Krabi Boats 8

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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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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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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ken

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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  2. A Day in the Life of a Missionary......
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