Over the course of this past month, my team and I were in a village in Chatturat, Thailand.
This was our host’s home. All six of us slept in our tents underneath that overhang for the month.
Our hosts, Jim and Marion. They are from Canada and have been missionaries for 12 years, 8 of those years in the bush of Ethiopia. They had incredible wisdom and vision to share with us and loved us so well. I sought their advice often, one time asking, “What advice do you have for us as young missionaries?” Expecting a profound answer, Marion said, “Love God. Love others. Deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow Him.” They keep it simple and it was a good reminder for me. In their 12 years as missionaries, they have never been under an organization or supported, never been in an area that is reached with the gospel, including Chatturat. Chatturat is the first place that a church has been planted while Jim and Marion are still in the area. They have always chosen to just live amongst the people and build relationship with them. That attitude definitely flowed into our team as we built great relationships with the teachers, students, and village and therefore, were able to share the gospel many times with foundation.
Three days a week we taught English in a village school that our hosts had not been able to infiltrate. The education system has become so bad that the TV in the background has become the main educator and the teachers have become kid managers. Because of this, I found that the children were hungry for relationship.
This hunger for relationship led us into doing English camps at six different schools. While there we played games with the kids, taught them Sunday school songs like “I’m in the Lord’s Army”, “Father Abraham”, and “My God is so big”, and shared the gospel through a color book (picture above).
The one church in Chatturat. We grew close with the pastor and his family. Sometimes we went into villages with him where there was not even one Christian to do door-to-door evangelism.
A huge part of our month was the education we received on Buddhism. I never have seen such vivid idol worship in my life. I couldn’t believe that people would actually worship something made out of concrete and be so locked up in it. But it is all they know. You want to bring up Jesus and they don’t even have vocabulary for God or sin. It makes the walls to the gospel all the harder but the glory to God all the greater. Over the course of the month, we saw the fruit of relationship. Whether it was teachers coming under the presence of the Holy Spirit or students telling us God bless you without us saying it first. Holy Spirit was softening hearts even when we didn’t have the right words or they didn’t understand our English. Reminded of Romans 10:14-15
“How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
I was blown away by the hospitality of Thailand. At the small table above, there was 23 plates of food that they kept bringing out for us…this was all after we had dinner already. In this village, we were the first white people they had seen. There we were able to see first hand the Buddhist and Thai culture. One of the families house burnt down so the entire village came together to help her out by making food. It was there that night that I had the thought that the States and the American Church could learn a lot from these people.
On an off day, I had the idea to do a lemonade stand for the village and my team jumped on board. The kids in the village loved it and it was a great day to serve. It also led to this…
These villagers were spending their Saturday putting a new road down. They loved their lemonade, Brittany and I loved giving them a helping hand.
One of the last days there, we had the village over for a BBQ.
This picture represents the heart I have for Thailand. It will always have a special place in my heart. These 6th graders were taught Jesus Loves Me with hand motions. When I look at them I see children not locked up in Buddhism, but children whom Christ died for. May their joy find their home in Christ.
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