Some updates – A season of renewal
From February to April, we celebrated three significant festivals that relate to renewal – Chinese New Year, Easter and Thai Songkran water festival. Chinese New Year (CNY) was quite low-key since it is not a public holiday in Thailand and we do not have many Chinese-background friends around us. However, we had a simple hotpot dinner on the first day of CNY and introduced “lohei” (a salad-tossing activity to bless one another) to our fellow learners. We are also thankful to our OMF Singapore colleagues who visited our families in Singapore to bring blessings to them despite our absence back home.
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Right: Introducing “lohei” to our fellow learners
Easter was also quite low-key in Thailand as It is also not a public holiday. We had a simple Easter egg hunt and Easter garden-making activity with fellow learners and their families (see left photo below). On Good Friday, we attended a simple, yet meaningful evening service with fellow believers in a local Thai church to remember the sacrifice that our Lord Jesus Christ made for us (see right photo below).
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Of course, a year in Thailand is incomplete without participating in the Songkran festival! Our language teachers led us through a special session where we learnt about the significance of the festival (see photos below). Like many Thais during this festival, we also had fun donning Hawaiian shirts, splashing water, and smearing powdered paste on each other’s faces as a symbol of blessing. In the Thai Christian context, we remember that Jesus has come as our living waters.
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Vision trip to Central Thailand
For about one week in February, we visited the various ministries in Central Thailand (Chainat, Lopburi, Nakhon Sawan and Singburi provinces) as part of our vision trip. By that time, we had learnt to share our testimonies and to pray in Thai and we are glad to be able to put our language learning into practice during the vision trip. Although we are currently living in Central Thailand, we had not had many opportunities to see the work in this region and we are thankful for this vision trip where we had a deeper exposure and understanding of the various ministries – from church planting to social outreach.
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Photo on right: Us visiting a small church plant with five believers in a remote village in Nakhon Sawan province
Our location for the coming years!
After much prayers and discussions with our leaders, we have been designated to the Central Thailand team in our first term to support their community development work and a church plant. This is with the view that we will eventually move to Isaan in the subsequent terms to expand the community development efforts. Being in Central Thailand will allow us to learn more about serving in the Thai ministry context. We are thankful for how the Lord has led our leaders to come to this decision.
Updates on Phoebe’s dad
Thank you so much for all your prayers for Phoebe’s dad! He was finally discharged on 11 May after being hospitalised for about six months. He is making good recovery and has been attending a daycare centre where he can continue his physiotherapy.
On the spiritual front, Phoebe’s dad shared with our OMF Singapore colleagues that he had been thinking about Jesus. During a videocall, he also recounted the story of the Prodigal Son after reading a Christian book which Phoebe bought for him during her short trip home in April. Thank God for how He is opening the heart of Phoebe’s dad! May the seeds which have been sown bring him to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Photo above: Phoebe and her family during a short visit back home to visit her dad in hospital
Jon and Phoebe's thetomyumkongs journey. 