John 13:34-35

Yesterday was the most awesome day I've had in Thailand so far. We have Bible study and Thai church in our apartment, and yesterday people just kept coming and coming. Our front room was overflowing with people. The lesson we taught was on Abraham and his faithfulness to follow God and the promise God made him about being the father of many nations. Words just kept flowing from our mouths and we shared the story of Jesus with the students who were present. We even had a translator, Thum, a Thai believer who speaks really good English. As we closed our 2 1/2 hour study (now you know I don't have a long attention span- 20 min and I'm gone. But I think I could have sat there another two hours and not worried about it!) with a song that we sang in Thai and in English, what wandered up to our front windows? An elephant! I know that may not seem like a big deal, but we have been wanting to see and ride elephants since we got here. I've never actually been that close to one before. It was so incredible.

After worship, a Korean missionary (whom we had never met before) invited us to eat an authentic "Thai style" dinner at a Christian dorm ten minutes down the road. There were 10 girls and 8 guys living in this house- and it was so encouraging to hear all of their stories. In the 3 1/2 weeks we've been in Thailand we have only met two Thai Christians- needless to say, it gets discouraging when we hear that only 1/10th of 1% of Thais are believers. I want to share two people's stories.

T, the guy who translated for us: He is a fourth year English major. When he was 10, he was walking down the street and found a tract (not commonly found in Thailand)so he asked his parents who Jesus was. They said they didn't know and told him to throw the tract away (he said he later found out they did know, but didn't want their son knowing anything about Christianity.) At 15, he started learning English with some American volunteers.They shared with him about Jesus, and he said that through months of reading the Bible and praying He discovered that Jesus was the way. Now he faced the issue of his parents. He didn't feel like he could tell them. He took an English Bible home with him and read a language he couldn't even speak very well just so they wouldn't find out what he was really reading.
Now this is the crazy part- last year, his mom had a dream in which she saw her son walking away from her- she called out his name but he wouldn't turn around. She woke up and said to her husband- I think T's become a Christian. And he nodded saying- I think I've known that for a while. He said that now, his parents have hidden his Bible, tried to burn it, and forbid him from attending Christian services (but that doesn't stop him.) Pray for him and the challenges that he faces everyday in just serving the Lord.

K: A fourth year student at MSU. As a young teenager he questioned why his family was Buddhist- he asked his grandparents who said: you are because your parents are, because we are, because our parents were, etc. But K kept questioning and searching for answers. When he was a freshman, he met some missionaries who told him about Jesus. But what stood out the most to him, was the love he saw radiating from these believers. He knew, at that moment, that he wanted to follow Jesus because of His love. In the four years that have passed, he has been able to lead his mother to Jesus also. WOW! I love this story because K said it was all about the love that he could see; it challenges me to really take John 13:35 to heart where Jesus says: "by this, all men shall know that you are My disciples- if you have love for one another."

Pray for K and T and C and the other Thai Christians who are battling darkness, Buddhism and unbelief.