Comings and Goings...

We have been on the road a great deal lately and have met so many people that we have not kept up with the picture taking. The reality is that we don't want to start flashing pictures during church services or ask people we have just met to pose for us. So I will give you what I can as far as images and do my best to share with you what has been going on here.



Our first trip out of Bangkok was to Khon Kaen. Our new friend Steve Wheeler invited us to come up and meet the other missionaries in the area. We also had the great joy of attending some churches that Sunday. This was welcome since we had not been to one in Bangkok.



This is River of Life Church. We met Bill and Julie Hughes and Karen Welker here. We had the great pleasure of enjoying the service and getting to know these wonderful people. This is a Thai church. Bill Hughes was kind enough to translate for us through walkman units while the Thai Pastors taught the congregation. This particular visit she preached. It was amazing! She taught on who we are because of Christ and exhorted each one of us to step into what God has provided to us through Jesus' sacrifice. It was truly very inspiring.






This group of Missionaries has years of experience that combined is longer than I have been alive. They are kind and generous people whose hospitality was very much appreciated. Karen has become a fast friend and actually hosted us on our next trip up to Khon Kaen. We stayed at her house for three nights and it was a major blessing. She gave us the grand tour of Khon Kaen like no one else could and we are so grateful.

We also attended Khon Kaen Harvest Church International on the University of Khon Kaen Campus. This is a church founded by Evangelical Mission SOS International. (SOS = Save Our Souls) They are a team from Sweden who have really exploded for God in Khon Kaen. The team is lead by Per Gisselsson who is the Field Director in Khon Kaen and an experienced evangelist with a passion for the people of Thailand. The team is made up of bible school students from Sweden and they are on fire for God. All of these team members have had to learn English to come to Thailand and learn Thai. Most Thai's know some English, but Swedish is obviously not that common. I am having a hard enough time just working my head around switching things from English into the few Thai words I know. I cannot even imagine the grace necessary for them to go through so much to communicate. What have you done for God today? That is what it makes me ask myself every time I am around them.

Here is an interesting shot that we managed to get. This is Pastor Neung preaching a message about the children of Israel coming to the promised land. He is on the extreme right. The translator is the tall Australian gentleman on the right. The two swedes in the middle represent the different sides of the report. One is Joshua and Caleb who believe God and the other is the remainder of spies who were in fear. It was really fun and a great message.

We returned to Khon Kaen a week later and were able to attend the service at River of Life for a second time. This service was made really special by the water baptism of some of the churches youngsters. This little guy in the yellow was really cute. The Pastor sort of interviewed him before they got started and asked him if he was ready to die, meaning to Christ. The little boy got wide eyed and said not yet! The Pastor laughed with the rest of us and then he asked him who he loved more Jesus or his mother. He didn't hesitate and said "Jesus!"

In the picture above, Bill and Julie Hughes are standing behind the baptismal pool and Karen Welker is in the lower right hand corner looking at her camera. The Pastor baptized all the boys and his wife baptized the girls. I am not telling you any of their names because I can't. Names have been a real challenge here. When I get them right for sure, I will add them to this blog.

Be expecting more from Khon Kaen. We will be joining SOS Mission for a few days at the end of March and start of April. They will also be helping us make our first run for the border. We have to exit the country before the 4th of April so they will be taking us to Laos on the 2nd.