Taa Dii and I in 2005.

Way back in 2005, a little church was being born in the village of Naam Khem. One of the strongest believers to emerge from that time was a 70 year old man named Taa Dii. Taa came from the northeastern part of the country, but had lived down in southern Thailand for much of his life. Taa’s seven decades before hearing the gospel had been wild ones. He had had 11 wives, was crippled from a gunshot wound in the leg, and his body bore the marks of many years of hard living. Taa had also spent one of those decades at a temple as a monk. But when he heard the word of truth, the gospel of his salvation, and believed it – he became a new person. He was always the first one to church services, and faithfully joined any outing or outreach put on by the church, despite having some difficulty walking.

In July of 2011, Taa was diagnosed with mouth cancer. He joked a little about joining his pastor in heaven before the rest of us. I saw him in July after the diagnosis, and was able to see him again in this most recent trip to the south. By this time though, he was unable to walk, and his mouth was disfigured by the cancer that grew unchecked. Talking to him was difficult, but he said he wasn’t in much pain, and he professed confidence in his Savior to take him all the way home. On Saturday, January 7th, 2012, Taa Dii’s Savior did just that.  Taa is survived by his loving wife, and missed by his brothers and sisters in Christ at Calvary Chapel Baan Naam Khem.

There is no shortage of tracts available in Thailand. Not all of them could be necessarily be described as "gospel tracts", as the consumer-oriented version of Christianity has been successfully imported to the church here in Thailand. We thought we'd found some nice tracts for use here, and ordered a good number of them – only to discover later that EVERY SINGLE tract offered that particular publisher closed it's message with what is popularly called "the sinner's prayer". There are however several out there that do a very nice job of communicating the gospel in a way that is both readable, and do a good job of explaining the gospel to someone with a Buddhist worldview. Karl Dahlfred has put together a nice list of good Thai gospel tracts (see the link below). At the moment, there is a group of Japanese traveling evangelists stationed in our town, peppering the neighborhoods with some very nicely done leaflets titled "Heaven and Hell".

Embedded Link

Thai Gospel Tracts

Google+: View post on Google+

Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.

Found on the Kingdom People blog:

"What has exceedingly hurt you in time past, nay, and I fear to this day, is want of reading.

I scarce ever knew a preacher read so little. And perhaps, by neglecting it, you have lost the taste for it. Hence your talent in preaching does not increase. It is just the same as it was seven years ago. It is lively, but not deep; there is little variety, there is no compass of thought. Reading only can supply this, with meditation and daily prayer. You wrong yourself greatly by omitting this. You can never be a deep preacher without it, any more than a thorough Christian.

O begin! Fix some part of every day for private exercises. You may acquire the taste which you have not: what is tedious at first, will afterwards be pleasant.

Whether you like it or not, read and pray daily. It is for your life; there is no other way; else you will be a trifler all your days, and a petty, superficial preacher. Do justice to your own soul; give it time and means to grow. Do not starve yourself any longer. Take up your cross and be a Christian altogether. Then will all children of God rejoice (not grieve) over you in particular."

- John Wesley to John Premboth on August 17, 1760, quoted in Ben Witherington’s

Embedded Link

Wesley on Reading

Google+: View post on Google+

Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.

Yes, I know I'm a day late for Reformation Day. But hey, we celebrate the Reformation every day when we read the Bible in our own languages, amirite?

For those who would want to dispute with an obviously spoofy song – I assume that many of these were only RAISED Lutheran (some of the featured Lutherans are known adherents to other religions). But a fun song nevertheless.

Google+: View post on Google+

Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.

Donald Ross seems, like most notable men in Church history, to have been a rather colorful character. I've been enjoying his biography, and today a letter he wrote to a missionary caught my eye:

"You left on me the impression that your soul is less permeated with that thing called Love than it ought to be. Believe me, until you get broken down and ground, and your scraps of poetic rubbish squeezed out of you, and the Word of God put in it's place, and the whole mollified with the ointment of love, your labours will be to a great extent useless. Now try to get at this. I beseech you, spend more time on your knees, and when you are walking, instead of reciting poetry, be praying."

-Donald Ross, October 25th, 1862

Google+: View post on Google+

Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.

I’ve never met Mr. Dahlfred (unless in these days of social media, a couple of Facebook messages now count as meeting someone), but I very much appreciated his insights into sharing the gospel with Thais.

"Must I pray to be saved?" Scripture nowhere states that salvation is to be had by prayer; it speaks of sinners being saved in only one way – faith in the finished work of the Lord. Did the Lord Jesus tell Nicodemus to "pray, and be saved?" No! "Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish" (John 3:14, 15). Did Paul, in answer to the question, "What must I do to be saved?" reply, "Pray earnestly for forgiveness, and you will get it?" No; he said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved" (Acts 16:31). You do not need to pray to God for salvation: He is at this moment beseeching you to take it (2 Corinthians 5:20). How can you dare to ask God for salvation so long as you are guilty of the awful sin of making Him a liar. (1 John 5:10, 11)? In stead of continuing to pray for salvation, even now as you read these lines, stretch out the empty hand of faith and take it as a gift from the pierced hand of the Lord Jesus. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely" (Revelation 22:17).

Taken from Alexander Marshall's booklet "God's Way of Salvation", the whole of which can found here:

Embedded Link

God's Way of Salvation
God's Way of Salvation Is this life mere physical exsistence? The following is a reprint of the classic tract, "God's Way of Salvation", by Alexander Marshall (1846-1928), which has …

Google+: Reshared 1 times
Google+: View post on Google+

Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.

It was the best of trucks, it was…well, it was a pretty decent rig actually.  Way back in 2005, we were able to pick up a ‘98 Toyota pickup.  At the time, we lived in Phang Nga.  Living in southern Thailand, and as yet with no children, this little guy seemed just right for our needs.  I eventually put a Thai-style canopy on it and it got used for picking up kids for the school for the children of Burmese migrant workers.

Flash forward 200,000 kilometers later to 2011 – We now live in mountainous northwestern Thailand, where a considerable portion of our work requires accessing some extremely rough mountain roads in our now very well used, and with two kids added to the equation, quite full truck.

We started considering selling this tired old truck and getting something more appropriate to the scope of our ministry and the size of our family.  A friend of mine here once told me in all seriousness – if you’ve had a vehicle for a good length of time, and it’s served you faithfully, don’t ever start talking about selling it while your near it, or the vehicle will get offended and you’ll end up in an auto accident.  I’m not so sure I agree with his logic, but we got in an accident anyway.  The truck ended up in the shop for over three months!  The unfortunate timing of this was that it occurred during Thailand’s 2011 monsoon season – one of their wettest years on record.  The girls didn’t seem to mind the transportation adjustment as much as their mother did.

But at long last, the “accident truck,” as the girls called it, was about fixed.  Right about that time, a brother S. contacted us to inquire as to whether we were mobile yet, as he remembered that we’d been in a wreck.  We said no, not quite yet.  He said he’d like to make a contribution to the truck fund.  In the second week of October, 2011, I got a phone call from a guy locally who was interested in the “accident truck.”  That same week, brother S. sent a sizable donation to add to the pool.  With what we were able to sell the little Toyota for, and what was sent by S., we were able to make a trip to Bangkok, kick tires at a few places around the city, and locate something that fit perfectly the needs of our growing family and expanding ministry.  So at long last, and after a detour-ridden drive back from Bangkok, is the ministry’s four-door, 4WD pickup truck.  Thank you Jesus!

For the month of September, our new missionary Jead, a short-term missionary from Calvary Chapel Dumaguete City by the name of Bem, and myself were able to

teach at the Bible School at the Mae Ra Moe refugee camp. This opportunity had opened up through the short-term team (also from Calvary Dumaguete) who visited there to teach and administer medical care in July. For this trip Jead taught the first year students English and Christian education, as well as English for the “pre” students, who hope to begin study next year. Bem taught English to the second and third year students, and for the first year group he taught World History from a Christian perspective. I was able to teach Ecclesiology, Homiletics, and Missions. Aside from the English lessons, we didn’t know what we’d be teaching until the day we arrived at the school, and were asked to begin classes the following morning.

I really enjoyed the Ecclesiology class as we looked at the various aspects of what the Bible teaches about the Church. Who it is founded on, what it’s purpose is, leadership, membership, etc.

Homiletics was also great. We looked at not only the structure and mechanics of preaching – but the content of all good preaching: Christ. Not moralizing, not platitudes, just Jesus. So we considered how He really truly is in all the scriptures in one way or another, not just tacked on or forced in (John 5:39, Luke 24:27, Col. 2:16-17). For the final, the students had to present a 5-10 minute message for the class, based on the text of their choice. When one of the first students to present announced her text as Genesis 2:10, “A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers,” I got a little nervous. I needn’t have been. The essence of her five-minute, two-point message was this: “God provided a river for the animals of the garden to drink. He didn’t leave them to die of thirst. Likewise us sinners, He has provided living waters to drink for all who will come to Christ. But the river didn’t just stop flowing and stagnate there in the garden, it went out, divided, and provided water for the rest of the earth as well. We also then, cannot just settle to taste of Christ, but let’s go out and share what we’ve discovered in Him with the world around us.”

Best of all was the Missions class. I had a few library books to help with the layout for the Ecclesiology and Homiletics classes, but for Missions class there was no curriculum, no syllabus, nothing.  So we had our Bibles – from there it turned into a two week lecture series concerning: The Biblical Basis For Missions, The Biblical Method For Missions, and The Biblical Message of Missions.  One particular highlight from the class came when the lessons on what the Bible says about missions and evangelism were through, and we considered some practical ways to apply them.  We discussed the most relevant missions situation for the Karen people: evangelizing Buddhists, and nominal Christians. At the end one of the students came and found me, “teacher Eric…I’m a nominal Christian. I’m like what we talked about in class today. I want to be a real Christian. I’ve known it forever, that’s why I came to Bible school, because I thought maybe that would help.” So he and I spent quite a bit of time together looking at the scriptures and praying together.

All in all it was a very fruitful trip, and we are looking into how we can begin teaching there on a more regular basis.  The students and staff gave a very nice parting assembly, part of which I grabbed on my little point and shoot camera:

How Do People Know You're a Christian?

Embedded Link

They Will Know We Are Christians by Our Arrogance, Stinginess, and Reclusiveness
When people think of "Christians," what comes to their mind? It may not be flattering. What should come to people's minds?

Google+: View post on Google+

Post imported by Google+Blog. Created By Daniel Treadwell.