Well this is my last post on this blog for sometime. I arrived home on Monday evening and have been getting ready to return to Southampton. I hope you have enjoyed reading about my time in Thailand and have been encouraged by God's work in Nan province. Thank you for your prayers and support.

“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

“Hey Paul, you want to come and see the pig getting cut up?” Saman called to me. It was something they had mentioned on the first day and a group of men from the village, appeared in the garden to shave, chop and barbeque the fattened pig for me. It was quite a sight to see an animal being cut up for me, I have never had that experience before. It certainly made for a great feast later that evening.

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.

It was with great sadness that I left Pua this morning. I travelled back to Chiang Mai with Nok and Saman and a friend of theirs. It has been a wonderful time and a wonderful last few days with another girl who came to English camp choosing to accept Jesus just last night (Friday night). I have lots to say but will leave that till tomorrow. Thank you for your support and prayers, the Lord has really blessed this time in so many ways!

One of things I find most exciting about returning home is having opportunities to encourage people by sharing stories from my time away. One such opportunity is the SIM day conference in Bristol on the 11th October. There will be other people speaking about SIM’s work around the world and I will be sharing a little from my time away too. I went to an SIM conference in Cambridge a couple of years ago and it was so encouraging to be reminded of God’s work and how he uses ordinary people like you and me to bring the gospel to people all over the world. More information can be found on www.sim.co.uk