SOLA SCRIPTURA!

We apologize for the late update because Stephen has been in Myanmar and China for a little over a month. While he was there, some of the time, he wasn’t even able to communicate with his family. After coming home, Stephen had to go to the hospital because he picked up a type of flu from Myanmar; he was in the hospital for almost a week, but praise the Lord he is now home and recovering. Nonetheless, he said that this trip was extremely fruitful!

In early October, Stephen packed up his bag to go and teach the book of Daniel, Revelation, and also eschatology because the Christians in Southwestern China and Northern Myanmar had been requesting for Stephen to teach them for several months. On top of this, Stephen was also planning to visit and encourage the displaced Lisu people in Northern Myanmar. We want to share a little bit about how great God is and how His timing is perfect. Just a day before Stephen was to board a plane to Myanmar, AFC received a generous amount of money to help the displaced in Myanmar. Stephen was able to take that money up to Myanmar to help the people. God is moving through teachings and also through physical help for the Lisu. On this trip, God used Stephen to feed the people both physically and spiritually. Praise our Living God!

China

Stephen’s first half of the trip was spent in Ying Chang, Mungshi, Teng Chong, South-west of China. He traveled and taught in the cities and remote villages in these regions. At first, he was very nervous because this was the first time that he taught Bible in a “classroom” setting. This time was different because in the past when he was in China, he would either preach at a churches or would attend conferences about culture where he briefly incorporated the Bible, but this time, it was specifically to teach Daniel, Revelation, and eschatology. He taught in the city and after several days would move to another city or to a remote village and continued. God was definitely working because most people accepted his teaching. Throughout his time in China almost every day and night, he taught the Lisu to study from the Bible, not from teachings based on human reasoning which mostly contradict the Bible.

Many of the Lisu that came and studied accepted his the teachings. Some just couldn’t accept the teaching even though they saw what the Scripture said. There is a big need for the Lisu Christian in China to study the Scripture. For example, some of the churches there believed that the wooden cross in front of their church has powers, and if someone were to get sick, they believed that they had to dip the wooden cross into a bowl of water and drink it for healing powers; they were taught this for very long and so, for some of them, it was hard for them to change. God is definitely at work because many of them, after studying with Stephen, are having “AHA” moments, as they start to understand the Bible.

On a different note, Stephen’s ministry through the Lisu Cultural Conferences in China is growing. After teaching the Bible for a couple of weeks, Stephen met with some of the Chinese Lisu government leaders and they would really like Stephen to open a Lisu Cultural Center in Ying Chang. This is a great step because we are getting closer to our target of actually teaching the Bible to non-Christian Lisu in China. The Lisu Cultural Center would be a place to teach the Lisu language which all the Chinese Lisu would like to learn because many Chinese Lisu cannot read or write Lisu and there’s a new law that came out that if one were to claim to be Lisu in China, that person has to be literate in Lisu. As you may know, the only way to learn the Lisu language is through the Bible because the person who created the Lisu written language was an English Missionary a hundred years ago.  Praise God! On top of this, Stephen was actually on Chinese National News and was introduced as a Lisu from Thailand and an expert in the Lisu language. How awesome is our Living God!

Stephen is teaching the Bible

Stephen teaching the Bible at the house setting

Stephen is traveling to the remote village

Stephen at the very remote village

A group of Christian who studied with Stephen

Kitchen in the remote village

Myanmar

After a couple weeks in China, Stephen crossed the border into Norther Myanmar where he also taught Daniel, Revelation, and eschatology. It was a similar situation here. Many people accepted the teaching and understood that they need to study from the Word of God and not through old teachings that may not even be consistent with what the Bible teaches. One of the Lisu, who studied Bible in India, believed that he knew all there is to know about the Bible until he came to Stephen’s class; after the class, he told everyone that he was humbled and at the same time happy to learn more. On the other hand, there was another older man that came to learn but could not accept Stephen’s teaching because it didn’t go along with the teachings that he grew up with; Stephen showed him what the Bible said, and the man saw the texts and knew it was in the Bible but he just couldn’t accept it because he couldn’t imagine disagreeing with what his past teachers taught him as he grew up. Stephen taught the people to that they must study the Word of God, the Scripture, not just trusting in anyone that teaches (he even told them that if what he teaches doesn’t line up with the Bible, they should follow what the Bible teaches). Many people were encouraged and wanted Stephen to make more commentaries so that it would be a study tool for deeper understanding the Bible.

Stephen is teaching at one of the Bible colleges in Myitkyina

Stephen is teaching at church in Myanmar

A group of Christian who studying with Stephen in Myanmar

Feed the Hungers

As Matthew 25:34-37 saying “Then the king will say to those at his right hand, ‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’…” (NRSV). While Stephen was in Myanmar, he also had the opportunity to visit and use the donations that came in to help encourage the displaced Lisu people. Many people ask us why we only help the Lisu people when it comes to the displaced people, and we would like everyone to know that other people groups (even the ones involved in the war) have help from outside non-profit organizations and funds from other countries, even from the UN. The Lisu as a whole, undoubtedly the group that’s not involved in the fighting, fell through the cracks of any outside support. We want to spread awareness in a way that is not biased because we only want to help the people in need, without being involved in the politics; because of this, our Missions is one of the very few groups that can go in and actually move and help people freely. With the God given donation he received the day before his trip to Myanmar, Stephen was able to buy rice and necessities for many Lisu (especially the ones that are struggling the most) living in Northern Myanmar. A lot of Lisu children became orphans as a direct result of this ongoing fight. We are praying that God will provide funding and also the right people to help plan an orphanage in Northern Myanmar. One of the last days of the trip, Stephen and his team fed these displaced children. As the children came and ate meat and a healthy portion of veggies and rice, many displaced adults also stood around watching hungrily. So, Stephen and the team felt moved to a deep sadness and compassion, they all pitched in to get more food for the adults as well. 

Stephen and his team giving rice to the displace people

This lady is carrying 45 kilograms of rice

Feed the displace children

The displace children!

In His image!

This little one is trying to get some food

Very cute one!

Family

During the trip, Stephen taught every day from morning to late night and so he was extremely exhausted. It has been indeed a tiring but blessed month for our ministry! On the way back, he caught the flu from Myanmar and when he got home, he had to go straight to the hospital for almost a week. Praise God! Stephen is now home, but at the moment currently resting and recovering from the sickness. Besides this, the family is doing well. Mary is getting ready to harvest the rice field. Isaac is doing great at his school. He’s top of his class in Chinese and English. His Japanese and Thai are coming along. He is now able to read the Lisu Bible. Becky is making an English curriculum so that she can better teach English. Nick is currently teaching English part-time and learning more about the refugee situations in Myanmar, preparing to offer an orphanage for those displaced children who lost their loving fathers and mothers due to the ongoing wars and finding connections to help develop the Lisu in Myanmar.

Turning the World Upside Down!

The mission field is very complex. Life in the mission field is unpredictable; in fact, we face many challenges throughout the years. We’ve been chased by some authorities and even by Christian leaders in restricted countries. We’ve been falsely accused, gossiped on countless times, and ridiculed, even from mission workers who have been our friends (which hurts us a lot from a human’s perspective). We’ve taught the Bible in the midst of gunfire and bombardments. We’ve faced many trials throughout the years, but God has always been with us. When these challenges occur, God has always delivered us and even blessed us with even more and more opportunities to reach the lost. We thank God and churches and individuals who have always been with us and our missions. We are truly blessed and words cannot describe how thankful we are.

Ecclesiastics says in 3:1-8 “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh. . .”  During September, we faced a problem with our livestock. Due to the avian flu epidemic which originated from the western part of China and moved to Myanmar and finally to our area; sadly, our black chickens, that we raised for self-consumption and for hosting guests and students, just dropped dead within a matter of days. This incident happened to us because of jealousy. While all chickens at our little town died, our chickens were spared (because we lived outside of town). Then someone dumped their dead chickens next to our chicken’s pen. This incident has brought Mary and her mother great devastation because they have been taking care of those chickens for a several years. Each of those black chicken costs $10-20 and the breeder costs over $200 at the market. But even in moments like this, we have thousands of reasons to thank God – our health and ministry in particular.

At the beginning of September, the Association of Thai Christian Police and Soldiers came over to our house to fellowship and to worship our Living God. In America, the society can be changed by the movement of common people, but in Thailand, the society can only be changed by the elites. This group of Christian police and soldiers are among the elites of the country of Thailand and they are on fire for God. They believe that only “Jesus Christ” can transform Thailand into His Kingdom. In the past year, this group stood up to nullify the law that would forbid any individual Christian to evangelize in Thailand. This same law would also forbids for a house worship or devotional time, and no more church planting unless they had a special authorized document from the central offices. If this law were to pass, it would impact Christian evangelism and His kingdom expansion immensely. Praise the Lord for such law was nullified! They also have visions to send evangelists to every public school and military camps in the Northern Thailand. The core problem is that there is no worker for such tasks. Please continue to pray for this group of Christians that they may make a huge difference in Thailand for His Kingdom.

Over all, the high ranking soldiers of this group want to train the next generation Christians to become leaders who will be able to be God’s tools in transforming Thailand. They are searching and recruiting Christian children under 17 years of age to attend at their military cadet school. They want Isaac to join in this program. They will come back for Isaac and discuss with him directly in the near future. Isaac is thinking and praying about it. Please pray for Isaac as he is deciding on whether to train, which will be like an extracurricular activity on top of his school works.

A group picture

Pray...

Fellowship meal after worship

One of our visions to overcome poverty, human trafficking, drugs among the Lisu people, particular among the Lisu churches throughout Myanmar and Thailand is to help the Lisu people with skills and knowledge so that they can have jobs and eventually are able to stand on their own and become healthy churches. As it is said “Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” We are now trying our best to contact with several organizations both Christians and non-believers to help teach and train the Lisu people.

In the past weeks, Stephen and Nick met with the director of a nursing aid school in Chiang Mai and also the director of a Japanese newspaper in Thailand. Stephen and Nick talked to them about our missions and how we teach the Bible and also how we are trying to find people to help teach skills to the Lisu people so that they may be able to get out of poverty, human trafficking and drugs. One of the directors is Thai and the other is Japanese and they are very interested in helping the Lisu people. They really respect and would like to read Stephen’s Bible commentaries. Mr. Urano, the Japanese director of the newspaper company would like to put our missions in his newspaper as well. We are extremely thankful that God has allowed us to meet with non-Christians that are willing to help our missions.

Hosting guests at the mission office 

Planning how to help the Lisu churches and people

Visiting Stephen's Office

Family

Mary is doing well. She misses the sounds of the chickens but is happy that the bird flu didn’t affect our family. Stephen has done over 90 percent of each commentary works on the four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. However, he has paused his commentary works in order to go back through his college and seminary notes on the book of Daniel. He has been invited to go teach on this book in China and Myanmar this upcoming month of October. It will be a challenging book for him since the Old Testament is not his area of emphasis (though he took more classes of the Old Testament at Lincoln Christian Seminary). So, he needs your prayers that whatever he does, whether teaching or preaching, that he would deliver God’s Word faithfully. Isaac is currently having his final exam for his first semester. He is currently on the top group of students in his grade for the English based classes. Then he will have a break for a month in October. Becky is doing great job in tutoring Isaac; her health is doing great as well. Many times, she feels frustrated because there is no available job for her in this country since she is limited due to the hardships of getting to and from places. Nick has started teaching a little bit of English in the city on some days in order to make ends meet. John is searching for his internship church for his preaching major during this year at Boise Bible College. Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

GOD CAUSING THE GROWTH!

The field behind our home is beginning to look fuller and greener as rice begins to grow. Mary along with several of the neighbors came together a few weeks ago in order to plant the rice in the field, and now we are waiting for the harvest in a few months. It’s incredible and amazing to see the simplicity yet at the same time the complexity of how rice grows. We watch as the rice stalks grow taller and the grains of rice began to form at the ends of these stalks. Every once in a while, we would give the rice some fertilizer to nourish the crops in hopes of greater harvest. However, we know that a crop grows because of God and His wonderful design. Many rice farmers, in our neighborhood put as much time and effort or even more into growing rice, yet some fields turn out with very little harvest. We are extremely blessed by God because our little field grows beautiful and plentiful crops. Excitement approaches as we wait to harvest the rice.

The rice in our backyard growing wonderfully

Our mission work is very similar: we plant, nourish, and harvest souls, while God makes all this happen. We reach out and plant seeds in people’s hearts by telling them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and showing the Love of God. Many of our former students and evangelists are reaching out even to the unreached areas of Myanmar, China, Thailand, and even in Laos. We have planted seeds and reaped in areas where war is the norm, in areas where electricity doesn’t even reach, and in areas where Christianity is outlawed and Christians are being persecuted. We have God to thank because He has given us passage to tens of thousands of people even though we are a small mission organization that people won’t even find on Google. In one case, several years ago, Stephen and his teammates reached a village of Wa people in Myanmar and evangelized there; God blessed this greatly and over 3,000 Wa people came to Christ. Stephen literally had to leave the area because many of the Wa people wanted him to be a political leader for them. Praise God, the harvest is plentiful!

Training Leaders:

Now, Stephen is focused on training up more Christian workers to go into the field! Every week, Stephen teaches God’s Word to new groups of second generation Christian Lisu in Thailand. They grew up in Christian families, in churches, but have very shallow Biblical knowledge. Many do not even understand the concept of Grace. Many times, they are struggling with the false teachings from cults, for instance, Jehovah Witness, Mormon, etc. So, they come to our home twice a week to learn the Word of God. Stephen has taught a lot about how we Christians focus on the death of Jesus on the Cross (and his resurrection) because everything hinges on this event: the ultimate love of God for humanity, the hope of Christians, etc. He is reshaping their worldview, mindsets, values, norms and conducts in congruence with the Gospel of Jesus on the Cross. Please pray for these young Christians for their spiritual growth.

Stephen teaching to the second generation
Christian Lisu of Thailand

Every week, Stephen also teaches the Bible through a messaging application where he teaches to the Christians in China by voice messages. As you may know, he has about 310 students in a group message that he teaches regularly on the foundation of Christianity. Of course, many have accepted it while some are still unable to grasp it. Praise God, another group of 420 students have now studied on the book of Revelation with Stephen through voice messages. Please pray also for the spiritual growth of these 730 Chinese Christians.

Commentary Ministry:

The commentary on First Corinthians is finally completed. The next step is to go through the publishing process, including translating and proofreading, before printing the commentary for the Christians in Southeast Asia and China. Stephen has been in his office every day to finish gathering his information from his studies in the States and from his lecture notes in various occasions and now finally, First Corinthians is wrapped up and ready to go through the last steps before printing. Stephen asks one of his friends to help him in translating into Lisu (but he will finalize all the translating works) so he will be able to work on his new project. He will either work on Romans first or one of the four Gospels. Perhaps, it will be a great ideal to give him some of your feedback on this. Of course, he will be much appreciated if you could introduce or provide him some excellent works on these books.

Field Ministry:

Our family lives among non-believer neighbors. About 20 meters away from our house, there is a Buddhist temple on the left hand side. If you walk another 100 meters away, there is a Brahmin shrine on the right hand side. In fact, the Brahmin priest and those Buddhist monks are our best neighbors. As you may have known that majority of Thai people believes that all religions are good: teaching people to be good. To them, there is no difference. Stephen often confronts with such an ideology. He always told them that there IS a major difference—Jesus has risen from the dead. The world needs to hear the Gospel of Jesus on the Cross. The people in Southeast Asia and China must be transformed by the Gospel of Jesus’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection. Without Jesus’ crucifixion, burial and resurrection, our message is in vain.

This month, Stephen and Nick were asked to attend a monthly meeting with the Christian Soldiers and Police Society of Thailand. These Christian soldiers and police are high ranking officials among the elites of Thailand; they have authority and influence in Thailand. This group has asked Stephen to preach and to teach them on many occasions and are very fond of Stephen. Praise God! They will be coming to our house to meet, next month. Please pray for this group as they have the means to change the Thai society because of their positions and please pray for them as they have to clash with Buddhist culture in their daily governmental rituals and traditions. 

A Thai Christian Army General giving a speech at the meeting

Stephen giving a speech at
the Christian Police & Soldiers
meeting 

Group picture with the high ranking Christian
Thai Soldiers, Polices,
& Government Officials

Also in the past few weeks, we were able to go up to the mountains and to pray for the brothers and sisters in Christ. It was a true blessing to meet and be able to encourage and fellowship with the Christians at the remote areas of northern Thailand. 

Stephen greeting with the Lisu people at the roadside market 

Praying with Lisu brothers and sisters in Christ

Currently, the fighting in northern Myanmar continues. On top of this, there is also a flood from the rainy season. Nick has met with several churches in Chiang Mai and has gotten some clothes to donate to the Lisu people in Myanmar. Nick and his Chiang Mai church friends have also raised money through selling T Shirts in order to send money to buy food, medicine and tarp roofing for the Lisu in the warzone and also flood zone. Please pray for the people affected by such tragedies in Myanmar. Stephen is praying that God will open a door for him to make an evangelistic trip soon to Kengtung, the principle city of Shan state

Flood in norther Myanmar

 

Family:

August is the month of birthdays for two members of our family. Stephen was born on August 15 and Becky on August 23. Started from last year, Stephen has begun to celebrate his birthday again to thank God for his life at his age. We have been informed that John is doing well with his new classes, professors, classmates, and roommates at Boise Bible College. He is working at the college’s cafeteria to help pay for his tuition fees and expenses. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness in providing all his college needs in the past year. Hopefully, God will provide all his physical and spiritual needs this year. Thank you for investing in him and equipping him for the coming generation to carrying out the Great Commission to the lost people in Southeast Asia and China. While many of your children have just started their school, Isaac is on his mid-term. His first semester will end on October. Please keep Mary in your prayers! She has good and bad days from weaknesses due to her age. Most days are positive for her. Praise the Lord!

 

Stephen's Birthday party

Becky's Birthday 

Mary with Isaac at his school's open house day

Isaac singing at his school's open house day 

Isaac writes "I love you Mom" in Chinese

PRAYER REQUESTS!

We would like to begin this monthly newsletter with an urgent request of prayers for churches and individual Christians that live at the border between China and Myanmar. In that area, there is a different group of Christians who declared the Triune God as unbiblical. So these people demanded that all Christians burn every book including Bible and hymns if the word Trinity or Triune God appears in the book. Many did burn hymns and Bibles as the result of this false teaching. On top of this, they even demanded that all Christians burn down church buildings; they condemned the church buildings as satanic gathering places. They believe that church buildings are unbiblical. The situation is very complicated, and it has caused a whole lot of tension. Please pray that God will let people see the truth and also strengthen those standing firm based upon the true Gospel.

As we have informed you in our previous newsletters that Stephen has been teaching and preaching through electronic devices so that people who live far away would be reached and could hear the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Consistently, Stephen has been asked with various biblical and theological questions. A week ago, Stephen was asked about the Theology of God, Triune God in particular. The question is that how could the One God also be a Triune God? What does the Bible truly says about the Triune God? Isn’t God the One and Only God? Then why is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Aren’t we, Christians, the temple and the church? So, why do we need a church building?

Stephen has been teaching many Christians in the remote areas of China and also border areas of China and Myanmar through an audio messenger application on the phone. Many of these areas have had some of Stephen’s former students teach them the book of Revelation, and they are now studying further with Stephen through this audio application. The number of Students is about 231 students. Thank God that we can use a simple application and technology to reach people in remote areas.

July events

During July, the family had a family prayer service at the house to give God praise, honor and thanks for blessing us with all sources of blessings: ministry, the summer-harvest of rice, family and a precious time to spend with John for a couple months. Many Lisu churches in Chiang Dao and Chiang Mai attended. The prayer service and fellowship meal were a blessing to all because we all had a blast in worshipping God and also encouraging one another. During this prayer service, several Korean missionaries also attended and worshipped with us.

Family Prayer Day

Korean missionaries singing praise

Thankful for Mary and the Lisu women who made this delicious meal

Nick has been busy meeting with some Christian friends in Chiang Mai to raise money for relief and development to help the Lisu in Myanmar. He has been running around, getting wisdom and trying to find people to help educate and develop the Lisu in Myanmar. Especially, the fighting is still going on in northern Myanmar, and the Lisu people are caught in the middle of the fighting, even though the Lisu are unarm and peaceful. Many people groups are displaced, yet the Lisu, the peaceful group for some reasons, has no official help from in or outside of Myanmar. So, Asian Mission Fellowship Organization is trying to find help with relief and development to go and help the Lisu people. We are focused on sharing the love of Christ with people and we are specifically not interested in the politics of the country. Please continue to pray for the people that are struggling in Myanmar. Stephen has been asked to attend several of the meetings with Christian members in Thailand and to share the situation of the Lisu. Many people are becoming more aware of the situation. Many are praying for the Lisu. Actually, many churches and individuals in Chiangmai, Thailand, had given their means. Even though it was a small amount of money, but the gift (we believe) demonstrates not only Christ’s love, but also shows Christ’s body, the church, is bound universally into one. We did send the first relief fund to them a few weeks ago. We are still constantly receiving the gifts from $ 3 -100. Praise the Lord! Hopefully we will be able to send the second set these coming months.

Family

Our family enjoyed a great time of fellowship this summer. We have visited the many exotic places in Chiangmai. Though we have lived in Chiangmai for almost 7 years, we have never visited a Night Safari world. It was a great family night out getting to see the animal night life. We also went to an Elephant show. It is still amazing to seeing elephant kicking balls, drawing beautiful pictures and many other things. John even had a chance to spend time with Tigers up close at a Tiger Kingdom.

Family night out at the Night Safari

Elephant show at the camp was extraordinary

The final product of the elephant drawings

John with his new best friend

John has enjoyed his time in Thailand. He’s been able to experience the Lisu culture as well as learn some tips and pointers from his father on how to effectively preach. He is starting to pack up and prepare for his trip back to America on the 29^th of July. He is very excited to start another year at Boise Bible College. Please pray for him as he is learning from great professors to become a humble preacher. 

Stephen translating John's sermon

Preaching to the Lisu church in the town of Chiangmai

The Lisu church located in the town of Chiangmai

Please pray for Isaac as he is going through midterm exams. He has been doing very well at school, and has been given many awards for his excellence in English, Chinese, Science, Music, and Math, among others. Isaac told us that he needs to catch up with his friends on Japanese since he has started Japanese this year, while his friends has studied it since first grade. Becky is doing well. She sang several special worship songs up front during the family prayer-day-service. She also did a wonderful job in tutoring Isaac. Becky and Isaac both enjoy reading, playing, singing, and watching movies together. Mary is sad that John is going back to the States. Please pray for her. Please pray for Nick as he has to find a part time job and also meet people to fundraise at the moment for the displaced Lisu people in Myanmar. Stephen is doing well, he is very close to completing his 1^st Corinthians commentary in the Lisu language. He needs to go over his commentary and polish a few things up. After that, he will be ready for the next stage of publishing. On top of this, please pray for Stephen because it turns out his health insurance expired six months ago without his acknowledgement. Suddenly, one day the agent came and told him that they forgot to keep his insurance and asking for their excuse. So now Stephen is in limbo because it would cost a lot of money to set up a new health insurance policy at his age.

Stephen and Nick are planning to head to Myanmar again in the next few months in order to teach the Bible and also encourage the Lisu people that are displaced from their homes. Stephen will cross the border into China as he did before to teach the Word of God there. The Lisu in Myanmar and China are very excited about this news and are currently preparing a location and time so that many will be able to attend and learn Bible and praise God together. Please be praying for this upcoming trips!