http://paul.zealey.org/index.php http://paul.zealey.org/index.php?entry=entry080924-074525 http://paul.zealey.org/index.php?entry=entry080924-073948 “Saviour, He can move the mountains, My God is mighty to save, He is mighty to save
Forever, Author of Salvation, He rose and conquered the grave, Jesus Conquered the grave” from Mighty to Save by Hillsongs

Dear Friends,

It was with sadness I left Pua on Saturday morning (20th September) to begin the 6 hours drive to Chiang Mai. It has been a great time in so many ways and an extremely encouraging and faith building time as well. In the last week the truth of this song that many of us often sing was made very real. In the last week we saw 6 teenagers commit their lives to Christ, all from non-Christian families and some from non-Christian villages. It has been extremely exciting to see the “Author of Salvation” at work in this corner of Thailand.

Good Kids Class

One of the advantages of learning a little bit of Thai is that you start to understand what people call different things. As I was chatting to some friends I finally worked out what they call this Friday Night Club, it is known as the “Hong ree-an dek dee” or translated, the “Good kids class”. Many of the teenagers who have come to know Jesus recently have been sent along to the “Good kids class” by their parents who want them to be a good kid like Gluay (a girl who became a Christian about 3 years ago). Gluay was the first Christian in her village and now about 10-15 of the teenagers come from her village.

English Camp

To be honest being asked to do an English camp for 40-50 kids didn’t fill my heart with joy but I did agree and in the end I really enjoyed it. This happened last weekend (12th and 13th September) at the Chiang Klang compound where Mindy lives. It was just a night and a day but was filled with games, English classes and opportunities to share the gospel. In the end we only had about 25 kids but all from non-Christian backgrounds. It was wonderful to see how open each person was to the gospel, the times they seemed to listen best was when we were talking about Jesus. We also had some small group time to share personal testimonies and answer their questions and through these 5 of the teenagers became Christians. A number of others said they wanted to but would first ask their parents or wanted more time to think about it. On Friday one of these came to Good kids class asking to become a Christian. It was so exciting to see their openness to the gospel, Mindy said that she had never seen that before in her 6 years working here and running many English camps.

SIM Conference

SIM will be having a conference in Bristol on the 11th October where I and many others will have an opportunity to share stories of God’s work around the world. It is £5 for students and £10 for adults and would be a great opportunity to hear about God’s work and get excited about God’s work around the world. I will be sharing a bit from this summer so if you are interested in coming there are some more details at www.sim.co.uk it would be great to see you!

Answered Prayers

As part of my preparation for returning home I was encouraged to re-read some of my prayer letters and blog entries and to see how God has been answering our prayers. In fact I realised that God not only has answered our prayers but has done things which I wouldn’t even have thought of to ask him for. Below is a short summary of a couple of the things I have asked you to pray for and how they have been answered, I hope you find it as encouraging as I do.

Prayers - Answers

Good health and safety - No sickness at all. Fell off motorbike once but no serious injury.

Quick improvement in language - Everyone was surprised at how much I picked up, not least myself.

Opportunities to share the gospel - English camp; Friday night club; Learning “2 ways to live” in Thai.

Nok and Saman’s English to improve - Great improvement; lots of new words and more correct sentence structure; pronunciation much clearer.

English Camp to be fun and to have teenagers with open hearts - Lots of fun, everyone said they wanted it to continue for another few days. Every single person came wanting to hear about Jesus.

“Ask and it will be given to you;..... For everyone who asks receives” Matthew 7:7-8

Prayer Points

• Thank God for such a wonderful time in Pua with Nok and Saman and the church there.
• Thank God for these 6 new Christians whose names are James, Film, Nok, Fai, Gook and Yoke. Pray that they may grow to maturity in Christ and be great witnesses in their villages and school, ask that they may have a similar witness to that which Gluay has had.
• Thank God for Mindy’s work in Pua and pray that she would continue to be a great witness and have more opportunity to lead people to Christ and help them grow in maturity.
• Thank God for his wonderful blessings and all our prayers he has answered this summer.
• Pray that as I share about God’s work in Thailand it would be encouraging and exciting and that others may be drawn to serving God in Thailand and around the world.
• Pray that I would be able to minister to Thai students in Southampton as I return to my studies. Pray that I would have time to practice my Thai with them and make them feel at home in England.

Thank you so much for your support and prayers, God Bless

Paul Zealey
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During the preparations we had the usual Friday night club which was a lot of fun. Mindy had baked a few cup cakes and we had made some copies of “The Father’s love letter” for the teenagers. I said a few words of thanks and they had a chance to say thank you to me in a slightly scary affair where I was made to sit in the middle of a circle and hear what they had to say but it was encouraging to hear what they said and Mindy translated for me. Just before we started Mindy called me aside and said that someone had come to her asking to become a Christian. It turned out it was a girl called Yoke who we had got to know at English camp the week before. It was wonderful to pray with her and to pray with the other new believers that evening as well. I think it has been a great encouragement to the other young people to see 6 more of their classmates come to believe in Jesus.

Later as we were enjoying our pig feast Saman asked me how the food had been while I had stayed with them. I naturally replied politely very good, very delicious and it has been very good. They asked me again, “How has the food been this last week?” I was surprised and responded “very good, very delicious”. They then told me that they had given me a test to see if I could be a long term missionary in Thailand. They said that they had given me some special food a few days ago, which Mon the Lahu intern had cooked and I had eaten which was actually dog meat. I do remember eating it and it was really no different to pork, it was indeed very delicious.
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On the Friday evening we had 5 of the teenagers from the Friday night club come and perform a mime which they have been practicing with Mindy for several months. I had seen them in rehearsals and was a little sceptical about how it would work out but they did an amazing job and were totally in time with the music. It showed us being tempted by Satan into drunkenness and sexual immorality, us trying to get to God but being unable to and then Jesus dying on the cross so we can come to God. It was tremendously powerful and there was a short explanation as well. I also shared a short testimony and then we played a game involving the leaders hiding around the compound (I found a home in a mango tree) and then the teenagers running around finding us and asking questions in English. Friday night I camped out in the church with the boys and was rather disappointed when they all wanted to go to bed at 1am, I was well up for staying up all night.

Saturday saw 2 English classes from me, a short explanation of “Two ways to live” in Thai from me and some small group time to discuss what we had been learning about Jesus. It was amazing to see how open each person was to the gospel. As we were eating lunch one girl asked me “What do I need to do to be saved?” Later that afternoon in the small group time Mindy had a chance to answer that question and she became a Christian. During the afternoon 4 others also accepted Christ for the first time and others said they wanted to but would talk to their parents first. This obviously is fantastic news and extremely exciting for everyone here. There was a tremendous sense of the Holy Spirit at work opening hearts and minds, something which Mindy says she has never experienced before in her 6 years in Thailand. All 5 of these new Christians are from Pua, one of whom has been coming to Friday night club for some time so this will be extremely exciting for all those who come to Friday night club. They all know each other from school and many from the Friday night club had been advertising and coercing their friends to go.

I asked you to pray that those who came would have an open heart to the gospel and God has been faithful in answering that prayer. We also had fantastic weather, enough energy for the games and no behaviour problems whatsoever. It was so obvious how God was at work this weekend and a tremendous way to finish my time here. This morning one of the girls who didn’t become a Christian at the camp came to church so let’s pray for more to come to know Jesus over the next few weeks.
]]> http://paul.zealey.org/index.php?entry=entry080908-181258 “Utterly amazed they asked “Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?” Acts 2:7-8

When we read verses like these it is easy to feel a little jealous of the power the Holy Spirit gave the apostles on that day of Pentecost. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the Holy Spirit would just enable us to speak the language of those around us? One of my fears and prayers before I came was that God might enable me to communicate in Thai, not fluently but that I would at least be motivated to make an effort to learn. God has certainly answered my prayers and your prayers for me too as he has enabled me to communicate at a basic level but far above what I imagined 3 months ago.

God in his goodness has not only enabled me to communicate on a basic level but also to explain the gospel on a basic level in Thai. It was a goal I set myself when I arrived. As I sat on the plane from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, I sat next to a Thai girl to my right and to the right of her a missionary to India. As I sat, tired after an overnight flight from London I realised that this missionary was making a valiant effort to explain the gospel with this Thai girl who clearly had very little English. I desperately wanted to help out and translate before remembering that being able to say “hello” and “how much does this cost?” wasn’t going to help much. Half way through my time here I mentioned this to Mindy and asked her to help me translate a very simple explanation of “Two ways to live”. To my surprise I realised I knew most of the words for it and that it may actually be possible. Today was the day I unveiled this to my Thai hosts, Nok and Saman, who until now had no idea I was learning this. As it happened Saman’s friend was also in the restaurant and got chatting to Saman, before I knew it I was asked to explain the gospel to this friend. Rather terrified, I agreed and although it came out rather broken he seemed to understand. He said afterwards he wants to know more, although it seems he has heard the gospel several times before. I am amazed at how God has allowed me to learn this and I hope he gives me opportunities to use this with Thai students in Southampton and who knows, may on the plane home as well.

The day of Pentecost shows us what can happen when people hear the gospel in their own language, 3000 people became Christians! There are still many people in this world who don’t have the opportunity to hear the gospel in their own language, lets pray that God would provide a way for those to hear and respond so that his Great Commission may be fulfilled and we will be with people from every nation, tribe and language on that last day!
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Mon seen here washing a rather reluctant cat

I’ve already introduced you to a few of my friends and the people I live with and here is another. Mon has become a good friend while I’ve been here despite having little in common. She is a Bible college student and is spending her 10 month placement helping Nok and Saman with the girls. She is originally from the Chiang Rai area in the far north of Thailand and is from the Lahu hill tribe. This means that her first language is Lahu (a completely different language to Thai) and Thai her second and she has very little English although she enjoys trying.

As I sat chatting with her the other day I managed to find the words in Thai to ask her what she wants to do after Bible college, she replied “I want to go back to my people and share the gospel with them”. She told me that many people in her village call themselves Christians but very few really live out their faith. This seems to be quite a sad trend in many of the places in Thailand where the gospel originally spread 50 or 60 years ago. Many people will call themselves Christians because they come from a Christian home or village but few truly believe. As Peter says in 2 Peter “they are short-sighted and blind and have forgotten that they have been cleansed from their past sins”, it is a continual reminder that if we reminding ourselves of what Jesus has done soon our faith will die.

It has been refreshing to get to know Mon, a young Thai lady with a lot of enthusiasm to share her faith in a gentle and quiet way but I’m sure a very effective way. I have certainly seen this summer that you really can see the Holy Spirit in someone even if you can’t understand much of what they are saying. The Lord has blessed me with such people this summer which has been a great encouragement and has helped me to grow as a Christian.
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