Today was an absolutely fantastic day, it was a day for baptism here at Pradumri UMC. Every Sunday, people who have received Jesus during the week come for a time of exhortation and prayer. This week we had five new Christians come to the front for prayer. After the service and our Sunday fellowship dinner, we all went to the reservoir for baptism. Dr. Somsak who is the president of Phayao Bible College in Thailand, had the honor of baptizing 16 new Christians of all ages. It was a blessing to see these new Christians walk through a floral arbor out to the water and be baptized. They had such great joy, and some even danced with joy in the water as they came back to shore to walk through the floral arbor again, this time as baptized Christians and full members of the United Methodist Church. These 16 people are the first to be baptized as United Methodists in Thailand. Sherri is designing Thailand United Methodist Baptism Certificates to give to them (everything is starting from scratch here, so even these have to be designed.)
It is a pleasure to have the friendship of Dr. Somsak, who is a source of wisdom and knowledge for us in Thailand. A few days later, Pastors Viseth and Sara or Pradumri UMC and us met with Dr. Somsak and his family at their beautiful new home in Bangkok. United Methodists have a close relationship with Dr. Somsak and Phayao Bible College, for he helps to train UM pastors in Southest Asia and are good personal friends with Pastors Viseth and Sara.
