Everyday we are privileged to serve the Lord in Thailand, our Heavenly Father blesses us with the opportunity to be His ambassadors. Our prayer is that the Lord allow us to shine the light of His love where there is darkness, that the Thai people will hear the good news of Jesus Christ.
Twice each month, we meet with the Thai pastors, leaders, and interns to give leadership training. The past months Sherri has led workshops on the cell group ministry, giving out free resources that have been translated into Thai. One of the ministries we do is to contact authors and publishing houses of Christian education resources to receive permission to translate materials and books into the Thai language and then give them away for free. There are precious few Christian education resources available, and this is a ministry that blesses all Christians in Thailand, not just United Methodists. One of our goals in training is to always send the pastors, leaders, and interns back to their churches with resources they can use to make disciples. We have purchased a new website with 2 web addresses (Jesus.in.th & Methodist.in.th). These websites will be up and running next month and will be a source of free Christian Education electronic books for all Thai Christians. There are thousands of internet cafes across Thailand, so all people have internet access here and can use these resources. Also, each of our churches has a used computer that the pastors can download these free resources onto for use with their congregation.
The last few leadership workshops have had a group of Chinese Christians from Bangkok and from mainland China attend, so the trainings have been tri-lingual (Thai, English, and Chinese). Sherri has had to print documents in all three languages and the translation during the workshops can be rather complicated. But we have a great time. It is humbling to know that the resources we give will be used in China as well as Thailand. Praise the Lord!
On the top left is a picture of the new building that we have rented in Pattaya for the Life Center UMC and their orphan ministry called Blessing Home. In a few weeks, the church will begin to worship there. Right now, they are busting at the seams in their small old building, and they need to move to a larger space so they can grow. Once the church settles in the new building, Blessing Home will expand to give 24 hour care for orphans. Right now, daycare is given for 10 orphans, but more is needed. We are still praying for resources, because we only have enough for the next 2 months and we have opened this orphan ministry as a step of faith. We know God will provide.
This last weekend, we had the privilege of fellowshipping with Darunee and David Lawson and their two sons. The Lawsons are from Alcoa, TN. and are active in their United Methodist congregation which has a reputation in their community for showering the Love of Christ upon all people. Darunee is a Thai Christian, and she saw this website and decided to connect with us when she came to visit her parents in Thailand. She has a powerful testimony of how the Lord touched her in a mighty way through her battle with cancer. And she shared that testimony with the believers at Pradumri church this last Sunday, after Sherri preached. That worship service was the first worship service in the Thai language for Darunee to experience and it was a pleasure to see her soaking it all in. We are glad to have connected with the Lawson family and with their church family too.
One thing that Darunee inspired us about was her life of prayer. She lives a life of constant prayer and teaches this to her children. Her sons pray to the Lord with her throughout the day, and they are blessed to have parents that nurture their souls. We enjoyed fellowshipping with David, who is a fellow SBTS graduate, sharing some of the same experiences that we had. David spent 2 years as a missionary in Africa, and he found many similarities in his experience in Africa with ours in Asia.
Our translator, Nittaya, just found out she has been accepted to King's College in Tennessee, so we will soon be looking for a new translator. We are very, very happy for her... but part of us grieves because we will really miss her.
May the Lord Bless You and You Shine the Light of the Love of Jesus Christ where there is Darkness.
