Kanchanaburi

2 weekends ago Lesa, Lisa, Kristin, and I went with some of the members of Bang Khen Baptist Church(the church Lesa and I are now attending) to a town called Kanchanaburi. The town was about a 5 hour drive West of Bangkok (see map) Bang Khen has a church plant there, and we went to help them put on their Christmas service. We went up early Saturday morning and stopped for breakfast and lunch along the way. We also got to stop and sight-see a little bit at the River Kwai. After we got to Kanchanaburi that afternoon we went on visitations to the people in the community...encouraging them and inviting them to the service the next day. We stayed the night at one of the believers homes. She cooked dinner for all of us and then we went caroling. We sang along in English :) The next morning at church we had a gift exchange with the members (we had brought all the gifts with us) We sang some songs and then the kids were dismissed to their own program while the adults all had a sermon on the Christmas story with the gospel woven through it. Afterward we all ate lunch and then headed back home. It was such an awesome weekend! It was a great opportunity to see how the Thai people live outside of Bangkok and to have a chance to get to know some of the believers from Bang Khen better. It was hard to leave that afternoon. I know I will be going back again before I leave. Please keep the church in Kanchanaburi in your prayers. For its continued growth and a full-time Thai Pastor to lead it.

In His Love,
Bethany

PS-I already have some pics from the wkend posted