The construction of roads and highways can be the mark of an established civilization. Rome constructed most of their roads in a straight path so that travel could be done quicker and the U.S. established the interstate highway for the convenience of traveling from state to state with little congestion. So, why not take the highway? It's bigger more convenient and gets you to the destination faster. In the spiritual aspect, we know that in the book of Matthew, the Christian path is often viewed as the narrow path with a narrow gate where few will want to take. Why would someone take the small challenging road?
Even with obstacles, many more are coming to Christ and our God continues to open doors for us. We praise God for what He has done and what He continues to do. We are always reminiscing of all the great things God has done in our lives. Some of you may know the story of how Stephen’s family came to Christ, but many do not so we’d like to share about how that happened. From an Animist (evil spirit worshipping) village to living as a Buddhist monk, God called Stephen and his father’s family.
This story was way before Stephen met his wife Mary and started his ministries. Here is his story:
My name is Stephen. I am Lisu, a minority people group in Thailand, Burma and China. I was born in Thailand, in an evil-spirit worshipping family. When I was three days old, my parents offered me to be a son of evil spirits, or to be a shaman at due time. Throughout my younger days, I grew up in a Buddhist monastery and in fact I was a Buddhist monk and my destiny was to be the next shaman of the village.
In those days, the Lisu people grew opium as a cash crop so we lived in a very restricted society. Living in a closed society, we hardly encountered any visitors in our village. At the same time, the villagers would very rarely travel into “civilized” towns. We had to walk two full days, including sleeping in the jungle at night, in order to reach the nearest town. Therefore, when I was growing up, the gospel of Jesus had never reached any Lisu villages in Thailand.
Nevertheless, one afternoon, my father, a leader, saw a vision of the narrow and wide gates, with respective narrow and wide paths, and heard a man say the word “repent.” The word “repent” in Lisu literally means to transplant your heart. With a very limited medical knowledge, my dad responded in his vision to that man saying, “How could I survive after taking my heart out?” Then, he heard a voice saying “go and find Jesus.” In order to find the man named “Jesus” and the meaning of “repentance,” my father sent one of my brothers and me to a Buddhist monastery. Unfortunately, the word “repent” and “Jesus” were not found in Buddhism.
One day my father and my eldest brother came down to town to visit us. While they were waiting for a taxi on the side of the street, they met a missionary. The missionary told them that he came to tell them about “Jesus.” The word “Jesus” clicked in my dad’s heart and made him remember his vision. So, he asked him the meaning of “repentance” and the vision of the two different gates. Right after the missionary explained the word and the vision from the Bible, my father and my eldest brother invited the missionary to go to the temple, where my second eldest brother and I lived. When my dad entered at the door, his first words were, “I have found someone who can tell us about Jesus.” Right there, my second eldest brother accepted Jesus.
After my second eldest brother had accepted Jesus, he kept coming to visit me at the temple informing about Jesus for over a year. I kept telling him that unless I had studied about Jesus for myself, I would not accept it. Back in those days, there was a very limited number of missionaries in our town. The closest missionary was several hundred kilometers away: a full 24-hour day bus ride. One day my brother invited me and one of my sisters to go to this missionary and study the Scripture with him for about a week. After a weeklong Bible study with this missionary, my sister and I finally accepted Jesus. Then my brother, sister and I went back to our village to tell the people about Jesus Christ from the Bible. Not long after, my family burned our spirits shelves and accepted Jesus Christ as our true and living Lord and Savior. Indeed, my family was one of the first groups of people among Lisu tribe in Thailand who accepted Jesus Christ.
However, my mom kept resistance for a year. You see, my mom was an alcoholic. She would drink one bottle in the morning and another bottle in the evening. She would even brew her own whiskey in our backyard. A year later, she came to me asking whether God could redeem her from her alcoholism. I told her that I can’t answer on His behalf but I knew one thing that if it’s in His will, he is able to do everything. So, my mom asked me to baptize her. The moment she got up out of the water at her baptism, she was totally released from her alcoholism. Praise the Lord!
There were many challenges as soon as we became Christian. First, we had to stop growing opium. Instead, we grew rice, and rice doesn't grow well in the mountains because the water that the rice needs to sit in would flow away. For several years, the family were often hungry because rice was a filler and they didn't produce much at all. On top of this, because our new faith brought change to the community, many people wanted us dead, especially my father. There were many attempts but none were successful. There were countless challenges but through our conversion, many other Lisu also became Christians. Praise God!
Throughout my life and ministry, I have always experienced God’s presence and His power. On the daily, I keep finding reasons to praise our Living God who is in control.
Laos
Praise God for His deliverance and for using Stephen in spreading the gospel to others in Southeast Asia and China. With the Good News, we are breaking the chains of the evil on the lives of the people. People are choosing the narrow gate! In the past month, 39 people in Laos came to Christ. As soon as they believed, they destroyed their idols and got baptized. In many parts of Asia, if you become Christian, it often comes with challenges. Many will face persecution, rejection, and harassment because of their faith. Internally, they may have to give up lucrative businesses because of their faith. For many, following Jesus is not an easy road. Like Stephen’s family, after finding Jesus, they gave up every comfort in order to follow Jesus because Jesus brings real hope and freedom.
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| Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ |
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| Tearing down evil spirit shelf and idols |
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| Burning the evil spirit shelf |
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| New Believers |
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| Freedom in Christ! |
At the moment, there are around 20 other people wanting to be baptized but due to the village lockdowns, they aren’t able to. Many of the people living in villages on the mountains do not have a water source to be able to get baptized so they have to walk down the mountain to a river or a pond. Please pray for these people and also pray for our partnering field workers who are carrying out the Great Commission by making new disciples in their communities and country.
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| The evangelist/leadership course in Laos continues when there isn't a lockdown |
Thailand
In February, a Thai church, where Nick volunteers at, set up have an event for the kids at our neighborhood, on the outskirts of Chiang Mai city. It was a Valentine’s Day themed event where we hung out with the elementary school kids to show them the love of Jesus. As we’ve mentioned before, our neighborhood used to be very much against Christianity when we first moved here. They would ignore us and rally for people to avoid us. Slowly, we were able to build relationships with our neighbors and now they are very respectful to us and our faith. So, during this Valentine’s Day event for the kids, they welcomed us to come and hang out with the kids and allowed us to tell the kids about Jesus. It was such a great event! Thank you to the Thai church for their efforts for the kids in our area.
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| Valentine's Day event at Hua Fai Government School |
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| Snack time! |
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| Ice cream! |
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| Games! |
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| Gifts for the kids |
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| What a great day! |
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| Abe, Stephen's nephew, delivered the packages of food to the people in the quarantined village |
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| At another location, snacks were sent to encourage kids at the border |
Myanmar-China
Since we’ve started online Bible classes, many of our students are primarily from Myanmar and China. Stephen’s class continues to increase in number as more people want to join to study the books of the Bible exegetically. We have seen an increase in interest and attendance in our classes since we started offering classes online, even more than when it was onsite. The only times the students aren’t able to join is when their government turns off their electricity or their internet providers. This challenge still persists because of the ongoing war within Myanmar and the recent laws in China. Please pray for the students as they hunger to learn more of God’s Word but face many challenges.
Several places have requested Stephen to go and teach at their Summer Bible camps. Due to safety concerns, he is currently unable to travel into some areas. So, he asked some of his students who are locals to go on his behalf. It is very dangerous at this moment even to cross the border at the Golden Triangle in order to offer a special course to those new converts. The tension between the Myanmar militaries and the Shan ethnic army has escalated. The fighting could break out at any moment.
Family
Isaac is getting ready to head into high school at Varee School because his current school (Sarasas School) doesn’t go up to high school level. He’s a bit nervous but glad that there are a couple of old friends that are also going to Varee. This is a big step for him because this school will prep him on the course for computer programming/engineering. Many times, he has stated that he wants to major in Physics but there is no course that will prep him for that career in Thailand. Mary continues to take care of the crops that she has planted. In the past several months, she has been collecting green beans and giving them to people who don’t have anything to eat; there are people out there eating just rice with salt/peppers because they don’t have the means to buy groceries. Stephen continues to teach and study almost every day. His students really enjoy the classes and have asked great questions which go deeper in theology. Several of his works are waiting to be published in Lisu when the countries are fully opening. Besides teaching, Stephen loves taking care of his wild roosters that he has in the backyard. Becky has been diligently prepping and teaching her classes with great content and games. All the students have improved significantly. Nick continues to volunteer at the local Thai church, in the preaching rotation and also working with the youth. The youth group will hopefully be able to start meeting next month. On top of his regular online Bible/English classes, he has met up with young Christian men in Myanmar to discuss about the Bible and encourage each other to grow in the faith.
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| Isaac's last day with his friends at Sarasas School |
Recently, Mary’s mother has come to live with us for some time. Mary’s mom is in her old age is becoming forgetful. Once in a while, she would come stay with us for a week or two before going back to stay in the mountains of Chiang Dao. Another person that is staying with us currently is Stephen’s nephew “Deer.” Deer moved to live with us because he recently got a new job in Chiang Mai. He has asked Stephen to pray for him because he and his wife are trying to have a baby. Please pray for them.
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| Mary loves spending time wither her mom |
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Mary's birthday at the end of January
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