Exciting times

It was early morning the noises made by the children excitedly talking had awaken us. They were preparing to go to school.  It has been a month since the school had opened but the children are still overly excited to go to school. We pray and hope that their enthusiasm to learn will not dwindle down even when they grow older.  Although, the memories of last summer’s fun and activities are still fresh in our minds we are now determine to face the challenges of taking care of the children’s needs for their schooling.

Provision for Kids’ Education

Nine of the children are continuing their schooling at Wat Poweehan Municipal School. Christy and Pia will also be going there for the first time as pre-schoolers. Sam Rong is advancing to grade six in a school in Tachilek, so he has to cross the border to Burma every day at six o’clock in the morning. Reuven needs to learn to wake up early to go Mae Sai Prasitsart High School. This will be a totally new experience for him.

Jared went back to the Philippines to go to college. The latest update we received from Nori and Dadai is that he is now enrolled in University of Cordilleras in Baguio City and had his first day of classes today (June 5).

We thank you for your prayers for  all the children’s education including our own three older children. Thank you also for your support, the school fees we are paying are much higher than the previous years. Nonetheless, God’s faithfulness to provide for this need never fails.  Please remember all the children and their needs in your prayers.

Teaching Ministry

Narlin enjoys teaching English to the elementary kids at Wat Poweehan Municipal School.   She was also invited to teach English in a community at Ban Nam Chan on the evenings. She has been teaching for two weeks. The number of students has doubled this week and it seems more people will be coming this weekend.  We are thankful for this opportunity. Here in Thailand, teaching English is still one of the most effective ways of sharing the gospel to the Buddhists.

Joey has been an itinerant preacher for a while. He has the opportunities to be invited  to share the word of God to the congregations in churches. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will use him in this ministry.

Taking care of 15 children and having other ministries are not easy. There are times when we feel tired and burned out and just wanted to get away which we could not do at the moment. However, we thank you for understanding our situation and for offering us time to rest. We will have the needed break as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Thank you so much for your care and concern.

Teams Visit

We had teams from two seminaries dropped by in our house. Students from Singapore Baptist Theological Seminary and Asia Theological Seminary from the Philippines came to Thailand for mission exposure. We were happy to welcome and show them the work we are doing. Our children’s home has served as a model of doing mission to students and future missionaries. We are thankful for the encouraging time they spent with us.

Nuch is back

She called us up and said she was lonely and tired working  so hard in Bangkok. We asked her to come back home and work for us. We could not pay her higher salary than she was earning in Bangkok but we are confident that God will provide for this particular need.

Nuch was one of the first two girls we adopted (the other one is Tina). Her father died when she was young and her mother spent more of her time in prison accused of selling illegal drugs.  We took her when she was 14 years old. She is now twenty and has finished her high school.  We believe that God saw our need for a co-worker and she is God’s answer to our prayers. She is the kind of co-worker we need. She is a good worker and can speak several languages like English, Wa and Chinese.

We are planning to send her to college with Jillian next year. Please  include Jillian and Nuch in your prayers. Both of them help us in many ways in working and  looking after the children.

Wait upon the Lord

Our plan to have a Learning and Ministry Center for discipleship, English learning and music school may not materialize this year. We thought that the center could minister to our adopted children and the children in the community. It can also be a means to evangelize and a source of extra income for missionaries who want to teach English.  However, we have doubt at the moment if we can sustain the cost of the rent and utilities as of the moment. Our ministry and finances are all focused to the care of the children and their education. The Lord has impressed upon us that there is wisdom in waiting. Please pray for this ministry opportunity.

Song Taew

It is now rainy season here in Thailand and bringing the children to the school on the back of the truck is no longer possible. We thank the Lord for God’s provision. We were able to pay for the installation of the song taew. The children are enjoying it.

Just in case you are wondering what happened to the van, its door broke and fell down again. The repair was taking so long that we decided to give it to the mechanic who become a good friend already.  The van had been a big blessing to us but it had seen better days and had served us beyond its years.

Prayer Requests

• Pray for the children’s schooling and their health.
• Pray boldness to share the gospel through teaching English.
• Pray for the churches we are attending and helping at the moment. 
• Pray for Jillian. June 7 is her 17th birthday.
• Pray for Sam Rong’s complete healing. There will be a celebration on 17 of June declaring that he is totally healed together with other TB patients at the hospital organized by the NGO who helped them.
• Pray for smooth processing and provision for our visa extension in July.
• Pray for Jared and Reuven’s adjustment in school. Pray also for provision for their school expenses.

Most of all our hearts is full of prayer of thanksgiving to God. We thank the Lord for you and other friends who are our partners in the ministry. Thank you so much for your love, prayers and support.  Our prayer is that God will continue to richly bless you.

Much love,

Joey & Narlin
With Jared, Jillian, Reuven & Nuch
AiPang, Tilek, SamChing, SamRong, Mike (SamRang), Ayong,
YekChai, Muey, Christy, Pia, Dina and Tina

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Technorati Tags: Prayer Update,Education,Collete,Family,Missions update,English Teaching,Ministry

School Opening and A Graduation Ceremony

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.

 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.

Technorati Tags: Philippine Embassy,Prayer Update,Alternative Learning System,Philippine Ambassador

Sermons Shaped by Story

I found myself preaching in two different churches in consecutive Sundays. I have not been preaching regularly for a long while since the Burmese church had cancelled its English worship two years ago. So the long break from preaching gives me an uncomfortable feeling. I have to find my way back to what I had been doing almost every Sunday for more than eighteen years. I still believe that preaching is one of the most important thing that God's servant could do beside the other ministries that are entrusted to him.

However, I am giving a lot of thoughts of preaching the stories from the Bible. I am used to preach from the propositional portion of the Scripture. This means that I love preaching from the epistles of Paul, John, James and Peter among others. I do a lot of expository study of any given book and divide it to three or four propositional truths. Then I explain, illustrate and find application for the hearers' every day life. The sermon I preached after a long while is a story and I found that here in Thailand, believers seem to enjoy listening to a story than listening to a propositional speech.

So I am considering that I will be doing narrative preaching in the future. But first, I need to learn to do it effectively. I googled "preaching through stories" and found a good article about doing it.  At Reformed Worship they provide me with ideas how to do it. Here are some of the guideline questions in creating a narrative sermon.

(1) What is the plot? How does the action move? Where is the crisis point? What is the resolution?
(2) What is the setting? What kind of place or places does it involve? What do they look like? What is the effect of the setting on the plot and the people?
(3) Who are the main characters? The minor? What is the nature of their interaction? What can we know about them?
(4) What is the point of view in this story? Does it change? If so, what is the significance of the change?
Careful consideration of these questions enables the pastor to answer the final one:
(5) What meaning or vision of life does this story reveal? What is its message, and how does the story help deliver that message?

Moreover, the author tells that it is:

best (and certainly more possible for a wide range of preachers) to use a narrative text from Scripture, letting the story inform and shape the structure of the sermon. Such a sermon is more than a simple retelling of the biblical text. It involves a particular way of approaching and studying the text, out of which the sermon then flows. One might think of one bank of a river as a story text, the other bank as the lives of the preacher and the congregation, and the sermon as the water that flows between the banks, shaped by them but not identical to them. 

Driving in the rain and visa

Two days of drizzle that started with strong winds and heavy downpour seemed to be a fitting conclusion to the three weeks of English camps under a scorching heat of the sun.  The rain was cool and refreshing and we were hoping it would last a few more days. Unfortunately, it did not.  The oppressive sun returned with vengeance after two days.

Incidentally, we had been receiving email messages from the Foundation reminding us that it was about time for us to renew our one-year visa. The office was asking us to come to the office to sign the documents and prepare the fees for the visa processing. So we were fortunate that the English camps were finally over and to take the five-hour drive to Chiang Mai in the rain. I really enjoyed driving leisurely in the rain.

In Chiang Mai, we went straight to the Foundation office. I needed to get the medical certificate that included blood testing. Every foreigner working in Thailand need to have their blood tested to prove that they do not have sexually transmitted diseases. This did not make any sense to me but I had to comply. Blood was drawn and we waited for two hours to get the result.  As expectedly, I did not have any diseases except that my blood pressure is a little bit high than normal.

I also took the opportunity  to spend the time out with Narlin and my natural children. We watched a movie and ate at McDonalds away from the “noisy” children. Having the time alone for ourselves were really precious. We drove back to Mae Sai in the evening. Unfortunately, the rain had stopped and the heat and humidity were back.

We thank the Lord for the safe travel. We also thank the him for his provision for our visa. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Technorati Tags: English camp,missions update,prayer

Summer Heat: A Prayer Update

It is funny how we can easily forget things though they do happen to us repeatedly. We forgot how cold winter was and how hot summer is here in Mae Sai. Apparently, we are experiencing one of the hottest summers in Thailand. This reminds us that God of God's provision and protection to all who trust in Him.

"They are like trees planted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers--Never a worry through the hottest summers, never droppin a leaf, serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season." (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

The oppressive summer heat does not slow us down in doing ministry to the children and young people of both Thailand and Myanmar. We praise the Lord for His wisdom and strength.  Here are our activities and prayer concerns for this month.

English Camps (Vacation Bible School)

By God's grace and provisions, we held two camps in Mae Sai and  another one is going on in Tachilek, Myanmar. We had camps in two places in Mae Sai. One in Pantamit Church and Emmanuel Namchan Church. The church leaders expressed concern that the children in the community might not come to the English camp. We thought it was a good idea to let our children come to encourage the people in the church and the community.

We thank the Lord for providing us people to help us. A team from Asia Vision Short Term Missions (AVSTM) is working with us to make this camp a blessing to the churches and the communities. Please continue to pray for the ongoing camp in Tachilek. Pray for health, strength and protection for the team and to all who are participating in it.

Teachers and participants of the English camp in Pantamit Church

Teachers and participants of the English camp in Namchan

Not counting our children, there are more or less 25 children and young people attended and heard the gospel story. The camps has ended but our relationship with these people will continue because we will be teaching English (using the Bible) to these churches and communities thrice a week. Please pray for us that we can minister to these people.

Music  and Piano Lessons

We are thankful to AVSTM for including a piano teacher on the team. To those who had an opporunity to visit us know that the children are musically inclined, so we are tyring our best to help them develop their talents in singing and in playing musical instrument. Jared has been teaching them guitar lessons and Jillian is teaching them to read notes.  Inae (a seminary music and piano teacher) taught them basic skills, inspiration and encouragement to learn more about music. On the 25th of April we held the recital in our frontyard and we invited very few friends. It was an amazing night.

We thank the Lord for Teacher Inae for patiently teaching all the children. We thank the Lord for providing 3 keyboards (2 are borrowed) so that they have something to practice on.  Even though Teacher Inae left almost a week ago, they are

Please continue to pray for the children as they prepare for another school year. The school will open on May 10. Pray for provisions for new uniforms, shoes and bags. Pray also that their Thai ID will be awarded to them soon.

Praise and thanksgiving

God has blessed us with couple of surprises this month and we want to share it with you. First, the school expressed their appreciation to Narlin's teaching English voluntarily at the municipal school. The principal has invited us to join them in a dinner together with school officers and staff. After dinner, the Principal told Narlin that he would give her a present as his token of appreciation. The Vice-Mayor of Mae Sai who was dining at the nearby table presented the gift to her.

Secondly, we received a call from Bangkok informing us that Jared, Jillian and Reuven had passed the Accreditation and Equivalency (A&E) Test conducted by the Department of Education in February. Jared and Jillian passed the secondary level making them legible to proceed to college and Reuven to high school. It is a big blessing from God. The Department of Education will have an awarding ceremony for those who passed the test. My children will receive the certificate at the Philippine Embassy in Bangkok on May 16. This will be the closest experience of graduation my children ever had. We will certainly attend to meet the other participants and parents who have become our friends too.

Jared is in Laos and then he will go to Cambodia for a mission trip and then will eventually go back to the Philippines for college. Please include him in your prayers. Jillian will stay with us and we will explore the possibility of going to college here in Thailand. We will pursue our plan to have Reuven enrolled to a local high school.

Thank you for praying and encouraging us when we were going through a time of uncertainty with regards to our children's education. We can testify once again to God's faithfulness to prvide for the needs of his lowly servants.


Prayer Requests
Our God is the God who hears and answers our prayers. Thank you for remembering to include us in your personal prayer time and in your church's prayer meeting.  This month we have some urgent prayer requests:

• Pray for the provision for our annual house rent. The support we received this month is not enough to pay for our expenses, so we had to borrow from the church's microfinance ministry to cover for the house rent. Please pray for this need.
• The processing for the renewal of our one-year visa starts next week. We have to pay the Foundation for the legal covering, the Immigration Office for the visa fees and the Ministry of Labor for the Work Permit. We are expecting for God's provision this month for all these expenses. Please remember us in your prayers.
• Pray for the children. Their school needs and their Thai ID.
• Pray for our ministries as we are discerning that God is leading us to help Namchan and Pantamit churches to reach out to their communities through teaching English.
• Please pray as work together with teams which are coming in different times this year.

We feel truly privilege to know that you are praying with for us.  We could not put in words how thankful we are for your partnership. We pray that God will continually bless you in many ways.

Whoever welcome these little ones

On our early days here, we didn't plan to focus on children ministry. But God had other plans for us. He was the one who lead  us into this and we are grateful for the privilege. We are here to serve our God and Saviour Jesus Christ. We were encouraged to know that the Lord says that every good thing we do for these children, we do it for Him.

"He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them. “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.” [Mark 9:36-37)

Once again, we want to thank all our friends and partners who believe in us and what we are doing.Here are the few highlights of what happened this month and  will happened next month with its accompanying prayer concerns.

Teaching teachers

Narlin had finished teaching conversational English at Tesaban 1 Watpoweehan  School. They will have their final test on Friday. We are thankful to the Lord for this rare opportunity to teach the teachers and develop friendship with them in the process. It was indeed a wonderful experience.We will be spending the last day of the class in a buffet (eat all you can) restaurant as the school is treating us. Thank you so much for your prayers. If you or anybody you know wants to minister here through teaching English, you are welcome to join us.

Sam Rong Gets Better

After an emotional struggle to prevent Sam Rong from being taken to the remote place in Burma, we are happy to announce that he is responding well with medication. He is now playing with the other children and has been a laughing a lot. He is even helping in some household chores. We are expecting that the medication will be totally stopped and he will be totally healed until June. Our God is the Lord who heals.It seems that Sam Rong will be staying with us for good. It's wonderful to think that after several changes in the number of the children we adopted, we are back with 12 of them. Thank you so much for your prayers for these children.

Tina, Ayung and Mike Graduate

We watched our kids went up the stage to receive their certificates. From afar because parents were not allowed to get near the stage and take photos. We couldn't believe that we were sitting among the proud parents of the graduating kinder pupils of the municipal school. It was a wonderful experience.

 

Three pupils were selected to deliver the graduation speech in three languages--Chinese, English and Thai in that order. Tina spoke almost perfect English. After the speech, the head teacher of the kindergarten, announced that Narlin is teaching English at the school and we have an orphanage where Tina came from. Thank you for your prayers and support for the children education.

Learning and Ministry Resource Center

We had been driving around Mae Sai looking for an appropriate and affordable house for teaching and discipleship. It proved to be an impossible task. We were about to give up the search (we had been looking for three months.) Until a friend told us in passing that an OMF rented house will become available in September.It is God's answered to our prayers. We talked with the tenant and she told us that she will pass the house to us and we might be able to use it for accomodating teams this April even though the contract will expire until September. Praise the Lord!

Tentative Activities this Summer

Please help us in prayer for the summer activities with the help of team coming from the Philippines. Please help us in prayer for the summer activities with the help of team coming from the Philippines.

• Easter Sunrise Service for International Community
• English camp in Mae Sai Pantamit Tribal Church.
• English (DVBS) and music camps in Tachilek, Myanmar
• English camp and music clinic in Emmanuel Church in Ban Chong.
• Teach in Song Kran Bible Camp in Mae Sai Grace Church
• Music Theory Class in Mae Sai and Tachilek.
• English, Music, Piano and Guitar lessons in our house for our kids for a month.
• Opening of Learning and Ministry Resource Center.

More Prayer Concerns

Thank you for your untiring prayers. Listed below are our praises, thanksgiving and concerns.

• We praise and thank the Lord for Displaced Orphans International (DOI) Foundation for the facilitation of receiving support in our behalf in the US (tax exempt). They are a big blessing to us.
• We are thankful for God's answering our prayers with regards to Nanay Linda's (Narlin's mom) healing. She is in the Philippines now. She has problem with blood circulation in her feet extremeties that the doctor thought that amputation is the only option. However, after getting second opinion it is good to know that other treatment is probable.
• Pray for Jared as he will go home in May to go to college. He will go home with my sister Dadai. Pray that his transition to the life in the Philippines and his adjustments to college will go smoothly. Pray also for Jillian and Reuven's studies.
• Pray for provision as the time for paying our house's one-year rent has come. Moreover, the extension of our one-year work permit and visa is also fast approaching. God

Our God is an awesome God and we thank Him for giving us awesome friends like you. We sincerely appreciate your love and prayers. Until next update.