Yesterday my friend and i went to a small “evangelistic center” in the Thornburi section of Bangkok. It took us about 2 hours of city bus travel to get there. This is a Seventh-day Adventist run center, where they are supporting a family from Africa to open up new work and press forward the gospel in this neglected part of “old” Bangkok.
Mostly they teach English and other subjects, and slowly build up contacts and confidence among the people in the community. Yesterday almost 30 people were there, and it was very nice to see these precious souls who have decided to follow Jesus in this land of Buddhist false-gods. I think the most encouraged by the visit was the man who is the running the church himself. In his sermon about Lot leaving Sodom, several times he had my friend and i come up to the front where he said we were like the 2 angels who came to Lot’s place 🙂
He played loud “Christian Country Music” from the VOP singers during lunchtime which was most unfortunate, but i pray the assembled people will want to learn more and more of Christ and spread the word to others.
After that i went to the Bangkok Chinese SDA church. I met the Union Publishing Director while he was walking out. He commented again about how he keeps running into me all over the place – ha! I got my Sabbath clothes that i had left with the pastor when i went to Laos over 1 month ago, and then waited to see if that couple who so eagerly studied the 1858gc with me the previous week were interested in doing so again this week. I saw the lady rehearsing a song on the stage, and what is that she is holding…..sure looks like a small black book with a golden 10 commandments on it. Sure enough, when finished, she eagerly calls her husband over and the 3 of us cover chapter 4 in that precious book. What a wonderful time!
Then i got on the bus, and after sunset, got off at Foodland. It was my first time to this supermarket. It is a “high-class” supermarket, with lots of imported items. I was surprised to see that some of the things were cheaper than at BigC where i usually shop. It felt a little luxurious/shameful to walk out of the store with only 2 bags and having spent 19usd. But the kilo of German muesli, fresh-made cream cheese, olives, sda-made pnut butter, whole-wheat bread, japanese sweet potatoes and seaweed, tamarind paste, green peas, tomato soup, and especially the young coconut jelly (yummm!) will last a while i believe.
Tomorrow i have to go to the immigration office again to get my one-year teaching visa. Then next week i plan to go up to Chiang Mai where i’ve been invited to speak to an assembled group of Thai-Hmong believers. Lord willing, i plan to talk about the 1260, 1290, and 1335 days – of course all being in the future.