Yim smiled. Her nickname means "smile", so obviously she is a great smiler...but this was the first time she truly experienced joy. It was the first time she could remember that she'd felt any peace and did not feel afraid. Smile and her friend Angun (grape) came to our home a week after our Valentine's outreach. They had many questions about Jesus, and the evening culminated in Smile saying that she was ready to receive Jesus as her Lord and Saviour. There was just one concern - she had been involved in the spirit-world and had even been a medium. We called Pastor Isara and together An, Nick and Isara prayed Smile, breaking bonds in her life and asking Jesus to be the Lord of her life.
Smile was unemployed and had been looking for a job for some time. At church the following Sunday, she asked us to pray for her to find a job - not just any job, but one that suited her skills and training. Smile's prayer was answered - within days she found a job. While this has been a huge encouragement to her, unfortunately the new job has long and demanding working hours which has kept her away from cell group and from Sunday worship.
SMILING IN LAMPANG
We weren't smiling when we arrived in hot hot hot Lampang in the last week of March. We'd gone to check out the lay of the land in this city, but for the first few hours, our most frequent observation was simply that "its hotter than Chiang Mai...!" Lampang is not only hot, its also a lot poorer than Chiang Mai, and there are far less foreigners - in fact, we were the only ones apart from one or two tourists we saw in the distance. We got stared at a lot and the children had their faces touched a lot.
We were trying to get a feel for what life is like in Lampang, and whether there is a need for a new church planting work. We did come across several churches, about five - most of which were fairly run down and deserted. We also came across about five temples - for every kilometre we travelled! So, we concluded that there is indeed a need and that we have more research to do. We've also realised that it's a daunting task and we've been made aware of some of the sacrifices we'll be making leaving the relative comforts of Chiang Mai. We don't want to say that we're discouraged because we know that with God all things are possible, but we do ask you to pray for guidance for us as we make plans for the future.
A NEW PASTOR'S SMILE
Everyone was full of smiles as we touched base with our old friends at Mae Mo Grace Church - we had not been able to for three months, not since the new pastor, Kampanaat (see photo below), and his wife, Ning, had arrived. Last week we were able to go and see how they, and the church members, are getting on. Despite his youth, the congregation seems to have accepted Pastor Kampanaat. We were particularly impressed that he limited his sermon to half and hour - quite and innovative approach to preaching in Thailand. Ning has no experience teaching children's Sunday School, but this is a responsibility she has had to take on as there is no one else to teach the children. She feels a bit overwhelmed, and distracted by their 2 year old son who "joins" in the class, but she had a lovely way with the children.
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