“What are you reading?” I asked the young man sitting next to me on the airplane. So began a nice 40-minute conversation during our flight, and I made a new Thai friend.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. There is so much for which to thank God. So this year we were so happy to celebrate our first thanksgiving in Thailand. Though it’s an American holiday, it was the perfect excuse to have a dinner and connect with our new Thai friends and to introduce them to God. Our language teacher and her husband came, also a mother and daughter we met at their family restaurant, and, of course, my friend from the airplane with a friend he brought along. I had a couple other Christian Thai friends there to help interpret for us.

I am thankful for our new friendships in Thailand and for what God is already doing here. Nothing is impossible for Him. One of my Thai friends warned me that the guests we had invited to our Thanksgiving meal might not show up because they are shy. In Thai culture it is more common for new friends to go out to a restaurant together, and then invite each other to their homes once the relationship is established. However, God brought all these people together for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal at our house where we got to share a little bit of the origin of Thanksgiving and pray with our new friends. It was an answer to our prayers.

Sometimes we don’t receive because we don’t ask the Lord. So never hold back from an ambitious prayer. Ask and leave it to God to decide.

Please continue to pray for the work here in Thailand and especially for our new friends.

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