The Scarlet Cord - Moriel Ministries

Scott Noble
Moriel Thailand
B a n g k o k S k y l i n e
R i c e f i e l d s C h i a n g M a i
Introducing our New missionary to . . .
thailand
Moriel September Update...
We”ve been sharing the Gospel with
Khae’s family for over 5 years now. Seven
months ago Khae’s dad became a Christian!
He’s been a Buddhist monk before, and
used to give food to monks on their morning
rounds almost every morning, had lots of
idols, did not drink any alcohol, and even led
some of the chanting at the temple. If anyone
could have earned their way into heaven
it would have been him. But, of course, no
flesh shall be justified by the works of the
law (not to mention he was serving a different
law anyway). Now though, he’s stopped
all of that. He reads his Bible (almost half
of the Bible already), goes to church every
Sunday, and seeks to honor and love God.
And his wife is furious because of that.
She used to call the shots at home,
and now he’s taking a stand and not following
her orders when it comes to compromising
his faith. Khae helped him put up a sign
at his barber shop at the house which said,
“This shop will be closed on Sundays, because
the barber is going to church to worship
Jesus.” That was a few months ago. His
wife tore the sign down. Last Sunday he
stayed at church a little later to attend a Bible
study, and while he was there, some customers
came to get their hair cut. His wife
called him and ordered him to come home.
He refused, at which point she scolded him
using very rude language. But he stayed at
church. So his wife tried to burn two of
his Bibles. She did burn one, but Khae
caught the other one in time.
Khae’s mom told him not to come back,
and she even tried to force Khae’s dad
out of the house (it’s actually his house).
We keep advising Khae’s dad to “love
your wife.” Last week we had a four day
weekend and decided to drive down there
to visit them along with Paul and Marisa
from Mana Missions.
We reached Khae’s parent’s house at
about 5pm. The children from Mana Missions
all stayed downstairs with Khae’s
dad, while Paul, Marisa, Khae and I went
upstairs to say hello to the mom. When I
opened the door she told me, “Jesus doesn’t
need to come into the house.” We came in
anyway (with Jesus). Then she began to
scold Khae and me about many things,
mostly lies, about how we never help them
and we just bring trouble to them, etc.
Paul prayed against the evil spirits
in that place and they let me be the
spokesperson. Mostly I just listened, but I
told her that we love her and that we want
her to go to heaven. Actually her name is
Sawan, which means “heaven.” She talked
about all of the community mocking her
and laughing at her now that her husband
is a Christian. I told her that going to heaven
is more important. After another round
of scolding I got down on my knees and
stretched out my hands pleading with her,
“Mom, you don’t need to go to hell.” She told
me I was crazy. I said it again, “You don’t
need to go to hell, Mom.” She left the room.
Later she came back saying that she and
her husband are about to get a divorce and
that it’s all our fault. I told her, “Humble
yourself a little, Mom.” She said she didn’t
know what language I’m speaking (though
I know she was just speaking sarcastically),
so I said it again. Finally, the children began
singing songs on the first floor. After
a while she passed us and went down the
stairs to scold the children, saying “What
hole did these things crawl out of” We
came downstairs, and as I passed her I put
my hands on her shoulders for a couple of
seconds saying, “We love you, Mom.” Surprisingly,
she didn’t shake my hands off,
but she continued to scold.
The next day, we came to the house to
get something, and I went upstairs to say
goodbye to the mom through the window,
and “God bless you.” She was actually in
the bathroom at the time we heard from the
dad, but she asked the dad about that later
and he told her I came to say goodbye and
God bless you. On Saturday night the dad
came to the church where we slept, for a
Bible study. We finished about 8pm and
when the dad went home the door was already
locked, so he came back to the church
to sleep with us. But the next day, the mom
gave him some food from her breakfast,
which she hadn’t done in a long time. So
September 2012 • Moriel Quarterly 27