The Forgiveness Church

According to statistics, Thailand's population is only 1% Christian. A common saying about the Thai is that "To be Thai is to be Buddhist." Certainly, we have seen this. As soon as we arrived in Thailand, we found Buddhist monks in saffron robes walking about. Every day we are here we see more and more of these monks. Every restaurant we eat at has images of revered monks and statues of Buddha.

Today, we witnessed a different side of Thailand's spiritual make up. We had the opportunity to spend much of the day with a handful of Thai Christians. Our day began very early in the morning. We boarded a song taw - a covered pick up truck which is the common form of transportation in Chiang Mai. We drove 30 -40 minutes from our hotel to a tiny house which doubles as the Forgiveness Church. The interior of the house has been converted into a meeting room where Christians gather for worship and for Sunday services. The room is not large, certainly smaller than the average classroom at PCA.

The pastor, his wife and his teenaged daughter live in this house. Apart from the meeting room, there is a kitchen and a washroom. Outside of the house is a yard with a couple of trees surrounded by a cement wall.

The pastor had wanted to have this wall painted for some time. So, this morning, we purchased the paint and supplies and painted the wall for him. First, we washed down the wall. Next we cleared out all the growth that had cropped up along the wall. After laying on a coat of primer, the students put on two coats of paint.

Although the task was relatively straight forward, we ran into a hurdle when we accidentally punctured a city water pipe in our zeal to clear the growth away from the fence. The punctured pipe began to spray water and soon we were looking at the threat of a flood. Thankfully, the pastor was able to secure some assistance and within a short period of time, the pipe was fixed.

It took most of the day to complete all the work related to the painting of the wall. Hopefully, we can post pictures of the freshly painted wall soon.

In the evening, we joined the evening prayer meeting of the church. Young people from the community were invited to come and join the meeting tonight. We were blessed to join them in worship. Many of the tunes were familiar but obviously the language was different. What a privilege to be in that meeting as we sung the same praises to Jesus Christ in two different languages.

Another highlight of the night was the opportunity to pray one-on-one for those gathered. Each of our students joined hands with a Thai Christian and in our respective languages, we committed one another to our Saviour.

Josh Han and Candice Taguibao shared their testimonies and the gospel with those gathered in the meeting.

Tonight as we debriefed, there was a sense of God's grace in allowing us to participate in the meeting. We walked away from our time at the Forgiveness Church with a richer understanding of the body of Christ and the great treasure that we share with all Christians, everywhere, in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your prayers.