Wednesday July 11
Yesterday morning, Eric had an opportunity to share with one of the native ladies who was selling her wares and she prayed to accept Jesus. We did not hear this until we debriefed later. Also, here are some amazing facts about the second church we visited yesterday. Until a couple or three years ago, they were a small church with a handful of members. The village had a problem with drugs and alcohol, some even came to church drunk! One reason so few came to the church was because the fish in the nearby dam always came on Sundays so everyone in the village fished on Sundays. At Pastor Gampon's advise, the Lahu village pastor fasted and prayed for many days that the fish would come on Saturday, instead. He announced to the village that God was going to bring about this change. The fish then came on Saturday, and they had a larger catch than any Sundays before and the fish has been coming every Saturday since. This started a revival and the church grew to its current size of about 60 believers and is still growing in their new buildings. The people are doing well so they are able to self-support their own pastor. We met an illiterate Lahu woman who so wanted to be able to read the Bible in Thai. With no other means for her to be trained in language, God told her to get up each day at 5 AM to pray. So she fasted and prayed for one month from 5 to 11 AM or so every day, and suddenly, she could read the Thai Bible. Pastor Gampon was somewhat skeptical of her claim so he brought his Thai Bible before her and asked her to read it out loud and she did! Recently, he himself been fasting for 30 days and ended his fast last Saturday night. However, he then ate pork Monday night and the rich food caused severe diarrhea all of yesterday. Imodium did not help him and he was going so often we wondered if he could preach last night. But as soon as he started to preach, he could feel the Spirit`s anointing and he preached powerfully and his diarrhea was instantly cured. He did not go for the rest of the the service nor during the ride home, over 3 hours total. When we went to pray for the pastor`s father yesterday, our mindset is on doctors and exam while they just pray and depend on God. They pray for God`s greater glory while we usually focus on our own little needs.
Today is our last full day of ministry. We are scheduled to sing at Commercial College this morning, a neighborhood elementary school at 1 PM, and since we liked the Agape Home for children with AIDS, we called and they graciously invited us back this afternoon. Pastor Tom leaves at close to midnight tonight for the FEC Glendale Intentional Discipleship Breakthrough retreat this weekend. Tomorrow is our one fun day as we go to an Elephant Camp for rest and relaxation. We then debrief for the next two days to praise God for what He did and seek Him for what we should do in the future and how to carry this missional mindset back home. On Sunday, Joe, Eugene and the six going to Indonesia (Czrilla, Nadia, Aaron, Jessie, Tia and Holy) leave in the morning and we sing at the Blessings Church in the morning (Marshall`s preaching so pray for him) and at Chiangmai Community Church (a English speaking church) in the afternoon with a smaller team. A. Sue leaves around lunch time for Bangkok and the rest of us close to midnight.
We ate another delicious breakfast and found out after the strenuous past two days, about 4 of us have some stomach problems and about half a dozen or more of us have bad throats. The elementary school called to cancel due to a scheduling conflict but we see this as God's timing so we can debrief our village experience more fully. We had expected that we would be singing at the nice 3000 seat auditorium at Commercial College. Instead, they put us in the cafeteria area to sing to the students on break between classes. They set up 4 microphones to pick us up and we sang in a noisy cacophonous hallway. We started about 10:15, did the backpack skit and Czrilla shared a powerful testimony about her high school dreams and how God used it to put Himself preeminent in her life. We found out we had to end at 11, because that was when these students had to get to their next class. We had a few minutes to talk to some of these students before they got marched off to class. Denise was singled out by a girl who is a Christian who was encouraged by our singing to share Christ with her classmates. Knowing a little more what to expect, we shortened our program the next hour. We did the puppet skit and Nadia shared how she found her identity as a Junior High student in other's praises but how Jesus fulfilled her needs when she got into High School. We realized that we were there to sow seeds, but A. Mei had a chance to meet a Christian Chinese girl student who wanted her friend to hear the Gospel. With this girl translating, her friend prayed to accept Jesus. We walked back home and before lunch, had a chance to pray for those who are feeling bad. A 6 liter water bottle dropped on Jaspher's already injured toe yesterday and it started bleeding even more. Pastor Tong Kam brought him to see a doctor who cleaned up the wound to make sure it is not infected. After lunch, we debriefed the village experience and this morning, did our small group devotions and about half the group went to Agape Home while the rest stayed back to rest. We invited Pang and Bee (two nursing student girls who are living at the back of the church) to come with us. Please pray for them as they are close to receiving Jesus. They're hesitant to receive Jesus because they feel like they'd be betraying their families. The jeepnies took us to the the Agape orphanage and we just played with the kids, sang VBS songs and had a joyous time with the children. One little girl not only had AIDS but was also blind. Holy helped her with the hand motions so she was able to enjoy the music too. Ellen (one of the directors at Agape) spoke to Czrilla and encouraged her in her desire to serve the Lord by following her passion. She felt like she had some confirmations so please pray for her as she continues to reflect. We had dinner at home. Pastor Gampon came to bring Pastor Tom to the airport. He told us that after returning home, his diarrhea also returned. Apparently, God healed him only so he could deliver his sermon last night and drive back with us, grace just enough for the occasion. Jeff is running a low fever, and is the sickest among us. Pray that tonight's sleep will heal him sufficiently to go for tomorrow's elephant camp. Marshall is losing his voice due to the allergies and is supposed to preach on Sunday in Pastor Tom's absence so pray for his voice if God means for him to preach. We spent some time appreciating Pastor Tom and prayed for him before he left to go to the airport for his return flight.
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