February 2013

So Many Spiritual Treasures

For those who haven't known, I was in New York for three months and just recently returned this month to my assignment in Krabi. My time though in NY only encouraged me to do more in the Thai field. We spent every week in search for Thai and even had great progress in interest from the Branch to initiate a NY Thai class/ group. I also had the privilege of joining Public Witnessing with some beautiful experiences and studies that were able to start, and then Lidia (Australian friend serving in Huahin, Thailand) came and endured the cold weather as we met with friends, preached, and toured the "Let your Light Shine" Archives Display and other great parts of the World Headquarters.

Entrance to Archives Tour

Special Tour of Headquarters: GB & Writing Committee Floors

DeLorenzos w/ Lidia- Supporters of Thai Group

Office of Public Information Tour

Braille Department

Art Department

Public Witnessing: My Times Sq., Manhattan Crew

 Helped at Barclays- Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn Crew

 

 **We also had a great time visiting the Carolinas and supporting friends in Chinese and ASL groups. 

N. Carolina ASL Preaching w/ Mich'elle

Good News: Mich'elle has been assigned to Krabi again and will be moving here in July!

ASL C.O Talk Interpreted

Amanda and Frank in S. Carolina Chinese

 Special Thanks to David and Farraw, who hope to support NY Thai group soon.

Brunch w/ Nancy (used to serve in Bangkok)

Now, I'm in Krabi...


And I've missed so much while gone! They had the Special Day Assembly on Jan. 27, 2013, which was a momentous event for those in Krabi. Why? There has not been an assembly in our town since 2008. Usually, we travel for over 3 hours to get to an event. What made it more precious... a special effort to invite deaf went into effect that same week, with the result of over 20 deaf in attendance. Special pioneers and many others came to support the search in Krabi- even having an ASL pioneer serving in Kenya (Sandy) attentive to our goal. Since then, we've had great experiences in our search attempts. For example, this past Tuesday was a Search Day for our group. And although only two of us participated, we saw keen direction from the angels and were able to meet a couple that we've never met before. What an adventure!! We drove to an area we'd never been to and had no idea where the home was, so we randomly stopped at a hut that sold snacks. To our surprise, the family there were friends of the deaf and knew their house location. They invited us to follow them via motorbike into the forest to find the house. Um..... follow a man into the boonies with no one knowing? Since we prayed for direction, we decided to accept. Here's an idea of the trip:

The result was beautiful. We invited them to the meeting, sat and shared pictures of our family, and made a plan to visit again this month! They loved the Listen to God brochure and as we explained the pictures, we noticed they only use 'home' signs. We were thrilled to see how easily they learned from the simplicity of the brochure and look forward to our next visit.

Marilyn and the Deaf Couple

We found their home after the trek!

 Thai ministry has also been encouraging! Thursday, we had a Muslim man tell us how he's sick of seeing his people wearing 'sacred' garb but having a corrupt and dirty heart. He accepted a brochure and listened to scriptures read. Br. Jinhuan, the Special Pioneer in our hall, will be returning to him shortly. We've also gained a new Ministerial Servant, Korean brother who has moved to Krabi with his wife, and have five friends serving here for a few months from both America and Sweden.

Service views

In front of a traditional Thai home

Left to Right: Special Pioneer, New Ministerial Servant, Swedish Pioneer (need-greater)

We needed a break!

Why the Haagen-Dazs? 

We had a busy week in preparation for our meeting parts that evening, and we had 30 minutes break between service and a bible study. Marilyn had to TSL interpret half the meeting, while she also had a talk to give. I was the householder for both Thai talks and had the last song in TSL.  We deserved the extra calories! Here's a view of us practicing her talk at home:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBjVzIZ5x7I
 and below are of the actual meeting:

I've only been in Thailand since the first of the month, but great progress has occurred throughout the country. At the English Circuit Assembly (Feb. 10-11th) in Bangkok, we learned that there are only  41 pioneers in the English Circuit. Yet, 144 pioneers attended the pioneer seminar.  Visitors from all over South Asia and a majority of our own need- greaters in the other language fields came. How exciting to see friends here supporting the Lahu, Burmese, Hindi, Chinese, Russian, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Karen, and French fields. Also, in the past two months, Public Witnessing has initiated (presently offering only Thai literature) in Bangkok and some language classes and meetings are now available for Tagalog, Burmese and Vietnamese.  And it's just the beginning of the year! 

It's Been Awhile...Here's an Update!

Much has changed since 2011:

** Current Congregation for the past 2 years: Krabi **

1. We learned how to drive motorcycles! (with a few burns and bruises as proof-lol)

2. Jem, the first publisher in the South, is now a baptized sister!

3. Cynthia, Jeff and Melissa returned to NY (assisting their families and still pioneering)

4. I returned to NY (May-June 2012):

 -Attended my 2nd Pioneer School (along with my father: June 18-29)

 -Thai Witnessing/ Search

 -Participated in "Special Metropolitan Public Witnessing" (posted @ 42nd St. Times Sq.)

Here is a Quick Overview of when I Returned to Thailand:

 - Circuit Assembly (July)

 - Gained a new Roommate: Marilyn (July)

 - Visited Bangkok Bethel Branch (new tour & video):

2012 brought new Committee Members, Missionaries, and Special Pioneers to the Branch. This has thus furthered the goal in covering all languages of Thailand, initiating groups in French, Cambodian, Russian, Vietnamese, Lao, Burmese, Bengali/Hindi, etc. 

How thrilled we are to see Jehovah's organization speed up the progress in Thailand!

P.S.  Krabi Sign Language Group is now recognized as an official group of Thailand! (September)

Elephant Bathing w/ Marilyn and her mom

   Encouraging Experiences:
Marilyn visited Krabi at age 23, to visit Jeff and Melissa and to "scout the land."  She was so encouraged to help and thus spent the next two years saving her money, pioneering, and teaching herself Thai to make the grand move to Thailand as her new home. She's come to support Thai, and two months ago agreed to support Thai Sign (TSL) also.  Now, she is enjoying her field in both languages and is already being used for TSL assignments.

McKelly and I met two years ago while she was touring Bangkok, and as she fell in love with the need, it motivated her to set a goal to return within a year. She achieved that goal and served for 2 months supporting the TSL work where Bethel assigned her, in Krabi! How shocked we were to have her assigned to support me in my territory.  Now, she's making plans to return longer for 2013, but who knows where she will be assigned ...I'm hoping for Krabi again- lol.

Matt and Mandy had been serving in a Central American Branch for over 14 years and were just asked to move to Thailand as new Branch Committee Members, and boy have they added some spunk to Southeast Asia. Watch an interview of them below on video:

Meet Marilyn...

  and New Branch Committee Members: Matt & Mandy! (left) 

McKelly (second from left) in Krabi; hopefully returning here in 2013!

Thai Sign Assembly (South of Thailand)

 Jem was assigned her first thai sign assignments for the assemblies- finally, we have a deaf sister to assist us. And how encouraging it was to have a good attendance of deaf to sign along to her songs!


Below are pictures of events that occurred from the New Service Year til' now...

 Hong Kong Special Convention 2012:
 - Attended with family and friends (September)
 - Visited Shanghai & Beijing
 - Visited Korat (Deena and Grace's home)

English Hall @ Special Convention, Hong Kong

English Hall after last day- gotta love our unity!

Thai Hall

Newly Baptized Sister (middle)- how touching!

Releases by Br. Herd @ Cantonese Hall

Thai Hall Picture- many from Thai Branch came to interpret

First Special Convention to have talks done simultaneously in 7 languages

Thai Interpretation Booth: They're actually a couple in Bangkok TSL

Releases in Thai- They received them before Thailand did!

Hong Kong (Cantonese) Sign Language interpreting Br. Herd's Talk

Drama in Cantonese

Drama in Standard Chinese (Putonghua) Sign Language

Brooklyn Delegates made banner for all to sign!

Local friends perform cultural dance for last day's events

Shanghai Oriental Pearl Tower

Dad isn't too afraid of heights

Beijing

My Great Wall of China Beat down 

Now...Back to Thailand 

                                     Visiting Deena & Grace in Korat

District Convention, Surrathani, Thailand :

 - Deaf Preaching

 - Baptism: 9 new Thai friends

 - My Assignments: First time to translate talk and demos from Thai to Sign

 

New Releases for TSL

Changes in Krabi:

 - New C.O and Coordinator of Elders (Br. Uttana and wife, Ranita). Ranita served for 14 years in Thailand as a single U.S Filipino sister, supporting both Thai and TSL before marrying her husband and joining the Circuit work. What a privilege it is to be clearly understood by them in both language and culture, and to have their support in furthering the deaf search in Krabi. It can only bring great success for the deaf ministry of 2013.

 - New Publisher: Kun Yai, an 80+ aged blind woman who comes and comments (off memory) at all meetings. She's been preaching to her neighbors and family for years...now she can count the time! (Pictures coming soon)

Ministry in Huahin:

 - 9 Hours away from Krabi, Huahin is known for it's diverse communities and ease to use English. Visiting, to assist a friend's move there, led to wonderful service days speaking to Cambodians, Burmese, Norwegian, and of course Thai. Cambodians, Vietnamese and Burmese are found in the fishing piers and pineapple farms for harvesting season. In one day alone, several Burmese and Cambodians agreed to return visits and signed the coupon on the back of the 'Truth' tract to request a study/and or Bible Teach book.

Cooking at side of the road-  some Thais directed us to Burmese area after giving us a traditional snack

Very kind-hearted to offer us food. Fortunately, they took the spiritual food that we offered them too.

 Physically filled and ready to preach even longer

Who knew we'd find so many people..where do we start?

Preaching to young and old...from boat to boat

                                                       Service group, Huahin English Congregation

My favorite experience though was during the search for English speakers, my partner and I met one woman who said the foreigner moved a month ago and she just moved in with her family. She welcomed us to a drink of water. As we walked in, we noticed her entryway had a cross and fish next to her family name- meaning she was Christian. That's hard to come by in a predominant Muslim and Buddhist country! So as I started, in Thai, acknowledging she was Christian, she began to cry and explained how she felt the angels must have guided us there since she has been praying to Jehovah (yes, she used and knew His name) to draw closer to Him. Her husband and her are ministers of a church connected to later-day saints (which she had little knowledge of the connection) but she said that recently, due to heavy work schedules, they've not had enough time to minister. Then, she began to praise us for putting our ministry first in our lives. I showed her James 4:8 and commended her on her desire to draw close to God and reminded her that Jehovah never leaves us as we try to gain a better relationship with Him. She underlined that scripture, thanked me for sharing, and asked what days we worship. She worships on Saturday. I said a quick prayer and told her that we each have different days that we worship depending on the community, but that we saw the need to make our worship clean and progressive every day. Then, I asked her to read Romans 10:4. After asking her a few prompting questions, she quickly understood the scripture and said "so when Jesus died, he ended the law of Moses. I must share this with my husband and tell others." She again underlined the scripture and stated that she wants to "learn the truth about Jehovah since he is our creator" and even though she notices others in her church worship Jesus, she knows that "worship to Jehovah is more important." I invited her to read the 'Truth' tract and showed her the coupon on the back for someone to visit and bring the 'Bible Teach' book. She immediately asked for a pen, signed it, and asked me to return to explain more truths to her.  Too bad it's not my territory, but it has been turned over to the Thai congregation in that area.

That's all for now. Shall share more in the future.