The Tsunami's High Water Marks
by L.W. "Buddy" Nichols

There are a few "peak moments" in a person's life and ministry that you would have to know that something very special happened. Our recent 11 day trip to Thailand was truly a spiritual mountaintop experience! In addition to the opportunity to teach, we were so very blessed by the fellowship and warm hospitality extended to us in the five church services we attended.

Actually, the most thrilling was our very last service Sunday afternoon before we were to leave very early the next morning. This congregation was in a new church plant in a shrimp harvesters' community. Thatched roof houses were mixed in with new residential construction surrounding the scores of shrimp ponds in the community. Daryl and I had the joy of sharing in this service. At the conclusion of the service, the Elder gave an invitation and fourteen adult men and women came forward to receive Christ as Savior! We were so blessed to see how carefully each one was dealt with and given Gideon Bibles and other literature in their language to help them in their new walk with the Lord.

While the Tsunami has given many foreigners like us a unique opportunity to minister in the affected countries, we are painfully aware that the high water of the Tsunami has marked some of the surviving victims for life. Our mission was to go to Thailand and train church leaders the principles of Christian Crisis Intervention. The focus of CCI is to train lay people to help those suffering from post traumatic disorders. The curriculum we taught was taken from our ICA course, Pastoral Crisis Intervention. It was our joy to train two separate groups while there. We first spent two days training Burmese pastors and church leaders. We learned that there are thousands of refugees from Burma in Thailand and that most of the Burmese refugees lived in the most severely affected areas. Therefore, the Burmese Christian leaders wanted the training as a part of their continuing ministry to the refugees.

Our second group was with the national Thai speaking group. In each group we met some of the most loving and dedicated Christians we have ever known. They were so very appreciative for the training. Here are just three notes sent to us since we returned expressing their gratitude:

"I am very thankful for the time well spent in Bangkok although just for 2 days. They are so precious! The teachings I learned from you (and the materials) are very practical and yes, biblically-based...and I would love to use or apply them in my counseling ministry here." -- Bro. Paris

"Greetings from Bangkok, Thailand. Great privileged to meet you and had seminars that were conducted at two places. The Burmese Pastors and people appreciated you and Daryl came and helped us teach for 2 days. It was short but quite nice because we have the (seminars) Video Taped. Now I am editing these tapes and will be distributed to our fellow-workers in Bangkok and also to the South of Thailand. Since I am watching the VCD for many times, I think I can teach the same lessons to other now. (how wonderful to have the VCD)" -- Chowkee

"As a respected spiritual leader, Somdee has been asked to train Christians in the South [95% of Thailand is Buddhist, but southern Thailand is mostly Muslim] how to counsel and how to teach the Bible. About 20 mature spiritual leaders from the North and Northeast will be working with Somdee. The South has been spiritually non-responsive. Now people's hearts are softening. Please pray for Somdee and Thai leaders as we work together under the project 'We Love Thailand'." -- Paul Jenks, CEO of AMG International, writes about one of the men who took the training

Please join us in prayer for these and many others who will continue to meet the needs of those affected by the Tsunami. This work will not soon be over and the devastating affects (both physically and emotionally) will need to be dealt with for years.

L.W. "Buddy" Nichols
Director, ICA