Learning Thai

Since I returned from America last week we have quickly settled back into our normal activities. Those activities, however, never stick to the same schedule and no two weeks are ever the same. The other night we met with our teammates Dan and Colleen to talk about our current activities and to plan for the future and we thought that a quick summary of our agenda from that evening may help to give those of you who are interested an update on our work.

Discipleship – We spend a lot of time thinking and talking about how we can best encourage our friends as they grow in their relationships with God. This has lately been complicated by the fact that several of them have moved away from Bangkok, so we are making phone calls, planning visits, and trusting that God will continue his work no matter where they end up. Pon (our friend who has been studying in Vientiane, Laos) has been in Bangkok for the past couple of weeks during his university break. It's been encouraging to have the chance to talk with him again and to see the work that God continues to do in his life.

The foundation – I am working with the Rosedale Business Group to register a foundation that can work in Thailand. We envision this being a platform that will allow for a variety of activities in the future – hopefully including teaching English and exporting coffee. There’s a lot of work that goes into getting this kind of entity started and I’m working with a Thai lawyer to work through all of the red tape. We’re excited to now have a group of potential Thai board members whose expertise will greatly assist us.

University student retreat – We’re working with Efrain and Nixson to plan a retreat for university students at the end of October. They want to invite their friends to go on a trip to the beach that will also include focused times of discussion about the Bible and prayer.

REACH team – In early December another REACH team will arrive to work with us. I met the five young ladies on the team while I was in Columbus and we’re excited about them joining our team. They’ll do a lot of English teaching and we hope that they can also connect with students at the universities where Colleen works and Efrain and Nixson study.

Candice and I also continue to teach English to a variety of people – from kindergarten students to young professionals.

Hopefully this list gives you some ideas about how you can pray for our family, our team, and our friends!

-Tom