Friday, June 13, 2008
update from lopburiiii! :)

hello everyoneeee!

yet another day in lopburi's gone by... and though it's been only less than a week here, we've already witnessed God's incredible goodness in the student ministry here!

just yesterday we started teaching our first proper english lesson in the university! and today we taught another lesson. the english standard of these classes are pretty good cos they major in english & it's helped us in our communication with them. lessons have been going pretty well! and during the time we had to talk with the students, we got to tell them abt the lopburi youth house & the activities we have there (english/chinese/music lessons, etc) & invited them to come by! the students received us quite well & had fun answering the questions during our quiz about singapore as well as playing games with us! thank God it went well!

yesterday's programme also included some tracting during lunchtime! it's amazing how polite & accepting the thais are to the tracts. most wld hear us our in our broken thai, say they understood & accepted the tracts politely! haha it was probably the best tracting experience most of us had compared to the times we do it back home to pple who either pretend not to see you or take a big u-turn to try avoid crossing paths with you! thank God! for allowing the thais to be open in this way! we also had a little games stall where the students could play some game & win little prizes, and this was well-received too! thank God for all the opportunities to tell these students about the youth house & have them know such a place exists that they can hang out at & feel welcomed at regardless of religion!

we also had an open house at the youth house yesterday! haha we COOKED! bak kut teh, chicken curry & sweet & sour chicken! amazing! ok we cheated we used ready-mix packets, but still! all we who don't know how to cook managed to whip up these few dishes (including the not-so-idiot-proof sweet & sour chicken dish which we didn't know how much cornflour should be covering the chicken)!! haha and jonathan & ashley (the americans living in the youth house) whipped up a salsa dish to eat with doritos, & also made super yummy brownies! we were too preoccupied cooking to take any photos but trust us! it was a really yummy spread that night, with singaporean, mexican & thai food. and best of all! some students we met in class in the morning actually turned up!! God is grrrreat! we got to present our cultural items to them (we had the typical singaporean powerpoint presentation done by shaun, a testimony shared by andrew & a song-cum-"dance" singapore song hahaha.) then we ate & hung around playing games with the students, playing guitar/keyboard together & just talking to them, making them feel welcome!

it was just simply a great day, to see the students come & feel comfy here! and from the conversations all we pple living at the youth house had with them, it was real encouraging to hear how the students felt welcomed at the youth house & were interested in coming back!

a particularly encouraging story was of this guy student andrew & ruth took for english lessons at the youth house on our 2nd day in lopburi. at that time he didn't seem too interested in the lesson or didn't seem to understand them very well. even when we went out for dinner & he came along we didn't get to talk much with him. however yesterday we heard! that that guy has expressed interest in christianity & off & peung got a chance to tell him about the gospel! it's super amazing encouraging to see the work God is doing in this place!

as we reflected on our day yesterday, our hearts were simply thankful to our amazing God. that this is the One, who calms our fears & uncertainties. this is the One true God that enables us to step forward & speak to students, to give them tracts & invite them to the youth house, even with the limited thai that we speak. And this is the One true God who bring the students to the youth house to hang out, and we believe, in His time, to allow them to understand & accept the gospel.

indeed it is a whole process of which we play a part in helping to tell the masses of the existence of the youth house, and for those who come, to do our best to make them feel welcome here, and when the chance arises to share why we believe in Christ Jesus! we're starting to get a feel of how things work here. how the work here hardly has instantaneous results, but that is hardly what we need to look for, for we know that God will do His work that is lasting, in His perfect time!

so pray for us! that we stay in good health & keep interacting well with the thais! we thank God for how good He has been in allowing us to see some fruit in this really short time we've spent here so far! it's been so so encouraging! but pray that we might not let our guard down, or work any less hard or pray any less hard now! but that we'll continue to take time to spend with God that we might we guided each step of the way. that at each moment we'll know what we ought be doing as He leads us by His spirit!

and so our time here goes on! till we update again! maybe with photos next time!

sarah:)