Church in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Chiang Mai, Thailand
The Gathering Church Service

Small World!
We worshiped at church today with Dave and Shirley. The Gathering Church is made up of missionaries from all over the world who live and work in Chiang Mai. Can you imagine being the pastor of missionaries?
David and Shirley teach a Sunday School class before the worship service. We arrived early and before the class started, I went to check on the boys in the room next door. When I returned a new couple had arrived. I looked at the woman and immediately felt I knew her. Mary….yes, Mary. She looked at me and said, “You look very familiar to me.” I said the same to her. “Gloria?” she asked. Mary Douglas used to live in Gaffney, SC. She, her husband Dan and their family were members of First Baptist Church where we are members (the Callahans are members of FBC too). When my husband Bill died, Mary (who had also been widowed several years before) was such a source of encouragement to me. I could not believe I was running into her half way around the world!

Stephen, Dan, Mary, Hatcher and me.

The Douglas family joined the Callahans and us for lunch. What a small world to have three families from First Baptist Church of Gaffney, SC eat Sunday lunch in Chiang Mai, Thailand!
Dan, Mary and Stephen have just moved to Chiang Mai as missionaries.
Another sweet note for First Baptist Church in Gaffney…..

Dan and Mary Douglas were interviewed during the church service to introduce them to the congregation. When asked how they got to Chiang Mai all the way from South Carolina, they responded that during their time at FBC in Gaffney they had been introduced to missions and visited Thailand. They have since visited a couple other times and have just moved to Chiang Mai to teach for a minimum of one year. FBC has spawned two sets of missionaries to Thailand (and a third temporary family of four). May God bless the Mission Task Force and all those who work so hard to encourage our mission work! Never, never underestimate how God will use your efforts for His Kingdom!
In all labor there is profit, But idle chatter leads only to poverty. Proverbs 14:23

It gets smaller!

As we sat in the church service, Harrison pointed to a young man across the way and said, “Mom, he was at Gateway Camp.” I didn’t recognize the young man, but he was wearing the Gateway key we were all given at the end of camp. He happened to have the key hanging down his back or we would not have seen the key. At the end of the service, we spoke to him and he was at the camp. So here we are in Chiang Mai, Thailand and we ran into 4 people we’ve known from other parts of the world.

Shawn from Korea who was at Gateway Camp with us in Hong Kong.

We recognized the Key given to all camp participants.

Please pray for Shawn.