We would like to
take this “Thanksgiving” season to first thank God for His grace in liberating
us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Light, from worshipping the
evil ones and the spirits of our ancestors to serving Him, the true and Living
God. We also thank all of you who have
been our faithful partners for carrying out the Great Commission in Southeast
Asia and China and for being the faithful channels of His blessings for our
family and ministries.
Since Stephen will
have to make almost a month long mission trip (Joe Snyder and Nick will join
him on December 14-22) to the very north of Myanmar for biblical teaching to
all Bible teachers in the area of Myitkyina, we would also like to take this
occasion to brief you about the lives and ministry of the Wongratanamajcha
throughout the year of 2014. As you have
known already, our ministry always emphasize on a wholistic ministry, focusing
on a person as a whole being for life-transforming both in spiritual and
physical dimensions. Our ministry is not
changing a person from one’s religion to another, but one’s whole life which is
transformed after accepting Lord Jesus as one’s own Lord and God. The spiritual dimension can be nailed down
into 3E’s: evangelism, equipping and empowering.
Evangelism:
Evangelism for us
means carrying out the Gospel of Jesus’ redemption to the lost souls or
unbelievers and to those who have never heard the gospel. Without being ignorant to our neighboring
unbelievers, many of these people happen to live in restricted areas or very
remote villages. Thanks to God for He
has been faithful in adding a good number of people to His Kingdom during this
past year, whether in Thailand, Myanmar and even in China both through
ourselves or our teammates. We have
always reminded ourselves not to boast on those numbers! It is indeed His ministry (not ours), we are
only His tool. Praise the Lord!
However, we are
anxious to bring more people to His Kingdom, particularly to those who have
never had an opportunity to hear God’s Word.
We are praying this coming year of 2015, the evangelistic door in Laos
would be opened for us. As we mentioned
in our previous letters that they are Lisu people in Laos who have never heard
the gospel of Jesus. And we did prepare
a lot of time in the past few months, but it seems that the door has not been opened
for us yet.
This coming
summer of 2015, we are planning, if God is willing, to carry out the Great
commission of Jesus along the border areas on the mountain ranges between
western China and Myanmar. There are
hundreds of thousands of Lisu people both in China (Yinjiang-Tengchong) and in
Myanmar (Lasio-Myityina). These Lisu
people are still worshipping the evil spirits and their ancestors, and many of
them, particularly in Myanmar side, are still growing opium as their main cash
crop. Also, over two hundred thousand
non-believer Lisus in Lichiang areas has requested for us to teach them how to
read the Lisu language so that they will be able to read the Bible. Sadly this request has not been met yet. Please lift us all and these evangelistic
needs to be fulfilled according to God’s will.
Equipping:
For several
years, a great number of Wa people at the border of Thailand and Myanmar have
turned to the Lord. After helping many
years and providing several thousands of Bibles, we (as we did to the Wa
Christian in China) now are advising them to become self-supporting churches,
self-governing and self-evangelistic churches.
However, we will be available to provide them spiritual food through
teaching them God’s Word. We are now
turning them from evangelistic to be an equipping stage.
As you have
known, Myanmar has changed drastically in the past few years. Myanmar has become a more and more open to
foreigners and foreign businesses along with foreign missionaries. Once Deng Xiaoping, a former chairman of
China warned his Chinese people when he broke down the Chinese Bamboo
Wall. He astutely compared his opening
country with an open house door. He said
something like this: “when you open your door you have to be careful for both
good and bad animals would enter into your house.” The wise knew to take the best out of them.
In the past few
years, we have tried hard to teach God’s Word to several hundred thousand of
Lisu Christians in Myanmar to be ready through various occasions; leadership
conferences and youth camps for the changing so that they would be rooted with
God’s Word before the storm of human teachings and modern technologies come,
lure and ruin their spiritual lives.
Our focal
emphasis on equipping is Asia International Seminary (AIS). Since September 2009, we have started AIS to
offer an opportunity to many of those who desired to study deeply in God’s Word
while working full time in their ministries. We have had the great privilege of hosting
Christian key leaders from Thailand and Myanmar at our house while teaching
them the Word of God at Asia International Seminary. This is one of the many wonderful ministries
that God has blessed us with. This type
of ministry has become a model for many other Bible schools. Indeed, we are so proud of these students who
are now solidly rooted their lives and ministry with God’s Word.
Empowering:
Now we are
planning to empower our students by mobilizing them to teach other Christians
in their home country. Throughout their
studying times in Thailand, we always took these students out during the weekend
to practice in teaching and preaching on what they had learned during the
week. Many churches in Thailand have
been blessed through this weekend ministry of the students. Now we anticipate that many churches in
Myanmar will receive such same blessings.
Above all, in the coming years, if God is willing, we would like to
offer these exegetical courses in Myanmar which are mainly taught by the
students of AIS so that our future students in Myanmar would not have to come
to Thailand. In this way, church members
in Myanmar will gain the fruits of our empowering process.
A Samaritan
Ministry:
Our Samaritan ministry
is visible and tangible for many people to acknowledge God’s love for all human
beings without discrimination not only through our preaching words but also
through our deeds, meeting the physical needs of the people. Throughout the year of 2014, with the one-time
help from IDES and Lincoln Christian Church, we were able to drill water and
build a water system for over sixty orphans and over hundreds of Bible students
in the Northeastern part of Myanmar. This
water system became the main source for their daily usage; cooking, drinking
and etc. Many hundreds of local people,
both Christians and non-Christians are able to “Thank” God through this water
supply. Moreover, with the one-time help
of IDES, over 60 TB (tuberculosis) patients , at least twenty one of them are
under age of ten and six of them are a little over a year old, have been saved
from this deadly disease. Over 100
malaria patients have been cured and over 300 mosquito nets have been distributed
in order to prevent this fatal sickness. The TB and Malaria program covers the central
part of Myanmar to the very northern part, the hidden valley, of Myanmar. Praise the Lord!
Cultural
sensitivity:
In the past, the
majority of non-believers felt that Christianity belonged to the West. In the same token, most believers do not know
how to handle with the Lisu culture.
They don’t feel at home between their faith and their daily cultural
setting. They felt that Christianity is incongruent with their culture. It’s
even worst to see the animosity or division between believers and non-believers
because of Christianity and culture.
Since we have
returned into the mission field, we have tried to bridge these differences through
the wholistic mindset via a cultural sensitivity. In the past March, with the participation of
several missionaries, we held the Lisu cultural conference for the second
time. At one evening over 30,000 Lisu
people from Thailand, China and Myanmar attended at this conference. The wall of hostility between believers and
non-believers has been mostly torn down.
Many of the non-believers in some villages in Thailand have started to
learn the Lisu alphabet. Several key
non-believer leaders at the Lisu autonomic areas in China have requested us to
teach their people how to read the Lisu language. This is ultimately leading them to read the
Lisu Bible. Most of them have a very
positive perspective on Christianity.
They have acknowledged that Christianity is well congruent with the Lisu
culture, if one knows how to apply them correctly into their daily lives.
Family Life:
Every one of the
Wongratanamajcha has been a real blessing to the family life and ministry. Besides Isaac, the rest are enrolled in the
ministry according to each individual’s gift.
Mary has organized our site being the living environment to congruent
with a farm nature; growing rice, raising chickens, planting vegetable and
seasonal fruits (banana, papaya, mango, lemon, and etc.) which all are used for
self-consumption. She has taken care of
daily needs for the family, students, visitors and even neighboring displaced
children. She often took times off to
visit a hospital downtown and brought food for those patients and relatives who
came from the mountains. Becky, Nick and
John have taken turns in teaching English to our AIS’ students. During school breaks or Saturdays, Becky has
also taught English to the dislocated children.
Becky is now on her last semester at her university. Nick has taught English for a living while
continuing to raise his youth ministry support.
Often, he took his time off to make mission trips with his dad so that
he would be able to be equipped. Almost
every weekend he followed his dad to visit churches at villages on the mountain
and preach alongside his dad or sometimes with the students of AIS. John has changed dramatically throughout the
year. He has grown and matured even
though he is in 11th grade and he is still keep growing. As always, Isaac has been the “laughter” bringing
smiles to everyone. He is studying
English, Thai, and Chinese at his bilingual school plus he speaks Lisu at
home. His English is at the top of his
class. He has surprised his teachers on
his Thai test. Over all, throughout the
year, our family has daily various reasons to “Thank” God and we are continuing
to anticipate the greater blessings, and on occasions both family life and
ministry wise to praise Him even more in the coming years.
May the Living
God that we are serving now bless you all with His grace and mercy for your
faithful partnering with us in carrying out the Great Commission in Southeast
Asia and China. We believe the power on your
knees in prayers and the power of our feet in carrying out the Truth of the Gospel
of Jesus’ redemption will turn the world of darkness into His Kingdom.
In Christ Alone,
Stephen, Mary,
Becky, Nick, John and Isaac
