The Dawning of a new Mission Era

Leadership conference at the Central of Burma

We have been very busy this month, but one highlight of our ministry this month was the leadership conference in central Burma.  It was one of the great blessings of 2012 for the entire team.  We had never seen people who were so hungry and with such zeal to learn God’s Word.  Some of them walked for 6 hours plus traveled another 6 hours by truck in order to attend the conference.  Even though the conference was during harvesting season, many left their farms and daily businesses in order to study God’s Word with us.  Over 100 Christian leaders from over 30 different churches from the Shan States of Burma attended.  The church building was packed from 9:00am - 4:00pm for teaching and 6:00pm - 8:00pm for night service. It was a great turnout.  One leader said, “It is a turning point in our faith.” Many more requested and are looking forward to the next conference in 2013. 

Group picture of the Local Church

Our teachings focused on 4 knowings; knowing me, knowing others, knowing the Word, and Knowing God.  Stephen’s teaching emphasized on being God’s fully dwelling temple based on his exegesis on the book of Ephesians.  Thomas taught on being God’s leaders, and all leaders were very excited when we gave a personality test and spiritual gift test so that they would know how to serve our Living God and Lord according to their specific personality and spiritual gift. 

 These ladies walked six hours to study God's word with us. 

Personality and Spiritual gifting tests

Stephen Preaching Sunday afternoon

By the help of IDES, we also had a chance to give away about 100 mosquito nets as the first step in getting rid of malaria in the area (and setting and over 100 of TB patients).  It was a blessing to show God’s love to Christian brothers and sister from the other side of the world through giving medication. Besides, Alicia taught a class on health and hygiene from the biblical perspective.  This wholistic ministry hopefully will mobilize them to be a healthy church both spiritually and physically.

One of our team, Jim (a missionary from Australia) mobilized all the church leaders to recall the evangelistic history.  In the past, Lisu evangelists did a great job in carrying out the Great Commission to the lost souls in the Shan Sates, (also Kachin States).  After they converted into His Kingdom, many Lisu churches had sent many barefoot evangelists to win over Lahu, Hmong, Wa and Chinese (to Rawang in Kachi States).  The evangelism died out during the unsettlement of Burma political crisis.  Now it’s time to rewrite this history of mission so many lost ethnic groups of people will see the light that shines through God’s unique son, Jesus Christ.   

A Dawn of Evangelism

According to the Joshua Project, Burma is considered to be one of the largest unreached people in the world.  Many tribes still have never heard the Gospel and don’t have the Bible in their languages. So far, among the Yin and Paung people, there is no one converted among these people.  At this moment, several missions groups are trying hard to win Shan people, but only a handful of Shan people have accepted Jesus Christ.  Many thousands of Lisu people live along the Salween River in the Shan state of Burma.  The Salween River is an international river, originating from the Himalayas in the Tibetan plateau, it flows southward through Yannan Province of China, down through Shan and Kayah States in the East of Burma, and along the Thai-Burma border, passing through Kayin and Mon States to the Andaman Sea at the Gulf of Martaban.  Tens of thousands of Lisu people live along this river from the very border of China-Burma to the Kayah States.  Most of these Lisu people have never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Living in a very remote area on mountains, they are still worshipping evil spirits and growing opium as the main cash crop.  Several young Lisu evangelists have been sent to some of these areas to evangelize, but they couldn’t find a way to connect with these people.  Some of those young evangelists came to Stephen during the leadership conference and made requests that Stephen go with them to these remote areas in order to win them for Jesus Christ, since Stephen once used to worship the evil spirits and has a long life experience in winning these types people. 

Map of Shan state Burma

We are scheduling to make this evangelistic trip happen this March, 2013.  Now we are recruiting a group of people to go and churches to pray consistently for the evangelistic group.  As the Bible says “we are not against flesh and blood, but against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness, in the heavenly places…” (Ephesians 6:12 NASB).

Red light street ministry

This year for thanksgiving our family went to the church at red-light street in one of the slums of inner city Chiangmai.  At first glance the church is not pleasant, however, the worship hymns and songs really brought our spirits high and made us feel very close to God’s throne at the center of the universe.  Praise the Lord!  This church was founded by one of our evangelists, Yeesa.  

Yeesa and his wife Naomi

The church is established next to karaoke shops and night light drinking shops.  In Thailand, karaoke and drinking shops have a negative connotation, particularly, sexual industry.  Yeesa rents a little room and works hard to reach the people in the area with the Love of God.  Now this church is growing in number (over 60 people attend every Sunday service).  Most members of this church are immigrants, who sell their labor for daily food.  Each month the church struggles to pay their rent, your prayers are much appreciated. 

Family

The Wongratanamajcha’s are doing great.  Stephen is busy preparing for evangelistic trips, while Mary is very busy taking care off the family and children.  Becky is taking Chinese as her third language.  Isaac has been accepted into his new school under the English program.  He will also learn Chinese since he can speak both English and Thai well.  John is enjoying his classes and busy learning the drums.  Various mission works are needed at John’s school, Grace International School, please check out the website www.gisthailand.org

Thank you very much for your faithfulness in supporting financially and prayerfully our ministry and family.

In Christ’s Love,

Stephen and Mary

Wongs on October

Great time with the family
The last couple weeks have been a lot of fun due to the children being out of school and Stephen’s biblical class for Thailand Christian leaders being on break, so did Mary. Recently we have had a lot more time to spend together as a family by watching movies, playing games, bowling, and other fun activities. Just about two months ago Thomas has joined us here in Thailand to help with our mission. It has been a blessing having him on board. Especially now that Stephen has a mission buddy to travel, sleep, and chat with along the way.

Our ministry
Our ministry will now be more focused on reaching out using outdoor ministry because the rainy season is now over. The last couple of months have been primarily focused on teaching indoors due to the rain.

We have been preparing for the leadership conference in Burma, we will leave the 31st of October and will return the 12th November. We are planning to host over 100 Christian leaders, including teachers, pastors, and other leaders from around central Burma. We are planning on using wholistic missions during this trip. Beside of teaching biblical and theological courses, with the help of IDES, we will provide medications for various diseases and mosquito nets. This leadership conference has been requested for over three years, and finally God has prepared the personnel and finances to make this trip happen. Your prayers for safe traveling and support concerning this trip are much appreciated.

Group meeting to prepare for Leadership Conference

 

We are praying more ministry will be done in Burma now that the country is starting to become more open to ministry. We are hoping that we will make an evangelistic trip as a group all the way from Thailand to the Border of India coming this March and April. With this evangelistic trip, we are hoping to sweep through most of the villages in the region. If God is willing we will harvest many souls. Since no one has done this before, it is important that you lift this plan up in prayer.

Reaching out to Shan people

Shan are immigrant from Burma coming to Thailand to sell their daily labors. They had to leave their own homes and lands due to the unstable condition of Burma in the past. As being alien, most of them are living in very poor condition. Shan has been our target of the wholistic ministry, we are reaching their children through free English teaching and sport ministry program. Almost every evening their children would be packed at our place, playing soccer, running around and sometimes eating dinner with us.

Shan children playing soccer

Last week, just after finishing dinner, one of our Shan neighbor women brought her old mother to see us at our house. Her mother, name Buo, was very sick with TB and needed help financially to pay for medical treatment. We offered to pay the $30 for her treatment and she kindly accepted. Stephen asked if we could pray with them, but they refused prayer. However, before they left our place, Stephen challenged the sick mother to ask help from our living God.

The next morning we received a message, “The Mother and daughter would be back tonight to receive prayer!” The night before, when the sick woman had arrived home she prayed to God just before laying down for bed. That night she had pleasant dreams. It was the first time in a long time her late husband wasn't haunting her dreams by beating her. The next morning she found she could function properly, eat well, and most of all she had peace in her heart. The mother and daughter have been back twice since that night to receive prayer and encouragement with the Word of God.

Buo and her daughter

A non-Christian friend of Stephen, name is Noi, who is a great musician used to go with Stephen to the villages to hear him preach the Word of God. However, we have been disconnected for the past 10 years or so. As it turns out, Noi has really been struggling with spiritual issues lately and has been searching for Stephen for past 10 years. He knew Stephen had preached God’s word for many years and could lead him down the right path. He received our contact information somehow and ended up finding us this last week. He told us that he remembered the words Stephen had spoken over ten years ago! He was very eager to discuss spiritual issues with him. After spending most of the day with our family, Stephen challenged him to consider and pray to the God our family is serving, the God of the universe. Mary handed him the Bible and as he left he was moved to tears. Please pray for Noi, that God would lead him into Himself and praise God for the work He has been doing!

Please keep our family in prayers, Johnny has been struggling badly with his tonsillitis and we are praying to find the best solution for this issue.

Again, thank you all for your faithfulness in supporting us prayerfully and financially. You all are in our daily prayers.

For the Sake of His Kingdom,
Stephen and Mary

Ps. Various mission works are needed at Grace Intenational School, please check out the website www.gisthailand.org

Burma in Focus

Praise the Lord for answering prayers! Stephen has not been on a mission trip to Burma for 12 years. Because of an increase in request of Christian leaders in Burma for a leadership conference, Stephen took a trip to central Burma to meet with many prominent leaders to discuss this request. God answered many prayers and opened the door to make a mission trip to this area.

Mission group taken before departure at Chiang Mai airport

Last year 100 of Lisu leaders came together to meet, but there was no teacher to teach them. Stephen felt very bad for them when he heard this news. After this recent trip and meeting and discussing with the leaders, we have agreed that the first week in November will be best to hold a leadership conference for preachers, leaders, elder, and evangelists in central Burma.

Burma at this moment has changed a lot. It has improved dramatically from a political viewpoint. The country has been opened to travelers and we have seen many foreigners traveling inside the country. People have more freedom to travel around inside the country. We saw a lot of new transportation opportunities through bus and airplane. The country looks nicer than it used to be. We saw hardly any military personnel in the streets. We saw more police control, rather than soldiers. All of this is a good sign, especially for Christians to spread God’s Word in this Buddhism-dominant country. As you may know, Buddhism in Burma is stronger and stricter than Buddhism in Thailand. Hopefully in the near future, mission works will be done more in Burma.

A common taxi at Maymou

Taken with a group of Christian leaders at central Burma

However, the life conditions of the common people are very bad. Most of them are struggling for their daily food because they have no jobs. The gap between the social classes is still very wide – the rich are very, very rich while the poor are very, very poor. Many of them could not meet their daily needs. During this trip, we have seen and met various sick people. Most of them are suffering from TB infection and malaria breakout. We met one lady who was suffering at her bed. She complained that it was very painful when she breathes. This first happened almost six months ago. One of our team asked her why she did not go to the hospital, since the hospital is not far from her house. She responded that she has no money to go. However, she asked us to pray for her. So, we did pray for her. We saw many other people suffering like this lady.

Yohanna was suffering with TB

Martha who was cured of TB 12 years ago

Anna who is suffering with malaria

Giving medicine that we brought with us

This lady is suffering from TB

The hindsight of this mission trip is that God allowed Stephen to have a chance to spend time with a Senator and Chief Minister from Shan state, who are both Christians. They host him for the night and spend time to talk with him about the future ministry of Asians For Christ/ACMInternational. They are willing to oversee all of the future mission works in Burma, particularly in Shan state. We thank God for this because we have seen that we can do a lot of mission work, especially bringing the Good News to the lost people in this area.

Thank you very much for your prayers and support.

In Christ’s Love,
Stephen and his teammates

Ps. Various mission works are needed at John's school, Grace International School, please check out the web www.gisthailand.org

Wong in Focus

In the past two months, our family has been very busy, both in family business and activities and ministry. However, God is very faithful in taking care of every need from the smallest to the greatest need. Since our time is very busy and a full schedule, taking children to school is a load on Mary’s shoulders. Mary drives Isaac every morning to school and brings him home every afternoon. John’s school is a different direction from Isaac and very far from our site. A few days before his school start, his regular taxi driver called us to cancel taking him to and from school. This matter seems very matter, but it really impacts the ministry of our family. We set a time to pray especially for this with friends and students both from Burma and Thailand. At the moment after we prayed and said “Amen”, the phone rang. Mary answered and a taxi driver called us to tell us that he wants to drive Johnny to school. God is good and faithful even with a minor thing. Praise the Lord!

We appreciate you keep Isaac in your prayers because he is struggling with his friends who are Buddhist. He told us that he have a big conflict with friends who tried to challenge him and force him to pray to Buddhist god. He strongly reject that and his friend tried to physically abuse him. A good thing was that he challenged them that believing God is better. He went to the teacher and the teacher make all his friends apologize to him. Living in this country that is dominantly Buddhist is not easy and keeping faith in God has started from a very young age. Pray that he will continue to commit and be strong in his faith throughout his life. 

Mary helping Isaac with homework and making paper animals

 Beside taking care of children, Mary is also busy cooking for our students of AIS and taking care of the rice farm. Now the rainy season has start, so the new crop need to be planted so that we will have a supply enough for the following year. Mary has done a great job on this. As you may know, this rice that Mary plant will be used for family, for ministry, for students, and for guests.

Rice planting

 Stephen has been busy in teaching. Mostly 6 hours a day from Monday to Friday. Monday he teaches a group of leaders from Thailand. Tuesday to Friday he teaches a group of leaders from Burma. He taught Romans, Hebrews, James, and Philippians. We appreciate very much for Saengduan and Isaiah who came and help teaching in Greek and theology. We also appreciate for Alicia taking time while studying Thai to teach English to the group of Burmese leaders. All the course, particularly for the leaders from Burma will be finished this week.

Stephen teaching leaders from Thailand

 Stephen ended the course giving a lecture to 16 undergraduate students from Japan who most are majoring in anthropology. He gave a two hour lecture on Christianity and Lisu, particularly why do Lisu people believe in Jesus Christ to these students who flew directly from Japan in order to attend Stephen's lectureship. Hopefully, the gospel seed that was planted will grow and bear fruit in the Light in these students. Stephen see that this is a great privilege to have the opportunity to share his faith and life to people that he never thought he would before.

Stephen teaching to students from Japan

 

Evangelism among the Wa people at the border of Thailand and Burma is continuing to be very challenging. One major challenge is the culture difference, which causes significant impact. One example is in a village, a tree was struck by lightning few weeks ago. The Wa people were very scared because they thought this was a judgment from God. They went to our evangelists living with them for help. The evangelists called us for direction in how to handle this. We shared with them to explain that God sometimes changes bad things to good. Through this happening and through prayer, the Wa people are no longer scared and the village may turn to Christ soon. Please keep this village in your prayers. We believe that soon God will see the result and we will harvest souls due to this event.

Since our evangelistic work has spread throughout Thailand, Burma, and China, we also appreciate your prayers for some of our native evangelists who have gone to China to do mission work there among the Lahu people. Please pray for their safety and courage to proclaim the truth about Jesus Christ to the people who used to live in the darkness and restricted environment.

This coming September 2^nd, pray also for Stephen and Alicia who will go to Burma with the group of leaders from Burma in order to with their own eyes and have a first-hand experience about the need of health and hygiene among the Lisu and Hmong people in Burma. We have heard that there is an epidemic of malaria and the breakout of TB at this moment in the area from our students. Also, we have been strongly requested to offer them a conference for Christian leaders emphasizing on biblical studying. We want to go there and see how we can offer a leadership conference this upcoming November 2012.

We are continue to thank God for adding more workers in the field. A young college graduate from Nebraska Christian College, Thomas Anderson, will arrive to Thailand soon to help us in the area of leadership conference. Thomas Anderson is sent by the Alliance of Christian Missions International (ACMI), who is co-working with Asians for Christ. After his arrival, Stephen will have someone to travel with to make more evangelistic trips and a teaching partner. 

The children ministry reaching out to the Shan people in our neighborhood with teaching English has been growing. We see that now it might be a good time that we will show them some Christian cartoons or Christian movies in the class. We would like to offer more class, especially in the evening after school to help tutor them and have more activities, such as a sport ministry, with them. In order to fulfill this, we need your participation in donating a projector and a basketball court (half-court). We can use the court for other games as well. So far we have only a table tennis, which we also use for the classroom table.

Children's English class

Thank you very much for your continual faithfulness in partnership with us to advance God’s Kingdom in Southeast Asia and China.

July 2012

At last, we have time to sit down and update this blog so that you can pray and give praise to God with us on how our living God and Lord work through our lives and ministry so that the world around will know Him.

Normally, our family has set June to be our family holiday since Becky and John would be out of their school and Isaac is at the beginning stage of his school. However, this past June things had turned out differently. Our family holiday, which was set to go beach where our children long to go since they have never been in Thailand yet, had to be cancelled. Instead, most of our time was spent at hospital. Begin with Isaac and then John and finally Mary, almost three weeks period was spent at the hospital. Praise the Lord! We all have been very great since then.

IDES:
Stephen had to make a quick mission trip to China at the first two weeks of July to deliver the help from IDES to the area where it was hit by five-year severe drought. Perhaps, this was the first turning point for the Lisu people at the area having experienced God’s Love in a touchable way. Many local authorities in the area had helped Stephen to carry out his task by providing transportation and personals. It was a touching moment to see Lisu people at the area who walk 5 hours, others are 3 hours, to come and receive the basic needs, for instance, rice and cooking oil. Some carried those back to their homes with horses and others on their shoulders. Through the help of ACMI, we were able to give out 670 Bibles to these people as well. It has been an outpouring of Christ’s love to comfort those people who are in need. This deed has been Jesus’ arms of love to guide the Lisu people in that area in need. I believe God has truly been glorified through this circumstance that has enabled us to exemplify Christ in people’s lives. At one point, local news reporter interviewed why Stephen did such a thing. Stephen told the TV reporter that all those gifts came from IDES and the main reasons that people given because of Love from Above. Through this ministry, Stephen has seen a grand door opening for winning the lost souls among Lisu people in China.

Leadership training through biblical studies:
Asia International Seminary is our main avenue for Christian leadership training through biblical studies. We believe that knowing God’s Word and applying it properly is the key for church growth in Southeast Asia and China. Without knowing God’s Word, the root of faith is shakable, and perhaps is in danger. Every year during the raining season AIS offer courses for Christian leaders who are presently active in ministry to come together and study His Word. The Thai Christian leaders are meeting on every Monday, but students from other countries, different areas in Burma and China, are meeting at a block of time, then they go back to their home country, back to their families, back to the churches or their mission field. This year we have 2 groups of students from Burma. The first group has arrived and is doing their intensive studying at the moment. The second will arrive soon. Please keep them in your prayers.

We would like to introduce you to one of the students studying, Samee Khi. He is from the town Myitkina in the north part of Myanmar. He graduated from the Eastern Bible Institute in Yangon, Myanmar. He is teaching at Life Bible College at Myitkina. He is evangelizing in China during the break from school. He is just married to Ahna. He wants to know more of God’s Word. After learning from here, he has a deep confidence in God’s Word, which helps him to have strength to work more confidently. He feels that the Word that he presents to people comes from God. This is why he just left soon after getting married, to study and then return home to teach. Please pray for his family during this time.

Children Ministry:
We have offered English class on Saturday to children in our neighborhood. This program was led by Alicia and is very successful in reaching those children. The number of these children is growing up to 21. So, they divide them into two classes. Mary and Becky are working on preschool kids and Alicia with grade school kids. They are very enthusiastic and enjoy learning very much. Normally, the class will start at 9 Am, often they arrive at 7 Am. Gradually, Alicia puts bible stories into the lessons. Hopefully, these children will grow up God’s Word and one day they will find their salvation through the Name of Jesus Christ.

Prayer Requests:
There is need of medical care in China, on the border between former Tibet and China. The majority of Lisu people living in this area are not Christian. Since our medical mission trips in Thailand & Burma have been effective avenues for evangelism, we would like to have a medical mission in this area in China as well in 2013. To make this happen, we need to have a lot of people involved, especially medical personnel, and someone to coordinate a team from America, while I coordinate on this side. Our most important issue is safety, but at this moment, it seems that everything is open. Please pray about this ministry opportunity.

Many non-Christian leaders in China desire to read the Lisu language. They request Stephen to offer them a course to learn to read. Stephen sees that this is a great avenue for reaching them for Christ since the Bible is the only avenue to practice the written Lisu language. Stephen believes that as the Living Word, God will work through it and their practice in reading to reach these people. We are looking for the best time to offer this class in China.

China Mission Trip 2012

It was a great mission trip. This was my first mission trip to most of the areas I visited. It was a trip to open a mission door to the area. My journey included flight, car, train, boat and walking. I have been so blessed by this mission trip. The 21 day trip was focused on unreached Lisu people, people who have never heard the good news of Jesus Christ. At some places there were about 30,000 of Lisu people, but no believer at all. Another place, there were 80.000, but only 1,600 Christians. There are very little Christians; all the people worship spirits. My soul was challenged and my heart was burdened to reach these souls for Christ. My heart breaks for these Lisu people as we see many counties without the true gospel, villages without church. I can’t control the tears in my heart. My heart breaks for them. All those places need man of truth who will spread the Word. I can’t wait to make a difference in these Lisu people. I am hoping many mission works to be done here in the near future.

During this mission trip, as a group we went to one of the very remote area. We walked about 10 hours to this place (my body was sore for 3 days after the trip). There has been severe drought and famine going around at this area; no rain and no crops for over 4 years and this year will be their fifth. People looked so hungry and poor. The children looked very unhealthy, with old and smelling ragged clothes. However, they showed their very warm welcome to our group. In fact, they fed us weeds for supper that night. As we reached the village, we noticed that many dogs were barking. Those dogs are so lean, I was afraid that the wind could blow them away, but they seem to do their honoring duty. Our hearts were melted down and tears were streaming down when we went inside their homes. Truly, I have never seen such a drought and famine like this throughout my entire life. So, I gave great thanks to God.

Before reaching to the drought area, God had prepared me with abundant life and food. A group of Lisu local leaders and business men, about 200 people, at Hua Ping invited me to give them a speech on Christianity and the Lisu culture. God had really honored me through this group of people. They put our group into the best hotel in the town and gave me probably one of the best rooms of the hotel (while the following days I slept on the ground with a mat). This reminds me what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:4, 8, 10, “As servants of God we commend ourselves in every way…through glory and dishonor...sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; having nothing, and yet possessing everything…”

Taken during the 10 hour walk to the village

Gathering where I was asked to speak

Group picture with Lisu at Hua Ping

These ladies were excited to see a Lisu person from another country.
They were thinking that I'm not true Lisu. 

Preparing to give a speech to the business and local leaders

Giving speech to business men and local leaders

Group picture with business men and local leaders - all Lisu people

God honored me through an invitation to dinner after giving the speech

Group of Lisu people the following night in the village Yong Seng

Beautiful Lisu dress - different from other places

Taken during the 10 hour walk

Typical Lisu house at Yong Seng

Actually, though Lisu people are animists, they know that God is the Creator. Indeed this Creator God, for Lisu people, is the supreme. They just don't know the proper way to worship Him. I told them that Jesus is the proper way to worship the Creator God. Their critical question is not about "is this true?" Rather they ask "how?" Therefore, the emphasis of Lisu people like many Asians is on practical theology. Their concerns are more on how to relate this new faith and new way of life to their daily lives, culture, social and ethnic identity. Is Jesus able to relate to their daily problems? All these remind me of the postmodern class at Seminary. As someone says "Theology is created at the mission field," I was so excited and alive to discuss such living theology at the mission field. My faith also is growing at the mission field.

God has really been working in my life, and he has really been revealing His will to me more and more. I am writing you this letter to share with you a challenging ministry opportunity that is lying ahead of us. The evangelistic door has been opened. I saw a lot of things on my way. The harvest is truly plenty, but the laborers are few. First, most of those Lisu want to learn how to read in Lisu. If only we can send some native evangelists to teach them how to read Lisu language, which leads to reading the Bible, because the Bible is the only avenue for practicing reading in Lisu language. Second, the native evangelists continue the works that our group had laid and who are able to deal God’s Word with the daily lives of Lisu people. Sooner or later, I believe many thousand souls will turn to Jesus and accept Him as their own Lord and God.

It is my hope and plan to send about 5 to 10 native evangelists to this area, but we need support for them both in prayer and financially. Thank you all for your continued support in prayer and financially for our ministry. My gratitude goes also to my family who sacrificed the family life during this mission trip. Thanks also to everyone who helped my family while I was gone to make our house still warm while I was gone.

In Christ's Love,
Stephen

April 2012

Carrying out the Great Commission to the lost people has been our major goal since our mission was founded. We value the souls of those lost people, particularly people who live in restricted regions in China, Myanmar, and Laos, and their need of Jesus' redemption. This is why we do everything possible in order to win them for Jesus Christ.

Praise the Lord for frequently blessing us with many souls! This past month, March, 31 people were baptized. 25 of them are Wa people who live at the border area between Thailand and Myanmar. The area is marked as the source of amphetamine. This narcotic is manufactured, widely used, and easily found in this restricted area. The Wa people are known as spirit-worshipers. They worship many spirits-tree, mountains, river, and even rocks. Many times, they use all their means and their domestic animals such as pigs, chickens, cows, and buffaloes to sacrifice to those spirits. Indeed, sacrifice is demanded. If any person or family is under this spiritual oppression, they would possibly lose every means of life just to please those spirits. The gospel of Jesus' redemption becomes their only hope. They have been liberated both their physical and spiritual oppression. Still many thousands of lost souls needed to hear the good news of Jesus' redemption. Please keep those lost, the new converts, and our field-evangelists in your prayers. 

Wa village in Burma

House church service

As usual, Stephen's mission trip to China is scheduled on April 23-May 15, 2012. He is planning to go to Lijiang, Linglang, Yoseng, and Huaping. There are over 200,000 Lisu people in these areas. It is one of the most Lisu-populated area in China. However, this area is one of the least numbers of Lisu Christians in China. There are only 6,000 Christians. Our mission has built very solid personal relationships with local authorities there. On several occasions we have demonstrated to those particular leaders that Christianity does not threaten their traditional culture. The major difference is that we worship the True and Living God, not the god of our ancestors or any other evil spirits who claim to be god. Please pray that the small seed of the Gospel that we have planted throughout various seasons will produce great fruits and many souls will be harvested during this mission trip and the upcoming years. Our special gratitude goes to Monroeville Christian Church who provided the extra financial support to make this evangelistic trip happen. 

Making disciples in Southeast Asia and China is another goal of our mission. We are trying our best to teach Christians to be rooted in God's Word and live faithfully according to His Word in various contexts: congregational, conference, and seminar. During the Thai New Year, Songkran, a camp was offered on April 13-20 for an alternative celebration. Stephen was invited to teach the book of James at this camp to adults, particular to church leaders and evangelists. Praise the Lord! 13 youth were baptized at this camp. 

Asia International Seminary (AIS) is another avenue for teaching Christian leaders. It is on break for two months, April and May, for the summer and will be open again on June. By then, besides our regular students from Thailand, we will be busy equipping several ministers from Myanmar who will come and receive biblical training with us at AIS for a block of two months.

Becky and Isaac are on their summer school break. John has two-week break during Songkran, so he went to an alternative camp. We much appreciate you keeping Mary in your prayers. She really needs God's strength to continue in her humble services. Mary is the busiest person among all of us. She provides for everyone's needs tirelessly with her talents. She is always well-spoken of by guests and neighbors. She is the real blessed one!

Much appreciate your faithfulness in partnering with us in carrying out the Great Commission to the lost souls and making disciples in Southeast Asia and China.

In Christ's Love,
Stephen and Mary