IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!

Dear Friends, Yes, it has been awhile! We want to share some family pictures with you, as December was "visit Bob and Chris for Christmas" month!

Here are Jason and Lydia having some fun on the beach at Ban Phe, where Lydia is doing her teacher training.And these fine folks are the Barkers; Sam and Adrian and their kids, Abbie, Hannah, Liam and Courtney....along with Lydia, Chris and Jason. They were here from England for 2 weeks over Christmas.

This is Jason playing UNO with May and Maai. May is our housekeeper and Maai is her middle daughter.

Below are Lydia and Philip, saying goodbye in Bangkok. Lydia is still here, training to teach English to Thai children. Philip is in Canada, training to go on the TREK program to Lithuania in a few weeks.

Philip, Lydia and Christina at the Bangkok airport, sending Phil back to North America.
We trust you had a blessed time at Christmas as well, and were able to get together with those you love.

God Bless,

The Davis's (in Thailand)

random pictures

Hi Friends,

Well, it's been awhile since we updated here, so we decided to show you some random pictures of Life and Ministry in Chachoengsao!

This first one is Chris with one of the little sweethearts from the ALH home in Bang Saen.
Jason with one of his friends at one of our kids clubs.

Bob (zen-master) chillin near the beach, while on a team team retreat.

One thing we love to do at our cell groups is EAT together. This is in May's (NEW) house!!

We love this picture. "Sometimes you get to be the cowboy, other times.........."

This is Aye. Most of the time he chooses not to wear any clothes, but this day he did.

Okay all, thanks for checking in. Love,

Bob and Chris and Jason

OZZ (Awt)

We have mentioned Awt to you in our newsletters, so we thought we should post some pictures of him. He is our friend, teammate, language helper, and adopted son! He lives with us 3 days a week (well, sometimes all week, if he doesn't have responsibilites elsewhere) and has become part of the family. It is a great help to our language study to have him here with us, and we are teaching him English at the same time. Besides, he is loads of fun to have around! He plays the bass guitar and loves music. Some friends from Canada who work with First Nation's people presented him with this drum when they were here. He's really proud of it.

Awt (he spells it "Ozz" because it looks cool, but it is pronounced ott) is pretty typical of a Thai (Christian) guy his age; he is serious about his faith, but loves having fun! He plays with Jason like a brother.

His story is that he was basically homeless from childhood, and somehow ended up living in a church in Bangkok, where he became a Christian. He served in the Thai Army, where he was persecuted for following Jesus, and eventually discharged. He has been mentored by his friend who is also the pastor at The Life Center church in Bang Saen (where Team 2000 is). He is currently working with the Bethel Church Planting Team in Chachoengsao, which is how we became connected. He plans to begin formal training for ministry in a year or two, but is already a really good leader and teacher.

"Lord, we thank you for Awt, and for Your work in his life. Please use him now, and prepapre him to be used in an even greater way in the future as a leader of the Thai church. Amen"

Here are some pictures from our recent baptism in the canal! Seven new believers took this awesome step of obedience to the Lord and many friends came to celebrate God's glory with us. It was an awesome day!

The first one is Khun Jamlong, who is a 60 year old man who lost a leg to diabetes. He is becoming a student of God's word, and wanting to teach others about Jesus. Next is Mary (or May), our housekeeper. She is learning every day to appreciate that God's love is eternal. She has had a lot of problems in her life, but God is really growing her.

This is Pa Waw, Jamlong's wife. She is a joyful believer.
This is Serena. She has been a follower of Jesus for a few years, and has been every faithful. God is changing her life, day by day.

3 others from our cell groups were baptized that day as well.

"Thank you Jesus for saving these precious souls and bringing them into relationship with You, with us, and with one another. Keep them faithful to You, fill them with you love and grace, give them a hunger for your Word. Amen"

Here are a few more pictures of life and ministry in Chachoengsao...One of our clubs where we meet every week to sing, teach, pray, and play games.

Besides the kids, there always some adults nearby. Often they join us in playing "abc bingo" and even listen to the Bible story! A few have even ventured in to the adult meeting that takes place after the kids club!

These little ones attend the school where we teach the older kids each week at our "English club".

Here are some of those older kids, listening intently.

And another class of kids. We have a great time with them every Tuesday. Please pray for all these efforts to share the love of God.

Thanks,

Bob, Chris, and Jason

Life in Chachoengsao

Hi Friends,

We wanted to share a few more pictures with you of the ministry we are involved in here.

The first one is of the kid's club in the Bethel center, in the city. All Thai kids love to sing and play games, and to color pictures! Getting them to sit still and listen to the stories is more of a challenge, but they seem to be getting better at it!


This is the club that meets in Baa Lek's house (she is the older lady on the right). May, our housekeeper, is on the left. The adult group meets in her house, which is across the road. She and her whole family are very new believers.

This is the other kids group we do. We meet outside on a raised platform with a sheet metal roof over it. We are teaching the kids to sing "God is love" and spelling out l-o-v-e. In Thai it is "Prajow ben kwaam-rak". So we sing in Thai, but spell love in English. Crazy.

Hey, thanks for checking in!

Bob and Chris

Chachoengsao

Long time no update....sorry. We have been without internet since we moved in May, and it is still not resolved. Anyway, life has been moving pretty quickly here. We love our new house and community and our new Bethel Church planting team! We have been thrown in at the deep end, as within a 2 weeks of moving we are invovled with a weekly English club at a local school and kids clubs and cell groups in the rural area and the city. In addition we are finding time to continue to study Thai several hours a day.

Anyway, here are some photos of what's been going on:

These are from the Kid's Club that meets in the city. Every Thursday we have about 30-40 kids who come to the center to sing, play, and hear about Jesus. We have a small building that we rent for this purpose. After the kids are done, there is a cell group for adult believers, currently about 5. We sing, pray, study the Bible together, then share a meal. It is an awesome time.

Here are some pics of our new living room (after and before). Now it is full of furniture. The whole house was really dirty and grubby, but now it's quite attractive and comfortable (we have furniture now too!).

We have started a club at a local school, where we have a total of 90 kids in 2 one hour sessions. We are praying that doors to homes and hearts will be opened through our efforts at the school.

Please pray for us and the team we have joined; Louise Sinclair-Peters (Team 2000) and Naat and Awt. They are great, and we are learning loads from them.

More photos later. Thanks for caring!

The Davis's