He is Risen! Happy Easter!

Easter morning I was part of a large celebration at the main Santisuk school including all of the branch schools.  One of the students committed his life to Jesus after the sermon.  Praise God!  It was a good time to see Cathy for the last time and I was surprised by an offer from Pat, the manager of our branch, who invited me to spend the afternoon and evening with her.  It was only my second time since being here that I've ridden in someone's car (not a taxi).  We visited a gigantic book fair where her company, Bridge Communications, had a booth.  Her husband is a worship leader at a large Full Gospel church, and we visited there and enjoyed a youth worship service where her son Bond sang.  Bond recently returned from finishing four years at IHOP University in Kansas City.  He said he's still having a bit of reverse culture shock, getting used to the crowds in Bangkok.

Train Ride and Market Day - March 25

Last Sunday, our cell group and other students enjoyed an outing to Amphawa floating market.  I didn't see the floating part of the market, where the sellers are in boats, but my friends said there were quite a few of them.  We had a 10 minute train ride right through the market.  The market is actually located on the train tracks, so when the train come through, the people move just far enough away from the slow-moving train so they're not hit by it, and the sellers take up their awnings.  As soon as the train goes by, they put them back over the tracks.  It looks like huge leaves falling onto the tracks.

       

I enjoyed the park where Boom and I saw the process to make coconut candy and syrup -  much like our maple sugar process. 

     

We stopped and prayed at these beautiful flowers.  The others had fun browsing through the market.  Everyone was thrilled when one of the guys said he had brought his drone to take pictures.  They all enjoyed the long photo shoot when each person got into the boat and the drone took their pictures.

   

Oh yeah, I had a birthday last Friday

Last Friday, my friends surprised me with not one but two birthday cakes and a beautiful dinner at a terrace restaurant with all of my favorite foods, including my new favorite vegetable - morning glories!

      

      

A Day at the Beach

Yesterday, I got a huge gift - a day at the beach with Kate and two new friends, one from Wisconsin and one from Bangkok.  God blessed us with beautiful, sunny, breezy weather.

  

The shot on the right was one Kate took of the same beach on a calm day.

The beach was south of Pattaya, with beautiful fine sand and evergreens for shade.  We saw a large monkey in the tree right next to us who attracted quite a crowd.  I don't think he was thrilled about that, as he tried to grab at a man who was teasing him with a banana.

Healing and Jesus for my New Friends

It's about time I catch you up on my week.
- My Health has slowly but steadily improved, and I'm only coughing about three times a day now.  Pain in my ear has greatly diminished - praise God, and thanks for your prayers!
- Healing Prayer - After a talk with Boom and praying for Nam, our secretary at the school, the Lord led me to offer to do healing prayer with her. I asked her the next day and she agreed to do it.  On Wednesday, we did a two hour session with Boom translating and seemed to have some breakthrough, but there's a lot remaining to be done.  Please pray for Nam, that she would get the help she needs and that God would complete the healing.


Nam on Market Day

- Questions about Jesus - In my morning class with three students, Nut asked why Jesus had to die and I was able to explain the Gospel more clearly to them.  Pray for those seeds to grow in Nut and Koi, and for Thip to grow stronger in her faith.
- What Happened at the Fall - One thing I love about teaching is that when we get to the Bible lesson, the Lord always surprises me by bringing out themes that show that God's word has answers to the human condition.  In the level 3 class in the evening, we've been discussing the first chapters of Genesis, creation and the fall.  On Thursday, we discussed all that man lost when he chose to disobey God and eat the fruit - basically all that makes man distinct from animals - all that makes man to live in the image of God. Revelation came as we discussed and I could see the students receiving it.
Here's most of my evening class at KFC after class last week:



- People to Pray For - As I've gotten together with my students and Jessie's students for dinner, my heart has ached for those who are enmeshed in the culture of materialism and media that dominates their lives.  Please pray for Book, a high-level conceptual graphic designer at an ad agency.  He seemed open to the Gospel when I talked to him, but actually told Boom and Jessie he's not at all interested in learning more about God.  To him, appearances seem to be much more important than anything else.  His girlfriend, White, however, is very interested in the things of God.  Pray for her to come to Christ and to influence Book.  Here's a picture of them:

A New Adventure in Bangkok

Thursday, 1:00 pm
I'm sitting in the waiting room of the ENT clinic at Bangkok Hospital, because my infection has very clearly shown itself to me as a sinus infection. It hasn't gone away with one round of antibiotics (here they can be purchased over the counter). As this month has progressed, I've realized that this infection really started in mid-January and, except for three weeks in February when the symptoms almost cleared up (except for a dull ache in my right ear), it has continued.

This hospital is well known for excellent care and English-speaking staff - and the cost is much less than a doctor - especially a specialist - in the US. Since I've repeatedly suffered from sinus infections during the past 10 years or so, it's a good time and place for me to get some answers and hopefully some good treatment.

Here's a shot looking up toward the Ear Nose and Throat specialist's office. This is one of the best-known hospitals in Asia.  In fact, a woman I met here from Maldives said it's one of the main hospitals for wealthy people from Arab-speaking countries.  Of course, it's more expensive than an average Thai hospital as well -  but much cheaper than an American one!                                                                                     

I got a CT scan on Thursday but it was too late in the day to get the results so I had to go back Friday - my 60th birthday!!

Friday, 10:30 am:
The results: a deviated septum in my right nostril has been causing all of the infection problems.  I've started taking the antibiotics and other medications, but I'm also using these results as fuel for prayer, because in the past few months, God has totally healed me of 35 years of back pain and 18 years of headaches.  I'm glorifying Him here because I've had no headaches since being in Thailand, and when I was here in 2016, I had them every day! God, our Father heals!

When I finished my morning with the ENT doctor, I was greeted by these wonderful classical musicians at the foot of the escalator.

Students and Teachers

I'm having lots of trouble posting photos.  I tried to re-do this one and wiped out the whole post!  I'll summarize it here.  I met with Boom, my friend with an amazing evangelism ministry here at Santisuk.  We were energized to work as a team reaching my students for Christ.  The Lord also uses Boom mightily in healing gifts and words of knowledge.  Here's a fun picture of her from my first day here in 2016.

My 10:00 am class has three students, Koi, Thip, and Nut.  Thip comes from a Christian (baptist) home, and we've had good talks about wholehearted commitment to Christ.  I've also been able to share the whole Gospel message with this wonderful small group of people.  Koi's brother is a religion professor for Buddhist monks in a monastery in northern Thailand.

  

My evening class (7:00-9:00 pm) has 11 wonderful women as students.  We've been talking about the creation days in our lessons and on Thursday had a discussion about Creation/ID vs. Evolution. The Thai people have no creation story but learn about evolution in school.
Here are my students hard at work.