We hopped off the overnight bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand, groggy and not knowing quite what to expect of our next month of ministry. We were greeted by our contact, who has been living in Thailand for a few years now. He drives fast, and we ride in the back of his modified pickup truck. All our bags and such travel in another truck. All our meals are prepared for us, and consist of delicious Thai food, rice, chicken, egg, vegetables, curry, noodles, etc. We also get hooked up with some pancakes every now and again. That first day we took a bit to relax and prepare for our travels. We first drove several hours up into the mountains of northwest Thailand, and spent three and a half days at a village on top of a mountain. We spent our days painting the church there, and staining the wood parts of it. We finished just in time to have the Easter Sunday service, which was a lot of fun and allowed for some good fellowship and sharing with the villagers, and which was also followed by a time of playing with the kids there. Some of the guys (all the guys on the squad are together this month) came up with some good games to play with those kids, and they loved it. It seemed early on that there wasn’t a whole lot of warmth or joy in the community, but by the end of our three day stay, they had opened up to us. We were only the second group of white people they’d ever seen, with the exception of our contact. Their home is on a mountaintop, surrounded by many other mountaintops, and was a struggle to drive to, but the land was absolutely beautiful, and some of us have said there may not be any land more beautiful on the rest of our trip, but we’ll see about that. The church there was built on highest point of the mountain that the village is located on, and was built on faith that it would become a beacon for Jesus for the surrounding mountains and villages. Please pray for this church and the pastor there. Those living there are the Karen people, who originate in Tibet, I believe, but don’t quote me on that. They now live in northwest Thailand and neighboring countries. They are 40-50% Christian as a people, and the love that many of them have for the Lord is evident. After our stay at the village, we have visited other communities and made a border crossing (which was incredible, but that’ll have to be shared about later on). We are enjoying our time together as guys, and hope to have great times of worship and prayer for the village we are now living in. There is a community training center here that we are praying for, and that our contacts hope to see leaders trained and raised up to reach people all over the region. There will be more to come, and we hope you are well!
Nate
