Monday, June 04, 2012

School Opening and A Graduation Ceremony

The school opens

The children raring to go to school

It was Monday morning and the children excitedly woke up early, ate their breakfast, carefully put on their uniforms raring to go to school.  It was the first day of the school for the year 2012. We had been preparing for a week for this moment, buying new shoes, socks and other things that they need for school. This year, all the 12 children are going to school. Three are in grade one, six are in grade three, two are in kinder one and  Sam Rong will continue his schooling in Tachilek, Myanmar. He will be crossing the border every day.

We thank the Lord for your prayers and support.  Please continue to pray for provisions for the children’s schooling.  Pray for Christy and Pia, as new students they need a document from the village leader which (to our puzzlement) he refuses to give. Pray that God will make a way.

Graduation Ceremony

A day after the school opened, we went to the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok for the Commencement exercises for those who passed the Alternative Learning System (ALS) of the Philippine Department of Education. The test was held last February. The representative of the Department of Education told us that technical glitches (i.e. over printing of test sheets and the slowness of checking) allowed for the test to be extended to the OFW families in Thailand. However, we believed it was God’s miraculous provision for our natural children’s education.

The Graduates Jared, Jillian and Reuven with Narlin and Philippine Ambassador to Thailand Her Excellency Linglingay Lacanlale

By God’s grace, Jared, Jillian and Reuven passed the test.  As I already mentioned, Jared is now on his way back to the Philippines for college. Jillian would have to stay with us for a year and perhaps go to college here in Thailand. This week, Reuven was accepted to a local high school’s English Program. Although, he strongly dislike it, we believe that this is necessary to his personal growth.

Please pray for our natural children. This would be a major adjustments for them. They had been home schooled for six years and they are a bit apprehensive about going to a traditional school. Pray for provisions, English Program here in Thailand is not cheap and college is a major addition to our missionary budget.

Summer Ministry Concludes

Our summer ministry is coming to a conclusion and we thank the Lord for all the help we received from Asia Vision Short Term Missionaries (AVSTM).  Pastor Efraem and Elena took care of the children while we were in Bangkok.  We thank Jimmy and her wife (my sister) Nori for holding music classes for Burmese students in our house. We thank the Lord for Teachers Grace and Inae for teaching piano to the children. All of them enormously helped in the Summer English Camps.

New Ministries

The English camps resulted in creating relationship with churches and communities. Consequently, we start helping two churches in their educational and outreach ministries. First, we are helping the Pantamit Mae Sai Church with their children Sunday School with Teacher Gilmhe (a Christian English teacher in one of the schools here in Mae Sai). Second, we are helping Emmanuel Namchan Church in teaching English to the community during weekdays in the evening. Please help us in praying for these new ministries.

Thanksgiving

We thank you for your friendship and partnership in the ministry. Thank you for your prayers and support. We thank the Lord for friends who visited us and and extend help with our ministry. We are greatly blessed because of you.

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