I have been in Thailand for the last month and it has been very exciting! This was my forth trip , and I think it has been my best so far. This letter is mainly about my trip.
What is the greatest thing in life?
I’m driving a car on a very bumpy and dusty road, that have to be very difficult to drive in the rainy season, we are driving very slow, while I’m talking to my interpreter and Shan friend Alo. He is a Shan man that God has raised up from a to be a narcotic addicted person and a person without hope to an effective evangelist amongst his own un-reached people group. While he is talking I can sense his heart for God and his people. He has a great testimony to and has experienced a lot with God the last three years; he can even tell me that he has been healed from a lung disease.
After 15-20 minutes on this bumpy road we are at the destination. We have come to a bamboo hut in the middle of an orange farm. This is one of the five cell-groups Alo has started in the last year. It has no electrical power, so the only form of light is a diesel lamp that burns black. We are sitting down in this small hut around the lamp, and it is about then people gathered here this evening. Some of them had walked for almost one hour to get to this cell-group. Alo is telling me that about seven of the people are not Christian yet. When I am about to share the gospel with them, I can feel a very special atmosphere in the hut. When I share the gospel everyone is paying very good attention, even the kids there are sitting still. This is not the usual as I had experienced in the other cell-groups. I shared my testimony and taught them about God as the creator that wants to have a personally relationship with us, and the message of hope. After about half and hour Alo is taking over, and we got a lot of question about God and who Jesus is, that we tried to answer as best as we could. It takes time for a Shan to grasp the gospel, because of their strong Buddhist background. Buddhism is really far away from Christianity. They have no understanding of who God is, and less who Jesus is. I knew that the fruit was not ready to harvest yet this evening, but I know that God had done something with them. Some days later we also showed the Jesus movie in this village, then about 20-30 people came and watched it.
I had another great experience when I sat and listen to Alos teaching. I was reflecting over what a great privilege it is to sit here and share the gospel with people for the first time, and to an un-reached people group. I could not imagine something more satisfying in life. I really had a joy and a satisfaction in my heart that I seldom have experienced before.
A week later when I interviewed the leader of the work and a missionary called Mario, and asked him what is the greatest thing you have experienced out here, he asked that it most be to sit down and share the gospel with an un-reached people group. I could really identify with him.
This experience was very special and I wish I could have sheared it with all of you. Just tell me if you are going to or want to go to Thailand one time, and I’ll bring you to this people group.
What I did
I mainly worked in a city called Fang, north of Thailand, by the border to Burma. Here I was together with a DTS team from Norway. We went to this different cell-groups and had testimonies and taught them about God. We also showed the Jesus film for them. I have probably seen the Jesus film seven times in Shan now, starting to know it by heart, almost. It can be boring, but when I know that these people get to know about Jesus, it’s worth to sacrifice two hours (every time) for it. In one year probably 150-200 (maybe even more) Shan people have seen the Jesus film in this place. In every place we showed the Jesus film we needed to use the car for electrical power and under open sky. You can really feel like a bush missionary when you experience this.
I also spent some time, and had some bible study for Alo and also some for the team. We studied the letter of Philippians.
You have to count on some resistance
In one of the villages in Alos cell-group, we experienced some resistance when we showed the Jesus film. We first asked one place if we could use the electrical power there, but they did not get a permit from the owner of the house. We tried another place, but they were afraid of a gang that killed people. We sensed a spirit of fear over this place. In the end the solution was that we went to a rice field and saw it with help of our car battery again. So we filled up the car, (noticed filled, it means twelve people in the back of the car, I drove very slowly) and went. If this was all not enough we did not get the television to function. We tried half an hour to get it to work, but we did not succeed. Then we found out that we probably needed the remote control, but where was it? We found out that we had left it at our guesthouse, so we needed to drive back and get it. When we finally started the film, after three hours back and fourth, the time was almost nine. The Shans often go to bed at this time, so it was quite late for them. We showed just half of the film and said that we should come back next week. The next week came and we were setting up the television again, then we discovered that the transformer was missing, and guess what? We had left it at the guesthouse, so we had to go back again and get it. Once more we were delayed, but finally we got to show the whole film.
Answer to prayer
On the airplane I got quite sick, and I think it had to do with my sickness, (candida, yeast infection). I knew I got several things that I reacted to, even though I had ordered a gluten free meal. I got headache, stomach pain and begun to freeze and feel bad. I started to think: “What have I done now? If I react so much on this food, how much will I react to the food in Thailand?” I saw myself lie sick for four weeks. But after awhile I took up my computer and read some teaching I have written about prayer, and got encouraged. Before I went I also got a promise that I should not be worried, and God reminded me about that I should not be anxious about what I should eat or drink, read Matt 6:31 and 6:33.
I also prayed the rest of the night on the plane and felt that God gave me peace. I still had some stomach pain when I came to Thailand, but was a bit better. During the next night and day it disappeared. I did not have any big problems at all with my stomach when I was in Thailand, even though I eat things that I reacted to. This was an answer to prayer. I have not been healed yet, because when I came back to Norway it’s back to “normal”, but currently I have removed my last amalgam filling so now I hope to get rid of the yeast overgrowth.
I wish to go out to Thailand again (and Malaysia) in august for a longer period, so please pray that I’ll be completely healed before I go.
What’s next?
I’ll be trying to put up some webpage for the ministry out there in Thailand and the 22nd I go back to Eintrøa (a YWAM center in Norway) to staff another School of Biblical Studies Core Course. In August I also want to go out to Thailand again.
Prayer points
- Pray for a blind lady and the only Christian in her village. Pray that she will get rid of the old thinking about Buddhism, and also for her healing. Think about what great testimony this would be!
- Pray for two villages that have no school. Pray for a school to be established.
- Pray for a couple that is not Christian yet. They have many questions and are close.
- Pray for more co-workers for Alo, so that he doesn’t have to carry all of it alone. He needs more Shan Christians that can release him more and also foreign staff. He also plans to take a DTS next fall, so workers are needed.
- Pray also for me that I’ll be completely healed from my sickness.
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