Thursday, December 6, 2012

Chiangmai trip & Class update


NOVEMBER. was a great month for us. As part of the training of our STL‘s (Substitute teaching leaders) we schedule them to teach a few weeks during the year.  And so, Claudia & I had our STL’s take over our classes for the week of  12/13 November. They led the leaders meeting and did the teaching as well.  In meantime, Claudia & I went to Chiangmai for a little rest & relaxation. It was our first time to visit Chiangmai, which is a northern city in Thailanad - about an hour flight from Bangkok. Generally when we have  some free time we usually opt to go south to the beach, but we finally broke out of our rut or normal routine.

The best day we had in Chiangmai was traveling about an hour north of Chiangmai by car to Maetaman Elephant reserve.  We started the day floating down the swift current of the river on a rather flimsy  bamboo raft (our feet did get a little wet). Then on to an elephant show with elephants doing tricks and actually painting on canvases like artists. If that was not enough, we rode on an ox driven cart to a small village and then hitched a ride back on an elephant. But, before we returned to the main camp, the elephant we were riding on took a cool & leisurely stroll in the river itself.  That was awesome! Oh, and there was lunch time in between all that fun. It was a great day.  I am posting a picture of Claudia & I on the elephant and our bamboo rafting trip.

meandering down the river on a bamboo raft


An elephant strolling in the river with her baby

our first night in Chiangmai we went to an outdoor Dinner & Cultural dance 
(they did the all the dancing, not us!)

Back to business...
However, it’s not all play and no work.  We are so pleased with what God is doing in our BSF classes here in Bangkok.
The Bangkok Day Women’s class, it is a vibrant group of almost 100 registered women. Although life in Bangkok can be unpredictable, the average weekly attendance of 60-70 women is remarkably consistent. God continues to draw women from all parts of the world to attend this class…giving it an international flare. God proves His faithfulness every week as He helps prayerful, committed class members overcome language issues, cultural differences, age and denominational diversity as we study the Word of God together.

God has recently answered our prayers for a new Children’s Supervisor and one new Children’s Leader. Please pray with us that God will provide three additional children’s leaders and an Assistant Children’s Supervisor… enabling us to reopen our Preschool Program in January 2013.

As to the evening men’s class, God has been bringing more new men our way.  In just the month of November, we have added 10 new men!  We continue to pray the Lord will add to our numbers so that we can grow the class for a long term future. Currently, the men’s class has about 60+ men registered class members. Please help us pray that God will continue to draw new men to us & for 1 more Group leader. Also, we must also give praise to God who has recently brought us 2 new leaders; a new group leader and a new Assistant Class Administrator.

What can I say, but God is good to us to grant us the blessing to live in this beautiful land of Thailand and also to give us the privilege of serving & teaching his word to the men and women of Bangkok. God is good indeed!

Saturday, December 1, 2012

BSF Men's Luncheon

The BSF men's class is well underway in the study of Genesis. We are already in week 14 of 32 total weeks.  Genesis is definitely my favorite study that BSF offers. 

The men's class has 3 discussion groups & we have about 40 men attending each week. However, in an effort to boost our numbers we decided to host a luncheon for our class members to bring a friend. The event was Nov. 24 (Saturday) at the Sheraton Grande Hotel. One of our class members (who has been truly transformed since coming to BSF over 2 1/2 years ago) graciously proposed & generously sponsored the whole luncheon at his expense. I love how God provides and uses special people like this class member to do His work.

 
We had almost 20 class members bring 20 new men to our luncheon.  The response was better than we had expected. Praise God!  Now, that they've had the free lunch, the hard part will be to get them to actually come to class on Monday night.  We are praying that all of these men will come & SEE what Bible study is like with BSF.

Just thought you'd want to know what's happening in Bangkok. God is Good...All the time!

Genesis 15:1 ".... I am your shield, your very great reward"