Catching Up: Campus Thanksgiving Party

Life was busy the last couple weeks in November, so that is why these are a bit outdated.










We had a campus Thanksgiving party the Friday before Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun and we saw lots of people from different "cliques" at the campus come. In all (including MTW missionaries and staff) we had 36 people here at our house. We did BBQ (which is always a big hit, especially if Yu makes spicy sauce, naam jeem). We played games and enjoyed each others company. Thank you for praying for that night and please continue to pray for these young men and women.

(First pic, Paul and Avi skewering squid for the BBQ; Second pic, our prep team having lunch together).
Avi (the guy pictured with Paul in the first picture) is another story all to his own. He is actually here with YWAM until the end of January. I believe Dave met him somehow and invited him to English worship. He is Indian and speaks English very well. Anyway, Avi has some extra time on his hands so he is helping our team out in different ways. He's been an encouragement to get to know as he has suffered for his faith in India but it surely doesn't stop him. Please pray for Avi as he ministers here. He's here to learn about cross cultural ministry thru YWAM.





Another encouraging sign at this party was the leadership Thai Christians took. Here we have Huu (standing up with green shirt on) and Max (sitting next to her with red shirt) leading everyone in a game of Maffia. They loved this game.








And, Paul had some "games" planned too. The object of this game was to see who could blow the raw egg into the other person's mouth the fastest. (Pat, the guy on the right won!) The Thais weren't too eager to try this one out!!!

And, perhaps the thing that got me the most excited about the whole night was this guy's shirt! It says,

"NITTANY LIONS

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY"

Need I say more???? When I saw this I about flipped. Of course, he had no idea what his shirt said but I explained to him why I got so excited when I saw it. You never know what you're going to see here! And, no, he's not high, the smoke from the BBQ outside got in his eyes. GO PENN STATE!

*for those of you not familiar with central pennsylvania, I will enlighten you. Penn State is about a 20 minute drive from my parent's house, thus making my little hometown die hard Penn State fans!

Sports and Ministry

Unfortunately for you, dear reader, you don't hear from my dear husband a whole lot and that is due to a couple reasons...1)he's busy, 2) he doesn't like to write so between the two you have to rely on me to keep you updated about him...in which I generally do a poor job. However, let me share a little bit with you about some of Paul's ministry here in Ram 2.
For nearly two years now, Paul has been going to the university campus to play basketball. I don't think when we came to Thailand Paul ever thought he would be doing "sports ministry" but really, that is what he is doing. This type of ministry is one of the best ways to meet Thai men. Many Thais exercise in the early evening hours. You can go to any park nearby (or the campus for us) and see pick-up games of soccer, basketball, and takraw (a game thais play with a little woven ball and you can only use your feet to get the ball over the net), badmitton and walkers and runners. Generally, Thai men are not the easiest group to meet but because of Paul's faithfulness and persistence in sticking with these guys, he is starting to get to know them and be welcomed into their group more and more. He has been playing with the same group of guys for these past two years and has gotten to know Mii quite well (pictured with Paul). Paul considers Mii his best Thai friend and they have done much together from celebrating New Years last year together up north in Mii's hometown to studying Scripture together. And next week, Mii, Paul and six other guys are going to eastern Thailand to play in a basketball tournament!!! Mii invited Paul last week and I must say we are both excited about this opportunity. They will only be playing a few hours out of the day and so that leaves the rest of the day to talk and get to know one another. Please be praying for Paul and the guys during this time. Pray for traveling mercies as Paul will be driving six hours to get there, but mostly pray for God's Spirit to be at work in and thru Paul and in the lives of these 7 guys. Again, who would have thought God would use basketball...and yet He is and does use whatever He deems necessary. Please continue to pray for the campus ministry team as they seek to reach the lost at Ram 2's campus. Pray for many opportunities, thru sports or otherwise, for the team to proclaim the Gospel.

BBQ!

Thanks to all who were praying for our campus BBQ last night (the 29th). God brought the entire basketball team and a few of their girlfriends and two of Paul's English students as well as a couple of guys that the campus team is getting to know.
It was a lot of fun with a lot of good shishkabobs! Pictured to the left is Mi and Bow with Adele. Adele was a big hit as everyone wanted to talk to her and hold her. Actually, all of our kids were big hits. It always amazes me how much Thais love children! They are such a playful people.










Here isPhii Khieow with one of Paul's English students cooking some squid...squid anyone?




















And again, we have Adele with Nat. He is one of the basketball guys.






















And Yu has a new shadow! Everywhere Yu was, PJ was and vice versa! PJ really was at ease last night and even sang karyoke. Needless to say he was pretty wired. Notice his red mustache from the red soda he was drinking and who knows how many sweets he had (he didn't really eat a healthy meal last night!) but he wasn't bad and had a blast with everyone. One of Paul's students, Cat, wants to marry PJ! We told her she has to wait about 20 years and she said she would! So funny. =)

Please continue to pray for these relationships. Pray for the Holy Spirit to be at work in the hearts of the men and women who came last night and pray as the apostle Paul asked the church in Colossae, "and pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ...pray that [we] may proclaim it clearly, as [we] should" (Colossians 4:3).