Had a great weekend. Saturday we hung out at 2 concerts. Our friend's niece Funn, whom you have been praying for didn't come yet, but we can visit her school later. But we brought Cayme and his Cambodian friend. We met up with our friend Tone and his family.
He brought us back stage at the mall, when he was doing a benefit concert for all the flood victims of thailand. Then his promoter gave us free tickets to the big carnival and concert extravaganza. On the way there we were talking with Tone. He has had an extraordinary life. He was once a Buddhist monk, and then a very successful lbusinessman, working with frozen seafood. He was a millionaire. He worked with black magic, the occult. OUr friend Sakchai challenged him in upon crossing paths with him, saying what do you really want??? Tone said he has everything he wants. Sakchai asked him, listen to me, what do you really really want? Tone had to think... He said I want inner peace, real inner peace that lasts beyond momentary meditation. Can your God offer me that? Sakchai told him yes. Tone said I'd be willing to lose everything, if He gave me that.
Deal! God took away everything from him, to the tune of 8000 baht. He lost everything. He took that money, and bought 3 bibles. One for his wife, one for his wife's sister, and one for him. That was the start of an amazing ride!!!! Since then God gave him many children more. Miracle babies!!!!
One girl Nei Nei was born, even though there was birth control in place. Another boy named Eugene had 2 heads in the womb and spinal bifada...the doctors said abort! but they prayed and prayed, and trusted. Boom! God blessed them by giving them a healthy baby!!!!!
Anyways, back to the concert. We were riding there, and I asked Tone to share with the boy named Shy (from Cambodia).... We took turns, for a short while sharing, and Tone said he's ready....please pray for him now. I said really? The boy was ready to accept Jesus as his Lord. We were all shocked! His friend Cayme was driven to tears, he was so happy for his friend.
We got out of the car and rejoiced and found ourselves in front of the largest stadium of Bangkok. But the concert was in the outside of the stadium. The place was so packed with people, and 6 stages. The thai people loved his band, BasketBand. It was so fun. He had many people come to his booth throughout the night for autopgraphs and pictures.
Tone asked if we could change our plans to staying with Sakchai and stay at his "small place". I was hesitant, not because it was small, but because I promised Sakchai. So we called Sakchai and he said that was fine. We went to TOne's house... it's like a mansion!!!! we were so blown away... He owns 3 homes on one lot! unbelievable!!!! We laughed...That guy is so humble... The Lord returned his wealth after losing it, upon sayig he was willing to lose everything if the God of the Bible could give him lasting peace. It just goes to show the scriptures are so true that if you are willing to lose your life for Christ's sake, you will gain life, but if you try to keep your life, you will just lose it. The other scritpures says: seek the kingdom of GOD and His righteousness first, and all else follows.
Wow!!! I was so inspired. I told Tone he could help Pastor Tae model his water business, he would be so helpful. I also asked him help on ideas on what to do for the land we have in PI. He is into commodoties, and buys land right now for stuff like rice. He told me to hold on to it for another 2.5 years then try to sell it, but make plans and prepare it if we could.
I asked Tone if he had ideas of a business I might be able to look into for our retirement savings. My uncle and aunt are so well off, just running some businesses in PI. Tone, who is only 40 years old, obviously has done quite well with his businesses here. It had always been a dream for me to setup something that could supplement an engineering income for my long term retirement, something that I didnt have to be there for it to run, but to leave to a steward once the systems were in place. I had dreamed of that since I graduated college in 1995. I dont know what will happen, but it's so nice to have friends who love us that we can bounce different ideas off of. I'm so gratefull for all the different people in our lives on this trip. This weekend was very special.
Sunday service was great...and the sermon really hit home. It was about ambition, touching on Godly ambition or worldly wisdom. The fine line we can walk. Sometimes we can be like a Pharissee at heart, who had good words but whose life Jesus warned not to follow. Sakchai, our friend, was the guest speaker. He also touched on a verse that I never read the way he read it. Someone said from the crowd, blessed be the ones who eat at the table in the kingdom of God! Jesus replied with a parable about a king who threw a banquet, and everyone had an excuse not to show. (Sakchai correctly paraphrased the sentiment Jesus was saying to the man who was all excited as "are you sure? are you sure about yourself?" Sakchai said God can prepare many things in advance for us, make the invitation, but in the end we can make excuses from following through.
He said sometimes opportunity is like a river, it flows, but the river flows and goes, it doesn't reverse...so when opportunities are open doors by the Lord, it is best to walk through those opportnities. This sermon really hit home for me. Why? Because we are at a time of great opportunity right now. This opportunity has come, we're walking gingerly through it but timing is so very important. We want to make the most out of this.
Tone's encouragement the night before was that sometimes we are like a racer in a crouch waiting for the gun to fire, and when the Lord shoots the gun and says GO NOW! Explode and take that.. But be ready. Sakchai said that too, not really knowing of our conversation.
At any rate the Pastor of the church in Bangkok says we have to ask the Lord a question regarding how we are going to serve the Lord...are we going to be volunteers or are we going to be full time? because depending on what part of the body God called us to be, will change the direction. And that's what we're going to try to figure out further as we move forward through this spying of the land trip which the church encouraged us to take for 6 months.
Please continue to pray for the Lord to speak to us specifically and to direct our days. We are heading to Chiang Rai tomorrow to meet with Fang's mother (our friend, Rose), and to meet with our missionary friends Christina, Pedro, and Elisha, plus visit the girl we sponsor Prappee, and those other beautiful orphans up there.
P.S. Praise God we were able to help Tone's dad. He said he wasn't truly christian yet, but he will be...and after talking with him, he said, he is ready.. my understanding was that we helped him a lot, and he wanted the Lord that night to be his personal Savior, and he was all in. So we prayed with him to be born again! (later the pastor thought he misunderstood, or miscommunicated, because he had spent 1 year with him already teaching, but only God knows....remember Nicodemus was one of the high ranking priests of Israel, and he begged Jesus to tell him how he could inherit the kingdom! Jesus replied in John 3:3 "you must be born again, of the Spirit". I believe something special happened last night for Tone's dad!
Sunday we also were taken to tone's art cafe! He painted 4 beautiful pictures, and shared the stories with us. They were displayed at the "exhibition cafe", that was show casing only his artwork! It was so cool! He drew a painting about the parable of the 4 different soils / parable of the sower...The meanings were do deep, and scriptural. Praise God for what He has done in Tone's life, and all the blessings to his family. It was so refreshing to see someone this blessed, humble, loving, and fun who hears so clearly the Lord's voice. He is a model of perserverence too!
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