May 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

While others are splashing and enjoying the water play in celebration of the Thai New Year (Songkran), I’m taking the opportunity to hide out and get to this long overdue note. All is well in the Lord’s sure hands!

Carol has been doing most, if not all, of our correspondence since we returned last June from our wonderful year back in the States. We hit the deck running with the immediate start of the academic year at the Bangkok Institute of Theology (BIT), and here we are now, summer break! Thanks for your continued prayers on our behalf during the academic year—we have been guided, sustained, and blessed by the Lord.

Den right) tutoring a fourth-year student in classic guitar at the Bangkok Insitute for Theology. Den is a new faculty member at  BIT and is committed to  investing in students' lives.

One of the most enjoyable parts of ministry at BIT last year was meeting with Den, an M.Div. student preparing to graduate this August. Den is a talented and accomplished classical guitarist and composer. Naturally, Den chose a research topic associated with music, but to my surprise, he also wanted to combine his interest in music teaching with an emphasis on discipleship. Den asked me if I would advise him on his research for his thesis, so we met weekly. I’m not sure how much I was able to help him on writing his thesis, but I enjoyed being able to meet with Den to share life together and the vision of spiritual multiplication.

I remembered when Den was in my evangelism course during his first year at BIT, and I marvel at the wonderful growth and development that has occurred since then.  Den shared honestly with me just how much his life has been transformed, and I thought you might also be blessed to hear his story. He wrote and shared a short speech recently (and I’m so proud of his good work), so I’ll quote from it where possible.

Two years ago when I first came to BIT, Acharn (Teacher) Leith asked me, “What do you want from BIT?”  I answered, “I want to serve God.”  But it was a phony answer; it did not come from my heart.  When I went home, I could not get that question out of my mind and began to think more deeply.  Finally, I went back and told him, “I want God to change my life and my heart.”

I was born in a Christian home 40 years ago, and both my mom and dad are pastors.  When I came to BIT, I had tried before to change my life by myself, but I had always failed. But thanks be to GOD! He is now changing my heart and making it true.  As in the words of the song, “Change my heart, O God”, I want to be the clay and let HIM be the potter to mold and make me and to prepare me for HIS ministry.

 I don’t think about that question anymore, and I’m offering my life to serve GOD. I’m teaching guitar to BIT students, and I’ve dedicated myself to serve them.  I hope all the things that I’m doing will encourage their heart and that they too will discover their vision for how GOD wants to use their lives.

Can you understand why I enjoy spending time with Den? It’s so amazing to watch God doing His wonderful work in peoples’ lives. Please be praying for Den as he begins his new ministry after graduation, serving on our faculty at BIT, teaching music, discipling students and helping them to catch the vision to do the same with others.

Along with Den, BIT will welcome 28 freshmen in the Bachelors of Theology program and 10 new Masters of Divinity students when the new academic year begins in June. We are eager to also work with this new group of students, and ask your ongoing prayers for Spirit-guided teaching and good, transparent relationships through which we can be known and really know students and how we can serve them. Please pray also that as a community we at BIT would diligently seek the Lord for renewal and revival in our lives and ministry. Pray that as a faculty, we might lead in the matter of seeking the Lord’s renewal and waiting upon Him, opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s examining, and boldly confessing sin and receiving God’s healing. We don’t want to be stuck on a particular form of revival and renewal, but we need God’s direction to meet the needs we sense.

Thank you for your ongoing partnership, which makes our ministry here possible. What a joy and privilege to serve with you in building the Kingdom of God.

Thanking God from whom all blessings flow,

Leith and Carol Fujii

The 2008 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 92