First of all, it was my birthday. Another opportunity to look back at the past twelve months while also looking forward to the next.
A nice spin for my birthday this year (though a day early) was a surprise birthday cake brought by some of the teenagers who study English and the Bible with us.
One of the young women in the photo above, while she would not yet profess to be a Christian, is eager to hear stories from the Bible. She and one of the others will be graduating this spring and are hoping to go on to university in Chiang Rai. We've missed them some these past weeks because on Saturdays they have been going to Chiang Rai to take college entrance exams. Pray that our time with these young people will be of benefit to them not just intellectually, but also spiritually.
Another event that occurred on my birthday, though I had not planned it this way, was that I finished reading through the Bible in Thai for the first time.
A few years ago, I figured that reading the scripture in Thai would be helpful for both ministry and for language-learning. So I just started where I was in my regular reading, and tried to read a chapter a day (some days I did not get through a whole chapter). I typically read on my computer, as I can make the fonts big. (I have issues with my eyes that make deciphering the small curly-q's of the letters in the printed versions a bit difficult.)
It is interesting that the completion of this reading was marked with a beautiful doxology, which makes a fitting close to the end of one year and the beginning of another:
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith-to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ! Amen. (Romans 16:25-27 ESV)
What a great doxology! It talks about a message of good news (the gospel)...made known through revelation (scripture)...to all nations...so that God may be glorified. That is why we are here in Thailand. May this be my prayer and continued focus of this next year of my life.
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