April-July

April-May was a time of preparation for many things, all the action has been in June and July, so we'll skip forward to those.

The beginning of June saw two of our team mates, Andy and Kathryn (and their kids) depart for a six-month furlough. Alot went into preparing for that, and the team still here has been adjusting and figuring out how to work as a smaller team.

Also in the beginning of June one of our students was baptized! Her name is Winnie. Winnie came to us from a catholic family and so was already somewhat familiar with Christianity. She studied the Bible in English with us for a little over a month before deciding that she needed to be baptized as an adult. Thank God for our new sister and pray for her new walk and spiritual growth.

Also In June, a new church plant was stated in Pratchinburi province not far from Bangkok. Pratchinburi is the hometown of a few on our staff and of one of the Bible school students who just graduated. It's this student who is leading the church plant. This student also offered their home to be the meeting place for the new church, and the first sunday the church was to open, we all went and helped prepare the house. Pray God will bless this work and grow the new congregation.

In mid-June a six-week LST team arrived. The team has four college students from South-West Oklahoma State. They have been great! The team has brought their help and energy and enthusiasm to the center, and have been patient and flexible handling culture and weather, and we have all enjoyed them and their work.

In late June a group of us from Bangkok had a chance to serve at an English camp in Leui province (in the far north-east of thailand). The English camp was in collaboration with the schools in that area. We had nearly 300 children attend for a 3 day camp.

We are now gearing up for our outreach camp this week-end. We invite the LST students to join us for a week-end spiritual camp as an opportunity to grow our relationship with them so we can follow-up on the LST team's work.

March - April

Goings on in March and April:

March was a little slow with testing at the university, but we still had our service project. This month, RCC voluntered at a home for mentally and phisically handicaped adults in Bangkok. Those who went played games and spent time with the residents there.

April brought Songkran holidays (Thai new year), so the center closed for a week. After we reopened we did some passing out of fliers to refurbish our student group, and have had a fairly large influx of new students since then.

We have also been preparing and planning for the up coming summer, between the short-term LST team to come, and some of our team mates going on furlough.

"You make me grow older"

Usually, the team I work with and I, focus on the spiritual life and growth of our students, and contacts, and baby Christians, but sometimes God decides that it's time for us to focus on our own spirituality and be grown ourselves; that's what it's felt like the past month or so anyway. March and April have been some very challenging, and fairly stressful months, for all on the team, but having come through to this point and looking back, I can see how God has been shaping, teaching, and growing each of us. I now find myself being able to do things I could not before and understanding more and feeling prepared for things that ly ahead. It has been hard, but it has all come to the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. It is good to be older (wiser/grown) though I've sometimes felt that I would not be able to bear how quickly it came.

February

The LST team that arrived in January was with us through February. The team was composed of 2 married couple in their 50s and 70s, but their age didn't slow them down a bit, we were having to keep up with them most the time. The team was a real joy and encouragement to have, and they did a great job with their students. The RCC team here is excited to begin reading with their readers next week.

Some of the RCC staff and Christians also took a trip to Leui (in the north east of Thailand) this month, to encourage the brethren there. They stopped at a village along the way and visited with a congregation there that had asked our group to come and help them organize a wedding there, as it was to be the first Christian (and not Thai-Buddhist) wedding in that village.

December and January

I just realized that I haven't actually written about what all I've been doing in the past couple of months (it's been more about things I've been thinking). So here's the recap of December and January activities.

Around mid-December most of our students became busy with retesting at Ram University (which most of them attend), and so things at the English Center slowed down. After a Christmas party on the 24th, the English Center closed for the holidays. I spent Christmas day with the other American missionaries on my team and the next day headed out with them and two of our students, Snap and Nut, on a trip to Buriram. Buriram is Snap and Nut's hometown, so we visited with their family and stayed on their farm. We were there about 4 days. When we got back to Bangkok, my team mates Kat, Andy and I spent alot of time at the school their kids attend, helping them out with a musical production the school is putting on this spring (the three of us all have extensive experience in theatre).

We had a great New Year's party at the Watcharapon Church with our brothers and sisters from there and surrounding congregations. And the English Center reopened a few days later.

In early January the RCC group went to a home for handicapped and orphaned children in Bangkok for children's day. We brought snacks and toys for the kids and spent the afternoon playing with them. This year RCC has decided to do a service project every month, to get out in the community and teach the students and Christians who are a part of the center about serving, so the children's home was our project for January.

A week after that we had an LST team arrive. There are 4 people in the team and they will be with us for 6 weeks. Also during these weeks, graduation has been going on on the Ram campus. So we've been to campus several days to take pictures with our students who are graduating, and have hosted a couple graduation parties at RCC for the graduates.

Reason to Believe

Different people and different cultures put importance upon different virtues or qualities, and the pursuit of those often determines what they choose to believe in.

I (and many Westerners I believe) place importance upon Truth; this has been quintessential in my faith in God in that I believe in God becasue I believe he is true, and believing he is true brings me to hold fast to him even when I don't understand him or when following him is difficult -- I simply cannot turn my back on the Truth.

On the other hand, many of my Thai friends do not value truth as much as they value Happiness. Simply finding happiness from day to day (no matter what form that takes, and without thought to the "big picrture" in life) is a very prevelent idea amongst Thais. This is an interesting perspective to teach to as students will reject Christ simply because believing in him doesn't add to their day to day happiness; or they'd rather take what they consider "good" about his teachings and leave the rest. They can easily disbelieve something which is true if it makes them unhappy.

By any other name

One of the students at the RCC has recently made me think about people having Christian behavior but not being a Christian.

His name is Snap and he studied at the center some years ago; he decided that he chose Buddhism over Christianity and wasn't seen much for a few years, but started coming again regularly just a few months ago. He is no longer Buddhist, but not any more accepting of Christianity either; he prefers to pick and choose and form his own religion formed of all the things he likes from each. Though he hasn't any chosen "faith", there is one thing he believes in fiercely: unconditional love. In the time that he was away from the RCC, Snap seriously considered the important quetions in life and the truth and found that there is nothing greater and more important than unconditional love, and having come to this decision, Snap has made his life about showing love; he is studying the Bible again (in English), saying his mind is still open to anything that teaches love. What we can't seem to convey to him is the idea that God IS love (mostly due to the imperfections he has seen in Christians that he can't accept). In a way I see Snap worshiping God, but simply calling Him by a different name: Love.