Mid-May Update and Church property dedication

I have been reminded by quite a few that the web blog here is out of date and I have not posted new material lately. First the "lame" excuses!

I had a bad cold that lasted for a few weeks that started just after our time in the national camp at the beach. In spite of all that we had a string of guests from around Thailand. Well, enough complaints, now for the update!

We had a great time there with 390+ campers. We took two van loads from our two churches and Miss Ann and Miss Kunya were baptized in the gulf of Thailand while there. Gail and I led the English speakers class at camp this year, though only a small group of about 20 campers and only one session, we had fun with them, teaching the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives making the Word of God alive.

Upon returning from camp, and the one year anniversary of our house fire, we had a number of weeks before local schools were beginning the new term, so we decided to continue our "day camp" routine as before. We ended up with daily classes for another two weeks until Monday May 12 when school started. Even though I was fighting off a cold, I was able to carry on the work with some cold medications and we believe it was well worth it. I will tell one example:

One of our bright High School girls, Miss Oom, told me that her High School school principal asked during the first daily "Flag pledge" time if any of the students in the school were not Buddhist. Each day schools, have a pledge to the Thai flag, in the for of a song, honor the King, and the Buddhist religion. Students who are Buddhist are expected to also pray to the image of Buddha during the pledge.

This is a humorous photo of three friends posing for a picture.

Miss Oom [center] told me that she and Miss Nat [left] raised their hands to indicate that they considered themselves Christians now. There may have been others too but she did not see them. I consider this a great step in following the Lord, making public their faith. The principal then went on to make some anti-christian abusive remarks about Christians (a action clearly illegal in Thailand where freedom of religion is the law, but religious intolarance is common).

Oom was sharing this experience with us last Sunday with confidence and happiness that they could be a testimony for the Lord whom they have trusted during their summer classes. Perhaps others who made a profession during the school break in the same school were not so bold of course, but we trust that they will learn to be bold in their faith in Christ too.

Last Monday, there was a conference of the national fellowship, The Romprakhun Fundamental Baptist Church in Bangkok. Gail and I did not attend, but sent Pastor Surasit Samarom, pastor of the Santisuk Baptist church and our co-worker, Miss Kaew Petchompu to represent our churches.

We advised the meeting of the church fellowship of our desire to have a Church property and building dedication sometime this year. They deliberated and decided that a good time to do this would be on the Queen's Birthday, also known as Thai Mother's day, a national holiday. This church dedication will be on Tuesday, August 12, 2008 here at the Sawang Dandin Baptist Church. We expect over 100 people from outside visiting for this occasion. As you can guess we are really excited that we can present our new facility as a fellow ministry to the Romprakhun Baptist Church Fellowship.