Children's Day 2010

The 2nd Saturday in January is Children’s Day. Most towns and schools have activities for the children. They play games, do Thai traditional dances, get prizes, and free snack foods. We joined Khao Phanom city in their celebration. Eager children began coming before 8 am. We had a steady stream of children until lunch. We gave away 700+ children’s tracts, snack foods, and balloon animals. Two church friends blew up and tied off the balloons as fast as they could so that we could make the balloon animals. By noon, all four of us were ready to eat lunch and rest. Both friends ended up with blisters from tying off the balloons.

Funerals

The deceased in Thailand are kept in a refrigerated casket during funeral dates. We have attended 2 funerals lately. Both of the funerals we attended were for Christians. One deceased person was kept at Krabi Baptist Church through the 2 days of services. The family slept in the same room with their loved one. Richard preached one of those services about Jesus being the good shepherd. Each service ended with those attending eating rice porridge and beverages. The non-Christian mother asked for her daughter’s body to be cremated so that she could take her ashes home.
The second funeral we attended was for a relative of one of our cell group members. We traveled three hours away through some beautiful mountainous countryside to the city of Na-korn-Si-Tham-ma-rat. A Presbyterian church has a cemetery in that city. The cemetery had a shelter where the services were held and the family stayed. We arrived about 11 AM. The family made sure that we were greeted and had something to drink. About 30 minutes later they served us lunch with a choice of 7 toppings to put on our rice. (Serving food is standard for most funerals in Thailand.) We left about 3 PM and did not stay for the night services. (This would have put us getting home about midnight and having to work the next day.) According to Thai tradition, we left an envelope with money in it to help the family pay for the funeral expenses. The services lasted 7 days and the deceased was buried in the cemetery in a partially buried vault.

Encounter With A Spirit

A young couple drove 4 hours into Ranong Province with us to visit a Thai pastor friend and the church of 50-60 persons which meets in his side yard. The church has ½ Thai and ½ Burmese people. During the service, Richard preached with a Burmese man translating from Thai into Burmese. His message was on the importance of prayer.

At the end of the service, our friend, the pastor asked those who were sick or experiencing personal problems to come forward for special prayer. Several walked to the front including a lady who was having headaches and complained that she was dizzy. She looked rather distant as well. As the pastor spoke the name of Jesus, the lady being prayed for started to sway like she was going to faint. Richard immediately grabbed her arm to keep her from falling. However, she jerked away like a halfback breaking free from a tackle. Linda saw the lady stumbling. Thinking she was about to collapse, Linda reached for her arm but the lady spun away like a top out of control. We were both shocked by the bizarre behavior.

On the way home, the wife of the young couple that rode up to Ranong Province with us asked about the lady that was prayed for. She thought the lady had a spirit inside her. She explained that her grandmother is a spirit medium. When her grandmother invites a spirit to enter the body, her actions are very similar to the woman who was prayed for on Sunday. We both came to the same conclusion because the Bible clearly shows that evil spirits both resist and fear the name of Jesus.

Prayer and Praise

1. Continue to pray for Montri to be healed from the traffic accident injury, and believe fully in God.
2. Pray for a full commitment of Krabi Baptist in the area of church planting in Khao Phanom/Blai Praya and follow-up.
3. Pray for Ran to be completely healed of several diseases, and gain strength, so that he can work and support his family.
4. Continue to pray for Linda to be completely cured of related effects of chikungunya disease.
5. Pray for Vern to study God’s Word, understand what he reads and accept Jesus as his only Savior.
6. Pray for each group we teach to grow in their faith in God and be active in telling their friends and neighbors about Jesus.
7. Continue praying for more adults to study the Bible with us in Khao Phanom and Blai PraYa.