On August 4th, Maggie and I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand after several delays. We are here to serve with the IMB city team. We will help in a variety of ways to impact lostness and encourage and support the long-term workers here. Our first week was busy and filled with new experiences.
This week we visited the National Palace and Temple of the Emerald Buddha. In the land of smiles, it’s easy to think that everyone has a good life. When you visit the temple and see people burning incense, offering prayers and bowing before idols, you quickly realize the hopelessness and fear most people face in a religious system they’ve know all their lives. Jesus is the only hope for the people of Thailand.
This week we served alongside Calvary International Baptist Church in their ministry to refugees and asylum seekers from Pakistan. The church purchases and delivers nutritious food to families in need every week. Send Relief funds have supported this ministry for twelve years. We were able to visit two families in their homes. We heard their stories and prayed with them. It is a humbling experience when we see how they live with so little while waiting to be given asylum.
Carolyn and Billy Sanson are two IMB member care personnel who are living their own Encore Mission experience. Can’t wait to sit down with them and hear their story.
We ended the week joining a mission team from FBC Tulsa, OK training a local church to set up an eye glass clinic to serve their community. The team had a great time learning and then teaching the church how to help people read God’s word with a free pair of reading glasses.
Maggie and I will serve three more weeks in Bangkok. Please pray for open doors to share the hope of the Gospel and for the mission team from Oklahoma to see Gospel fruit from the eye glass clinics this week.
For more information on prayer needs in Bangkok, download the free prayer guide.