Paralyzed Lady Hears God's Voice

El is paralyzed from her waist down. Jiap met her while she was out selling Cell Food (a food supplement). Jiap asked us to visit El because she wanted to hear about God. We went feeling like El really wanted to be healed and would accept anything just so she could walk again. While there we asked her to lay aside her former Buddhists beliefs and try Jesus. Tow, a member from Krabi Church, came to play the guitar and we sang some Christian songs which El said she liked very much. We talked about God and told her about praying for forgiveness from the things she had done wrong. Jiap wrote out a simple prayer for El to say at night before she went to sleep.
The following week during our visit El said, “you know after I said that prayer you gave me to say, I heard a voice telling me that Jesus was already helping me. I was surprised and looked around to see where they voice came from, but saw no one.” Her neighbors and relatives told her that she was just being brainwashed, but El said she felt better and wanted to know more about our God. This was good because Richard had asked Jiap to teach her the first lesson in the Chronological Bible lessons. He is trying to get our group members to teach what they have learned to others. (Jiap has taught 3 lessons already & is doing a great job!)
We left a song book with El and she has been using it to sing some of the songs in the book. She has even been getting those who visit her to sing with her.
Her husband, who has a second wife, came for a visit and noticed a difference in El. He said that she didn’t fuss at him now. A few days later, he came and gave her about $40 to buy food. This is great because since he left to find another wife, El has been dependent on others helping her. Now her husband is coming by on a regular basis and helping her.
Please pray for El’s healing, and most of all, for her to believe in God.

Bible Drill

There is a lively song in Thai which teaches the books of the New Testament. The Thais love the song. We taught it to the children in Toong Pru and then had them memorize the names of the New Testament books. Upon completion of the memorization, we gave the kids new testaments. Now we’re having Bible Drills to help them learn how to locate the different books in the New Testament. The older children excitedly compete each week.

Fellowship at the Beach

Richard left the house about 7 am to pick up members of the Khao Din group and bring them to church in Krabi town (about 50 kilometers away). After eating lunch at church, we took the group to Nop-pa-rat beach. The kids played in the water as the adults watched from the shady shoreline. The kids had fun collecting small jellyfish in cups (That’s fun?). Later we went to the Sea Shell Cemetery which is part of a National Park. Everyone was amazed at the small shells which once were deposited at the bottom of the sea thousands of years ago but now compacted on rocks visible to visitors. However, the kids liked the shopping area most of all. It was a good escape from regular activities & a great time to get to know the individuals in the group better.

Prayer and Praise

1. Praise God El’s life is changing and that her husband has taken more interest in helping her.
2. Pray for El to be healed, but most of all for her to become a child of God.
3. Pray for Montri to understand what he studies each week and begin practicing what he learns.
4. Pray for the groups we teach to remain faithful as we are gone on vacation and to meetings in March.
5. Pray for the Gospel to break through to the hearts of the ToongPru children and their families so they will to come to Jesus.
6. Pray for the Thais at Krabi Baptist Church to show more interest in Vern and that he will become more involved in Krabi Baptist Church.
7. Pray for members of each of our groups to actively witness of their faith.

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.