ฤดูร้อน

On the roads of Lopburi, there is almost always a mountainscape in the background. Sometimes it just takes a short drive to remind us that we live in a really beautiful place! 

On this note, we were able to buy a car a little while back through the generosity of donors from some missionary friends who were wanting to sell theirs. It has been so great to be able to use it to go to Bangkok for prenatal doctor's appointments and use it when we need another option besides the motorbike! 

Our Saturday "kid's day" has been changing shape a little bit! It continues to grow as word gets spread around the neighborhood, which is encouraging. The day pictured above, our usual group of younger kids weren't available, but we ended up with a small group of young teenagers who had never come before. It wasn't quite the age range we had prepared for, but we tried to readjust and roll with it and are thankful that they stayed engaged and were able to hear the gospel. 

One unique opportunity we were given this month was to take our friend to go visit her grandma in the hospital who was in critical condition. This was a public hospital in Thailand, so they had several dozen beds in one large room with no air conditioning, and most of the beds were filled with patient's needing constant care and supervision. It was really hard to see, especially knowing that the vast majority of these souls have probably never heard a clear explanation of the gospel, but may stand before God very soon. As we prayed for our friend's grandma, she was the most responsive she had been in days and even wanted to sit up while we were there. It sounds like her condition may be improving now, so we are hoping that she will yet decide to give her life to the Lord!

The small group that we are a part of at church has been growing in numbers, which is exciting to see! We also have started playing music each week with a few of the young people from our church who are interested in playing. We are thankful to increasingly feel like a part of our church family here and see these relationships grow!

This collection of papers represents a lot of answered prayer and relieved stresses! Over the past two months, we have been able to acquire a long-term visa, work permit, vehicle registry in our own name, and Ryan's Thai driver's license. Having a short term visa in the past that did not allow us to obtain these other documents was a source of stress many times, so we praise God to have these documents in hand and for the faithfulness of God that it speaks to!

 Our friend, Phii Ko, who we referred to in some of our first posts from Thailand came back into our life after a long absence! We had shared about Jesus with him in the past, and when he reached back out to Ryan a few weeks ago, he said that his life had basically fallen apart in recent months and he was ready to commit to Jesus now. We could hardly believe it and are praising God for this work in his heart! He is going with us to small groups and spending time with us regularly each week, so we are praying that his understanding of the gospel continues to grow as he continues to ask questions. I snapped the picture above through the screened window in our kitchen as Ryan and Phii Ko grilled pork for dinner.

We are continuing to press on in the journey of language and culture learning. A humbling experience at times but the rewards of our practice are sweet. We are continuing through the BAM (Business as Missions) program through Tri-Venture which has been very helpful. We meet regularly with two coaches who are mentoring us on what doing business for the glory of God looks like! We have officially decided to open a American style chicken restaurant with the name "Sauced and Tossed." :) More information to follow as this continues to develop. 

PRAISES & PRAYER REQUESTS:

- praise that Phii Ko as he has opened his heart to Jesus! Pray for wisdom for us to know how to best share with him and disciple him.

- pray for humility and wisdom for upcoming decisions for us. We feel like the path for life and ministry in front of us has split into two defined directions, and we need to decide which one to follow. One option would be staying in Lopburi and the other option would be to move to northeast Thailand. We see the opportunities and difficulties of both and would love your prayers for discernment! Hopefully we will have more of an update in the next couple months.

- pray for a smooth and uncomplicated labor and delivery as our due date draws ever closer! 

"And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." (Galatians 6:9)