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!