Hello Everyone,

  Today is our last day in Bangkok.  The time has passed so quickly.  Today at 3pm we will go to the SC Park Hotel for our LST Endmeeting.  Then, at about 10:00pm tonight some of our friends from the Christian Center will pick us up from the hotel and take us to the airport.  We leave from Korean Airlines at 1am on Tuesday morning.

  The last week has been very full.  We finished our reading sessions last Thursday.  We were able to have a huge part of Thursday night with about 60-65 people.  The Christian Center organized it, and many of the people performed their talents for the party.  In these last few days, there have been some encouraging things with my readers.  Yesterday, Sunday, my reader Kwan was baptized.  She has been studying the Bible with P'Megk for a few months, and it was very encouragin for her to make the decisions because it was very difficult.  Her friends that she lives with were not supportive of her decision, and she is afraid to tell her parents about the decision.  But, she wanted to go ahead with the decision anyways.  Also, on Sunday, two of my other readers came to church--Ami and Tae.  During the class time, Erin and I talked with them about their experience at church and about their thoughts about God.  I talked to them about coming in the future, and I think that they will continue to come to church, and I think that Ami is planning on starting to study the Bible next week.  Also, last night at evening church I was given the opportunity to preach, and I invited the guy at the store across the street to come and listen in on my sermon.  We had studied the Bible together once at the church in the afternoon, and our group often goes to buy things from his store.  I was very surprised, but he did come over, and that was also very encouraging.

We also had a very encouraging Saturday.  Nut, one of the Christians here, had planned a day of fun for our readers at a nearby waterpark.  We told him that we needed 25 tickets (including our tickets and two of the Christians tickets).  Then, on Saturday afternoon as we were waiting for people, it looked as if maybe we had purchased too many tickets.  But, when we got to the waterpark there were some more of our readers waiting for us.  In the end, there were 30 of us that day.  And, maybe a day at a waterpark seems very unimportant in bringing people to Christ, but it is very beneficial because the readers are able to form relationships with one another and to build relationships with the other Christians, and this is what will keep them coming to the Christian Center.  So, I was very encouraged that we ended up having to buy some extra tickets.  And, we had a GREAT day at the waterpark.

I want to thank all of you who have been keeping up with this journal, and who was encouraged each of us on the team and who have been in prayer about this trip. 

God Bless

Joe Howard

Sorry that it has been such a long time since my last posting.  We have been busy, and I don't get to the Internet cafe very often.  But, there has been a lot that has happened since my last posting.

I have quite a few readers that I think with continue studying the Bible, or at least reading the Luke workbook, after we leave.  I am really excited about my reader, Kwan.  We talked for about  1 1/2 hours yesterday, and she is 90% sure that she wants to be baptized this coming Sunday.  Either if she does not, I'm sure that she will be baptized in the near future.  She has a great heart for God, and is very excited about being a Christian, but she is afraid of the response from her parents. 

Another of my readers who I hope will continue to study after we leave is Ami.  I read with her last year, but she was very sporadic with when she would come and when she would not come.  This year, she always comes, and she brings her boyfriend, Tae, who I also read with.  Ami speaks very good English, so we are able to have good conversations.  She has made the decisions that she does not want to be Buddhist, and she wants to learn more about Jesus and the Bible.  Ami and I have talked to Donna, who is from Texas and staying here for a year, about Ami studying the Bible with Donna after I leave.  I also think that Tae is gradually becoming more interested.  He is rather quiet and shy and he does not speak near as much English as Ami, but he is coming to church on Sunday, and I hope that that will help him in learning more about God.

I could write about every reader, but then there would be a lot to read.  But, a quick overview of some of my other readers.  If has started studying with someone at the Center, and I hope that she will continue to study.  Po has already been studying with Loyal, who is from Michigan, and Po has learned a lot about the Bible.  Ko is a guy that I have been studying with sometimes on Sunday afternoons, and even though we have not been able to study much, he has been going to the English classes that , from , offers at the church, and so Ko already has a relationship with .

Our free times have been going good as well.  A long time back on July 9th, P'Megk took us to Petchabune, his hometown.  We went there for the day with a van full of mostly Christians, and three non-Christians.  The point of the day was to help the non-Christians build relationships with the Christians.  We stopped at a national park for a while, and I even saw a shop that was selling fried cockroaches, but I didn't get any.  Once we got to P'Megk's brother's house, his brother started roasting some chickens for us.  Also, we got to go and see the farm that P'Megk's family worked on.  They raise silk worms, and I still don't quite understand what they do with them, but it was still rather interesting.  We stayed in Petchabune for quite a while, and then drove back to Bangkok and got there at 2am. 

This past weekend we had our LST English Camp.  Our LST group didn't really do much, but the point of the camp was to invite as many of our readers as possible, and then during this time at camp they could build relationships with the Christians.  I had 3 of my readers go, and I think that total we had 15 or so readers who went with us.  We had a lot of fun.  We played a ton of games together.  We were each divided into four groups, and we had to come up with a team cheer and a team skit.  And, I even helped to prepare squid--even though I didn't eat it.  I had to pull out the squid part and then peel off the skin, and then I had to pull out the eyes and the ink sacks of the squid.  I think I had a weired expression on my face the whole time that I did it, but I did it :)

Last night we went to the airport because one of the Christians here, Iew, is leaving to go to Lubbock, Texas, to study at the AIM program through Sunset School of Preaching.  It was fun to go with everybody to the airport, but I felt sad for those people who were close to them because it was very apparent that many people will miss him.  Hopefully, though, I will get to see him in October at the World Missions Workshop in York, Nebraska. 

I pray that God will bless your week.  And, I will see most of you in about a week when we return.

God Bless,

Joe Howard

We had a very full week last week.  All four of us have our maximum amount of readers, and so we stay very busy.   One of my readers dropped last week, and I was able to fill in  that spot with a new reader.  His name is Rot, and last year he read with Lara Shaw.  He had wanted to be a reader this year, but signed up too late.  He had already asked me 2 or 3 times if he could read with me, but I really didn't have any space.  So, while it was unfortuanate that one of my readers did drop, it  is fortunate that to fill her place I have some who really, really wants to read.  He is a great guy, and he has a great personality.  He seems like he is always in a good mood.  I think that he is still rather far from making a committment to following God, because his family is Buddhist and I believe that he was even a  Buddhist monk for a few weeks, but he is very open to talking about the things that we read from the Bible.

Another reader that I have enjoyed reading with is Ton.  He is 19 years old, and he is studying at Ram University.  He is rather quiet, but sometimes he will ask some good questions.  He has been rather shy, but during the last one or two reading sessions he seems to be becoming more comfortable.  He is really smart.  He has been studying Chinese since he was 12 years old, and, of course, he can speak some English too.  I think that he is a very open person, although I think this might be some of his first exposure to the Bible.

Please pray for Rot and Ton that God would touch their hearts and draw them near to Him.

We had two great free days this past week.  On Friday morning we traveled to the island of Ko Samed.  It is about 3 1/2 hours from Bangkok.  It really helped that two of our friends, Deere and Nut, went with us because they are Thai, and, obviously, they can speak Thai.  We had a lot of fun.  We rented a little bungalow by the beach.  On Friday we went  out on a speedboat and went snorkeling a little, visited some beaches, and visited a fish farm.  Later that night, we went out to eat, and we ate on some chairs on the beach with a light wind on our face.  It was so relaxing.  On Saturday we slept in late, and then after lunch, we were on  our way  back to Bangkok.  Although the trip was short, it was very relaxing.

Also, on Sunday night (July 4th),  invited us over to their house.  are from the US, and they work at the Christian Center.  Heather made some fajitas, as well as some great cheese dip.   It was great to be there.  We got to talk a lot, and we also sang some devotional songs in English.

I hope that you all have a great week.

God Bless,

Joe

I forgot to do this before we left, but I wanted everyone to also have the link to Erin's on-line journal.  So, here it is:  http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=beamer_thailand .  I hope that you enjoy reading her's also. 

Joe

God is very much blessing our time in Bangkok.  We have now been here for a week and a half.  Yesterday we finished our first week of reading sessions, and our schedules have definately been full.  If we could take more readers, I'm sure that there would be more to take. 

This past Sunday I got reunited with the people at the Watcharapon Church of Christ, and it was good to see them all again.  The church is building a new building next to their current church, and it is quite a bit bigger.  I'm excited for them to be able to move into a bigger building--they have a dream of expanding to 300 people and also of planting more churches in Bangkok--a city of about 10 million people.  All four of us on the team are having reading sessions on Sunday afternoons, so we all met some new readers on Sunday.  That evening, P'Tuli (who is in charge of the Center) and his wife P'Nui had us over to their apartment for dinner.  It was great!!

Monday we started in with four full days of reading sessions. I had about 30 reading sessions throughout the four days of reading (Monday thru Thursday).  And, I know the story of Jesus' birth very well   One of my readers who is asking a lot of questions is If.  She has asked me about God, why Jesus came to the earth, about the Bible.  We actually went the full hour with one reading session, and most of it was spent with her asking quesitons about God.  I had her talk to P'Tuli and they have a Bible study set up on Monday, studying the Bible in Thai.  Another reader I have really enjoyed is Po.  His friend is a Christian, and Po has been going to church with his friend for a long time.  Po really has a heart for God, and wants all of the people of Thailand to know about God.  On Tuesday he actually started in a group Bible study with Loyal, so I hope that he will continue learning more about God.  One final reader  I would like to mention is Ami.  She was one of my readers last year, and she came back this year.  She is really good in English, and so we are able to have more in-depth conversations.  She is supposed to come to church with us on Sunday, as are two of my other readers.  It would really be exciting if all three of them showed up on Sunday.

A few other highlights of the past few days.  On Tuesday night, Deere and Dow, two Christians here, made our group a Thai dinner, and it was great.  Deere said that they are going to start doing it for us once a week--we buy the supplies and they make the food.  It is a good trade-off.  On Wednesday night at the Center's Bible study,  I gave a lesson with P'Tuli translating.  On Thursday night we had our first party.  We had about 50 people come, and 20 of them were our readers--that is also exciting!!

Today is the first of our two off-days.  Today, Deere went with us to Wat Phra Kaow, the biggest Buddhist temple in Thailand, and we saw the Grand Palace, where the King of Thailand used to live.  Also, we went and ate lunch in Bangkok's Chinatown.  Matt's reader also went with us, and I hope that we were able to build a better friendship with him.

Tomorrow night the church is having a welcoming dinner for our group, as well as for Ginny and Donna, two women who came in last night from Texas.  Ginny is staying in Bangkok for 7 1/2 weeks, and Donna is staying for 1-2 years.  I really appreciate the church for having this dinner for us.

I feel that God is truly blessing our time in Thailand.

One final note--For some reason, I have not been able to open my regular e-mail, so if any of you have e-mailed me, I probably haven't got them.  I changed the e-mail on my Xanga account to the e-mail that I am using now joeinthailand2003@yahoo.com.  So, if you send e-mail by clicking on the "E-mail" button on the Xanga account, the e-mails will now go to the Yahoo account and I will get them.  So, if you did send an e-mail, I would love to get it and if you could just send it to the new address I would love to to hear from you.  Also, for the rest of our trip, please use the above e-mail address.

May God Bless you all,

Joe