Starting out in 2012
Over the last two weeks we have been enjoying the start of 2012 with all four universities now reopened and bible studies restarting after the flood disruption over the past months.
As we go into the New Year we have produced a short video which explains who are and what we do. You can watch it and download it here. Please do also share it with your CUs, cell groups and churches and encourage others to pray for the thousands of INTER students living and studying in Bangkok. A Thai version of the presentation is also available on the same page.
We have also enjoyed having a number of visitors around. You read Millie Hindle’s INTERaction journal here. Millie has been staying with us for the past two weeks as a part of her GAP year. If you would like to know more about INTERaction (our short-term programme for students and teams) please get in touch with us. We would love to hear from you.
A prayer for the New Year
As we come to the end of 2011 we are enjoying some quiet days on a beautiful beach in South Thailand. It has been good to rest, to play together as a family and to have time for reflection.
These words from The Valley of Vision (a collection of Puritan prayers) seems to sum up so much of our past year as a family.
O Love beyond Compare,
Thou art good when thou givest,
when thou takest away,
when the sun shines upon me,
when night gathers over me.
Thou hast loved me before the foundation of the world,
and in love didst redeem my soul;
Thou dost love me still,
in spite of my hard heart, ingratitude, distrust.
Thy goodness has been with me another year,
leading me through a twisting wilderness,
in retreat helping me to advance,
when beaten back making sure headway.
Thy goodness will be with me in the year ahead;
I hoist sail and draw up anchor,
With thee as the blessed pilot of my future as of my past.
I bless thee that thou hast veiled my eyes to the waters ahead.
If thou hast appointed storms of tribulation,
thou wilt be with me in them;
If I have to pass through tempests of persecution and temptation,
I shall not drown;
If I am to die,
I shall see thy face the sooner;
If a painful end is to be my lot,
grant me grace that my faith fail not;
If I am to be cast aside from the service I love,
I can make no stipulation;
Only glorify thyself in me whether in comfort or trial,
as a chosen vessel meet always for thy use.
As we look forward to the year ahead our prayer is that God will indeed be ‘glorified in [our whole family] whether in comfort or trial’
With our love and thanks for your partnership with us through another year.
Johnny, Ann, Matthew, Bethan and Joshua
INTERaction update …
The Cleaning Army!
We are now half way through the INTERactionTeam programme. We are so grateful for the way in which these 7 wonderful team members have worked cheerfully and willingly at every task given to them. They have made 500 bags of cookies, helped clean-up after the floods, led bible studies with Thai students and just generally encouraged our family by walking alongside us in life and ministry.
Crazy fun with students!
The first week has been all about building relationships, preparing for Christmas and getting to know one other. There have been many laughs along the way as we sweated together in the kitchen, as they braved the Thai delights of fried bugs and spicy curries and as they started to understand the joys and challenges of INTER student ministry in Bangkok.
The highlight of the first week was our Christmas Party for the INTER students where the team saw the fruit of all their investment in preparations and friendship building. 20+ students arrived Sunday night for a great evening of party games, a time to reflect on the real meaning of Christmas and then a delicious Christmas Banquet complete with turkey and trifle!
The Big Bake!
The atmosphere was fantastic, the food quickly demolished and the games hilarious. But more significant was the conversations which took place over the dinner table as people relaxed together. Gospel seeds are being sown in the lives of several individuals over these days.
Over the next days the team will be involved in four separate campus outreaches, giving out the cookies they made last week, inviting students to join the student activities and seeking to communicate something of the true meaning of Christmas. The most exciting of these outreaches is at ABAC – Thailand’s first international university. A Christian lecturer has asked for help with carol singing on the campus, with the goal of being able to start an INTER student fellowship in the New Year! The INTERaction team are going to be pioneers on a new campus with us!
Please keep praying for us in these next days. There are significant Gospel opportunities each day as we give out tracts, sing carols and seek to engage individuals in conversation. Please pray for energy and stamina for all of us, and for joy as we serve together, telling students of Immanuel, God with us!
PS. Don’t forget to check out the team’s own photos and reflections on their trip here
INTERaction 2011
In just 48 hours, seven international students from Australia, Singapore and Malaysia will be joining us for 16 days of intensive outreach on the campuses over the Christmas period.
We hope that they will be able to help us to connect with internationals in the three universities we work with. Together, we will be singing carols, sharing the Christmas story and inviting people to a Christmas party at our home. They will also be helping our church with outreach to children, evangelism in the market place and a family Christmas event.
As the team work with the Christian INTER students here we also hope that they will be able to encourage the students and pass on a passion for both the Lord Jesus and for their friends. They will be doing personal bible studies with some of the Christian students, sharing meals with them and working alongside them in outreach events.
Please pray with us for this team as they serve alongside us here in Bangkok. Please pray for:
Rapid adjustment to Bangkok life and ministry
Ability to build relationships with students
Creativity in planning for outreach events
Energy, health and passion to persevere
Team unity and joy throughout their time with us
Follow their news and reflections throughout their trip here
Happy Thanksgiving Day!
Let all that I am praise the Lord ;
may I never forget the good things he does for me. (Psalm 103:2 NLT)
Today our family have become honorary Americans for the day and are excited to be celebrating this wonderful festival with church leaders and special friends here in Bangkok.
As well as cooking an 8kg turkey for the Thanksgiving Feast later today (for our British friends think Harvest Supper meets Christmas Dinner!) we also took time before school this morning to share the things we are thankful to God for on this special day. We came up with …
family, school, lovely teachers, special friends, safety in the floods, Thai mangos, seeing people grow in their love for Jesus, marriage, our beautiful home, knowing Jesus has forgiven our sins, being back in Thailand, people who give so that we can be here …
As we started to talk we realised that there are so many things we could add to the list; daily blessings, special blessings, answered prayers, abundant evidences of God’s loving kindness towards every member of our family. We are so glad to be given this opportunity today, not just to eat turkey, but also to stop and give thanks to our Loving Heavenly Father for all his goodness towards us.
Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. (Philippians 4:6 NLT)
Working together with you for your joy!
We want to work together with you so you will be full of joy, for it is by your own faith that you stand firm. http://bible.us/2Cor1.24.NLT
Classes still cancelled, roads still flooded, students still living in hotels and apartments … so what are you doing?!
With all our normal bible studies cancelled until the New Year it could feel as as if ministry here in Bangkok has ground to a halt! However, over the past weeks we have been challenged to think carefully about what really matters in our ministry.
We have been encouraged to work together with international friends seeking to know God for themselves
We have been challenged by working together with a small group of students hungry to understand the Big Picture of the bible
We have been privileged to work together with individual students struggling to live out the Gospel in their relationships, their classrooms and their families
We have been blessed to share family times with other missionaries in need of a meal and laughter, encouragement and a listening ear.
Each bible study, meal and conversation has served as a reminder that the Lord is concerned for the individual as well as the nations. He is as concerned for the individual seeking the Truth as a camp of 100 students learning about Christmas. He is as concerned for the student struggling to live in holiness and purity as He is concerned for the proclamation of the Gospel to thousands. He sees the heartache of a single missionary away from home just as much as he hears the cries of thousands struggling in the floods. In His sovereign purposes, the One who was willing to send His only beloved Son into the world at great cost, is the One who has presented our family with the privilege of investing in the individual lives of precious people during these days.
Pray for us that we will be faithful in these special days to work with each of the people the Lord brings in our lives for their deeper joy and stronger faith.
Pray for our family that we will continue to stand firm in our own faith in challenging contexts.
Love and mercy in 100 different ways
If the last weeks were about dramatic acts of mercy to get emergency supplies to those trapped in the floods then this week had been about faithfulness and perseverance in the small things.
After returning from HuaHin at the weekend life has started to fall into a new kind of normal! We are still unable to meet with students on campus as the universities are still under water and classes still cancelled. Only Chulalongkorn University stands any chance of returning to a normal schedule next week as they have been saved from direct flooding. However, they do now have to work out what happens to 500 refugees camped in their sports hall if classes resume!
With the children back at school (for the time being) we have been asking the Lord to show us what we should be doing in this unique situation … He has answered our prayers! This week we have the privilege of …
Sharing a meal and friendship with a missionary family who have been sent to Bangkok to deliver their 5th child … because it is a ‘safer’ place than their ministry location in Asia!
Bible study at the kitchen table with an international seeking to know more about Jesus and trying to wrestle with the big issues of suffering, sin and judgment!
Time in the children’s school helping teachers and students who don’t know from one day to the next what is going to happen!
Teaching the big story of the Bible to a handful of students who are still in Bangkok and not flooded!
Welcoming a Thai friend into our home as he starts work in the city and tries to find a new apartment in the middle of the flood zone! He might be staying a while!
Helping a Thai student who’s mother is stranded in Lopburi, who’s father is guarding their factory in Ayutthaya and who has already evacuated from her home to her church and is now watching her church flood! She will probably join the McClean family for an indefinite period in the next days!
Each of these friends and relationships have reminded us that the floods here are impacting people in different ways.
Some are visibly devastated and need urgent basic supplies, others are put under severe pressure and simply need a loving arm and listening ear, other are confused and bewildered as ‘normal’ life seems a lifetime away.
Please continue to pray for the districts of Thailand under floodwater, including more than 12 districts of Bangkok.
Don’t stop praying for those in desperate need of food, basic sanitation and drinking water.
But as you pray please pray too for those asking questions, seeking answers and simply trying to function in a city in chaos.
Please pray for our family that we will be faithful in the small things and keep living for the glory of God in each of the contexts that the Lord places us. /em>
Bringing love and mercy to those in need!
For the past three weeks New City Fellowship Church has been taking meals and drinking water out to those most badly affected by the floods in the northern part of the city. These photos show the team on one of their trips to Nonthaburi. A week later the team needed boats to reach the same area! What the church are doing is, in one sense, unremarkable as it is repeated by churches large and small across the country. At the same time this ministry has cost the church much in terms of both finances and resources.
Please do pray for church teams working in stressful conditions with limited resources. As the flooding becomes prolonged there is much need for wisdom and discernment in understanding the limitations of the teams as well as the urgent needs of those trapped in the floods.
How can we pray?
PLEASE PRAY WITH US DURING THIS CRISIS
- For Thai people to cry out to the Lord and to know Him as the One who saves from a far greater danger
- For all those who have lost so much in this flood – homes, family members, jobs …
- For both government and NGO agencies reeling from the scale of the crisis and seeking to find the best way forward
- For churches seeking to do all that they can to help those living in their locality, especially as the long-term recovery and renovation of homes and communities begins
- For the thousands who have either been evacuated or who have chosen to evacuate in the face of likely flooding
- For our family, disconnected from students, friends and normal life in the short-term
- For wisdom in knowing how to help, when to return to Bangkok and how to balance family and ministry needs in this crisis
- For sensitive hearts and discerning eyes as we seek to understand the Lord’s will for our family during these special days, and while there is no campus ministry happening in the coming weeks
Flood Update #7
Last Tuesday (25th October) the Ministry of Education issued a decree that all schools in Bangkok must close until November 7 and the same day the Prime Minister announced a five-day emergency holiday, urging as many as possible to leave the city until Monday 31st October. That same day, the British Embassy also alerted us that they were advising only ‘essential travel’ within Bangkok for the time being.
It is possible that Bangkok city itself will become a ‘flood zone’ within the next couple of weeks and our area has been told again to brace for up to 1.5m (5ft) of water. However, it is also possible that we could miss the worst of the flooding, if the government is able to control the flow of water through the city over the next weeks and there are no major breaches of the floodwalls.
After the news and public announcements, we made phone calls to both UFM and TCS leaders talking through what our response should be to the impending crisis in the city. There is still a possibility that the floods will not be as severe as reports suggest, there are many people needing help and we are in Thailand to serve the Thai people. At the same time even if our own home does not flood we have been told to expect shortages of water and electricity and have already seen rising prices for fresh food and some drinking water shortages in the city. TCS advised all Thai staff to leave the city if possible and are now looking at relocating staff to universities in the north, south and east until universities reopen in Bangkok.
After much discussion we made the decision that Ann should leave Bangkok the next day and take the children to a Christian Guest House in the south of the country for as long as school is shut. Johnny remained in Bangkok to continue helping the church for the rest of last week and then travelled south on Sunday to join the rest of the family. Although many need urgent help now we also know that the extent of the devastation mean that many people will also need help and support for many weeks and months to come. By resting now we hope not only to keep our family safe but also to be renewed and refreshed for whatever ministry lies ahead of us in the coming days, both with students and through the church.
While Johnny has been ‘on the front line’ taking aid out and working with church leaders, Ann’s days have been focused on home-schooling the children using the on-line classes setup by the school. The children have lessons for 4-5 hours a day and then submit their work to their class teachers via the internet. This change in the routine has taken some adjusting to for all of us as Ann finds herself back to being a full-time teacher with a class of 3! In HuaHin we have also had some opportunities to share with and encourage other people who have moved out of Bangkok.
Right now we expect that the children will return to school on November 7 and life will start to return to normal around November 14, when universities reopen.
For a printable version of this post, including more photos, click here to download our November Praise and Prayer. You are welcome to print out and distribute this prayer letter to churches and prayer groups as you pray for Thailand in the coming days.
