One-Eyed Monk

It all began with a one-eyed Monk and a lost wallet.

Wanted to share this fun story with you as another indication of how wonderful our Lord is.

A couple of weeks ago my partner, Ron Wilson, was driving his wife’s car to the repair shop around the corner from his house. After paying for the repairs he set his wallet on top of the car, (you know what’s coming), got in, and drove off. About an hour later he gets a call from a local police station telling him that they had a Monk there trying to find the owner of the wallet. 

Turns out that this Monk resides at the Wat (Buddhist temple) near Ron’s house and had come along right after he had drove off and discovered the wallet on the ground. Because Ron’s driver’s license indicates that his home is in a near by town the Monk made his way down to the police station there. The police phoned Ron and asked him to come down and retrieve his wallet.

When Ron arrived he met the Monk and received his wallet back. (not a Baht was 

missing from over 10,000- about $300) Ron gave the Monk a ride back to his Wat and told him he would come and visit him there sometime and bring him a gift. (a very traditional way of giving thanks)

A Wat is a place for religious teaching as well as worship so an idea was hatched to see if we could come and teach about the Christmas story. The Monk was very open to this and invited us to come and teach the local children. He invited the village families to send their children to hear about the Christian Christmas! We put together gift bags and to hand out as presents after I taught on the gift of God to the world in the person of Jesus.

The Christmas story was well received by the children and the Monk was very thankful for our coming. 

We all felt very privileged to represent the Lord in that place and we pray for those that heard that they would all receive the greatest gift of all.

Seanet 2008

SEANET
This past week I attended the 10th annual SEANET (South East Asia Network) conference here in Chiang Mai. This conference brings pastors and mission agencies from around the Buddhist world together to network, cross-talk, and pray for the 1 billion Buddhists in this region.

One of the exciting aspects of this conference is that it provides an opportunity for pastors in specific countries to come together on neutral ground to discuss strategies and to pool their resources. The country of Myanmar, for example, had only 2 attendees last year, but this year they had 14!

They have now developed networks that includes many denominations and are seeking to invite organizations to partner with them. As of yesterday we are now an invited partner with them! It is really amazing how the Lord has brought this about in this country that is still in massive turmoil.

Last year, pastor Sam Abraham from India, asked us to consider coming to cast vision for reaching the military and police in his state. He is from Dharamsala, the current home of the Dali Lama on the Tibetan border. We were not able to work out dates last year to come but began praying the Lord would open doors for this year and He has answered. Ron and I will be heading there in April to be with Sam and another pastor from Chenni, in the south near Tamil.

These opportunities are too good to miss and we believe the Lord orchestrated them for this time. So you can imagine what my travel schedule is going to look like.
We covet your prayers in these next months as I travel much to many countries. (dates are posted below)

Paul’s Travel
Jan    19-23           Cambodia
Feb    6-17             Philippines
Mar    3-10             Cambodia
April   1-4               Myanmar
April/May   23-2      India  

Decoration Time

I am blessed with a wonderful woman who loves beauty and has a gift for creating it. This is especially true at Christmas.

Latest Family Photo

Hard to believe that its almost Christmas when the weather has been so beautiful here in Chiang Mai. I was playing soccer yesterday and got a little sunburned. We are really looking forward to this season as the kids grandparents will be visiting us bringing all sorts of goodies from the states.

I am now learning to read and write in Thai which is a huge step in unlocking the code of the language. I am already finding myself sounding out words on signs and in newspapers. I feel a little like a secret agent breaking a code.

We are very thankful for how the Lord has taken care of us this year and how He continues to move among the military and police of South East Asia.

Waterfall Baptism

I have now had the priveldge of batizing 2 of our children. What a joy it is to have your children express their love for Christ and their desire to follow Him. She initiated this whole thing and we could not be happier.

Prayer Item

I am a member of a board of advisors for the Thailand MPCF (Military and Police Christian Fellowship). In this position I have the privilege of serving these men and women who lead this group. Mostly this comes through one on one relationships with the high ranking officers in leadership. A national conference is held each year where they gather for worship, encouragement and teaching. We are invited to participate and share in this meeting, our vision for helping them grow and mature as an organization and as individual believers.

MPCF Thailand 2007

Here in the northern part of Thailand there are about 40 members of this group that meet occasionally and have done so for about 6 years but have not experienced much growth recently.
There are a number of issues involved with this lack of growth that are both culturally and relationally delicate to deal with. I have been asked by Gen Chai-Gone to get involved once a month with the hope of infusing some new life into this group. The difficulty is that the designated leader here (although an amazingly gifted servant) is not a strong leader and is caught between two authorities; at the national level is Gen Chai-Gone and at the local level is his pastor to whom he is fiercely loyal.

I find myself caught in the middle as well because in this culture it is extremely easy to offend someone who is in leadership. So while the Gen. is asking for a new meeting to begin, the pastor who has always had his name associated with the group cannot be seen as having failed.
One other complication is that the pastor used to be one of our national staff members but due to some improprieties we asked him to leave.

Wisdom and sensitivity are deeply needed here. We really love these men and women and are seeking to be able to serve them again.
Please pray for us in this matter.