It was one of the evenings when we talked with children on how we cannot measure Gods love with a measuring cup, scale or time because His love is beyond our understanding and is immeasurable. We asked the children; how do they know that God loves and cares for them? They were thinking about it and couldn’t really explain it, then few of our older girls (13-14 years of age) took their courage and shared how God shows His love to them through answered prayers “God is helping me in school … It was hard for me to learn to play musical instruments, but I asked God to help me and now I can play guitar and ukulele in Church. Before I was very scared especially at night, when we moved here, I started to come to Church and learned about God and, now when I am scared, I pray to God and I am not scared anymore.” You might think: Such childish testimonies, what is so special about them? The amazing thing about this is that not that long ago, these same girls were very shy to pray out loud in a small group of three, and now they are glad to stand and share about God’s love in their life in front of 50 children!
In addition to it, when they are asked to pray at the end of evening school, they are not shy anymore and their voice is strong enough to be heard by all the students. Praise be to God!
When you experience God’s love, you cannot stay the same! One of our teens shared: “From the time I was little, my mom encouraged me to go to church in order to get some help for school uniform and supplies, also it was nice to have a good meal together with my friends every Sunday. My family is not Christian, so everything that I learned about God was in Church. I should say that I was not serious about reading the Bible or praying on my own. Later, when I grew up, I went to Bangkok with my sister looking for a job during our summer break. My sister encouraged me to take a Bible with us. At that time, we didn’t find anything but had plenty of time to read the Bible and pray, we asked God to provide a job for us, and God answered! We found a job and not only for that year but the next 3 years. This experience helped me to see God as my personal Helper, and later as my personal Savior.” This person is one of our main helpers in the ministry now. Glory be to God!
Every Sunday, church life starts early in the morning, a group of teens is preparing lunch for church, another group of young children is wiping and preparing our room for Sunday service, there are also few ladies who are cleaning the property outside and they are being accompanied by the singing of worship songs, by teens who are preparing for the Church service. Not long ago, there were only a few people, who cared about all these things, God is working in the hearts and is encouraging to participate in His work. Praise God!
We also had an opportunity to visit children in other projects of Avoda. Together we studied first chapters of the book of Proverbs. We learned about wise and foolish decisions and that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. It was such a blessed time to worship, play, learn and work with other children who believe in God, and to have fellowship together. As we were saying goodbye, there were many tears and hope to see each other again. For some of them, it was the first time seeing other Christians of their age.
Please pray:
- ForNok-Young youngest brother, who has problems with walking and hearing. This is a Buddhist family; whose daughter comes to evening school and really believes that God can help.
- For Ing and Gick as they are teaching children to understand the Bible and also help out in evening school
- For Eak, Sen and Meak spiritual growth. These three boys are helping us out a lot.
- For a new a helper
- For our outreach program for the next month.
Ministry in Thailand – San & Anita