Dear Friends and family,

Thank you for your prayers! We had a good visit with the two villages this past week. The first village has no pastor in the church, but many people who pitched in to make our visit memorable. We helped with a work project as a retaining wall* collapsed a few hours before our arrival. Like the previous two villages we have visited, the people live in a very humble way. Bamboo homes, little or no electricity. We were treated to a lesson in basket weaving*. The cook took bamboo that had been run through a table saw of sorts until it was almost paper thin. Then in about 12 minutes, she wove a laundry basket*. It was pretty amazing!

The church service was attended by about 20 locals, including a young man who had recently given his life to Christ. More and more we see our place as encouraging the local church as opposed to training them to be the church.

The second village was quite a bit hotter than the first. Physically and spiritually. The “village” consisted of a street of about 15 houses. 75 people in all, and most of them attended the local church. The pastor has begun to clear a large lot just above the village for a church that would seat 300 people. He is believing for surrounding villages to come and worship with them. On Wednesday evening there was a “revival” service at the existing church building. There were probably 70 or more there. We had a typical church service until about 9:30, then those who needed to leave, including the pastor, did. I looked around and found that most of the people stayed. There was an extended prayer time and a move of the Spirit. The people lined up to confess their sin publicly, and continued in worship until around 1 A.M. The amazing thing was how it was basically led by the youth group. It’s my understanding that they have this type of service each Wednesday evening, and have had for months.

There are several women who are praying 4 or more hours a day for their village. Alcoholic husbands have come to repentance, and begun to evangelize the neighboring villages. Many people have had prophetic words and visions from the Lord. Most of those words resulted in either repentance, or evangelism. 2 Chronicles 7:14 comes to mind.

One more brief story on this village. If I understand correctly, the revival began when the village decided to stop fishing on Sunday. When they did, the Lord increased their Saturday catch to several times the typical catch. By the way, we had fish for dinner, as well as local fruit and bamboo grubs.* They were a little hard to swallow psychologically, but actually tasted like a cross between french fries and crab. Thankfully they were cooked. All of our team ate some. I was proud of them!

Friday we visited the hospital again. There were even more children there this week. We took gift bags to pass out and left many smiling faces. Father, touch these lives!

Saturday we visited the children of a nearby orphanage, Home of Joy, and took them to the zoo. Six boys ages 4-8. Quite a handful! We got to feed the giraffe and the hippopotamus*. Amazing! Today after church we took the same children to a local pool for a swim. It was good to see them warm up to us, and accept the challenge to swim beyond their comfort level. The lady who runs the orphanage was pleased with their progress.

The Karen people group have a united church service here at City Gate Church, our host church. I was privileged to speak to this gathering last night. The Karen are unique in Thailand in that they are mostly Christian, as the Thai are mostly Buddhist. They understand their call to spread the gospel to the Thai. After the meeting we had a dinner together. The food was spicier than the Thai, but very good!
Rice, meat sauce, spinach (?) and watermelon.

We have one more week here, then our team will split up. Carol’s half will go to Yangon, Myanmar, and my half will go to Musiky. I don’t know about that spelling, but it’s my best guess.

Again, we covet your faithful prayers.

Blessings to you!
Fred and Carol