Fruitful New Year

Happy New Year! We are thankful to the Lord for his faithfulness for the year that passed and we look forward to another fruitful year to come. We pray that the Lord will give us the resources and opportunities to help young women and more children at risk. Most importantly, we are praying that Jesus will reveal more of himself to these people through these projects.

This year, we are taking our New Life Garden (NLG) team verse (Jeremiah 29:11-12) as our family verse too.

For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope. When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, I will hear your prayers.

We are sending this update from the Philippines. We are grateful for our friend, Leah, who (surprisingly) find ways for us to be home on new year to celebrate God’s faithfulness in our lives and in our church too. We are at the moment enjoying the remaining times of our stay here with our children.

Thanks again for your continued support, love and prayers. We are sharing to you the ministry that we had last Christmas season.

Christmas Activities

When we came to Thailand ten years ago, we often heard people say that there is no Christmas celebration in the country. But I think that notion has already changed. The Thais are more aware of the commercialisation of Christmas rather than its spiritual meaning.

For this reason, we believe that Christmas is a day when many Thais are open to the message of the gospel. Thai churches have their Christmas party that is open to all the people from the community in a effort to impart to the people the real meaning of Christmas.

Hence, we, the NLG team carefully planned and held a party at Santhad Village on Christmas day. We gave gifts to those who attended and explained that Jesus is the greatest gift that a person can have in his life. The children also told the story of the birth of Jesus through a dramatic presentation of the nativity. The show was successful in getting the people’s full attention in learning the story of the birth of Jesus.

We also participated in our church’s Christmas Party. Our children performed a traditional Thai dance and they did perform the same dance at a Christmas party in the School for the Blind Foundation.

Another town event that we participated is the Ten Tribes of Mae Sai Festival. This event was totally a secular activity for businesses and organisations who put up their booth for selling their products and services. We put up a booth promoting the activities of the Network for Women and Children Protection, NLG, Rainbow Homes and other community and social projects that we are doing.

2016 Opening Activities

The year 2016 has begun and we believe that it is appropriate that we spend the first few days of the year with our children in the Philippines. We’ll be back in Thailand on the 15th of January.

Please include in your prayers our activities this month. Upon arriving we will have a YWAM team from Wisconsin. This partnership has started five years ago and the traditions of the team taking care of the children to give us a weekend break has become a tradition. We are looking forward to it not because of the break but because we know that the children will have a wonderful time with people from across the seas.

The team will do English teachings at schools in the village. We are also hoping that the village leader will be able to organise Conversational English teaching for adults. Please help us to pray for this ministry opportunity.

In February, we will be joining the other NLG team members in a visit to a community project for young women that we will pattern our ministry with. The project is about training the young women with skills that they can use so that they can earn a decent income to save them from prostitution and other forms of exploitation.

Thanksgiving Prayers

Once again, we want to share many wonderful deeds that the Lord has done in our lives and the lives of our children.

• We are thankful for God’s continuous provisions for the children’s schooling. The Lord has been using friends like you who are faithful in their contributions. Pray that we will be able to get Fluke this year.
• We are thankful for his goodness to our own children in the Philippines. Jared passed the teacher’s board examination and Jillian will be graduating in May. Reuven just finished his first term with minimal difficulties. Please continue to pray for them. Their financial, spiritual and educational needs.
• We are thankful for the opportunity to help more children. Also for the opportunity to work with NLG. We are envisioning to help more young women and perhaps the elderly too. We hope that as we minister to these people, Jesus will reveal more of himself to them.
• We are thankful for the opportunity to preach and share the word of God. Thankful for the church that we can call our family in Thailand.
• We are thankful for Narlin’s healing in the due time. We are thankful for friends who helped us with her hospitalisation and medication.
• We are thankful for friends who continues to believe in us and the works we are doing to help children and share God’s LOVE. We are so blessed to have you as our partner. May God bless and keep you.

In behalf of the children, we thank you for your love, prayers and generosity. Praying that God will bless you more and more.