Youth Conferences

Part of our ministry financial support goes to Pastor Boonchu up in Chiang Mai. He, his wife, and their son, live in their car and travel around all of the Karen tribe villages. $16,000.00 of our financial support was spent wisely on two youth conferences-covering transportation and food costs as they reached all the Karen Tribes in Thailand. (The students were thrilled with the food they were given--it was not just a bit of rice each meal but nutritious meals and snacks as well! Please see the pictures above) Each conference lasted four days. Between the two conferences all of the Karen tribes were invited to one of the locations. The conference days were packed. Pastor Luke (from Wisconsin) was the main Speaker with Pastor Boonchu as his translator. He had multiple teaching each day. The youth lead the worship, we had breakout sessions, games, snacks and meals. At the first conference (approximately 250 youth attended), the youth hungered for the Word of God. The sat eagerly attentive to Pastor Luke/Boonchu. In the morning we began worship at 5:30am. Throughout each day there were many teachings and a couple breakout sessions (see the pictures above to get an idea of what it looked like). In the late afternoons, we would have a couple hours to play sports, and then in the evenings there were more teachings, breakout sessions, and worship (For the worship please see the videos at the bottom of this post). The days ended around 10:00pm. At the end of the conference we went around and prayed individually in small groups over one another. IT was a HUGE blessing! Seeing the youth's joy over learning more about God and their pure/honest worship in song made the conference a perfect one. The second conference (about 500 students came), was at a location about four hours away from the first. This conference was set up the same except the audience held a different vibe. Some of the youth were Christian leaders, others baby Christians, and others not Christians-just there out of respect for the pastor in their village. We saw anxiousness in the students one day and so therefore changed up the flow of conference for the next day. The pastor changed the structure/order of his teachings and new things were added (one being my testimony--which will be in a later blog). By the end of the second conference, we saw God's hand at work in the youth's hearts. Another blessing is that a couple youth are considering coming and join our team in Bangkok; working with our ministry (wouldn't that be awesome!). From both conferences, by the end of the conferences, I saw the fire and excitement of the youth being filled with the Holy Spirit. The vibe from the youth's hearts was one of complete, fully satisfied, joy of the Lord. Now, together we must pray that through peer pressure and the wicked worldly lies they stand close to Jesus and follow God's ways.
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