Welcome to PlaaPlaaPlaa!

So you may be wondering why PlaaPlaaPlaa? What are those strange fish symbols above? What is ปลา and what does it mean? In short, this is a blog site, so surely there's going to be plenty of rambling. Unfortunately BlahBlahBlah was already taken, so I had to settle for the 'Plaa'. But there's actually more to it then just ramblings. The first fish symbol is actually a Christian symbol meaning ICTHUS - a greek acronymn which means "Jesus Christ is God's Son, the Saviour". The other strange letters you see in the last fish is actually the thai word for fish which funnily enough is pronounced "Plaa". So when you put it all together, this site is going to be my ramblings in telling people about how Jesus Christ is God's Son, the Saviour in Thailand (with plenty of good stories about food in between). Happy reading.

Monday, March 17, 2008

New Christians

it's amazing to see the way that God can work over here. Just 2 nights ago at our cell group, 2 of the guys who come along decided to become Christians. Praise God! But to be honest, as i heard their story of how they came to decide to become christians (well for one of the guys at least), i began to ask myself a few more questions about why it is that they decide to become christians? It seems one of the guys who became a christian did so because he's recently been frightened by lots of 'ghosts' who he thinks want to do 'bad' things to him. So he was told that if he wants God to hear his prayers and look after him, he has to become a christian first. So he did. i don't doubt that they do want to be christians, and do want to accept christ into their hearts, but is it because they are more scared of these 'ghosts' or because they have understood the gospel that they are people who need to be saved from God's wrath, and that the only way to the Father is through believing in his Son Jesus who died on the cross and rose again to life?

I've been really challenged lately to again think about when to speak and share my thoughts and when to just listen and learn about the Thai culture so that when i do end up speaking, it is something that is helpful and beneficial to them, rather then me being a foreigner who has a big mouth and ideas that may/may not be contrary to theirs. i know that God can work powerfully in many ways and change people's lives in whatever way he wants, but i also want people to become christians because they understand the gospel and want to be in a relationship with God, and not because of their fear of the unknown.

For those praying:
- please pray for Dor and Boy who became christians. for them to grow in their faith and understanding of the word
- pray for me, for wisdom in what to say and when to say it
- pray for increased language understanding and ability so that i can be sharing and speaking in a way that is helpful and encouraging to Thai's here.