More than 700 YWAMers gathered in Chiang Mai
February 3 - 5 to celebrate the
50th anniversary. Founders Loren and Darlene Cunningham were the main
speakers, shown here with Phil Porter (National director) and his wife Cindy.
Click here for more details and pictures.
http://www.ywamthai.org/ywam50.html
We really enjoyed the conference as well as a few days of sight seeing
in Chiang Mai with Mom and Dad.
We took a two day trip by boat. We went to Phi Phi island
for snorkeling and lunch. Then on to Ao Nang Beach in Krabi province.
There my long time friend Prasit picked us up in his car and took us to his home
for dinner with his family in Krabi. What a wonderful evening we had! He
was the one who so graciously made arrangements for me right after the tsunami
plus hosted our team in his home when we made the exploratory and outreach trip
four years ago. We stayed that night in a hotel in Ao Nang, explored Krabi
town, the inlet and the Tiger Cave the following day by taxi and long tail boat
and then returned by boat to Phuket in the afternoon.
Prasit's chickens
This picture reminds me of I Corinthians 13 where we’re
told not to be puffed up with pride. Not only is it ungodly, it’s
downright prickly and ugly, keeping everyone away! We saw this fellow in
Krabi.
The construction of the new Sarasin Bridge is progressing well. One
evening we took a few pictures. We also captured some village and church
life here.
Dad helped serve communion on the first Sunday of the month.
It had been nearly 90 days since our trip to
Perth Australia for our visa, plus Mom and Dad were going beyond their 30 day
tourist visas, so off we went to Ranong by car and then by long tail boat into
Myanmar for visa stamps. It was good to see our young friend Ali, who met
nearly three and a half years ago as a seven year old, he has grown. He
doesn't work the long tail boats any more but assists passengers at dock on the
Burmese side every day.
The lot next door to the east of our duplex is vacant except for a partial
cement skeleton where they started to build house. Generally is completely
overgrown with weeds and is used by the neighbors to burn brush and rubbish.
We've had permission from the land owner to clear it and plant a garden but
haven't had the resources until now. With Mom and Dad's help, Gahn, and
some neighbors we cleared it off and bought and potted some plants. We covered
with shade cloth. Thankfully our neighbor, Som, though getting old is
still a monkey. So he could climb on top to secure the screen. More needs to be done but we are off to a good start.
We also wanted a rain gutter to funnel rain water into our new water tank.
Dad and I got that done. Our church family and our neighbors enjoyed
meeting Mom and Dad and visa versa. They stayed one week at the Marriott
but the rest of the time was in a guest house just around the corner from our
house, where they were given a nice discount.
We attended the tourist police volunteer training at the Merlin Hotel in Phuket
Town. Our training included CPR, tourist police history, protecting the
forest, a field trip to the museum and a trip to Patong beach. There
were about 100 volunteers present, only ten of us were foreigners. We went
with lights flashing and sirens blazing in a caravan on our two field trips.
We also had early morning exercise at 5:30 a.m. It was both fun and
informative, but sometimes a bit frustrating as it was nearly all in Thai. We
received a new uniform shirt and a tee shirt but no new ID badges yet.
Pray for the victims of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile.
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. Praise the Lord, this past Saturday 19 children attended
and two accepted Christ!
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 two weekly women's Bible studies.
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 for five wonderful weeks visiting with my parents, having
wonderful adventures together here as well as a lot of work. Dad and I cut
weeds together most days, and I have a new tool a propane weed burner!
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
