Thank
you so much for your prayers, love and support us for carrying out the Great
Commission to the lost souls and making disciples in Southeast East Asia and
China.
In
the past month, Stephen made a quick missions
trip to Northern Myanmar to teach the book of Revelation to a group of
Christian leaders from various denominations and the Doctrine of Grace to
students at Jamaitee Bible Center. He even went up to Putao to find the place
to establish the rehab center the drug addicts. Several thousands of youth in
Putao area are addicted to particularly heroin. Some streets
are filled with people by youth at night. Needles are lying around everywhere. The sad part is that these youth are considered to be
Christians. They have grown up inside the churches. Their families were known to be Christians for several generations.
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| Stephen with students at Jamitee |
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| Stephen is teaching a Doctrine of Grace |
He also participated at the cultural festival in
Putao and met and had gained close relationships with many political and cultural
leaders in Myanmar. He helped the leaders from China and Myanmar to meet each
other so that they would further their
relationship with one another. He really
became an intermediary.
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| Stephen in Putao |
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| Group photo with Lisu leaders from China and Myanmar |
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| Meeting with Lisu leaders from China and Myanmar |
During
this mission trip, Stephen did a ground breaking for building a home for the
orphans particularly among the displaced
people due to the ongoing fighting in Kachin State of Myanmar. It was another
real blessed trip. Praise the Lord!
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| Group photo with preachers, elders, deacons and evangelists |
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| Ground breaking photo |
During
mid-January, Nick was able to go into Northern Myanmar in order to visit and encourage
the Lisu people living in one of the many refugee camps. Normally, Nick travels to Myanmar to teach Bible or focus on youth ministry, but this time, it was to visit
and encourage the displaced people.
Nick
has been to Myanmar on many occasions but this was the first time he has ever
experienced such an intense emotion. He started the week visiting the youth in
the area. He visited Sayleyet, one of the leaders in Myitkyina. At his house, he teaches some of the youth in the area just
about every evening. There were about 4 orphans in the group of youth that he
teaches; he was able to join their worship services almost every night.
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| Nick with children at Sayleyet's home |
Nick’s main focus was on the children at Nicodi
refugee camp (village). On one of the days, several leaders from the area and
Nick threw a little feast for the 150+ children living at Nicodi village. They
woke up very early and went to the market to buy ingredients to make rice and
pork soup. Nick is very blessed by brothers and sisters in Christ that donated
money in order for them to cover the cost for hosting this party for the children.
When
they arrived at the village, this is Nick’s remarking:
My heart sank
because I saw signs of poverty and hardship everywhere. The villagers were
wearing torn and rugged clothes, the village had no electricity or running
water, and you could just feel a sense of hopelessness in the air. But from the
dusty roads to the tattered houses, I could see that they still held their
Faith in Christ. The people valued their church building because that was a
place where the 300+ people gathered to worship.
We reached the
village at about 1pm and started to cook the pork soup and rice. At about
3:30pm, an old pickup truck carried about 30 kids came and dropped off the
first bunch of kids at the village before leaving for the next 5 groups at the
school in a nearby village. The kids smelled the food and all came and gathered
around; many had extremely old clothes on and had a look of sorrow in their
eyes. We began with some games and teaching worship songs to the kids; they
began to smile. After that, I gave a little word of encouragement for the kids
(along with the adults who joined). Afterwards, we all sat down on the grassy
field just behind the church and enjoyed the meal together. The party was
intended for the children, but many of their parents came to watch the kids eat
so we couldn’t turn them away. Tears rolled down my eyes as I saw glimpses of
laughter and joy in this place.
This was only
one of the many Lisu refugee villages; I was unable to go to other villages
because of the continued war. As the week progressed, I visited several more
youth in the area; I felt compassion for the people here so much that I forgot
about my birthday during this trip. This trip was absolutely eye opening
because when I went to Myanmar last year, there wasn’t any war or displaced
people. Even more heart breaking was that two days after I came back to
Thailand, I heard from Sayleyet, that his pregnant wife was just kidnapped. I
felt deep pain and sorrow because I was just in Myanmar and met and
congratulated them on their first child. Please pray for the Lisu in Myanmar as
they face many hardships.
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| Nick with children at a refugee camp |
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| Nick is shopping at the morning market |
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| Feeding children at a refugee camp |
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| Nick is preaching to children |
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| Dad and his little child at a refugee camp |
God has given us yet another opportunity on the mission field to show His love, and we need your help and continued prayers and partnership. If you feel God calling for you to help out or would like to know more about how to help, please let us know.
Family
Several
occasions, Isaac has demonstrated his compassion and general kindness to others. A week ago, the school chose him to be Aladdin for
the play. He voluntarily chose to be Jafar in order to comfort one of his classmates who
cried heavily in the school for wanting to be Aladdin. Great job, Isaac! Becky
is doing a great job on tutoring Isaac. She has to force herself in studying Japanese and revisiting her Chinese in
order to catch up with Isaac. She is uplifting her parent’s
loads (while Stephen is frequently out for
mission trips and Mary is exhausted from managing
the house and farming). They both are enjoying evening time together. The whole
family celebrated Mary’s birthday on January 29. Everyone was happy to see
mum’s happiness and laugh as we had dinner together.
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| Mary's Birthday! |
On the same day, Stephen and Mary’s visas was finally been approved. They are now searching for their flight to the States. They are hoping to depart on March, after Isaac begins his summer break so Isaac could join the trip. He is very excited about this trip because he gets to go see the place of which he was born. Your prayers for the whole family is much appreciated!
