Every Sunday, children from different houses, which are up in the mountains, are running with a great joy as they see our car entering their village. Some children already waiting in the assigned place, some running down and some up the hill trying to come on time. Some come with their Parents, some with older siblings. They come, because they want to get a letter, a “letter from God”. This is a folder with a Bible story in it, and at the end of the story are a few questions that need to be answered and then they need to drop the folder off in a special mailbox. Once a week all the letters will be picked up, checked, and on Sunday, given back with a new Story and small surprise.
As the pandemic started, we were challenged on how to continue share about God, we can’t do it online because many children don’t have devises and internet access. As we prayed, we saw God answer in making this project, which we see showed big interest in the hearts of the children. This is a ten-week program with the main Bible stories, where they can see step by step God’s plan of salvation. We are very grateful for your prayers and support, because we see how God is leading us and provides. As we read answers from children, we can tell that some children don’t have any knowledge about God, creation or theBible. Some are even using Wikipedia to answer the questions. Younger children are seeking help from their older siblings or parents, which gives opportunity for the whole family to learn about God.
Please pray for everyone in these two villages as they are reading and getting to know about the true God. At this point we have more than 70 children. Please also pray for our team, and youth to be faithful in their calling. May God richly bless every one of you!
More than 30 children are in the back of a pickup truck, some other children are running from the village, school vans, motorcycles, and cars are stopping by the gates, bringing their children. All these children don’t want to be late! What is going on? They are so excited to come to the evening camp because here they learn, play, make crafts, have a simple snack, learn about God, and how to make right decisions in their life! By God’s grace and guidance, we had a great opportunity to have a camp and once again to plant a seed in young hearts.
Thank God that right for this week He send us a young devoted couple, who helped us with the program. Almost half of these children were from the small village, up in the mountains, where they don’t have many opportunities to go out. You would see big smiles and joy on these small faces. They didn’t need any toys to make them happy. The biggest joy was just to come and to participate in all the activities; older children were very active in memorizing Bible verses. It was a big blessing because the next week all the schools were shut down and don’t have an opportunity to organize any summer program. Thank God for His perfect timing!
It is a dry season here and many houses are lacking water, our children need to do their laundry in the river and bring water for the house. For many families where the home garden was a big help to provide food for themselves face now a very challenging time. Together with you, our Church, we could make small food packages and deliver to some families in need. For some, a big plastic bucket was a big joy and blessing because they can store water in there. We prayed together and asked God for His mercy to send rain on our land. Please pray for God’s perfect timing that the rain would come, because most people in our area are farmers. We are very thankful to God for having water in our church and house; even though we had a few days when we didn’t have water.
Dear Church! We are very grateful for being with us on this part of the World by prayers and your support! Because of God’s grace, we can witness these blessings:
“I will go to Heaven!” – was a very sure answer from a 10-year-old boy. Why do you think this way? we asked him. “Because I believe that Jesus is the Son of God, Who came to this World and died for my sin. And he continued with the whole Gospel in his own words. When he finished, he said: “Do you know who told me about Jesus? P’Kig, my Sunday school teacher!” He was so excited and sure in his words.
Our Sunday school is not the only place where children learn about Christ. God opened the doors in the public school where children and teachers can learn more about God each week. From the first time when we talked about God the Creator and Jesus, His Son, we saw that this news was completely unfamiliar to them, and now we see that there is more understanding in what we are talking about. “Thank you very much for coming here, we are waiting for you and happy when you are here” – were the words of the children. Teachers are sending their greetings to everyone who made it possible for their children to learn English and hear about God. Every single day we can openly present the truth of the Bible! Thank God for these opportunities. Thank you for your prayers, because God gives us strength and joy and doing this, also our local youth encouraged to help in sharing the Gospel.
God is also really working in the hearts of our youth: “I want to be a pastor and open a church up in the mountains where there are no Christians” – said one of our young boys. This desire is not normal for a boy, who is growing in a non-Christian family and in the culture where all expectations to provide a house and car for the family, are put on the son. But God can do miracles and he is the One who gives the desire.
Please continue to pray for
1. Us to have wisdom in sharing the Gospel
2. The dry season didn’t start yet, but we already lacking in water and many people need to go to the river to wash their clothes or bring water for their families
3. Our youth to grow in the Faith and stay firm in the truth
4. Please pray for God to send us a helper in teaching children for this May – July
Last December we started our program “The gift of health and hope” as we entered our winter season. Many families live in simple homes, where often the temperature inside is the same as outside, and this season it was 7C (44F) which is very cold for us.
This is the season when hospitals are full of sick children and adults. We were encouraged by this situation, to make small presents for wellness with some cough syrup, cream, warm socks and etc. and share the hope that is in our Lord Jesus. One of our events took place in our evening school where we invited the parents of our children. Most of these children come from very simple families with a small income, some are growing up with their grandparents. As we talked about Jesus’ birth many people were very surprised to hear the good news that Jesus was born in a very simple place, laying in the Crip and have shepherds as His first visitors. Jesus, the Son of God, was born poor and very simple! For many parents, these were news they probably didn’t hear before.
Thank you very much for your prayers and financial support. We were able to make more than 100 presents, but we didn’t stop there. As the cold season continues, we would like to offer the same program in a public school, teaching the Bible on a weekly base and encourage elderly people.
We really appreciate every one of you, your prayers and for the last month God provided a helper for us, but we are still in big need for an English speaking person who has a heart for God, to help us to teach in the public school the Bible and English in January and February. We believe that our God is the God of miracles!
Please also pray for our youth as they are growing and facing many temptations, having Christian support only in Church.
Many blessings to every one of you, your families and churches.
Dear Church, brothers, and sisters in Christ! We are very grateful for your prayers and support towards the reconstruction of our Church building in Thailand, where less than 1% of the population are Christians.
Thank God for the nine people which opened their hearts and came to help, not only to build but also to cook, organizing day camps, giving clothes and toys to children, teaching English to government officials and encouraging local youth. Two other tribes, that we visited together and organized camps, were very grateful and encouraged by it. “Thank you for coming and organizing a camp in our place, you brought a lot of joy to children and many are encouraged to come to church or youth group” – said a pastor who works with people in that tribe. Our local youth also had a lot of opportunities to serve together and learn new things for the ministry. It was very active and full of many blessings.
During this time, we had a temporary bamboo shelter, where we continued all the activities. Now, as the school year started, we have a strong and safe building, where children, teens, and adults can come and learn about God and also, learn how to live life the way God meant it.
Thank you again to everyone who participated in this work, it made a big difference. Even though there are a lot of things accomplished, we are still continuing the work on our building, where we need to protect our roof from the heat, put some bricks around the metal frame and make our floor nice. If God puts in your heart to participate in this project, please make your donation towards this cause “church building”. May God richly bless every one of you!
These two ladies look very happy and grateful because now they can listen to Jesus’ story on their own, tribal language! One of them got a device and in the next few days brought another lady who was really asking to have the same. Even this elderly lady doesn’t move much, she found her strength to walk to the Church and get a story that she really wanted to hear! Please pray for these people who hear about God through these devices that God would give them an understanding and open their hearts for Him!
Ministry in Thailand – San and Anita, “Avoda” Thailand
The small tribal school that is up in the mountains with 140 students doesn’t have enough teachers and one teacher has to teach several subjects. English is being taught by showing videos. It seems like a very typical tribal school up in the mountains, but we believe that God has a special plan for this school!
Last August the teacher came to us with the request to teach in that school, but we said that we don’t have enough teachers who can go there and teach. A few days later we received a message from two young ladies. They said that they would like to come for one week and help in the ministry. We saw it as the answer to this need and planned a three-day camp at that school. It was such a blessed time, without any rain, during a rainy season, and at the end the teachers told all the students: “We didn’t have anyone to teach English in our school, but God heard and sent us these people who organized a camp for us”
And the principal said: Please come and teach our students about your God! These children come from poor families and by their believe they need to bring sacrifices, which make them suffer a lot, please teach them about God and how to live for Him!” This principle and teacher, who is a very strong Buddhist, is inviting us to teach about God in their school!
It is such a great opportunity, but we don’t have people who could do it! After that there was a school break and as a new semester was about to start, we thought again, how can we help: “Lord, but we don’t have enough people!” two days later I received a message from a young girl who said, “I just finished my school program and have two months to come and help in the ministry” Wow! That was the answer, these were exactly the two months before New Year! Even those it took her some time to come at the beginning of the month, God provided a team of young people who came spontaneously for two weeks, exactly for these two weeks that Irina needed for her preparations! God is great! We started teaching in this school by faith, that God will continue to bring people to continue the work! We have two days a week, where we teach English and one-hour Bible lesson for students with their teachers. Isn’t this great?
God’s work is great, and we invite you to join us, we are in need of a teacher for January and February, as it would be the end of the school year. Please if you can come and be a part of God’s work, or you can tell someone else who can come and maybe help financially for somebody to come. Or maybe you can pray that God would provide a person, this would make a big difference and bring glory to God! We also have a need for a teacher for our new school year May-July 2020. If you can speak English and have a big heart to serve the Lord, you are the right person!
