Tan!

We see the face of Jesus in a 15 year old named Tan.

Tan hasn't been in school for the last 2 years. Instead, he helps his mom at her restaurant across the street from RCC. Watching students come and go, Tan had been curious about what RCC is about, but he didn't come around much. A few weeks ago, though, he crossed the street! Thank God for prompting Tan to cross the street!

When we met Tan, he did not speak a single word of English. He came in to hang out with the RCC students and ended up staying for our Wednesday devo. I don't know what Tan sees in the RCC/LST Christians, but he's stuck around! Only the love of God is strong enough to speak that loudly. We don't even know each others' language, but Tan is so attracted to the Spirit here.

Tan's joy is so contagious! He is a friendly, loving spirit. He craves English because he wants to talk to us. He's already learned several words and phrases! Tan eats dinner with us often and escorts us around the city. He came to church with us all day last Sunday, and then after riding back with us in the taxi, surprised us with loafs of yummy bread because he wanted to pay us back.

Tan knows God's love.

Saturday, the LST/RCC family helped two ladies with yardwork and organization, and Tan came along and served next to us.

Our friend P'Aka has been talking with Tan about our faith. Tan wants to be a part of this. Right now, he feels like he cannot be a Christian because he gets in trouble sometimes for smoking and fighting, and he knows Christians don't do that.

PLEASE pray for Tan. Pray that he sticks around RCC, NOT so he can learn a bunch of rules that Christians do and don't do. But so he can learn that Christians are messed up people in need of a gracious Savior. Pray that Tan's heart stays open. Pray for the people that surround Him. Pray for our actions to speak louder than words.

Our Readers.

Because Thailand is a richly Buddhist nation, Christianity is foreign to most of our Readers, but for the past three weeks, we’ve opened up God’s Word to them. 

We all agree. We’ve never done anything like this before.

We are broken vessels, but God lets us talk about Him and show His glory and be His representatives. Sometimes people here have literally never heard the name “Jesus,” and God chooses our voice to introduce Him for the very first time. Sometimes we’re the first follower of Christ a person has ever met.  That is SO humbling. We are privileged to work for the Kingdom.  We’ve never done anything like this!

In lesson 11 of our Luke workbooks, Jesus tells the parable of the sower and the seeds (Luke 8:4-15).  So appropriate! 

• Some Readers are simply not interested in the stories about Jesus, but they still want to come and study English. 
• Some Readers are open and interested in the life of Jesus, but they have a difficult time believing that the events are true and meaningful. 
• Some Readers surprise us with their questions. Some have blatantly asked, “Who is God?” or “Who is Jesus?” or “What is sin?”
• Some Readers study the workbook at home and are five or six lessons ahead of us.  They are so excited to find out what happens to Jesus next! 

The point is that we’re just planting seeds, and trusting God to tend to, prune, and grow the seeds into beautiful faith in Him. 

Two things we love about God’s children in Thailand:

1. They are not polluted by American Christianity.  They get to know Jesus, not Christians.  American Christianity, in my opinion, contaminates people’s view of Christ.  While we are stuck arguing over denominations and political parties and church budgets, people are getting a more and more skewed look at Jesus. The people here, thankfully, don’t know that. They read about Christ from the Bible, not about Christians from the news.  And they get to know Jesus with fresh, innocent eyes, not clouded by what other people make Him out to be.
2. The LST and RCC family prays every morning specifically for a person who we’re reaching to through Bible study.  And we’ve heard several stories in the past of just one person coming to faith, and because of that one person, their entire family comes to faith.  Many must rebel against their family’s will to follow Christ. Many suffer consequences.  But their influence on other people ripples.

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR READERS. Pray for open hearts. Pray for the church here. Pray for our LST team to stay out of the way while we introduce Christ. Pray for the leaders who were elected here Sunday.