True Repentance

What is true repentance? This morning I read Matthew 26 and as I reflected on it, I was struck by Matthew Henry's commentary on Peter's denial of Christ. Henry writes, "Peter wept bitterly. Sorrow for sin must not be slight, but great and deep. Peter, who wept so bitterly for denying Christ, never denied him again, but confessed him often in the face of danger. True repentance for any sin will be shown by the contrary grace and duty; that is a sign of our sorrowing not only bitterly, but sincerely."

In Thailand, I have seen far too many professions of faith that bear no fruit. I have also heard too many Christians misdiagnose the problem of people who profess faith in Christ but don't follow through. One suggestion is that these backsliders need more encouragement. Another suggestion is that they need more follow-up and discipling. Both of these may be true to a degree depending upon how we understand the terms but neither seem to get at the heart of the matter that genuine repentance has likely not occurred. Repentance is not only stopping doing something bad but is also the beginning of doing something new. As Henry points out, Peter not only ceased denying Christ, but he also did the exact opposite - stood up and boldly proclaimed him from that point onward. Repentance does not consist of merely admitting to, or confessing ones sins either to God or to others. Repentance is a decisive turning from evil and self, and towards God. Granted, some new believers exhibit more obvious repentance earlier on because of the gross nature of their former life while others seem to grow or change more slowly as it is less obvious elements, like attitudes of the heart, which need the most change. But in either case, there is a definitive turning. If this change is missing in the life of any supposed Christian believer then, Biblicially speaking, it is not possible to call that one a Christian (regardless of what label you use to modify the term Christian, i.e. nominal, backslidden, carnal, immature, not growing or what not).

The most helpful thing that a Christian believer can do to help a professing Chrisitian who does not appear to have repented is to kindly yet firmly talk with him, opening the Scriptures, and help him see the true state of his heart before God. The book of 1 John was written to help professing Christians have assurance that they are saved (cf. 1 John 5:13) and if we have doubts as to someone's conversion, some time in 1 John will hopefully help to either comfort or convict.

"And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly ethe love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him hought to walk in the same way in which he walked." 1 John 2:3-6 (ESV)

The Westminster Shorter Catechism also helpfully summarizes the Biblical doctrine of repentance so that, in a nutshell, we might know what it is that we it is that we should be looking for in the lives of those who profess Christ.

87. What is repentance unto life?
Repentance unto life is a saving grace,1 whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin,2 and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ,3 doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God,4 with full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience.5

1 Acts 11:18
2 Acts 2:37
3 Joel 2:13
4 Jeremiah 31:18-19
5 Psalm 119:59

True repentance is a beautiful thing, as illustrated by the life of Peter who, after being brought to the end of himself, was a new man: humble, yet bold and God-confident, not self confident. Profession of faith without true repentance, however, is an embarrassment to all who call themselves Christians and a defamation of the character of God.

Same Words, Different Worlds

Have you ever been talking with someone and just feel like you’re not communicating? You’re speaking the same language but somehow you’re not understanding each other and the whole conversation feels like ships passing in the night? You are on the same page, reading the same words, but getting totally different things out of it?

One of the challenges of communicating the Gospel in Thailand is what I am going to call the “definition gap”. The definition gap occurs when two people are speaking the same language and using the same words but loading totally different meanings into those words. It’s as if I start telling you about a guy named “Bob”, meaning my next door neighbor. But you think I am talking about Bill Murray’s character named “Bob” in the movie “What about Bob?”. We are both talking about “Bob” but meaning two totally different things.

In Thailand, both missionaries and Thai Christians use words like “God”, “sin”, “heaven”, and “hell” to share the Gospel but what Thai Buddhists understand by these words is usually completely different. The word used for “God” (พระเจ้า) is also commonly used to talk about the king, not to mention any variety of other gods or spirits. “Sin” (บาป) is popularly construed as killing animals, and is not defined in relation to the Creator God to whom we are responsible. Heaven and hell are sometimes not understood as being literal places as seen in the idiom, “Heaven is in your chest, and hell is in your heart” (สวรรค์อยู่ในอก นรกอยู่ในใจ) which means that this life is either heaven or hell depending upon what you make of it. Even when heaven and hell are seen as literal places, they are not final destinations in Buddhist thinking. Once you pay off enough karma in hell, you can be reborn in the human world. And when you finish paying off that last little bit of karma that has followed you along to heaven, then you can move on to the next spiritual rebirth and finally blink out of existence by reaching Nirvana. Can you see how problems of understanding can, and often do happen when Christians use words that Buddhists understand in a totally different way? The tragedy here is that well meaning Christians assume that when they use certain words, that the Buddhist listener will automatically fill in that word with the Christian meaning. However, it is completely unrealistic to assume that someone completely unfamiliar with the Bible and the Christian faith will assume the Biblical meaning of sin when the word “sin” (or บาป in Thai) is employed. Would it not be a better assumption that my Buddhist listener will think of the Buddhist concept of sin when the Christian starts talking about sin?

If I fail to explain the Biblical meaning of sin, comparing it and contrasting it to the meaning of sin presumed by my listener, then I have no idea what my listener is really understanding. And sharing the Gospel is not about using certain words as if those words magically create understanding of the Gospel when used. Even in English, if I talk to a non-Christian about “being washed in the blood of the Lamb” or “the imputation of righteousness” or “the substitutionary atonement of Christ”, I am going to get a lot of confused looks. Those phrases all have specific meaning for me, but if the listener doesn’t know the technical and precise understanding that I am pouring into those words, then I am wasting my breath. Sharing the Gospel is about creating understanding so that the truth about God, the truth about self, and the truth about the world is laid bare in a way that is UNDERSTOOD. If understanding doesn’t happen, then true communication has not happened and the Biblical Gospel has not been heard.

The fact that there has been this “definition gap” in Gospel communication in Thailand has gone unnoticed in many parts of the church in Thailand. Christian amnesia kicks in and Christians forget how they thought and what they believed before they were Christians. Hence, they use common terms with a new Christian meaning and assume that their Buddhist friends and neighbors are going to “get it”. The problem is more severe for those who have grown up in the church, and have learned the Christian meaning of these terms from an early age. And then you have missionaries who presume that because they say baap (บาป), the Thai word for sin, then their Thai Buddhist hearers will know what they are talking about. I admit that I myself at times have fallen into the later category, not realizing that I was not communicating what I thought I was communicating. Actually, I may still be doing it at times because I am still learning what exactly it is that people are thinking and how their worldview works. And studying Buddhism in the classroom has not been the complete answer either because what is in the books and what the guy on the street actually believe and do are often different.

A number of missionaries have been concerned about this “definition gap” or problem in message contextualization as it may also be called. And now there are some Thai pastors and church leaders who are becoming concerned as well. At the upcoming Thailand Protestant Congress on Evangelism, the following video spot will be shown, inviting Thai church leaders to come discuss the problem of communicating the message of the Gospel in Thailand in ways that create understanding.

The speaker in the video above is Rev. Bantoon Boon-it of Suebsamphantawong Church in Bangkok. For non-Thai speakers, the gist of the video is this: Communication is made up of information and relationship. Pastor Bantoon says, ‘If I ask my wife for a glass of water but don’t have the right tone of voice, I might get a glass of water but she might not be so happy about it. If I ask a stranger for a glass of water, I might get the water but not as I would like because I don’t know the person. However, if I ask for a glass of water using the Latin word AQUA, it is not going to matter if I have a good relationship with the person I am asking because they are going to have no idea what I am talking about it they don’t know Latin.’ The point he is making is that although the Thai church has done a decent job of relating to people, yet somehow the Gospel is not getting through in many cases because of the ‘definition gap’ or a lack of message contextualization.

There are lots of contextualization issues to be addressed in Thailand (worship music, clothing, liturgy, architecture, etc.) but the most important is the Gospel. Is the content of the Gospel being preached, taught, and shared in a way that really creates understanding? Or are we creating confusion, or even worse swinging wide open the doors to syncretism and false conversions? Are we giving people the opportunity to paste Christian words onto their existing Buddhist animistic worldview, creating the impression of Christianity while leaving their former worldview intact? Form without substance. It is good to see this issue being brought up for discussion and I hope that a number of Thai Christian leaders will see the importance of getting the content of the Gospel right and taking the time figure out whether what they think they are communicating is actually getting through.

Maybe Thai People Do Like To Read!

I've thought for a long time that Thai people don't read that much (even though the majority can read, at least to a basic level). There are very few bookstores in Thailand (not counting comic book rental shops) and I don't see people reading books that much. Out in Nong Doan, the lower class farming community where we are trying to do a church plant, I've met a number of folks who claim that they can't read (although in reality it seems that they say this because they don't have confidence in their reading ability because of low educational level). These experiences have made me think more about oral Bible story telling in ministry, the importance of good oral Biblical preaching and teaching, and distributing the Thai New Testament on MP3 for those who would rather listen than read. Along these lines, I've started listening to a few of the "Introduction to Orality" podcasts over at Story4all.

With that said, some recent experiences and some new research have made me think that reading and literature may be an important part of many Thai people's lives after all. Actually, I always wanted to believe that literature has an important role in evangelism and discipleship in Thailand for no other reason than the fact that books have had an important role in my own spiritual development. And we can't ignore the fact that God gave us the Bible in a book, not on a CD.

In his recent research dissertation on "Conversion Growth of Protestant Churches in Thailand", Marten Visser found that "[t]hough a lot of attention is given to TV and radio ministry, only 10% of the new believers mention these media as the major media influence in their conversion. 30% claim that media did not play any role at all. The remainder, 60%, mentioned printed media. This contradicts what is often said that ‘Thai people do not read’. Actually, they do. Recent research showed that two thirds of all Thai people read, not counting for study and work, an average of 39 minutes a day. Printed media like the Bible, bible correspondence courses, and Christian books have a major impact. Even tracts are mentioned by 17% of the new believers as the major media influence in their conversion." Commenting on these findings, Vissers writes, "The reason why printed media are so often mentioned is probably that printed media go from hand-to-hand, and are therefore mostly used in the context of a social network. Other media are literally broadcast, and this research again shows that that is less likely to influence people on the deep level that is needed in order to commit their lives to God."

Visser's research came to mind the other day when some neighborhood children came to play on our front porch. A little boy was hiding in an unused new trash can , popping out in order to scare his sister, claiming that he was a ghost / evil spirit. My wife Sun took the opportunity to share with the girl that if a person believes in Jesus, he doesn't need to be scared of evil spirits because Jesus is more powerful than every spirit. She didn't engage much with Sun on the topic of evil spirits but she was interested in hearing about Jesus as she had read from cover to cover the children's evangelistic magazine that we had given out as part of our neighborhood Christmas outreach a few months ago. From this magazine, she knew something about creation, Adam & Eve, the serpent who tempted them, and Jesus dying on the cross. Even though her little brother interrupted several times, she kept coming back asking Sun to tell her more about the life of Jesus. I was greatly encouraged by her interest to hear about Jesus and impressed that she had actually read the evangelistic magazine. This magazine wasn't just some cutesy pictures, a Bible verse or two and lots of games. There was lots of text and Biblical content. And she read it! Just the day before that, a couple neighborhood moms and their kids were visiting with us and Joshua on our front porch and we found out that both of the moms had read Harry Potter (in translation, of course). I think one of them was working through the series. I wouldn't have guessed that they were the kind of folks who enjoy reading but I guess that shows what I know. Sun brought out a book by a Thai man who went from poverty to being a judge, and how God had changed his life. She seemed interested in the book and took it home to read!

I am not going to stop looking into the role of oral communication and story telling in sharing the Gospel but from these recent experiences and Marten Visser's findings, I am encouraged to continue finding appropriate tracts and books to give to people in order to share the Gospel and build up believers in their knowledge and experience of God.

Worldview Evangelism

How do you communicate the Gospel to someone who has absolutely zero foundation in the Bible? In this fascinating and helpful lecture on “Worldview Evangelism”, Don Carson makes the case that sharing the Gospel with postmodern Westerners is not really that different than sharing the Gospel with animistic tribes, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims or anyone else without a Judeo-Christian framework in their cultural background. You start at the beginning. The cross of Christ makes no sense without the Old Testament foundations which provide the framework for understanding the nature and character of God, man’s nature and origin, the truth about the spiritual realm (in contrast to an animistic/occult perspective), and a bit of the history of how God relates to people. Some may wonder whether it is really necessary to go through the work of laying down the Old Testament foundations before getting to Jesus. Take a listen to Don Carson’s opening story about his missionary friend’s experience in India and you’ll get a picture of how a failure to set a framework and teach a Biblical worldview first can lead to syncretism and nominalism.

Although the word “contextualization” is sometimes abused in order to justify a watered-down repackaging of Gospel, it’s proper meaning is to teach and live out the Gospel in a way that is clear and understandable in a given cultural context - whether that be young Western postmodern relativists or Thai Buddhists/animists or anybody else. What is the Biblical truth and how do you teach and express it (live it out) in a given context? Good contextualization should make clear the difference between the Gospel and other worldviews, and in all things not sinful take on the cultural/local garb of where the Gospel is being presented.

I don’t claim to have all the answers, either for the West or for Thailand, but in order to do contextualization well one needs to understand the Bible thoroughly and understand the culture as thoroughly as possible. I am still working on both of those and will be for years to come. By knowing the culture, I don’t mean being conversant with every pop musician or fad TV show that comes down the pike, but rather understanding the beliefs and values that shapes people’s outlook on the world. When that happens, it becomes easier to anticipate common objections and misunderstandings in response to the Gospel (or a particular presentation of it). Understanding the culture also helps one to know what people are interested in, what fires them up, what excites them, what concerns them, what makes them afraid. All these things can provide a conversation starter that can be an opening for talking about spiritual truths. It can also give insight into what areas of discipleship will probably need special attention.

With that said, take a listen to Carson’s talk on "Worldview Evangelism". There are actually five lectures in the series on “Reaching an Untouched Generation”. I have finished the Worldview Evangelism one and highly recommend it. I’ve also started listening to one on “Apostolic Evangelism of Biblical Illiterates” which covers Paul’s sermon in the Aeropagus in Acts 17. This one is quite good so far and I hope to listen to the other three as time allows. (Thanks to Rich Cho for recommending these sermons)

Advantages & Disadvantages of Handing Out Tracts

Following on the heels of my post on "Does Handing Out Tracts Do Any Good?", I wanted to share with you a couple of well written and thoughtful posts over at The Reformed Evangelist blog:

Are Gospel Tracts Lame? and 10 Reasons for Using Gospel Tracts

The social dynamics of handing out tracts are a bit different in Thailand than in the West. As I mentioned before, just going out and handing out tracts is not nearly as ideal as sharing the Gospel in a conversation with someone that you already know. However, when someone receives a tract and reads it, it is food for thought and it might get them thinking about things they haven't previously considered. I find most people in Thailand to be receptive to receiving tracts. I say something like "This is free" (แจกฟรีครับ) or "I've come to hand out Good News" (มาแจกข่าวประเสริฐครับ). Occassionally, I've gotten stony faced looks when I go to hand a tract to someone but once I say that it is free, the person smiles and willingly takes it. I've learned from my Thai brothers and sisters that some people are afraid that you want money to make merit in return for receiving a gift of some sort. I've met these folks before. Usually they approach you on the street with some kind of cheap trinket and ask a small amount for it - to help handicapped children or make merit (create good karma) or some such. So, I can understand how some people are leery of receiving something on the street from a stranger. But happily, most people cheer up when told that the tract is free. And the practice of handing out tracts certainly forces me to overcome that fear of people looking at me as a weirdo. However, being a white guy in Thailand, I get all sorts of strange looks anyhow so regardless of whether I hand out a tract or not, people wonder "Who is that and what is he doing here?" Giving out a tract helps answer those questions.

Does Handing Out Tracts Do Any Good?

Before I came to Thailand in 1999, I had never handed out a tract in my life. The practice of handing out tracts is not very common in the U.S. anymore and even among evangelical Christians it seems to be regarded as some kind of weird unnatural activity that only really over-the-top religious nuts engage in. Perhaps the current emphasis on friendship evangelism and building relationships in order to share the Gospel (which is good and proper as the primary method of personal evangelism) has contributed to the disdain which has fell upon handing out tracts. Tracting can seem very impersonal and artificial, but it IS one means among many that God uses to reach people with the Gospel. It really shouldn't be a stand-alone method of evangelism, but just one link in a chain of Gospel sowing that can contribute to people understanding and accepting the Gospel. Granted, lots of tracts end up in the dustbin or along the roadside, but God does use tracts as the following story illustrates. A fellow missionary gave me permission to share this encouraging story:

"This past Sunday two visitors came to church at In Grace Church: Colonel Surasak Banjukaew and his wife, Wanpen. I know them a bit (he attended SEANET this past year), but as I sat eating lunch with them I was able to learn much more about them. Surasak is the founder of a ministry among members of the military and the police force. Being a Christian in the military or police cannot be easy in this country. I find myself very encouraged that someone of his rank serves Christ so openly.

What I took special note of, though, is how Surasak and his wife became Christians. Back in the 80’s Geoff Case, an OMF Missionary in Bangkok, was going door to door, handing out tracts, and came upon Surasak’s home. At the time he was a clear Buddhist, rising in the ranks of the Thai army. Wanpen’s interest grew, and as she studied the Bible with Geoff’s wife, Surasak became interested too. They both turned to Christ and immediately started going out with the Cases doing open air evangelism and tracting.

It is this two part involvement that we aim for: Sowing with things like tracts, and saturating through Bible study with seekers. Often we don’t feel very good at either of these. Surasak’s and Wanpen’s words this weekend have encouraged us to keep our aim and press on. Thank you for backing us in prayer."

What's So Amazing About Buddhism?

I was talking with the headmaster of a local school and after confirming his suspicion that I was a missionary, he affirmed that all religions are good. I agreed to this in so far as religion teaches you to be a good person. In Thai thinking, religion is mainly about ethical teaching, namely how to be good. So to the extend that all religions teach you be basically a good person, I can agree to that. Buddhism says to have compassion on people and not get drunk. That's great. But, of course, the essence of the Gospel is not a command to "be good".

The headmaster went on, however, to say that Thai people really want to see or experience something extraordinary or spectacular. I think that he was implying that religious ethical teaching (of whatever variety) is all well and fine but not all that interesting. What really catches the average person's interest is the amazing or the spectacular. This was a fascinating comment and I decided to see how far we could run with this. I posed the question in reply, "So, in your opinion, what is really amazing in Buddhism?" He looked up at the sky for a moment and then came right back, enthusiastically declaring, "Amulets and charms that protect you from harm. You know, the ones that you hear about in the news. Someone gets in a horrific car accident and they come out unscathed. The reporter asks, 'How did you make it out alive from this?' and the guy proudly clutches the amulet from around his neck and says, 'This saved me'" Now I have to admit that getting out of a horrible car accident without a scratch is pretty amazing but, as I tried to point out to the headmaster, the people who die horrible deaths and suffer great tragedy with the very same amulet don't make the news. I don't know if my Thai wasn't very clear or if he wasn't so interested in that fact, but I don't remember getting much of a response.

We talked briefly about the Jatukam amulet that was so popular a couple years ago but is hard to find now (it didn't make people as rich as they had hoped) and then I thought I would offer my thoughts about what is so amazing about Christianity. There are many directions that I could have gone with this as there are lots of people bearing the name Christian who claim miraculous healings, resurrections from the dead, or a picture of the Virgin Mary in their bowl of noodles. However, what I said to him was, "There is something very amazing in Christianity that maybe some people don't think is amazing. Normally, we only sacrifice and do good things for those who love us and care for us. If someone hates us and despises us, it is highly unlikely that we will be motivated to help them at all. But what is totally amazing is that Jesus Christ died for people who hated him. We are all sinners and have not honored God as we should, walking in our own way, but it is for people who don't want God that Jesus died for. Who would voluntarily die for someone who hated him?"

The conversation didn't go much of anywhere after that because the headmaster seemed to lose interest and changed the topic. Perhaps I wasn't seeker sensitive enough or didn't cater to felt needs properly. As I figure it though, if the Holy Spirit is doing something in his heart, he would at least be curious about this amazing Jesus and why he'd die for those who hate him. Maybe he will be curious eventually, if he remembers and thinks about it later on. All things in God's timing. As I told the headmaster at the beginning of our conversation, I don't force anything on anybody but respect all. If people want to talk about religion, that's great. If they don't, that's okay too. We went on to discuss other things in a friendly manner but I would have been glad if he had pursued the amazing Jesus topic of conversation.

2008 Christmas Outreach Photos

Here is a slideshow of photos from some of our Christmas outreaches in Nong Doan and PhraBaht in 2008.

The Freeing Doctrine of Election

This past Sunday, we took a group of people from PhraBaht church out to Nong Doan, a lower class farming community where we are hoping to see a church planted. The goal of our visit to Nong Doan was evangelism - to hand out tracts and to visit people at home. Tracting is really not an ideal way to get the Gospel out but it does have it’s place in stimulating people’s thoughts. One in six Thai Christians report that a tract or some other piece of Christian literature had a role in their coming to faith. In Nong Doan however, our goal is not to just hand out tracts but to meet people and have the opportunity to talk with them about spiritual matters, in particular the Gospel. We want to meet people who are interested to know more and are happy for us to come back regularly, sharing the Gospel, studying Scripture, and building relationships.

This particular Sunday afternoon, one of the ladies in our group wanted to go visit a co-worker who comes out from PhraBaht to Nong Doan on the weekends to visit her family. By the time we got there, this co-worker had already left to go back to PhraBaht but we met her brother and her elderly mother. The mother was happy for us to pray for her as many Thai Buddhists are. Who wouldn’t want a blessing, after all? As we met and chatted with this spritely eighty year old woman, it was discovered that she had never heard of Jesus and knew nothing about the Gospel. Chris, a new missionary who was along for our evangelistic outing was taken aback by actually meeting someone who had never heard the name “Jesus” never mind believing. Chris has blogged about this over at The Stark Truth. After talking a bit and praying for the woman, she invited us to come back again because she wanted to hear more about going to heaven.

Afterwards, as we were sharing our experiences and talking about how things went in our tracting and visiting, Pastor Jarun advised that we need to take our time in building relationships, and building trust with people as we share the Gospel. One woman piped up and pointed out that this elderly woman would need to believe soon if she were to be saved because she is so advanced in years already. So, the question hanging in the air was, “Do we need to push for this lady (or anyone else for that matter) to believe because if we don’t, then they might miss their opportunity to be saved?”

I was overjoyed to hear the response to that unspoken question from some of the believers seated there. It seems that for at least a few of them, they are beginning to grasp the wonderfully freeing truth that we don’t need to pressure anybody to believe because God has chosen those whom He will save from before the foundation of the world (Eph 1). If God has chosen somebody for salvation, they won’t die before having believed. Therefore, we have the freedom to build relationships of respect and trust, sharing the Gospel appropriately, without fear that if we don’t solicit a response now then there might never be another chance. Apparently, no one has informed them that a belief in predestination dampens all enthusiasm for evangelism because they are looking forward to the next time we go out to Nong Doan to tract and visit. I get the sense that a number of these church folks have a heart to evangelize but are saddled with this “get-them-to-say-the-sinner’s-prayer-quick” philosophy of evangelism that they have inherited from the larger evangelical world in Thailand (and globally). They have been taught (or have picked up) from the evangelical sub-culture that the way to get someone to saved is by saying the sinner’s prayer. And to get someone to say the sinner’s prayer, then you just need to make sure they consent to all the items on the prospective convert checklist, i.e. Do you believe you’re a sinner? Do you want to go to heaven? Do you want to believe in Jesus? If they say, “Yes, Yes, Yes” then you lead them in prayer and rejoice that they are going to heaven. However, I think that in the past the PhraBaht church members have seen quite a few people say these kinds of prayers and then either shown no change in their life, barely darkened the doors of a church, or shown zero for spiritual interest in subsequent conversations. Of course, there are people who say the prayer and the LORD has actually regenerated their hearts and worked true faith in them, despite the unbiblical methods used. And because of the exceptions, many people continue to believe that this is God’s appointed way to “get people saved.” But, seeing the failure of many of these prayers to “stick”, I think that the church folks that we are working with are open to the Biblical teaching that God saves, in his time, in his way, and we are merely to be faithful instruments in sharing the Gospel, while God does the work. As we are faithful in loving people and sharing the Gospel, the Spirit works faith and repentance in people’s hearts independent of any invented ceremony of religion that is supposed to bring about the moment of conversion.

This year I am planning to make these visits out to Nong Doan with the PhraBaht church members every two weeks and hope that as we go together, and do some on-the-job training in the essentials of the Gospel and in Biblical, Christ-exalted evangelism, that these church folks with be grasped by the magnificence of the sovereignty of God in salvation and the freeing knowledge that His Spirit goes before us, just as he did before the apostles, as Luke records,

“And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.” (Acts 13:48 ESV)

Mass Evangelism Gone Awry - Part 2

I recently ran across a radio program called "Sinners & Saints" put on by some United Reformed Church guys in Southern California and thought that many of their comments on crusade-style mass evangelism dovetailed well with my recent post on mass evangelism in Thailand. Some people may find that they come on a bit strong, or are a bit too cynical at times, but I find most of their observations to be right on, pointing out the bad theology and methodology that is behind much of modern mass evangelism, which in the end results in many false conversions and a weakening of the church of Christ. If you take a listen and start to think to yourself, "So, they don't like what everyone else is doing, but are they going to offer any positive alternative?" then just keep listening because they do offer what they see as the primary way that God has ordained for the preaching of the Gospel and for sinners to hear the Good News of Christ.

Here's the link: Sinner's & Saints Radio Program about the Harvest Crusades, with discussion of the history and theology of mass evangelism (http://urclearning.org/2006/06/21/harvest-crusades/) 24 minutes

Mass Evangelism Gone Awry

We’ve just finished the Christmas evangelism season here in Thailand and praise God for the many people who heard the Gospel because of their curiosity about this thing called “Christmas”. In most Thai churches, Christmas is not a season of reflection upon the wonder of the Savior’s birth as much as it is a season of taking advantage of the opportunity to evangelize. Lots of Thai have heard something of Christmas through Western movies, advertising, and the general commercialism and materialism surrounding the season that come with globalization. Personally, I miss the “in-house” reflection and taking time out to ponder Christ’s birth that tends to be characteristic of American and European churches. Yet, I also appreciate the evangelistic zeal of Thai churches at Christmas and the natural opportunities that comes with the Christmas season here. Many U.S. churches could learn from the evangelistic zeal of Thai churches at Christmas time.

However, having attended lots of Christmas outreaches at churches, at schools, and at people’s homes, I have noticed a particular philosophy of mass evangelism among some churches and it bothers me. Initially, I couldn’t figure out why it bothered me and I was hesitant to say anything because I don’t want to oppose something just because I don’t like it. We all have our personal preferences and it would be plain wrong to try to impose my personal preferences on someone else. But the more I thought about it, I realized that it bothered me because this particular way of going about mass evangelism at Christmas time is unbiblical.

I have noticed that some churches use lots of free give-aways and raffle prizes in order to both draw people in, and to keep them at their Christmas outreaches. I don’t have a problem with some gifts or prizes given out in conjunction with an evangelistic outreach, per se. However, when I questioned the necessity of having lots of prizes for a Christmas outreach, some church leaders told me that unless we have prizes, the people won’t come. And, they explained, if we don’t keep the really big prizes until the end, people won’t stay for the evangelistic message. So, as I understand it, the philosophy here is that we need to use whatever means possible to keep people in their seats until the Gospel presentation is finished because people in general are not interested enough to stay without the prospect of a prize at the end. And if they have at least heard, regardless of their motivation for sitting through it, then perhaps they will have a chance to understand and be saved. On the surface, this approach makes sense. People are not generally interested in the Gospel so you use something that does interest them to draw them to your event and then make sure they don’t leave until they have heard the Gospel. Although it is true that people need to first hear the Gospel before they can understand it (Rom 10:17), there are three problems with this approach to mass evangelism: 1) It is manipulative, 2) It depends upon human cleverness to get people interested in the Gospel instead of depending upon God to save people, and 3) It is the exact opposite of Jesus’ approach to mass evangelism. Let’s address these three problems in the order that I’ve presented them.

1. It is manipulative. People come expecting to get some food, some prizes, and they perhaps know that there is some religious component to Christmas. And all of those are part of the Christmas celebration but I do wonder if some people feel like the whole thing is a bait-and-switch. The raffle prizes are held to the end specifically to force people to sit through the religious message that they may or may not be interested in. Is it possible that some people resent the fact that they have to stay for the “believe in Jesus” sales pitch in order to get their prize. Is this method appealing to people’s materialistic nature in an effort to get them to hear a message which condemns materialism? Manipulating people to sit through something they are not interested in does not speak well of the God or of Christians.
2. It depends on human cleverness instead of the power of God to save people. This philosophy of using prizes in mass evangelism seems to make the assumption that God is not active in making people interested in the Gospel and giving them enough curiosity to want to know more without a carrot dangling out in front of them. In his conversation with Nicodemus about how people become Christians, (John 3:1-8) Jesus said the Holy Spirit is like the wind that blows here and there yet no one is sure where exactly it came from or where it is going. That is to say, we don’t know whose heart God is changing to repent and believe, and many times it is not who we think it might be. It is God who changes hearts to believe, not any clever strategy or design of men. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” (John 6:44) and a few verse later repeats again that “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.” (John 6:65). It is God who has chosen people for salvation before the foundation of the world (Eph 1:4) and it is God who will make them interested enough to listen to the Gospel message. When it became apparent that the rich young man was not ready to turn from his greed, Jesus did not manipulate him to stay until Jesus had finished a Gospel presentation (Mark 10:17-27). Jesus allowed him to sulk off with the realization that he didn’t want eternal life badly enough to forsake his wealth. Jesus could let him go with the confidence that if God had chosen him for eternal life, then in due time the Holy Spirt would convict him of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8) and lead him to someone who could pick up where Jesus left off and tell him of God’s grace and forgiveness towards repentant sinners. God is author of salvation from beginning to end (Rom. 8:30), and we can be confident that He will create sufficient interest in the Gospel among those whom he has chosen without holding out material prizes as a reward for listening to the Gospel.
3. It is the exact opposite of Jesus’ method of mass evangelism. Instead of keeping the maximum number of listeners for the longest time possible, Jesus continually weeded out the people who were not interested so that he could focus on those who were interested. In John 6, we see that Jesus feeds the 5000 and then, when they wanted to take him by force to become king (John 6:15), he went off by himself. The next day, when Jesus is on the other side of the lake and the people come looking for him, he rebukes them because they were only interested in another free meal, not in the implication that the miracle of the feeding of the 5000 pointed to Christ’s divinity (John 6:26). Jesus then goes on to give a really difficult teaching about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Lots of people didn’t want to accept this teaching (John 6:60) and “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him.” (John 6:66). And then, in chapter 8:31 forward, Jesus lays into the “new believers” who are still remaining, testing them to see if they are truly repentant, trusting in Christ for freedom and forgiveness or if they are presuming that they are accepted by God because they are descendants of Abraham. Jesus’ really wants to help people who have a false assurance of salvation to see the true state of their souls. From the pattern that we see here in the Gospel of John, Jesus used mass evangelism to find people who were interested and then talked with them, and taught them, in such a way as to sound out true spiritual interest and correct misunderstandings about the nature of saving faith.
   

From the model of Jesus, this should be THE GOAL OF MASS EVANGELISM: Sow the seed of the Gospel broadly in order to find the people who want to know more and then follow-up with them in a way commensurate with their interest and understanding.

Given the above considerations, I am reminded of a good example of appropriate and Biblical mass evangelism that I came across in the autobiography of Daniel McGilvary, 19th century pioneer missionary to Northern Thailand and Laos. I find that history is often instructive in balancing out excesses and oversights of the modern era. Mr. Dodd, of the American Presbyterian mission, writes the following account:

“On Friday June 3d [1887], Rev. D. McGilvary of the Lao mission left Chieng Mai by boat for a tour southward, taking attendants and all necessary equipments, accompanied by a raw recruit, and three efficient native helpers. We arrived at our first station about the middle of the afternoon, and before bed-time held religious conversation with as many enquirers as time would permit. Our audience chamber was the house of one of our newly-received members. Our ‘outward and ordinary means’ of attracting an audience was a watch, two mariner’s compasses, a magnifying glass, a stereoscope with an assortment of views, and a violin. The raw recruit played the violin, and thus called the audience together. We used both the other attractions to hold them and to gain their confidence and interest; and afterwards Dr. McGilvary easily and naturally drew them into religious conversation. Soon the conversation became a monologue in the religion of the Great God. The violin was no longer needed to arouse or sustain an interest. Every day, and late into the evening, the Doctor and the three assistants conversed; sometimes to quite an audience, sometimes to individual enquirers.” (McGilvary, Daniel, “A Half Century Among the Siamese and the Lao”, Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1912, p.285)

It seems that McGilvary and company used items of general interest and attraction to gather people only as a bridge to talking about God. The mariner’s compasses, stereoscope, violin, and so forth were not held out as carrots that would only be given at the end for those who stayed for the religious talk. Rather, they were used as a bridge to build relationships so that spiritual conversation could be had. This way seems much closer to what we see Jesus doing in the Scriptures and would seem to be more effective in discovering those people whom the Father is leading to repent and believe in Jesus.

Christ: Central or Peripheral in Evangelism?

What I am about to say should be so obvious that I don’t need to say it, but I am becoming more and more convinced that this truth is being severely neglected in churches today: The person and work of Christ must be the content and center of our evangelism and preaching. Just this past December, I attended a Christmas outreach event at a local church (here in Central Thailand) where the primary evangelistic message had to do entirely with the benefits of believing, i.e. all the good things that will happen to you as a result of believing. The speaker used many funny and engaging stories to help his audience understand that when you believe in Jesus, you can expect to have joy, peace, eternal life, and help from God. There was one thing that was glaringly absent from his message: Christ!

As part of the Bible reading plan that I am using this year, I’ve started to read through the book of Acts and in the first few chapters, we see plenty of examples of the content of preaching in the early church: Christ. In Peter’s Pentecost sermon, he basically tells his listeners that God sent Jesus, you crucified him, and God raised him, so don’t make any mistake that this Jesus is both Lord and Christ, i.e. Savior (Acts 2:22-36). Again, after the beggar is healed at the temple, Peter stands up and gives the a very similar message: God sent his servant Jesus, you betrayed him to death, you acted in ignorance but it was God’s plan, so repent so your sin may be blotted out because God sent Jesus to turn you from wickedness (Acts 3:11-26). After this Peter and John are arrested, and when examined by the authorities as to how they healed the guy, they say the same thing: this man was healed by Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, God raised, but whom you rejected, and there is salvation in no one else (Acts 4:7-12).

Biblical evangelism and Biblical preaching must have the person and work of Christ at it’s center. It may be more appealing to preach about a Jesus who primarily wants to give us stuff but it is only the sinless Savior who died on the cross because of God’s grace toward wicked sinners who is worth following. A Jesus who just gives us stuff is more like Santa Claus than God. Any nobody follows Santa Claus. They just get stuff from him and say, “Thanks Santa, see you next year for so more stuff.” Santa does not inspire devotion or obedience, and requires no repentance. If only the benefits of believing in Christ are preached, and not the person and work of Christ, then people are easily misled as to the nature of the true Gospel. And the Gospel is wonderful! To think that wicked people who have hated God who is so merciful and gracious could actually be forgiven and our lives redeemed from bondage to sin and from the prospect of God’s judgment, is a fantastic and almost unbelievable thought. I want to preach Christ and repentance towards Christ for the forgiveness of sins so that God and sinner might be reconciled. This is the wonderful Gospel message and this is the Biblical message. Anything less is not the Gospel.

Whatever Happened to Repentance?

There is a trend in modern evangelism to replace the language of “repentance” with “opening your heart”, “receiving Christ”, and making a “decision for Christ”. I hear it when people share the Gospel with non-Christians and I read it in a lot of evangelistic literature that it being published. Far from an isolated phenomenon, I have noticed this in both the United States and in Thailand where I serve as a missionary. I am sure that the same is true in much of the rest of the world as well since the trends in Western evangelicalism, whether for good or for ill, have a way of making the rounds. In this case, the de-emphases upon the need to repent is a serious compromise of the Gospel and can create a wrong understanding of what it means to become a Christian.

Let me give an example of what I mean and why it is so serious. Sitting in front me right now is an evangelistic tract called “The Gift of Love”. It is put out by one of the largest (if not THE largest) publisher of evangelistic Christian tracts in Thailand. They have a number of good tracts and I don’t want to detract from the quality thinking and writing that they have produced in a number of cases. However, the way that this little tract, “The Gift of Love”, ends rather troubles me when I compare it to evangelism in the Bible. Near the end of the tract, it says (in Thai), “The opportunity to be saved from sin is right before you... hurry and open your heart to receive this gift of love right now. Don’t miss this opportunity to receive this gift that God wants to give you. If you want to receive this gift of love, all you have to do is confess your sins and and ask for help from God like this...” and a sample prayer as to how to receive Christ follows.

There are two things that I want to point out about the excerpt from this tract. The first is that the tract instructs the reader to “open your heart” in order to receive the gift of salvation. No where in the Bible are people interested in the Gospel told to “open their heart” to “receive Christ”. Although this is the language most often used by modern evangelists, it is not the language of Scripture. What does the Bible say? Let’s look at a couple example from the New Testament to see how the apostles instructed those who were interested in the Gospel.

After the apostle Peter preached at Pentecost, his listeners “were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:37-38) Peter instructs the people not to “open their heart” but to “repent”. Elsewhere, we find the Apostle Paul explaining to King Agrippa the content of the Gospel message that he has preached, namely that the Gentiles “should repent and turn to God, performing deeds in keeping with repentance.” (Acts 26:20). Paul, like Peter, tells people not to “open their hearts” but to “repent”.

Perhaps some of you are thinking that I am just splitting hairs here because “open your heart” and “repent” are basically the same thing, aren’t they? Let’s look briefly at the meaning of each. In Paul’s defense before Agrippa, Paul clarifies that repent means to turn to God. This implies turning away from sin. The New Oxford American Dictionary defines repent as follows: “feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin”. If one feels great remorse about sin, then should not one want to stop doing it, and flee in the other direction. The Westminster Shorter Catechism, in response to question #87, “What is repentance unto life?”, says this: “Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavour after, new obedience.” (Acts 11:18, Acts 2:37, Joel 2:13, Jeremiah 31:18-19, Psalm 119:59) In sum, to repent means to hate your sin, to turn away from it, and turn to God.

“Open your heart” on the other hand, eludes definition. The phrase in itself is somewhat vague. It is not a Biblical term and I can find no where in Scripture where non-Christians are told to open their heart to Jesus. I would hope that the Christians who use this phrase in evangelism would understand it to mean repent and believe. However, the phrase itself is unclear. If the term is left undefined (as it often in evangelistic messages and literature), and the nature of repentance and the cost of discipleship are not explained to a prospective believer, then it could be understood in a variety of ways. Is it not likely that that many understand it as merely warm feelings toward Jesus or an attitude which is open to listening to more of what Jesus has to say. To the person who “opens their heart” to Jesus, could this not be easily understood to mean, “I like what I’ve heard about Jesus and I feel good about that. I want Jesus to help me in my life.” To say that “I like Jesus” or “I want Jesus to help me” or even “I want Jesus to save me from sin so I can go to heaven”, is not the same as saying “I hate my sin and I make a choice to turn away from it, and to change my allegiance from self to God.” Of course, it is possible that someone could present the Gospel very clearly, talking about God, sin, wrath, repentance, grace, and forgiveness, yet still use the phrase “open your heart” to indicate a decision to repent and believe in Christ. However, I have yet to observe that happen. Most often, “open your heart” and “receive Christ” take the place of “repentance.” As it is currently used, the phrase “open your heart” is too vague and meaningless to be useful. The Bible uses the clear language of repentance so that no one is confused about what God requires of them if they are become a follower of Christ. In order for Christians to be as faithful to Scripture as possible, it is best to emphasize what the Bible emphasizes and to use the language that the Bible uses. Granted, in today’s world some Bible words are not understood very well, like “repentance”. But that doesn’t mean that we jettison repentance altogether but rather that we are careful to take the time to define it and use more familiar words to explain the concept of repentance, i.e. turning from sin and turning to God, doing a 180, making a U-turn, and so forth.

The second observation I want to make about the language used in this tract has to do with the phrase, “all you have to do is confess your sins and and ask for help from God like this”. Really? Is confession and praying a simple prayer ALL that one needs to do to become a Christian and receive eternal life? I find that there are many more people who are willing to confess their sins (especially if they don’t have to name them specifically) than to repent from their sins. Confessing sin is not hard at all. Everybody acknowledges that they are less than perfect. Sure, I have some sin and you have some sin. Who doesn’t? But are you willing to turn from your sin? Do you hate your sin? Do you want to stop sinning? Are you aware of how much your sin grieves God and the greatness of God’s wrath against sinners? None of this is very much fun to talk about and very few want to hear about it. You don’t win many friends by talking about sin (unless you keep it so vague that it doesn’t touch the heart, and you pass over it as quickly as possible on your way to talk about grace, mercy, and eternal life). To say, “all you have to do is confess your sins” entirely skips over the important point that you need to repent from your sins as well.

Discussing this point with a fellow missionary, he pointed out that some people might understand repentance to be included in confessing your sins so that it is not necessary to specifically use the word “repentance”. Perhaps some people would understand it that way, but when it comes to helping people clearly understand the Gospel, we can not afford to be vague. We can not afford to assume that people know that they have to repent from their sins in addition to just confessing them. With something as important as the Gospel, can we really assume that people understand what we mean without us saying it? I have seen too many people make professions of faith in Christ yet nothing changes in their life. They are temporarily excited about whatever they think it is that they have done, yet there is no hunger for God, no desire to fellowship with other Christians, no hunger to learn God’s Word, and no repentance. When sharing the Gospel, I want people to know exactly what they are getting themselves in for and exactly what the Gospel means. This is a matter of life and death and it is irresponsible for Christians to lower the bar as far as possible to make it as easy as possible for people to “become Christians”. Sure, it may feel good for a time to think that so-and-so has “received Christ” but if they never understood the Gospel to begin with, and never understood that repentance was required, and if they have yet to experience that heart change wrought by the Holy Spirit (John 3:8, Titus 3:5), then they have not become a Christian. Praying a certain prayer or merely admitting to having sin does not make one a Christian, but rather spiritual regeneration by the Holy Spirit (John 3:1-8, Titus 3:5) that results in repentance from sin and wholly depending on Christ for salvation makes one a Christian.

It is time to abandon the language of “opening your heart” and it is time to return to the language of “repentance”. To do anything less is to preach another Gospel and to dishonor God by filling the world with people who profess to know God but do not love or obey the One whose name they bear.

False Assurance

There is a Thai Christian with whom I've done evangelism and visitation several times and the way that he shares the Gospel worries me. His Gospel presentation is quite brief, consisting of only a few points, namely - 1) There is a God 2) You're a sinner and God sends sinners to hell 3) You want to go to heaven and not hell, right? 3) So, if you want to go to heaven, believe in Jesus because he died for your sins so you don't have to go to hell 4) God healed my ankle and he can help you too if you pray to him. This is the gist of his Gospel presentation and it is my friend's belief that as long as someone consents to say "the prayer of faith" (or "the sinner's prayer"), then that person is good to go, as it were. He would love for that person to come to church and grow in their new faith but even if that doesn't happen, at least he is saved from hell.

While my friend's desire for people to be saved from hell is a commendable one, I am concerned that his evangelistic method leaves out some important elements of the Biblical evangelism (helping people see the severity of their sin in light of God's wrath, the necessity of repentance, the Lordship of Christ, and cost of discipleship). The preaching of this kind of truncated Gospel is not a phenomenon unique to Thailand, but is quite common in evangelicalism in America (and in much of the world, I imagine). This morning as I was reading about John the Baptist in Luke 3, I was struck by how radically different John's evangelism was from my friend's all-too-common modern way of evangelism. In Luke 3:7, we see crowds of Jews coming out to John to be baptized. In modern parlance, we might call them "seekers" (I actually have a problem with the term "seekers" but that discussion can be left for another time). These are Jews who would seem to have a spiritual interest in the preaching of John the Baptist but instead of welcoming them with open arms and encouraging them to believe his message, read their Bibles, go to synagogue, and to rely on faith and not feelings, this is what John says to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee the wrath to come? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the roots of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire." (Luke 3:7-9). Wow! John really lays into them, doesn't he? No encouragement there! Only rebuke is to be had for those who claim to be believers but aren't bearing any evidence of being believers. John wants to shake them out of their reliance on external factors (lineage, being religious, etc) and get them to see that true faith and true heart change always results in a changed life. If someone doesn't have a changed life, then that person needs to be shaken out of their false assurance of salvation and helped to see that he is not really saved because he does not have a life that reflects true faith. This is the same point that James makes when he says, "So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." (James 2:17)

To come back to my Thai friend who thinks that people who have prayed to receive Christ are "good to go" to heaven even if their lives don't change, I think that we need to take a page from the preaching of John the Baptist and risk making some people unhappy. Thai culture despises open confrontation and public conflict, and often times situations are left vague and unresolved because nobody wants to upset the superficial surface harmony that exists in uneasy and unreconciled relationships between people. This is especially true if people who have issues with each other have to see each other regularly, either at home, at work, at school, at the temple, or at church. However, John the Baptist thought it was worth upsetting the boat if he could help people with a false assurance of faith to see the true state of their souls and their lives. Obedience to Christ is not an optional extra in the Christian life but rather, it is part and parcel of true saving faith. And no one should ever rely on a particular prayer said at a particular time to give them an assurance that they are right before God. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone, not by any external action - even the prayer of faith. All prayers and external religious actions can be easily done for the wrong reasons and with the wrong motivations.

I am convinced that getting to say “the prayer of faith” as a way of helping them to become Christians is actually counter-productive, and often times produces a false assurance of faith. I would rather invite the person to church, offer to study Scripture with them, and try to ask good questions to help them see the their sin in light of God’s wrath, and point them to the cross of Christ. There must be an urgency in telling people to repent and believe but also a reliance upon God’s working in people’s hearts. If God’s has truly called them for salvation, then in His good time, He will work salvation in their hearts and their lives will show it. The book of 1 John was written to help believers have assurance of faith (1 John 5:13) and the bulk of the book consists of telling believers what changes to look for in their lives and their hearts so that they can see for themselves how God is working in their lives. Assurance of salvation should always come from God, not man. The human role in helping new believers receive assurance of faith is to point them to the Scriptures and to counsel them to be really honest about the true state of their hearts before God. God himself will assure believers of their salvation: “And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.” (1 John 3:24).

Discipleship is often a long process and I try to discuss with my Thai friend some of my concerns about his evangelism, and to point him back to the Scriptures but we still have a way to go. Please pray for him and for our conversations together. A wrong understanding of conversion has consequences not only for how we share the Gospel with others but for our own lives as well. This is not about preferences in evangelistic method but about the heart of the Gospel and what real life Christian living should look like. I am concerned that his view that obedience to Christ is of secondary importance to "getting saved" is having a negative impact upon the importance which he puts upon obedience and heart change in his own life. Please pray that a right understanding of the Gospel and evangelism, and right living that honors God would be a living and present reality in the lives of Thai Christians.

The Holy Spirit's Role in Evangelism

The is a lot of talk in modern evangelical churches about the Holy Spirit and not all of it is helpful. It is not uncommon for people to talk or sing things like, "Let the fire of Holy Spirit fall on us" or "Come Holy Spirit, revive us again" or other similar things. I was in a church meeting the other day, and the pastor had written (in Thai) on a handout, "This is the age of the Holy Spirit. We all are living in this age. The Spirit is ready to move in the lives of Christians if only we give the Spirit the opportunity to work in our lives."

I want to ask, what exactly does it mean for the Holy Spirit to move in people's lives? What does it look like to have the fire of the Holy Spirit fall on someone? And isn't it our Sovereign God who takes the initiative in our sanctification, changing our hearts to respond and be transformed? Is the Holy Spirit really sitting around, wringing his hands, waiting for us to ask Him to fall on us? I am hard pressed to find any Biblical reference to needing to call the Holy Spirit to fall on us again and again or to light us (or the land) on fire, as it were. Sure, it happened at Pentecost but that was a rather unique event that was initiated by God, not the apostles. From that point in history, believers are henceforth indwelt with the Holy Spirit from conversion onwards (Eph. 1:13-14).

As I began to prepare a Bible study on Ephesians 6:10-24 this afternoon, I was struck by the Apostle Paul's understanding (and indeed, God's understanding) of the role of the Holy Spirit in evangelism and spiritual transformation. In Eph 6:17, Paul says that the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. How is it that the Holy Spirit is going to move powerfully through the land to convict and convert sinners, and purify his people? Is it through miraculous manifestations? through miracles and healings? through dreams and visions? Paul doesn't mention any of those. It is the Word of God! The idea of praying that God will use dreams and visions to bring people to Christ is somewhat trendy these days, particularly among missionaries. But the Apostle Paul says that the Bible is the Holy Spirit's chosen tool to bring people to Himself, and to bring revival and reformation. In Eph 6:18, Paul goes on further to urge the Ephesian Christians to pray in the Spirit at all times all prayer and supplication. To some modern believers, the idea of praying in the Spirit may conjure up images of eyes closed, hands uplifted with an eager expectation of a touch from the Spirit of God. However, Paul tells believers to stay alert and to persevere, indicating that praying in the Spirit is a difficult and arduorous task that requires our full attention. Paul doesn't give a list of the types of things we are to ask for when we pray in the Spirit but only mentions one thing. This one thing must have been uppermost on Paul's mind. He asks them to pray that "words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel." (Eph 6:19).

How does the Spirit move in evangelism and revival? In Ephesians 6, Paul clearly indicates that the Holy Spirit uses the Bible to make the Gospel known, and the Holy Spirit works through the words of the Bible when it is boldy proclaimed as it ought to be (Eph 6:20). The Holy Spirit blows where he will, changing people's hearts to recieve the Gospel (John 3:8) in preparation for the Word of God that comes to them in the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ boldly proclaimed. "Faith comes through hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Rom. 10:17)

Let us not waste our time in singing vague lyrics like "let the fire fall", "let the river flow" and so forth, but rather pray for the bold proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and get on with opening our mouths and telling people the Gospel.

Thailand Ministry Photos

Enjoy this slideshow of photos from our life and ministry in Thailand. We will wrap up our time in the States this month and fly back to Thailand on Sept. 30th. To those of you who are praying for us and for the Thai people - Thank you.

Statistics on Christianity in Saraburi

A lot of people have asked us how big is our town in Thailand and we finally have the answer. We recently received a CD with a ton of maps and statistics on Christianity in Thailand and we are including below a map of the province of Saraburi.

We live in the district of PhraBaht in Saraburi province, about two hours north of Bangkok. PhraBaht has 72,000 people and 75 reported Christians. The church that we work with in PhraBaht is the only one in the district and there are only 20-30 people in attendance at the Sunday worship service at that church. I know that there are some Christians in PhraBaht who go over the border to nearby Lopburi province to worship but that is still a lot of people unaccounted for. However, I will save for another time my comments on the necessity of cleansing the church roles and making a reasonable judgment about the credibility of a person's profession of faith.

The focus of our church planting work at this time is focused on nearby Nong Doan district, a lower class farming community. Nong Doan has 14,000 people and according the the statistical figures that I received, no Christians. However, I know of two Christian couples in Nong Doan. One travels to Bangkok to worship each week and the other comes to the church in PhraBaht. And then there is another single man who also comes to PhraBaht church each week. I don't know how much he really understands the Gospel but he has made a profession of faith, and he rides his old bicycle in the hot sun two hours each way to come to worship each Sunday. That last fact alone inclines me to think that there may be some genuine spiritual interest there.

For those of you who pray for us and our work in Thailand, I share these statistics to inform your prayers and to give you a visual idea of the geography of where we are. If you'd like to share this map with others or print it out for use in a prayer meeting, you can download the PDF version by clicking here. Thanks for praying.

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"Does God have Good Manners?" (or "Why Christians Don't Grow")

A few months ago I was visiting some new believers with a Thai pastor and other church members when I heard something quite disturbing. In the course of his teaching, the pastor explained that some Christians don’t have changed lives because they don’t yield to the Holy Spirit. He went on to say that God has “good manners” and therefore doesn’t force himself on anyone. If a believer yields to the Holy Spirit, then his life will change in accord with God’s will. However, if he does not yield to the Holy Spirit, then his life will not change and he will exhibit little or no evidence of being a Christian other than his profession to be a Christian.

Is this really the best way to explain why professing Christians fail to show any evidence of love for Christ or obedience to his commandments? I have another theory as to why some professing Christians don’t show any evidence of conversion. They were never truly converted to begin with!! Some may say that this sounds judgmental but I believe that there is sufficient Biblical support for such a conclusion.

The Bible has absolutely no category for people who have trusted in Christ as Savior but have not repented (turned) from their sins and made a decision to obey Him as their Lord. In Matthew chapter 3, the Pharisees and Sadducees are coming out to receive baptism from John the Baptist but John rebukes them and tell them to "bear fruit in keeping with repentance." (Matt. 3:8). Profession of allegiance to God must always be accompanied by repentance. A profession of faith is not genuine if it is not joined together with repentance. The book of James is even clearer. James writes, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17). If someone truly has faith, then that faith will be visible in his life. If there is no evidence of a changed life, then there was never any heart change to begin with. If there is no obedience to God, then there is no love for God. If that sounds harsh, then listen to the words of Jesus. Jesus said rather directly, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15). A few verses later, He expresses the same truth in the negative “Whoever does not love me does not keep my words.” (John 14:24). A person who does not obey God does not love God. And, if a person does not love God, it seems very difficult to make the case that such a person is a true Christian. Jesus himself said that a person’s external words and actions show what is in a person’s heart. “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.” (Matt. 12:33). If a professing Christian does not show any fruit, then we must seriously question whether that person has truly understood and embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“But,” you may object, “Some people grow more slowly than others and nobody obeys God perfectly. Everybody still has sin in their life so let’s not be too hasty in saying who is and is not a Christian.” Granted, we can never know another person’s heart perfectly, but Scripture teaches that all believers are “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (Eph. 1:13) and that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control” (Gal 5:22-23). Scripture does not say that SOMETIMES the Holy Spirit produces these qualities in a believers life. Scripture states plainly that the Spirit produces these qualities in a believer’s life, without qualification.. The implication is that ALL these qualities will be present in the life of the believer. Regeneration and renewal of the believer is the work of the Holy Spirit (Titus 2:6) and He will carry out this work in the life of all true believers. If someone lacks the fruit of the Spirit, then that person most likely lacks the Spirit. If someone lacks the Holy Spirit, then that person is not yet a believer for the Spirit indwells all believers (Eph. 1:13).

The apostle Paul wrote letters to churches that had a multitude of besetting sins, compromise with the world, and gross immorality. However, he also had confidence that these believers were being molded by the Holy Spirit and that God would finish his work in the lives of these believers even though they still had sin in their lives. To the Philippian church, Paul wrote “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6) Of course, no one will be perfected in holiness this side of heaven, but all Christians should be evidencing these qualities (Gal 5:22) in increasing measure. Very few new Christian believers evidence a radically changed life overnight. Change is a process. When someone becomes a Christian, he should begin to evidence an increasing measure of the fruit of the Spirit. Some people change quickly and some more slowly but over the course of time, there should be measurable change. I was chatting with a member of the Thai church that we work with and he said plainly that since he became a Christian six years ago, his life hasn’t changed any. That statement sent up a red flag in my mind. I don’t want to jump to conclusions and prejudge him because perhaps I misunderstood what he meant. I need to do some follow up to figure out whether he meant what I think he means. I am concerned though because I am aware of some of the serious sins that are still present in his life and often times he seems to regard his sin quite lightly. It concerns me to hear a professing Christian say that nothing has changed in their life since becoming a Christian, especially when he doesn’t seem to be properly disturbed about the continuing presence of serious besetting sin in his life. The Bible takes it as a given that God changes lives, so all Christians should show at least SOME evidence of a changed life.

It deeply concerns me that a fellow Christian, a pastor nonetheless, would be content to explain away the disobedient lives of professing Christians by claiming that God has good manners. It is insulting to God to say that God is powerless to change the life of a person who has professed faith in Him. God always completes the work of salvation that he starts in a person, and sanctification (a progressive growth in holiness) is an integral part of that work (Romans 8:29-30). Regardless of whether someone professes to be a Christian or has prayed a prayer to receive Christ, we need make a realistic assessment of their relationship to God by looking at their lives. If there is a noticeable lack of the fruit of the Spirit, their conversion needs to be called into question. If we fail to make a realistic assessment of where a professing but unrepentant Christian stands in relation to God, then we do a disservice to that person and dishonor God.

Christmas in Thailand

Even with three to four years cumulative time living in Thailand, I am still not used to how different Christmas is here when compared to the U.S. It is different not only in terms of how the culture in general "celebrates" the holiday, but also how Christmas is celebrated at church and in the family.

Christmas in Thai Culture
Thailand is over 90% Buddhist so December 25th is just a normal working day like any other day. Buddhists don't celebrate Christmas - that is unless you own a department store or mall and want to get on the Christmas consumerism bandwagon. Because Christmas in the West is barely a religious holiday anymore, all that most Thai people know about Christmas is Santa Claus, gifts, Christmas tree, reindeer, and snow. And, of course, that Christmas is a foreign holiday, and therefore not for Thai people. But because of all the superficial hoopla in the West, many Thai people see Christmas as a fascinating curiosity. The big malls (which there aren't many of outside of Bangkok) put up some tinsel, sell Santa hats and fake Xmas trees, and have special sales, advertised, not as a Christmas sale, but something like "Amazing Gift Festival". And, like in the West, some Thai people find it fun to get on the superficial commercialized Christmas bandwagon. However, there is little to no knowledge about the true meaning of Christmas in this nation of Buddhists that has less than one percent Christians.

Christmas in Thai Churches
Many Thai churches (or at least the majority that I have seen) view Christmas as primarily an evangelistic opportunity - and with good reason. Many Thai Buddhists who would otherwise be completely uninterested in Christianity, will come to a Christmas celebration/outreach out of curiosity about this "Western" phenomenon. Christmas is a good opportunity to seize upon people's natural interest in the holiday in order to explain the true meaning of Christmas. Below are a few pictures from the Christmas outreach at PhraBaht church (apologies for the poor photo quality). The evening program included music, a buffet meal, games & prizes, and an evangelistic message about Christmas.


Something that amazes me about Christmas in Thai churches is that it seems to be viewed as an evangelistic opportunity over and above a time for church members themselves to pause and reflect upon the wonder and meaning of Christ's incarnation. In all the churches I've been involved with back home, Christmas is mostly an "in house" celebration for the faithful, not primarily an evangelistic opportunity for curious non-believers. Maybe seeker sensitive churches see it differently but I don't have any experience in such churches. Certainly, Christmas is an opportunity for evangelism no matter where you are, but it seems to me that it should not be exclusively evangelistic. I realize that the celebration of Christmas on December 25th is a human tradition and not a mandated holy day like the Sabbath so we would be hard pressed to find Scriptural regulations regarding Christmas (other than the normal Scriptural regulations for the church's worship in general). However, because of tradition and experience, I must confess that I really miss the Advent season and the solemn, yet joyful, church Christmas service that leads the faithful to reflect upon and celebrate Christ's incarnation, and the wonders of God's amazing grace that He would send his Son into the world to live and die for wretched and unworthy sinners.

However, although our family did miss some of the church Christmas traditions, hymns, and so forth we are used to back home in the States, we did take the opportunity to do some Christmas evangelism in our neighbor. It wasn't anything all that big or complicated but we merely wrapped up some tins of cookies, stuck a bow and a Thai tract about the true meaning of Christmas on top, and handed them out to some of our neighbors. We visited maybe four or five homes near us, chatted for a while, gave our gift and tract, and invited them to come to the Christmas outreach at the PhraBaht church.

Wrapped tin of cookies with evangelistic Christmas tract to give to neighbors

Joshua helps Mommy as our family prepares to visit neighbors with Christmas gifts

We were excited that five of the people that we invited to the Christmas outreach actually came. We were disappointed that they all left before Pastor Jarun gave the evangelistic message. We were told that the service/outreach began at 5 pm so we showed up at 5 and our guests shortly thereafter. However, since this is Thailand, we should have known that the program wouldn't really get started in earnest until 6:30 or so. Our guests left shortly before Pastor Jarun got up to give his evangelistic message a bit after 7 o'clock. We'll know for next year, I guess.

Christmas in the Family
In the U.S., Christmas is in large part a family holiday and many families exchange gifts, sing carols together, have a Christmas meal, read the nativity story together, or whatever else it is that their family does together. Not so here. From what we can gather, Thai Christians don't celebrate Christmas at home with their families. No tree. No gifts. No nativity. No special family get togethers. No carols. Maybe there are some families who do celebrate Christmas at home but I can't think of any except for the one family that sent us a Christmas card once. We asked Muay, who helps us with housework a few days a week, "So, how does your family celebrate Christmas at home?" She answered bluntly, "We don't. We just go to church." I suppose there is nothing Scripturally that says a family has to have Christmas traditions but I would think that if a Christian family were reading Scripture and praying together regularly, they would have at least some kind of Christmas devotions/reflections together as a family. But that brings up the issue that many Christian families don't read and pray together, the husband and wife don't pray together, and nobody is taking much responsibility for the children's spiritual nurture. I think that is probably true for the West just as much as it is for Thailand, unfortunately. Our own family is still relatively young, but this year we've started to take some baby steps in establishing some Christmas traditions that will help us focus upon Christ as the Christmas season approaches. It is much harder to do this in Thailand, however, because (with the exceptions of the big shopping centers), the culture ignores Christmas and thus there are none of the cultural signposts and reminders that Christmas is coming.

Life is like a Boat

A couple months ago I was chatting with our neighbor across the street and I decided to get out the poster preaching book that I had bought for personal and open air evangelism and tell one of the stories in it, about some people riding in a boat. This neighbor had previously told me, from his Buddhist perspective, about how life is like a boat and we are all riders in the boat. So, I had another boat story for him.

If you've read some of the previous posts in this blog, this is the same guy who thinks that God helped him get a winning lottery ticket after we prayed for him (we didn't pray for a winning lottery ticket, by the way).

The story is told using a series of poster size pictures, the first of which is also the cover of a tract which tells the same story (see picture above). In brief, the story goes like this: A bunch of people go out for a pleasure trip in a boat and while they are having a good ol' time, the boat flips over. None of them can swim so they are frantically thrashing around for dear life when another boat approaches. They think they are saved, but NO! The man rowing the boat in their direction stays a little distance away and takes out a swimming manual and begins to read it to them, instructing them in the proper swimming method that they need to use in order to save themselves. So some of them drown, but then, while the first guy is still reading the "how to swim" book, another boat approaches and the man in that boat comes right up to the people and starts lifting them out of the water and into the boat. The point of the story is that in order to be saved from sin and hell, we don't need someone to teach us how to save ourselves, but rather we need a Savior who will save us. Thai Buddhists usually think about religion as merely good teaching. From that perspective, they often respond to the Gospel by saying, "Oh, all religions are good because they teach you to be a good person." So, the point of this boat story is to say that we need a Savior nor merely a good religious teacher.

When I finished telling the story, I asked our neighbor that if he were a character in the story, which one would he be? One of the people thrashing around in the water or one of the people in the boat? He pointed the man in the boat pulling people out of the water and said, "That's me. I've worked hard my whole life, endured much hardship, paid off my karma, and acquired wisdom. Now I am at the point where I can turn around and help other people too." He clearly pointed out the Christ figure in the story and said "That's me"! It saddened me that he he so clearly and directly said that he is his own Savior and that of others too. He either totally missed the point of the story or just doesn't believe it. I vote for the later. If people have come to the end of themselves and are under the convicting and converting power of the Holy Spirit, the Gospel is not difficult to understand and embrace. But if they don't want to believe, and the Devil has blinded their eyes to the truth of the Gospel, then understanding is impossible. But conversion is the job of the Holy Spirit. The believer's task is faithful proclamation of the Gospel.

At one point early in the Reformation, some of Martin Luther's enthusiastic students started going into people's houses and destroying the Catholic idols that they venerated and prayed to. Luther called them in and told them that they were completely out of line and that they should cease and desist from destroying other people's idols and icons. The students, eager for the glory of God and the destruction of blasphemous idols, replied, "What then should we do?!" Luther replied, "Preach, then sleep." Luther understood clearly that the job of the Christian is to live out and to speak God's truth and it is God who will make it bear fruit. May the Christ establish his church in Thailand.

Prayer and Winning the Lottery

I was talking this evening with our neighbor across the street and he asked if I could thank my wife for praying for him because he felt that those prayers because he had won the lottery. Lest that you think that we prayed for a winning lottery ticket, I'll provide a little background here. About a week ago, we sat with him for a number of hours in front of his home chatting about this and that. Sun wanted to ask him some questions for an cultural research assignment from our language school but we also talked a lot about various topics, including spiritual ones.

Our neighbor's perspective on religion is not that uncommon among Thais, namely that all religions are good and in order to be a good person, you basically need to set your mind to it and you can be a good person, which is the end goal of religion. All Thai people are familiar with the Buddhist saying, "The only thing that you can depend upon is yourself." He is not into amulets or going to the temple because he says that he counts those as sacred in his heart, so he doesn't need to buy something to hang around his neck or go to a certain place. I've had many conversations with him over the months that we've been here and I often stop and chat with him at his roadside fruit cart when I pass by on the way to the market. Whenever I talk about the Gospel, he always has basically the same response - something along the lines of "We're pretty much the same, you and I. But we're just from different countries and have different ways of being faithful. But we're both intentional in thinking and doing good as we understand it."

Coming back to the lottery, when Sun and I visited with him last week, Sun asked if we could pray for him, which we did. Even though he is Buddhist and we are Christian, he was okay to have us pray for him, as many Thai people would be. The general feeling among Thai is that prayer or asking for blessing from above in any variety is a good thing and certainly can't hurt. And it might even help since who knows what spiritual beings are out there who might be able to help me? So our neighbor friend was happy for us to pray for him. And he even said some kind of benediction for us in response - that we would be happy, wealthy, healthy, and so forth. I couldn't quite say that he was praying or chanting but he was certainly wish us well, wherever he believed the power to bring such things to pass was coming from. In any case, when I saw him tonight he thanked me for our prayers because he had just won 13,000 Baht ($371 USD) in the lottery. That's not megabucks but compared to the income of many Thai, it's nothing to shake a stick at. For example, the monthly salary of a beginning school teacher is about 6000 Baht ($171 USD). When he told us that he won the lottery because of our prayers, I couldn't really say "Praise God" since playing the lottery isn't a good or wise thing to do, so I said, "Wow, that's a lot of money". We pray that someday he will come to understand, like King David in Psalm 67, that we ask God to bless us for our own gain, but so that God name will be known and exalted in all the earth.

A Letter from a Fellow New Missionary

It is never a good idea to toot your own horn, however one of our fellow missionaries here in Lopburi approached us the other day to say that she'd like to toot our horn for us. Judy had it on her heart to write a letter to our supporters to let them know about what she & her husband have observed in the lives of our family since we moved in down the street from them this past year. Both Sun & I think that Judy speaks WAY too kindly of us and that our lives certainly don't live up to the picture that she paints. However, I include below the full text of Judy's letter, for those who would enjoy reading an outsider's perspective on our lives and ministry in Thailand.

February 10, 2007

Dear Friends of Karl & Sun,

It was an amazing Christmas Eve, one we will never forget, and one that is already altering the future. We are so blessed to have Karl & Sun here, living just down the street from us. You see, Christmas approached way too fast this year, and all of us [Thai language] students has so many other outreaches and extra things on the go that we thought, when could we ever do something for our neighbors?

Well, God divinely put it together. We planned on an evening meal together, some games… and our neighbors came, especially those whom we had previously built relationships with. And this is where Christmas eve turned out exceptional… Karl played a great True or False game with the Thais about Christmas, and ended up sharing the Gospel. His Thai language is so fluent and clear, and our neighbors were so interested in what he was talking about.

A new openness was born that night. More talks of Jesus followed. Neighbors have asked for prayer and seen God answer. Such as a lady down the street whose friend’s son slipped off a deck and hit the cement with his back. They didn’t think he’d walk, but today he walks..

We just want to say THANK-YOU for being behind Karl & Sun as they minister here. If you could only see them & hear them, You would be so encouraged. The Love of Jesus just flows from them. They take time to sit and talk to the Thais… and when we see them, all we an say is, “They are just like Jesus” Loving people, taking time to care, putting others before themselves.

And also I want to add, They are a huge encouragement to us fellow students as well. We are an older couple here, learning this language a little slower.. but they inspire us with their diligence. And also inspire our adult daughters who also are students here in Lopburi.

Thank-you, this couple is a wonderful gift to this land where less than 1% of the people know Jesus.

Judy Griffioen

Christmas in Thailand

There's a classic song that says "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" but almost nothing here in Thailand signals the coming of Christmas. A few stores have tinsel and santa hats but there is no snow, no commercial push for gift buying, no Christmas carols playing at the mall, no Christmas vacation for school kids, and no day off on December 25th. Any why should it look like Christmas is coming in a nation where over ninety percent of the population is Buddhist?

With this said, there is a significant amount of curiousity about Christmas since it is, popularly, a Western cultural holiday that shows up in a lot of movies and English language learning materials that make into Thailand. Of course, movies mostly show the side of Christmas that has to do with Santa, Christmas trees, and gifts but here in Thailand, many Thai churches and missionaries seize upon people's curiousity about Christmas to share about the true meaning of Christmas. Schools and colleges are open to having Christians come and do Christmas activies (in Thai and English) as part of the school's English curriculum. Many churches (which there aren't too many of, to begin with) do special Christmas outreaches and evangelist meetings to present the true meaning of Christmas to those people brought to church by their friends.

This past Sunday night, we took part in a Christmas dinner/gathering/evening put on by our fellow missionaries, Rob & Judy, who live a few houses down from us. They have been in the neighborhood longer than us and have built some friendships with neighbors despite limited Thai (they are new missionaries attending the language school as well). They had gathered about ten people for a buffet type meal and we all chatted, sung "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and did a few games. I had prepared a true/false "Christmas Quiz" to play with people as a way to get them thinking about the meaning of Christmas. The quiz was a mix of cultural Christmas questions (i.e. about Santa, reindeer, etc) and Biblical Christmas questions (i.e. about Christ, the wise men, etc.). The quiz (click here to see) was fun for our Thai neighbors but also revealed their lack of knowledge about Christmas. One fellow was rather stumped by whether Santa Claus was Jesus' father or not. However, when we reviewed the results and I gave the correct answers to everyone, I was able to explain the truth about Christmas and to tell some of the Christmas story. I gave out some Christmas themed tracts for them to take home to stimulate thought. One astute fellow looked at the tract and then said, "Now we can ask our questions about Jesus. So, why did Jesus die on the cross?" Isn't that a great question? I had a chance to explain briefly Christ's work on the cross but time and the informal group setting limited how much I was able to share before conversation went on to other things. In God's sovereignty however, God will change people's hearts in his timing and will use the Gospel truth that they hear over the course of months or years to bring them to a knowledge of the truth. It is always exciting for me to answer questions like "Why did Jesus die on the cross?" because it gives me the opportunity to make the Gospel known. And we know that God's word will accomplish what He sends it for and will not return to him void (Is. 55:10-11) but will find's it's place in the hearts of some who will believe unto eternal life.

As to our own Christmas celebration, we went to a local OMF-associated church in Lopburi on Sunday morning and then on Christmas evening (the 25th), some of the missionaries in Lopburi gathered to have a meal together, to sing carols, and to pray. It was excellent to share some fellowship together (not to mention roast beef and spring rolls), and to sing (in English) some classic Christmas carols with brothers and sisters in Christ.

The next couple of weeks the language school is closed for Christmas and New Year's and then we will start up with classes again on January 10th. So, we'll take a rest, try to get over our colds, do a bit of reading, start looking for a car, go to Bangkok for a couple days, and maybe some Thai study even while school's out.