“Teacher, I don’t know what happened, but I don’t get angry anymore when someone mistreats me,” one of our girls told me on  our  bike ride. “Something inside me tells me that they have a hurt heart and that I should talk back nicely. So I smile and they ask me why and I say that I am practicing a new life.” Something inside me moved. Did she indeed get new life? The joy at a new saved soul, the one we have been praying for for over a year, grew. “Today God helped me teach Sunday school,” she said. I don’t yell at the students and they behaved so well. Someone inside me was telling me how to teach.” She indeed had done a very wonderful job teaching the little ones.  “I tell you, I have new life!”

The kids in  Avoda are not praying for new clothes. They are not praying for good food. They are not praying for new toys.

They are praying for their parents to be saved.

Every saturday we come together for prayer, they ask us to pray for their parents to become Christian.

Life is a zoo here in Avoda. Mother hens with their chicks roam the property looking for food. Roosters constantly picking a fight, 3 lazy dogs, 2  cats that don’t get along, 4 fat wild pigs cooped away in a pen, and numerous snakes and lizards. The numbers in Avoda don’t  stop there. Last week we bought cows! We now have 5 mother cows and 3 baby calves, who appear in unexpected places, as they are free to go where they wish. Seeing them hiding under the roof of a bungalow was quite funny.

As soon as the funeral service ended, the Thai woman walked briskly and purposefully towards Anita. “ “What is your name?” she asked in English. There was a sense of urgency in her voice. She asked if we could meet sometime for dinner. Since then, the Lord has granted us a wonderful friendship with her and her teenage daughter, here in Tak.

The Lord has given me the opportunity to teach English in a Thai public school called Wanprachop, this semester. On my second day there, the school was celebrating teachers day. The hall and stage were decorated with purple and yellow flowers and a statue of a buddha stood surrounded by candles. The director then came over where I was sitting on the sidelines and asked me to sit up front with all the teachers on stage. I politely refused. There is no way that I could sit up there! I knew what was going to happen. The students will bring the teachers flowers to express thank you’s. I did not feel like I deserved that honor, especially since I had just started teaching. In my “humbleness”, I had disobeyed the director, I later realized.

It was no surprise to Anita and I when two tourists walked by us at the park and started a conversation. It was no surprise when the young girl joined us in painting. We have been in many situations where the Lord brought people our way to whom we could testify. This moment, we sensed, was another divine appointment planned in heaven, and we were right in the middle of it!

It has been a wonderful half year of teaching English in the neighboring Thai public school, and now it is time to say goodbye. The teachers ask us to come back the next semester. Over time we have developed relationships with them and even had opportunities to share bits of truth with them. These are not just unknown faces anymore. These are our friends.

One time over lunch, the teachers appeared to be scared about something. Turns out one of the teachers had  seen a ghost and that petrified everyone else. “Are you  afraid of  ghosts?” they  asked. This was the perfect opportunity to share of the power of our Great King and Highest Spirit. “What do you do? Do you use garlic?” they asked. “No, garlic has no life. I pray to the Highest Spirit and read the Bible. He protects me!”

The first time we saw them, they appeared nervous and unsure, not knowing what awaits them, tired from their long journey. Today the teens from Laos smile, eager to learn and enthusiastic in school and work.
We set a goal to teach them English, certain trades, financial freedom and most importantly, the Bible. We plan for them to stay here for 3-6 months, learn the Bible, English and different jobs so that they can bring back Truth and skills to their country for the furthering of our King’s kingdom. Our God-given dream is to have hundreds and thousands of teens pass through Avoda. We want to set teens free from the cycle of spiritual and physical poverty and the limitations that come with it.

As we neared the location, I could see hundreds of wooden houses one upon another lined around huge mountain sides. Thousands of Burmese are hidden away behind a wall guarded by soldiers. These people have neither Burmese nor Thai documents. To leave the premises is off limits. If caught, there is not much hope of staying here. There is hope however, for these refugees. Education as well as other opportunities are given and most important, Im sure the Lord has his embassadors there.

It is Sunday evening and the Lord is telling me to check up on the girls at their living quarters. I really don’t want to go.. I want to go home and rest. I go. Every time I don’t want to go, it turns out to be a blessing.
This evening was without exception.
One of our youngest girls is sitting on her blue blanket on the floor with a book. We read a bit.She looks happy, I am glad I came. In half Thai and broken English, she tells me the latest news.
“I called my mom and dad! I asked my father if he drinks, and he said no. I asked my mom to make sure and she said no! God answered my prayer!”
Every evening now for a while, she had been praying that her father stops drinking! The Lord has called me to witness His work in the life of our students.
One other precious girl lay on her blanket looking downcast. “I miss my parents,” she said. I see now the Lord has also called me to minister to her. What perfect timing!
It is a battle to give completely of myself at all times. But every time I overcome my flesh, my Spirit rejoices.
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galations 5:25