Prayer Letter from the Mitchells in Thailand

20 April 2004

A big Sawatdii krap to everyone in Australia or Singapore or Cambodia or anywhere else that you might be, from James and Air. This is our second prayer letter and a lot has happened since the last. Easter has come and gone but, more importantly in the minds of most Thais, so has Songkran. Songkran is the Thai New Year ­ a water festival when everyone gets wet and about 1000 people die over the week. There are also about 30000 injuries reported each year. It sort of puts the banning of Cracker Night in Australia into perspective. There are definitely no plans to ban Songkran in Thailand even though parts of the country are experiencing drought.

On the 14th April which is Family Day we went to visit Air’s extended family at her Grandma’s village. On the way we piled into the back of - our new pickup! Yes it’s a new car!!!! Another new car. This is our real new car ­ a Toyota Hilux 4 door 2WD and it is very cool! But anyway we piled into the back along with several barrels of water and small buckets and then threw water at anything that moved as we drove along. This is what the Thais do and it is incredible fun. Like many others we put ice in the water and the looks of horror from pedestrians as they got soaked was priceless. However it is not all one way traffic. Along every road there are teenagers (and older and younger) waiting with their barrel of water, buckets and water pistols. After we had lunch we drove to Air’s uncle’s inlaws which is in a village far out in the countryside. I got absolutely soaked during this drive because these villages had probably never had a farang (meaning anyone with white skin and a big nose) in them and everyone wanted to ‘get the farang.’ After dinner I took part in a traditional blessing ceremony in which the old people bless the young people and blow in their hair!

Our major news and prayer point is regarding our Church - Khon Kaen Assemblies of God. After a lot of discussion it is starting out on a new path which hopefully will be very exciting and will allow a lot of evangelism to take part in Khon Kaen and the surrounding areas. Air is taking on responsibility for the Youth Group. She had her first meeting with them today and they were so fired up that they went off to the local shopping centre to hand out tracts. Every part of the Church is going to change ­ because of a visit from Aajaan Samak from Australia, the starting of Cell Groups by Air and Kevin, and widespread desire among th members to do things better. So please pray for the minister, Aajaan Orr, who is going to have a lot to learn (he is only 28 years old), the youth group, the creation of cell groups, the training of new leaders for those cell groups, and for the other leaders of the Church like the elders, Kevin the missionary and Air and myself.

Nothing has really happened with our house. We have filled the land but the architect has not yet seen my wonderful plans. I have designed our dream house with room for Air’s parents and for many friends. It has a third story prayer room. Please pray that it can start to progress and that we will have the employment to pay for it.

On that subject I had thought that my dream job of teaching music at the University had evaporated ­ at least until next year (June 2005). But yesterday I found out that I do have a part time job at the University Music Department starting in June. And I definitely have a semester’s work at Rajamonkon College, which pays very well, and ongoing work teaching English at Ban Phai (about 40 minutes west of Khon Kaen) and tutoring work. So God has provided for us extremely well but please pray that I will definitely get my job and work permit from the University.

   Prayer Points  (top)

• Praise God that we have a new car. Please pray for the people that we were going to buy the Honda from because they have had business problems and have had to get a loan to pay us back our deposit.
• Pray for the two families that meet with Air and Kevin myself each week for cell group. Pray that they will become Christians ­ only one of them is at the moment ­ and that they will tell their friends what they learn. The group that meets in the village outside Khon Kaen has friends that come every week so praise God for that.
• And as you pray for Khon Kaen Assemblies of God Church pray that they will take on this work of planting evangelistic cell groups. They already have four cell groups but they are pastoral groups and not really evangelistic at the moment.

Thank you to everyone for praying for us. Please keep it up because I am learning that nothing happens without prayer. I know I should know that already but you know what I mean.

Pra jao wee porn James and Air.