Since Christmas, the girls on my team have still been
working with the girls from Team Logos. We have been living in a town called Chanthaburi. It is out in the country and is more
rural. I have been so thankful to
be out of the city for a while. There are tons of stars here, lots of trees and open space. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. We have been staying at a local
church. We just pitched our tents
inside and some out. We have
running water and fans so that is always awesome. The pastor of the church lives right next door to the
church. His name is Pastor Eckochi. He, his wife, and two sons have been
taking care of us. His wife cooks
all our meals for us and has been doing a wonderful job. There is also another man, Pastor Joseph
that we have been working with too.
Primarily since we have been here we have been teaching
English. We have taught at several
different schools and had a two day English camp at one of the local churches
for whomever wanted to attend. We
have also participated with Pastor Joseph in passing out tracts in his local
area and “declaring and proclaiming about Jesus” as he likes to say. We will also be volunteering at the
local prison one day while we are here. We have helped lead several church services and doing testimonies,
leading worship, skits, and preaching.
One of my favorite things here was actually our first
night. We got to be part of the
church giving out the Operation Christmas Child boxes to the children. The whole little community gathered together
for a special dinner and celebration. I have done Operation Christmas Child for many years through my church
and it was so fun to actually get to be on the other end and watch the children
actually receive the gifts.
While being here, I have also grown to have a tremendous
respect for the pastors in Thailand. The country is over 95% Buddhist. So, it is not always the most encouraging and easiest job being a
Christian pastor, especially out in rural areas. It has been a great opportunity for us to be here and
hopefully provide some encouragement to the local Christians to know that they
are not alone. Just pray for the
increase of support for the Christians here and for the word of God’s love to
continue to get out as much as possible in this predominately Buddhist country.
