This month I am in Kanchanaburi, Thailand and I am co-leading a team of 11 men of God. It is such a privilege to be serving God on the mission field and getting to observe his greatness every single day. Here in Thailand, we are working with YWAM (youth with a mission) and we are doing contruction work and church planting. Here in Thailand Buddhism is the main religion and very few people are Christians. Are plan this month is to live as Christ to the community we are staying in and to prepare the way for more disciples to come in the future. We are working with a couple that live here named Run & Bang. Run is our contact here and he leads a service at the YWAM Kanchaburi base every Saturday night. He also helps facilitate services from time to time at 3 other churches in this region. We are working on building a training a center for future discipleship training here at the YWAM base. Most of our days are filled with chopping banana trees to feed the cows and building the training center. Previous world racers have built a church meeting place. Our group has just started pouring the foundation for the new training center today.
At the beginning of the month we arrived just in time for the Thai New Year, where they celebrate with a water festival. It is a unique and fun holiday. For an entire week, people ride around town, from house to house, building to building, soaking each other with water. Kids and adults alike will stand on the side of the road with garbage cans full of water, eagerly waiting for the next car or motor bike to drive by so they can soak them with water. Everybody loves it and it is welcomed, maybe it has something to do with the heat.
Also, on an off day, we traveled to a Buddhist temple, where they take care of Tigers. It is open to the community and you can come pet the tigers and get pictures with them. On another day, we got to ride some elephants at an elephant village.
Our month here in Kanchanaburi is just a few days away from being over. It has been a blessed opportunity to live and serve here with our contacts and the my fellow brothers. I have learned so much from each of them, and I believe we are all stronger men of God having served together. Each of them is unique, and when you have this many men on fire for God, you realize how strong you are as a community and how much this is lacking in our churches back home. It has encouraged me to press in and become more of the man of God that I desire to be so that I can build up the men around me when I return. We are all mighty warriors fighting and winning daily battles for the Kingdom. We understand that God created us, together, to be ONE. I pray that we never forget that.
Next month (May) we will be returning to our previous teams & ministering to the people of Vietnam. Vietnam is a closed country where you can’t openly share the gospel. Please pray that God will open doors for the gospel and that his kingdom will come and his will will be done there. Pray that hearts are broken for Christ and that they are set free, and communities are formed. There is a great spiritual need there.
Also, please be praying for me, that God will continue to keep my heart focused on the nearness of His kingdom around me. I still have two months left on the Race, and I don’t want to miss anything that he has planned.
I love you all. Continue to Be strong in the Lord and to Stand Firm.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms…”
“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.”
Ephesians 6
