“The Thai’s don’t listen to Thai’s—you are our ‘ticket in.’”
When I heard that phrase, many things suddenly clicked in my brain.
You see, as combined teams for the month, Abiding Azar and Ahava (aka Ahavazar), went to the Chum Phae district of the Khon Kaen Province of Thailand for Christmas Eve and Christmas day outreach.
On Christmas we had the opportunity to go to a school with 1765 students and over 140 faculty and teachers where the only Christian in the entire facility was the pastor we were staying with, who also happened to an English teacher at the school.
While reaching 500+ students, we put on four rounds of a performance—the “Church Clap” by Lecrae, a skit called “Contagious” showing how emotions affect others, as well as breaking out into small groups to share on a more personal level with the students.
Each group was absolutely unique; however, my last group of students I will never forget. You see, I had prayed before each of the groups for God to give me the words to say that will touch the students in the most impactful way possible. And during the last group, before I even realized what was being said, God spoke through me and asked my group of 15 students if they were ready to get to know Him and create a relationship with Him—and they ALL said yes!!
Through a long go-around, me > translator > students, I was able to follow the Lord’s call and lead those students through the prayer of salvation. So, now, if you can please keep all of those students in your prayers (and actually there were even more than those 15 that accepted Christ on Christmas, so those ones too) it would be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately, there are not many resources for new believers in Chum Phae and even less for when they are students; however, I know that the Lord is faithful and will provide a way for those who genuinely want to know Him.
So where does that quote at the beginning come in you ask?
Well, after all of the performances and the goodbyes were said to our new friends, our host in that district took us out to lunch and was explaining how grateful he was for us to come there because the impact that we were able to have on those students as Americans, would have taken him months, if not years, due to him being Thai; plus, because we were a group from America, we were allowed to perform at the school—a school that prays to Buddha every morning and therefore share God’s love and light to people who had never heard of Christ before.
