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Student Ministry: Thai Style

State News: Feb 2008

Having been involved in student ministry Perth-style, our six-member team from the University of Western Australia (UWA) set off to try it out Thai-style. We spent 3 weeks in December 2007 with two OMF missionaries, helping run evangelistic activities in the lead up to Christmas.

Thai students love fun - the more the better. We were kept busy organizing Christmas games, quizzes, crafts, food and more to give Thai students an experience of an Aussie Christmas, and to win an opportunity to tell them about the true meaning of Christmas.

Predominantly Buddhist, Naresuan University was a far cry from UWA – a cultural shock for us to see how little is known about the Christmas story, but refreshing to realize how little is also known about Santa and post-Christmas sales! We could skip this cultural baggage and jump straight into telling Thai students about real Christmas: Jesus, who came to live and die for us. Nawee was one such student – he attended our Christmas Fun Camp. Through Bible studies, skits, talks and conversations he was challenged to find out more about the true King.

One of the first things we noticed was that Thai students move socially in groups much more than Australian students. We saw this during our “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” café night, where Christian students were able to invite their non-Christian friends ‘en-masse’ to hear about Jesus. One student, Kung (a familiar face at the Youth House despite being Buddhist), invited a group of about 9 friends from her faculty! All heard Jesus’ story explained as the Aussie team shared ‘yarns’ about how God had worked in their lives.

It was a privilege to see the gospel in action in a different culture. The experience helped us see that while cultural differences exist it is Jesus as Lord that is proclaimed to every nation, in every tongue. As we head into another year we are excited about proclaiming this same Lord again at UWA.

AFES/UWA Thailand Team

Get involved … Find out more

There are many opportunities for student ministry in Cambodia, Thailand and Japan. Please contact au@omf.net for further details.