Greetings from Umphang! We’ve just returned from four days in some of the most remote parts of Thailand. For three days we stayed in a medical clinic in Laytongku – a small village on the border between Thailand and Burma. One of the significant connections with this village is that this is where Allan Eubank – FBR founder Dave Eubank’s father – began coming as a missionary more than 60 years ago (see linked article).
While we were there, we split our time primarily between the only church in Laytongku, where we helped out with the Sweet December service on Saturday evening – similar to a New Year’s Eve celebration – and then on Monday did a program for the one government school in the area (about 500 kids). It was a very busy schedule and the hot weather certainly made things a bit more challenging, but the students did a fantastic job with singing, drama, and spending time with the kids. There were many sad goodbyes at the end of our short time there. In addition, we also attended the Sunday morning service, which was followed by another short worship service and fellowship meal at the home of one of the church members. After that, the team visited the local temple and talked with their new young priest (just 16 years old!).
Now we are on the slow road back to Chiang Mai and increasing degrees of civilization, which means that we’ll be able to put out more frequent updates in the days to come.
