Meet Aroon and Pbang, the ministry couple that we are working with
as guys for this month in Thailand. This couple has been one of the
sweetest, funnest, hardest working, and self-sacrificing people I’ve
ever met. Aroon is a fourth generation Thai Christian when he came to
Christ at the age of fourteen in 1996. He head of God the first time
in a church, and realized that a Christ was very different than what he
learned in school when he learned of all the major religions. He met a
foreign missionary and saw his “good life”, and he couldn’t see
Christians as people who did wrong and thought that Christianity had a
good answer when it came to the beginning and reason of humanity, eat,
and the rest of the story. He grew up in a very poor family, used to
drink and fight a lot, but grew up working hard to make something of
himself. He saw Christians do the opposite and they don’t sell people
like most foreigners do, and he wanted to be like that.
After becoming a Christian he met his future wife, Pbang, and they
grew more in Christ with missionaries. Pbang actually became a
Christian when she met Aroon, because she saw his “good life” in him.
They worked for young christians in Bangkok for five or six years
before leaving. Aroon began to get a God given burden for the poor
people and he wanted to help, since he knew what it was like. He has
three brothers and sisters as he’s the youngest. His dad died at the
age of three, his mom never worked before that and when his dad died
they lost everything. He knows the physical and spiritual needs of the
poor people here in the Kanchanaburi countryside. This move wasn’t
easy though since Pbang grew up in the city of Bangkok all of her life
and she was aware of how hard it would be to move out to the country
and leave that life and friends behind, but God eventually gave them
both the vision and the commitment to come. It was a hard move even
afterwards but their faithfulness has done great things. They help
with taking care of their animals being a veterinarian to them, raising
cattle and goat, providing work, and sharing the gospel. Since they
moved out here seven years ago they have seen many people out here in
the country come to Christ and have started the one and only church.
They give to other people and tell them that God helps them; so he has
a good relationship with the people of the village area. This is
definitely a change of life from the city with the Buddhist influence
around us.
Aroon says they won’t become Christians if they don’t understand and
will not proclaim God unless they see it in their lives. “Everyone
knows about God, they just need to accept him.” Before Aroon and Pbang
came no one knew about Jesus, and since then about twenty have come
believers (mostly young teens and college age) and then have moved. He
has led six or seven family members to Christ, including Mae and Pa who
are Pbang’s parents, who used to own a restaurant in a city and left it
to move here with them to help reach these people for Christ. They are
so nice and make really good food for us that keeps us working hard
during these hot days.
Aroon’s dream is to have an incredible preschool where young children
can read of the Bible at a young age, have the older people who are
used to normal Thai religion have changed lives so families all
together can be changed and the new generations. The place where we
stay has kept us busy keeping up with his farm and building a training
city out in the country where ministry teams can come and he can train
new disciples of the countryside. This is such a huge dream that Aroon
works endlessly with other villagers that he’s hired building all day
and night, hardly taking time to rest until the task is completed.
Please be in prayer for them as they continue to work hard and see
God’s hand do it all.
(Below are pictures of the daily sunsets. Each day could be on a post card)
