The Bakery

I haven't blogged about our latest happenings at the Prison Bakery in a while. I'd like to bring you up to date on some of the exciting things going on there. In late February I had invited my friend, Karen from the Abundant Life Home-an orphanage here for children with Aids to bring an evangelistic team to the bakery. Karen and her husband have been missionaries to Thailand for over 10 years, they speak fluent Thai and have also planted several Thai churches along with the Aids project.

She had a visiting team from Canada that came and performed a very powerful drama to music, depicting the fight for a soul between God and Satan. Here is a picture of Karen and the team.

After pizza was enjoyed by everyone, Karen had a couple of her house 'Moms' to share their testimonies and to present the gospel in Thai. 24 girls raised their hands to accept Christ!!! So exciting!! We then broke into small groups and answered their questions about what it means to be a Christian, what are they supposed to do during mandatory, Buddhist, morning, prayers....We had fluent Thai speakers in each group and it was a most productive and exciting evening. To God be the glory!!

The next week I followed up by giving out 45 Thai Bibles to interested girls in the prison along with some gospel tracts in Thai. Since then I have been praying for some sort of relationship with a Thai church in the area that could lead Bible Studies within the prison.

After several email conversations I met Pastor Jeff from the Vineyard church in Rayong along with his wife and another couple from their church at a coffee shop near the bakery. After filling them in on my work there over the last 3 years and praying together I proceeded to take them into the prison to meet the staff and girls. They are prayerfully considering how their congregation could minister within this center.

Please pray that they will know the Lord's leading in this ministry and that doors will be opened to them to continue to disciple there. There is just so much I can do with my limited Thai, language skills. Mostly, I just try to 'show' the love of the Lord to the girls-because that crosses all language barriers! How exciting to think that a new relationship with a nearby church could be established and continue for years after I'm gone.

Who knows what the Lord may be doing at the Rayong Prison. Pastor Jeff has his hand in many ministries to try to reach and assist Thai people. He is marketing a new coffee endeavor for believers in Northern Thailand. He is also helping a young man in their congregation as he begins to raise turkeys for food here in Thailand. Turkeys are rare here, I always spend a fortune every Thanksgiving. Anyway, to make a long story short, he approached me and the girls about perhaps learning to roast turkeys in their industrial ovens and then we could sell them to the ex-pat community. He 'just so happens' to have a chef friend coming in December from Canada that would be willing to come and teach the girls a roasting and baking technique of turkeys. We could even deep fry the turkeys, Cajun style. An exciting potential for both his congregant and our girls. So far this young man only has 12 turkeys and it takes several months for them to mature but it might be a wonderful partnership in the future. May the Lord do exceedingly more than we think or imagine in the prison!!!