SHE LOOKED ME STRAIGHT IN THE EYE, and said, "No! Only one of you is late." I tried to clarify that all four of us were late by one day, but she just laughed. This never happens in a government bureaucracy, especially the immigration department. I was stunned. But it didn't take much faith for me to think, "Amazing grace!", and just pay the late fee for one person. We're supposed to report to the immigration office every 90 days; but, we had lost track of time in the midst of our summer ministries.
DEAR FRIENDS, thank you for your friendship and emails and support and prayers. We pray that your life will be filled with many blessings from God, in addition to the excitement of elections and natural disasters. We have our share of excitement in Thailand. Our family is doing well, growing not in quantity but in experience and maturity. Sarah is enjoying her English Bible studies on Thursdays at lunch with Thai professionals; she will begin helping out at a local MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) group each month. Lydia's homeschooling is going as well as hoped.
FOUR CHURCH TEAMS visited us this past summer and helped our ministries in many ways. Redeemer Presbyterian, Harvest Community, Torrance Good Shepherd, and New Life Community (pictured) helped out in Chonburi Mission Center, led worship and VBS (and farmed!) in a couple of Karen villages, taught English at schools, the slums, and also visited ministries that help prostitutes. We had a great time hanging out too.
JOAN is a nurse who came with the Redeemer short term team and has been volunteering at the clinic in Bangkok Refugee Center; she also teaches English at the Royal Thai Police Headquarters every week. Joan was helpful in leading some of the OLC Bible studies when I was out of town with visiting teams. Eli is doing well in Chonburi Center, working too hard everyday. In addition to teaching English at nearby schools in the weekdays, he leads the English portion of the Saturday outreach in two locations, and has started an English Sunday school program from this month. Both Joan and Eli have been very encouraging to us and the Thais in our ministry network.
THE OLC (Outreach Language Center in SDRF) building is no longer available for us to use for our English Bible studies. Instead of renting a meeting space we decided to just meet in a café nearby. We'll let you know if we develop a larger vision for OLC that requires a building.
CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY on Friday mornings was a blast. We ended the course with a weekend leadership camp (see photos on my facebook). I've also began preaching at the chapel in BCIS (Bangkok Christian Int'l School) on Wednesday mornings. Combined with all-day lectures in Chonburi Seminary on Tuesdays and a wife and two kids to remember, my blessed week does seem to boast more quantity than quality. I intend to trim down my schedule a bit in the coming months. I've neglected exercise and reading, along with personal visitations.
Pray for Thailand as we're now in a state of emergency amidst intense street protests.
Please also pray that:
- The short-term teams that visited will continue to grow in their zeal for God's people, even in USA.
- Newsong Bangkok will be a place for all kinds of people to know Jesus Christ creatively and fully.
- God will help us to focus and strategize so we can help the Thai church effectively.
In Christ,
Paul, with Sarah, Lydia and Timothy
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