John’s Blog | 30th August 2012

Greetings from Nakhon Phanom, Thailand. We are closing out another month and it doesn’t seem like it is possible. English Camps continue and during the month of September we will have three Saturday English camps that will encourage about 250 or so elementary students and 15-20 teachers. October will be a down month as far as school is concerned. We will be having our semester break for a couple of weeks.

Christian Mission will continue to be active, however and need your prayers. Several of our teens and those from out other churches will be attending a youth seminar in Bangkok October 8-12, return here ready for our VBS for our own and other elementary school students October 15-17. Towards the end of the month will be the “Fire Boat Festival”. This is probably the biggest celebration we have during the year. It is a combination of religious (Buddhist) customs and traditions, inter-mingled with historical traditions. This festival is the formal celebration of the end of Thai Lent. It can get very wild. From October to February – most of the second semester – there are a variety of activities of entertainment, so not much goes on at the schools and we compete at the Christian Mission compete with all of these activities to keep our English Program, Saturday Program going, and Sunday activities.

Maeo and I (John) went to Khon Kaen for medical checkups on Monday and Tuesday. We departed here at about 1 PM and arrived there at about 5 pm. The trip was rather uneventful – we only got run off the road 4-5 times by drivers with the mentality of me first. J For those of you who think you have long waits at your medical facilities, here you go. We checked in at the clinic at 7:30 am, the doctor arrived at about 9:30 am. Maeo and I were lucky. We had number 5 and 6 on the waiting list. We got in to see the doctor about 10:00 am. At 10:05 am we were on our way again – and we got a long time with the doctor because I am a “farang” foreigner. We get even better treatment because I am married to a retired government employee J. It is quite a class oriented system here. We were then free until the next medical appointment, which was the following morning. That meant we got a chance to go shopping, especially for foods we cannot get here in Nakhon Phanom. A great blessing.  On Tuesday we went through the same thing and were able to begin the trip back home by about 10:00 am.  All medical reports were positive – meaning nothing wrong. Thanks for your prayers and Praise God.
Prayer points:

• Processing paperwork for Non Government Organization status – that it goes smoothly.
• Pray for our students who live here. Bpun has returned home, so we have left 7 – two of whom have not accepted Christ – Pan and Tat. Pray for John and Maeo –strength, wisdom and discernment dealing with others. Pray for those who have not accepted Christ. Visitors in October from US and New Zealand. Pray for funding to support students living here and others. Thanks and God Bless John, Maeo and the Christian Mission team.