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.

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.

Here and there

We made two trips to Chiang Mai within a week. The first one we did hesitantly and the other one was unplanned. Although we like to travel, we could not afford it. With 13 children and one teenager every cents count.
The first trip was necessary. We had been planning to go to Chiang Mai for the renewal of my driver’s license. I know it can be done in Chiang Rai but in order not to complicate things, we always do it in Chiang Mai. However, we still think that going there just to renew my driver’s license was not a strong reason to make the trip.
Then we had a surprised call from Nueng, the Foundation’s secretary. She told us that the Labor officer in Chiang Mai wanted to see us for an interview.  So now we had more than one reasons to make the road trip.
We drove 4 hours to Chiang Mai and went straight to the city hall to see the labor officer. We already met the officer before so I knew it would be a very friendly and pleasant chat. She wanted to know what we are doing in Mae Sai.  After our business at the labor office was over, we checked-in at the cheap hotel beside the bus terminal. It was becoming our favorite place to stay whenever we are in town.


The hotel was fairly good with cable TV. So we took the opportunity to watch some movies and just took the much needed rest and sleep longer.  In the morning, we went to Rajayev Hospital to get the medical certificates. I needed one for the driver’s license and I also got one for the work permit.
The labor office requirement for a yearly medical certificate was the only opportunity I had for physical examination. Usually, I passed the physical exam with flying colors. But in the last two years, my blood pressure was beginning to get dangerously high.  I guess father time was catching up on me. For some reason or perhaps the hospital deliberately did it, I was assigned to the same doctor every year.  So I decided to make him my personal physician. I requested him to give me prescription for my high blood. In fairness to him, he asked me last year if I want treatment  but I declined because I thought I was there only for the medical certificate.  He made an appointment with me to come back for more test at the end of the month.

I renewed my driver’s licenses in the afternoon. Everything here was quick and convenient. This year they required us to watch a one-hour video about traffic rules and safety. It was cumbersome but I think it was good for the local drivers who do not have any idea about driving courtesy. Another productive day was over.
The next day, we took the opportunity to attend the Association of Filipinos in Thailand (AFT)- North Chapter’s celebration of 116th Philippine Independence Day. New officers were elected. We had fun playing games and watched a friendly karaoke-singing competition.  It was good to see old friends we had not seen for a while and meet new ones. Then we came back to Mae Sai expecting not to return to Chiang Mai for at least another two months or so.
If only we knew, we would be back in Chiang Mai after a week. We received another call from Nueng telling us that one of our co-workers (with the Foundation) and his family died in a car accident. We barely knew them; perhaps we uttered a quick “hi” and “hello” every time we see each other when there was a Foundation meeting or activity. Although we had other plans, I will be preaching on the next day and usually I used Saturday to polish my already prepared sermon. Narlin and I felt that we need to go to honor our co-worker and his family who died serving the Lord in the mission field.
It was a very sad day for us who barely knew them more so with people who were closer to them. Apparently, their truck lost control on a wet slippery road, spun wildly until it eventually smashed onto the coming delivery truck.  The truck, as shown on the LCD projector, was a total wrecked.

It reminded us of similar experience we had five years ago. I vividly remember, it was raining we were driving on the mountainous winding road going to Chiang Mai. We were going uphill when I sensed that the back tires lost tractions, so we negotiated the asphalt road very slowly.  Suddenly, we saw a pick-up truck going downhill slipped, lost control and spun fast toward us. We felt helpless, all we could do was put our car as far to the side off the road shoulder, prayed and waited till the pick-up truck smashed on us. But thankfully, the Lord had saved us from that fatal accident; the truck missed us maybe by an inch as we watched it passed us by.
Please pray for the kingdom workers in Thailand. Pray for our safety as we do a lot of traveling for our visa and other errands. Pray for our health too. In the light of the health issues and accidents happening, we are praying that God will protect us more. We really do not have anything like insurance that will take care of our children when something happened to us. But we fully trust that God will take care of us.
By the way, I just celebrated my 50th birthday. Thankful for the life that has given me. Thankful for friends who remember and find way to greet and encouraged me.

A glimpse... whatever

Narlin will go home to the Philippines for three weeks. She will attend the Philippine Women Missionary Union (PWMU) Triennial Meeting. I was hoping all of us could go but the airfare for five persons costs too much. This means I will stay alone with the children for three weeks. I cannot imagine life with out her. She does many things for the children and me. I will have a tough time filling her shoes.

For this reason, I am writing brochures promoting our ministries to the churches here back home. Hoping that what we are doing here can stir up enough attention for women to get involved in missions. I will also try to create a video presentation. Our prayer is that we can mobilize churches to support missions. My hands are full within the weeks.

We also have to spend time finishing up checking our children’s homes schooling tests. Narlin will bring these answered exam sheets to the School of Tomorrow. She will pick up the books we ordered online at the main school in Paranaque. The total cost for the workbooks is huge. Nonetheless, I am confident that God will provide.

I do not have the time to write (dissertation) anything this week. Writing is a bit tricky on me. If I decided to work on my dissertation, I can do it continuously if I there are no interruptions and distractions. Nonetheless, I really have not stop reading. I take a book with me wherever I go and my clipboard and take notes when I find something that I think would be useful for my research. I can read while when I paused to wait on the children when I am taking them home. I can read while driving and while sleeping (haha!) Ideas are forming in the back of my head, hoping that when I sit down to write my ideas will just flow out from my brain to my hands.

I am also trying to make the laptop usable again. I start saving money for the hard drive. Perhaps a few months from now I can buy it. I asked around how much it will cost us to replace the cracked LCD. If the shop will do it, it costs a lot and it is not practical to have it repaired. However, when I look at ebay at the prices of the LCD for Toshiba A75 Satellite, it is cheaper (though still expensive for me). It costs U$150. I have to work on having a credit card or paypal account so I can do purchase online. I can do the repair myself and perhaps I can again use the laptop for another five years.

When Megan learned about what happened to my laptop she generously gave us hers so that she and Narlin can continuously communicate about the ministry of Grace Home when she is gon. The only glitch is that the LCD is not working as well. However, when I look closely I can see blunt images on the screen. Therefore, I know that either the inverter or the back light has gone bad. Nevertheless we can use the laptop fine with an external CRT. I think it would be great if I can make the LCD works. I checked over at ebay and found out that the inverter cost U$18. It is affordable enough. However, I do not know if they are shipping to Thailand.

Within two months, we will be moving to another house. We love our present house. It is the most comfortable house that we ever had as a family. We live in an unfinished house almost all our lives together. Our present house is God's provision for us when we come here in Thailand. Most houses for rent here are bare, not a furniture. This house comes with beds, bedsheets, pillows, closet, everything that a nomad family would need is here.

So it is with a heavy heart we are leaving this house. We need to move on to another house. This house will be used for children home and hostel. The need for this kind of ministry here is just too immense for us to ignore. Pray for us.

Dignity in death

We didn’t have the chance to know his name. We only know him as Thin Yannat’s father. He was a living skeleton—with sunken eyes and protruding bones. He was suffering from AIDS. Narlin, Megan, Aye Phet, our Burmese co-woker and I had visited him in different occasion to bring food and medicine. We came to know him because we take care of his child for him and he was grateful to us for doing it. He wept when his child was kidnapped but managed a faint smile when we got her back.

He was once a reliable factory worker here in Mae Sai. But he was kicked out from work when the employer learned he had AIDS. His work permit expired and he became a homeless illegal immigrant. We didn’t know how he got the HIV virus, when you saw a person suffering, it seems not to matter anymore.

No money and very sick, he could not go home to Myanmar. His friends wanted to take care of him, but he refused. He did not want to be a burden to them. Nobody wanted to take him to the hospital because of the humor floating around that poor illegal Burmese migrants are euthanized. It is only a rumor but it is not unfounded as well.

He was dying trying to keep his dignity by caring for himself as he waited for death. He was lying down in great pain in a shanty made of grass roof and wall of nets. He was living with a family of scavengers who themselves were impoverished illegal immigrants. Too weak to move and in excruciating pain, he strived to live on his own in spite of inevitable death.

This was the situation when we found him. He wanted to go home to Burma before he died. With his friends, they attempted to bring him across the river. We knew that it was impossible to get him to cross the border legally without him getting into trouble with the Thai police.

So, they put him into the boat and when they were about to paddle across, a policeman came into the view and they aborted their plan and hoped for another opportunity. But this would not come again, the exertion had been too much for his frail body that he died in their arms. We all silently wept for him. We wept because of compassion for the man. We wept for his child. And we wept because we fail to minister to a dying man in his last moment.

Before he died, Aye Phet asked a Pastor to come and minister to him because he knew that Pastor personally and at one time he attended his church. The Pastor was one of the students at the Missions Training Center. Narlin went to pick him up and asked him to minister to the dying man. He refused and nonchalantly replied that the man was not a member of his church. Narlin cried out loud and let her emotions of frustrations burst out in anger toward the Pastor.

The Pastor refused to minister to a dying man and it made us angry. Narlin and I were their teachers and we were supposed to be responsible for teaching these local pastors about ministering to the dying people. However, we unbalancedly focused on Biblical studies in expense of teaching them practical theology. The incident demonstrates the failure of imbalance teaching. What good is biblical knowledge when you cannot minister to the people in a time they badly needed it? Perhaps we wept because we failed to teach these people.

What are we going to do with the dead body of an illegal migrant who died of AIDS? This was our next dilemma until our Pastor (this is not the same person mentioned) told us to report it to the Village leader. With the Pastor’s help and some members of Mae Sai Grace Church, we called the Moo Ban’s (Village) Rescue 199. They helped us buried the man in a graveyard readily provided for the situation like this which we believe is not uncommon in Mae Sai, poor illegal migrants who die of an illness without any relatives and thus were simply buried in an unknown grave. Together with the Pastor we gave the man a funeral ceremony he rightly deserved. We were comforted knowing that he believed in Jesus Christ as his Savior before he died.

Thin Yannat

We were in Chiang Mai spending the holiday with the Garcias when we received a text message from Megan, the American missionary who volunteered to work with us. “One of the children had been kidnapped and we don’t know where she is right now.”

Panic started to set in and we called up our Burmese co-worker at Grace Home Kindergarten Center and asked for details. And the girl was indeed taken from GHKC by a woman who arrested once for human trafficking. She belongs to a syndicate which smuggles young girls and children from Myanmar to Southern Thailand for work and most of these young girls end up in prostitution.

We were helpless and we could not do anything because we were miles away; we could not report this incident to the Thai police because the child’s father came from Myanmar and was staying in Thailand illegally. This would add to the trouble rather than solve it.

GHKC is not only a daycare center. There were times when it serves as an orphanage. We take care of children whose parents could no longer do it for reasons like death or bad health. And in this case, Thin Yannat’s (the girl’s name) mother is dead and her father was suffering with HIV/AIDS. He was waiting to die somewhere in the middle of the rice field under a tree deprived of any medical treatment (this is another story).

Sleep could not come to us easily that night. We made a phone call, the next morning and we were relieved to find out that they got Thae-Yaw Nat back with the help of our friend who works with International Organization for Migration (IOM), a non-religious NGO.

We decided to adopt Thin Yannat. She is now staying with us and we bring her to Grace Home Kindergarten everyday. We do not know how the paper works about adoption here but we will soon find out and do the necessary things required by the law. She will stay with us and perhaps bring her home to the Philippines.

On the picture are Thin Yannat with Narlin