Thailand National Institute For Christ
November 2005
Dear Friends,
Your gifts to us have been a great encouragement and have helped us carry on with the daily ministry here. Thank you for helping us. Since we last wrote to you, we have had several more seminars that were a joy to us and to those who attended. The first part of October, I was able to share at a church camp with the members of a large church as to the Lord’s design for a Christian family. Right after the camp, I traveled to Cambodia for a survey trip.
The first week of November, we held our annual Family Camp on the Thai-Laotion border which was attended by 125 people, including children and pastors from both sides of the border. Pastor and Mrs. Don Nemeth from Michigan brought a team of 10 people to help out with the camp program. In addition, Mrs. Am Hollon, Pastor Joseph Phangnivong and Mrs. Kim Baker from the First Baptist Church of Montgomery, Alabama, also helped with the program.
Several people from the First Baptist Church of Ft Walton Beach, Florida, also attended the Family Camp, including Wirapon and Ladda Jarukamon; Mrs. Dang Brown; Mike and Dawkmai Snyder, in addition to Joe and Song McNulty from the First Baptist Church of Niceville, Florida. Prayers were answered and numerous Thai family members of the US visitors who attended the camp were saved during the meeting.
In mid-November, approximately 150 Christians gathered at Camp Moriah for an encouraging day of prayer.
Please continue to pray for us as we minister and for those we minister to this month:
Dec. 18 Daralai Church ministry at Camp Moriah.
Dec. 22 Christmas Outdoor Evangelism in Non Sai village
Dec 23 Morning -- Christmas Evangelism at Wang Sai Public School
Evening -- Christmas Outdoor Evangelism in Wang Sree Sote village
Dec. 24 Christmas Outdoor Evangelism in Hin Perng village
Dec. 25 Christmas Program at Daralai Church at Camp Moriah
Pray for the many Thai farmers who will be hearing the Gospel, some for the first time, during our Outdoor Evangelism in the various villages.
A Visit to the Cambodian Christians
Two days after the family camp in Nakon Pathom, I traveled to Cambodia with some dear friends, Mrs. Am Hollon and Pastor Joseph Phangnivong, both from the First Baptist Church at Montgomery, Alabama. The morning I had arranged to meet Am and Pastor Joseph, it was raining hard. The road leading out from Camp Moriah to the village was deeply flooded with a rushing current. I called Am and asked them to wait a few hours for the flash flood to subside, so I could get across. After a short while, the water had only gone down slightly, and it seemed like it was going to rain again. This would mean an even larger surging current that would cause the whole Cambodian trip to be canceled. I decided to risk the waters with our 4 - wheel drive vehicle. After much prayer from Dawn, and myself who stood fearfully watching near the flooded bridge, I was able to successfully ford the river and our trip to Cambodia was on its way! Five hours later, we arrived at the border town of Sra Kaew. We checked into a local Inn for the night, planning to cross the border in the morning, and spend the whole next day visiting some Cambodian pastors. Just across the border, on the Cambodian side, are many casinos, which are popular among the Thais for their legal gambling.
The line at the Immigration Post is always very long and crowded with the daily throng of people headed for the casinos. It was easy for Pastor Joseph and Am to get through the paper work because they had American passports. The Thai people have much more hassle and paper work to complete before they are allowed to enter the country. I was told this was to deter the gamblers, but it seemed to have little effect on those intent on gambling. In addition to the faces bent on the lust of gambling, there were other very sad things I observed while at the border. We arrived at the border at exactly 8 o’clock in the morning, the time when the Thai National Anthem is broadcast all over Thailand, and when everyone on the street and in cars must stop and stand still until the song is finished in order to show their respect for the country.
As I was standing there, I noticed a young Cambodian lady pushing her cart of used clothing she planned to sell. The officials (I’m not sure if they were Thai or Cambodian) yelled for her to stop moving, and cursed her loudly. I could tell this was very embarrassing for the lady because all eyes in the market/border area were looking at her. She raised her hand to scratch her head. The officials yelled at her again and dragged her off to the police station. The Cambodian people are to be pitied. They have been oppressed by their government and even at present, they speak very cautiously and are very meek.
The atmosphere at the border wasn’t very good. We had to constantly be alert to the children who begged for money. If we weren’t careful, they would distract us and then try to pick pocket us. Once we finally crossed the border, we hired a taxi to drive us to Sreesophone City, 45 kilometers into Cambodia. The ride, which would normally take half an hour in Thailand, took a total of 3 hours of twisting and jolting on a pothole infested dirt road. The vehicles could only travel up to 30 – 45 kph. This was their main highway from the border! Our taxi was a second hand Camry from Japan, which had its lower chassis modified and strengthened to take the punishment of the rough roads. After being violently shaken and bumped around for about an hour, we stopped at a ‘gas station’. There were no pumps or modern conveniences as we are used to. Instead, on shelves next to the road, there were rows of one liter coke bottles filled to the rim with gasoline. There were also 5 and 10-liter tanks setting nearby. These were poured into the gas tank of all sorts of vehicles. The price of gas was also much higher than in Thailand. After the taxi filled his tank, we got back into the car and jostled on toward our destination. The Cambodian countryside looks like Thailand did 30 years ago. At long last, we arrived at Pastor (name omitted for security) house, but he wasn’t there. With the taxi driver as our interpreter, we learned from Pastor (name omitted for security) wife that he was out witnessing and wouldn’t be home till the evening. We told his wife we would be back the next day to meet up with him, and to please tell him to wait for us as we wanted to talk to him.
Since we had time, we traveled on another 200 km to Siam Reap, where the famous Ankor Wat ruins are located. This took another 5 hours, as the road was very narrow and rough. The Ankor Wat is colossal and very impressive. Siam Reap, a tourist city near the Ankor Wat, is a prospering city with a 5 star hotel and many beautiful big homes, and such a contrast to the poverty and simple life we had observed coming in from the border. It was amazing that as we retired for the night, none of us were sore from the many hours of jolting on the rough roads! We slept well and woke up refreshed in the morning. I know it was the Lord’s grace. The next morning after breakfast we started the long journey back to Pastor (name omitted for security) house and then on to the border and home. This time we knew to expect the bumpy ride and prepared ourselves. Am and I sang praise songs joyfully all the way, while our taxi driver, Mr. Moon, was talking on the phone. We couldn’t understand what he was saying. We noticed every taxi that passed at us waved at us. We were thinking these Cambodians are super friendly till Mr. Moon told us that they were signaling us that the bridge ahead was out, and there was no way we could get to Sreesophone city.
The main road we were traveling on was barely larger than one lane and vehicles going both directions already were using it. With all the traffic behind us, we couldn’t back up, but we couldn’t go ahead much farther either. We began praying that the Lord would help us get to Sreesophone, and to Pastor (name omitted for security), who was waiting for us. Mr. Moon was chuckling, probably thinking that these poor Thai folks would have to sleep in his taxi that night, but we continued to pray. We weren’t far from Sreesophone, and in fact, we could just barely see the outline of the city ahead of us. When we finally got to the narrow, one lane, metal and wood bridge that connected our road to our destination, there were crowds standing around in the road as if there was a fair going on.
The traffic was backed up for many kilometers and venders were selling drinks to the stranded passengers on both sides of the road. We walked to the bridge and saw that the bridge had collapsed while a 6-wheeler truck was trying to cross over it. The truck driver was okay since the bridge had gone down slowly, but there was no way any vehicle could cross the bridge. When I asked the people nearby how long it would take to fix the bridge, I was told 4 or 5 days! I told Am and Pastor Joseph to quickly cross the bridge by foot on the few remaining boards and see if there was another taxi on the other side who would continue our journey for us.
Praise the Lord for His provision! On the other side, a Korean businessman had hired a taxi to Siam Reap, and we were able to switch taxis so we each were able to continue travel in the direction we wanted to go. At long last, we reached Pastor (name omitted for security) house. At that time, we felt like it would be ok if we never came back to Cambodia as it is such an ordeal to get anywhere! However, our tiredness and frustration all evaporated when we saw the excitement on Pastor (name omitted for security) face and his genuine hospitality. He was so happy that we had come to visit him. After we had talked for a while, I asked him what his greatest need was. He said they needed teaching. When I asked what area they needed teaching in, I was startled by his answer. He said his pastors and the Christians there needed instruction in how to have a Christian family. I knew then that it was truly God’s will for us to travel all the way to Seesophone.
I told him of my vision of sharing God’s plan for Christian families and of the seminars we have been doing on this topic. With tears in his eyes, Pastor (name omitted for security) begin to praise the Lord for this answer to his prayers. We then both agreed to have a Christian Family Seminar in Seesophone next January. We couldn’t stay very long because we still had a long way to travel, but our trip to the border and back home to Pak Chong was one of rejoicing and excitement, knowing we were in the Lord’s will and used by Him. We arrived safely at home late that night with videos and testimonies to share with those at home.
Please pray for the Cambodian Christians and for our preparations for teaching them about the Christian Family next January. May the Lord continue to bless you and your loved ones during this happy season.
Together in His Service,
Tosh and Dawn L. Suwaratana and family
USA Address:
Christ For Thailand USA, Inc.
P.O. Box 1601
Niceville, Florida 32588