Every year on this day we have a special service in the "Foreign Cemetary" here in Chiang Mai. We especially remember the early missionaries who began and continued the ministry of the Gospel here in northern Thailand.

However, earlier in the day I taught my Church History class and we had a special time as well.

This term I am teaching a class in Asian Church History. In the first part of the semester, I talk about the Syrian Church that spread from Syrian through Persia to India and China. This morning I was talking about the church in the Persian town of Nisibis.

The second 'bishop' there was named Samsun. He was an effective missionary evangelist with many people receiving baptism at his hands. He also spoke out against a custom of the local religion; child sacrifice. Eventually the priests of this religion raised an alarm. Samsun was beheaded and a 40-year period of persecution began for Christians in the Persian Empire. In that period over 16,000 Christian died. (16,000 were known by name, but others unnamed also suffered death for the faith.)

At that point in the class, I asked that we spend some time in pray. I suggested that we pray prayers of thanksgiving for those faithful Christians who suffered and died for their faith. I asked that we pray for the strength to follow their examples of faithfulness to the Gospel. I also asked that we thank God that Christians in Thailand do not suffer government persecution for their faith. Before I had even finished with the instructions, students all over the room were praying in quiet voices. They prayed and prayed and prayed. Finally, I closed with a prayer and then we began our class again.

• Pray for our students that they will be faithful to the Gospel.
• Pray that generations from now the fruit of their witness will be evident in a vital, growing Thai Church.

LaMon Brown