September Staff Days

One of our roles as team leaders for CTSM is to host Staff Days twice a semester.
The whole team join us in Nakhon Sawan for two days and nights of prayer, bible study, planning and fun.

It is always a real blessing to catch up with the team members and to hear stories of what God is doing in each place.

Pray with us for the Staff Team for 2008/09 who work incredibly hard to live and share the Gospel with students in Lopburi, Nakhon Sawan and Phitsanulok. Pray for them especially over the semester break Oct 1-28 that the Lord will refresh, encourage and renew ready for the next semester.

Reaching Students ... Reaching Thailand

Our work with CTSM team is directly focussed on students. We share the Gospel, disciple and train Thai students, encouraging them to grow in their love for God and his Word.

This term we have been thrilled to see the fruit of the ministry spreading further to family members, and particularly parents of the students.

Many of our students come from rural areas where there are few known Christians and often no churches. But as they return home to family and 'gossip' the Gospel, as they share their lives and live as exemplary children seeking to honour their parents as well as the Lord family members are beginning to ask questions about their faith.

This semester one father and another mother has professed faith in Central Thailand, another mother travelled over 50km to attend church with her son for the first time ever and another mother of one of our graduates is starting to pray.

Please pray with us that we will see a real movement of not only students but 'student families' coming to faith as students learn to love, serve and share the Gospel in the Youth Houses.

Princess for a Day!

September 11 2008 Bethan turned 5. Our big girl enjoyed 'being a pink princess' for the day. A strawberry and orchids cake, pink clothes and a princess crown all helped to make this her special day!

Pray with us that she and the boys will all grow up to love God and appreciate the privilege of growing up Third Culture Kids.

TCS Student Day 2008, Central Thailand

'So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as your were taught and overflowing with thankfulness' Col 2:6-7

Each year we host a Student Day for all the Christian students linked to Thai Christian Students in Central Thailand. This year the theme was 'Grow' and a variety of talks, small group reflections and workshops all helped us to think about the 'how' and 'why' of Christian growth and maturity. At the end of the day each student was given a miniature cactus with words of Colossians 2:6-7 attached to it.

Particularly encouraging this year was the number of Buddhist students attending this overtly Christian event. Workshops helped them to answer questions such as 'How can I start to pray?' and 'Who is God?'

Please pray with us that students will remember what they learnt that day as they look at their plants at home. Pray that we will see a generation of godly, mature believers emerge from the student ministry here in Central Thailand. Pray too that some of the Buddhist students present will start out on that process of growing by accepting the Word of God which has been planted in their lives.

Olympic Camp

Visit www.moblyng.com to make your own!

August 15-17 nearly 150 students and staff went on our annual International Camp. With the Olympics being held in China a sporting Olympic theme was natural and certainly caught the imagination of the students! Using the colours of the Olympic Rings we studied the one source of true peace and harmony and challenged students to think about the purpose of their own lives 'What are you running for?'

Below are some testimonies from students and staff who attended the camp ...

Riam: (First year university student in Phitsanulok): "Even though I was born into a Christian family my relationship with God isn't that good. After returning from camp I knew that God's desire is that we have a good relationship with him. Now I am getting to know God better and growing in my relationship with Him. Thanks be to God for this camp".

Weew: (Fourth year university student in Phitsanulok): "I have lead Bible studies several times in our student cell group and know that this can be difficult and challenging but when I went to camp I saw the staff leading Bible study groups which included both Christians and those who are new to studying the Bible. I saw that this was even more difficult because you have to find the right words to help those who haven't studied the Bible before understand it easily. The blessing that I received from this camp was that I saw God working through the staff leading the Bible studies and I learnt how to teach the Bible to those who aren't Christians. I will be able to use these methods myself in the future".

Bom: a new-comer to the Nakhon Sawan youth house but a tennis partner of one of the Christian students here, came along to camp and was intrigued to read of the Bible's message. Since then he has come to the Youth House to join in an evangelistic bible study looking at who Jesus is, the church prayer meeting and music practice ... At the end of September he gave testimony to God's power to save him from sin! For Bom that has been a slow and gentle process of revelation and conviction by the Holy Spirit.

Pang: Pang (age 15) has been coming to the Lopburi Youth House regularly for 2 months now and has heard several testimonies, been to church several times, sat in on the weekly Bible Studies, and joined us all in singing worship songs. She was drawn to the Youth House because she could tell people here cared about her because we looked in her eyes when she talked. She told us of how alone she felt at home and school, and how her parents didn't seem to care about her. Slowly she has started see Christ's unconditional love for her. At the camp, she was able to clearly study the gospel message of our sin and separation from God, and Jesus' love for us and desire to have relationship with us. Pang chose to make Jesus her Saviour and to follow him whilst at the camp. Since then, she has taken her Bible to school everyday and been telling her friends why she has it. She even watched the entire Gospel of John video and read along in her Bible. Please keep her in your prayers that she will grow into spiritual maturity.

Nam: (High school student in Lopburi) Nam, age 17, has been a Christian for 2 years now, and has obvious leadership and fruit of Christ's work in her life. Through the witness of her life and the change in her life since becoming a christian, her mother is also a christian now. Nam was a Bible Study leader for the first time at the camp. She said it was a great experience and very challenging. She was so excited to be able to serve God in this way. Her group had 1 other Christian and 3 non-Christians. She said they asked many tough questions, but she was still glad to be their leader. Some students even thought she was staff because of her maturity.

Kareon: Kareon, a missionary who volunteered at the camp, said, "I loved the atmosphere at the camp, with people from many countries (USA, England, Taiwan, China, Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand etc.) and the wide variety of activities. The blessing I got is to have many chances to sit and talk with many Christian and Non-Christian students about faith".

Praise God for his work in the lives of students across Central Thailand!

Life down our street!

Here is a flavour of life on our soi or street.
Thanks to Angela Farrant for these 'first impressions' of everyday life in Thailand.

New Youth House

From May 2008 we have handed over responsibility for the Nakhon Sawan Youth House to Caroline (OMF) and Zo (Thai apprentice). After painting and cleaning a building two blocks down the road from our home it was great to see the Youth House get up and running so quickly. Students are at the house every day. Some are living there in the upstairs dorm rooms. Bible studies, training and worship are all part of the weekly programme alongside food, fun and relaxation together. Caroline and Zo have also had good opportunities to work with the university students at Rajabaht University just up the road and were thrilled to have forty students turn up for INTERactive (the International Activities club run by two of our Christian students) on the first week of term.

Please pray for Caroline and Zo as they lead this Youth House
Pray for Christian students to grow in their love for God and his Word as they spend time together at the Youth House
Pray too that many of their friends will come along, hear, understand and respond to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pray for our own involvement in the lives of the students through disicpleship training events, bible studies and personal conversations.

School in Thailand

Many of you have been praying for Matthew and Bethan as they settle into their new Thai classes here. Thank you! As you can see life is rather different to the UK!

Last week Joyce (our home school tutor) left us to return to the UK. Please pray with us for an urgent replacement from August 15.

If you know anyone who might be interested in living and working with us in this role please do let us know.

ACT Regional Children's Camp

Each April (summer here!) 200 children from 7-11 years come together for a four day regional inter-church camp. As well as fun, games and little sleep (!) they have the opportunity to learn more about Jesus Christ through bible studies, talks and quizzes. This year Matthew joined the camp with Auntie Caroline and had a great time getting to know new Thai friends.

Please pray for churches as they follow up children who came to the camp
Praise God too for Matthews' positive attitude towards going to a Thai camp. We are grateful to God for the way in which all of the children treat Thailand as home.

Birthday Boys

In February Matthew (6) and Joshua (2) both celebrated their birthdays. We had a great family day out at Bangkok Zoo as well as cakes and presents at home.

Happy Birthday Boys!

Baptisms

On Sunday 22nd June four more students were baptised at Nakhon Sawan Church.

Please pray for Best, Art, Taw and Liw as they grow in their relationship with Christ
Praise God too for his work among students in Central Thailand.

Valentines Day Evangelism

Valentines Day is a huge event here in Thailand. Each year our student make the most of a golden opportunity to tell their friends about the One who 'loved them and gave his life for them'.

This year in Nakhon Sawan we made 1,000 cookies over three days, bagged them up and attached bookmarks, tracts or New Testaments. Students took them to school on February 14 and gave them to special friends as well as giving them out freely in canteens and at the bus stop!

Praise God for the enthusiasm and willingness of the students to invest time and energy in enabling friends to understand something of the Gospel.
Pray for the thousands of students who are searching for 'love'
Pray that many Thai students will come to know 'True Love' for themselves this semester.

HELP!

Since November 2007 Joyce Gaudern has been doing sterling work as our volunteer home school teacher. She teaches Bethan (early Reception) for one hour each morning and Matthew (end Year 1) for two hours each afternoon. Joyce is due to return home to the UK in July 2008 and we are now looking for a replacement teacher. If you know of anyone who is a qualified teacher, interested in being involved in cross-cultural missions and wants to use their skills to help a missionary family please do contact us or your local OMF office as soon as possible. The post could potentially be for two years until our Home Assignment in 2010.

Please pray for us as we look for a replacement teacher.
Please also talk to any teacher you know who might be interested.

Primary School English Camp

On Dec 21 and 22 AnnAnn needed to brush up on her primary school teacher training as she led a primary school English camp at four days notice right after our regional
camp! 140 children from three rural temple schools here in Nakhon Sawan province joined in Christmas activities for two days. It is still mind-boggling and sobering to meet Thai people who have never heard of the Christmas story and have no idea who Jesus is! We were encouraged at the end of the two day camp when the teachers gave permission for each child to receive a Thai magazine explaining the life of Jesus Christ and the reason for his birth.

Pray for theareas of Thailand where there is still no church or regular Christian witness.
Pray for these school children and their families who have received Christian literature for the first time. Pray that they will read and be intrigued to know more.
Pray for the Nakhon Sawan ACT church which is trying to start a cell group in this area.

King's 80th birthday

On December 5th Thailand celebrated the 80th birthday of the King of Thailand. There were many events to mark the occasion, including special church programmes, a parade and LOTS of yellow t-shirts.

For our kids it was a first opportunity to participate in the Sunday School presentation alongside their Thai friends.

Please continue to pray for the country of Thailand
Remember our King as he rules graciously and lovingly
Remember to pray too for the establishment of the new government following the recent elections

Christmas Fun Camp - THE GIFT

December 7-10 100 students and staff went to a local resort for three great days together. Staff and short-term workers talked with students from five nations about the true meaning of Christmas and explained some of the stories behind different Christmas traditions.

Students had the opportunity to read and discuss the story of the first Christmas from Luke's gospel and many were amazed to learn the real story of Christmas for the first time in their lives. A number of students went home with copies of Luke's gospel to read for themselves.

Give thanks with us for God's faithful provision of all we needed to put on this camp
Give thanks too for the many students who are eager to come to these camps each year
Pray that God's Word would bear fruit in their lives as they continue to think and discuss what they have learnt with their Christian friends.

Student Baptisms

BubbleShare: Share photos - Play some Online Games.

On Sept 2nd four of our students were baptised. This was a very special day for us as we rejoiced with them. Each one was able to give testimony to God's goodness in their lives as they prepared to become members of the local church here in Nakhon Sawan.

Thank God with us for his grace and mercy to these students.
Pray for them as they grow in grace and love of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Pray too that many more will follow them in following the Lord Jesus Christ.

New Family Photos

Each Christmas we take a trip to the local photo shop to get family photos for grandma and granny back in the UK ( a relatively cheap event in Thailand!). Usually this is an hilarious event with three children who are definitely not camera shy! Here's a glimpse of what the kids look like now ... as well as the final 'offical' photo that we usually show family and friends! :-)

Who we are and what we do!