URGENT PRAYER
I just received this from Thailand today - please pray. I am back in N.Ireland making the adjustment to life here. Hurting that I'm not there but I praise God that he hears our cries no matter what bit of earth we are on.

Dear All
Please can we ask you to pray urgently for:

1. A camp site for our evangelistic camp on August 3-5
We have just spent more than 5 hours driving around the local provinces looking at various sites (with kids in tow!). None were suitable. Then we decided to go and book the camp site we used last Christmas … only to discover that they have dug up the road 3km from the resort and there is no access to the resort for buses or larger vehicles in the foreseeable future.

We don’t have any options left … and we have four/five weeks to find somewhere suitable for 100 people!

2. Bibles
International Bible Society has confirmed today that they have no bibles available either to give away or for sale (they are republishing Thai bibles and have run down all their stock!) What next? What does the Lord what us to do?

A different Christian charity may possibly have some available and IBS are following that up for us. We should hear on Monday if there is a possibility of some bibles from this second source. We long for 1,500 free bibles to be able to distribute to the students of Central Thailand.

Please pray hard for the Lord’s guidance, peace and wisdom in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

With our love
Johnny and Ann (on behalf of the Central Thailand Student Ministry Team)

Interactive Oblongs!!
Good news here in Nakhon Sawan Nam and An’s plan to have a society within the university has been a success. The society will be called ‘interactive’. This Wednesday all the ‘freshy’ students (this name is used in Thailand also which makes me laugh) have to sign up for a society. There are only about 8-10 societies. So hopefully lots will join ‘interactive’ there will be different activities each week, sport, craft, cooking, learning about other cultures, and faiths. Some of these will have some evangelistic input some won’t but it does mean that we can be open about who we are that there is a Christian presence on campus, and that we can give out literature to invite people to come to various events at the youth house if people want to find out more. As I prepare to leave I’ve had some encouraging comments about my language progress recently. However An was a little bit confused when I told him that I was glad that there ‘oblong’ had been accepted what I meant to say was ‘chumlong’ which means society!!! So do pray for the 'interactive oblong' as the Thai guys go on campus this week.

Final CU Meeting

Please Pray - I have been visiting one of the other youth centres in Phitsanulok. Tonight we went to the university to give out leaflets advertising events. This has been done lots in the last few years with no problems. First of all we went to the night market and we were stopped - something about rubbish. Then we went to outside the hall of residence and there was an announcement given over the loud speaker that if we didn't stop that the students i.d. cards would be taken away. So we left and prayed, please join us in prayer. Wan (a student) will go tomorrow to ask for permission.

Student Ministry Staff Team

This is a pic of all the student staff in Central Thailand Nakhon Sawan, Phitsanulok, and Lopburi

Bob, Julia, Ann, Johnny, Pueng, Kerri, Moo, Me, Caroline and Off

Farewell

At the end of staff training, we went out for a nice dinner, and they gave me a nice pressie : ) some thai music and a necklace. I'm going to miss them.

FOOT WASHING - this is a huge thing in Thai culture. Feet are the horribliest part of the body not to be touched, especially not by your older staff workers! This was part of a Bible Study that I lead looking at Christ's example of leadership - and Jesus's characteristic of humility.

Student Training

Staff Training - this time we were looking at ways to teach the Bible creatively, using the inductive Bible study method. We also had a look at the Bible overview teaching method. By the end of the three days we had a set of nine Bible studies in Thai on the Gospel of Mark to use for university students, as there is very little Bible Study material available for this group in Thai.

A rainbow of promise - I've never actually seen a rainbow in Thailand before. Not sure why? On Sunday there was a real thunder plump of rain, followed by blue sky and a rainbow. Over the last few weeks as I've been reflecting on my time here I've been reminded time and time again that God has kept all his promises to me. Also as I've been reading the BIble I've been reminded time and time again of how God has kept his promises throughout history. I'm encouraged to remember that God will continue to keep his promises to me whatever the specifics of the future might be.