People in Myanmar and our mission works need fervent prayers more than ever before. Besides Zoom classes, most of our mission works in Myanmar is on pause. The ministry of teaching English on Zoom for students in Myanmar and Laos is going very well. Sometimes, we face unstable internet connections, but overall, it is a ministry that has blessed many students. Our gratitude goes to the mission board of Kaimuki Christian Church who has dedicated their time, and even paid for the cost of Zoom this year! Because of this ministry, some students in Laos have passed their university entrance exams in the recent months. These entrance exams are required here in Thailand, Myanmar and Laos in order for students to attend public universities. Speaking of Zoom classes, we also started offering a class for preachers in Thailand, Myanmar and China every Thursday evening in the Lisu language. The goal of this class is to help prepare those preachers to preach God’s Word from the Scripture faithfully. During class, Stephen would share his research findings, exegetical works and present the text and its contexts to the group, and then everyone would discuss and talk about applications.
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| English Bible Zoom Class (Myanmar) |
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| Stephen class with the preachers in Myanmar, Thailand, and China |
All the evangelistic works in Myanmar remains on hold due to the travel restrictions and also ongoing political issues. Just before the lockdown due to the Covid 19, Stephen and his teammate were prepared to go and evangelize to one of the very remote areas in the Northeastern part of Myanmar to the people who are still growing opium as their main cash crop. These people are so remote, not only have they never heard the gospel, but they don’t even know how to say “thank you” in their own language. Perhaps, when we go there, it would be like 1960, when Stephen was young, and when people took a bath once a year, only on New Year’s Eve because it’s a custom to change into new clothes on New Year’s Day.
As Covid 19 vaccines are being rolled out, glimpses of light at the end of the tunnel seems to be brighter each day. In Thailand, many in the hotel and tourism business are waiting for costumers to come back. Students at schools are tired of having to constantly shift between online classes and going back to school. It is strange to think that we have been in this situation for over a year. Since Covid cases dropped to 0 in Chiang Mai, while many other provinces still are at high risk, we traveled to visit many different churches, different villages, and the elderly; on one occasion we visited the earliest group of Thailand Lisu Christians, who live 5 hours away from Chiang Mai. They have not had visitors since the beginning of 2020. It has been a blessing for them and Stephen to meet, pray and have dinner for this group of Christians. Stephen has a long memorable story with this group of Christians. Together, they went through various times of suffering and persecution because they were the first group of Christians among their villages who accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The persecution began with the stoning of their houses (this is an expression of hate), excommunicating them, burning their houses and the worst was hiring a hit-man to kill them. Praise God for protecting Stephen along with this group of first Christians. Finally, they had to move out from the village and they started a new village, at the place where nobody would dare to live. According to the faith of non-believers the new place was doomed with curse, but God has been faithful, as they are prospering and are living long enough to show those unbelievers how mighty our living God is and how he blesses his people. Not only did they have to move to their new place and start new because of their faith, but they also had to change their main cash crop. As you may have known that prior to their conversion, they would grow opium as their main cash crop for several generations. This was the only crop they knew how to grow. After their conversion, they stopped growing opium and turned their poppy fields into rice paddies. Without any experience in growing rice, they harvested nothing for the first two years. Many of them starved to the point of near death because of this transformation. But praise the Lord! Today this village has become a model for our mission in helping new converts in other countries, for instance, Laos and Myanmar, to change their cash crop from opium to other positive and sustainable crops.
Stephen giving one of many sermons
since the beginning of the year
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| Stephen and Mary visiting a church in Chiang Dao |
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| Stephen, Mary, and Nick visiting and praying for Mary's father and mother, as they are still both very sick |
Stephen and Mary with the earliest group of
Christian Lisu in Thailand
Stephen, Mary, and Nick (with A Be)
having lunch with the Elderly
In our last newsletter, we requested your help in covering the cost of food and study equipment for the two year Bible and Leadership training in Laos. We are happy to say that we have already received 500$ designated for this ministry from Parkview Christian Church. We need $3,500 for this year and another $4000 for the next year for the first 30 students. This is a first-of-its-kind event in such a closed country and we believe this training program is the game changer in bringing hundreds of thousands of people in Laos to Christ. We plan on going into Laos to teach leadership and Bible classes as soon as Covid clears up. We believe it is worth it. Will you continue to pray about this?
Speaking of Laos, though many people are turning to Christ in Laos, especially the Hmong and the Khamu people, however, there are still many unreached groups of people, for instance, Bik, Seeda, Phusan, Muchi and etc. There are no Christians or Bibles in their language, to our knowledge, among these people. We, along with our friends in Laos, are praying for a way to reach these people. There are several challenges, for instance the language barrier because they speak only their languages; they can’t communicate with the evangelists from the other ethnic groups. Please keep these unreached ethnic groups in your prayers; pray for us to find a way to reach them.
Family
On another note, Nick has started volunteering as the youth minister at a small house church in Chiang Mai. Before this, the church didn’t have a youth program for at least 5 years. This has not only benefited the youth at the church but also help Nick grow as well. Every other week, Nick has to prepare a message for the Youth and also set up events. Most of these kids will have their first youth lock-in ever this month. Nick misses the days when he was in youth group as a high-schooler; it was super fun, and he wants to bless and encourage the kids here. Furthermore, Nick also works with another group of students (unbelievers) near our house by coaching them soccer. This month, they started to pray together as a team. This is a huge step because the soccer team has been asking for prayers for their family, education, and even for their future wives. Please continue to pray for Nick for wisdom and continued growth.
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| Nick giving a sermon at the Thai church in Chiang Mai |
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| Nick and the soccer team defeating their first opponent, the teachers from a catholic school in Chiang Mai |
As for Mary, she started to grow pumpkins behind our house. Some of you may know, in the past, Mary helped provide work for the Shan community by growing rice. In the past year, the two harvest seasons were less than profitable because of the price drops on rice. All the work, without any income, especially for a couple Shan people who work here part-time was especially tough. The rice farming community in Thailand is also struggling from the Covid Crisis--farmers live below the poverty line, have very little education, and are highly undervalued in the community. We live in one of the biggest farming communities in Chiang Mai, and we have seen and even experienced the struggles that farmers here face. Because of this desire to impact the community, Mary has and continues to open up opportunities to work with the farmers and refugees in our neighborhood.
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| Mary's pumpkins are growing |
Becky is doing well with her beginners English Zoom class for the Myanmar students. The students who speak little to no English are all in Becky’s class. Every week, she goes above and beyond and preps new power point presentations for the students. Her 8 students have really improved and are now able to read simple sentences. We are very glad and proud to have Becky give her all in this ministry. Isaac has been studying for his upcoming exams next month. He has been doing exceptional in his studies and has even picked up the game of chess. Within a couple of weeks, he was able to study the game and even beat Stephen and Nick!
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| Becky taking an afternoon break |
We
thank you for joining us and make an impact on the mission field in Southeast
Asia and China. Even though we are all facing this pandemic and political
unrest, it is clear to see that His Kingdom continues to advance. May we
continue to share the Good News and give people hope because Jesus is coming
back!
