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A few days after moving into my new home a young 13 year old girl who lives nearby came and asked me 'Would you help teach me English?'.  I agreed that she could come twice a week.  In our conversation about when I would be available to teach, I explained that I wasn't just an English teacher but here to work with Christians in Pak Phanang.

At the end of her second visit she said she was interested in learning a bit about Jesus. I had some Christian short story books for children in Thai/English so she picked out two about Jesus for herself and took them home.  A day later, she was back and returned the books saying that her parents had told her she was not allowed to become a Christian. She then asked if I was free for her to visit on Sunday, so I explained that I went to church.  She then asked if she could come along too, just to see, without having to do anything, adding her parents would be ok with that.  Of course she was welcome to come along and see.  So, on Sunday she came to church for the very first time.  I don't know what she thought or made of it, but she has asked if she could come along again.

Please pray for this 13 year old girl, N, that she will experience God's love for her and that she will continue to desire to learn and find out more about Jesus. 
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Category: Personal Reflections
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I had been taught to love planting trees since I became a Christian, by my missionary friend.

My trees were growing beautifull and I thanked God for it every time I came home..  until one day ....

I got home and couldn't believe my eyes, all my beautiful trees(growing tall in 4 years time) were cut down and destroyed', by my husband. He decided he was going to build a fence without consulting me

I was extremely upset and did not want to see my husband ever again. I also did not want to talk to God either. Why did He  not stop my husband!!!

This went on for a few days when one night I boiled up some snails for us to eat. usually one can just suck out the snail with not too much effort but this night I could not suck it out and frustration built up in me as I throw one snail after the other down. My 10 year  old  boy watched me doing this and he got up to find some smooth sticks that came with a Thai sweet which my husband bought earlier on. My boy offered me one of these sticks to pick out the flesh of the snail saying:" Mother, isn't God wonderful, He got into dads heart and make him buy the Thai sweets so that we could have these sticks now to pick out the snails meat".

These words "God got into dads heart" just stopped me in my tracks. I knew this was God speaking to me and not my little boy. God was reminding me that He can change my husband, only He can get into his heart. I was ready to give up on my husband. This time he went too far. Now I was willing to talk to God again, thanking Him for knowing about my pain and trusting Him again to change my husband. I had immediate peace and even joy returned. 

(This is the story of a Thai Christaian from Namkhem church in the area that was hit by a Tsunami 7 years ago.)

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Category: Serving in Mission
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"I think it would be good to start studying the Bible together, a bit deeper than we have before" I said to a couple of local Christians a few weeks ago. "What do you think?"
  
One of these men, Uncle Jit, has been a Christian for a bit over a year now. He has grown in faith steadily since the day he decided to follow Jesus.
  
"Yes - definitely," he replied.
  
"Okay, I have a good Bible study on Genesis," I responded. "Or we can do a more topical Bible study."
  
"Genesis, would be better," Uncle Jit replied.
  
"Ok," I said. "I'll see what I can do."
  
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Category: Serving in Mission
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The other day, Grit  (13) was at our place, just hanging out as he does quite often.  He suddenly remembered that he wanted to tell me something and came up to me with a big smile.  His phone had been broken for a few days, just not turning on at all.  Grit had fiddled with it trying to get it to work but nothing happened.  In the end, his younger sister, "Wen" had decided to try praying.  She and Grit have both heard quite bit about God at our place over the last few years.  They have heard  how God answers prayer.  So, Wen just simply asked God to fix the phone.  Then she pressed the on button again - and on it came!  They were thrilled.

God is good.  He knows they are just taking their first steps of faith, working out if this God is real and if he really does all we say he does.  Does he love them as we have said he does?  So, God answers and little by little they see that he is real and does love them.

God doesn't always fix things when I ask him these days.  He knows me and stretches me and grows me through tough times and times when he answers in ways I hadn't expected.  Yet it is such fun to watch him answer for the kids who are brave enough to reach out to him.  These are their first "baby" steps.  It's a great place to be at, watching them grow.

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Category: Serving in Mission
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stay_on_trailA few months ago while on Home Assignment in Australia, I was visiting a supporting church in northern New South Wales. On my day off, I went to for a bush walk at a nearby Nightcap National Park. On the way down to the bottom I discovered a timber sign with the words, "Shortcutting causes serious erosion. Please stay on trail provided." The sign itself was not looking all that stable. A little bit further down the trail though, there was some serious erosion, where that part of the trail had slipped down the hillside. While I found it only a little difficult to navigate past that point, I wondered how someone less mobile than myself would have managed.

Already the area around the sign was showing signs of erosion. The sign itself had a bit of a lean, and just a few metres further along a section of the path had slipped down the hillside. Obviously erosion was already making its mark felt, being helped along by those who had, for the sake of their own convenience, made shortcuts down or up the hillside.

It got me thinking - what does erosion look like in human society?

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Category: Personal Reflections
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Therefore confess you sins to each other, and pray for each other so that ye may be healed.The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man is powerful and affective. James 5,16

phon sehr klein. . . - especially the prayers of a mother.

Phon is a 10 years old boy, very imaginative, bold and a

gifted story teller. Unfortunately Phon follows instruc-

tions only very unwillingly and is extremely difficult to

motivate.


I am far away from being a gifted children’s worker, I’ve

never been one. Each Sunday school I had to spend lots

of energy to motivate Phon to take part. If he felt like eating

some snacks, he would just get up und buy some, regard-

less of the program. Needless to say that Phon didn’t go

alone but he took at least one more child with him.


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Category: Serving in Mission
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bang_sala_christmas1Last month (December 2010) we had many opportunities to share about Jesus birth and what it means for us today. One of the areas that has opened up to our work is a sub-district called Bang Sala. One of the village leaders became a Christian recently and has been invaluable in opening doors for the gospel. A team of Chinese Christians from Australia spent around ten days with us, helping us as we ran Christmas programmes in schools, in the middle of town and at the local jail. One day was spent visiting three schools and a kindergarten in Bang Sala sub-district. Our final activity at Bang Sala was a special Christmas outreach party at the house of the Christian village leader. Over 100 people in the area attended the very first Christmas party, ever! All enjoyed the singing, the hilarious games and the Christmas items presented by some of the local children. Many listened as I shared how Jesus’ birth and death can bring us to peace with God and peace with each other. Afterwards, I asked one of the local men if he’d ever heard the real Christmas story before. He hadn’t. What a privilege to take the good news to places it has never been heard before!
bang_sala_christmas2
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Category: Serving in Mission
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