Dear Church, we are very grateful for your prayers! Happy Mother’s and Father’s Day to all parents.
Mother’s day is very important in Thailand. Many schools are making a special event for mothers where the students are making a flower or a bouquet of flowers out of a paper and give it to their moms at the end of the ceremony, standing on their knees, showing respect and gratefulness.
For most of our children, this is not the joyful day they want it to be, because their parents won’t be at this ceremony. Why? Because they are not there with them even though they are not orphans. The definition of a parent sadly has been changed. The “Mom and Dad, who are raising you” is not the standard any longer. If you would ask our children:
Do you have parents? Most of the answers would be like:
Parents?!
Yes, I am living with my grandmother and uncle.
Yes, but they are far from here and I can only see them once a year.
Yes, I am staying with my aunt’s family.
Yes, I have a grandmother and grandfather who are taking care of me.
Yes, I am staying with my uncle.
Some answers are:
Yes, I have a father and a grandmother.
Yes, my mother is with us.
Yes, I have a father, and my sister’s father and my third sisters’ mother.
Yes, I didn’t see my father since I was 3 months old, but my mother was always with me.
Yes, I am staying with my adoptive parents because my biological parents don’t have an opportunity to take care of me, but I visit them sometimes.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
And only few would describe their parents as mom and dad who are taking care of them. All these children have “parents” or at least one “parent” but the definition is not what we used to understand.
Because of this, we decided to make a “Family day” instead of “Mother’s day”, where children can invite any of their family members who are taking care of them and thank God for them. We had over 150 people who attended the “Family Day” and had a chance to share with them God’s Word, what it says about the family, and what advice it gives for parents and for children.
This “Family day” was a real joy for one of our girls, who hasn’t seen her dad since she was three months old, and after eleven years her family reunited again! Praise God, for the privilege to have “parents” as “Mom and Dad who are with you!”
The culture or economic can change the definition of the family and Parents, but nothing can change the definition of the perfect love of our Heavenly Father. He never changes! He is always there for us. He understands our joys and sorrows. Such amazing and encouraging news to share with our children. God continues blessing us with many children and teens that are coming to our evening school.
Please Pray for:
The greatest need is that we would like to build a small building next to our bamboo church, where we can continue the ministry and in the meantime fix our Bamboo building. By God’s grace, we received enough finances to start the process and believe that God will provide the rest. Please pray for the remaining finances and also for people who would like to help us with it.
The right people who would like to help us in teaching and taking care of the children.
For God’s Word to bring fruit in the hearts of the children
That God would raise boys to be future leaders in our church.
For almost 10 years the local Baptist church “Word of Truth” in Omsk, Russia has desperately tried to construct their own sanctuary on the land given by the local government. We are glad to see that the construction of the church has resumed and several churches and individuals donated towards the project. Here is the latest update:
We had to halt the construction of our new church building due to lack of funding but now we are finally continuing with the roof. After the roof is done we will be working on the interior but we still need funds for it. Please support us if you are able to. Thank you for your prayers and participation.
We visited 7 prisons in May and prayed and talked with 13 prisoners who are all from different countries. One hundred visitors are permitted at the same time to make a visit and approximately one hundred prisoners are between us the bars. Guards are always watching. We came to visit two girls, one is from Russia and the other one from Uzbekistan. When we saw that they had a visitor already and didn’t have time for us, we were a little upset.
The visit is limited to 40 minutes, so we stepped aside and prayed. Later Zhenya wrote a note: “Jesus Christ loves you, He forgives all your sins and rose for your redemption.” and we passed the note to one of the guards. He looked at her and it was clear that he didn’t understand what was happening. He knew that he is breaking the rules and asked, ‘for whom’? Zhenya pointed at Leila, the girl from Uzbekistan, and he gave it to her. She read the note and tears started to run from her eyes, the person next to her also started to cry. I prayed for them out loud, it was a great experience. We were inspired by the Lord.
We also visited a guy who is sentenced for 25 years. He came to Christ in prison. The Lord formed through him a community with people from different countries. He preaches in English on Sundays. He was encouraged by our visit. Dear friends, brothers and sisters, we are grateful for your support in God’s work which we are doing together with you through prayers and financial support for the ministry. May God reward you.
Unray Mary is responsible for our group that we call “Pearls” here at the Ark. In fall 2004 we received 2 little girls who are twins. They were 3.5 years old. They were walking around with sad eyes in our apartment, pointing at usual household items and asking what they are for.
They were getting used to everything and learning the new things. They didn’t have hair when they came to us, so they looked at my hair and asked: “What is this?” After explaining they asked if they will have hair too. Growing up with love and care of Mary they learned very quickly and became well prepared for school.
When Mary told them about a 95-year-old grandfather, one of them said: “I wish he could live 100 years.” From that day on, she prayed for that grandfather. After his 100thbirthday we were fortunate enough to visit him. While visiting him they sang for him. He lived for 101 years. The younger girl Svetlana received Jesus into her heart and now she serves Him by leading church in worship. Her older sister is not quite ready to take this step, but we are praying and waiting for this moment with all of our heart. We are grateful to those who pray for us and support us.
Children’s Ark Ministry in St Petersburg – Julia Podbuzkaya
When God is calling to do His work, He requires faith in the things that are unseen, but He also provides His leading hand and shows everything that is needed to make these steps.
He is really blessing us with open opportunities to share about Him here in Northern Thailand! The evening school that started 2 years ago with 15 students has now around 50 children and more than 20 teens. Our Bible study group that started with a few girls has grown to 15 people. Sunday school grew as well, and more young children have started to come.
They come to practice singing, playing piano, guitar, and ukulele or to play and learn. Some come to do homework for school or just to sit and rest. They even come to cook, to teach and they come when they are tired, hungry or sick. They come after school by walking, on the school van, motorcycle or bicycle and bring their friends or parents, or come alone. They come twice a week, four times a week and some once a week and but many of them every single day.
People in the village are saying: “Children who go to Church are very different from other children, their grades are better, they are polite and very responsible!”
Here are a few blessings that our teens shared during last Bible study: “As I was preparing food this Sunday for our church lunch, I really worried that our rice would not be ready on time, as the church service was coming to the end; I prayed and asked God to help. At the time we had lunch everything was ready and nobody was left hungry!” Thank God!
“The Saturday we went to buy prizes for children, we parked our car and as we finished, we saw a policeman standing beside our car and writing a ticket. It turned out we parked in the wrong place. The policeman didn’t want to hear anything that we didn’t see the sign. Some of us are foreigners and don’t understand Thai – we got a ticket. Even worse than this was that we didn’t have any money to pay for it. Before going to the police station, we prayed to God, and He answered. At the police station, the officer was very nice to us and only asked us to write the first name of my parents and let us go, without paying anything. God is great!”
One time, when we were finishing our school with a Bible story about Daniel and how God saved him from hungry lions, we told the children that we are praying to the same God as Daniel prayed to. We encouraged the children to pray to this God when they are scared, sick or really need help. Suddenly we heard a loud question: How can I pray to God? What do I say? – a little boy asked, and many others were glad to hear the answer. “Our God is the Highest God, that’s why He can help!”
As we see, God is doing His work and He has invited us to be a part of it. Please pray for our wisdom in managing our time and raising this generation for Christ! We need your help.
Please pray for:
For God to send the right people to serve with us in a short or long term. Would you like to come or would you like to support a volunteer to come?
For our church building to stay strong till the time we will rebuild it. Because of the rain, wind, and insects our bamboo church has worn out.
For our Sunday school building that we are preparing to build, for God to provide finances and people who can help in building.
Please pray especially for our boys that they would grow stronger in faith to understand and apply the Scripture as the future leaders.
Please pray for us, that God would give us wisdom and His guidance in every decision. That He would provide strength especially during the hot days.
We appreciate your prayers and support. May God richly bless you!
Children who come to our church are first-generation believers. Most of their family members are non-Christian who believe in spirits and play a big role in their lives. On Sundays, we gather to pray for non-saved parents and family members and we believe that God will answer! One big characterization of Asian culture is its community life and great respect for elderly people and parents in the family.
On Sunday we asked: “Who would like to be baptized?” A few people raised their hands, but after talking with their parents they didn’t understand and support them. Ing was one of them. When she told her parent about her desire to be baptized, they were very disappointed because as they believe Christians don’t feed the spirits of their ancestors after their death and she will not take care of them after their death. This is one of the very strong believes that are in peoples head.
Why do you want to be baptized? – I asked her the other day.
“Because I want to be a Christian, I don’t want to be the same as my mom, I have many things, that God has done for me. I want Satan to see that I follow God and not him” This is a strong desire that only God can give. Ing and a few other young girls are asking for your prayers, that God would give them wisdom in talking with their families and would open the parent’s hearts.
One of the blessings we have is our Bible study groups, where we can learn how to read, understand and apply the Word of God in our daily life’s. After we read together we ask questions like: “What does it tell me to do? And how can I apply it in the next two days?” It is amazing to hear very practical goals: “I will tell my mom only the truth.” “I will practice piano even when someone will call me to go out and play” “I will learn even harder to play musical instruments, not only piano, but even learn guitar” “I will come to Church more often to learn about God” “I want to be a missionary.” These are not just words, lives are being changed! Eak, one of the boys (who spent most of his time playing computer games), started to come every day, to practice playing guitar and last Sunday he played few songs during Worship time in Church. God’s word is powerful indeed! Please pray for our young people to grow more and more in the truth of God’s Word.
Thank you very much for every prayer and any support, it means a lot to us.
Please pray with us:
That God would send us the right person to help teaching English for the new school year. We have so many children and currently only one teacher. We believe that God will answer our prayer.
The possibility to teach English to monks and create a relationship with them.
Please pray for a little girl in Laos, who got severe burns. We had the opportunity to visit her and her mom and were able to help financially. Please pray for her healing.
For our future leaders in our Church so that our boys and girls would continue to grow in Christ.
For us leaders, to receive Gods wisdom and direction in every decision we make.
