Prayer Letter from the Mitchells in Thailand

20 February 2004

A big Sawatdii krap to everyone from James and Air. This is our first official prayer letter. We arrived in Khon Kaen about five weeks ago and have begun sorting through all the things that have to be done when setting up life in a new country.

Our time in Singapore was fantastic - Air's friends paid for almost everything and I made lots of new friends. An interesting thing about most of the young Christians that I met in Singapore - their parents are not Christian. That means that a whole new generation of Christians is growing up in that country that are hungry about spreading the gospel.

Air and I think that our employment is sorted out - with huge thanks to God because it has all worked out better than we could have planned. I was getting a bit discouraged because the two schools that I had been hopeful of teaching at either rejected me or did not seem very enthusiastic. So we applied to a series of other schools and then on a hunch went to the University of Khon Kaen and visited the Department of Fine Arts. I was not expecting anything because we had been warned that the University already employed lots of foreigners. But the first person we met was the Dean who is part of the music staff and visits Australia all the time. He set up an interview with the Head of Music and at this stage I will be teaching there as one of six lecturers in what I would describe as my dream job. It will involve teaching piano and lecturing on Western Music History and Harmony. The pay is not high by Australian standards (about $400 a month) but I am able to work another job teaching English at a College (similar to TAFE) which pays very well ($700 a month for 9 hours of teaching). This college is very close to where Air and I will build our house and also close to the Church. I do not start work until May so please pray that everything works out and that the University is able to offer me a position. The other great thing about this job is that they will take care of all my visa applications.

God has also taken care of us with Air's job. The Australian missionary at the Church is going to pay her to do all the things that she used to do for free. She will be translating studies from English to Thai, interpreting for Mission Teams and organising Youth work. This will only be part time work (paying about $180 a month) so she will have time to tutor English and do other translation work. But the most important thing is that it leaves her free to do ministry. Korp kun Pra Jao! (Thank you Lord God).

At the moment we are staying with Aajaan (lecturer) Pii Samai and Pii Sawan who are elders at the Church. They live about a 20 minute drive from the Church so praise God that we have been able to buy a car. It is a new Honda City - the basic manual model - but all new cars in Thailand have air conditioning and power windows. I can understand the air con but I don't know why everyone needs power windows. We are buying it on credit but the interest rate is only 2.9 percent so it will end up costing about AUD17,000 which is still a few thousand less than what it would cost in Australia (I think). It means that we are able to keep our money for the building of the first house which is another answer to prayer because it turns out that I need to initially have 400,000 baat (about AUD14,000, USD10,000) in an account in Thailand before I can extend my visa, and also because we are not able to get a housing loan until we have been earning money in Thailand for six months. Please pray for our house because things seem to be moving very slowly on that front.

Living with Air's elders has been quite fun and comfortable. Unlike some Thais they believe in killing every mosquito in the house which means that I am not being bitten all the time. Yuung (mozzies) love me. For the first week Air and I were sleeping on wood but after that we bought a two inch mattress so now my big toe is comfortable. Cold showers are the order of the day and I am amazed that I am able to cope with this. All the more since it has been absolutely freezing here at times. I had no idea that Thailand could get this cold but Air assures me that, while unusual, it is possible. It has been as low as 14 degrees (Celsius) at night and 18 during the day but now it is beginning to warm up again.

I have physically been remarkably well when you consider that I have only been taking a bit of protein - no multi vitamins or Reliv Now. I had a big scare with my eyes last week - they were getting sorer and sorer and I was having a lot of trouble keeping them open in any kind of sunlight. I thought that maybe I was having a reaction to my teardrops or that I had some kind of infection. Eventually the elders took me to see an eye specialist (a huge praise point that they have one in Khon Kaen). He told me that the only thing wrong was that my eyes were extremely dry. So I had actually been making matters worse by taking less teardrops. Now my eyes feel fantastic again.

Last weekend we attended 4 Valentine's day services/outreaches. Thai youth love Valentine's Day. They think that all westerners celebrate it, which maybe you do, but I have always hated it. Actually it is a big opportunity for Churches over here because promiscuity and prostitution amongst young Thais is reaching plague proportions. Valentine's Day gives Christians a chance to talk about these things with young people. So Air and I were interviewed on Saturday morning as a 'new couple' at a small Church about one hour's drive from Khon Kaen. We then went to an outreach at Khon Kaen Chinese Church (Air teaches some of their members English). On Sunday morning our Church had a very well attended worship service and then came the highlight on Sunday night. The Church held a Folksong/Karaoke contest and about 100 young people turned up. Most of them were Christians but there were also a lot of non-Christians. It was great fun and really well run. Wii, who some of you will know, organised and compered the whole thing and did a tremendous job.

Other highlights of our time so far include a visit to an orphanage where we talked about love and going to University with the older students. Suddenly I seem to be an expert on love! I find that very ironic. I have also been on a Songtao with 37 other people. A Songtao is a pickup truck with seats that is meant to carry 12 seated passengers and about 6 standing. I also hung on to the outside of another Songtao and prayed that my arms would hold me until we reached home.

It is possibly the most dangerous thing that I have ever done. Other highlights were lining up to see Thailand's Princess whizz past us at a Festival and hearing the Queen commend missionaries on their work with hill tribes. During the royal news (on every TV channel) she said that the missionaries had enabled the hill tribes (some of which are 80% Christian) to escape poverty by equipping them with skills.

That is about all I have to tell you at the moment but I will go over our prayer points again.

   Prayer Points  (top)

• Praise God for providing us with the 'perfect' jobs. Also pray that everything works out as we have been told and that the University is able to offer me a position.
• Please pray that our house will begin to be built soon. But praise God that we have free accommodation until it is built.
• Praise God that Air is able to do ministry as her job. Pray for her plans to start a Kids Club on Saturdays and her desire to get involved with the training of the young people at Church.
• Praise God for the positive comments from the Queen about Christian missionaries.
• Pray for the South of Thailand where Moslem terrorists are causing terrible problems.
• Pray for my learning of Thai - it is going quite well but I know there is a long way to go.