Thailand Travels

We arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Friday afternoon, October 30, after a 30-hour trip to Bangkok and an overnight in a hotel. We planned to arrive an extra day early because of all the business and stress of the previous 6 weeks with our move to Colorado and my heart attack. We had good rest with our dear friends the Callahans, and feel much better as a result. We started training on Monday and the men were not well prepared. They obviously did not understand what they were supposed to do so it threw off our schedule by quite a bit. We spent the last two days working through what they should have done, and now they are preparing their sermons to begin preaching tomorrow. This was not my plan but the Lord’s, and I can see how it has turned out for the best for these dear pastors. It is not that they are lazy or irresponsible; they just have a huge learning curve culturally to get over in order to know how to plan ahead and prepare a whole series of sermons on Habakkuk.  

I am reminded how patient God is with me, and what a huge learning curve I have to overcome to be more like him. Only by his grace will I make progress. I am happy to extend that same grace to these dear brothers. Once again, I am learning from Habakkuk that God is not obligated to make my life pleasant. I am to live by faith in him no matter what may come. That is ultimately the best way to glorify him. It is the way to life. I thought about this on the way over, being really tired near the end of the 30 hour first day, and feeling poorly as usual after such a trip. I realized that God did not have to help us with a myriad of small complications, although he did help us, but that this was my service to him to endure for a greater purpose. That purpose is that his people would know his Word. On this trip, we have the potential to set up training for thousands of pastors over the next several years that will impact literally hundreds of thousands of believer’s lives. I came to believe that such a mission was worth some small discomforts and it helped me endure with a better attitude. May we all have such a perspective in every part of our lives.

Al

Long Travel Days, Strategic Ministry Connections

Our time in Sri Lanka with Vinodh, our friend from our Las Vegas days, went very well. He is such a godly and kind man and it was a joy to be reunited with him. At the last minute, he was asked to come and preach at the local Baptist church, which was in the same town where we were training. Instead, he suggested I preach and I thought it went well. The passage I chose greatly encouraged the people, who unbeknownst to me are going through a very hard time as a church. Because of a land dispute, their pastor of 20 years was falsely accused of molesting a retarded girl in their orphanage and as a result was sent to jail. I never cease to be amazed how God can somehow lead me to a passage that helps without my knowing ahead of time how it will work. The president of the Baptist Union joined us there and became eager to see how our training might be used with his pastors. We rode back to Colombo, about 7 hours, with him and Vinodh and then had dinner with Vinodh. He really caught our vision and we began to strategize how we could coordinate with the seminary he teaches at to train many pastors in the region. We both felt it was no coincidence that we would meet in such a way in Sri Lanka, and that God must have a plan for us to work together on this. 

We came the next day to Ahmadabad, through Delhi, a long travel day. Here we met with a wonderful Indian couple, Johnny and Koki, and strategized about doing a pre-conference for seven Pentecostal denominations next Fall. Our meeting went so well and Edie was greatly encouraged by Koki who shares her heart for training women in the Word of God. We all were really of the same mind and enjoyed our time together. 

Tomorrow morning we head to Delhi and then on to Bangkok which will make for another long day of travel. We stay overnight there, getting up at 4 am to fly on to Tokyo and then San Diego. We stay there one night with a friend and then head home on July 10th. Two more long days and then some rest as we readjust to our time zone. We feel this has been one of our best trips and are so thankful for those who prayed for us about all the connections we were trying to make for future training. Every stop seemed to go very well. We are blessed.

Al

Delhi to Colombo

Our time in Delhi flew by and we made two very good contacts for future training in the area. One man was a translator for me in Ahmadabad but he lives in Delhi and has many contact there. We are excited about what may come of this but unsure how we will operate the training. We will have to recruit more pastors to help us. The other contact is a very wise older man who has worked in Delhi for years and has many contacts as well. Both men are getting to work right away for us to have a pre-conference this fall or next winter. It was hot in Delhi but bearable, unlike it had been a few weeks earlier with temperatures way above 100. Many people died there over the past months. On our last day, we had some time to explore and go out for dinner in a place where there used to be an old fort. We ate in a quaint restaurant that wasn’t too good but we survived it. We then decided to look for ice cream. There was a shop down a narrow corridor so we went in. It smelled awful in there, sewer gas or something, but we ordered Dutch chocolate anyway. We were surprised at how they made it. They poured a mixture in a blender and began blending it. Then they poured what I assume was liquid nitrogen in and kept stirring, steam rolling off the blender and counter in an amazing display. Finally, after several applications they turned around and began scooping the ice cream out into bowls. I did not know what we would get, but it turned out to be this amazing dark creamy chocolate ice cream, perhaps the best I had ever eaten. Wonders never cease!

We left Delhi on July 1 and flew into Colombo, Sri Lanka, our first visit here. We travelled 5 hours to the city, Vavuniya, and did not get to bed until nearly 1 am. Then we were up and began training the next day. I was a little fatigued but the Lord enabled. We are training with one of our former students from Trichy and he is doing a fantastic job. It has been such a joy to work with him. We did the Jonah training in 2 1/2 days primarily because he didn’t need translation as I do when I am teaching. I did not know everything that was going on sometimes but got the gist of it. We just finished and have the afternoon ( Saturday) off. A friend from our days in Las Vegas is coming to visit us tonight. He is Sri Lankan and lives here part time teaching at the seminary in Colombo. Through him, I was invited to preach at a local church in town. The Bishop of the church where we are training asked if I could preach there but  I had already made the other arrangement. So he asked if Edie could preach, but we graciously declined, much to Edie’s relief. After church, we drive back to Colombo. We are looking forward to it since our trip up was all in darkness. We travel along the coast most of the time so it should be fun. 

Monday, July 6, we fly back to India and on to Ahmadabad to set up a pre-training in Songadh later this fall. Our team of Iowa pastors will conduct that training. Then on Wednesday, the 8th we head back to Bangkok for an overnight and then on to San Diego, again for an overnight, then on to Fort Dodge on the 10th. All in all the trip has gone well, although for some reason we have had a few more stomach upsets than normal and I have struggled the last several days with sleepiness in the workshops. I now think it was because of some medication I was taking for restless legs. So no more of that medication on training days. Keep praying, we are on our last lap and still need your support.

Al

From Chiang Mai to Delhi

Thursday, June 25: We have now completed the training here in Chiang Mai. We will be heading to the airport this afternoon for Bangkok and then on to Delhi tomorrow morning. I am not sure how to evaluate the training here this week. I had to adjust much of the material to fit the Lahu and I am not sure exactly how well they got it or how well they will be able to pass it on to others. But I do feel I learned a lot about how to teach this to lesser educated people in the future. The men had great attitudes and they worked hard and made improvements in their studies. I will trust the Lord to use it according to his plan for the Lahu churches. 

We cannot believe the week is already over. It seemed to fly by so quickly. We so enjoy being with the Callahans, the resident missionaries working with the Lahu training center. They are a godly delight to our souls. We are sad to go but looking forward to our time in Delhi. It will be so different not training at all there. We will spend all our time meeting with various groups explaining our training system and evaluating future potential partnerships. It will be challenging but fun at the same time. We will trust God for what this leads us to in the coming year.

So far, we have been reasonably healthy with just a few stomach upsets. We are beginning to adjust to the time difference. Please continue to pray that we will be healthy and strong for the rest of the trip. We have many miles to go before we are done.

Al