Tuesday, June 26, 2012

N Thai Update

"Wherever I go, the King goes. Wherever the King goes, 
His Kingdom comes. 
Wherever His kingdom comes, the powers to be must submit!"

                Last Tuesday we moved into our second host home. The family here is really so sweet and they say that we are just like their own kids. They have two children Ulm, their 17 year old daughter, and Nai their son. Ulm has begun to call us her sisters which is so great! She is truly such a blessing to us. One of the first things that we did in this home was pray over it. It was definitely a moving experience. God taught me through this experience that He fills the heavens and the earth-He most certainly can fill these host homes. We have been praying desperately for this family's hearts to be opened. 

               God has truly been at work this week. We were invited to our first birthday party last week for a girl named Giv-she turned 13. She is actually one of our English students. Her family let us pray over her and then we all joined around to eat cake and mango. In Thailand the day simply is not complete without mango. It was truly an honor that we were invited to the party. 

           On the way back from visiting one of the local schools we noticed a ceremony (funeral) going on and Ulm took us up to it. The man that the ceremony was for was in his late 30s and passed away because of an auto accident. It really began to hit home with me that this was a man in my village, though I had never met him. He never came to know Jesus as far as we all know. This was a Buddhist ceremony that we were at. There was a monk inside the home reading sutras while people were burning incense. We did all that we could do by helping the family with food preparation. Every day is a day that we could be sharing the gospel. We do not know God's timing on anything or any life in this village. This has created a greater passion within me to be intentional each day with sharing God with this community, and we only have one week left in this specific village.

          God has truly been at work this week. Rung's dad said he has begun to take notice of  how we are living and how different we are from the village. This is progress and I loved hearing that maybe something is changing within him. We went to borrow a Thai Christian film on Thursday and put it in Kari's (the team leader) purse. That night some of the girls from the neighboring Catholic home joined with our host family to learn to make bracelets. This movie sparked the interest in Nai and he asked to watch the Jesus film. We showed that Saturday night and the gospel was shared with our host family the same night. I have to admit that I was a little sad that nothing miraculous came out of the family watching the movie, but God has His own timing through everything. We walked in Sunday to find Nai watching the Jesus film on his own. I really do believe that the hearts of Ulm and Nai are being opened.

          Friday we went to Ulm's high school for half of the day. We went to class and participated in a teacher english camp.  Absolutely every student wanted to say hello. This means kids shouting hello over balconies, out windows, down stairs, and in the hallways. We were even surrounded by a whole group of girls for the entire day. We had the amazing chance to be able to pass out tracts and simply speak to a bunch of students. I loved being able to go to their school. 

        We had 17 kids in english class this week! I had four girls in my group this week and I love simply being able to practice conversation with them. Ulm even came to english class with us and was in my class! I hope to go through salvation colors with them next week. 

I hope you all have a great week!

   Love in Christ,

      ~Morgan