Blown Away!

We were blown away today....

Today (Saturday) we had winds up to 22 mph and expect more of the same for Sunday.  The weather is pleasant though.  But, the wind certainly creates more dust and grit for our ride in the back of the truck.  But, more on that later.

After our team met to start the day with prayer and devotions, Kris and Silk picked us up at the hotel to go to our morning house church visit.  They combined two of the village churches to gather together with us this morning--NL and PY house churches.

It's about a 45-min to an hour drive to the village. We stopped on the way at a local market to buy some fruit for lunch. 

 

 

We arrived at the house church around 10. Due to varying circumstances, some of the church members were not able to come, but those who were there were a joy to be with.  Most of the members in these two churches are older.  I remember meeting "Grandpa" and his wife on my last visit almost five years ago.  His wife has now passed, but he is still a strong member of the church.  He's an easy one to remember--his big gray bushy eyebrows!  

 

 

 

This is "Grandpa" -- can't see his eyebrows

We spent time worshiping together in song and sharing testimonies.  Charles and Krista both shared their testimonies.  Jadyn shared the message this morning and spoke about heaven and how the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few. 

We had lunch delivered and joined the church members for lunch.

 

After leaving the church, we stopped at the home of M* who has been part of this church for a long time and has been unable to come due to dizziness.  We spent time praying for her and when she stood up, she was no longer dizzy!  You could visibly see the difference in her eyes and face from when we arrived and after we prayed.  God is so good!

  

Then we went to the DG house church.  This was the very first house church that was started after our team arrived in Thailand.  They were also the church with the first baptisms.  Many of the believers have passed on, and it is a very young church now.  

I mentioned the wind earlier...well, when we arrived at the DG house church, I happened to be in another truck (not the open air truck) and as doors were opened on both sides at the same time, the biggest gust of wind and dust just enveloped the inside of the truck!  It was quite surprising...and dirty...

 

 

  

 

Some grandparents are still at the church and many of the grandchildren are there now.  The young children are already demonstrating great leadership skills and are following Jesus.  Another thing we were blown away about was the fact that so many kids came today.  We only expected 3!  We had a lot of fun with this group because we got to be silly with the kids--singing "If You're Happy and You Know it" and "Father Abraham" and "Deep and Wide."  Lots of giggling and laughter.  Leah shared her testimony with us and then Karen lead a time of teaching the children.  We spent time praying individually for each of the church members before leaving. 

Krista prayed for the Grandma at the DG house church for back pain and Grandma said she felt better after the prayer!

We got back to the hotel around 4:45 and had a bit of time to rest before dinner at 6:00.  I am just continually blown away in how God works!  Seriously, this team that came from the US was handpicked by God.  So many of our stories line up with so many from the churches in Thailand. What a gift it is to be able to be an encouragement to them in sharing how God has worked and is working in our lives and circumstances and will do the same for them.

Dinner, again, was delicious.  This is the only photo we took at the meal.  Check out THIS fish!

Enjoy some of these random photos of sites along our road trips.  Until tomorrow...