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Thai people have always been clever in taking a good technology or practice from other countries and adapting it for their own purposes. Back at the the beginning of the 20th century, King Rama V toured various western countries wearing top hats and driving cars to display his civilised manners to the European powers of the time. He took home with him many good ideas too - trousers for the men of Thailand, railways and freedom for the slaves. His efforts paid off. Thailand was never colonised by a European country, and thus Thailand retained its colourful character and culture.

 

Since moving here ten years ago, I have noticed how Christian churches have led the way in a number of areas, including training their members on how to improve their family relationships, as well as in the area of creatively teaching children and youth. Often this "ground-breaking" goes without recognition, but sometimes the churches are given the ultimate of compliments - to be copied by other parts of society such as schools, government offices and temples. One example is the way Sunday School songs are sung in many schools around the country, but with the last few lines about God being the creator removed!

 
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Category: Life in Thailand
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We have started to apply to focus on prayer walking in Thakua Pa, Phang-nga the place where we are looking to see God open a house hold to start a chronological bible study in.  We prayed before hand where to start prayer walking then we started in 3 areas and will add 2 more after another family arrives and another single lady arrives to join John Arcenas to see God open and move in hearts of the people here.  Prayer walking in these areas is part of a process we are in by applying some principals found in what Jesus did in Luke 10.  Here is a simple overview of what we are doing in months to come.  These are very general and we will be filling in many details under these general steps. Sometimes these steps don't always go in order.  We are open to what God would have us do with different people at different places.  Many  times things are not neat, but rather messy and we need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as we go about being involved in peoples lives. At any rate here some steps we are taking to see Mathew 28:19-20 fulfilled.

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Category: Serving in Mission
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Recently I got an email from a friend who is involved in seeing church planting movements started.  I was challenged by some of his thoughts.  Many mornings I wake up and I ponder the question, "am I really effective here as a westerner involved in church planting?"  When I don't have answers or clear direction in trying to process this question it can be confusing to see what is our role as  Western missionaries in Thailand.  There are many things I like to do, but I have to come to terms with not doing them if they do not lead to seeing more churches planted, but cause dependency on  the westerner.  There are many things I could do that would be helpful, but I often wonder if they are leading to what needs to be done.  In my thinking and in our vision here in this work we want to see multiplying simple churches established from the Andaman Coast to the Bay of Thailand led by Southern Thai people reaching out to neighboring provinces and beyond.  I love this vision that God has given us here in Southern Thailand and I feel very privileged to be able to spend my days trying to fulfill it.  But when I ask the question, what will it take to see Southern Thai people reaching out to their neighbors and going beyond that it feels over whelming and impossible.  It is a God sized vision, something we could not possibly do. So, that makes it dependant on God moving and working in the hearts of people here in Southern Thailand.  Prayer is so important to seeing people change and we have started to concentrate on praying for 3 specific neighborhoods.  We go prayer walking and we are prepared to meet the people God has arranged for us to meet.  Jesus loves the Buddhist people and we would love to see them come to Christ and lead their own communities of Christ in a Southern Thai way.

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Category: Serving in Mission
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It has been raining and raining and raining...... the fieldRainy_Season_Visit_smalls are swamps (or lakes) and there is water around many homes and in some.  Despite the puddles, we decided to grab the few hours of no rain last Saturday to go and check on some of the believers who live in villages just out of town and their families.  Part way down the road into the first village there was water all over the road.  Still, utes (pick-ups) can go through that level of water so on we went.  We stopped at the end of the concrete - not trusting the gravel road and decided to walk the remaining 200m..... or should I say wade!  There was 20-30cm of water over the road.  The road really just looked like a continuation of the canal that was next to it - marked only by the grass poking out of the water at the side of the road!  

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Category: Personal Reflections
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The annual ACTS church camp in Yala had come to end. I had slept in the dormatory for teenagers which meant lots of talking and little sleep. I had been awoken at 5:30am by the usual person blowing a whistle to get people up for the prayer meeting.

Later in the morning I had gone to our car and checked the radiator, oil etc. However, as I found out later, I forgot to put the radiator cap back on. Instead I had left it on the radiator and closed the bonnet.

After some morning meetings I had been out to get some important medical results with no problems and still me forgetting that I had not put the radiator cap back on.

Camp came to a close. We packed up our car along with 4 Thai believers and headed out back home to Pak Phanang, a four hour drive away.

After about 15 minutes driving I heard a noise come from the engine. It stopped after a short time so I thought nothing of it. A little time later I noticed that the temperature gauge rising rapidly. We were on a new road in a place where you did not pull over because you could be attacked or worse.

I opened the bonnet and found steam etc coming out of the radiator. It was then that I realised that I had forgotten to put the radiator cap back on. This is when God stepped in...

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Category: Life in Thailand
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On a rainy Sunday afternoon, 28 of us piled into 3 vehicles to drive to a local waterfall. After a time of worship, Mr Narong and Benz descended into the water and received baptism. Benz become a Christian 3 years ago at a Youth Camp. SInce then he has faithfully serving in the church and growing in the Lord.

Mr Narong is a local community who has been interested in Christianity. However over the past few months had been too busy to study the Bible. We thought he had lost interest in know God. But when we told him Benz was being baptised, Mr Narong said "Can I be baptised too?" Upon further questioning, Mr Narong said that he’s believed in Jesus for awhile now and has given away all his idols. He wanted to get baptised to show others that he is seriously following Jesus. Others are watching him closely as the first person in his family, and the first adult in that community to become a Christian. It is exciting to see God drawing both young and older people to Himself.
Bs_baptism_1

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Category: Serving in Mission
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Recently we have had a team of young people come and spend two days with us.  They are were doing a program called True North out of Three Springs Camp in Pennsylvania. There were 10 people all of them around 18 to 19 years old.  We thoroughly enjoyed them.  It was great to learn from some of these young people.  One of them is from inter-city Chicago and grew in gangs and much trouble.  He and I had the chance to do a prayer walk in the old city of Thakua Paa.  He told me, "Ken I want to be able to pray for someone today, what do you think?" So we prayed for a person to pray for, and right after we prayed a man walked up to us and wanted to talk to us.  So we asked can we pray for you?  He was very happy to have us pray for him and he had many needs.  This made a big impact on my new young friend.  After that we went into the Chinese temple and prayed for the city to be released from the bondage of Satan and asked God to open the eyes of the people there.  As we prayed a woman was in worshipping one of the 10 Chinese spirit gods.  So we prayed for her.  Later he said that he wants to go back to inner city of Chicago and see people set free and know Christ.  He said they would possibly listen to him because he was like them.

Another young man is very interested in coming as a short term missionary in a couple of years and spend time with us.  He spent a good amount of time playing legos with Jasper.  I was really impressed with him in this. After this he came to me and said that he was feeling home sick and it really helped him to play with Jasper.  He mentioned Jasper is just like his little brother who he missed.

The leader of this team is a good friend and he shared many things about his life and how God had been working in his family.  He had great words of encouragement for us and great testimonies of how God is working in his family. He had spent some 14 years in Thailand as a missionary and now is leading Vision Teams  for his mission.

We are excited in how God used this time to change and influence there lives and our lives.


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Category: Personal Reflections
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