Thai Base Evangelistic Party

Posted by on Feb 14, 2011 in News & Updates | 2 comments

Here’s the rest of the story from our Evangelistic Party we had on Christmas Eve:

 

A follow up to all of the weeks of Street Evangelism. We began calling up the people we’d talked with, and inviting them to our Christmas Eve Party where we would be celebrating and sharing the meaning of Christmas. The team got busy inviting as many people as they could. Especially with the ones we really sensed a connection with, we gave them invitations along with a map to our House. It came down to the day of the party. This was it. This is what we all had been working so hard towards, and tonight would be the year end finally of all the ministry we’d been sowing into. We went crazy buying up a bunch of plastic chairs, two fold-out tables, rice mats, a TV for showing the Gospel video, decorations, prizes, gift bags, along with all of the food & drink for dinner….

We got everything set up outside beneath the covered patio in front of the house. It was looking great. Dustan and the guys set up the TV, and we discovered through our camera microphone, and the internet we could stream karaoke songs via youtube. One thing about Thai people is they love parties, and they love partying loud which usually involves someone singing off key to karaoke. We wanted to throw the best party that we could so our Thai friends would feel welcomed and at ease.

Around 4:30pm we got the team together and prayed…

5:30pm came around and three young men showed up. One of them was the guy Wes & Ashley met when they got a flat tire on the road. He fixed their tire for real cheap, and they in turn invited him to our party. So when he showed up he’d brought along two friends of his. Then everyone began showing up.

Pretty soon the neighbors showed up from down the street including the lady who’s our landlord and her husband. She brought a couple of her grandchildren with her also. A young lady who we’d met from our Street Evangelism ministry showed up. She was one of the first prostitutes we’d met and ministered to. Some English students from the Center came who our friend John invited.

It was getting crowded. We invited our Christian friends to come also, and they were bringing some un-saved friends as well. It was packed. We played musical chairs, along with a number game. Our landlord’s granddaughter won the musical chair contest.

We sang Christmas songs, had fun introducing ourselves and remembering each other’s names.
Everyone got a plate of food, sat down on the rice mats and we began playing the introduction to the Gospel video which was in Thai. John Lambert our good missionary friend, got up and began explaining the meaning of the video, and about the message of Christ. Our friend Nu translated it to English so we could understand. We brought out the gift bags for everyone, and Darlene shared the meaning behind the candy cane which was hanging on the outside of the bags.
Mr. T a non saved friend of ours we’d known for several years came late just in time to hear the message of Christ through Darlene sharing about the candy cane. “Each strip represents the strips Christ took on his body for you and me.” she said. “No matter who you are, where you are from or what you believe, Christ died for you. He paid the price for all so who ever would believe in Him would not have to die and face eternal separation from God, but can enter into relationship with Him through Christ. He did this for you, and it’s a free gift we all can have if we choose to believe in it.”

Dustan got up, “You get all of that out of a piece of candy,” he said.

He then asked the team to break up into groups with everyone and pray for them individually. We prayed with them about their jobs, about their schools, families…etc…and further individually began ministering to them. Finding out where each of them were at. Mr. T who Sarah Dale had been talking to, suddenly turned around and told us “this man wants to receive Christ, he is ready.”

Dustan and her began explaining further and then Sarah lead him into the salvation’s prayer. We were then praising God for his salvation. He’d come in late, but had been so ready, and open. Dustan and I had previously met Mr. T on our last journey in 2008, and had tried connecting him to different friends of ours when we knew we’d be leaving.

 

Mr. T was a fortune teller. When we met him, he was at his booth outside Starbucks at the night market. He told us long ago when he was just a boy he nearly drowned, but a Christian man saved his life. Ever since then he’d been interested in learning more about God. Even tho it took a couple of years, praise God for that night on Christmas Eve when he received Christ into his life! That Sunday he came to church with us. He had never been to church before in his life. He shared with us that morning that he believed God has a good plan for his life. He knew without us saying anything that fortune telling was wrong, and is currently seeking out other methods of employment. Praise God for his testimony! We’re going to continue to love and minister the Word to Mr. T, helping him grow in this new relationship with God.