Bird Breaks Free from YoRay Religous Sect

Instead of an idol, the Thais come to worship the word, “Savior” written in Japanese on a wall. This savior will come when the world ends.
This Buddhist religious movement began in Japan during the 1930s. They seek to make an ideal world through eating organic foods, art (painting/flower arranging), and divine light healing. The also do rituals to ancestors and accept many good teachings from other religions. 660,000 Thais follow this teaching.
Bird was in YoRay for 6 years. We now teach him and his mother on Tuesday afternoon. Richard recently went with Bird to pick up some things he had stored at the YoRay Center in Suratthani. During the travel to Surat, Richard asked him, why he had come out of YoRay. Bird responded, “I saw the truth in Jesus and I wanted the truth.” Praise God!!

Cool Mountain Vacation

Richard & Linda took a vacation to the Cameron Highlands in Malaysia. We stayed in a private home, read books, put together several jigsaw puzzles, hiked, and had a quite time away from the daily hour trips to work in Khao Phanom & Blai Praya. It was cool in the mountains – a relief from the heat of Thailand. The area we stayed in is called “Little England” because of the Tutor architecture of the hotels and many of the local homes. We also got to practice our English speaking skills and worship in English .

Seminary Student Testimony

During the summer break here (March –May) seminary students go to several places in Thailand. One team came to practice things they had heard in class in the south. They came a few days to help us with our work.
One of the students gave his testimony. Tong was a dancer in bars and discos in a Thai tourist city and was into drinking heavily plus other things.
Tong’s mother had been inhabited with spirits for 12 years. She had been to and spent lots of money on 2 spirit doctors, who both died. His older brother became a Christian and led his mother to God. The spirits left her when she became a Christian and didn’t return.
When Tong returned home, his mother asked him to go to church with her one Sunday. His thoughts were, “I don’t want to go, but to appease my mother I’ll go. I became a Buddhist monk temporarily for my mother, going to church one time is certainly a much shorter time than a couple of weeks as a monk.” He went to church and he too met God. His life changed and now he’s studying at the Baptist seminary in Bangkok so he can work in a church with teenagers. Praise God for calling Thais to Himself, who will in turn bring many others to Jesus.

Praise and Prayer

1. Praise God that Meow and Chaat are seeking God. Pray for Meow and Chaat to study and grow to become Christians.
2. Pray for Yik, Mike, Ngam, and Sai to desire God more than other things in their lives and return to Bible study.
3. Pray for Gal, Pa, Bal, Am, and Khwan to be able to stand the pressure of being ostracized/isolated by their community because they are studying the Bible.
4. Pray for Sam-ran and his daughter to study the Bible and come to know Jesus as Savior.
5. Pray for Moo whose mother is dying of cancer to put his trust in God.
6. Our daughter’s family is coming for a visit the end of April. Pray for us to have good safe travels and bless our time together as a family.
7. Pray for Southern Thai Christians to lead lives which are testimonies to God’s love and power to change lives.