A home church!

I have, at long last, settled on a home church.  It's called Grace Church Bangkok, and it's part of a network of churches called Every Nation.  One of the things I like about this church, which drew me to this church, is the people.  From the moment my friend and  I started visiting we were warmly welcomed and had genuine conversations with people who would actually remember our names the next time we came back.  The church has a really good heart.  It's a small church, maybe 50 people, and fairly new. It was a church plant by Every Nation Church Bangkok.  The pastors seem good at encouraging people to grow deeper in their faith, through the preaching, worship, small groups, and prayer.  One thing they have done these past two weeks is really encourage us to get involved in a small group.  My friend went to one this past Thursday, but that's the night I have my 2 hour Thai class, so getting downtown and back isn't really going to happen for me on Thursdays.  But today they were also telling me about a Bible study that meets on Tuesdays and another girl that meets with a friend for Bible study on Mondays invited me to that.  So we'll see.  I'm going to take it slow in adding too much to my schedule right now, but so far I like how everyone has made sure we are invited to lunch after church and invited to small groups.  Today the whole church had lunch together at the pastor's house to celebrate a baby dedication and I had a chance to have more conversations with people.  It's not a perfect church, but it's a good fit for me right now. There are a lot of Filipinos and quite a few people from Hawaii, as well as some Thai people, other Asians, and a couple of Westerners.  I like that the sermon is translated into Thai and my friend and I were talking to the worship team today about singing in Thai in the future.  All three girls who sang today were Thai and were saying they'd love to sing in Thai some, but just didn't have time today with the dedication.  The church is located near a large prestigious university and does a lot of campus outreach through conversational English.  That seems to be an awesome outreach tool used by many church both here and in Burma.  Anyway, I'm excited to be going to the same church consistently and to be getting to know more people outside of ICS ( I do love ICS, but I also love getting outside the bubble).  I'm excited to see how God is going to work through this small but very enthusiastic church and how their (our) ministry can impact our community for Christ!