The Phil Files

The sun is peaking over the horizon and a nearby bird has started his morning song. It’s a quarter of six in Chiang Mai on Tuesday morning. I’ve had a good night of sleep after a day filled with incredible moments.

We flew into Chiang Mai from Bangkok after a short night of sleep yesterday — boy was I tired when we got on the plane, as the picture shows. When we landed, we hit the ground running. We unloaded our luggage, saw our quarters where we would be staying — almost next door to the Payap Christian Zone. We received a short orientation from Robert Reagan, the missionary here and met the Westover team whose stay overlapped with our own. We also were given the brief tour of the LST set up and also of the PCZ (Payap Christian Zone) facilities — a three story building where the ministry is based.

After learning a bit about the neighborhood — where the 7-11 was and several eating establishments and street vendors where we could eat and get essentials — we met the PCZ interns that work with Robert. We then loaded into Robert’s truck and ate lunch together at the nearby food court and grabbed a few essentials and exchanged money.

When we returned from lunch, we had a prayer walk, praying about the property next door to the PCZ. We rested a bit and unloaded our luggage and set up our quarters.

I was able to accompany Mark with his 4 o’clock reader, Tom, with whom I will be reading with beginning this afternoon. It was great to get a feel for a reading session and to meet one of my readers and get to know him a little better. I then checked to see what I could do to help the folks setting up for the party, but most of them had other readers coming in late that afternoon so I ran back to the room and got a quick shower.

Most of our LST group grabbed some supper, but I wasn’t hungry so I went back to The Zone (PCZ) and began to meet folks a part of the ministry as well as readers who were already coming for the party put on by the Westover team. It was a Luau theme. While the party began officially at 7:00, by 6:00, the place was filling up. We had fun playing games and getting to know each other. The party finished and then there was a time of singing devotional songs in Thai and English. Everyone stayed to sing — all the readers who came to the party included.

There was a sweet grace that hung in the air hearing voices from literally all over the world singing praises to Jesus, even though 15 or 20 of those in attendance never new a thing two weeks ago about Jesus. With about half the readers from China here on special language training, there were people from China, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and the USA. A little food, genuine friendship, and the love of Jesus brought together an incredibly diverse group of people for some incredible moments of grace.

The most amazing thing of this day of incredible moments? We’ve just begun!