Badminton, An amazing Testimony, and Worship

We had a free day today and spent it with people from the large Santisuk English school. At 9:30 this morning, 19 people crammed into the church van and headed out to the badminton courts, a large building with about 10 courts. This is a favorite sport here and is played fast and furiously - except for beginners like me who were fortunate to do a couple of good volleys. The heat in the non-ventilated building got almost unbearable for me, but other than that we had a good time😉

Over lunch at the mall, we heard the moving testimony of Shane, a 20 year old Thai man who had a powerful experience with Jesus in 2013, was delivered from addictions, and became a totally sold out evangelist. He teaches children and teens at the school. He led his mother, an extremely devout Buddhist and high government employee, to Jesus and is cultivating a new relationship with his father. Please pray that his father would also come to know Jesus.

Our day ended with the Thai church service here at Santisuk.  This is a cell church so all of the members are actively invoved in the life of their cell group during the week, and actively involved with evangelism as they invite their friends to join them at cell group meetings. 

Here's some great news: Kate was able to borrow a keyboard for me to use to help lead worship for our Sunday cell groups and to play at the school during the week. Already I know of three students who are eager to have a chance to learn a bit about how to play piano - what fun! I can use it the rest of my stay here.  

Class Photo

My delightful, inquisitive 7-9 pm English 1 class

June is the beginning of the rainy season here.  This sight greeted

me in my kitchen when I turned around after washing my supper 

dishes.  The promise of the Lord for blessings for Bangkok!

Please keep praying for Christina.  She's still laid up with tummy problems today.

Second day of Teaching

It's an hour before my second class of the day begins.  Christina is in her level two class, where she's a teacher's assistant, leading the class in exercises in the textbook.  Please pray for her, as she has a bit of stomach pain due to some of the foreign food.  We've been eating Thai food with the locals at least twice a day.

I LOVE teaching here!  I love the openness of the students to forming relationships and to hearing the Gospel. Because many of the students are from towns outside of Bangkok and are living and working away from their families, the English classes become like family to them.  This is fertile ground for the Gospel, as they love being with us and hearing what we have to share.

 My first class, 10 am - noon M-Th, includes 7 students, all University students except one who is a mother coming back to study English after 19 years away from it.  I told her she's very courageous.  You'll be hearing more about them in the next weeks. Please pray that they would understand me as I speak - some struggle with that - and for unity as a class.

My second class is 7-9 pm M-Th, and includes 10 young professionals, two of whom work for government agencies.  Unlike my first class, most of them attended the May session as one class, so they know each other and are very open and friendly.  Being older and working a bit with English in their jobs, they also have more facility in the language, which makes it much easier for me.

Christina has already gone out to eat with people from both of her classes.  The students are eager to talk with another young person and to get to know an American.  Aside from her tummy trouble, she's been doing great.

You'll see photos of our classes tomorrow.

Hello!  We'd like to show you around our place a bit.  Here are some photos that Christina took of our apartment and neighborhood.

Here's Rachada, the constantly busy street where the school is.

Our apartment at City Home, Rachada

View of the kitchen (through the glass doors). Bath is the door on the right.

Our apartment building.  We're on the 6th floor.

Were you praying?

         We have sensed the prayers of you, our partners as we traveled safely to Thailand Wednesday and Thursday. Were you praying-

• for protection, safety, and smooth connections? God answered you! On our flight from LA to Japan, we were not able to reserve seats online, but  God provided a gracious woman behind the counter who saw to it that we had front row seats for the longest leg of our trip.
• for quick adjustment to the 12 hour time difference? We've been sleeping well and spent a very active day yesterday getting oriented to our neighborhood.
• that God would bring many students to the new English school where we'll be working? In only its second month, we reached an enrollment of 50 students for this month's classes, which start on Tuesday.
• for unity among the staff? We had our first lunch together with the other staff yesterday. Pat, a multi-talented Thai woman and the visionary and driving force behind the opening of the school, shared with us about her family. She has a son Philip's age who was actually born just 11 days after Philip. He's also a drummer and is studying at IHOPU in Kansas City. Philip is working at TCJHOP, a house of prayer closely modeled on IHOP.  Pat and her husband also have a daughter one year younger than Christina, who's also an art major! She'll be studying at an art institute in Chicago beginning this year. 

        Here are Pat and the other staff members we met:

• Jessie, half Hungarian and half Thai, grew up at an International school, so she's a great choice to teach  Pre-English class.
• Kate, our school director, is from NE Wisconsin.  She's been such a gracious hostess and rented a comfortable, clean room for us just a five minute walk from the school. She'll move into it when we leave, since she lives an hour commute away right now.
• Nam is a very capable and dedicated secretary who's at the school whenever it's open.
• Boom is a sweet young Thai woman dedicated to helping all of us overcome any language barriers.  She wears many hats, including leader of the church plant.  She's an excellent Bible teacher.
• Cathy, my good friend from campus ministry at the U back in the 80's. We're so glad she invited us here!

The day has finally arrived!  It's 4:16 am and we'll be leaving for the airport in 1-1/2 hours, ready for our 24 hour journey.  We don't know what awaits us, but we're very excited to see what God will do in us and through us in Bangkok.  I really don't plan to do devotionals in the future, but this is an introductory post and it won't have any news. If you want to skip this devotional, feel free to stop reading now. We love you all!

Here's the word that the Lord gave me yesterday for this upcoming month (I love my Blue Letter Bible App!):

Psalm 37:7a and 34, "Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him....Rest in the Lord and keep His way, and He will exalt you to inherit the land."  Hebrew: "damam Yehovah chuwl charah."  "The first "rest", "damam" means, "Be silent, be still, wait, be dumb"  That's what the Lord is telling us to do. "Chuwl" was the word that struck me.  It doesn't really mean "wait patiently" at all!  It creates the picture of childbirth, of writhing in longing, waiting to bring forth.  

The second "rest" means "to wait eagerly for" When we do that, looking for God to act, here's His promise:  He'll lift us up and cause us to take possession of the country of Thailand in the Spirit. Our prayer is that we'd wait longingly for God and see what He will bring forth. Pray that we'd obey and be silent in His presence every day and that He'd lift us up and help us to see Him have dominion over those we get to know in Thailand. 

                                Here's where we'll be teaching this month in Thailand.