Mission in Focus



Praise the Lord!  Over 100 people of Lisu and Wa in Burma plus Lahu from Thailand have seen God’s grace and turned away from worshipping the evil ones to the Living God and His son, Jesus Christ as their own God and Lord through faith and baptism.  Several dozen Wa people are still waiting at the moment to receive the baptism; however, our evangelist, Kalip and his teammates could not make it to the village in the past weekend due to Kalip’s health problem. 

We are thankful to God who is moving among us and blessing us abundantly through our evangelistic efforts.  He has stretched out his gracious hands in saving people who live in the darkness through the Gospel of Jesus’ redemption.  We are also grateful for your faithful partnership with our mission works.  Because of you, we have been blessed greatly, without your partnering we would not be able to do what we have done.  Finally, we are thankful for our teammates and evangelists who tirelessly serve our Living God and Lord in carrying out the Great Commission to the lost people in Southeast Asia and China.



Our evangelist, Kalip, with new converts among Wa people

 Baptism among Lahu in Thailand (Yasa)

Mission works in Thailand,

The Bible conference on June 17-23 at Chiang Dao area was a real blessing one.  Praise the Lord!  This happened because of your prayers!  At first, we thought we would offer a family conference for churches at Chiang Dao area.  It turned out to be a Bible conference due to the health problem of our main speaker.  We also turned church into bible classes so that church leaders would be able to be rooted and based on God’s Word.  We have hardly seen such hungry people for God’s Word like this in Thailand.  A 54 year old leader came to us one night with tears in his eyes saying, “I haven’t seen this for the past 20 years.  I am very happy for this conference and I am looking for more conferences at our church in the following years.”  His words did really encourage us to continue to be faithful to and focus on God’s Word in every aspect of our lives and ministry.     



Stephen is teaching at the Bible conference 


 Ah Lay Bo is teaching at the Bible conference

At the moment, Asian International Seminary is considering whether we should or we shouldn’t offer biblical exegetical courses to another group of Christian leaders from Burma.  The first group of our students, mostly are Christian leaders from Thailand, has completed their studying courses.  The second group, from the central of Burma, is now at the verge of completing their courses.  Recently, we have received a strong request from Christian leaders from the north of Burma, particularly Myitkyina. 

If this is the Lord’s will, AIS will accept 5-7 Christian leaders.  They will come to Chiangmai to study with us for a block of time, about 45-50 days.  Then they have to go back to their homes and to continue their ministries.  They will come back again in the next following years.  Again, our policy is not to train someone to become Christian leader or servant.  We rather equip presently active Christian leaders to be rooted with God’s Word so that they will be able to serve the Lord effectively and productively with the biblical sound doctrine.

Mission works in Burma,

Over 50 of Wa people have been baptized into His Kingdom during the past few weeks.  More people are waiting for our evangelist, Kalip, to go to their village at Muang Jok.  Kalip has to walk 3-4 hours in order to reach to the place.  Kalip is over 70 years old.  We don’t know how long he will able to do so.  We are now sending him some funds so that he will be able to ride on a motorcycle to the village.    We are praying, if God is willing, to provide him a 125 cc of motorcycle (scooters if you are willing!) so that he will be able to reach more people and more villages.  The cost of the motorbike is $1500. 



Baptism for the Wa people 


Over 40 Lisu people at Loi Mo and Loi Tong Sar have been baptized in the past few weeks.  Loi Mo is the place where Stephen and his evangelistic team went during the past two months.  After the cultural barriers have been removed, now many Lisu people have come to the Living God and Lord.  Ah Lay Bo is our field leader who continues to carrying out the Great Commission to the pagan worshippers in those remote and restricted areas.  Ah Lay Bo is one of our students at Asian International School.  He is the father of two daughters; Docus and Hannah, and the husband of Ah Lee.  He is very talented not only on preaching but also evangelism.  He is now working hard in reaching out to the lost people among Lisu and Palong in the vast area of Shan state, Burma; extending from the tip at the border of Burma and Thailand to the very Northeast of Burma at the border of China.  Majority of non-believer Lisu people in his ministry area is growing opium as their main cash crop.  Over all, both Lisu and Palong worship the evil spirits.  Ah Lay Bo and his family need $ 350 a month to continue carrying out the Gospel of Jesus’ redemption to those atheists in the Shan state of Burma.  
    

Baptism at Loi Tong Sar, Burma 

Ah Lay Bo is performing a baptismal ceremony 

Baptism at Loi Mo 

More mission works are needed to be done in Burma; however, the workers are very few.  Bible training producing more barefoot evangelists is demanded so that every village will be swept and every person will hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  If God is willing, we (led by Ah Lay Bo) would like to train young Christians for evangelistic works in the Shan state of Burma.  Each train-group includes about 10 young Christians.  The training emphasizes on mission field, rather than a class-room.  Like the time of Jesus, Ah Lay Bo will turn his home into lecture rooms and his classrooms are at the mission fields so that biblical sound doctrine is applicable daily at the mission fields.  This way we won’t have to wait for several years in producing Christian workers.  They are trained and serve at the same time.  Please lift up this need in your daily prayers.   


Ah Lay Bo is a model for a barefoot evangelist




 Please pray also for this upcoming leadership conference on October 2013.  This conference will be the second time which offered to Christians at central Burma.  Our goal is not only to cultivate the Christian leaders with the Word of God, but also to mobilize them to carrying out the Great Commission to the lost people at the neighboring houses, villages, towns or to other ethnic groups of people.

Mission works in China

After three years of moving our focal ministry area from the south to the north of Yunan province, moving up to upper Lanchang River (Mae Kong River) where there are a handful of Christians and after making friends and personal evangelism with many of local authorities in the area, many non-believers have opened their hearts to hear the Gospel.  Many local authorities came to us and confessed that they want to accept Jesus Christ, if only they are not working at the government’s job.  There is a fundamental Chinese law forbidding every government worker to be a member of communist party.  Also, many local Christians in Yunan province informed us that the resistance from the local authorities has been dried out.  Praise the Lord!

Stephen’s trip to China on May 13-June 6 is very fruitful.  He was asked to teach not only how to read Lisu, but also to write about the Lisu culture and Lisu traditional songs.  He has done his first volume on the Lisu culture and traditional songs.  This book is hoping to help many Christian workers to understand the cultural context of Lisu people so that the gospel will be incarnated into the hearts of Lisu people.  The book will be printed in China and this moment some of Lisu people in China are translating this book into Chinese.


Stephen's helper in China for publishing his first book 

Family

Everyone of the Wong is doing well.  Stephen is busy for his evangelistic trips and teaching the Bible conference.  Mary is busy on taking Isaac back and forth from school and preparing her rice field to be ready for the next crop.  The rice production from the field is normally used for feeding the AIS’s students.  It was great to see Mary taking few days off from her daily works at home and joining the Bible conference by cooking several meals for those attendants.  Isaac is doing great at his school.  He is in advance on his English and Thai.  He begins to speak few words in Chinese.  Becky is moving back to her university dorm.  She is junior at the North-Chiangmai University.  John is on the school break.  He is growing a lot in the past several months and seems to keep growing.  We, the Wong family, are excited and anxious for Nick’s returning to Thailand and to start his ministry among the young people here in Southeast Asia and China.  He is now raising his mission fund so that he will be able to serve along with his dad and Asians For Christ.


Mary is cooking at the Bible conference 

Again, thank you very much for your faithfulness in partnering with us in carrying out the Great Commission to the lost people in the Southeast Asia and China and equipping Christian leaders and church members to be rooted in the Word of God so that His Kingdom will be expanded and His name will be lifted up among the people of the Southeast Asia and China.

Prayer Requests
1.      Evangelistic works among Lisu, Lahu, Wa and Shan people in Thailand, Burma and China.
2.      August-September, pray for the third group of AIS’ students.
3.      October, pray for a leadership conference at the central of Burma and possibly Stephen’s mission trip to China.
4.      November, pray for the second group of AIS’ students.
5.      December, pray for Christmas conventions.
6.      January-March, pray for our evangelistic works to the lost people in Burma and China.