PSon is with the Lord 

Grace and peace to all my brothers and sisters,

            Praise the Lord for His faithfulness to overcome even the darkest of moments, the deepest parts of despair, and bring us to a point where nothing remains except to joy in the God of our salvation.  That truly is the “quintessential” place to be.  So much to update within the ministry but this is upon my heart, please be blessed with us and partake of His goodness!

Sakorn GaaTalay came to the Lord shortly after the Christian tent went up almost 3 years ago.  Many of my brothers and sisters who have come to serve with us may remember him as “P Son”.  I still remember the day clearly, when P Son was invited and encourage to come to a night bible study at the tent.  When he approached I smiled and welcomed him and as he stepped on to the tent floor he screamed.  “My legs are on fire, my legs are on fire!” he shouted in Southern Thai dialect.  Spiritually we were able to discern this man was demon possessed.  He could not say the name of Jesus, he sat in the tent screaming, throwing up, shouting out names in strange tongues. P Jum, myself and others gathered around him in prayer.  We prayed and prayed, sounds came out of him, indescribable, and his eyes rolled back into his head.  We could have prayed for 2 hours or maybe it was only 5 minutes, time was not accounted for, but the outcome was P Son was able to say the name of Jesus and a dark, dark countenance changed into light.  He received the gospel that night and never turned back. 

His wife, P Pye, and their two children have been faithful to allow the Lord to work in their lives, despite the hardships after the tsunami, constantly in prayer for just food.  P Son for 6 years was stricken with an unknown illness, no doctors could identify, most shrugged him off as a simple Sea Gypsy villager, of no importance what so ever.  Through prayer his health got better for a while and he was even able to help his wife work separating shrimp if the job was offered, often it was not.  Recently in the past year his health took a turn for the worse.  We watched as week after week he would walk to services unaided, then with help from his wife, then a cane, then a wheelchair, until he needed to be carried.  P Son’s faith never wavered.  He was a living testimony of the power of God living inside him, and despite his rapid physical deterioration a constant smile of joy overrode the agony his body was in. 

On Jan. 8^th at 11am P Son went home to be with the Lord at 42 years old.  The two previous nights he had explained dreams of “a place so clean, so bright no words could describe” and asked for him to be carried to service on his sleeping mat.  A team of college students were serving with us building a learning center at this time and some had the burden to go in shifts and pray for P Son, but the Lord had other plans, to call His son home.  Mocked, ridiculed and scorned by his brothers and older sisters for his faith, serving dark masters in Sea Gypsy witchcraft for 30+ years, enduring the tsunami, inability to work for food afterwards, he lay in his wife’s arms at 11am on the 8^th.  She asked him in tears “are you going now, is God calling you?” he replied his final words, “Jesus is calling me, I am going to be with Jesus” and he fell asleep in his wife’s arms.  For the past 5 nights Pastor Pichai and I have traded off sharing the gospel leading some to repentance and more with eternal questions in their hearts. 

I am compelled to share P Son’s testimony, as many of you have seen him, prayed for him, or heard of him.  Of chaos that exists in the world today, many people say, or perhaps we ourselves say “Why? Why God?”.  We don’t know but God does and how amazing is our God that He so loved the world, so loved P Son, that He sent His Son to die and rise again conquering death, but His love is so patient and longsuffering He had to send a tsunami to a place where Jesus had no meaning, and now has more than mere meaning, He the living Christ, the Lord, and the personal Savior, God incarnate of many villagers.  Be blessed in what we have, in the simplest things such as breath, food, clothing, let us say thanks, but let us shout for joy unto Jesus for under heaven is there no other name given among men in which we might be saved.

Please pray for our widowed sister P Pye and her son Nong, 5 and daughter Ning, 9 that the Lord would lead them now and P Pye has a special words she wanted me to share “Thanks to God for who He is, for His body together, please share the goodness of Jesus, for us we never knew, please share His Word and rejoice with me in my sorrow that Jesus is still the same yesterday, today and forever.”  Amen. 

God bless you all,

Pastor James

Dear Pastors, Brothers, Sisters, Family, Friends and Footwashers,

I just want take a quick breath and say on behalf of all of the Thai and Burmese believers here in Southern Thailand we thank you for your love, prayers of faith, and support for the many divine opportunities God has granted us once again to share the Gospel in this “Christmas season”.

I want to share quickly what Christmas is to us here in South East Asia and encourage you in the Lord to celebrate what Christmas truly means, when God became man to communicate the Truth and provide Himself a sacrifice for all of humanity.

These are things we should not just cherish in Decemeber, which for us is a rough month. The tsunami struck here 3 years ago wiping out over one fourth of the population. Yesterday elections took place and the future looks grim for Thailand, but God is still on the throne.

Christmas is a word in English that we don’t have a translation in Thai or Burmese languages, but we have an explanation. Christmas is not a holiday in Thailand or Burma, people still work, shops stay open, and children still go to school. Christmas is not Santa Claus’ birthday as some think here, nor is it a single day once a year where we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus and ask Him to blow out the candles after we try so hard to bake Him a cake that He will like.

Nope. Christmas is when the King of Kings, Lord of Lords, gave up His position in heaven, to come unto His own people to show them the Way. They rejected and crucified Him, but I never have found in the Word yet where Jesus asked His disciples to feel sorry for Him, or in our example of His church in the book of Acts where Peter, or John or Paul gave instruction to throw a Christmas party once a year.

Please correct me if I am wrong, and if I boast it is in the Lord only, but what we are instructed to remember is the bread, a symbol of His body broken for us, and wine (juice, coke, sprite etc) which was the blood that He shed for our sins.

Communion with the Lord, that special fellowship, Koininia, with Him, in Him, and with each other. The fellowship that doesn’t require us to be US citizens, EU members, or an ASEAN nation, but trancends and breaks down all the walls of seperation that we as humans put up between each other.

Praise Him that the only requirement is a broken and contrite heart, believing upon Him with faith that comes through the Word as the Word came from heaven where neither I nor the apostle Paul (2Cor 12:1-4) can express, to this planet corrupted by sin, to provide Himself an offering.

Tonight by the grace of God we are having a Calvary Chapel Family Christmas. For the first time I am told, Burmese, Thai, Karen, Kachin, Malaysian, American, Canadian, Singaporean, Sea Gypsy are getting together as an expression of the joy we have in Jesus. There is a big stage in our backyard here and praise the Lord, He is in control. He didn’t provide for any raffle prizes or material gifts, but He has provided food to nourish our bodies and the milk and meat of His Word to give life to hungering and thirsting souls and that we are most thankful for.

Please rejoice with us, it is my deepest desire that you could be here to witness the power of the Lord breaking down over 1000’s years of hatred, strife and prejudice in just under 3 years. But I know God has given you each a stewardship, and my prayer is that we would be found faithful in whatever we do, wherever we are. God bless you all and merry Christmas everyday to you!

Love in Christ,

James & Bua, Pichai, Pawn, Suwachai, Than Zin, Elkaw, Aung Zoe, P Jum, P Tak, Tah Dee, Aung Ko U, Po Wah, Sein Sein, Kata, P Nan, Loong Jewan and all the rest of the family here in South Thailand