Testimonies from Camp!

Praise God the camp went well. God used the activities, Bible studies, skits, and talks to disciple christian students and draw non-christian students closer to himself. Here are a few of the many testimonies of students from the camp.

Riam: (First year university student in Phitsanulok): "Even though I was born into a Christian family my relationship with God isn't that good. After returning from camp I knew that God's desire is that we have a good relationship with him. Now I am getting to know God better and growing in my relationship with Him. Thanks be to God for this camp".

Weew: (Fourth year university student in Phitsanulok): "I have lead Bible studies several times in our student cell group and know that this can be difficult and challenging but when I went to camp I saw the staff leading Bible study groups which included both Christians and those who are new to studying the Bible. I saw that this was even more difficult because you have to find the right words to help those who haven't studied the Bible before understand it easily. The blessing that I received from this camp was that I saw God working through the staff leading the Bible studies and I learnt how to teach the Bible to those who aren't Christians. I will be able to use these methods myself in the future".

Bom: a new-comer to the Nakhon Sawan youth house but a tennis partner of one of the Christian students here, he came along to camp and was intrigued to read of the Bible's message. Since then he has come every day to join in an evangelistic bible study looking at who Jesus is, a church prayer meeting and music practice, and a teaching session on understanding God's will. We pray that as Bom learns more within the community of believers that he will turn in repentace and faith to know Jesus as his Lord and Saviour.

Pang: Pang (age 15) has been coming to the Lopburi Youth House regularly for 2 months now and has heard several testimonies, been to church several times, sat in on the weekly Bible Studies, and joined us all in singing worship songs. She was drawn to the Youth House because she could tell people here cared about her because we looked in her eyes when she talked. She told us of how alone she felt at home and school, and how her parents didn't seem to care about her. Slowly she has started see Christ's unconditional love for her. At the camp, she was able to clearly study the gospel message of our sin and separation from God, and Jesus' love for us and desire to have relationship with us. Pang chose to make Jesus her Saviour and to follow him. Since then, she has taken her Bible to school everyday and been telling her friends why she has it. She even watched the entire Gospel of John video and read along in her Bible. Please keep her in your prayers that she will grow into spiritual maturity.

Nam: (High school student in Lopburi) Nam, age 17, has been a Christian for 2 years now, and has obvious leadership and fruit of Christ's work in her life. Through the witness of her life and the change in her life since becoming a christian, her mother is also a christian now. Nam was a Bible Study leader for the first time at the camp. She said it was a great experience and very challenging. She was so excited to be able to serve God in this way. Her group had 1 other Christian and 3 non-Christians. She said they asked many tough questions, but she was still glad to be their leader. Some students even thought she was staff because of her maturity.

Kareon: Kareon, a missionary who volunteered at the camp, said, "I loved the atmosphere at the camp, with people from many countries (USA, England, Taiwan, China, Netherlands, Singapore, Thailand etc.) and the wide variety of activities. The blessing I got is to have many chances to sit and talk with many Christian and Non-Christian students about faith".

Climbing 2gether

Pang

Pang, the non-Christian girl who has come to the Youth House since the Singapore team come to study English. She has also come to church for 4 weeks with us, and been reading Bible. Please pray for her to have experience with God, to know Jesus and also pray for us as we're sharing our lives to her.

Mina our Niece

When we went back to our home in Chiang Mai to visit Peung's dad, we also had a little time to spend with our lovely niece, Mina. She's soooooooo cute!

Evangelistic Camp on OLYMPICS Theme

On August 15-17 we will have a big evangelistic student camp in Nakhon Sawan with a theme of the Olympics. The official name is Huang A Yai, which is a sort of play on words for big circle, Take Care, and it's hard to explain but students like the name.

We hope to have around 120 high school and college students come to the camp for around $8/person. We'll have several competitions, opening and closing ceremonies, and we'll use the colors of the Olympics to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. We will have 5 Bible Studies, each on one color of the 5 circles.

The rings of the Olympics are Green, Blue, Black, Red, and Yellow.
Green represents God is the creator of everything.
Blue represents God reigns over everything, He is the Ruler of the world.
Black represents man's sin and rebellion from God.
Red represents God's love for us, shown by sending His son Jesus, who died on the cross so that our sins may be washed clean. Red also represents Jesus blood, shed as a sacrifice once for all of us.
Yellow represents our new life as children of the King, and the promise of eternal life in heaven with streets of gold.

Other activities will be a campfire with music and performances by students, a BBQ dinner, singing worship songs together, and time in workshops. In the workshops, students get to choose from several different activities including: sports, making crafts, learning english, etc.

Please keep this in your prayers over the next 2 weeks.
1. The staff, to complete all of our preparations and to still have energy to love the students at camp. That we will have wisdom in all the last second preparations. That we will show God's love through our lives and our words.
2. The Christian students, to grow closer with God and have a bigger understanding of His love for us. Also, to be encouraged/set on fire by the big community of christian students. Pray for them to be bold in sharing their faith with non-christian students at the camp. Also pray for the student leaders who will lead the small group Bible Studies.
3. The Non-Christian students, that their hearts will open up to the Gospel and that they will let go of the things that hold them back from following Jesus. There are several students from each Youth House that have heard the gospel and have interest, but pray that God will use this time to convict them of their need for Jesus Christ to be their personal Savior.