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| Slash-and-burning farming system in Laos |
Stephen
and Nick had been asked to make a trip to Laos for many years. Finally, in the
beginning of April, they were able to make a survey trip to Laos for a week. The
native evangelists, Ben and Seng, work with the locals in Laos and have been
doing a wonderful job in the country for His Glory. You may know that Laos is
an extremely difficult country to do ministry or evangelism. Many missionaries
go into the country with little success and some even face life-threatening
dangers. On that note, the Lord has blessed us greatly on this trip. We were
able to meet and even dine with very powerful government leaders who happened
to be the relatives of the evangelists. We visited many villages and
experienced a little part of their everyday life. More importantly, during the trip, we were able
to also experience ministry with the evangelists; one lady came to the house
to ask for prayers and wanted to become a Christian because she wanted to be
free from evil spirits. It was a very successful trip, and if the Lord is
willing, we will be more involved in the ministries in Laos, particularly in the
areas of teaching the leaders with God’s Word, the Scripture and the wholistic
ministry — transforming Christians in every aspects of their life: spiritual,
mental, physical, cultural, social, agricultural, economical, etc.
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| Visiting their farms |
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| Sticky rice and fried eggs for lunch |
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| Praying for the sick |
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| Stephen preaching the Easter service |
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| Stephen and Mary had a great time at Hoi An, a world heritage city in Vietnam |
After
they returned to Thailand, Stephen was requested to teach the book of Revelation
from his commentary for a week to about 70 Lahu from various churches and
villages at Nong Kio, a Lahu village. The Lahu are an ethnic group living in
the mountains similar to the Lisu. Most of the Lahu in this village in
particular migrated from China during the 1960-70s because of their faith in
Christ. It was common for many ethnic groups of people who believe in Christ but
yet still hold on and practice their traditional beliefs, for instance, black
magic, superstitions, etc. The true reason behind this false impression is that
most of them have a very limited knowledge of the Word of God, the Scripture.
With some of the church leaders, Stephen started and continued teaching courses of Bible study in
this village for several years now. Praise the Lord, the Word of the Lord has
transformed the life of the people. Today, this village has become one of the
healthiest churches in the area, currently with over 30 evangelists sent out to
serve the Lord throughout villages in Northern Thailand, Myanmar, and China. This is the living testimony that God's Word is the Living Word. Amen!
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| Stephen teaching the book of Revelation |
Speaking
of teaching the Bible, Stephen has been requested from one of the Bible
colleges from Myanmar to equip the College’s professors and church leaders with
the Word of God. If this is God’s Will, it will take about 4 years to complete
the program and in each year, at least 3 conferences will be offered and each
time will be about 2-3 week long. Please lift up this ministry in your prayers
because we don’t know about tomorrow, but we know who holds tomorrow! Concerning
commentaries, Stephen plans to complete the book of Matthew within the next quarter
of months. At the moment, he is comparing his exegetical notes with popular scholars.
The commentary ministry is going very well. The ultimate goal for this ministry
is to help individuals and remote churches to be rooted in the Scripture.
The
family is doing well. Isaac is on his break, but will soon go back to school.
He has been enjoying his time swimming on occasion. Nick has been involved with
a local Thai church and taught some and also joined the church in their
ministry in Thailand. Becky is doing well. We are all excited for May because
John and a group of his classmates from Boise Bible College will come to
Thailand to do a short term mission trip with AFC, they will be experiencing
missions first-handed. Please be praying for them. We thank you all for your
partnership and support. Your prayers have not gone unnoticed. We thank God for
each and every one of you for being such a blessing in our lives and helping us
advance the Kingdom of God!
April
usually brings showers, but this year it has been extremely hot. On top of
that, Chiang Mai is facing one of the highest pollution levels in its history.
Many locals intentionally set forests on fire in order for a special type of
mushroom to grow after the fire settled; these mushrooms are popular because
it’s rare and a big source of income, but it becomes a huge toll on many people.
The number of people hospitalized for severe allergies and other illnesses rose
significantly since the burning began about two months ago. Usually the rain
that comes in April settles the smoke particles, but rain never came. Many
locals have gone to temples in order to chant and call for rain; we know that
our God is the one who provides rejuvenating cool rain. Please pray that He
provides us with some rain.
