4th time was this past Saturday (March 26) when he came to Canaan for the pizza party. We played games, sang Christian songs, and one Thai Christian girl shared her testimony. Champs heart was broken by what he heard and he told me that night that he would come to church the next day because he wanted to know more about God!

Sunday March 27th 2011 Champ showed up at Canaan around 1:00 in time for the Bible study (1:00-2:30). He was in the study with a group of guys. After the study was finished my supervisor Tim (who speaks perfect Thai) shared with Champ the complete plan of Salvation and Champ Prayed!

I am so excited for Champ. I wish so much that I could speak fluent Thai so I could have been the one to Lead him to the Lord but you know it's not about me. i feel so blessed to see fruit of seeds that have been planted since September.

I can't wait to see how God is going to use Champ to reach his friends!!!

Looking for "Abnormal People"

Last week I went to Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) for our yearly meeting with my missions organization. I was refreshed and challenged in many ways. I was refreshed because I got to sing PRAISE songs in my heart language all week and I got to listen to preaching in my heart language. I also got to fellowship with other M's that share the same heart and vision for the Thai people. It was a week full of blessing after blessing and I felt refreshed.

I was also challenged in many ways. The one that stands out the most is looking for abnormal people. I am sure many things come to your mind when you hear this statement but it really just means I am looking for a Thai person that is not following the normal standards. The normal Thai Buddhist has to hear the Gospel almost 20 or more times to even believe anything it says. The normal Thai person usually studies the Bible for almost 1-2 years before becoming a Christian. This is the normal Thai person but I am looking for the abnormal Thai person. The Thai person who hears the Gospel only 1 or 2 times and believes. They are out there and how do I find them???? I have to share the Gospel with a lot of people every week to find them so I guess I better get busy!

Don't worry. I am still sharing with the normal Thai people who take a long time to hear and accept. I haven't given up on them but I also want to be more prayerfully and diligently looking for those whom the Holy Spirit is working on their heart right now. I think sometimes I miss them because I am only looking for and expecting everyone to be the normal Thai person.

Just 2 weeks ago God gave me an abnormal person. Her name is Belle. She is a student at Sripatum University. She knows Aajaan Lek and I believe Aajaan Lek has shared a little bit of what she knows of the Gospel with her. 2 weeks ago Jill and I were meeting with A. Lek to study the Bible and Belle came with her. Jill and I decided to change the lesson to share with Belle about salvation. Belle listened intently and after we shared everything she said yes she wanted to accept that Gift and ask Jesus into her heart. This is the first time Jill and I had met Belle and shared the Gospel with her and she accepted. There are people out there and in this situation God brought her to us but we also have to be willing to go out and share boldly.

I am refreshed and challenged to continue the work that God sent me here to do!

I wonder why

I am sitting in my apartment on a Sunday evening (8:45 p.m.) eating mango and sticky rice (absolutely delicious Thai fruit and dessert) and thinking about the many Japanese people that are going through pure devastation. Natural disasters amaze me with their great power to destroy everything in their path. Not too many years ago Thailand was cleaning up the mess from a tsunami that struck without warning.

My heart breaks for these people as they look around for loved ones wondering if they are still alive. All I can do is pray for them and pray for the missionaries that are serving in Japan that they can use this disaster to draw people to the Lord.

Sometimes it takes big things like this to happen in the world to wake us up and realize how thankful we should be for what we have every day. I am very thankful and will continue to pray for those who are without in Japan during this very difficult time.

Thursday Night Bible/English Class

I have a huge praise to share with everyone. Tonight I had 13 people for my English/Bible class! I definitely wasn't expecting that many students so I ran out of Bibles quickly and had to find more fast. This is a great problem to have and it was solved quickly. Tonight at 5:00 I started the first class. At first there were 6 new students. I started with the first Bible story about Jesus birth. By 6:00 I had 13 students total in the class. 5 of them had studied this lesson before last term but didn't seem to mind learning again.

A little before 7:00 I finished and 9 of the students left. 4 of my students from last term stayed and we studied the lesson about Lazarus being resurrected. Although I was super excited to have 13 people tonight my favorite part of the night was from 7:00-8:30 when I had the 4 students that I studied with all last term. It was my favorite part for many reasons. I started on story 90 with them last term and we are now on story 98. It is almost like a little Bible study and we all know each other well so it is very comfortable. They ask a lot of questions and interact throughout the story. They also remember everything we have learned before. The other really meaningful part about this group is that all 4 of them come on Thursday nights just to study in this class. Most of the time the people who study this free class come before or after their English paid class that they study at the BSC.

I learned 2 things from tonight. 1. THINK BIG and expect GOD to do great things because HE will and HE did! 2. Continue to be faithful in investing in something because one day in God's timing fruit will produce.

The first Bible/English class I taught on January 13th had 1 person and my 8th Bible/English class taught tonight (March 10th) had 13 people. It produced quickly in this situation :)

New Traditions, Projects, and more......

I love how life is always changing and a lot of those changes are positive, rewarding, and beneficial for myself and for others. I will share about a few of those changes in this post.

One New Tradition that just recently started involves a group of us going to the park every Saturday afternoon around 3:30. If you are wondering why we go at that time it is mainly because the weather is quite hot here so between 3-4 p.m. the sun is less intense. There are about 4-6 people from my church who go together every Saturday. At first we tried to play ultimate frisbee but it's too difficult with such a small amount of people. We were exhausted within the first 20-3o minutes because we were constantly running. Now we usually go and play basketball at a half-court area in the park. There are many advantages to playing basketball in this location. One major advantage is that there are several Thai people who play there every week so now we have made some new friends. I love that I am getting some intense exercise at least 1 day a week and that it is becoming routine for me to go every week. The other fun part is that after we exercise at the park for several hours (until about 6:30) a group of us go and eat dinner together. It is a great time of fellowship with other believers at our church. I hope to be able to get to know the people that we play basketball with better so that we can invite them also to join us for dinner.

Another new tradition is that every Sunday afternoon from 1:00-2:30 we have our Sunday school time at Canaan. We just started this 3 weeks ago and currently have 3 different classes. I help teach one class with P'Pom (my Thai friend). There have been 7-8 people in my class every week so far. I am very encouraged by this great start for such a small church. We only have about 20-30 people total on an average Sunday for church. Today there were 8 in my class and 6 in another class and 2 in the other class. That is over 50% of the church participating in sunday school. Praise the Lord for this great start!

This week I will also start teaching my Thursday night Bible/English class at the BSC. This will be my 2nd (7 week term) to teach there. I am so excited because at least 4 of my students from last term plan to study with me again. They are all non-christians but they continue to desire to learn more about Jesus. I am also praying for some new students to join this term also. I am so thankful that the door opened for me to teach this class on Thursday nights and hope to make this a long running tradition because it is such an easy way to share the Good News with people and that is really what I came here to do!

Every week is different for me but it's exciting most of the time. Sripatum Univ. is closed for a few weeks until the summer term starts the 21st. Chulalongkorn Univ. is finishing up their final exams this week and then will have a break for a few weeks before their summer term begins also. Even though I am not going to SPU at all for a few weeks and only going to Chula to meet with P'Thai to study English/Bible with her on Wed. I am still keeping busy as God continues to open new doors all around me!

I love new traditions, projects, and anything God has for me! I hope to update on more again soon!