Back from the Jungle

This last week I went out to Ganchanaburi province for a church retreat for 3 days. This was a retreat for the group that works in the slums and a few others to get out of the city, fellowship, study God's word, and plan for the future.

We stayed in cabins in a national park. The setting was a gorgeous rainforest up in the hills of western Thailand. There was a stream that flowed through the middle of our camp and served as a very soothing background track to our time together.



Of course, the young'ens were more interested in getting wet than enjoying the aesthetic value of the stream. I think they were soaking wet the whole time.



There were all kinds of strange flowers, bugs, animals around our campsite. This flower had what looked like pieces of corn in it.



Here's a picture that you can't take in Bangkok...



The stream flows out of a cave that is just a few yards from our camp site. And the cave is full of bats. This might unnerve some people, but bats eat mosquitoes and mosquitoes eat me so therefore bats are my natural allies.



The cave is hard to picture, but it had a huge main cavern with some gigantic formations.



Here I was lucky to catch a photo of two wild monkeys. Ting and soon to be soldier Eddie goofing around.



A group shot of all those in attendance. Last year we had about 15 people and this year it was more like 30. There are some amazing servants of Christ in this group, and there are some young people that I know God is going to do incredible things through.



Ting and Sanit's parents joined us for the retreat. They live in Isaan (Northeast Thailand), but they are in the city for 2 weeks and therefore joined us. Sanit, was the first Christian in her family and becuase of her witness her whole family is now trusting in Jesus. Praise the Lord!



The province that we went to is the location of the famous Bridge on the River Kwai and the war museum that commemorates the servicemen who died there. Here is Tangk, Ikey, Boy, and John on the bridge.



This was a really cool stop for me becuase I had been here before. 15 years ago! when I participated in an international summer camp called CISV. Here is present day Greg at the bridge...



And here is me at the same spot 15 years ago....



I NEVER imagined at that time I would ever have any reason to come back to Thailand. But God's hand was all over my being there then and being back here now.


This is a shot of the cemetery for the thousands of servicemen that died as POW's under the Japanese army while building the Thailand-Burma railway. The vast majority are Australians, followed by New Zealanders, Dutch, French and British.



For the US servicemen that perished there is only a commemorative plaque.




And after experiencing all the wonder and beauty of God's creation out in the country we got back to Bangkok.

Eddie & Note

One of the highlights for me the last few weeks has been the young mens Bible study group that we have been doing at Terry's condo. The guys have really responded positively and we have heard a lot of encouraging things from them.



The group was started to encourage and prepare Eddie as he is about to enter the military for two years.



That is Eddie on the far left in the above picture. The guy sitting to his right is his brother Note. Note is not a Christian and has actually been pressuring Eddie to come back to Buddhism. Note has come to the study twice, and he seems to really enjoy the fellowship there. Amazingly, Note came to church with Eddie yesterday and spent the whole day with us. He helped us out with the kids at the slum, and then he went with us to sing and preach at a local fair.



Pictured above are Note and Eddie playing a game with the kids where they try to identify a mystery substance in the box.

I ask your prayers for both of these guys. Pray that God would be preparing Eddie to stand strong as a witness for Christ in the military, and pray that God would open Note's heart to faith in Christ.