Goodness it's been a long time since the last update! Warm greetings in the name of Jesus Christ our Advocate, who bled a path for us to Himself that we might have right standing with Almighty God. I have to say, this last stretch has been not entirely uneventful. To say the least. So many exciting things are happening here in Thailand, and I am so blessed and joy-filled to be able to be a part of it.
To start with, the bar ministry that I mentioned in a previous blog update has been going swimmingly. God has blessed the relationships we've built in these places, and I do believe the gears are starting to turn for many of these people. As Galasin is a rather hopeless place, meaning hardly anyone here has any real hope (Jesus), it is not hard to find struggling people who've turned to the bottle, filling the Christ-less void with cheap beer and tobacco tar. That said, it has been a wonderful opportunity to present the real true hope of Christ Jesus our Lord, and to share with them that it isn't over, that they can be saved, and that they don't have to be miserable, apart from God.
Well, at one of the bars I play at, an Australian man stumbled in off the street and just sat there by himself, amidst a bunch of Thais. He doesn't speak Thai, he's middle-aged, and he looked a little worn out. So after the set, I went and sat with him, and we ended up talking for around an hour and a half. He's a philosopher of Jewish origin, and from a young age always believed in the Old Testament God, but never believed in Jesus as the Messiah. 'We Jews are not allowed to believe that.' We reasoned and reasoned for a long time, and he left and I thought, well, I may have just offended a Jew, but hopefully I have shone the light of Christ into a place that's never felt its warmth. Well, a week later he came back, and he said he couldn't stop thinking about our conversation, and he was just unable to rest on the idea that Jesus isn't the Messiah. So we reasoned through the OT, from creation to Abraham to Isaiah to psalms to prophecies to God's sovereignty, all over the place, and at the end he said, 'I promise you I will look into the New Testament and see if it correlates with the old.' And then, about ten days later he came to me and said, 'Ryan,' (that's what he calls me, I have no idea why), 'Ryan! Yeshua, Jesus Christ, is the Chosen One, the Messiah, the Son of God, the recompense for all nations.' And we talked about repentance and salvation, and he accepted Christ as his savior and is now a believer! Please pray that his life would radically be changed and that the enemy would not interfere with this man's getting rooted.
At another bar there is a young lady who spends much of her time in that place, where gather all manner of unsavory men. She recently expressed to me how empty and useless she feels ('I'm tired of living for nothing'). She told me she believes Jesus to be God, to be the Savior, and as we've talked more and more about Christianity, she now desires to go to church ('I want to be a Christian too'). At this point I have turned her over to Dave's wife Oy for discipling and a walk-through of the meaning of repentance and belief, as guy/girl outreach has definite limits before it becomes an entirely dangerous situation. Pray for this young woman, she is ready to take the plunge, and this time more than ever the enemy will be attacking her with doubt and all manner of difficulty to take her mind off Jesus.
So there are a couple absolutely exciting updates on the bar ministry side of things. God is so good, and it is such a magnificent privilege to be able to point these people to His salvation. Praise the Lord for the work He is doing!
Dave and Oy are doing well, enjoying marriage and settling into a rather normal routine finally. Dave has been faithfully maintaining contact/relationships with the teenage skate crew here in town, and there have been promising, exciting things happening as a result. It is a real blessing to have these godly people to work with. Dave has been teaching at a local middle school, where I have taken up one day a week to teach English. It's so gnarly working at a Buddhist school, where there at the front sits a big idol which the kids are expected to pay homage to daily. But we are allowed a measure of freedom in sharing the truth with these adorable little kiddos, and for this we rejoice. On a side note, did you know that Thai children are the cutest in the world?
Please pray for growth, maturity, and unity in our church here in Galasin. We continue the outreach in surrounding villages, Baan Sawang and Baan Nankung are primarily where we find ourselves when we go. At Baan Nankung, funds have finally allowed for the construction of a new church building. Hallelujah for His providence. At Baan Sawang, the kids are learning more and more about the Word of God, and are enthusiastic as we teach them the beauty of the Gospel. It's a wonderful thing to see them praying to a God they never knew existed. Please pray for the youngsters in these villages, they are so precious and open to hearing about our Lord. My heart aches to think of the millions and millions of kids throughout this region of Thailand who have not even heard the name of Jesus.
Indeed, Galasin is in the 'black hole' region of Thailand, meaning it's virtually unreached with the Gospel. 0% Christian. As I've come to find out, packing up everything and heading out to a completely foreign country is not nearly as insane as it sounds. God is God no matter where we are. That said, there are so so so few workers out here, and this harvest is so plentiful, and if you have a desire to get in the middle of a seriously wonderful Gospel-fire, I invite you to come alongside Dave, Oy and myself! Seriously. One month or one year or forever. Whatever. If you're a guy, you can live with me. If you're a girl, setting up accommodation is easier than saying 'accommodation'. God's got something big going on here in Galasin. Come see for yourself!
In closing, I will reiterate the prayer requests I've mentioned, which are:
- Pray earnestly for this new brother of ours, who was saved in a random bar in the middle of nowhere familiar.
- And this young Thai lady, who is so very close to repentance and salvation. The enemy will protest.
- And the kids at the school Dave and I work at, that we may shine Christ all over them.
- And the church body here in Galasin, for unity, maturity, growth, and singular focus.
- For the children at Baan Sawang, who are eager to learn about this God we serve.
- And finally, that the Lord would raise up workers to come out and help with this harvest. As Jesus said, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” (It cannot be stressed enough, Jesus answer for the current deplorable lack of missionaries is to pray earnestly to God, that He will send out workers. Prayer causes this to happen.)
Thank you all who pray and support this mission, it is a beautiful thing to see the church joining together to bring the message of the Gospel to these many unreached. Christ bless you all, I pray for you my church family. I love you all, which is made possible only by the blood of Jesus. To Him be all the accolade and honor and glory and fame in our lives. Hallelujahx100!!!
Derrick
