Every moment is a blessing

After spending almost nine months in the Philippines, we are so happy for the opportunity to spend Christmas and New Year with all our children. It was a rare moment for us to be together for more than a week celebrating Christmas and remembering God’s faithfulness in our lives.

It is true, the unexpected extended time away brought about changes. First, we noticed that the children are more mature, more responsible, and can do chores by themselves. Second, we can longer do the “heavy lifting." We are now a team with our children that each of us working together in a ministry God has given to us. Moreover, we believe our hosting of YWAM teams has come to an end.

It is easy to be thankful for the good things that happen in our lives but it takes faith to be grateful for all of our lives—the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, in success as well as failures, in health as well as sickness. We learn to trust the Lord that blessings are never in disguised. Every moment is a blessing from God.

This reminds us of Job when he says: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD.”-Job 1:21

Once again, we are thankful for your love and prayers. We remember you who sacrificed a lot financially to help us taking care of the children. God bless you more and more.

Sharing Jesus' Story

We had a busy Christmas. It is because Christmas is never considered a holiday here in Thailand. No Christmas break for the children. So, they had to divide their time. going to school and celebrating Christmas.

One of the special activities we did last Christmas was caroling. We went into the community singing Christmas gospel songs and praying for the people. Even non-Christians would invite us to sing and pray for them. An opportunity to share the gospel through songs and prayers.

Moreover, we participated in a Christmas party organized by our church. Our church is planting a church in the village. Christmas party here is the time when we share Jesus' story in the village and we do the “raffle” thing. People received a gift by drawing their respective numbers. We sang Christmas songs and the children presented a drama about the story of Jesus—his birth, ministry, death, and resurrection.

Prayer Concerns

We are holding several English camps (Daily Vacation Bible School) during school breaks. Our church will join us, and our children will serve as camp staff. Please pray for God’s provisions as we minister to the children in the community.

Our children are now the main worship team in our church. They lead the worship and play the instruments as well. We are hoping to buy more musical instruments like a bass guitar. We are hoping we can teach them more worship songs. Please pray that God will use them in this ministry.

Our truck is in the shop once again. It is still working well but the maintenance is getting costly. We are praying for a new van that we can use when our truck broke down and we need it during the rainy season. We may not get the van we are praying for, we are looking for another van.

We are praying to do the after school English classes once again. We are planning to work with the School of Tomorrow and its BLESS (Basic Literacy Education Saving Souls) Project. We are praying to teach the children in the community to read and write in English and eventually share the gospel with their parents. It was a ministry we were doing for years and we like to do it again better this time with us to undergo training.

Joey needs to go back in March for two weeks to the Philippines for monitoring. He will have bone scans, blood tests, x-rays, and other follow-up checkups. Praying for favorable results. We are praying to find a good oncologist here in Thailand so that we don’t need to go to the Philippines for monitoring. Please pray for safe travels and provisions.

Thank you once again for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We are feeling your love all the time. To God be the glory.

Thankful for Prayers

It’s been a month since Narlin suffered from deafness and vertigo. She was diagnosed with Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SSHL). It has been a rough journey for her. The doctor requested an MRI to make sure that her deafness was not caused by tumor. We are relieved and thankful that the result indicates that everything is normal. However, the chance of her hearing will return is 50 only percent. The best that the doctor can do is to prescribe medicines for the dizziness (so that she can do things normally) and to give nutrients for the auditory nerve.

We are overwhelmed by prayers and encouragements from friends. Since we don’t have any health insurance, Narlin’s hospitalisation, MRI, medicines and treatments have been a financial burden for us this month. But we trust that the Lord will provide for this particular need.

Growing Challenge

The children are growing up and taking care of them is getting to be more challenging. We found out that the boys were sneaking out at night to play online game at a nearby computer shop. Jennifer discovered about it when Narlin was hospitalised. A heart to heart talk followed and we emphasised that they need to follow the house rules while they are living with us.

We expect more challenges with the girls in the near future. Please help us to pray for all the children. That the Lord will give them wisdom and obedient heart as they grow up. Pray that the Lord will provide love, patient and wisdom in raising up these wonderful kids.

Religious Camp

Most Thai school have religious day camp. This is the day when all the students are asked to join Buddhist rituals. We had been thinking of holding a separate religious camp for Christians.
Mae Sai Municipal (Wat Poweehan) is the school close to our heart. The director is our good friend and her assistant (who was just a head English teacher when we first met her) is one of Narlin’s best friends. Last year Teacher Pu, a new English teacher joined the faculty. She is a Christian and she becomes our close friend too. She sometimes stays in our house and goes with us to the church.

Teacher Pu insisted that the Christian students would not participate with the Buddhist religious camp. She pushed for a separate camp for Christian students. So we requested the YWAM-Borders to host the camp for Christian students. Twenty-six students (including our children) attended and fifteen of them have made commitment to follow Jesus.

We are thankful to the Lord that believers are now being recognised in the school. We are praying that this will be an opportunity to share the gospel to the other teachers and students. We are also considering that our ministry in the school is coming to its conclusion and YWAM-Border will take over. We believe that God is directing us to minister to village schools. We don’t know how it will happen but God promised that he will make a way.

New Life Garden
In our nine years of living in Mae Sai, we had been part of the beginning of new ministries. This year, we are blessed to be part the New Life Garden (Ban Suan Chiwit Mai). A new ministry that seeks to help young women and children from human trafficking. God has given us the opportunity to help connect people, introduce it to the community through English camp, to help in creating English Kid's Club, and English tutorials for young people and adults.

Eventually, we hope to hold training skills and provide shelters for young women. We also coordinated to make the New Life Garden to be a member of Network for Children and Women Under the Same Sky Association (NCWSA). Please pray for this ministry. We don’t know yet how long we will be working in this ministry but we hope that God will use it for his glory and advancement of his Kingdom.

Family Update

We are missing our children. Jared finished his studies and is now teaching in a private school. He will take the teacher’s board exam on Sunday (27 September). Please pray that he can pass the test.
Jillian is on her last year of studies and doing practice teaching at a local school in Baguio. Reuven is freshman taking up psychology. Please pray for protection (we are not there to look after them) and provisions (school expenses and house rent). We hope to be reunited with them in the near future.

More Prayer Concerns

• Most of the children will go to Bangkok to compete for national English drama competition. Pray for safe travel.
• School break is just around the corner. Pray for the children’s activities during the break and provisions for another school term.
• We cancelled all our English teaching (when Jennifer left) to give Narlin a break and time to heal. Please pray our regular students that can come back when she resumes teaching.
• Preaching is a part of our regular ministry. Please pray that God will use this as channel to share God’s blessing to the Thai people.

We are certain that God has called us to serve him here but without your love, support and prayers, we know that we could not stay here a day longer. We thank the Lord for using you to fulfill his calling in our life. You are a huge blessing to all of us and the people we are helping.