Thai Mother's Day

In Thailand, Mother's Day is on August 12th every year becuase this is the HM the Queen's birthday. This year the Lord led our team to do a speacial worship service to honor the mother's of the children with whom we are in contact. God graciously answered our prayers as many, many people came to our ministry center today for the FIRST time and heard God's Word preached and Lord willing, saw God's family, the church at work. I counted 15 moms that came and several fathers (!). It was a HUGE encouragement to us as a team. After the service we all ate kuay thiaw together from two local shops (kuay thiaw is basically ramen noodles with meat and often times other things added in there too!).
In Thailand, it is custom during Mother's Day for the children to present their mother with a fake jasmine flower and thank them for being their mom. In the first picture you see a row of women sitting and their children on their knees in front of them presenting them with a flower pin. If a child's mother didn't come, she/he just picked another mom that was there and gave it to her.
In the second picture, you see Phii Nong. She attended a few of my English classes but has stopped coming due to having to work. She is one of the movers and shakers at the Maahaadthai Community we are working with. She is a sweet, sweet woman...please pray for her.
And in the third picture you will notice these three women are "wai-ing." This is perhaps the most common gesture you will see and do in Thailand. I can't recall why these women are wai-ing. Most times one wais to greet someone, say good-bye, say thank you or if you are offering merit or praying to a Buddha or other spirits.
And the last picture is of my dear little Calvin with his most favorite Thai person in the world...Phii Charin. Charin is one of our BBCS interns and is GREAT with kids...especially Calvin! Charin, Tim Mills and Pramote (the other intern) have been taking a Thai traditional music class for the past several months (for Christian worship) and today was their debut. They played some Thai traditional music with instruments. It was beautiful and they all did a superb job! Charin is seen here getting a head start teaching Calvin the outworkings of this classical Thai instrument that is much like a guitar and yet distinctly Thai. (Tim, maybe you could let me know the name of this instrument...I have forgotten!).
I also wanted to point out to all you faithful readers that you might have noticed a lot of folks dressed in blue. This is the color for mother's day here in Thailand. Many of you might recall that yellow is the HM the King's color but blue, specifically light blue is for HM the Queen. Everyone wears these shirts...men, women, children and most of them say something like "I love mom" or LOVE MOM" in both Thai or English. I got Calvin a shirt that says, "I love mom" in Thai. It's really a neat idea...the whole country gets blanketed in these colors at specific times of the year or even specific days of the week (for example on Mondays in Thailand, virtually everyone is in yellow!).
And lastly, I wanted to thank you for your prayers for today. It was SO exciting and though I wasn't able to hear Charin's sermon on being a godly mother I heard it went really well. And the important thing is that God's Word was proclaimed to many who have never heard it before! Pray now, for those who came, that the Spirit of God would bring them back to hear more of the Gospel and that they would be hungry for more and more truth. Thanks again for faithfully praying. "To God be the Glory, great things HE has done!"