Preparing for the 2011 Baptist Assembly

One of the things I love about working with the Karen is the chance to be involved in the annual meetings.  Each year, one of the village churches of the Karen Baptist Convention hosts the Karen equivalent of the Baptist Assembly.  These are major events, particularly for the more rural villages, as there can be up to 2,000 people attending (and sometimes more!).

The 2011 'Karen Baptist Assembly' will be held in Tee Wa Ta village, in a remote mountainous area about 5 hours drive from Chiang Mai.  This week I had the opportunity to visit Tee Wa Ta Church with some of the Karen Baptist Convention leaders.  I was amazed at the scale of the preparations currently in progress!

The villagers have been hard at work building a meeting hall to seat 1,500 people.  So far, the land has been cleared and flattened, foundations laid and the main posts erected - in fact, at the moment it looks a little bit like a Roman ruin!  But over the coming months, the building work will be completed, plans will be laid for the catering, accomodation (in villagers' homes), sports programme and so on.

I can't wait to return to the same spot on the 5th April 2011, to join in the worship and teaching programmes, and to enjoy the wonderful Karen hospitality. Please pray for the village of Tee Wa Ta as they prepare for the 2011 Karen Baptist Assembly.  The theme of the meeting is taken from Matthew 5:9 - "Blessed are the peacemakers".  I'll make sure that I take a picture of the completed building, full of Karen Christians from across the north of Thailand, and post it on the blog.