Last night was one of the coolest experiences thus far. Dave and Louise have four church plants here in Thailand. We work heavily with The Bethel Thai Church, and The Lighthouse, a church for Burmese refugees. The lighthouse goes mobile once a week out into the rice farms near a large factory that employees Burmese refugees. Many Burmese people will leave their country to find work in Thailand in hopes to send money back to their families. There are many heart breaking stories of divided families and parents who had to leave their children in Burma among this community. Last night we loaded up our vans, and made the trek out to the factory. It takes just over an hour to get there. Our guys were part of the band, and we also prepared skits, children’s games, and Adam spoke last night too. Anyways, we pull up into this community and see rows upon rows of small one roomed houses. All of the workers live in these small compounds. For most, these living conditions would be a stretch to survive in. We began setting up a stage outside right in the middle of the compound. Bamboo poles were staked in the ground with a sheet stretched across them to make a screen, and small tarps and plastic sheets were set out on the ground in front of the stage. It was like this Burmese/Thai/Canadian/American outdoor church in the middle of nowhere! We sang all the worship songs in Burmese, but many of them we knew in English. How awesome to hear three different languages singing the same song. Adam shared how God has revealed himself in his life and had the crowd even laughing about his lack of girlfriend. (Single female readers of this blog – a heads up) We made up a drama to go along with the story of the seeds landing on different soil. One of the pastors of the Lighthouse Church spoke off this drama and preached for another hour. That night, 30 people from the compound accepted Christ into their lives. I have never seen anything like that before. They asked us to pray for healing for a number of different things and one woman in particular said she was healed of sickness that night. After the service, we piled into our song-tows and drove to one of the woman’s homes for a bbq. Now, when I say bbq, don’t get too excited. Fish and rice baby! We drove home and got into bed around 1am. Long day, but awesome.
We talked as a team about what we had been a part of. Acksanna asked why these people are so unafraid to be open about their faith, or to accept Jesus in such a public way. She continued to say how she is so encouraged to see how much these people love God, and want to know more about him. We all felt the same way. Personally, this makes me frustrated with a lot of things back home. To be honest, I hate so much about North American culture. We’re all too cool for school and scared to be open about what we believe in. I feel like we don’t have enough expectation that God will show up and do crazy things. I’m torn between letting this inspire me to change home, or to leave home. If someone asked for healing in your church at home, would you be bold enough to lay your hands on them and ask God to heal them? And if you would, would you sincerely believe in your heart that He would? If you answered no to any of these questions, ask yourself why tonight before you go to sleep. We are all learning here to be bold in our faith, and that often means stepping out of your comfort zone. It’s not to say that we don’t have awesome things happening at home, it’s just different. There’s just different challenges at home, the way there are different challenges here.
On the way to the factory, we went around the song-tow and all answered what God is teaching us here in Thailand thus far. It was so powerful to hear what God is teaching us as individuals through the same experience. Both the media team and Action team shared. Twelve people shared what they are learning, and all twelve answers were different. Isn’t that awesome that through the same experience, God is so unique and personal to each of us? As a staff member of Eastview Community Church, I was so blessed to hear Louise’s account of the blessing Eastview was to their ministry out here this past year. I had no idea how impactful Eastview’s generosity was until I got here and saw the result of it. I love how God will put something on someone’s heart on one side of the world, to affect the lives of so many people on the other side of the world. I feel so privileged to see the receiving end of the giving. For those of you who support missions, or have sponsor children on the fridge, or supported this trip – Thank you! You have no idea how impactful you are in the Kingdom.
I should stop talking now... but before I do, we are all doing great. A few upset stomachs, fevers, and dia... well, you know... but we’re doing good! We have all we need here so don’t worry about us. Please continue to pray for safety, health, energy, team unity, Dave and Louise, and for all the new believers here in Thailand. We have witnessed nearly 50 people accept God into their lives in the first 10 days of this trip. Pray that God would place people in their lives to continue to disciple them. Pray that the churches here can keep up! Ha! For real though, there is so much happening here and there is a big need for leadership in the churches. Pray!
Thanks for the prayers everyone. Check out some photos in the gallery tab!
Love,
Team Thailand
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