Omkoi Revival

Last Sunday, we had the privilege of attending the tail end of a conference at Omkoi, a town situated on the mountains approximately 3 hours away from Chiang Mai. It was quite a trek, with our 15+ year old car heating up twice on the way and once on the way back. But, since almost all the Christian Thai people I knew wanted to be in Omkoi for the week-end to attend the conference, I just felt that we had to be there too. I was excited to see what the Lord was doing there. And, He didn’t disappoint.

When we got there, a Filipino evangelist named Jerry Ocampo delivered a powerful message that was translated in Karen and Thai. We sat on the ground with thousands of mostly Karen people. The meeting wasn’t in a church building; there wasn’t a place big enough in the small town to house 15,000 people. The conference’s meetings were held in an empty level field. The only shelter against the elements was bamboo erected poles that had green tarp attached on the top to keep the sunshine out. The speakers were on a platform with nothing but their microphones. However, for such a huge crowd, everyone (kids and adults) were attentive. Even though worship started at 6 a.m. and it was already past noon, the people still remained. We found out later that at 4 a.m., even the Karen children as young as 4 years old were already there interceding. When the time came for corporate prayers, a number of the Karen women were openly weeping. It was remarkable and worth the long hard effort it took to get us there.

Please join us as we pray this week for the Karen people of Omkoi. May the Lord continue the work that He’s started there and may it begin to spill over to the neighboring towns until the whole of Thailand is transformed. Let’s all praise the Lord. Amen!