For the first year or so in Thailand, we served wherever we were needed in the church.
Dave helping out at the Children’s Home a lot, with volunteers and helping Mercy Pattaya in the slums, or “chumchon”, which is the Thai word for community.
I offered my admin skills for use in the church office and helped out in sorting things out there.
We helped with outreach to a youth prison with Mercy Pattaya, and hospital visiting with Arisa and I started to learn Thai, going to Thai lessons 3 times a week and learning everything I could.
Not long after we moved to Pattaya, we went to a training session at Rodem House in Pattaya, where we met C (Siriluck).
She had been looking after an elderly Englishman, as a nurse, who had brought her to the church along with him.
When he passed away, some people from the church went to pick up some of his belongings and she came to the Lord with them.
When we met her, she was working and living in a massage shop, but, now that she was a Christian, she wanted to leave, as it was an unhealthy environment for someone who wanted to live a new life.
So it happened that we invited her to live at the house where we were, which was acting as a place for a recovering alcoholic and she came to work for us as a receptionist and translator in the church office, as she spoke English, Cambodian and Thai.
C became a spiritual daughter to us, a connection that I’ve never had before and Dave even gave her away at her wedding when she got married to Suriyan a couple of years later, including some marriage counselling!
They have always stayed good friends with us, one of our best, going on adventures together all over Thailand.
After a couple of years, Arisa got married and we were asked to take over oversight of the Thai church, with Sao and Armando Alferes de Lima to put in and train a new leadership team for the church.
We selected 6 people who were involved in serving in the church at the time.
Dton (Prasert) Kwampean, was the pastor until his death, Gaeng, Suriyan Peankengaeow and Siriluck (nickname C), who later got married to Suriyan, Mai (Jeeraporn Wangirun) and Teung Prapan (nickname Gideon), who is now the current pastor.
Teung and Suriyan had got saved not long after we got to Thailand, having come out of prison for drugs and other offences.
When this pair of in-laws came out of prison, they went to see Mae Sangha, their mother (Suriyan’s) and respective mother-in-law (Teung’s) to apologise to her.
Mae Sangha was faithful and strong member of Baan Reum Jai church, she still is, and is a good friend to us.
Not long after this, they went to a Christian conference held in the city and both gave their lives to the Lord.
They are now being used greatly in Pattaya, because of God’s grace they have a strong testimony, especially to others who are in prison, that God can and does change lives radically, they are both now considered pastors in the church.
Teung has “Government on his shoulders”
After a while we were put in charge of outreach in the church and did many outreaches in the city, bringing both Thais and international people together.
We teamed up with Paul and Ruth Shelling to go into schools and they took over the running of the prison ministry.
Together we reached out into the Cambodian building workers camps to do English and preach the gospel, under trees, in communities all over Pattaya.
At one of these Cambodian camp outreaches, a lady who was visiting brought a word that Teung had “governance on his shoulders”, this was to be fulfilled when he became the pastor of Baan Reum Jai Church, when Pastor Prasert passed away.
We were also able to bless these and Thai communities by collecting for Christmas boxes from the international church and networked with other organisations and schools to help.
Teung Becomes Gideon
Teung was later to rename himself “Gideon”, as a new creation in Christ, the old Teung had passed away, with his old nature and the new had come, leading Baan Reum Jai into a new building and a new phase.