'Then Jesus told his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."' Matthew 16:24
As we begin our last week here in Thailand, I want to share with you my amazing extravaganza that took place this past weekend. As you know, we traveled hundreds of miles south of Khon Kaen deep into the Isaan people groups' country side in route to visit two freshmen students homes this past weekend. By God's grace, he has given us this incredible opportunity to move to a much deeper relationship with these two men by visiting their homes and eating with their families. Visiting each others homes in Thailand are very intimate situations which the Lord has graciously provided my ministry team and I with. At both villages, we were the first foreigners to ever step foot there.
We began early Saturday morning from Khon Kaen and arrived at one students house around 12 just in time for lunch. We were able to meet his mother and sister as well as some visiting neighbors. Our ministry leader was able to share with them why we are here and what we are doing. This is one of the students that we have shared in depth, by Gods grace alone, our testimonies of transformed hearts through Jesus as well as a clear picture of the God, Jesus, and the gospel. Family plays an important factor in why students are hesitant towards Christianity; for they do not want to upset and forsake their parents and their parents upbringing of them, which is understandable. But we serve a BIG God who is able to break down any barriers in order to save the lost.
Click here for video. After eating an Isaan lunch, some foreign fruit, and taking a tour of the local temple and poverty stricken village, we packed our bags and were back on the road, headed towards Surin to the famous elephant village with our comfortably 10-seater Toyota 'Carryboy'.
None of us or the students had ever been to the elephant village before and it was amazing to see so many elephants in such a short area. After we stopped here for about an hour, we decided to skip the night at the hotel and head for another students house which turned out to be about a 6 hour ride to the province of Sisaket. This is a view of the majority of our trip. Click here for video
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| The chicken that we caught |
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| Where we slept for the night |
Upon our arrival in Sisaket, we were greeted with an enormous dinner in which we devoured after a whole day of driving. We were able to spend some time with his family and later that night catch 2 chicken in preparation for the next days' breakfast.
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| Breakfast is served |
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| Family farewell |
On this trip we had incredible opportunities to talk with these two students and their families more about what we were doing in Thailand, who Jesus was, and what we believe about Christianity and the gospel. Their reaction? Very interested to say the least. As we still continue to love them and build our relationships with them, we can only hope and pray that the gospel seeds, by God's grace, that we have sowed and continue to sow in their hearts, will have eternal implications and that our God will provide the growth in the souls of these men in a relationship with Himself.
"What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building." -1 Corinthians 3:5-9
Our last week here, we are continuing to meet up with the students we have built relationships with in hope that God will use us, through our words, actions, and time, to make an impact in his kingdom for eternity, all for his glory. Here is a little taste of our ministry leader, Nai. Click here for video
I love you team and can't tell you how much a appreciate your prayers and support.
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