Being selected to participate in an International Scripture Blitz (ISB) is always a very exciting privilege. This was even more special for me when I was selected to participate in the ISB to Thailand in January this year. In part because this is the country to which I have been assigned as a Regional Field Officer (RFO), to work with the Gideon leadership. So to be able to work alongside some of the national leaders on the ground while also meeting and working with other Gideons and Auxiliary from Thailand in Chiang Mai for a week was a real blessing.
We all gathered in this amazing city in the north of Thailand in preparation for the week ahead. Despite a number of challenges with exams and other issues with the schools, in particular, it was exciting to be part of a team of seven international brothers and local Gideons as we were able to place nearly 88,000 Scriptures into the north of this beautiful country.
As always, there are so many stories of the amazing way that God just intervenes in situations that we would think impossible. Such as a request from our team leader to the principal of a Buddhist seminary which resulted in the team being invited to share in a meal and then ensure every student received their own copy of the Word of God. Or when we had been assured of a distribution at a school and on arrival were told this was not possible. Instead we could give out the Bibles during the lunch period at the school canteen. Somewhat disappointed, we headed down to the canteen. While I was not expecting too much from this endeavour, how wrong was I. ‘Ye of little faith’ springs to mind. During the lunch time we were able to place over 900 New Testaments into the hands of those students happy to take one. Even more exciting was to witness one young lad spend over 30 minutes sitting reading his New Testament, give his life to the Lord and then start sharing his new faith with his fellow students.
“Even more exciting was to witness one young lad spend over 30 minutes sitting reading his New Testament, give his life to the Lord and then start sharing his new faith with his fellow students.”
We then travelled way out into the ‘boon docks’ to a very small, isolated school which resulted in just 19 copies of God’s Word being placed. However, one of the local Gideons shared the plan of salvation with two young boys and both of them gave their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. Was that long drive out to a place that the local Gideons would not have normally been able to cover a waste of time – absolutely not!! What an awesome God we serve!
