Thai Winter Christian Camp

In the middle of October, we were able to go to Thailand to their Winter Camp.  They had this camp at the same time as a major holiday, Pchum Bunh, in Cambodia, so we were out of school. 

This year, the camp was in the north, east of Chiang Mai near the Myanmar border.

The Watcharaporn congregation in Bangkok is the host of this camp every year and the congregations near the location of the camp assist.   

Watcharaporn has a Bible training school like we have here.  Their staff and students (some of who are from Laos) did all the cooking and cleaning of the kitchen area and dishes.  There were 275 adults as well as children at this camp, so they worked hard and did a great job.

Rich was the keynote speaker.  The theme of the camp was "Learning from the Past".  Rich taught 4 nights on the book of Ruth.  He emphasized a different person in the story of Ruth for the 1st 3 nights; Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz; and what we can learn from them to apply to our lives. Then on the 4th night, he went to Matthew 1 and showed about the lineage of Jesus and how important these people were to Christ coming.  

Lek was Rich's translator.  He and his wife, Ann, are sweet friends of ours.  He did a great job.  

A couple of the nights, after Rich's lessons, the smaller kids sang some song for us.  Cute!

It was a beautiful place.  The area is government owned and is part of the Parks Department.  They planted pine trees years ago and it is beautiful.  

This is one of the evening meal.

We had one baptism during the 4 days there.  We had a kilometer walk to this pond.  As it was down off an embankment, there were many people standing on the top of the hill behind me watching the baptism as well.

There was a slight delay in the baptism because we had to move the water buffaloes out of their watering hole so that we could use it.  I'm not sure they were entirely happy.  Ha!

Beautiful scenery.  It was cold(for me)!  I wore long sleeves and jeans most of the time.  Rich loved being in the cooler weather.

Two mornings, we woke up to beautiful foggy mornings.  It burned off quickly but was so peaceful.

Here are more pictures of our week there.  Oo'd is the one that coordinates the Winter Camp from  the Watcharaporn congregation.  I have known Oo'd since we were in high school!  

We have so many friends in the churches in Thailand, and it is always great to be able to be with them.

Some drove from Phuket and Krabi, in the south part of Thailand, just to be able to attend.  The singing was beautiful.  It was truly a blessing to us to be able to spend the week with them.

These 2 pictures are from the Sunday before the camp started.  Rich preached at the Sensai congregation in Chiang Mai.  

Sweet friends put us up on their house.  Seth, who is now the preacher at this congregation, gave up his room for us.  

I really thought that I sent this blog earlier, so I apologize for not having already done it.  

As we are now back in Phnom Penh, we are back to our routines.  

I finished teaching Sraynich and Gimsan, 2 of our girl students, on I and II Peter.  

Rich finished teaching our newer students on Christian Ethics and is now teaching Isaiah to them.

Khemrin finished teaching I & II Timothy and Titus to our older students and is now teaching Church Growth.

Bunly and Jenthra, 2 of our students, finished all their course studies at CBI. 

Rich is also now teaching World Religions in the afternoons to 3 of our students that were stuck in their village during Covid when the class was taught previously.

Graduation for 11 of our students is scheduled for the end of January.  Please keep these 11 especially in your prayers as they will be leaving CBI, finding job and places to live.  Pray that their faith is strong and that they continue to be faithful effective workers for God in His kingdom.  

Please also pray for open hearts for new students that might come to the school.  

Pray for us to be faithful with the work God has given us to do.  Please pray that we have wisdom to be the most effective in the work here.

As God has blessed our family again with 2 new sweet grandbabies, I will be going to the US in a couple weeks.  Please pray for Rich as he will be here teaching and working.  

Much love,

Ronda