Hopeful in 2023

 

Happy new year. 2022 is over. If you are like us, we expected the past year to be a better year than the two previous years. It was so but it was not what we hoped to be. After two years, we came back to Thailand unprepared for the changes that would happen.

It was a challenging year for us. The series of events drain our energy and savings. The kids going to college, being sick of covid. Moreover, house repair, truck repair, visa problems, death in the family, and lately the accident. God is faithful. He helped us through the tough times.

Being grateful when good things happen in our lives is easy. But we can choose to be thankful for the good as well as the bad. For the moments of joy as well as moments of sorrow. For the successes as well as failures. This is faith. This is trust in God for everything he has brought us. We trust that we will see God’s loving hand in everything.

This year we celebrated the new year together with Jared and Jillian. Singing, dancing, watching fireworks, eating, and praying. The first we have done it in a long time. We are hopeful that this year will be the most exciting for the kids. We know that God will open more opportunities for them in their studies and their service to God.

We envision that together with the kids we will work as a team in sharing the love of God, in the university, schools, and community. In two years, four of them will graduate and who know what God has in stored for them. 

Opportunity to connect people to Jesus

Christmas! Yes, it is the busiest month for us. We heard people say that the Thai do not celebrate Christmas. I beg to disagree. The Thais always find things to celebrate. Christmas is not an exception. They celebrate it in their own ways. They just do not understand why Christians celebrate it. It is a challenge for us to communicate to them the true meaning of Christmas. This is the best occasion to share the gospel.

Local churches and schools invited our team (Narlin, the kids and I) to tell the story of Jesus in schools and villages. We did it through drama skit, dance, and carol singing. Of course, it includes the local Pastor preaching the gospel. Please pray that the seed of the gospel planted in the hearts of the people will grow.

This year, our relationship with our church has grown stronger. We came to know the members more. Our Pastor trust us to preach on regular basis. Jai does the interpretation. Narlin uses her gifts to decorate the church and help the women’s ministry. We now take part in meetings and decision making. They ask for our ideas about the programs and activities of the church. 

Moreover, the children are active in youth ministry and in the worship team. We are thankful that through the church we have the opportunity to connect with more people. In so doing, connect them to Jesus and help them grow in their faith. 

Thanksgiving and Prayer Concerns

1. We are thankful for another year. God’s provision for a fresh start after a tough 2022. Thankful to the Lord for the couple of friends who helped us out financially at the start of the year. We can take care of our obligations to the university and friends who lent us funds during our time of need. God is indeed faithful.
2. Thankful for two children will graduate this year. Tee from high school and Pia from middle school. Tee will go to technical school. Pia will choose her course that she wants to get for college. Please pray for them both.
3. Please pray for our visa. The immigration extends it for two months. Then we will have a “long-stay interview” on 17th of January by the Department of Social Welfare and Human Security. This is a requirement to get a one-year visa. Please pray that they will give it to us this time.

God lives in Everywhere

The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. – Acts 17:24-25

Creation is the temple in which God dwells. It is a living temple, a holy place without walls. There are no walls that can contain God; there are no walls that can keep God out. There is no place where God is not; there is nothing from which God is absent. As a seed is in the flower that sprouts from it; as a child in the adult that she becomes; as spring is in the river that flows forth from it; as food is in the body that it fuels—so too does God the Creator reside within creation.

Sometimes you may have difficulty believing that God lives even in hatred, in chaos, in pain, and in death. But there, especially does God live, as a redeeming presence. God does not eradicate hatred, but overcomes it with love; does not eliminate chaos, but moves it toward order; does not abolish pain, but convert it into wholeness; does not end death, but resurrects it into life.

Celebrate God as a dynamic, creating, transforming presence. God is the Source and will not be separated from the world. Remind yourself as often as possible: God lives in everything.

Excerpt from Having the Mind of Christ by Paul E. Miller & Phyllis Cole-Dai

Consider it pure joy

Narlin and I can’t wait to go back home to Thailand but it seems we will be staying in the Philippines longer than we anticipated.

I never thought that the PET CT, another CT Scan and blood tests would take more than a month. Nevertheless, our stay here is nothing short of joyful reunions with family, friends, and people who are praying for us.
The Lord keeps us joyful in spite of sickness and we are reminded of God’s promises in 1 Peter 1:2-4.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

It seems my battle against cancer is not over yet. The nodule in my right lung is apparently a renal cancer metastasis from the right kidney that was surgically removed last January. It is noticeably increasing in size as seen in PET CT and the latest CT Scan.

Dr. Adefuin, my oncologist told us he needs treatment. With the help of our friends, Dr. Ener Baysa-Pee, my urologist, Dr. SJ Garcia, (I baptized him when he was young and he is now a practicing oncologist in Manila) and my childhood friend, Dr. Noel Cruz, we are exploring different treatments to remove the tumor in my right lung.

The oncologist told us that our first option is targeted therapy by oral medicine. She recommended that we should explore radiation therapy. There are two kinds of this type. The first is Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) and the other is Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT). All these treatments are rather expensive, although non-invasive are not as good as surgery.
My urologist, Dr. Baysa-Pee suggested Thoracic Surgery, Dr. SJ and Dr. Noel agreed and think it is my best option.

I consulted a surgeon in Tarlac City and he referred us to one of the best thoracic surgeons in Manila. We are waiting for the Doctor's message anytime now to tell us to proceed to the Lung Center for the surgery.

God did a miracle in the last surgery with both healing and provisions. Please continue to pray for me that I will be cleared for the surgery. Pray for success, fast healing, and recovery.
Thank you so much for your love and prayers. We have peace of mind and confidence in our hearts because we know that you are praying for us.

Don't Worry

Whenever we are staying in the house with Narlin’s sister, a little bird land by our window, sings some notes, hangs out for about ten minutes to “chat” with us, then flies away. She will be back in the late afternoon to do the same. What a joy to start and end our day, it seems that God is telling us not to worry about Joey’s health situation, reminding us of His promise in Matthew 6:25-27:

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”

It has been two months since we left Thailand and we are still here in the Philippines. Yes, it’s about my health. The last CT Scan in Thailand shows that a tumor is growing on my right lung. The radiologist’ impression it is a metastasis from the kidney cancer. Dr. Adefuin, my oncologist asked us to come home so that I can undergo PET CT to determine the “shape” and extent of the tumor.

We thought our time here would be shorter this time, but God has other plans. We can’t wait to go back home to Thailand to be with the people we love and serve.

Thankfully, it is still localized, not irregular in shape and according to her has a moderate to low malignancy. She requested for another CT Scan for correlation, but my creatinine level is high, my nephrologist has not cleared me to undergo the test. My lone left kidney is having a hard time keeping my creatinine at a normal level. The CT scan is postponed for two weeks.

Thank you so much for praying for us. We are touched by your love and concern, reaching to us through personal messages, comments, and emails. Thank you for praying for the children, church, and ministries, we left behind while we are undergoing medications.

By His stripes we are healed

He was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities;
The chastisement for our peace was upon Him,
And by His stripes we are healed. -Isaiah 53:6

In about two days Narlin and I are flying back to Mae Sai. We have been away from home for practically three months. The longest time we have been away since we came to Thailand in 2006. It is also the longest time we are away from the children. We couldn’t wait to see them again. We are grateful to the Lord that under Jillian’s watch they did well performing their household duties and other responsibilities.

The unexpected surgery, the pains and the initial false-negative biopsy results had led to confusion about my disease. It is only after the further immunostain test and consulting with the oncologist that we understood better.  The oncologist told us that the tumor is renal cell carcinoma, a kidney cancer. The urologist’s decision to remove my kidney was right and probably eliminates cancer.  The only serious threat is if the cancer cells had already spread to the other organs.

Thankfully, the bone scan reveals that there is no evidence of tumor invasion to my bone. However, she suspected that the tumor has spread to the liver hence she will closely monitor it by having CT Scan every three months. Just in case cancer has spread to the liver then I have to undergo targeted therapy by oral medication.

Please pray for Narlin too as she needs to take care of her heart. Her doctor diagnosed that one of the chambers heart is getting bigger and because of her family’s health history she needs to take preventive medication.

Please continue to pray for complete healing from the surgery and total cure from cancer. I’m hoping this will be my last update regarding our health because we believe God will heal us sooner.

God Heals

It's been a while since I post in this blog. I am sharing to you a post from my other blog about my health. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. Here it is:

They brought me to the operating room at 10 o'clock in the morning. The doctors would remove my right kidney, part of the liver and gall bladder because of a tumor.  At about eleven thirty, I was put under general anesthesia. The last thing I remembered was they were putting the surgical cap on my head and I passed out as I was praying to Jesus to take care of me during the surgery.

I woke up to a comforting voice of the nurse telling me that that the operation is over. I glanced at the wall clock and saw that it was almost one o'clock in the morning. I learned later that the operation went on for over eight hours and I was at the recovery room for five hours. I was in so much pain and I was shivering, it was cold. The anesthesiologist gave me more morphine. Then I was brought back to the ward. It was one of the most difficult hours of my life. But Jesus was there to see me through. Praise the Lord!

It is over a month since the surgery and although the surgical wound is not fully healed,  I'm recovering well.  The result of the biopsy is negative for cancer. My doctor wanted to be sure that I will have proper treatment. He sent the specimen to the National Kidney and Transplant Institute (NKTI) for review and further test. The result was confirmed to be negative. But the doctor advised us to be examined by an oncologist just to make sure that the tumor does not spread on the other organs.

While we are here, we took the opportunity for Narlin to have her general check-up. It was found out she also has a few health problems and she will have treatment. We realized we were not looking after our own health while doing ministry in Thailand.

I found out later that the tumor is a renal cell carcinoma, a kidney cancer.

He Is Indeed Faithful

We had a great time spending a week in the Philippines with our youngest son, Reuven. We joined him on his graduation day. It was one of the happiest moments of our lives.  We realized just how we missed our son. We are thankful to the Lord for making a way for us to spend time with him.

If you are a parent, you would understand how sad we were when we left him especially when we had been with him for a few days. As we were walking away and waving goodbye, Narlin said, “I can’t help but cry, I am sad we are leaving our son again but joyful just to remember how faithful God was to see our children through college.”

God’s provision for our children’s education is one of the most beautiful testimony we share about God’s faithfulness in our lives as missionary. We know some people who believe that God has called them to mission but could not go because of their children’s schooling. Likewise, we know people  who were in the field but decided to go home for the same reason.

When we went for mission, our children knew that they need to make sacrifice especially with regards to their education. We did our best to put them to school. The homeschooling didn’t work because travel and materials cost were way beyond our means. Moreover, International Schools in Thailand are catered for the affluents.

To make a long story short, the Philippine’s Department of Education came to Thailand to conduct Equivalency Test and all our children passed the test  that made it possible for them to go straight to college. God is faithful.

Sewing Ministry

It has been over a year since we left the sewing program. But it doesn’t stop Narlin from helping and teaching young women how to sew and make small items such purse, bags among others. The only setback for a while  was we didn’t have a sewing machine.

One night, out of the blue, a friend sent us a text message asking if we want to continue the sewing ministry. When we answered yes, she told us that she would give us the money to buy a new sewing machine. It is a miraculous provisions for a specific need. Narlin is now helping a lady by teaching her how to sew and to extra income by making items.

Praise the Lord that even though we don’t have resources to run a training center, God provides the opportunity to continue helping young women.

God's Assurance

We were invited to attend an opening of a new children’s home in Chiang Mai. And we could not help but feel a little bit insecure thinking: How much money has been spent buying the property and constructing the buildings? What does it cost to run the Foundation and paid the staff?  We never in our wildest dream could afford any of these frills.

But then God assures us that the success of our ministry is not measured on how much property we owned, how beautiful our house is, or how much money we have. It is about caring and loving the children, teaching them  to be good person, to believe in God and to be like Christ. God assures us that we are doing well with the resources that He has provided.

We thank you for your partnership in the ministry, your support and prayers surely helps us to continue  to love and care for the children and do other ministries that God wants us to do.

Prayer Concerns

Once again, we want to share to you our thanksgiving and prayer concerns.

1. We thank the Lord that our work permit problem is resolved.  The Rainbow Foundation helped us to keep our visa in spite of our cancelled Work Permit.  But this cost us to pay more fees to the Department of Labor. The only positive upshot of this hurdle is that we will be given a two-year work permit. Thank you Lord.
2. Pray for the children’s national ID (Thai citizenship). To be honest, we don’t have any idea how to do this.  We are expecting our friends to help us by giving their testimony to the government in behalf of the children but they refused. Please continue to pray for this as we gather information about the process.
3. The school term is about to end. The children are having their final exam next week. A long three week vacation is waiting for them to enjoy. Pray that they will do well on their final exam and for their needs for the second semester. We are preparing activities for the long break.
4. Please for us, Joey and Narlin, for safe trip to the Philippines . We were invited to attend a Missionary Care Conference on September 24-29.  Although, we benefited from several Missionary R&R here in Thailand, it is the first time in twelve years that we have the privilege of being invited to  events like this. Please pray for safe travel and provisions.
5. Pray also for our ministry involvement in the church. We are actually involved with two congregations. The children lead worship at a local Thai church and I (Joey) preached once a month. We also do the same tasks in an international congregation (which gathers once a month) composed mostly of Filipino English teachers and few people from Thailand, USA and Europe. We started this fellowship since we came here twelve years ago. Please pray that these ministries will be a blessing to the community.
6. Please also pray for the Philippines in the aftermath of the category 5 typhoon, Mangkhut. Please pray for those who are greatly affected especially in the northern part of the Philippines.

Please continue to include is your thoughts and prayers. We appreciate your partnership in our ministry.

This is also posted in my other blog and sent in email form to our family and friends.

He Will Bring Health and Healing

“Do you have insurance?” The nurse asked us after Narlin signified that she was so dizzy to stand up and may need to stay in the hospital for the night. She was complaining of deafness on her left ear. She had vertigo and suffering from nausea for almost two days.

Although she was given medication for anti vertigo, we decided to go to the hospital in Overbrook Chiang Rai for a thorough diagnosis. After several tests, the doctor’s diagnosis was that she is suffering from Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSHL). We are asked to come back to the hospital on the 5th of September to assess if the medications are working.

We don’t have any insurance but God. The cost made us think twice about buying a plan. The children’s needs and education are our priority. Regardless, we believe that God will provide, keep us safe and preserve our health.

This reminds me of couple of familiar verses from the Old Testament, Jeremiah 33:3, 6:

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know…. Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it; I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security.”

We trust that God will completely heal Narlin’s sickness, he will protect us in every situation and he will provide for all our needs. Thank you so much for praying with us and for being part of God’s answer to our prayers.

Thanksgiving

We are thankful for our friends who prayed and encouraged us by sharing their experiences similar to Narlin’s sickness. We are thankful for doctor friends who gave us medical advice.

We are thankful for Jennifer whose presence become more indispensable when Narlin was confined in the hospital. She looks after the children when we are away. She will be leaving on the 14th of September. Please pray for traveling mercy and provisions.

We are thankful for God’s provisions for Reuven’s schooling. We were able to get his credentials from Philippine Embassy in Bangkok, his certificate/records from Mae Sai Prasitsart School which cost us some money. He is now enrolled in a university in the Philippines.

We are thankful that God has given us the opportunity to help more children. Whether it is through teaching English or taking care of them may it be short or long term. Please that we can help a couple more kids this year.

We are thankful for the opportunity to work with teams, schools and villages in ministering to the children. We are looking forward for another team to come and help in the near future.

We are thankful that our children have the opportunity to participate in drama competition in Bangkok. Although we don’t expect to win anything this time, we just want to give glory to Jesus’s name for all the blessings and experiences they will be enjoying.

We are thankful that in spite of the big amount we spent in our children’s schooling this month (August), the Lord has provided us enough amount for Narlin’s hospitalization.

Most of all, we are thankful to God every time we remember your partnership with us. We appreciate your love, support and untiring prayers.

Praise the Lord for the motorcycle!

We have been poor and although we still are poor, we are blessed to become God's servant. As I look back at our life I considered it a miracle that most of my siblings five of us were able to finish college and most of us have post graduate degrees.

It is only through God's grace that we are now in the mission field considering the expenses of coming here. And it is through God's provision that we are surviving here as we are not earning any income at all. God continues to touch people's heart in answer to our prayers. He uses people to provide for our motorcycle, people we don't know personally. The motorcycle is the only vehicle we have and there are five of us in the family. I believe that this is all we need to go around places to teach and share about God's saving grace through his son Jesus Christ.

Jared's Birthday

Just want to share this to all. This is posted from our family blog.

Jared celebrate his 14th birthday in a very simple breakfast candle-blowing celebration. All of us celebrated our birthdays here this year. We miss home a lot.

My children are not living a life that normal children should be. They don't have permanent friends because we have moved five times with in their lifetime. We moved from Cainta to Pangasinan to Baguio, back to Cainta again in six short months and finally moved here in Thailand.

They never experienced the joy of childhood both Narlin and I had. We never left our respective homes until we were married. We have permanent friends and best friends who grew up with us. And although distance keeps us apart, communication was never lacking. We grew up in our respective home church with people who love us and treated us as part of their family. (These people are the ones who are supporting us here in the mission field). We matured with them both physically and spiritually. My children never enjoyed this kind of relationships.

Jared is in the second year of his teenage life. He never had a bestfriend who grows up with him. (My bestfriend lived in the next house and we were together until I responded to the call). Jared hates school. He always thought that teachers do not teach but talk to the (black)board. The only teacher he was fond of was his grade 4 teacher who took him under her care. And as a parent, I was greatly grateful to that teacher who perhaps changed Jared's perspective about education. Jared hates home schooling as well. And if I were him, I will feel the same. Home schooling materials are the most boring educational material I've ever read. But we are thankful for home schooling and for the people who made this possible for us because it is the only way he and his siblings can have their education. He likes computer. I think he learned to use the computer first before he learned to talk. He can create his own website, he knows how to mess with html code,he maintained and designed this blog (and the other blog), he knows how to install and configure Linux from the root terminal which I didn't learn and perhaps will never have a chance to learn.

In his 14th birthday, he is holding on to his childhood for as long as he can. He doesn't want it to go. And I understand it... I want him to enjoy it as long as it last because his childhood will be gone sooner than we thought. We thank the Lord that we are here in the mission field together. We share everything, the good and the bad, the happy and the sad, the joy and the sorrow, the love and the hate, the excitement and the boredom. I'm not afraid that my children will be lost from our side... because we are together in responding to God's call. Happy birthday Jared!!!