Pray for the Kui of our village during (or after) their Spirit Ceremony

As I'm writing this blog, the gongs have started sounding, an Isaan musical instrument (the Can) has just begun playing, and our close friends and neighbors have started calling upon their ancestral spirits. There will be dancing, weird hand motions, and lots of loud noises all night long. Please join with us and pray for these close friends of ours. As they call on ancestral spirits, which we seem to believe are demons rather than ancestors, please pray that God will intervene in the lives of these people. Pray that God would do an awesome work in our village, and that many families would come to know the creator God in a personal way.

Some End of Month Prayer Requests

Here are some recent prayer request that we ask for you to be lifting up:

1. Pamela's parents, Debbie and Rob came this past week to spend some time with us. They have been serving along with us in our village for the past few days. Pray that God will use their ministry to impact the Kui people in our village.

2. Pray for our village, Baan Pbuay. We were away in Bangkok for the past week. While we were gone, 2 people died in our village. One older man died of liver cancer. I had knelt with him many times and prayed for God to work in his life. I had hoped to be able to spend more time with him and his family, but when we were on vacation I received a call that he had passed away. Pray that we will be able to spend time comforting and praying with his family. When we got home, I also found out that another Kui man died of AIDS.

3. Pray for us as we continue to seek the Lord's direction in how to best reach out and evangelize the Kui people.

4. Pray for hearts to be changed and for interest in a relationship with God to increase our village and in the surrounding Kui villages.

5. Pray for our Christian friend Nuhy, who lives in our village, to grow in her walk with God. Pray that God will enable us to be able to effectively disciple her.

A couple of recent pics

These are a couple of pictures that we took this past week for those who want see what Katy and Hudson are looking like these days.

Fishing, Isaan Thailand Style

This past week, I had a fun opportunity to go fishing...not with poles, bait, and tackle...just with bare hands. In our area of Thailand, people will often make a small pond in their rice fields. When the rainy season comes, and the lakes and streams flood over, the fish spread all across the rice fields. After harvest season is over, some people will invite friends and family to come "fishing" at their place. They then proceed to pumping the water out of the little pond, which leaves some water and a lot of mud. You then crawl down into the mud and reach around, trying to find some fish. We probably ended up with a couple hundred fish, mostly small, but a few big ones. Then they cook the fish over a fire (no need to clean the fish). After peeling off the outside of the fish, the fish taste great with some sticky rice. I was also fortunate enough to eat some kind of an ant and ant egg concoction some of the older men made up...it wasn't too bad. Here are some pics.

getting the word out

These pasts couple of days, we've spent getting the word out about the birth of Jesus. If you ask the average person in our village (or everyone in our village, which I did) what Christmas is about, they'll respond that they think it is a New Year's celebration. The younger people may add in something about Santa Clause as well, but they are still unsure as to who he is. Today I spent the day in the village handing out and discussing little booklets about Christmas. The booklets explain about Santa Clause, Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Christmas music, and of course...they true meaning of Christmas. My goal is to get them to about 150+ families, and I've only got about 50 to go. Please pray that God will work in the hearts of these people. Pray that people would respond to the booklets. Pray that people in our village would have a desire to know the Truth.

Today and yesterday, we helped World Vision and a nearby church with 2 different Christmas events. These were just about 20 minutes or so from our house. There were probably some Kui kids, but it seemed like the majority of the kids speak Khmer (which is similar to the primary language in Cambodia). Some of our close friends work with this people group and were also able to help out. We had a great time. In two days, we were able to share the Gospel with 1100 kids from 12 different schools. Please pray that seeds will have been sown and that God will move in this area of Thailand.

Some of the World Vision folks helped these Thai kids have an awesome Christmas event

Fun and easy game--just rubberband a balloon to kids ankles and let them try to pop each others balloons

Hudson wanted to go up on stage, so they tried to get him to sing jingle bells. Needless to say, in front of about 600+ people he was a little too shy to sing...but he sure didn't want to get off the stage

Please Pray for Tdaa (Grandfather)

Yesterday, I was walking around in our village, and came across an elderly man (probably about 50 feet from our house), laying on a bamboo table. He looked really bad, kind of like a skeleton . He's got liver cancer, I think, and seems to be doing really bad. Walking has been difficult and its hard for him to eat much at all. He talks frequently about a burning sensation in his stomach. I prayed for him and asked God to do a work in his life, a miracle if it be God's will, and that God would use this to help his family to acknowledge and follow the creator God. Tonight, 2 girls came to my door with a cup of water. They were asking for me to bless the water and they were going to take it to Tdaa to drink. I passed on the water blessing, and went straight to pray for Dtaa. I told him that I would have others praying for him. It shows a lot that people came to our door to ask for prayers. Please pray that God would work in this family's life, and would heal Tdaa, if it be according to the will of God. Pray for opportunities for us to be able to lovingly share the Gospel with this family.