Ministry Week #2

"Only, when, like Christ, and in loving obedience to His call and example, we take no account of ourselves, but freely give ourselves to others, we shall find, each in his measure, the saying true of himself also: 'Wherefore also God hath highly exalted him.' The path of self-sacrifice is the path to glory." -B.B. Warfield

"His steadfast love is better than life." says King David in his Psalms of praise. Amen. Week two was an example of God's love for his sons and daughters throughout our team here in Khon Kaen, Thailand. It has been a humbling week personally. God's grace has become more evident and beautiful for me through the Holy Spirit's conviction of my heart and my continual selfish and sinful heart. 

"Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!" -Romans 7:24-25

Even through our selfish motives, thoughts, and actions the Lord continues to bless my team and I revealing that we have been reconciled to our Father, the author of life through the sweet mercy of Jesus on the cross. We have been set free! Hallelujah! 

Our team has been studying the life of Jesus in the book of Mark. It has been incredible to see the infinite power that Jesus gave up to be like man so he could pay it all on the cross. I could write pages on all that God has taught the team and I about Christ humbling himself and becoming nothing on this earth and our call to live as Christ; a self-sacrificing unselfish life sold out, in every manner, to bring God the glory he deserves. Although we, as humans and sinful fleshly men and women that we are, cannot offer God anything, we are given a new self, a new soul, and a new life through Christ Jesus, OUR Lord. 

OKAY, now let me share the juice of what has happened in this second week of our grace-filled time here @ KKU. Our goal was to continue to meet new freshmen and sophomore students as well as reconnecting with students we had met the previous week. Our ministry group met around 10 more freshmen students in the science faculty, and have been laboring early afternoon's and evenings to build our friendships with them. The science students major in anything from chemistry/biology to nanotechnology to Information Communications Technology and the like, so talk about dealing with some smart people. 

We had a good amount of rich 1-on-1/2-on-2 time with students that I feel have began a good foundation on building opportunities to go deeper and deeper in our relationships. For lunch, the same cycle continues. There are two main places we eat for lunch, Rong Chai & The Complex, consisting of nothing really more than rice and meat. After the first week, I've been experiencing with new spices and toppings to put on my rice and meet which have been delicious but not so much good on the body hours later. 

Mike & Fak- Freshmen w/ Ties (Philip from UNA on the left and Bill from SU on the right. Nai is our ministry leader in the top middle

Our week concluded on Saturday with a trip to the main Buddhist temple in Khon Kaen in which we invited the students to come and give us a tour through and answer a bunch of 'why' questions about the merit, holy water, relics, and the Buddhist religion. Some good opportunities to share about Christianity beliefs as well. There were 9 levels in this temple, each with different pictures and statutes on each of them paying respect to different people, items, and gods. 

Following our temple trip on Saturday, CO provides a lunch at the mall for all who came on the trip. The mall is called Central Plaza and is the main place that the students hang out and is the place to go if you are in Khon Kaen. 

Ministry Leader Nai with 5 students

As I said, God was So good to us this week and after the temple trip and lunch at Central, over 70 freshmen students came to the church to practice badminton for their freshmen competition 2 weeks from now. The church has a big gym with room for basketball and futsal games as well as 4 badminton courts and CO staff offered the gym for KKU freshmen students to practice badminton. An amazing opportunity for students to come to the church and for us all to get to know students and build our relationships in them, and an interest in CO. The language barrier is still a bit challenging but the Lord has made ways to continue building relationships. 

Freshmen Badminton @ the Church

Praise the Lord for his faithfulness, and praise the Lord for the support group that God has given me that has been faithful in prayer. Please continue to pray, and do not stop, that these relationship foundations that all of us have built will continue on for the gospels sake, for God's glory. Pray that the Holy Spirit would move in the hearts of those students that we have engaged and that God will continue to not allow the devil to distract our team in any way. Pray for safety with travel and for good health with all of this different, yet most of the time tasty, food. I can't write in words how much I am thankful for everyone who is reading this and praying for me and has supported me. I love you team!

"For to set the mind of the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is Life and Peace." -Romans 8:6