The Power of Relationships

One thing we have learned living and serving the Lord in Thailand is the power that relationships have in ministry. Ministry, we have learned, is a life not so much something that you do just at church or on a Sunday. Ministry in the New Testament church was something that overflowed from the relationship believers had with Jesus Christ. And much of that ministry between people happened through relationships. The church itself is about relationships (Ephesians 4:16), illustrating this the way that a body is connected together and operates through those connections (joints and ligaments). Nothing is more apparent than ministry here in Thailand.

When the teen group from Anchor came here, they taught English at one of the local schools here, Surawittayakarn School. They met number of people, but a handful of the students kept coming to see them while they were here. They were especially enamored by Shane and Tiffany I think! At any rate, these students (Foam, Jeep, Ice, Korn, and Doc to name a few) kept on coming even after the teen group returned to the United States. To sum things up, they have been coming out to church events (though not actually church itself) this entire time up to the present. Now, they are all going off to college... some in Bangkok, some in Chiang Mai, some a little closer. We maintain contact with many of them through facebook and email, and continue to pray that the things they heard about Jesus will sink into their hearts.

However, to illustrate just how much of an impact these American teens made, I include an excerpt from their yearbook. Here is a page that has the coming of the Anchor teens to their school. What may have seemed like a little thing, teaching English, could be in fact life altering for some of these young people. They saw and continue to see Thais and Americans whose lives are different, there is joy and real peace, something so many people here lack. So thank you, Anchor teens, what you did here made more of a difference than you may ever know!