From English Camp through Church Planting

A few of the university students who attended English Camp.

How is English Camp related to church planting you may ask?

Our team came to Thailand to multiply disciples, leaders, and churches, but you may have noticed, a lot of our activities go by different names.  We have kids programs, teach weekly English classes, meet for small group Bible study, share hobbies like baking, travel with students, and help with English camps.  However, without a doubt, I believe these activities and church planting are connected.

To begin with, a church is composed of people.  And before people are Christ followers, they are just lost people. "Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy." 1 Peter 2:10  These are the people we pass everyday on the street, the people who we go traveling with, the people who come to English camp.

New friends!

English Camp is a lake stocked with fish, a lake full of people who may be seeking a hope and Savior that they don't even know exists.  And for a weekend, we have their full attention.  Through lessons, activities, and discussions we share our experiences and the truth of the Word that we have seen proven in our lives. Through games, meals, and traveling together, we build relationships that open up conversations about what it means to follow Christ.

Our hope is that from these relationships, students will get involved in Bible studies, desire to follow God, and come to church.  Then maybe God will give some of them a heart to take His Word to other areas of Thailand, teaching, preaching, and church planting.  

I know some of that seems a long way off, but at one point, planting a church in Bangkok seemed a long way off too.  But God.  Nothing is too big, too far off, too impossible of an idea.  God has already made the Bangkok church happen!  I'm excited to be a part of the stepping stones of future disciples, leaders and churches, whether that's through building relationships in Bangkok or going fishing at English camp.

 

Working on a group invention...and only using English.

Teamwork, silly games, and lots of English practice.

Making fun memories as we pretend to eat the biggest wax ice cream cone that we have ever seen.

Graduations, Babies, and Beyond

BJD students and two of the founding leaders on our weekend trip (River Kwai bridge in the background)

Graduations, engagements, interviews, new countries, marriages, "grown-up jobs", babies... A lot has happened in the lives of the girls who invited me into their home, the BJD dorm, almost four years ago.

Over the weekend, five girls from the original group I lived with and I went to visit some of our friends who have already moved on from BJD.  They are now living in a small farming community in western Thailand.  On the farm land is a building where they and others from the community meet for worship and Bible teaching every week.

Baby "Piggy Bank"

Our plan to visit A, "just happened" to line up perfectly.  Although we expected to spend the day with a pregnant mother, that morning we got news that A was heading to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital three hours after she gave birth to a healthy baby boy.  "This wasn't an accident.  It was God's intentional plan."  Pang reminded us as we smiled about the opportunity to meet this new member of the family.
 
Of the girls who I was traveling with, all have studied a five-month Discipleship Training School and two just graduated from university last month.  In a few weeks, one will begin school to be a nurse's assistant and another will begin her job as a full-time kindergarten teacher.  One will be staying with YWAM as full-time staff in Bangkok.  Others want to stay involved serving as volunteers and discipling the younger students.  Last year, a student headed to Europe to work as a nanny, and another is currently serving with a YWAM ministry on the Burmese border.  I am so grateful for this ever-expanding web of relationships! 

Congratulations to the university graduates!

The work God has done in these students' lives is so encouraging.  When I first met some of them, on my short-term summer trip almost six years ago, they were smiling freshmen, just recently moved to Bangkok from upcountry and unsure of what lies ahead.  Since then, God has grown them closer to himself, given them a heart to serve, lead, disciple, and be a witness wherever they go.  Praise God!  It has been such a blessing and privilege to be involved in these lives!

I am now looking ahead, expecting to start a new season after this summer.  No matter where God leads, I know he will continue the work HE began in these students.  Please pray with me for details to come into more clarity, and praise God with me for transforming so many lives over the past years!

Picking fresh cilantro on the family farm.