August & September 2024 Newsletter
I have been trying to write this newsletter for the last 3 days, but my jet lag has been brutal. If you missed it, I posted this on Facebook a few days ago:
The challenging part is getting through the portal from Asia back to the U.S., then recovering from that trip. Thankfully, we’re almost past it. Sunday morning, we returned to my hometown church. It was a beautiful experience to be greeted so warmly by those who not only saw me grow up, but were there to support us during our trials with cancer 3 years ago. Mary Ella has already joined a children’s choir (with Liz helping lead it) and she loves it.
Mary Ella has been noticing the differences between Thailand and America ever since we landed in Dallas; here is a list of some of the things she has commented on:
Hopefully, this week we will feel more settled, less sick, and more full of energy. I know for me, I already miss Muay Thai, and I’m excited to get back in the gym and back into some form of martial arts. We’re also looking forward to the fall weather.
Here are some noteworthy things that have happened over the last month or so.
A Profession of Faith
Right after we left, we received news that a young Thai girl who attends our ESL classes on Saturdays, made a profession of faith to give her life to Jesus. Praise God for this! Pray that this seed will fall on good soil in her heart, and pray for the little girl’s parents– both that they would be accepting of their daughter becoming a Christian, and that they themselves would be stirred to pursue the truth about, and a relationship with, Jesus.
Blessing Ao’s House
On our last Sunday at church in Chiang Rai, we had the opportunity to go with a small group and bless our friend’s new house. This is a common practice among Christians in Thailand. Typically, Thai Buddhists will have a monk come and bless their house, along with a ceremony. So Christians practice their own ceremony of asking for God’s blessing over the home, which is not only a great polemic in Thailand, but is a good practice for any culture.
English Corner
We do a lot of our “community service” through Grace Language School in Chiang Rai, and during our last few weeks, we had one more “Coffee House” event, except now we are calling them “English Corner” and having them monthly rather than once a term. I really enjoyed leading this last one, because I got to really geek out and share about mindset and practical tips for language learning. I even talked about neuroscience and how our brains learn best. I might have bored some, but I love these topics, and I hope I inspired some students in their language-learning journey.
Concert
Our church recently held a “revival concert” in Thai. A musician and worship leader that is well known in the Christian circles in Thailand came up from a town in Central Thailand, which is about 12 hours away, and put on the concert for us and the Christian community in Chiang Rai. We are also friends with his brother’s wife, so it was nice getting to see her again, and she always brings gifts!
Barnabas
Before moving on to some prayer requests, I want to share a story with you. During one of our last weeks in Chiang Rai, I was feeling discouraged about the state of the mission in Thailand. This year, God has been helping me understand what it means to practice patience and celebrate small wins, realizing that for some nations, it takes a generation or more for significant change to take place. While Christianity IS growing in Thailand, it has always felt like a small trickle eroding away an enormous boulder. This can be encouraging when you zoom out and look at things from the sky, but when you are in the field every day, it can get tiresome. Thai people are polite and are amazing friends when they attach themselves to you, but the average person on the street can often be very closed off, especially to new ideas like Christianity.
However, as I was starting to doubt and feel discouraged, God literally sent a Barnabas to encourage me. I went to order coffee at a small outdoor coffee shop by our house. I greeted the “uncle” sitting by himself at the table in front of the shop and then moved on to greet the barista and order my coffee. The man stood up and walked closer to where I was, and then fell to the ground. I asked if he was okay, and he explained that he had suffered a stroke the year before, which made him go limp at times. Then once he realized I spoke Thai fluently, he asked me what I did for work. I explained that I serve in a charitable foundation teaching English and volunteering in the church, and he told me that he was a Christian. He shared with me the ministry he had done in Malaysia, and now is doing with Bible translation and distribution for the minority groups in Northern Thailand. We had a great conversation, and I was so encouraged to meet a mature Thai man who was a devoted follower of Jesus and had been doing ministry for years. Then I asked his name, and he told me that his nickname was Barnabas.
My new nickname should have been Isaac, because I walked away from that conversation laughing at both myself and God for what he had just done. I also walked away feeling guilty that I had not stopped and prayed for his stroke and lingering symptoms, but that is another lesson in not getting so busy that you miss opportunities to minister to those right in front of you.
Prayer Requests:
Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, and some other places in Thailand, have experienced severe flooding this past month. Some folks from our church went out to deliver supplies and commodities to a few of the villages that were affected.
Mary Ella’s tooth crown fell out this past month and had to be put back in, then it fell out again the next day because it wasn’t glued in well enough. Now she has another tooth that is loose. She has gone through so much with her teeth, and I cannot explain how proud I am of her for being brave through it all, but it definitely scares her. There was one night where she was afraid to sleep because she thought her crown would fall off again and she would choke on it.
I have an aunt whose vision is suffering badly, and this came upon her very quickly and unexpectedly.
As I come back to small town Tennessee & Mississippi, I am reminded how much brokenness there is here. Divorce, impoverished mindset, drugs, pervasive pessimism and chronic complaining, and physical health issues for so many. There are many pathologies that I would love to see “my people” delivered from.
Bonus:
I want to share an inspiring testimony with you from a brother of ours in Bangkok. We lived in his rental house at one time, and I've had a few good conversations with him. When I think of the spirit of Barnabas like I mentioned before, Rawee is one that comes to mind.
Double Bonus:
THANKS FOR BEING PART OF THE TEAM!
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