Prayer for the Thai Church

I just want to update ya'll about some things I have done and learned this weekend.

First, Please be praying for Nom, the Buddhist lady who helps at kids club. She is curious about Christianity. She has told me she wants to go to church with me. She even offered to take me to her local church which she doesn't go to but would like to. At dinner Saturday night she asked me to pray for the food before we ate, and she has asked me to be praying for her.

Second, Tallia Klong Toei Church is awesome. Koon brought a lot of the kids in the church to kids club Saturday. When he saw we didn't have a whole lot planned he immediately sent some one to get him some candy and began games with the kids. The kids loved it and had a blast. Some more people from the church have told me they would like t help. Its so great.

I am officially the conversational English teacher at Tallia. This past Sunday was great and we had a lot of fun. I learned that Tallia is looking to plant two churches in neighboring slums. Two of the Tallia members are training under the pastor to become the pastors of these church plants. Tallia is praying to be able to start 12 churches. I have been praying the same for them, and I ask you will do the same. They need prayer that God will pour out His Spirit on them, giving them boldness, courage, humility, wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. They are trying to start as many social programs out of the church as well. They trust God to use them to show compassion to the people in the community, helping them like Jesus did during his ministry on earth, with the prayer that through them the community would be saved.

Yesterday was a landmine day for my research. As I mentioned before, I interviewed five of our clients last week. Those interviews brought up some interesting aspects of our program. Yesterday all of those things were brought to light and discussed. It was a great jump start to my research which was beginning to bottom out. Please be praying that God will give Timmy and me the right questions and true answers to those questions as we try to understand better where Step Ahead is now and where it should go. We have a lot to do in the next few weeks so please be praying for God to work through us to help direct Step Ahead into the instrument of grace that He intends it to be.

About four weeks ago I noticed one of the girls who goes to kids club had a few deep holes on her ankle and foot. I asked her what the were and she just brushed me off. There was still the evidence of band aids having been used to cover them up. The next week I noticed the wounds were not better, instead flies flew around them. The next week I noticed that the wounds were noticeably worse. I asked Ja who had the most experience with Step Ahead if we could do anything to help. The Thursday before that I had talked in a Bible study about being in a situation like that. We had discussed how we would help in that situation since it was a specific need God was giving to us. I did nothing, because I did not know what to do. She was on my mind all last week. I regretted not doing anything for her. This past Saturday, her foot was much much worse. Her foot had changed colors, the wounds were obviously infected, and she was in pain when she stepped wrong or someone touched her foot. Thankfully God had placed it Mr. Quinley's heart (CEO of Step Ahead) to come to kids club that morning. I told him about the problem and asked him what we could do. At first he was reluctant to help for fear of the prospect of changed community expectations of kids club. I insisted that this was a real problem and that I wanted to help if at possible. He took a chance and helped her. Praise God. She had her foot cleaned and was given antibiotics. When she got back from the clinic she ran up to me and showed me her foot. She was excited she had it cleaned. I ask you too pray for this girl. Pray her foot heals. Pray God heals her physically and spiritually. Pray this act of compassion doesn't compromise Step Ahead's position with kids club. Instead, pray it furthers Step Ahead's witness and works to multiply what they can do in the community.

One final thing I will mention and ask prayer for. Today formal English classes begin with the Step Ahead staff. I have been given a textbook to work through with them and will be teaching from 5-6pm Monday-Friday. I will have to commit 1 hours prep time for each class, which means this is a big time commitment to add to my schedule. Pray God works through this time for them to learn English, me to learn Thai, us to build a deeper friendship, and God to become more evident in our lives. As it is I have committed to attending church services Wednesday-Saturday nights as well as Sunday morning and teaching English at the church Sunday afternoons. I am finding there are often not enough hours in the day to do everything I would like. Pray God will sustain me, strengthen me, work through me, humble me, and give me boldness in truth. Pray God gives me wisdom to know when to say no, and when to say yes. I do not want to be so committed that I am spread thin, giving less than 100% in everything I do. I also do not want to settle for doing anything less than what is divinely possible.

Pray God works in Thailand. Pray He works in America. Pray He works in this world.

We long for the day of our King's return, when we will be joined with our savior, the broken mended, the weak made strong, the abused loved, the curse lifted. In that hope and to that end we strive to seek justice, love the abused, feed the hungry, and lift up the afflicted. We strive to present the world to God upon His return as likened to the world He so desires it to be. In that effort we throw off the things of this world and press on to the surpassing greatness of our King.