A warrior of the faith

It is refreshing to meet Thais who love their people and have a burning desire to see their fellow Thai come to know the Living God. These people are true leaders who give and serve, even when they're feeling tired, for the sake of their own people. One such man is our friend Citichai. He loves Jesus greatly and works tirelessly to see Jesus become known amongst the Central Thai.

Here Citichai works with some kids from a slum community

Citichai is a happily married man aged 40 with 3 beautiful young kids. He works as the Assistant Pastor at our Thai church. However, life was not always happy for Citichai. He sold himself into drug addiction for 13 years, which took away many years of his life and plunged him into a life of hopelessness and poverty. However, Jesus rescued him 14 years ago and transformed him into the new man we know now.

We love Citichai, we laugh with him at his constant forgetfulness - a consequence of the long hard years of drug addiction - yet know that Jesus never forgets him and is with him every day in the tough battles God calls him to fight as a warrior. He understands the many addicts that live in our slum communities - having been rescued from this lifestyle.

He recently told us that now he has children (which take a lot of his energy) he gets up as late as 6.00am everyday to meet with God. I am not sure what time he used to get up, but even at 6.00am this is a real commitment that obviously results in an infectious love for Jesus.

Kids tend to be drawn to Citichai's infectious love for Jesus

Thai kids cling to Citichai because there is something different about him - maybe it is the transformed life and love that flows naturally from him as he walks daily with the Living God. There is nothing in terms of possessions that makes Citichai smile, he has very little. The car he drives (essential for his ministry) is VERY old and breaks down every day. One day he turned up late for a leaders meeting at church because his car broke down and then he had to catch a motorcycle-taxi during which time his glasses blew off and subsequently broke. A friend at church was quick to do some temporary soldering work so Citichai could see again :-) Citichai's wife must work full-time (although they have 3 young children under the age of 6) in order for them to be able to feed and clothe their children.

Although he has little in terms of material possessions, Citichai loves serving the Living God

This is an example of a new/first-generation Thai believer who we are working closely with in one of our slum communities. Please pray for Citichai that his infectious love would continue to touch his people and the schemes of the evil one would be ineffective against him.

Please also pray for us as we work with Citichai on Christmas outreach over the coming weeks.