Hey there all,
Just wanted to make a quick update to share some praises for God with you all. This past Friday, myself and 3 others on our team went to a local university with two Thai Youth For Christ staff. There we spent a couple of hours basically doing conversational evangelism with Thai students. We went to the part of campus with English majors, then were introduced as native English-speakers and so we would talk to students, help them with homework, and share about the gospel.
The first student who I talked to was a guy named Wit, in his 3rd year at university as an English major. We talked a bit, he filled out a Youth For Christ survey card, and then I began to help him a bit with his homework. I was hoping to be able to share about Jesus with him but he wanted help on his homework because he had a class very soon so I helped him out, thinking that then he would go to class and that would be that. Lo and behold, his class got cancelled and so he came to lunch with us where we found out he was Hmong. One of the girls on our team is also Hmong and so began to talk to him and shared the gospel with him in her limited Hmong. Afterwards a few YFC staff prayed for him and we invited him to the "American Party" our team was hosting at the church on Sunday. He said "see you on Sunday" but I admit that I was skeptical and didn't want to get my hopes up that a student we had only met for a little while would travel across much of Bangkok just to hang out with some foreigners.
However...yesterday he came to the party about an hour early, and met some local church folk. By the time I showed up a half-hour before the party he had already believed on Christ and was excited about his new faith! This just goes to how God is entirely the decisive factor in bringing people to faith, for "it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." (1 Cor. 1:21) And so we will boast in the Lord, and His great power and wisdom. Pray that Wit may be planted on the good soil and give God praise today for his global plan of redemption!
Seeking to treasure Christ more with all of you,
Erik
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all
Hello everyone,
My team has about 2 weeks left to our trip here, and about 5 weeks behind us. In this time, God has been working among our team and has been continuing his work among the Thai people.
This past weekend the team was able to go with several church members to the much more rural town of Lopburi, part of a province famous for it's monkeys. There we saw monkeys in the streets, elephants in the streets, and were able to experience more fully what rural Thailand is like. We praise God for the work he has been doing in Lopburi. While we were there we hung out with a new believer, and 1 young Thai man accepted Christ during a Bible study with some Thai believers before dinner. At that same dinner we were able to pray for the non-Christian grandpa of a Christian family who attends our church in Bangkok, and who has problems with alcoholism. Just earlier this week we were astounded to hear that this older man accepted Christ just days after we were able to pray for him! God is the great doer in his saving work, for "neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth" (1 Corinthians 3:7), and so we desire to give him all the glory for his work. We thank him for opening the hearts of these men to see "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (2 Corinthians 4:4)
In my reading time here I read through a passage in John Piper's book "Finally Alive" which I would like to share as an encouragement to everyone who calls on the name of Christ. It is based on the text of 2 Corinthians 4:1-7. In regards to our personal evangelism efforts, Piper writes
My team has about 2 weeks left to our trip here, and about 5 weeks behind us. In this time, God has been working among our team and has been continuing his work among the Thai people.
This past weekend the team was able to go with several church members to the much more rural town of Lopburi, part of a province famous for it's monkeys. There we saw monkeys in the streets, elephants in the streets, and were able to experience more fully what rural Thailand is like. We praise God for the work he has been doing in Lopburi. While we were there we hung out with a new believer, and 1 young Thai man accepted Christ during a Bible study with some Thai believers before dinner. At that same dinner we were able to pray for the non-Christian grandpa of a Christian family who attends our church in Bangkok, and who has problems with alcoholism. Just earlier this week we were astounded to hear that this older man accepted Christ just days after we were able to pray for him! God is the great doer in his saving work, for "neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth" (1 Corinthians 3:7), and so we desire to give him all the glory for his work. We thank him for opening the hearts of these men to see "the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God." (2 Corinthians 4:4)
In my reading time here I read through a passage in John Piper's book "Finally Alive" which I would like to share as an encouragement to everyone who calls on the name of Christ. It is based on the text of 2 Corinthians 4:1-7. In regards to our personal evangelism efforts, Piper writes
"If you feel average or less than average in your sense of fitness to tell the gospel, you are the person God is looking for -- a clay pot, who simply shares the treasure of the gospel, not the glitzy intellect, not the glitzy eloquence, not the glitzy beauty or strength or cultural cleverness. Then God will do his work through the gospel, and the surpassing power will belong to him and not to us. Be encouraged, ordinary Christian. You are appointed, precisely in your ordinariness, for the greatest work in the world: opening the eyes of the blind and showing the Treasure of Christ."
One of the things that I have been learning on this trip and that I pray we will all learn more and more the is the gloriousness of justification by faith. That God loved us, and gave his only Son that we might know him by believing in him (that's it! believing!) is truly the greatest news in the world. We don't need to dress up the gospel or to add or subtract anything from it. Justification by faith is right there at the center and it's a truth that I pray we will all realize more of the greatness of day by day, and that this truth would cause us to go out and share this news, this glorious news of the mercy of God, with friends and acquaintances and the man on the plane and the guy next to you on the bus. Yearning to seek after harder Him with all of you,
Erik
Please pray: That our team would be open to learning in these last 2 weeks, that the new Thai believers would be planted on the good soil, and that God would conform us more to the image of His Son, by whatever means necessary.
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
The journey continues
Hello again everyone,
Once again apologies for my lack of frequency in updates. Much has been happening however in Thailand. Since my last update the team and I have gotten settled into a weekly work routine here. Myself and 3 others work at the Ban Suan Church, a local Thai church that is very close to our hotel. One of our main activities here is teaching English, as English speaking is a skill that is in high demand everywhere here.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach a class of 10-13 year olds English, and on Wednesdays and Fridays I teach a class of 20-30 year olds. The majority of the students in both cases are not Christians and it is a great opportunity to be able to build relationships and to teach them through Bible stories that many of us know, but that are usually completely foreign to them here. (Prodigal son, Jonah, Daniel and the lions den, good samaritan, etc.) Last Friday after teaching from 6-7, four of our five 20-30 year old students came out to dinner with myself and the other teachers which provided a great opportunity to get to know them better outside of the classroom and we hope that the dinner will be a regular occurrence. They were curious to know why we were here and it was an awesome way to be able to share about God and what he has done in our lives.
Our team also reaches out to several of the poor communities in the local area. On Tuesday mornings four of us have an opportunity to go and work at a nursery for several hours, where I have been privileged to teach(or really just play with) about fifteen 2 year olds by my self. For those of you who know how good I am with little screaming drooling 2 year olds who don't speak a word of English, you can imagine how this is a growing experience for me. =) We also have been able to start going regularly to one slum community and to teach basic English to the kids and adults in a fun, relaxed, outdoor kind of "neighborhood block party" type setting while they in turn will teach us a little bit of Thai. All of these opportunities provide great inroads to share the gospel and pray that God will help us to be able to reach Thai people with the love of Christ.
One other bit of excitement happened about a week ago when our team learned that Patrick Fung, OMF's General Director (whom I heard speak at the Urbana conference in St. Louis last December) was speaking at church just across Bangkok. We were able to hop in taxi's and to go hear him speak (he spoke in English which was great and was translated into Thai) and were also able to meet him afterward, introduce ourselves, and get some advice on our trip from him. Overall it was very encouraging. While there I also talked to a couple of long term Presbyterian missionaries from the U.S. who have kids about my age and they were very encouraging as well.
Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray for the work of our team and for the Gospel to go forth in Thailand. While Christian missionaries have been here for 185 years, Thailand is still one of the most unreached nations in the world. I will leave you with a poem from the late missionary Amy Carmichael, which I have found to be inspiring many times and which I hope will be a blessing to you as you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified)
From all that dims Thy Calvary
O Lamb of God, deliver me.
Once again apologies for my lack of frequency in updates. Much has been happening however in Thailand. Since my last update the team and I have gotten settled into a weekly work routine here. Myself and 3 others work at the Ban Suan Church, a local Thai church that is very close to our hotel. One of our main activities here is teaching English, as English speaking is a skill that is in high demand everywhere here.
On Tuesdays and Thursdays I teach a class of 10-13 year olds English, and on Wednesdays and Fridays I teach a class of 20-30 year olds. The majority of the students in both cases are not Christians and it is a great opportunity to be able to build relationships and to teach them through Bible stories that many of us know, but that are usually completely foreign to them here. (Prodigal son, Jonah, Daniel and the lions den, good samaritan, etc.) Last Friday after teaching from 6-7, four of our five 20-30 year old students came out to dinner with myself and the other teachers which provided a great opportunity to get to know them better outside of the classroom and we hope that the dinner will be a regular occurrence. They were curious to know why we were here and it was an awesome way to be able to share about God and what he has done in our lives.
Our team also reaches out to several of the poor communities in the local area. On Tuesday mornings four of us have an opportunity to go and work at a nursery for several hours, where I have been privileged to teach(or really just play with) about fifteen 2 year olds by my self. For those of you who know how good I am with little screaming drooling 2 year olds who don't speak a word of English, you can imagine how this is a growing experience for me. =) We also have been able to start going regularly to one slum community and to teach basic English to the kids and adults in a fun, relaxed, outdoor kind of "neighborhood block party" type setting while they in turn will teach us a little bit of Thai. All of these opportunities provide great inroads to share the gospel and pray that God will help us to be able to reach Thai people with the love of Christ.
One other bit of excitement happened about a week ago when our team learned that Patrick Fung, OMF's General Director (whom I heard speak at the Urbana conference in St. Louis last December) was speaking at church just across Bangkok. We were able to hop in taxi's and to go hear him speak (he spoke in English which was great and was translated into Thai) and were also able to meet him afterward, introduce ourselves, and get some advice on our trip from him. Overall it was very encouraging. While there I also talked to a couple of long term Presbyterian missionaries from the U.S. who have kids about my age and they were very encouraging as well.
Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to pray for the work of our team and for the Gospel to go forth in Thailand. While Christian missionaries have been here for 185 years, Thailand is still one of the most unreached nations in the world. I will leave you with a poem from the late missionary Amy Carmichael, which I have found to be inspiring many times and which I hope will be a blessing to you as you seek first His kingdom and His righteousness.
From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
Sheltered from winds that beat on Thee,
From fearing when I should aspire,
From faltering when I should climb higher
From silken self, O Captain, free
Thy soldier who would follow Thee.
From subtle love of softening things,
From easy choices, weakenings,
(Not thus are spirits fortified,
Not this way went the Crucified)
From all that dims Thy Calvary
O Lamb of God, deliver me.
Give me the love that leads the way,
The faith that nothing can dismay
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire;
Let me not sink to be a clod;
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God
The faith that nothing can dismay
The hope no disappointments tire,
The passion that will burn like fire;
Let me not sink to be a clod;
Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God
Yours in Christ,
Erik
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