Brittan Family: Our First Training

Wow!! I am not sure what just happened, but I can only summarize it to say, “What a Blessing”!!! We have been working diligently to finish construction, and prepare our programs for our first training in Mae Sai, Thailand, and I can honestly say it was a success. We have been working with another co-worker in the area along with two local pastors from Lahu congregations, and the result was a training program that was able to focus on both the Bible and Agricultural technologies.

There have been people praying for the establishment of this team and project for over ten years. Many of you have been praying for us diligently since before we left the States, and it would not be possible to stay on the field, much less be able to provide these kinds of programs with out your prayers and support. We praise the Lord for you and your Faithfulness to continue to lift up this work before the Lord, and for your prayers for those that come to the training.

Twenty Eight individuals participated in the training, and they are returning to their homes and villages with a deeper understanding of the meaning of salvation, and they are also equipped with an action plan for working with their communities to begin the development process of realizing the potential for the abundant life that the Lord has promised us in John 10:10.

We are studying Thai here. But before we left, we learned a Spanish word that I want to share. Many of you might know it. “Palanca” means Lever, or Fulcrum. That means the force or power that something requires to lift something else. In a spiritual sense, we sometimes need a lift, or we need “Palanca”. These men received a spiritual lift this week in many ways. One of those ways was with food. After one of the evening meals, I heard something that both encouraged me and broke my heart. One of the men had been blessed, because we had fed them rice three times a day. He told us in Lahu, “Eating rice is such a blessing. At home, I am only able to afford one small serving of rice each day.” We provided these meals in hopes that they would be blessed while they are here. We teach them about farming because we want them to be blessed with regular meals at home, and so that they can teach others and be a blessing to others in their community.

One of our partner organizations that we work with here says

- If you want to feed someone today, give him food.

- If you want to feed someone this year give him a garden.

- If you want to feed someone for life teach him how to garden.

- But if you want to feed him for eternity, Give him Jesus.

I hope we can do that too. I believe we were able to do that this week, and we thank the Lord for the abundance that he has shared with us as we have prepared for and gone through this training.

It was fun to watch Hattie (9) in all of the activity. She got up early every day to do her school work and then she would ride her bike 5km to the training center so that she could spend the rest of the day helping in the garden, working with the chickens and goats, and making friends with some of the participants. Pattie and I were really excited to see her interest and enthusiasm about working and learning about the training programs. Let’s all continue to pray for Hattie, and see what the Lord does with this special girl.

We also praise the Lord for the week that Pattie and the kids had together. Most days I was leaving before 5am, and getting home after the kids were in bed. She had to cover all the bases last week, with language, home school, taking care of the little ones, and making sure that everyone was fed, clean, healthy, entertained, cleaned up after, dressed, and rested. We thank you for praying for her as well, because without her support and encouragement, nothing would be possible. She not only finished the week, but finished strong and was encouraged by her success.

We left early this morning, to make our way to a Home School conference sponsored by our company in South Thailand. We will not have internet once we are there, but we could not let a week go by with out saying thank you for your prayers, and with out letting you know just how much the men and our families were blessed by this first of many training sessions in this part of the world.