Good morning from Thailand!

We are assuming that you are reading this in the morning because we’re sure everyone is an early riser haha. Okay, assuming too much are we not? Just to make something clear; because we think that we may not have set this right on the first day.

Daryl and Louisa function just as the official reporters, and the testimonies reported are a compilation from all the trippers.

Today, we visited Inburi Church, which was the pioneer church of the province of Inburi (is Inburi even the province name…) and the church that Pastor Eng Kiat first went to, to assimilate into the Thai culture. This church has grown very much, it kinda looks like a Singaporean church now heh. Lately, this church experienced a split due to differences in ideologies, and the church lost many good talents due to the split. From this, I realized the importance of unity in the church, as without which, it brings about much difficulty for the further growth of the church and also brings much awkwardness to the leaders and many others. (That was just a random thought from Louisa by the way)

There, we also ministered to Gaew, the church caretaker. Due to the heavy responsibilities born by her, she experienced a breakdown and has been on meds to control her problem. We prayed for her, and she was ministered to by many people. En Ting also shared her very touching and relevant testimony with her, and frankly, she touched many of us with her testimony too.

From Bella with additional randomness from Louisa:

Later, we went for tracting at Thanpraporn. We ended up chasing after the van as we arrived just as the kids were released after school. Literally running after the song tiow.

It was really a sight that you would not see us do in Singapore, because we always have to look cool in front of others right. As young adults, we never ever rush for ANYTHING. We ended up stunning a lot of kids, but at least they seemed quite accepting of our aggressiveness. Haha you should have heard the boys, they were quite ridiculous, with shouts of and “GET THEM GET THEM!” and “RUN RUN!” It was good though, seeing the passion and intenseness the trippers displayed.

As we were tracting, we also tried to strike up conversations with the locals, despite our lack of vocabulary. This is when we really thank God for Arunee and Supanee. There was a lady who had a son working in Singapore (who apparently looks like Daryl hehe) and she was very welcoming and curious of our English club. In fact, she wanted more flyers so that she could help us advertise. This is called viral advertisement! Haha, or is just Daryl’s auntie-killer looks.

Before we end, we must end with a bang! So we shall end with a testimony from Kusha: Before I came here and while applying for visa (which I had lots of difficulties for), I trusted in God and prayed for God’s help. He responded and helped me get the visa. I thank Ps Shani for also encouraging me. Before coming to TMT, I got to know God’s calling. After I came here, when I spend time with God and the trippers, as well as while I was involved in the activities; I got to know a lot of things and Jesus touched me. Jesus has used me a lot here, especially when we have ministry time. Yesterday, as we were praying for an uncle with back pain, we felt him getting hot, and this was a sign of the Holy Spirit’s presence coming upon him and healing him. I definitely have grown a lot from these supernatural experiences!

In addition, a follow up update by Auntie Anong from yesterday's post: Miew the lady we all prayed for, woke up in the middle of the night with a new song of praise. just as Neo had prophesied over her the day before, that the Lord will give her a new song.

That was good, wasn’t it? Some prayer requests:

1. We would be having an evangelistic concert, please pray for the Spirit to move powerfully.
2. We would be having visitation at Saewangha, Inburi and Thong-en. Thong-en is a new place, so pray for God move powerfully and prepare the way.

Out,

Your reporters, Daryl and Louisa and contributors Bella and Kushasta

Greetings from Thailand again!

We ended a little late today, so please forgive any mistakes we made in this report. And we will have a few guest writers, so please have a mood of eager anticipation…

Today we did visitations followed by children’s club and lastly the cell group. Visitation was good; we went to believers’ houses that did not turn up in church the week before.

Morning Visitation

If you recall, Miew is a pig farmer supported by our Green Store (See last year’s report for details). We visited her pig farm today and her new house is up – albeit short of windows and doors – and the Fishery Department has dug a pond for her as well. Unfortunately, a large number of her pigs died due to the heat wave that has swept through the area recently. The damaging effects of the heat wave were apparent to us today – the ground was parched, the pond had almost dried up save for two small pools of water, and one of the ducks literally dried up and died.

We prayed and prophesied over her. Her main concern is her debt to construction workers. She mentioned that previously they beat her up because she was unable to pay! We also did a prophetic act, pouring some water on the parched ground and praying for God to restore her land to its original lush state.

However, our ministry to Miew did not merely end there. Tonight after the bible study Neo, Peilin and I prayed for her. At the farm, Neo sensed a spirit of death over the place, and this corresponded with various events that had happened in recent times, e.g. her suicide attempt, the death of the pigs, and some people broke in and actually dumped a dead body in her field! I sensed a spirit of oppression over the place. Peilin saw an image of an angry insect-devouring plant that looked menacing which wanted to devour something. Collectively we decided that there was a need to break this spiritual stronghold. She mentioned that she feels that she is suffering because God is punishing her for something she’s done, or some sin she’s committed. Thus we led her in a prayer to renounce that thinking before she could be delivered from the spiritual oppression. After this was done she said that she felt uplifted, and we continued in a prayer for deliverance from the spirit of death and oppression.

Miew said she felt a huge burden lifted from her. She saw a vision of knights in armor riding to her rescue on horses and a golden sunrise. I thought that was pretty awesome. I commented that her life was very dramatic to Aunty Anong (our lovely translator) and Miew shared some stories of how God has really rescued her from out of the dumps, time and time again. For the sake of brevity I will only share one of them in brief. Miew’s ex-husband tried to kill her some time back, and she locked herself in her room. This crazy fella then proceeded to use a chain saw to saw through the door and get in! (Channel 8 dramas cannot compare to this man!) She was terrified and her children were shouting for Jesus to help. One of them called a friend, and thank God, when he ran out of the house zhun zhun there were 2 policemen at hand, and within one minute they arrived at her rescue! Praise God! Yeah, it’s really awesome. Though we were technically supposed to minister to her, I felt like she ministered to us through her testimonies, more so than we did her.

Afternoon Visitation

Neo, Keith, En Ting and Eunice visited a man whose leg muscles were degenerating. As a result, he had difficulty walking and has not been attending church for a while. Seeing him lie on a mattress, we were reminded of the paralytic to whom Jesus told to take up his mat and walk, but not before He forgave his sins. Sensing that the illness was similarly more than physical, we probed and found out that he had some spiritual ties – such as worshipping the spirit of a deceased monk and consulting a witch doctor for his condition. We led him to renounce the spiritual ties first, then we prayed for healing of his legs. His walking improved considerably after prayer – the pain in his pack completely lifted and he could lift up both legs to walk. As we left, he told us that he would be coming to church again soon.

Children Club

Children’s club at Wat Ya Soi was good, we really kept the energy up despite the energy-sapping heat and trips that we encountered today. Today, we again saw the trippers work together to pull off an impromptu skit of David and the lion’s den. The children seemed to enjoy it very much, and we had a very good trio of lions comprised of Neo, Daniel and Daryl. Shaun was also perfectly in character acting as King Darius, even though he had a Frisbee as his crown.

Cell Group

The cell group led by Daniel was good too. He taught a simple but profound lesson on the life of Peter with the central theme being Peter’s identity in Christ. A lady also prayed to receive Christ. Ministry time was another good time, but rather tired to tell, so shall save the story for later! Our fried rice is calling to me, so we shall end now.

We had the usual healings during the time of ministry – the supernatural has become natural! However, what was unusual about this time of ministry was that the Thai church workers themselves were activated to move in the Spirit. Songsee and Dawrung, two church workers, were encouraged to pray for another church worker, who had pain in his ankle due to an operation. His ankle was healed, and the church workers were amazed to realize that they themselves had the same power to heal, because the same God who works in us, works in them. We hope that the good work will continue even after we leave.

Prayer requests:

1. Tomorrow’s tracting would be fruitful, as we really need to attract the youths for Thanpraporn Church.
2. Energy levels will remain high, as we would have a long day tomorrow.
3. Of course, the presence of God will remain with us always and that we can be mighty warriors for God. And that we will be refreshed spiritually everyday.

Louisa & Daryl with guest writers Eunice & Daniel

We have much to thank God for today, without Him our plans would be pretty much ruined. When we were going to start the evangelistic concert at the Inburi Rice Mill today, the sky was pretty much overcast and grey. We definitely thought that it was going to rain. Okay, that’s exaggerating it abit.

As a city kids we are pretty sure some were totally oblivious, but the aunties there were commenting that it would rain. And they are usually correct. So we had to pray against rain.

Photo : Open heavens at Inburi

After all, God ever stopped the sun in the sky, so why not the rain right?

The rain actually did not start until, as Shaun would emphasize, when he packed up the last mat on the ground. It was pretty cool considering when we turned to our left, we could see lightning bolts streaking across the sky and when we turned to our right, we could also see flashes of lightning. But our area was totally protected. Cool huh.

In addition, the distractions that happened during our evangelistic concert did not affect the response to our concert much. There were cars driving through our “stage” and two kids on bikes who, in my opinion, should never ever be let within touching distance of anything that can move faster than 1 km/h. It was almost as if we were filming the “Stop and Stare” MV. We are thankful that many responded during our call for ministry.

We also are very thankful for the ministry time. We went there as ministers, but ended up as the ministered. A grandmother shared that her kidney was miraculously healed after the doctor told her that she has no chance of living, and that her wayward daughter appeared the morning after the remaining family were painfully crying out to God the night before; their faithfulness of the Thai people really blew us away and definitely humbled us. We seem to be reaping the harvest where others already seeded. Hmm this sounds strange, we’re definitely not any good with agricultural metaphors considering that we have never ever done anything like that before, but we really hope you get what we are saying. This is when we are again reminded that this is not accomplished by our own power, but by God’s grace. And that we definitely should not boast in our own works, but if we should boast, we should boast of the salvation of God. Haha, don’t have bible now, so quoting it from memory. Please forgive if it’s not word for word.

We met Air, a middle-aged man who is a faithful member of the church. Air had suffered an accident 20 years ago, resulting in back pain. The pain recurred recently when he exerted his back while working. Daryl, Vanessa, Keith, Peilin and Eunice prayed for him, twice because the pain lifted the first time but did not completely dissipate. During the second round of prayer, the team members felt various manifestations of the Spirit - heat, warmness, a breeze - but we were all sure that the Spirit's presence was strong. Later, Air himself told us that he felt a heat on his back, and he knew that the Spirit was filling him. However, there was still residual pain. Eunice felt the Lord say that He wanted to heal him completely there and then, so we continued to pray for the residual pain when the opportunity arose. After one simple prayer, his back was completely healed and the pain totally gone. We were very encouraged, not just by the healing, but by the knowledge that the Spirit was so tangible and present, aiding us in ministry. Yet we were reminded that it was not by our strength that Air was healed; he himself had rock-solid faith that God was going to heal him and had been praying and requesting prayer for healing. God has brought us the harvest and we are merely his workers who reap in joy.

Lastly, we are thankful for the unity that God has granted us. We have been working really well in different capacities to bring about a single goal, as we have mentioned earlier. Again it was demonstrated at the children’s club at Inburi Rice Mill, where we had the main session,

a side football session for the older teenage boys, and a … running about session for the very young. This is where we see the flexibility of trippers to take on initiatives they were not briefed about, and also, that football is a universal language. Not maths nor music.

Oh yea, not forgetting, “Aachan” Henry is way better! Yay! Please continue praying for complete recovery. And we are also thankful for the wonderful beef ball noodles we had today! And chendol! And big bags of coke that appear whenever we feel exceptionally hot and thirsty. And the mosquitoes have been quite unsuccessful so far J

Okay, prayer requests:

1. Energy and recovery for the next day. It may seem we are eating loads to keep our energy up, but honestly speaking, many seem to be pretty fatigued physically.
2. God to work mightily, and that we would be humble yet powerful servants for him
3. Whatever you have been praying, it is working haha, so continue please =)

Hello all,

we have reached Singburi, Thailand and have settled in very well at Pastor Eng Kiat's place. Everything has been very smooth flowing thankfully. The goodie bags for the events and camps have been packed and the atmosphere is wonderful. Morale of the group is high and the joy is overflowing if i might add.

Today, we had lunch under the same golden arches as the previous TMT team en route to Ps Eng Kiat's place.

Scenes of jubilation ensued after the customary introductions and greetings amongst the group, tears of joy could be seen on Daniel's and Keith's faces, as high fives and congratulatory hugs went around, UPON finding out that we would be able to WATCH THE WORLD CUP!!!!!! GOD IS GOOD!!!!! Daniel subsequently went on his knees in all gratitude, well okay, not all of that is true, BUT hey it came close, quite close, somewhat close...


In other news, riding in the Song teow brought back fond memories for a lot of the team that came previously and we managed to find a Tesco to procure the necessary supplies for the rest of the trip.

The team would like to thank:

1)Everyone that came to send us off at the airport

2)All your continuous prayers for us

Prayer requests:

1) Pray for good health for all members

2) Pray for a smooth day tomorrow

3)Follow the extensive and rather exhaustive prayer list:)


Do keep Tabs on our progress. Next update tomorrow. We believe that God WILL show up!


on behalf of the TMT 10,

Daryl & Louisa

Covenant Presbyterian Church Young Adult (YA) Mission Trip to Central Thailand 3- 11 July 2010 Itinerary

Sat 3 July Departure from T1 (FD 3502) – ETD 10.55am Team Prayer and Preparation Sun 4 July Tachang Church Worship Service Thanpraporn Church Worship Service (Bangrachan) Mon 5 July Children’s Club at Inburi Rice-Mill Evangelistic Concert at Inburi Rice-Mill Tue 6 July Visitation at Tachang Children’s Club at Wat Yai Soi Cell-Group at Wat Yai Soi Wed 7 July Visitation at Singburi Treasure Hunt/Tracting/making contact with youths at Bangrachan

Thu 8 July Visitation at Inburi & Thong En Visitation at Sawaeng Ha Evangelistic Concert at Sawaeng Ha Cell-Group at Sawaeng Ha Fri 9 July Visitation at Bangrachan Cell-group at Sa Jaeng Village, Bangrachan English Outreach Camp at Thanpraporn Church (Day 1) Cell-Group at Sanamchai Village Sat 10 July English Outreach Camp at Thanpraporn Church (Day 2) Sun 11 July Flight to Singapore (FD 3501) – ETA 10.25am

MISSION TEAM PROFILE

19 young adults and Henry; the two team leaders are Shi Wei and Andrew, and the rest of the team members are Shaun, Charissa, En Ting, Keith, Louisa, Vanessa, En Xuan, Bella, Ben, Daryl, Pei Lin, Emelyne, Devi, Janelle, Eunice, Daniel and Kusha.

PRAYER POINTERS

Pray for Thailand

· The hearts of the people in Thailand be ready to meet and encounter God

· The churches will be refreshed by the team’s ministry

· God will meet his Church in Thailand and the darkness be lifted off Thailand

· May God make this land of smiles become a land of Joy and happiness in Jesus.

· Break the chains that bind and seal off God’s blessings for his people in Thailand , May God flood the nation of Thailand with his LOVE

Pray for the Team

· Pray that the joy of the Lord will prevail amongst the team members, and that their joy and smiles will be so contagious that it will be imparted to the local people.

· Pray that there will be such a strong bonding to one another and everyone will be close to one another as one big family.

· Pray that we will be like the most disciplined army, not consumed with self or seeking recognition, but rather be united and able to move in harmony so that we will be effective against the enemy.

· Pray that we’ll be as adequately prepared for the programme, and also be flexible to adapt to the changes which would inevitably arise.

· Pray for wisdom for the team, especially the leaders, to make the right decisions at crunch time.

Pray for Individual Team Members

· For this period before we leave, many of the trippers have taken to prayer and fasting to consecrate ourselves to minister to the Thais

· Pray that the Thailand Mission Trip will be an extraordinary God-experience for every team member.

· Pray that everyone in the mission team will be used mightily by God as a channel to release His love and healing to the people that we meet.

· Protection for the Team - From the Commando Mosquitoes, Injuries, while traveling on the song-thaew from village to village.

· Good Rest, Good Health & Good Energy to carry out the planned programme, visitations to churches & ministry time.

Pray for a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit

· Pray that the Holy Spirit will once again move like a wind across the province in the next nine days, touching and healing people through the ministry of the mission team members.

· Pray that the team will put their trust and dependence on the Holy Spirit and in faith release healing for the sick and deliverance for those who are oppressed. In Mark 1:32-34, 3:7-11, 6:53-56 and Matthew 4:23-25, 8:16-17 when Jesus’ ministry was accompanied by healing and exorcism, the people were amazed at “the newness of Jesus' teaching and authority.

· Pray that there will be a powerful Baptism of Love and Baptism of Power by the Holy Spirit for the Team and the Thai people.

· Pray for God’s presence to be so real and tangible to the entire team through the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

· Pray that the team will be sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s prompting.

We are thankful to our God and thank you Covenantors for your loving support !!

Henry Wong