January 2010

Experiencing the Lord’s Presence in The Village
January 17, 2010
Jeph can’t sleep and was thinking of The Village. God gave him the word from Isaiah 55. Then, we prepare to go to The Village. After breakfast, we worship the Lord, prayed for God’s covering for everyone and intercede for The Village. Then, all the children in Hope House get into the truck and proceed to our claimed inheritance.

When we arrived to the silent village, all of us and even the children in Hope House were welcomed to drink coffee to Ran PHOBIBE (coffee shop named after a bird). As we walked and prayed, first we stopped in Suphanoot’s house. Her mom (Chirapho) was home. The last time Jeph and some friends came to visit The Village, she was prayed for her health. She’s healthy now, PTL! We shared who Jesus is and why we need to have relationship with Jesus. We read her the chapter 55 of Isaiah. We sang song and prayed. She invited us to have lunch with her. When done, I shake hand with her thank her for welcoming us. Again, I prayed with her for her salvation. Please pray that the whole family of Suphanoot will really come to know the Lord Jesus.

Then, we continue to walk around the village and met Bobo’s mother (….) only at the foot of their stairs. We thought we will eat in this house so we walked on and reached Boonchuay’s house. The mother, Rampai was separated from Boonchuay’s father for 3-4 years already. She invited us to her house. We read and explained to her Isaiah 55, sing “This is the Day” song and prayed for her. We prayed for Rampai, as a single parent to Boonchuay, she will find strength in knowing the Lord Jesus. We invited her to have lunch with us in the other’s house.

We went to the house of Wilai (this is the regular place where the hostel father come and hold the Sunday worship). Then, Kitisak lead the Bible passages in there and had worship service. Later, he announced that we will be having lunch in that house. Mogha, our hostel mother helped prepare food together with Wilai. Rampai did not join us during the exhortation of the Bible but start preparing food in the kitchen.

While the ladies (Wilai, Mogha, and Rampai) were preparing food, Jeph went to Bobo’s house. In the house of Bobo, Jeph met the parents of Bobo, his grand mother, the mother of Suphanoot (Kop) and the mother of Sathita (Miew).Together with the children of Hope House we prayed for the sick, read and explain the Book of Isaiah 55 and sing songs. On the way back to Wilai’s house (as the food is already served, Jeph and I stopped to the house of Jose (we call him Lung Café. When his daughter got married, we were invited to attend the wedding.) We met the daughter who now has a child about 7 weeks old. She said, the baby had difficulty of breathing because of runny nose or probably asthma because of the whizzing sound. I bring along my nebulizer in the truck, so I asked Jeph to get it. I use it to the baby and prayed for the family. There, I met and talked to Kruu Sai (our teacher in the Day Care). Then went back to Wilai’s house.

When I arrived, everybody had their lunch already. Eating by myself, Mogha gave me a special “namprik” eaten by the ladies. They were happy because I ate their ‘special’ food. Resting for awhile, we talked about life in The Village. When we bade goodbye, Wilai offered me a nice shawl she made herself. Receiving it, showed I really appreciate the gift, we shook hand and left. Walking back, we stopped in the village leader’s store. Kruu Laah was not home because she look after her husband in ChiangMai who was also sick. The wife of the village leader was there with the other ladies too. They are having a good time of this special Karen chewing gum.

When we get to the place where we parked the truck, again a cup of coffee were offered. Spend time again to the group of people there before we left. The scenes in every house were not captured by a camera, but I’m sure it is recorded in heaven, without cut. We are all happy: the children, our staffs, and my family. I know, especially the children will treasure this experience because they are willing to be part in evangelizing and reaching out their own people.

Going back to ChiangMai, Jeph and I were talking about what we did earlier. The idea of House church is simple.
• Be interested to know the people.
• When talking with them, get a point/passage from the Bible that is appropriate of the situation.
• Sing a song lead by the Spirit to sing. (No sheet is necessary, but be ready to have one for new attendee.)
• Have a small group in one house. This will not burden the house owner what food to serve.
• Always pray for them before leaving the house: pray for the sick, speak forth blessing and ask God for protection to be in the house.

Indeed, it is harvest time in The Village (MKL).Pray that more houses will be open for worship and fellowship. This coming Sunday, we will continue to do house church in The Village. Please pray that faithful workers will come and help us in this opportunity of reaching the people in The Village.

Experiencing the Lord’s Presence in The Village
January 24, 2010

Since our village visit the previous Sunday, the people have been expectant of our weekly presence.

Last Sunday, we were welcomed by a group of five people who were willing to have us in their homes. Two of them complained of back pains and knee joint pains, so we immediately prayed for them. We also told them that we are there to tell them about Jesus and we are hoping that they will come to know Him, too.

We went to Sathita’s house (Miew) who is living with her mother and grand mother. Book (a young man who professed to believe in Jesus since July last year) was there too. The hostel father led the worship in this house and prayed for them.

Next, we had fellowship in Boonchuay’s house led by our hostel mother because most of the attendees are female.

Finally, we had fellowship in Praiwan’s house and had lunch there together with the ladies. After lunch, we went to Kede’s house. They opened up to us a family problem and we had a sort- of counseling with the family about relationships. We prayed with them, asking God to restore the relationships in the family.

We went to Kop’s house but nobody was there. We decided to go back to Hope House but on our way to the truck, we met Kop’s parents. They invited us to have the gathering in their house the next time because they missed it. This family is interested to know more about Jesus.

Our focus as we get on in the Lord’s work in The Village is to bring salvation in every house and to disciple them. That is building a “Simple Church”. It can be anywhere; it can be along the road or wherever anybody wants to talk with you (like the apostle Philip and the Eunuch in the carriage.) We eat with them. Saying a short prayer shows how grateful we are for the blessing that the Lord gives us, like the food we eat, the people that we meet in the house and for the opportunity to be a witness for Christ. We’re ready to any topic in the conversation that leads us to the share the goodness of Jesus. It is good to lead people to trust in Jesus by praying in His name and also praying to encourage and comfort them.

Our personal prayer is that as we continue to share Jesus to The Village, there will be others who will join us in this harvest. The villagers need a witness. Even in the middle of the week, there are some who call us, asking us to visit them in their homes. The people are now ready to hear about Jesus. There are about 50 -60 families in The Village and we started to have initial contact with eight families, five of them have children in Hope House.

Prayer Requests: God’s covering and protection for all of us every time we travel up to The Village; Wisdom and boldness to all our Hope House staffs and children as they share The Word in The Village.

Experiencing the Lord’s Presence at The Village
January 31, 2009
We just came back from a week-end spent at The Village in the mountain. Last night at dinner time, our youngest son, Joy said, “I want to go back again to The Village. I like it there.”

Saturday afternoon, after meeting our hostel parents, staff and children at Hope House, we went up to the mountain to devote some time with The Village people. Since coming there for the last two Sundays, we feel that we need to give more time in visiting and building relationships, not only with the families of the children who are with us in Hope House, but, Lord willing, with all of The Village. We stayed in one of the owned house of the villagers.

Saturday night, after dinner, we went to visit the house of the village’s “spiritual-leader” (we call him “Khun Pho” or father) and found one of his sons-in-law (Chuer) at home. Our conversation turned out to be so meaningful, as together we agreed on the importance of relationships more than material things. We have been building relationship with this family and we are happy that they have been responding positively to us, even giving us opportunities to sleep-over in their house. We prayed for Chuer and his family before we left that night.

The next day…while we were preparing to walk up to The Village, Kruu Zae (our former Day Care teacher) came and visited us. He left teaching the Day Care and now works in the Forestry Department. He invited Jeph to come with him in his farm. While Apple and the boys are having breakfast, Jeph join him as it is an opportunity to talk with him.

While we do prayer walking, the first person we met in The Village is Khun Pho, The Village “spiritual leader”. He invited us over to his house to talk. We inquired about his health (he just had surgery on his stomach a few months back) and he shared how he feels and how he’s trying to follow the doctor’s instructions. Apple shared on Ecclesiastes 3 (A time for everything) and emphasized on the importance of being ready to meet the Creator. At first, there was some resistance on his part to accept Jesus because he said he is very sinful. But when Jeph told him that everyone is sinful and that only Jesus can make us clean and acceptable to God, he willingly accepted the opportunity to receive Jesus into his heart!

We told him that believing in Jesus has outward manifestation, and he said he wants to do it. Since it is culturally unacceptable to hold (or do anything with) an elder’s head, we just ask permission to wash Khun Pho’s feet as a symbol of the Lord washing his sins away. (Khun Pho is the first to be “baptize” in the village.) After we left Khun Pho’s house, we looked into the Day Care and continued prayer walking.

We sung “He is Lord, He is Lord” until we reached Boonchuay’s house. We were able to meet his mother and our hostel parent’s mother named Ipet, although suffering from joint pains still came to this house because she wants to be prayed for.

After this, we drop by at Boboy’s house and we’re able to talk and pray with his mother, as well. She asked to continue to pray for good relationships in their household.

Afterwards, we were able to pay a visit with Kede’s parents (who, the day before, told us that they would want to speak with us). They shared with us that they feel that ‘bad luck’ is with them because all sorts of accident seem to happen to them. (Last semestral break, on their way home from Hope House, Kede, his dad and his other younger brother, had a motorcycle accident.) Jeph told them that sometimes, we attribute to ‘bad luck’ the bad things that happen to us, when we should hold ourselves responsible for our actions. It was a light-hearted and humorous meeting, but we were able to tell them that we can ask Jesus to take care of them. They asked, “Is it possible to pray to Jesus even though they are Buddhist?” We challenged them to believe in Jesus and pray to Him every day before doing anything and to invite Him to protect them always. They said they will do that. We ended our visit to the family with a prayer of blessing.

It was way past lunch time when we came to Kop’s house who prepared a meal for us. The abundance of the food prepared overwhelmed us, and we were so thankful to this family with Miew’s parents and some more people who are patiently waiting for us there. Jeph had a short talk with them and Apple prayed for Chirapo (Kop’s mom) for continued healing of her arm.

PRAY WITH US:

Please pray for Khun Pho, that the Lord will reveal Himself to him;
Pray for Kede’s parents, that their belief on luck will turn to belief on Jesus;
Pray for the families that we visited that the Lord’s presence will be felt by them;
Pray for The Village, that one day “their knees will bow and their tongues will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord”.

Pray for us.
Your co-laborers in the Lord’s harvest field,
Jeph, Apple, Jabez and Joy Garcia