Heading East (April)

This year during spring break there was also a national holiday… Songkran.  Songkran is the Thai new year.  It is marked, most notably by water, a very large water fight.  People throw buckets of water on each other, shoot each other with water guns, spray with hoses, you name it (not a bad idea for the hottest month of the year).   Some parts of town are wetter than others.  In our quiet little part of town children threw buckets of water at passing cars and sometimes pedestrians.  It was pretty tame.  In downtown Bangkok, we hear it can be pretty intense.  People also wear very bright floral clothing during this holiday.  Songkran is also a time for people to go home to be with their families.  During this family time children and parents take part in a ritual where the children ceremonially wash the hands of parents and parents bless their children.

We decided that for Songkran, we would like to participate in a Maximum Mission trip and Mission Encounter training.  From Friday afternoon through Sunday, we helped teach and train up-and-coming NYI and NMI leaders from all over the Asia Pacific Region.  This time was very similar to what we experienced at our Cross Cultural Orientation.  It was a time to explore what it means to ministry cross culturally.  Young adults and teens from Myanmar, Vietnam, Fiji, Indonesia, Thailand, the US (Caleb) and India gathered to learn and grow.  This time of learning was followed by an opportunity to serve.  The group participated in a Maximum Missions trip to Korat, a province in Eastern Thailand (Isaan).

For those who might not know, Maximum Missions are opportunities to serve, both near and far, where an outside group teams up with a local group to do outreach, ministry, and evangelism.  In Korat, we began our trip at a school by cleaning and painting.  The next day we held a summer International Camp day for local kids.  We separated into stations where kids created crafts and learned games, songs, and fun facts about other nations.  Then we gathered at the end of the day for a “mini- concert” where each of the groups shared a song or story and some gave testimonies and shared the gospel.

Our local hosts for this trip were Duan, Tom and their daughter.  They are the only believers in the village.  Duan works at the school we worked in for the first two days.  Duan opened her home to host the girls and her precious Aunty also opened hers to the boys.  God has given Duan and her family a burden for the people of her community.  Her vision is to use her home as a Center where students can come for after school activities and tutoring and learn about Jesus at the same time.  She has a passion for discipling new believers and would love to see discipleship groups spring up all over her village.

In the village we repeated our International Camp day at the local village school.  It was a huge success.  We did painting and cleaning at Duan’s home to get it ready for community use and some of the guys went and worked on her farm as well.  We also had a movie night at Duan’s place.  The entire community was invited to come play games, hear testimonies and songs, receive gifts and watch an animated Thai telling of the story of David and Goliath.  It was a fun night for all.

We are all extremely excited to see how God uses this willing family of believers to reach the people of their village for Christ.  We are also inspired to go back with more support when we can and to pray consistently for protection and encouragement for the family and what God is doing and has planned for that village and that province.

Pray for the many people here in Thailand who do not know Jesus and are enslaved by idol worship and in fear of evil spirits.  Pray that the Light of Christ will shine in every heart in Southeast Asia.