As we live our life in such a limited capacity. Everything is always subjected to change but at the same time we often love our limited comforts and often value everyday routines. Sometimes, we are forced to be limited because of politics, circumstances, and even a pandemic. Thankfully, our God has no limits and we’d like to share of the wonderful things He continues to do.
Once in the mission field, Stephen met a pastor who was very dedicated to his calling. He served at a little bamboo-built church in a small remote village where no one would want to go and serve. Serving God in this very remote village, he had only one pair of pants and a couple shirts. Even though he did repair them on several occasion, after about three years, those pants simply wore out. There was a tear in the rear! Understandably, that whole week, he hid in his hut because he was so embarrassed, but he kept praying fervently to God for His provision for he knew that he would not be able to preach that Sunday with those “hole-y” pant.
For a lot of people in remote underdeveloped locations, this situation is very common. For many, the fear of not having anything to wear because of the lack of clothes is a far off concept; often, people don’t know what to wear because they simply have too many choices. For this servant of God who lacked decent clothes to preach on Sunday, God answered his prayers. On that Saturday, a merchant made his way up to the village to sell clothes, which was extremely rare for anyone let alone a merchant to be gallivanting in those remote areas. The merchant made his way from house to house selling his clothes and on his way out of town, he stopped by the pastor’s hut. Needless to say, the merchant left him a brand new pair of pants in front of his hut as a gift. With a new pair of pants, he was able to preach on that very Sunday. Oh how great and faithful is our caring Father!
As you may know, Asians for Christ is a wholistic ministry. We want to invest in people’s spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional growth because we know it’s crucial in this broken world. Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 “whatever you did (feed the hungry and thirsty, clothe the naked, cared for the sick, visited the captives) to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me.” Thanks to many who partnered with us, we are extremely grateful in these two years of covid to be able to provide hundreds of care packages (food, clothes, medicine) to the needy in Thailand, Laos, and Myanmar. This past month, Mary’s clothing ministry has been a blessing to many. We were able to send clothes to several locations, even to the very north of Myanmar, Putao. In one case, we sent monetary funds to purchase coats and clothes for an orphanage in a hard to reach town called Mogok, Myanmar. In Laos and Thailand, we sent packages of barely used clothes to the really needy. The wonderful thing is that God even provided clothing donated by non-Christian clothing store owners. Some of these store owners have seen our posts and decided to also donate because they see that we actually get the items into these impoverished areas. We are in the process of sending out more clothes this month. Praise God! We hope through this ministry, we are able to answer prayers of people like the pastor with the torn pants.
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| Mary selects the best ones before delivering them |
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| Nick's friend Laith, owner of an airsoft sports field, donated 50 packs of water bottles |
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| The orphans in Mogok received new coats for the winter! |
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| Kids at a different location received new mattress so they can sleep more comfortably |
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| Originally, they slept on thin mats! |
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| Now they have thick mattresses! |
Besides the random power shortages and internet connection issues, our online classes are going really well. It has been almost a year since we began teaching. Stephen teaches Bible 3 times a week to Christian leaders living in China, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Hong Kong via programs such as Zoom and Wechat. He has over 90 Christian leaders not only from different countries, but also different denominations to study the Bible with him. He is very happy to share God’s Word to those leaders so that they will be equipped as they teach others. We have a special prayer request for Stephen’s teaching team. Due to health problems and other circumstances, most of his team of local teachers can no longer teach alongside him. He truly needs to build a new team of Bible teachers. Once the borders of Southeast Asian countries open up, we are expected to have students enrolling in our seminary level Bible program not only from our usual countries of Myanmar, China, Thailand but also from our new mission fields of Laos and Cambodia.
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| Stephen's Thursday evening Bible class |
Nick teaches a Bible Study English class (with the help from David and Becky in Hawaii) to Myanmar students and an English class to Laotian students, and Becky teaches a Beginners Grammar English class to several students in Myanmar. Many of the students have been joining the class since the beginning and several aren’t able to join at the moment due to political issues in their country. We have really enjoyed getting to know all of our students. (We want to start highlighting some of the students each blog post so that you can get to know them a bit) For this blog post, we’d like to highlight a couple of our students.
Novice Thongphein is a 20 year old Novice Monk in Laos. In total, his family numbers 5 and he is the eldest with 2 younger siblings. Interestingly, both of his parents are Christians. When he was young, he loved studying and as he finished elementary school, his family couldn’t afford to pay for his high school classes, so he decided to be a Buddhist monk in order to continue his education. He really enjoys studying English with us because he wants to be either an English teacher or an English tour guide in the future; he wants to “thank you for opening such a class for people to have the opportunity to study for free.”
Dee is a 17 year old Lisu
Christian young man living in Myanmar with his family; he lives with his
parents and his 5 siblings. He loves playing games and wants to pursue a degree
in Pharmacy. He says it wasn’t easy passing high school but God helped him
through it, and now the English classes will hopefully give him an advantage in
Pharmacy school. One thing that he really liked about studying English with us
is the fact that he “can improve his English to be able to read the Bible in
English.”
It has been such a great opportunity to build friendships, evangelize, and invest in the students. Every one of our students comes from different backgrounds and it has been such a joy to see their faces every week. Some have stated that our classes are what they look forward to all week and it has gotten some of them through political issues and even depression. Special thanks to David and Becky in Hawaii and the church there for their partnership in starting the English classes through Zoom with us. We are planning to expand and offer more classes but we need more English speakers to just hang out, talk, and invest in these student’s lives. You don’t need a teaching degree. All you need is to be able to speak English, have a desire to impact the lives of students like these, and a dedication of 2 hours a week (and a computer or phone with the Zoom program installed). Thank God for being limitless and giving us the opportunity to do ministry online during this pandemic.
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| Nick's Laos English class |
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| Becky's Myanmar Grammar/Beginners English class |
Laos
Again we are very thankful for our ministry in Laos. God is really opening doors and moving in the country but there have been some setbacks due to the pandemic. As you may remember, earlier this year, non-Christians in Laos complained that the Christians at a certain town were meeting at homes and that goes against the regulations of the country; so the governing authorities compromised with the Christians and said if they have their own specific building (a church) then they can continue to meet or else they would have to be disbanded. We have raised the majority of the money needed to build the church and have passed those funds to our team in Laos. Unfortunately, due to the recent lockdown, the church building has been paused because building supplies can’t be purchased at this time. On top of this, the Christian Leadership/Evangelist Certification Course also has to be put on hold. The lockdown has been so strict that even the farmers aren’t allowed to go to their fields to harvest their crops!
As for the evangelism in Laos, many are still coming to Christ and being baptized. The gospel is being preached even during the lockdown! In one particular village, the new converts requested to be baptized. In Laos, the law states that only those who are authorized and registered by the government may do baptisms. Because of the lockdown, no one is allowed to travel so this became an obstacle. After praying and asking God for wisdom, we finally advised a local Christian in the village to baptize those new converts while the authorized evangelist connects to them via video call and pray for them. Several people were baptized that day! Praise our God who is a radical God! The methods and ways of evangelism continue to change but the core message is the same!
The Situation in Thailand
Can’t believe it’s been almost two years and Thailand is still in a state of confusion. Recently, Thailand has opened the country. However, foreigners can come to Thailand but they will have to pay a very expensive insurance premium. Moreover, only those who have been vaccinated may come; upon arrival, passengers are tested for covid followed up by one day quarantine at the hotel. After this, they may travel to only 3 or 4 designated small towns. As bad as it sounds for tourists, Thais, themselves, are not allowed to travel in their own country unless they have been vaccinated.
For us we are hoping to be vaccinated because of all the trending mandates of traveling. Stephen and Nick will definitely have to be fully vaccinated in order to enter Laos, Myanmar, and China. We are open to receiving the vaccines but it has been a huge challenge. Many of the “good” vaccines slowly trickle into Thailand due to politics and regulations. Private companies have ordered Moderna but it has been several months and the shots are delayed because public sectors take the majority of the lot entering into Thailand. Nick is the only one who is fully vaccinated by the Chinese made vaccines; there are no other options because he was invited to be a groomsmen in his church friend’s wedding. Isaac has now received a shot of Pfizer because he has an American passport. We are waiting for the Moderna shots. Please be praying for it to arrive soon.
Family
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| We got to watch John's sermon! |
John and Anna live in the states and are doing well. Anna works with at-risk girls and John was promoted at his car wash job. Occasionally, John would preach at a church and the family in Thailand would watch the recorded sermon the following day. We are proud of John and Anna as they serve in their community in Idaho. Isaac continues to do online school; the school may switch up to having regular classes once everyone has had full doses of the covid vaccines. Mary continues to work in her garden. She has planted various vegetables and fruits and we have enjoyed the harvest weekly. Most of the time, we don’t even need to buy any vegetables! Becky really loves teaching online, and she has helped many of the students improve in their English. Nick has also enjoyed teaching both the Myanmar and the Laos classes. Lately, he has built great friendships with several of the members of the local Thai church. Their group meets up to study the Word and pray together every week; recently, Nick was asked to be one of the groomsmen at his friends’ wedding. Now, just as a precaution, he has self-quarantined himself from the family because they have not had their vaccinations. As for this year’s Thanksgiving and Christmas event for the neighborhood youth, sadly, they may have to be cancelled because of covid regulations.
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| Nick was a groomsmen at his friend Ee's wedding |
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| Stephen and Mary prepared and handed over food packages to the district chief so that they could deliver them to covid-infected refugee families in the area |
