Songkran celebration in Thailand

For 3 days Thai's celebrate Songkran which is their New Years celebration. The ritual includes spraying water on each other and coating themselves and others with a white paste over a period of 3 days.

On our way to dinner tonight at a nearby restaurant, we unexpectedly went directly into hoards of people celebrating Songkran. The streets were filled with 1000's of people. As we walked toward the restaurant, celebrants would throw water on you or spray you with water as well as paint your face with a white paste.

Even though it seemed like a chaotic mess, the Thai's were respectful to us as "forangs" (i.e. westerners)and politely approached us. All in all, it was fun once you got over the initial "splash" of cold water. Below is what we looked like when we arrived home.

Below is what the crowd was like; picture taken from the restaurant.

Below is what we looked like when we arrived at the restaurant.

Green Light: Transitioning to Phase II (Pilot phase)

Prayer group meeting 19 March. This group of men (which is not all of our prayer group) represent 7 different countries (Thailand, Philippines, China, Japan, India, Canada & USA) and 7 different churches throughout Bangkok.
Here's the latest on our efforts with BSF and the men's prayer group. We have been meeting since late October as an official prayer group in an effort build a "core group" of men willing to help us pray and support our efforts in the future to get a BSF class started in Bangkok. As a result of our efforts and by God's power and grace to draw men to us, BSF headquarters has given us a "green light" to begin registering men in Sept-Dec for a 5 week pilot class. This is definitely good news to know for certain that we will be here next year to continue our efforts. The PILOT phase is the 2nd phase in moving toward establishing a permanent class in Bangkok.

Mike Welling (my co-partner with BSF) and I will be traveling back to San Antonio Texas Sept 19-25 for additional training. When we return, we will begin our concentrated effort to begin registering men, finding leaders and locating a host church. We can't wait to see how God will unfold all of this in our next step of faith.

thank you for your prayers and interest

Gary