Seth, Robert, and Kyle from San Diego, CA are new missionaries from Horizon
(Calvary Chapel) serving in Macau, China. Because they don't have long
term visas yet, they must leave frequently, so they came to serve with us for
three weeks. Here is what they wrote about their experience. We are
blessed to have labored alongside Calvary Chapel Phuket, Thailand; our time was
very fruitful. We did everything from cutting weeds to love the community, give
our testimonies on a public radio station, door to door evangelism and
invitation to the Billy Graham "My Hope Thailand" broadcast, one night we
evangelized at Patong beach and passed out tracts and the Jesus video to all the
prostitutes and bartenders, we taught English at the local elementary school,
we had bible study and church, we set up a table and passed out the Jesus video
and tracts at a local market place , and we even enjoyed our Sabbath day to
Phi.Phi Island for only $25 US. Our time in Thailand was amazing! We praise
Jesus for all the ministry and evangelism we got to do in Thailand.
We really appreciate all their hard work, their love for the Lord and love for
people. True servants of Christ. The skate board show by Kyle and
him sharing the Gospel with the whole school was a real highlight. We also had a
lot of fun too, including them initiating us into the "Cowabunga Tribe," which
you will see at the end of this video. They were with us too, for the
Father's Day/King's Birthday celebration.
December 18 and 19 was the Phuket Christmas celebration at Saphan Hin Stadium at
the far south end of the island sponsored by the 20 churches of Phuket.
The 17th - 19th was also the My Hope Thailand outreach throughout Thailand
sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Our church's
primary responsibility was to prepare and serve fruit both nights, we also
distributed a number of Jesus videos and New Testaments. The events were
very well attended and the response was good. A well known Christian
church ministry team, called Farkham came to do the music and drama.
There
was a huge area for the showing of the My Hope Thailand program. There
were three 25 minute segments with either Dr. Billy Graham or Franklin Graham
speaking mixed with a a Thai singer giving his or her testimony.
Moo, who accepted Christ a month ago, was there with her son and daughter in
law. She was eager for her family to hear the Gospel and Gahn was able to
share with them. They have not accepted Christ yet, but her granddaughter,
Nan, accepted Christ in church on Sunday.
There were many booths offering free food, some with tracts, a counseling booth,
and a nativity scene. This year participants were given free coupons after
registering which they were able to use for securing food and drink.
Cindy, Gahn, and I were
invited by Omnoy (the owner
of the radio station) to
attend the annual senior
Olympics in a park near a
large convalescent home and
special education school.
There were marching bands,
Thai dancers and then four
teams of older adults in a
series of fun relay races.
Omnoy and I were among the
first individuals to kick of
the event with a race blind
folded with a stick walking
to a large can about 25
yards away.
Again
this year Cindy and I were invited to carol and visit patients on Christmas Day
at the Bangkok Phuket Hospital. This year was even more special because
the hospital just added a Christian chapel after their recent Joint Commission
accreditation. Pastor Yai of the Seed Church of Chengtalay gave the
dedication message, we donated a Bible for the Chapel and some other pastors and
Christians joined in singing Christmas carols there as well as the hospital
lobby and many other places in the hospital. The hospital administrator
accompanied us all morning and then treated us al to a very nice lunch in the
hospital cafeteria. After lunch Cindy, Gahn, and I joined the hospital staff in
visiting room to room, singing carols and giving a small gift. Many
patients were receptive to and appreciative of my prayers. There
were a lot of smiles and wet eyes too.
Again
this year, I was invited to
bring the Christmas message
at the annual tsunami
memorial. It was five
years ago that the tsunami
struck, killing 8,000 people
in Thailand. In some
of the other thirteen
countries the death toll was
even higher, but this was
what the Lord used to call
Cindy and I to Thailand.
December 27 the
YWAM Muizenberg DTS team of
seven arrived. The
leaders are Dick and Ru, a
young couple from the
Netherlands, others are from
Canada, Switzerland, South
Africa, and an island off of
Madagascar. They are
pictured here with their new
hats for weed cutting,
presented in our home.
They are also helping us
with distributing tracts and
Jesus videos in the bars of
Patong, door to door
evangelism here, Kid's Club,
radio outreach, leading
worship, worship dance, and
drama. They will be
with us until January 14,
they then travel to Chiang
Mai.
Cindy
and I were honored to receive a glass trophy as citizens of the year for the Mai
Khao sub district on New Years eve, but the morning began with a release of baby
sea turtles and planting of trees. The J.W. Marriot was a sponsor of the
sea turtle program and I met the general manager and spoke to him about
possibility of having a church service at the Marriot each Sunday.
Cindy and I spent the afternoon as usual at the airport, assisting tourists with
their luggage and with directions. The YWAM team joined us to do
evangelism there.
A Desire has become a Need We are having more and more visitors coming in
small groups and teams. For us that’s very exciting – we have help sharing the
love of Jesus in many different ways, but it also presents a need. Currently we
have a 3.5 cubic foot refrigerator which has a .75 cubic foot freezer, hardly
big enough for us and Gahn. With groups coming, we need even more room. The
nearest full-service grocery store is nearly an hour away and we can only go
once a week. We can get fresh vegetables here most days, but we need more
storage room for meats, bread, and the like. A new fridge of adequate size
(14.5 cubic foot fridge) would cost us about 25,000 baht, or about 750 U. S.
dollars. Our smaller fridge would be placed at the community center/church to
provide a place for teams to keep milk, bread, and anything else they want to
have there. We have a team of 20+ coming for training April 4-10, so the need
is becoming urgent at this time. Would you consider a one-time gift toward this
need? Secondly, through our volunteer police work a the airport we are
able to distribute hundreds of our church brochures which contain a clear gospel
presentation. We have been printing them ourselves and putting out 30 at a
time, we would like to have 5,000 printed which costs nearly $500. Can you help
us with that need?
Pray for YWAM Muizenberg team that they will be blessed and be a blessing here.
Pray for their unity and spiritual growth and spiritual battles and temptations
they face.
Pray for the three weekly radio broadcasts of God's Word for Today on Happy
Radio 105.25 FM. Also our Learning English broadcast on Wednesday morning.
Pray for Gahn as she translates my teaching Wednesday, the radio programs and
teaches Kid's Club on Saturdays. She also does
other outreach with the children
in our neighborhood.
Pray for Sana as she translates my Sunday messages.
Pray for Cindy as she has a heavy load of leading worship, cooking, and laundry,
plus all of her other supportive work that makes this ministry possible.
What a teammate and helpmeet!
Pray for me as I preach and teach in our village of
Thachatchai, that many
more people will come to faith in Christ. A new bridge is being built here
to connect the island to the the mainland. How people here need to know of
the Bridge between God and man, the Lord Jesus.
Praise the Lord my parents will be coming to spend five weeks with us.
They will also join us for the YWAM conference in Chiang Mai February 3 -5, as
YWAM celebrates it's 50th anniversary.
Thanks for your partnership with us, we greatly appreciate your support through prayer and
financial giving. God bless you,
Dana and Cindy Bratton
YWAM Thailand missionary. Support may be sent to
YWAM Montana 501 Blacktail Road Lakeside, Montana
59922 U.S.A. Project number 3454. or through
PayPal