Jesus answered "....

I am the way and the truth and the life. No One comes to the Father except through me..."

John 14: 6

Beware!! Potentially long blog! (but the best is at the end!)

So today was one of the best reading days I have had thus far.

Today we met with Patinya and worked out the details of our group reading sessions next week...
Let me explain...
Patinya(the host missionary) wants us to attempt to try a group reading session from 6:30 - 8:00 PM on Thursday and Friday evenings (after he cleared it with LST)....
The reason for this is clear, we simply have too many people that can only read during those times because that is when they get off work. Patinya feels that we could contact so many more people if we just tried the groups. So we are! After all, that is the reason that we came to Thailand, to share our faith with as many people as possible.

One of my readers had a quote that I found quite humorous today. We where going over lesson two in the Luke workbook, which describes how the Angel Gabriel came to Mary to tell her she is going to have a son and that he will be the Son of God. When I asked her if she knew what an Angel was, she said

"Like God's Secretary?"

I also had an interesting conversation with Neng (he is probably reading this :) ) He brought up an interesting thought about something that has become all to common in movies and other media that we are bombarded with every day. He asked if it was a good thing or a bad thing when people exclaim the name of Christ or God in moments of anger or frustration. It was a good question, one that I was glad to answer. I told him that it is offensive to God to use His name that way.

My last reader of the day was Toom. She proceeded to tell me about Buddhism and how a good monk told her that Buddha knows Jesus. She said that this monk told her that Jesus has good teachings for the people, the same that Buddha had. She also started to tell me about twelve levels of Heaven and how she believes that Buddha is at the top level and the Christian God and Jesus is somewhere in the middle of the twelve heavens. She also said something about Jesus and God becoming something like a Buddha to rule for 500 years. (At this point I'm very, very confused and my heart is breaking everytime she refers to "the Christian God" as a lower being, basically a pawn of the "great Buddha". The only thing getting me through this explanation of her beliefs without bursting into tears was the light at the end of the tunnel. She was opening up to me, she was sharing her faith with me, which meant that she would be willing to listen to what I had to say.)
She continued.... I wanted to cry.... She finished....
And I started...

"Well, do you mind if I tell you what I believe?"

she said sure..... And I was off to the spiritual races!
The rest is really a blur. I guess I switched to autopilot because I know where I started, and I know where I finished, but everything in the middle came so naturally.
And let me tell you, there is no better look than that of a Thai person that has never heard about Christ hear about him for the first time. It's a look of amazement and wonder. It's the wide eyed, tell me more look that gives a person more fulfillment than all the treasure in all the world.
After I had finished, I asked her if she would like to study with someone from the church in Thai, so that she could fully understand what I had just told her. She said yes, and this Saturday she is going to study with Gap. She talked with him for a good 20 minutes after we had finished and he said that he is very excited about studying with her. He told me that he asked her three questions that she couldn't answer about Buddhism.

"..one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all." Ephesians 4:5-6

We worship a very real living God! We worship a God that is not confined to temples, monks, or spirit houses. We worship a God that is readily accessible and wishes to be close to us.
He is not a God of mediators and middle men.
We worship a perfect God!

So I walk into a mall in Bangkok, Thailand.....

And the first word I hear is "YeeHaw!!!" (from Gretchen Wilsons tune Redneck Women)...

The last two days have been good. Monday and Tuesday are our days off so we decided to roam around the city a bit. We purchased a new cell phone that we will use to contact our readers and so forth. We also got to eat at Oishii, a very expensive (but delicious) Japanese food restaurant.

Today we start reading again! We may be trying a different approach than the usual one-on-one sessions. We can't reveal the details yet (mostly because we are unaware of the details). But I can say that I will keep you informed. (Like Gary England)

Bangkok traffic is outrageous! It's a wonder that anyone gets anywhere in this city.

Gap is teaching me Thai. It would be quite easy if there wasn't those stinking different tones.
The same word will have many different meanings depending on how you say it.
For example:
K-how = white
K-how = rice
K-how = message
K-how = him, her
K-how = to enter
K-how = knee

So yeah, imagine how confusing that can get.

Genesis 11: 1-9
The Tower of Babel

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, [a] they found a plain in Shinar [b] and settled there.

3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel [c] —because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

The Son is the Radiance of Gods Glory!

and the EXACT representation of his being, sustaining ALL things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Hebrews 1: 3

Sawasdee Krub!

I recieved an email from my good friend Kelsey Herndon and he brought to my attention that I may not have been clear enough on how many readers we each have (thanks Kelsey!). The number has changed slightly as we try to even out our load and take on as many readers as our schedule will allow. I believe the number of readers now stands at around 60 readers split among the 4 of us. Do the math and that equals 15 per person. That is a pretty full load, but some can only read one day a week, so we are going to try to get ahold of some people on the waiting list that would have time to read more regularly.

Our host missionary(Patinya) is an inspiration to us all, I enjoy listening to him speak about his job and daily activities. He speaks with such passion about what he does, it is very encouraging.
Yesterday he spoke to me about how the Christians in the capital of Laos(a country due north of Thailand) are being persecuted by the communist government. They have a type of secret police that regulate and watch for Christian meetings and so the Christians in that country must lay very low.

Patinya is now talking to the Laos government in hopes of convincing them that the church of Christ in a community is a good thing and is not in any way a danger to the security of their government.
Please pray for this situation, and I will try to keep you informed in what unfolds(if anything) in the coming weeks.

Reading is going fantastic! Readers are asking many questions that allow us to share our faith. Maybe tomorrow I will post some quotes from some of my readers.
Well, I'm gonna go get ready for today, and hopefully Margarite will post something interesting(finally) :)

Roads, Rains, and Aeroplanes!

Apparently, the rainy season has started early here...

The road we have to walk down to get to the church building is becoming quite saturated. And by that I mean it is about 3/4 underwater. The team from last year may get a chuckle out of what Tulee told me the night that we arrived in Bangkok.

Tulee- "I have good news and bad news for you."
Myself- "Oh yeah, what is it?"
Tulee- "The road to my house is neither better or worse than it was last year!"
Myself- "Oh well, I look at it as our everyday adventure!"

He was right......

Yesterday it rained all day. It kept the temperature cool, so I was fine with it.
We also started our first reading sessions yesterday, and I believe everyone had great experiences with that. I know I did!
And yes Carrie, I am reading with Neng, I met his daughter yesterday and she is very nice.
Caleb, I am reading with Aey if you remember him. We had a great discussion yesterday about finding the motivation (he said encouragement) to do the right thing, even when you may want to do something else.

We are close to the airport, and we are constantly reminded of that fact by the roar of jet engines above us throughout the day.

We are all doing fine, getting our fill of Khow pot Kai (stir fried rice and chicken).
Thank you for your prayers!

Information Meeting - First Day of Reading

Sawasdee Krub!

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Yesterday (Wednesday, May 17th) we held our information meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to let the people know what to expect from our reading sessions and to set the first appointment. Everything went smoothly and we all have around 12 readers give or take a few. We will no doubt gain a few readers between now and the end of our project.

It was very good to see all the returning readers from last year! The LST team from last year will be glad to know that I noticed at least 6 readers from last year.

We start our first reading sessions today and we are all very excited. Please pray for them, here are thier names if that helps:

Oum
Year
Neng
Aey
Noon
Toom
Noi
Kun
Ying
Hnunt
Bum
Noi (from last year)
Top
Chart

Don't forget to check out our pictures! A link to it can be found on that -----------> side of the page!

WE MADE IT!!

Let me start by saying this:

We left Oklahoma Monday, May 15 at 7:00 A.M sharp. We are now in Bangkok and it is 2:22 A.M Wednesday the 17th!

Now I don't know how many hours of flying that is, but I know it seemed like we circled the globe 5 times and flew to the moon while we where at it.

But enough about that, lets talk about Thailand. We arrived at Bangkok International Airport and where greeted by some
familiar faces(at least they where familiar to me). They had brought us some flowers and Gap had brought me some Mangosteen, My favorite little purple fruit. We went out to the parking garage and loaded our stuff and proceded to drive to
our living spaces in the rain.

Now here we are, exhausted but ready for the weeks ahead of us. We better get some sleep, we meet with Patinya (Host Missionary) in about 6 hours to discuss our project.

Oh, and another thing before I go. I'm still not sure if I will have regular internet access to post so I may be limited to posting once every week. So with that in mind, I will still try to write regularly, and post them all at once if that is the case.

PLEASE PRAY FOR OUR READERS!
oh and us too!

Sawasdee Krub!
Jarred Pettijohn

One Week Till Thailand! - Jarred Pettijohn

Well, we only have one week left until we board that plane on Monday, May 15th at 7:00 AM!

We are all excited and ready to meet with our readers and start sharing with them out of God's Word.

I would like to take this time to say a huge THANK YOUto all of you that have supported us with your prayers and financially, without you none of this would have been possible!

I have been talking to some of my readers from last year over MSN Messenger and they all say they are going to be there to read with me again. You don't even know how happy that makes me! When we left off last year with these readers, we where just getting to become friends and they where just starting to ask the kind of faith building questions that a missionary loves to hear. Please keep all of our readers in your prayers, that they will be open to the message they hear.