Joyful Fellowship Meals!

In Asia, one of the best ways to connect with people is through having meals together. People will have meals together to make business deals, celebrate success, build relationships, or even squash quarrels. During these meals, people will see if they are able to work together and trust those who are in attendance. It’s no wonder that many pictures on the phones end up being about food or a group photo during a meal. Since borders have finally fully opened up, these past couple of months was full of fellowship meals.

A meal with the Wong family

A meal with a guests from Germany and Laos

A meal with leaders from Laos

Stephen taught a class on the Theology of the Cross to a group of Christian leaders including his relatives who are high ranking retired Thai government officers and doctorate persons from various fields: anthropology, theology and Buddhology, whether from Thailand or from abroad. It was a spontaneous 2 day class, from 8am to 5pm. These Christian leaders called in a week earlier and asked if there were any classes that they could attend. Moved by their interest in studying the Bible, Stephen offered them this class. One of the things discussed in the class is the importance of dying with Christ and picking up the cross daily. For this gives us hope after we depart the world, we would head to paradise which is often described as a “feast”. They all easily understood and connected with the “feast” analogy since that’s a huge part in the Asian culture. The feedback of the class was positive, many went away learning more than they anticipated and felt that they need to study the Bible even more! This is wonderful news because many Christian workers/leaders in Asia are involved in great ministries but have very little Biblical education.

Class on Theology of the Cross

 Laos

Abraham is one of our field workers in the remote village near the border of Laos and Vietnam. Whenever a new family wanted to accept Jesus Christ, he had to walk several hours uphill because during the rainy season motorcycles and even cars aren’t able to traverse the muddy terrain. Most villages in that area are on top of mountains, so during the rainy season, they aren’t able to go down to the river as easily. During any other season, they would be able to walk 2 hours down to the river at the base of the mountain and walk 5 hours back to the village. So, during rainy season, they have to dig a huge hole in the ground, line it with tarp, and then fill it in with water. This is such a great image of Baptism as they have to actually dig a hole in the ground as if it were a burial site. They would then be baptized in this makeshift baptistery.

Traveling on small motorbikes during rainy season is tough!

Making a makeshift baptistry

The baptistry is ready!

New brothers and sisters in Christ!

Like Abraham, we have 10 field workers who are carrying the Great Commission to the lost souls in the communist country. Praise the Lord! This group of native evangelist has won over 400 souls so far this year (2022). Half of the group has had a chance to study some books of the Bible with Stephen and they want to study more. Therefore, Stephen will begin offering special intensive courses twice a year so they would be rooted firmly in God’s Word, the Scripture. Please lift up this group of native evangelist in your prayers! Without your prayerful and financial support, their ministry of carrying out the Great Commission to the lost people in the restrictive country would not be as successful as it is today.

Baptism at a stream

Baptism at a river

More Believers

The works in Laos is amazing! We are overjoyed to work with the locals there in furthering His Kingdom. Recently, another great need just came up especially for medical experts (doctors/nurses/anesthetists). The Laotian government asked us if we had any friends or connections with any medical personnel as the government hospital requested for any expert to come and help train them. They said that their practices are outdated and would like a bit of medical training for their doctors and such. The specific requests were for training in anesthesia dosage and surgeries involved with the kidney, appendicitis, bile, ovarian tumor, and possibly the brain. They would like to raise their treatment standards because most doctors said that they don’t feel confident in their practice. If anyone with a medical background would like to join a medical mission trip in the next year or so, please let us know. The trip would be connecting with the doctors in Laos and also doing medical clinic tents in villages with those doctors and nurses. We believe that this would further our relationship with the government as they would see Christians in a new light, pun intended!

Myanmar

Recent air raid targeted a concert at village near the town of Hpakant, northern Myanmar, killing at least 80 people including 3 popular singers and injuring more than 100 innocent civilians. It is very sad news! The violence in Myanmar has caused many common citizens, who don’t want to take sides or be a part of war, to leave their homelands, farms, animals, even families and love ones in order to settle down in foreign and often inhabitable locations; some villagers have had to move from the far west, near India’s borders, to the far east, near Lao’s border; others had to move from the villages on the mountains to suburbs of the towns. Many have even fled to Thailand and Malaysia.

In order to demonstrate God’s love, we (Asians For Christ with IDES) provided the basic essential needs; rice, noodles, cooking oils to several thousands of hopeless people. We also built hundreds of temporary shelters for them to go through during this monsoon and winter season. Please continue to pray for our field workers on site and for peace in Myanmar.

Wooden planks gathered for the temporary shelter

Temporary Refugee Shelters

Food packages for the displaced people

Family

Two weeks ago, there was a 4.2 magnitude earthquake where the epicenter was only 10 km from our house and, unfortunately, our house faces some damages. This didn’t stop us from hosting several groups of people coming over for lunch or dinner and that’s been such a blessing in the midst of disaster. We were honored to host a group of Christian leaders from Laos and enjoyed the time to pray and discuss about future mission works in the country. Some of them are even willing to carry out the mission works that we ourselves are unable to go at this moment due to Stephen's unstable health. We also had friends and family from Germany, France, New Zealand, and America come and visit us. Some of them even studied God’s Word with us. Praise the Lord!

One of the several damaged areas
from the Earthquake

During the middle of October, our family went out for a weekend for a camping vacation trip and a day of hiking. At one location, only Isaac and Stephen made it to the top of the mountain. By the way, Stephen’s health has improved greatly. He has begun to make church visitations and preach at different churches and villages. He is now teaching online class on the book of Galatians and completing his exegetical book on Isaiah. If God’s willing, he is planning to go to Vietnam this November. However, he’ll have off days where he is completely exhausted and lack energy. After some rest, he would regain his strength. Please keep him in your prayers as he’s on his way to recovery. 

Stephen preached at a small house church in the mountains.
(Praise the Lord! 3 people are interested
in becoming Christian, as a result)

Stephen, Mary, and Isaac relaxing

Mary has done amazing setting up and making sure everything runs smoothly at the house. Becky and Nick have started a new class with the teachers from Hawaii; the class is a Bible story telling class and the students are from Myanmar and Laos. Nick’s soccer team had another game this month and were victorious! On top of that, Nick and his friends enjoy working with the youth at a Thai church in the city. Isaac has been selected from his school to attend an Olympic style event to participate in language competitions. We have no clue about this competition so we’ll see what it entails soon. Recently, John and Anna moved from Idaho to Missouri. They are planning to settle down in Kansas. Please pray for every one of the Wongs, that we will be a light to the people around us, maybe connect with them more over a meal, and that they may see Jesus through us.

Bible Story telling class with the teachers from
Hawaii

Our soccer team winning another game!

Took them out to eat after the game!
More fellowship!

God's Care

Stephen is on the way to a full recovery, slowly but surely. He takes a 4 kilometer (2 miles) walk almost every morning and 2 kilometers (1 mile) every evening. Usually, he would do jump ropes but health experts suggested for him not to jump so much in order to prevent his knee from going bad at his age. Many friends and relatives keep telling him to work less and relax a bit. As some of his close friends would know that he is a workaholic! In the past two years (during the Covid lockdowns), he wrote 11 books, taught 3 online classes each week, all this on top of conducting and managing the mission works in different countries - Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, and China. One day his son John called him from the USA and reminded him to go out and enjoy life once in a while. He replied to John that to study God’s word, and travel through the space of the Scripture, is his best enjoyment; nothing could replace this joy. Nevertheless, he has reduced his online classes to once a week; he also spends more time socializing with visitors that come to our house.

Recently, Stephen received a call from a group of Christian leaders from Myanmar requesting for him to offer them a special intensive course this upcoming November. They told him that they didn’t want Stephen’s biblical knowledge to be lost if he were to ever pass away. It sounds “rude”, but pure hearts and straight words prove that they do deeply want to study with him.

Another “cultural variance” occurred when several high ranking Thai military Christian friends came over to the house; as they were talking with Stephen, they asked about the symptoms from when he was very sick. After Stephen told them all about the several fainting episodes, they said, “oh there was a minister that had the same exact symptoms… and he died 6 months later.” WOW!  That was a shock for us to hear. They didn’t mean it in a negative way but culturally some topics are spoken frankly. Stephen jokingly said he wasn’t sure if this was just a cultural shock moment or was it a message sent from God. Please continue to pray for Stephen’s battle with his health. Nevertheless, we have faith that God’s got everything in control and we thank God that Stephen is still with us.

Furthermore, God has definitely been working even among our relatives. We started to have family gatherings more often after the loss of Stephen’s eldest sister. We, as a family, continually pray so that our whole extended family would be used by God. It was during one of these dinners that we realized that God is answering our prayers. One of our relatives had been struggling with anxiety and depression for almost 18 years. On top of that, he struggles with low blood sugar. During this dinner, he opened up and said that in the past couple of years, there was a time that he almost died so he turned his life around and has been really intentional in prayers and having a relationship with God. Recently, he went completely off all his medication. Praise God for His great works as several others have also recently experienced God’s work in their lives.

Praying with relatives

Family Get-together

Laos

Praise the Lord! God has opened wide evangelistic doors for us in Laos. Through our faithful and generous donors, we have recently acquired a piece of land in Vientiane. Our next step is to build a couple of dormitories and an outreach center so that we can expand His Kingdom in the country of Laos. This is a unique and probably one of the first kind of ministry in the restricted and poorest country in Southeast Asia. Here are some facts and statistics of the college age students. In 2021, 58,349 students graduated from High school. And only 39,337 are able enter college or university. Out of the 39,337 students, 70% comes from rural areas. Since colleges and universities do not provide dormitories, and in order to attend college, the majority of students has to stay with a relative or rent a 3mx3m (9ft x 9ft) room which is shared with 6-7 other students because of the price, or (what most do) is to rent a shack or a rundown home. Many of these young students, especially the young innocent girls, have to live in unsafe environments and they don’t have any options. Sadly, some of them end up working in brothel or human trafficking business just to afford a place to live and food to eat. This is why we started also focusing on college age ministry.

College students in Vientiane - Worship Time

Currently, we are working with roughly 30 college students. All of these students are from the rural areas where their families work on farms and fields. In Southeast Asia, farmers and field workers often live below poverty lines. More than half of these students have met Jesus Christ in our ministry. They are now very active in sharing Jesus to their peers. The students have set their own goals, if God’s willing, that each one of them will reach out to at least 4 students each school year.  Please pray with us as we are drawing out the plans and starting fundraising for building this outreach center.

IDES

Special thanks to IDES for their partnership yet again with our missions. During the easing of Covid lockdowns, we realized that countless areas in Southeast Asia and Southern China faced challenges. Families just didn’t have the means to buy food anymore because it had been 2 years of instability during Covid. We received requests from several villages saying that they really needed help immediately. At the same time, IDES reached out and asked if we needed any resources to aid in our mission field, and we immediately thanked God for arranging everything and providing in crucial moments.

During our field team’s distribution, many called us telling us that God’s promise in Matthew 6:25-26 “do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink… Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (NASB) had been fulfilled in their lives. Truly, they have witnessed that God is faithful to his Words. Praise the Lord! The following are pictures from some of the areas where we are able to share photos:

Traveling through muddy roads to get to some areas

For the elderly group

Many widows and orphans also received this blessing

Ready to eat some rice!

Thanks IDES for partnering with us in carrying out the Great commission to the lost people in Southeast Asia and China. While IDES helps with the physical needs, we, Asians For Christ, focus on their spiritual needs, God's Word in particular. Together, we have reached many unreachable places and people and have won many souls for Christ. We are looking forward to reaching out to many more places and people in Southeast Asia and China.

Family

Mary continues working in the field; her papayas are finally starting to bear fruit. Recently, Mary made some food for the students at the public school near our house; they were able to enjoy a variety of food with lots of meat! There usual lunch is just rice and soup with some vegetables. Once in awhile, Mary likes to bring the kids special food to just love on them. John and Anna have recently moved to Missouri, please keep them in your prayers as they transition to the Midwest. Isaac just started doing Thai ROTC basic training with the school; every Monday, he has to go to military base in Chiang Mai and do some training. This is a Thai law. All males have to either give 3 years to ROTC training during high school or become a soldier for 2 years when they turn 20. Becky has a month break from teaching Myanmar students online so she has been enjoying the rest. Nick’s soccer team is in the process of having their first match since Covid, so the boys are very excited for that. On top of that, Nick works with an awesome team to help lead the youth at a church in Chiang Mai, and there are a lot of events planned throughout the rest of the year.

Mary making sure everyone has enough to eat

The students loved it!

Nick taught these students how to play
basketball!

Nick with the youth leaders and the youth

Happy birthday, Stephen!

 

Happy birthday, Becky!

Full Steam Ahead!

Laos

A new high-speed railway (made by China) is now operational in Laos. This news has been plastered all over Southeast Asia, and people, like flocks of bird, travel from far and wide to ride this new advanced mode of transportation. We, too, were excited! In Laos, it is now possible to take a 2 hour ride from the capital, Vientiane to UNESCO World Heritage Town, Luang Prabang (310km, 190miles). In the past, this would have taken 8 hours by car or even worst 14 hours by scooter. This high-speed train is a game changer!

In early June, as countries opened their borders, Stephen and Nick searched for plane tickets to Luang Prabang, which was how they usually went into Laos. The tickets were almost a 1000 US dollars per person; it was way too expensive, with that price, you could get round trip tickets to almost any country in the world. We were in a predicament because we had to go there to teach and accomplish several other tasks. As we prayed, we thought, why don’t we take a more affordable domestic plane from Chiang Mai to Northeastern Thailand and cross the land border into Laos? So, we packed our bags and headed out the door to embark on our first missionary journey since Covid began in 2020.

We took the hour and a half plane ride from Chiang Mai to Udon Tani. From there, we had to find a taxi that would take us to the border. Since this was the first time on this route, we had no idea what to do at all. Running around the Airport in Udon, we were looking for a taxi; we knew God was with us because we found the last taxi that would take us on the 1.5hour ride to the border. At the border, we ran into another problem, the whole immigration computer system crashed so we had to wait in line for an hour. Nevertheless, we made it across the border at 8:50pm just in time because borders close at 9pm.

After the long journey to the border, the systems crashed

Our mode of transportation in Vientiane

This was our first time in the capital city of Laos, and the reason we came to Vientiane is because one of the evangelists, who has attended Stephen’s Bible classes, invited us to go and visit them. I mean, we were going to pass that place anyways, why not spend several days with them? He and his wife takes care of several college students who don’t have a place to stay in the city. His evangelistic center is a place of worship and also functions as a dormitory. All the female students shared one room and all the men shared another room. About 10 students live in this center. Many would probably view this as too crowded or a fire hazard but this is better than where most students usually stay. Most, if they didn’t have relatives to stay with, would rent a rundown tin shack; this leads to lots of issues like rape, theft, and violence.  This former student of Stephen has converted many college students in the recent years. This ministry is definitely growing and it’s very good to see the new Christian students take initiative in the chores, church, and evangelizing to their peers. It was definitely worthwhile as we saw the faith of these college students.

Praying for the college students

We provided some needy college students
with relief packages

Stephen preaching at the center

Sharing a meal with the college students

Group Photo!

Part of our time in Laos was dedicated to Luang Prabang, so we went to try out this new high-speed railway, which was the fastest way to travel between cities as mentioned above. Anyways, we sent a student there in the morning to reserve our tickets but the ticketing staff said to just come back later and get the tickets before the train departs at 2pm. We arrived there at noon. All sold out! What were we going to do? This would throw off all of our plans because have to be in Luang Prabang that evening in order to start teaching the next day to the evangelists and pastors in the area… it seemed hopeless. We thought to ourselves, are we being tested again? It seemed like so, almost every day, something would come up that would make anyone nervous or upset. We prayed to ourselves as we tried to figure out our next move, and as we turned to go back to the center, a railway staff ran out to us and said there’s two more seats! Our God is good! So, Stephen and Nick left for Luang Prabang.

The highspeed railway station

Boarding

What a view!

The train was a wonderful! The ride was as smooth as silk and the view of the countryside was a treat for the eyes. It was a great relaxing 2 hours. This is going to change everything. If you’ve been to Laos, you may know that roads are full of potholes and cracks. If someone were to travel from one town to another, it would use up at least a day even if it were only 60 miles away. What a blessing to have a new mode of transportation that would be more efficient… and a bit more comfortable.

Our friends in Luang Prabang

As we arrived in Luang Prabang, we felt a sense of joy because we finally made it here after 3 years. Greeted by our local friends at the train station, we headed north to a rural town (50km, 30miles) which took 2 hours by car. The next day, we arrived at the classroom where we met about 40 Christian workers (pastors, evangelists) all ready to study. Nick taught a bit about pastoral counseling and also gave out personality tests so that they could find out more about themselves. They all enjoyed learning and understanding things about themselves like how some were introverted while others were extroverted. Stephen taught about the theology of the cross – the focus is that our belief revolves around the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ is unique and the core of Christianity. Without the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christianity is no different from any other religion of the world.  After the short few days of teaching, we had to go back to Thailand. We received feedbacks from the students saying that they learned a lot and wished that we stayed and taught longer. During this trip, we didn’t have much time because there were other ministries to attend to in Thailand, but we plan to stay longer next time. Our trip to Laos was absolutely fruitful and encouraging!

Spending time with the students in Luang Prabang

Nick teaching pastoral counseling

Stephen's class on Theology of the Cross

Group photo!

Eating with Laotian leaders

Nick also got to meet up with some
of his online college students

Thailand

After arriving back in Thailand, Stephen went to Pai, a town northwest of Chiang Mai, in order to consult the Thailand Lisu Association. Another reason to drive 4 hours to Pai was for Becky to meet a rehab specialist because Becky’s weak arm has been very tense. The Lisu meetings and therapy sessions for Becky in Pai were very positive. But on the day, they were to travel back home, Stephen all of a sudden felt faint and blacked out for several minutes. This occurred 2 times, so several of our relatives graciously drove Stephen and Becky all the way back to our house. The next day, the family took Stephen to a hospital to get checked up. The hospital did preliminary tests, and that’s when they found out Stephen had Covid (which based on the timeline was from his trip to Laos). Doctors don’t believe Covid caused the black outs but their policy was that they would run further tests after he recovered from Covid. As he recovered at home, we found out that Becky also got Covid. Fast forward 2 weeks of delegating all the tasks to Mary and Nick, they recovered and Stephen went back to do more tests and at this moment everything seems normal but the doctors says its most likely stress induced and he needs to take more time to rest. Further comprehensive tests are scheduled in a few months. Please pray for Stephen’s health.

Stephen and Mary at the hospital

As Stephen recovered, we had a special worship service

Open fire pork BBQ

After lunch, Mary handed out the leftovers for all to take home

As Stephen continues to recover at home, several pastors from the western border of Thailand asked for Stephen to go and teach the Bible to refugees from Myanmar. Many of these refugees immigrated into Thailand because of the escalation of war in their towns. Since Stephen can’t physically go, we prayed over it and decided to try a virtual class which we plan to operate in Laos in the near future. The idea was for a teacher (Stephen, in this case) to be able to teach remotely; this is due to the fact that in some areas, foreigners teaching Bible to locals are frowned upon. So, Nick drove 6 hours to Mae Sot, the western border town of Thailand and Myanmar.

Stephen teaching remotely in our first virtual classroom

In Mae Sot, Nick set up his computer, speakers, projectors and microphone in the classroom. Connecting the setup to a wifi hotspot from a phone and calling Stephen via Zoom, our first virtual class was in session! Stephen also taught the theology of the cross in this class but at a basic level because most of these students are new Christians. We are so excited to have this new tool in our missions’ arsenal. In the future, it will be possible to have teachers teach remotely as long as there’s an internet connection.

What a great team at border town, Mae Sot

Buying food to prep relief packages for the refugees

We were able to help 100 families at the border

Other Updates

In early June, Stephen lost his older sister. This was a great lost for the whole Wongratanamajcha clan because she is the oldest among Stephen’s siblings. It was her husband whom everyone thought would pass away because several weeks earlier, he fell very ill. Stephen and Nick traveled up to their village (6 hours northwest of Chiang Mai) and prayed for him; several days after, Stephen’s brother in law made a great recovery while Stephen’s sister passed away suddenly. Please pray for Stephen and his relatives as they are still going through grief.

Stephen's brother in law recovered after getting really sick

Stephen's last visit with his older sister

Stephen gave a sermon of hope in Christ
 at his sister's funeral

Here are some of the other events that occurred in the past 2 months:

Stephen meeting with Lisu leaders in Thailand

Isaac's mentor welcoming Isaac to high school

Relief packages given to the needy in Shan State, Myanmar

Relief packages to the needy in Southern China

Watching soccer on the projector with
the soccer team

Soccer season has begun!

More baptisms

New brothers and sisters in Christ!

At the moment, everyone is doing well. We are really glad that Stephen is getting better. When Stephen and Becky both got Covid, Mary and Nick had to take care of all the chores and daily tasks. This has been an absolutely trying couple of months. Through highs and through lows, we praise God for always being with us. As countries open up, with God by our side, our team all ready to go, and powerful prayers and support from our faithful friends and family around the world --- it’s full steam ahead!!