Happy New Year! We hope you had a great time during the past Christmas and the New Year celebrations. We pray that God will be with you and bless you abundantly throughout the year of 2016. We also thank God for being such a gracious God. We cannot stop thanking Him enough, nor express the appreciation of the countless blessings we have experienced throughout the year of 2015. So, we would like to invite you to join us in praising and thanking God for the past and pray for His guidance for the year of 2016.
We thank God particularly for the special gift of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, so that whoever believes in Him may not perish, but may have an eternal life. This past Christmas really touched our hearts and souls about how God loves the world. Especially, when we attended the Christmas event where there was no Santa Clause, but solely Jesus Christ; no Christmas tree, but the Bible; not family oriented, but church oriented; no Christmas gifts, but only God’s messages. This year, the Wongs attended a Christmas celebration at Huay Ko village; around 1,000 people attended in regular worship services at this week long event. The event began about a week before the 25th and each day contains three services; morning, noon and evening service. Each service was filled with worship and sermons from different preachers. Stephen was blessed and honored to preach on the Christmas day service where he shared what Christmas is really about, Jesus Christ. We were also blessed to host a group of gospel singers from Myitkhina led by Sarmoekhi, Stephen’s former student. It was a blessed time to be able to celebrate Jesus and be able to spend family time camping, singing, and enjoying each other’s company. During this Christmas event, one of the girls that came with Sarmoekhi got baptized. Praise God for such a great Christmas!
The Wongs with the Gospel singers from Myitkyina
Lisu Choir
Stephen is preaching
 |
| The people attending the service |
A choir from the Akha tribe
Nick and Sarmuekhi baptizing Ah Nyi Shea
New Year countdown party with neighboring children
Home service for New Year at Tad Duah village
We thank God for your faithful partnership with us in equipping Christian leader’s emphasis on biblical studies. Because of your partnership, we could offer biblical studies for three different groups of leaders. The first group of 12 Christian leaders comes from various ethnicities; Thai, Chinese, Lahu, Rawang, Jimpaw and Burmese. The second group of 5 Christian leaders comes from central Burma and the third group contained 5 Lisu Christian leaders from North Burma. The first and second group are on their paper-writing process and the third group is on the verge of their final year of their class works. This coming May-June 2016, all their class works will be completed. Because of your partnership, our mission works in Burma have broadened from the youth camp, bible conferences to fighting against poverty and lethal diseases: TB and Malaria, so that the churches in Burma can become a healthy church in carrying out the Great Commission to the lost souls in their neighboring houses or villages. Indeed, we have literally saved hundreds of lives including widows and orphans from the TB and malaria. If God is willing, we will continue to do more in the coming years. Because of your partnership, our mission works has extended into the new area in Burma, Kaya State; especially at Loikaw area, where they are still growing opium, spirit worshipping, living in very primitive lifestyle, having the Swedish type of cultivation; slash and burn system. Because of your partnership, our mission works has extended into Laos. By modeling AIS, one of our team members has offered special biblical training courses to the presently active ministers among the Lahu tribe in Laos. Because of your partnership, our mission works in China has continued evangelizing to non-believers, offering short-term bible studies for Christians.
We are hoping this new year that your faithful partnership will continue to drastically advance the Gospel of Jesus’ redemption to the lost souls here in Southeast Asia and China. In the year of 2016, our mission emphasis may shift from equipping Christian leaders to producing Christian literature, commentaries. If God is willing, Stephen is thinking about taking a sabbatical leave during 2016. During the Summer of 2016, John will move back to the USA for his college education. He is now applying to Christian colleges and universities. He has just received the result of his ACT test with an above average score. If God is willing, we may make a trip with him and visit churches and friends in the USA during the year of 2016.
In Christ’s Love,
Stephen, Mary, and Children
