Monday, December 1, 2008

Thailand Update after 1 month

 Wow this month flew by. A little run down for you guys on Thailand. Please be in prayer for this country. As I am sure many of you know from watching the news there have been protestors you have been occupying two of Thailand's biggest airports. They have been shut down for a week now and by the time the protestors leave, when ever that is, it will still take them a week to open the airports again because they have to repair things and check everything. There are two groups. One anti government and one pro government. Thailand has been facing a big economic crisis and there is huge fear that this shutting down of the airports is going to devastate Thailand. The anti-government protestors will not leave the airport until the prime minister steps down. This is called a coup where they try to over run the government. It has been happening for the last 6 months but this is the worst it has gotten. There has been grenades I believe it is something like 6 people killed and over 50 injured some sevearly. Be in prayer for this country because there is a lot more going on as well not just what is happening with the air ports. That is just a little bit of what is happening, if you want to know more just look it up on google.
  It has been two weeks since I have written and man a lot of things have happened. A cool little story that you can praise God for is, me and Caleb have been praying that we will meet some guys. There are a lot of girls here and a strong lack of girls especially in the church. Well God answered that prayer. I want to tell you about this little coffee shop that is in the middle of these dormitorys for the University. This women from the church here opened this coffee shop. It is a long story on how she got it but it was truly from God. Anyways she rents this building and it has a spirit house rite by it as well. The owner of the building has kept it there. It is a pretty famous idol because someone won 10 million baht by praying to this idol. So a lot of people come to this idol to pray and there this woman named Pi Ghay is there with her bible, praying. It is just a total light in a dark place kind of thing, it is awesome what she has going on there. Anyways we went there for coffee and she told us about these 6 people who want to hear about Jesus, who he is, what he is about. Nothing to big but just want to know a bit about the gospel. Which is amazing. And we asked her, well are any of them guys, she said yah they all are. So praise God for that, nothing wrong with girls but I need a few more guys around me. I believe the spirit will move in there hearts when they hear it and please pray for there souls that there hearts will be open and that something will trigger in the soul. We have just developed relationship with them. It is sweet, for instance today we played soccer with him and a bunch of his friends and we are going to try to make it a routine thing to just go and play soccer with them and even through that simple thing, developing relationships with them, we will get the chance to tell them about Jesus. Every thursday we are going to have a cell group at this coffee shop, so please be in prayer for that. A cell group is just where we do some worship and talk about Jesus and fellowship together. 
 Now to Bethel. There are always tons for me to talk about here. I am sorry if this is to long for you as I know you guys are very busy with your lives. But God is doing unreal things there! Let me try to summerize it shortly. 5 people have come to christ there in the last 2 weeks. The first week we went to the cell group there, there was about 10 older people and about 15 kids. Last wednesday there must of been 20 adults and 25 kids. It is unreal how the spirit is moving in that area. This sunday we had the first sunday church service in Bethel. That was amazing. We just all came together to praise the name of Jesus together. Praise God for what he is doing there. Keep praying, I just imagine how many people are praying for Bethel, and they are definitely being answered. A big thing you can pray as well is not necessarily for more people but for growth. Lots of people is great but its nothing if there not growing. I pray that these people coming to Christ will be real and authentic. As they grow closer to God and the spirit changes there hearts more and more people are going to be impacted. 
 I am going to finish with this. On friday we learnt a bit more about Budhism. We also went to this budhist temple where I saw some freaky stuff. Just a little back ground on Budhism. The Budhism in North America, well they do not really follow it like the people here. It is deffinetly a lot more serious here. The thing that breaks my heart about it is there is so little hope for them. We went to this temple and we went through this place called Hell where we saw all these statues of punishments that Buddhist people believe they will get when they commit a certain sin. You can see these pictures on my facebook page, but I worn you they are quite disturbing I tried to save you from the really bad ones. They hope that if they pay money to these spirits that there merit will be recognized and therefore won't be punished for this certain sin. Let me tell you all that if this were real we would all be screwed. They do not know for sure if there merit is ever enough. It is so opposite to the christianity and the gospel. They believe that they have to do good things, good works and then the spirits will see that. There are spirit houses everywhere. It is tough stuff. They are stuck in this bondage of never knowing if they are good enough. We are told that no one is good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven. We are also told that our good works are filthy rags. There is NOTHING we can do we are essentially screwed. Here is the gospel, Jesus abolished that. That who ever will come and accept him, will inherit eternal life. The only way is through Jesus Christ. There it is, people want truth, people are always looking for self help, there it is Jesus. No he won't make your life easier, not at all. Life will start to make scence. I mean everything in this life is meaningless, the only thing that has meaning is God. He is the only thing that will fulfill your heart. Everything else is just temporary. You know, Praise Jesus that he died for us. We do not have to worry if we are going to hell or heaven. We know through Jesus we are forgiven. Jesus knows we cannot do it on our own. He knows and I am pretty sure every one knows that. It is just weather or not we want to accept it. My heart breaks for the people here, they never know if they are good enough. And the answer is no they aren't, no one is ever good enough. It is only through Jesus and through Jesus I guarantee you your heart will be transformed. Every soul needs a saviour. Remember that as you walk down your hallway at school or when your at work. What ever you do remember, there soul needs a saviour. That saviour is Jesus.

Thank you for your contiunal prayers. Keep praying for Bethel, for TLC, for the 6 guys, and for me and my team. Praise God, glorify his name in everything you do.

Josh

Listen to this song, it is a powerful song and remember is as you go about your day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqxmQ_42KhY


 

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