Hey Team!
I hope all of you in Prince George are enjoying the snow and chilly weather! Believe it or not, I miss winter and all that goes with it! Weather in Thailand is as hot as ever and just to prove it we went to the beach on December 25th. I trust you all had a joy and rest filled Christmas Holiday!
The Christmas Season in Thailand is a busy one and somewhat of a harvest time for God’s Kingdom. In light of that we have participated in a few outreach efforts in these past weeks.
On December 12 AngSila Church held a Christmas celebration outreach that literally closed the street in front of the building. This is the big event of the year for church and community members; there were door prizes, guest performers, testimonies, music and food for all. Our team was in charge of organizing the children’s performance of the nativity story. We had costumes made for the wisemen, shepherds, angel, and Mary and Joseph by a woman in the community and the children looked amazing. Couple that with Sara’s brilliant beards that she made out of yarn and face masks for the shepherds, the headbands and tails I made for the sheep and horse, and the star attached to a fishing rod that we used to lead the children across the stage and you have the unique and ridiculous show that was our Christmas production.
In the days leading up to the production our team was busy learning a traditional Thai drum dance that we performed for everyone. There was a team of around 12 boys from the community who played Thai drums that they learned to play from a university student in the community named Golf (pronounced Gop) who is studying traditional Thai music. Through all our work with Golf we have had many opportunities to minister to him. Golf believes that there is a God but he is not yet ready to give up his Buddhist beliefs and follow Him, so please pray that he will see the value in doing this and will experience God’s love in such a way that he can’t ignore it.
Since we have been here we have been doing a weekly kids club outreach in a neighborhood near the church that we call Soi 3 Ministry. We bring mats and set up our show on the side of the street and go around and advertise to the children. We teach English and Bible stories and many children, parents, and grandparents come. For Christmas we had an extra special celebration. We made sugar cookies and brought them for the kids to ice and decorate, and we set up a screen and showed an outreach film called MyHope Thailand. The pastor of AngSila church came with us and gave a short message. We were able to get shoeboxes from Operation Christmas Child in AngSila this year and all the children at Soi 3 received one. Because Thailand is a Buddhist country Christmas is not recognized as a holiday so for most of these children and families it was the first time they had heard the story of Jesus’ birth and celebrated the event.
The week before Christmas there was a focused three-day outreach all across Thailand. The outreach was called MyHope Thailand, and it involved Christian families or individuals opening their homes to their non-believing friends, having them over for dinner, sharing their personal testimonies of Christ and showing the MyHope video. In our community we were involved with the outreach by supporting the Thai people in preparation and prayer. Because we can’t speak the language and the presence of a foreigner at the event would only distract, our role was to set up the projector and movie in advance, help with other preparations and pray for the Christians doing the outreach. One evening we spent the night interceding in prayer for a couple (P Go and p Oi) from the church. We felt that it was an evening of significant spiritual battle because as we prayed and P Go and Oi shared, just outside their home and the church where we were praying they were setting up for a large Buddhist ceremony and on a big screen they were showing a movie on the life of Buddha, the soundtrack of which could be heard for many blocks. The man who organized the ceremony is quite vocal against the church in AngSila. He runs a sort of radio in AngSila, which is him sitting in a building down the street speaking anything he wants into a microphone that is broadcasted all over the town. Often he speaks about us as we walk by and speaks out against Christianity as a “foreigner religion”. Please pray against the influence of this man on the people in the community. Another evening MyHope was held at the boys ALH home and the boys invited all their friends from school. We spent the afternoon before the event playing basketball with the boys and helping/learning to cook Thai food for their dinner. It was a fun afternoon. As a result of the outreach 9 people accepted Christ in AngSila. Often people here have no problem accepting Christ, but find it more difficult to commit to coming to church and making changes in their lives; please pray that this will not be a difficult thing for the new believers.
That’s about all I have by the way of an update for now. Please pray that my team will continue learning to love one another and live as a community that reflects Christ. Please pray for me specifically against missing the support of my family and friends at home. Thanks Guys!
Carmen
My address:
Carmen Ricard c/o Karen Sanchez
PO Box 25
Bang Saen, Chonburi
Thailand 20130
*I can be reached at this address throughout the whole time I am in Thailand as the missionaries meet together once a week here and can pick up mail for me and bring it back no matter what city I am in.
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