Chayaphum and Floods in Lopburi

We visited our friend Ram in Chayaphum last weekend and had a great time. She was a staff of our DTS and is now trying to start a YWAM ministry in her village. It was eye-opening to see where Ram came from in simple living conditions and as 1 of 2 christian families in the whole village. The people are poor, living off of their rice fields, gardening, raising cattle, and fishing. It was humbling to see a family with so few possessions but such true inner joy and peace coming from their trust and dependence on God.

We were truly blessed in our time with them. For more info look at our pictures. You'll see Ram's family and home and even her dad sitting on their newly built toilet.

Food and Floods in Lopburi

Also, this month we continued working at the Lopburi Youth House. We made food and snacks together. We also had a big flood in Lopburi that came up to the roof of some people's homes. We paddled a boat to bring food to Peung's Grandma. You have to see these pictures as well.

Laos trip

Last week we had a whirlwind trip to Laos to renew our visa. The best way to check it out is to view our pics here. We sipped wine, danced aerobics, renewed our thai visa, and toured around vientiane for 2 days and then spent 2 days adventuring in Vang Viang. Vang Viang is a beautiful place, rivaling any place we've been before. We were able to communicate with locals as well, because Lao language is similar to thai.
The people were very friendly and laid back (except the drunk westerners) despite the poverty. The infrastructure in Laos is comparable to Thailand 50 years ago.
Check out our pictures for more info.

Olympic Camp

We'll write a short play by play account of the camp first, and then a few testimonies from the camp.

Friday 5:30pm, the bus showed up at the Lopburi Youth House. We threw our stuff inside, loaded up the bus as quickly as possible, locked up the Youth House, and then headed off to Nakhon Sawan for the camp. Students immediately started singing songs and getting to know new friends. Praise God that it seemed like no student was left out.

Friday 7:30 pm, arrive at the camp, register, find our rooms, have a fun opening ceremony with games. Praise God that students who initially seemed anxious to come to a Christian Camp figured out that they would have fun as well. Then we separated into groups for the first of 4 Bible Studies.

Friday 1am Bedtime.

Saturday 7:30am Staff Meeting, then breakfast, a Silly Song, then Bible Study.

Saturday 11am Workshop time, students got to choose from 10 workshops, like sports, craftmaking, Photography, etc.

12:30 pm Lunch

1:30 pm Workshop #2

3:00 pm Camp Olympics- Students divided into 10 "countries", and competed in several events such as: Tie your legs together relay race, Balloon Stomp, indoor soccer, gymnastic water relay race, water balloon volleyball. The winners of the beautiful gold medals and gold chocolate bars were: China.

6:00pm Delicious Dinner with sticky rice and chicken and Som Tam.

7:30 pm Song, skit, and then a Bible Study in small groups. Afterwards, a time of question and answer with the camp "GURUS". Praise God that many serious questions were asked about the Christian faith.

10:00pm Irish dance time, then an outdoor BBQ with live music playing. Students really enjoyed their time this evening, and we heard of many good conversations that happened between students and Christian student leaders.

2:00 am Most students and staff didn't go to bed until around 2am

Sunday 7:30 am Staff meeting, breakfast, workshop #3.

Sunday 11:00 am Skit, Bible study in small groups.

12:00 pm Students choose 1 of 4 groups to join. 1. I am a christian already 2. I am ready to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and saviour. 3. I want to know more about Jesus Christ and the Christian life. 4. I had fun but am not really interested in Jesus Christ.

Praise God that 3 students chose to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Praise God that the majority of students wanted to know more about Jesus and the Christian Life. Pray that they will continue to learn and seek God, and that they will continue to have opportunity to learn about God's love for them.

1:00pm Lunch

1:30 pm Closing Ceremony speech by Johnny. Praise God that he was able to clearly summarize the gospel and that students were listening closely to his words.

3:00 pm - clear out your room and load up the bus as quickly as possible.

A few short Testimonies:

Pang: Pang has been coming to the Lopburi Youth House regularly for 2 months now and has heard several testimonies, been to church several times, sat in on the weekly Bible Studies, and joined us all in singing worship songs. She was drawn to the Youth House because she could tell people here cared about her because we looked in her eyes when she talked. She told us of how alone she felt at home and school, and how her parents didn't seem to care about her. Slowly she has started see Christ's unconditional love for her. At the camp, she was able to clearly study the gospel message of our sin and separation from God, and Jesus' love for us and desire to have relationship with us. Pang chose to make Jesus her Saviour and to follow him. Please keep her in your prayers.

Nam: Nam, age 17, has been a Christian for 2 years now, and has obvious leadership and fruit of Christ's work in her life. Through the witness of her life and the change in her life since becoming a christian, her mother is also a christian now. Nam was a Bible Study leader for the first time at the camp. She said it was a great experience and very challenging. She was so excited to be able to serve God in this way. Her group had 1 other Christian and 3 non-Christians. She said they asked many tough questions, but she was still glad to be their leader. Some students even thought she was staff because of her maturity.

Students from Polytechnic School: A teacher from Polytechnic School arranged for 11 students to come to camp. We were at first a little worried because we did not know them and students from this school are not the most obedient. We were pleasantly surprised that they got along well with other students, enjoyed their time, and several showed that Christ was working in their hearts and minds as well. Ball is saying he wants to be a Christian and a Buddhist (this is a step in the right direction, even though he's not there yet). Others also enjoyed the Bible Studies and are open to learning more. They all left smiling and hoping to see us again.

Nice and his friends from Kai Narai: Nice is a great witness at his school. He was able to convince a group of 8 students and 1 teacher to come to camp with us. He organized all their paperwork, and even wrote an official letter to the school director asking for permission for the students to go. Several of these students had good conversations with staff about the Christian Faith and show that God did use this camp to work in their hearts. Pray that he continues this work and continues to connect them with Christians.

OLYMPICS Evangelistic Camp

On August 15-17 we will have a big evangelistic student camp in Nakhon Sawan with a theme of the Olympics. The official name is Huang A Yai, which is a sort of play on words for big circle, Take Care, and it's hard to explain but students like the name.
We hope to have around 120 high school and college students come to the camp for around $8/person. We'll have several competitions, opening and closing ceremonies, and we'll use the colors of the Olympics to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will have 5 Bible Studies, each on one color of the 5 circles.
The rings of the Olympics are Green, Blue, Black, Red, and Yellow.
Green represents God is the creator of everything.
Blue represents God reigns over everything, He is the Ruler of the world.

Black represents man's sin and rebellion from God.
Red represents God's love for us, shown by sending His son Jesus, who died on the cross so that our sins may be washed clean. Red also represents Jesus blood, shed as a sacrifice once for all of us.
Yellow represents our new life as children of the King, and the promise of eternal life in heaven with streets of gold.

Other activities will be a campfire with music and performances by students, a BBQ dinner, singing worship songs together, and time in workshops. In the workshops, students get to choose from several different activities including: sports, making crafts, learning english, etc.
Please keep this in your prayers over the next 2 weeks.
1. The staff, to complete all of our preparations and to still have energy to love the students at camp. That we will have wisdom in all the last second preparations. That we will show God's love through our lives and our words.
2. The Christian students, to grow closer with God and have a bigger understanding of His love for us. Also, to be encouraged/set on fire by the big community of christian students. Pray for them to be bold in sharing their faith with non-christian students at the camp. Also pray for the student leaders who will lead the small group Bible Studies.
3. The Non-Christian students, that their hearts will open up to the Gospel and that they will let go of the things that hold them back from following Jesus. There are several students from each Youth House that have heard the gospel and have interest, but pray that God will use this time to convict them of their need for Jesus Christ to be their personal Savior.

Our God is Great

Just a quick update, and also a reminder to check out our new pictures & videos on picasa. We have descriptions on our pictures that tell the story of what we're doing also.

The last 2 weeks we returned from Phitsanulok, celebrated Jonathan's 29th Birthday by climbing and eating some brownies. We had several activities at the Youth House with students, and then went to Nakhon Sawan for 3 Staff Training Days. The days in Nakhon Sawan were filled with Fellowship, Prayer, Worship, Celebrations, sharing what God is doing with students in Central Thailand, and preparing for the future. 2 big things we are preparing for are an Evangelistic Camp on August 15-17 in Nakhon Sawan and several short mission trips in October.

We hope to have around 120 students come to the camp this summer for around $8/person. The theme will be centered around the Olympics. We'll have several competitions, opening and closing ceremonies, and we'll use the colors of the Olympics to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. The rings of the Olympics are Green, Blue, Black, Red, and Yellow.
Green represents God is the creator of everything.
Black represents man's sin and rebellion from God.
Blue represents God as a Holy God, perfect and loving.
Red represents God's love for us, shown by sending His son Jesus, who died on the cross so that our sins may be washed clean. Red also represents Jesus blood, shed as a sacrifice once for all of us.
Yellow represents as our new life as children of the King, and the promise of eternal life in heaven with streets of gold.

This week, Off and Pheung went to Chiang Mai to visit family, but God has been good and has given us strength, energy, and just enough language between us and Tam to communicate with each other and with students. Tam led a fun bible study of I Peter 2:11-25. We took students downtown and played sports and ate at the market. Saturday morning, we taught about 25 students a little english as we played games and baked cookies. God has provided many opportunities to develop relationships better and to study the Bible with christian and non-christian students. Several students are good guitar players and enjoy singing worship songs also. Many of the students we have seen recently are interested in going to camp.

Keep us in your prayers for the activities here, preparations for the camp, and for the students to grow closer to Jesus.

Bittersweet Goodbye to the Singapore Team

Please, check out our new pictures also. There is much you'll see there that you won't see here.

This was the last week that the Singapore team was here, and it turned out to be a good one. On Saturday, July 5, about 30 students came to the Youth House to hang out and study English. We all taught them and then spent time hanging out with them. Ashley baked a cake with 10 girls and then fed us all. Meanwhile, Off, Pheung, and Tam had many opportunities to talk with students 1 on 1 and study the Bible together.

On Tuesday we went to a nearby town called Phrabaat to help a church reach out to the community. We walked around a nearby village and talked with people, giving them tracts and sharing the gospel. We had many good conversations with people. We were all surprised at how open the people were to talk about the gospel and how interested they were to hear more. We were also excited that 3 students from Phrabaat church joined us and were bold to share their faith with the people we met. It was their first time to evangelize in their hometown and for 2 of them it was their first time ever. Afterwards we returned to the church and watched a 5 on 5 soccer match. The pastor of the church has been organizing soccer teams for several years as a way to build relationships with men. After the soccer match, the players came inside and ate dinner with us. We did a small little performance for them as they ate. We sang a song, performed a skit, shared a testimony, and then Off did a gospel talk. It was a great chance to help this church reach out to its community.

On Wednesday we taught English at 2 schools. The teachers encouraged us to share about our faith and beliefs, so we did. We taught the gospel, shared testimonies, performed skits, and had time to just sit and chat with students. When we returned home, several students were already at the house playing games and took the Singapore team out for ice cream.

Thursday, we taught more English. We were all encouraged by the response we got from students. They listened attentively as we shared the “Color Gospel” about the God who created the world, every persons rebellion from him, His love for us shown by sending Jesus as a sacrifice for us, and the new life we can have in Jesus. There are also several teachers who have been listening closely and asking for more information. While it is a very big change for a Thai Buddhist to believe in 1 true God, we can see God is working in their hearts.
Thursday night we had a Bible Study. The group study I Peter 2:4-10. About 7 christian students were there for the study and 2 more non-christians were happy to sit in and see what was going on.

Friday was the last day for the Singapore Team in Lopburi. In the morning, the 4th Year English Students at the University put on a going away party for the team at the university. They taught us some about their culture and did several performances. They performed Thai Boxing, Traditional Thai Dancing, and cooked Pad Thai, Papaya salad, and several thai desserts for us. It was a fun day. Friday afternoon we had a going away party for the Singapore Team. We were amazed by how many students came to say thank you and goodbye (many bearing cards and gifts). We could see that God had used them in many ways. Here are a few specific ways: to make the Youth House known in the schools as a fun, cool, safe place for students to hang out, to develop strong relationships between many students and the Youth House staff, to share the gospel to many students in an honest, open, and respectable way, to develop good relationships between the Youth House and several influential teachers at different schools (There is an open door for us to come back and teach whenever we have time).

Saturday was a big day for all the Youth Houses because of Youth House on the Road. We rented a tour bus and filled up half of it and left Lopburi at 7:30am. In all we had 16 students and 10 staff. We picked up another 30+ students and staff at the Nakhon Sawan Youth House and then drove to the Phitsanulok Youth House for a big fun day. The day was action packed with eating snacks, playing games, singing worship songs, doing a Bible Study of Psalm 139, and then doing a “Adventure Race” type game. The game was very fun as we had to follow instructions that took us all over campus, singing the Thai National Anthem, taking pictures with campus guards, solving trivia questions, and making balloon models of all the staff. It was a great time for all the students to get to know each other and the staff and to learn more about God and how he created us. Everyone loaded up the bus around 5:30 to return home, but we said our good byes and stayed in Phitsanulok for a few days.

Our good friends Jesse and Kristen Troll and their daughter Trinia just moved from Lopburi to Phitsanulok to work at the Phitsanulok Youth House. They are staying in a 4 story shop house right next to the Youth House. But, the house needs a lot of cleaning and preparing before it can be called a home, so we volunteered to stay and help watch Trinia and clean.

Please keep us in your prayers that we can keep the momentum going now that the Singapore team is gone.

Happy Independence Day

Sorry We haven't written in so long. It has been a busy month. School started for all the students around June 1, and we have been busy teaching, hanging out, playing games, travelling, and getting to know many people.

The first week of June we were preparing the Lopburi Youth House, decorating and cleaning it, planning events, and going to schools. There are about 12 different high schools, technical schools, and universities in Lopburi. We went to most of them and passed out brochures about the Lopburi Youth House with a gospel tract inside it. We also talked with several teachers about opportunities to come teach at their school. Surprisingly, many teachers invite us to come teach "English" at their school. Many would even say that we can teach about our culture and about what we believe as well.

On June 10, 4 college students from Singapore came to help us until July 15. They are staying with us at the Youth House, sleeping on the floor in 2 extra rooms. It is very crowded here (8 people sleeping here and many others visiting), but it is also fun. We have all been teaching English at 4 different schools. We teach about 1.5 - 3 hours a day, 4 day/week at schools. We teach a little of everything, from english, games, american/singapore culture, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Teaching english at schools has many purposes:
1. we get to know many students, some of whom will regularly come to the Youth House for many different events where we get to share the gospel and share our lives with them.
2. We can share the gospel with them at school, giving them a clearer idea of why Jesus died for us and what that means and how Christianity is different from Buddhism.
3. Build relationships with schools/teachers. Because we have helped these schools, they are willing to help us organize events at their schools. They let us come on campus to meet students.

We have also had many activities at the Youth House. The house is always open for students to come and play games, use the computer, and play music. Thai students are very musically talented. It seems like 50% of the students can play guitar or keyboard. We also teach english at the house for 1 hr/day. We have had a few Bible Studies in I Peter on Thursday nights. We had two Open House days where we each shared something from our culture (Ashley was a country girl and taught a line dance, Jonathan sang a rap song and taught Hip-Hop culture/language).

It has been a good month at the Youth House. There are about 8 christian students who come here regularly (1-5 times/week) and 15 other non-christian students who come here often.
Off, Peung, and Tam (our fellow staff at the Youth House) have gotten many opportunities to disciple the Christian students and to share the gospel with students. There are some students who are very interested in learning more.

From June 23-29 we went to the yearly OMF Conference. The conference is for all the OMF missionaries in Thailand to come together, connect with each other and learn what everyone else is doing in Thailand. There were about 150 missionaries and 67 kids. We went to look after the teenage kids of the missionaries. Johnny McClean led us both as we spent 2 days preparing Bible Studies, games, and activities for the kids. Then we had Thursday - Sunday to hang out with them. We had a Bible study and craft activity for 3 hours each morning, played sports for 1.5 hours each afternoon, and then we had another Bible Study time at night. It was a good time for us to get to talk in English and share with these kids. Sometimes their knowledge of the Bible was better than ours, but we still found that we had valuable life lessons to share with them. They seemed to enjoy their time and we did too. Except that we were exhausted.

Be sure to keep us in your prayers and check out our pictures as well. God Bless You.

New Generation For Christ

The Akha dorm has changed to it's official name of "NEW GENERATION FOR CHRIST". We have updated the website with some new information. Please keep checking the website for new info on the students who are living there. Currently, 6 students and 1 staff are living with Art.

We are very excited about the progress Art is making. It is and exciting opportunity to raise up Christian Leaders in the Akha community. Please read through his prayer needs and keep him and the students in your prayers. In Isaiah 44:26 it says that "God carries out the words of His servants", so we christians, servants of God, can ask God to work in and through the lives of those at the New Generation For Christ.

A few Testimonies of Students from Central Thailand

Looking back over some of our posts, we realized we may not have given y'all a good idea of what it's like to be a Christian in Thailand. Last week we got to hear parts of the testimonies of several students. The faith of these students is amazing. We thought we'd share a couple.

Nam

Nam is 21 years old and lives in Nakhon Sawan and studies English at the University. This is his testimony as he told it to me. 6 years ago, he was at school and everyone was bowing down to the idol in the school (it is customary in schools here to have an idol and for the students to have a regular time of "worship" to the idol. Worship being facing the idol, kneeling down, and bowing your head to the idol. The idol is often a gold image of Gautama (the founder of Buddhism) or a famous monk). Nam had grown tired of bowing to this idol, and looked around as everyone bowed and saw one student (out of 2,000) who did not bow. Later he went to this student and asked her why she did not have to bow to this idol. She told him she was a christian and explained some of the gospel to him. Nam was interested, but did not yet believe. He began attending church and learning more about Christianity.

One day, he got in a big argument with his family. After the argument, Nam called his Christian friend and her what he should do. She prayed with him and tried to counsel, but Nam did not feel any better. The next day, still upset over the argument, Nam prayed to God by himself and was filled with an overwhelming peace and a desire/courage to talk through things with his parents. He immediately went and talked with his parents and the argument was solved, and Nam believed that this must have been from God.

He also stopped bowing to the idol at school, and faced opposition from his teachers. He was called to talk with the school director to explain why he does not bow to the idol. His faith was discouraged by teachers and staff, but they did not physically persecute him for his decision.

His family also questioned his decision. For him, telling his family that he is now a christian could be compared to telling your family that you are now homosexual. Often, students who become Christian are cast out of the family, any inheritances removed, and are rejected. But, Nam has been able to keep a good relationship with his family even though they do not agree with his decision. In his words, "My family has not put their faith in the true God YET".

Att

Att, age 21, lives in Lopburi and also studies English at University. His dad died 10 years ago and his mom is a Buddhist Spiritist. She converses/consults spirits on special religious ceremonies.

I'm not sure yet how Att became a Christian, but he has a real faith in God's power over the spirits that his mom believes in. Most boys become a Buddhist monk at the age of 21 for a period of at least a month. They do this to earn merit for their mother. Thai Buddhists believe that the best way for a woman to earn merit is through their son becoming a monk. They literally believe that after death, the mom will "catch" their son's robe which will earn them merit, leading to a better rebirth for the next life.

Last month, Att turned 21 and was under enormous pressure from his mom to become a monk. As her only son, he is her only chance to be reborn in a better position. But, like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he refused to obey her and bow down even if it meant the loss of her financial support. He tried hard to explain why he can't, but according to

Matthew 9:32,33, 37, Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. 33But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven. Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

Att showed great courage standing up for what he believes. He also shows great courage each night he spends at his mother's house, believing that "He who is in me is greater than he who is in the world" and not fearing the spirits that his mother invites to their house. Praise God that the Lopburi Youth House is here as a place for him to sleep, rest, fellowship, pray, and be encouraged in his walk with God.

Best

Best's dad was arguing with him, telling him to stop hanging out with those Christians so much. Best's response was to listen quietly and respectfully to his dad, and then go take a shower and sing at the top of his lungs in Thai, "I have decided, to follow Jesus". He prayed for his situation, and later his dad backed down a little and has stopped discouraging him from his beliefs.

We heard several other statements of faith or responses to "persecution" from students that really challenge us. These students follow and trust God with all of their heart, and He has made a big difference in their lives. We are excited to be a part of a ministry that is growing men and women who have a real faith and a real desire to reach out to their friends and teachers with the "Good News".

Staff Training Week

This week was the training week for all of the staff with the Central Thailand Student Ministry. There are 3 Youth Houses in Central Thailand (Phitsanulok, Nakhon Sawan, Lopburi). Noon (Thailand), Julia (England), Jesse and Kristen (Florida) will work at the Phitsanulok Youth House. Caroline (England) and Zo (Thailand) will work at the Nakhon Sawan Youth House. We will work with Off and Pheung (Thailand) and Dtam (Thailand) at the Lopburi Youth House. Johnny and Ann McClean will look after all of the staff. 10 of the staff all came to Nakhon Sawan for an intense week of training, planning, and fellowship.
Each morning we started with a time of worship and then a Bible study about God’s Glory. We studied about God’s Glory because the mission of the team is to bring God glory by living our lives for Him, teaching students about Him, and teaching them how to live lives that bring Him glory.
In the afternoon we took time to talk about how God has been working through the ministry and to plan and discuss our vision, mission, and goals for the upcoming year. We had several long meetings sharing ideas and prioritizing our ideas. So, here it is (keep in mind that the statements are translated from Thai):

Vision
By God’s grace to see students of CT receiving salvation, growing as disciples, being faithful witnesses and living holy lives according to the Word of God.

Mission
To glorify God by Living, Proclaiming and Teaching the Word of God so that Thai students follow Christ in every area of life.

Goals
1. Students and outsiders acknowledge the Youth House is a place of good and appropriate activities (fun and trustworthy)
2. Students are passionately committed to regular, creative, widespread Biblical evangelism as God calls them (Acts 1:8)
3. Students passionate about studying and applying Scripture so that their lives glorify God in every area
4. Students commit themselves to regular prayer
5. Students take every opportunity to use their gifts to humbly serve others both in their church and their YH.
6. To have ‘small groups’ on each campus able to witness and encourage one another to grow spiritually
7. More Thai team members who are able to use their skills for God’s glory in CTSM
8. Thai churches and Christian organizations know and support CTSM/T2S

From these goals, we started making a schedule of activities and specific goals for what we will do at the Lopburi Youth House. Next week we will have more time to plan for specific events and activities at the Lopburi Youth House.

This week we also started our Train To Serve (T2S) program. The Train to Serve program is 2 years long and is for Thai students also (Noon, Zo, and Dtam will also be studying T2S). Unfortunately we won’t be able to complete the whole program. Johnny and Ann McClean will be our mentors for the program. We each chose 10 “modules” from the following list that we have to study and complete over the next 4 months.

• Evangelism
• Discipleship
• Training Others
• Inductive Bible Study
• Theology
• Biblical Leadership
• Practical Service
• Biblical Overview
• Personal Spiritual Life
• World Mission
• Thai Language

Each module has a list of assignments to complete and discuss with our mentor. The assignments often include working with students, so that the training is “on the job” training. For example, for discipleship we must prepare bible studies and meet weekly with 1 specific student that we will disciple. For Inductive Bible Study, we will study the Inductive Bible Study method and then prepare 6 Bible studies that we will then use. It looks like it will be challenging to complete all of the tasks but we are excited about the spiritual growth and skills that it will develop.