When I arrived in South Thailand, I wasn't sure where I would be serving. It was a litttle weird when people asked me where I would be, but I explained that I and my team-mates would need to seek God, explore some possibilities, and make a decision together. For me, it was no big deal to spend whatever time needed to explore and discern, but my team-mates are a family of five with a home-school helper coming as well, and the pressure was on to come to a decision in a timely fashion.

Beforehand, we had thought of two potential districts in which we had some connections. But when we arrived, we were presented with a new possibility which we hadn't really considered, a district I had never been to or even heard of... We pretty well ruled out one of the three possibilities, so were left with two main options to explore. One, which I was more acquainted with was a very rural setting with absolutely zero Christians as far as we could tell. The other place is a fruit growing area close to mountains and also closer to the city. It also has some Christians. And a Thai pastor in the city with which our south Thailand team has a very good relationship highly recommended for us to go there. And even went as far as to say that he would like the people connected to his church (though not regular attenders) from there to join in the church we are planting.

We decided to survey both locations. And spent about two weeks taking time to visit these two districts, to go to markets, visit local meeting places such as sports fields, meet local officials and look for potential housing. We also asked people if they knew of any Christians.

At first, there were no bolts of lightning from heaven to show us where to go. But one day, there came a turning point. We were surveying in Phrom Khiri when I received a call from a friend of a friend in Lopburi in central Thailand where I had been studying Thai for a year. She had just moved back to Nakhon Sri Thammarat and was looking for someone to teach her English (I was able to connect her with Lila Chang). But during the call, I happened to mention that I was in Phrom Khiri, surveying there. She said, "Oh, that's my hometown! She then said she could likely help us find places and could introduce us to relatives there, including her parents.

As we prayed more, it seemed that Phrom Khiri would be a more suitable location for our team for the present and that Phrom Khiri seemed much more ripe for churchplanting.  And now, two months in, it seems very positive, as God has provided us all with good housing, connections in the community and also has helped us find and connect with seven local Christians, a couple which are eager to help in the planting of a church.