Many
times, we have asked ourselves the same question as Peter did: “Behold, we have
left everything and followed You: what then will there be for us?” Jesus’
answer has always moved, encouraged, and motivated us forward to giving up
everything for His Kingdom’s sake. And Jesus said to them, “And everyone who
has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms
for My name’s sake, shall receive many times as much, and shall inherit eternal
life…” (Matthew 19:27-29: NASB).
As
you know, we have ministered to the places that many missionaries could not go
and many evangelists would not want to go. We believe this is our calling. Even
though we are a small mission but we are blessed by God to have such an honor
in serving so many different groups of people,
denominations, and countries. Our mission field covers Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and China. If God is willing, we are
planning to reach the Nagaland in India by the end of 2018. Also, we are now beginning to work with the orphans
in war-torn areas, next to the borders between Northern Myanmar and India.
In
the past weeks, we got a call from China asking us to
offer a special course at our center, Asia International Seminary. They want to
learn the Bible, English, and biblical languages (Greek and Hebrew) in order to
prepare them for their higher education
at a Bible school in the capital, Peking, China. We believe this group of Bible
graduates, currently serving in churches in the Yunnan province of China, will
become key leaders in the coming
generation. This is one way to equip Christian leaders in the restricted
countries. At this moment, they are waiting for approval from the Chinese
government to come to Thailand. Please lift up this issue in your prayers.
On
a different note, the special course offered to the first group of Christians
among the Thailand-Lisu had just completed the Torah (Pentateuch). It’s amazing
to see their faces light up when they finally understand a certain biblical
story! On top of teaching, Stephen has just completed his exegetical commentaries on 2nd
Corinthians and the Gospel of John. They are now on his desk waiting for the
right moment for the publishing process. While waiting, he is going back to his
exegetical works on Matthew and Luke (His MA thesis was on Matthew and his
doctoral paper was on Luke). He took a class on Matthew in 1997 and Luke in 2002.
Since then he has continued to work on these two Gospels. He even taught and
preached these two Gospels on several occasions and contexts. Hopefully, he
will complete them soon if he can access his research tools. By the way, he had
access to research on EBSCOhost from
Thailand, but now his access has been terminated; finding more research tools
is a necessity, at this moment.
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| Studying the Torah |
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| "Shema" in Deuteronomy |
Furthermore,
this coming weekend, Stephen will be heading to Myanmar. Stephen will go to
teach the Bible at the Bible school where Moses, our former AIS
student, is currently a teacher. On this trip, Stephen will finish up IDES
project purchasing food for the dislocated people affected by the war and will also be
visiting the orphans so that all their needs will be met. On top of this, if the
fighting and political tension are calm,
on this trip, Stephen will travel into Nagaland, India to evangelize and
teach the word of God there. Stephen has already met some of the Christians
from Nagaland but this would be the first time, if the Lord is willing, for our
missions to set foot in India. During
this trip, Stephen may head to China. As
you may have heard already, recently there has been wide spread news about
church buildings being demolished and ministers being imprisoned in China. Please
pray for this trip!
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| Stephen is preaching at a Lisu church in down town Chiang Mai |
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| Mary and Stephen are on their way to a village church on the mountains |
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| Fellowship with villagers |
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| Mary with her relatives and friends at village |
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| Stephen with his siblings at another village |
Family
Mary
is doing well. She is in good health now. Praise the Lord! Becky is also doing
well. She has been preparing to go teach English in Myanmar; we are waiting for
the teaching center in Northern Myanmar to be completed. Isaac is preparing for
his school systems’ standardized tests. If he does well on these tests, he can
get into very good secondary schools. Nick
and his team are preparing to go to Myanmar for teaching
God’s Word and spend time with the youth who are affected by the ongoing
war. He also plans to go and teach other things such as hygiene and health. John is continuing his junior year at Boise Bible College with 21 credits and
has recently joined the student leadership team. His role as a leader is to help support
other leaders through prayers. Continue
to pray for him as he is taking up a lot of new responsibilities.
Our
warm welcome is extended to Amanda Emslie, who is a former student at Ozark Bible College. She will be staying
with us for some time as she experiences Thailand and its cultures.
Thank
you for your faithfulness in prayerful and financial support throughout the years.
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| Prayer meeting for our Family and Missions! |
