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.
