One of the old jokes about engineers goes, "I never could spelle enginear and now I is one!" Engineers have never been well known for their ability with English or in communication. It's quite ironic then, that now I'm a missionary, I get called to teach English to Thais in my local area. Teaching English isn't my calling in life, nor is it something that I would seek to do out of choice. But as we've spent time in Thailand, we've realised that one of the major social needs is in the area of learning English. Normally, we teach a bit of English conversation in schools in our local area and have regular private classes at our home. But recently we had the opportunity to assist over 100 teachers to improve their English language abilities in a three-day course.
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- Written by Jeff Callow
- Category: Serving in Mission
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A large part of starting a ministry is simply going out and building relationships with the people around you. And you never know where these relationships will lead to. It was about a year ago when I was simply sitting outside our house one day, a neighborhood girl named Fiw came up to me and asked me to teach her English as well as her friend. After setting up a time, Fiw along with other neighborhood children started coming to our newly formed English club a few days later. This Thursday group has included children from our neighborhood along with children from other areas who have heard about it. It’s been filled with English lessons, songs & games, and a bible story at the end. We have had up to 12 students come in a week.
And within a month another English group was started. You see, word got out that we were teaching English and a group of young ladies studying at the local technical college came to our door asking me to teach English. Thus our Sunday
English group also began. Each Sunday afternoon, 5 girls come over and we practice English conversations. It’s been my hope and prayer that as we have had these conversations, we can have deeper conversations ultimately pointing to God and His love for them. That has happened several times through formal conversation studies as well as informal through fun activities such as baking!
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- Written by Lila Chang
- Category: Serving in Mission
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Last week 12 guys and 4 leaders travelled to Krabi and had a fantastic time on the South Thailand Adventure Camp. Camping in tents, including a night on an island beach, rock climbing, caving, kyaking, eating good food, talking about life and talking about God. Over half the young guys were not Christians but they really enjoyed the camp and are ready to come back in October next year! Want to join us?
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- Written by Jeff Callow
- Category: Serving in Mission
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What do you do on a Sunday afternoon? Yesterday five of the OMF South Thailand team spent their afternoon with local Thai Christians cutting up 8 kg of tomatoes and cooking up large amounts of spaghetti sauce then selling it at the local Pak Phanang "Walking Market". Local Christians manned the stall, handing out free literature, selling DVD's and books, chatting to people and selling spaghetti. (As well as buying and eating some too!) The spaghetti was the draw card attracting plenty of people to our stall. It quickly sold out... we better make more next time...
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- Written by Jeff Callow
- Category: Serving in Mission
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