Hey everyone I just wanted to update ya’ll on this past week. We left Ban-On, the first village we stayed in and now we’re in Mae-La-Noi. This place is gorgeous! I’m telling you, everywhere you look its lush green mountains and rolling hills all covered in rice patties, palm trees and what I call jungle bush.
We got a great set-up as far as our living quarters. Scott, his wife Linnea and Stephanie are now with us. So we’re nine deep up in this pretty nice hut. We even got a chance to watch Evan Almighty the other night. Yeah, the Thai people have DVD players.
Oh yeah I almost forgot to tell you, so we roll into this village and we’re not even here 10 minutes before the locals are taking us out to the rice fields where they are hacking up a cow! Apparently they strangled this thing and by the time we got there they were skinning it and cutting it up. We got to take a hind leg with us! Either way, we all thought it was cool watching these dudes chop up this cow.
Also I got a chance to share my testimony and some of God’s word Sunday morning at church. Thanks to my wonderful translator Ratrapee it went well. I started off by talking about my struggles with alcohol and how I was a slave to drinking. I went on to say that because of God I had been sober for nearly six years. Of course I also told them about the way the Lord changed my heart back in February. In fact, He didn’t just change my heart; he gave me a new and obedient one with right desires – well at least for the most part. So at the end of the service a bunch of folks came up so we could pray for them. One man in particular seemed to need lots of prayer. I noticed while we were praying for him that he smelled like liquor. One of our contacts turned to me and said, “He’s up here because something you said reached him.” Turns out he accepted Christ right there. If what I said did reach him then I’m just honored the Lord decided to use me for His purposes. It was awesome though. I tell you, church in Thailand rocks!
Now the past couple of days we’ve had the privilege of sharing the gospel with hundreds of school age kids. It’s been great! You see most of the kids are Buddhist, so it’s been an awesome opportunity to reach those who have never heard of Jesus. Again I got a chance to share the Gospel with these kids. I tell you, it was tough. Our translator was Buddhist and so she didn’t want to translate everything I was saying. However at the end of the service when Ryan, my teammate, asked the kids if they wanted Jesus to come into their hearts we had a new translator that actually translated what was said. And the best news is we did see some kids praying that prayer! Praise God! So it’s really been a fruitful past week here in this village. I’ve never been apart of anything like this before in my life- the advancement of God’s Kingdom. I’m just so blessed to be here and I’m unworthy of this honor.
We’ll also be doing some hard work while we’re here. The plan is to clear some land for the construction of a church. Oh yeah, these folks don’t have sweet back-hoes or bobcats, they use freakin’ garden hoes! So please pray for strength and endurance.
