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.
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| A meal with the Wong family |
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| A meal with a guests from Germany and Laos |
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| 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.
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| Class on Theology of the Cross |
LaosAbraham
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.
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| Traveling on small motorbikes during rainy season is tough! |
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| Making a makeshift baptistry |
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| The baptistry is ready! |
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| 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 |
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| Baptism at a river |
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| 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.
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| Wooden planks gathered for the temporary shelter |
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| Temporary Refugee Shelters |
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| 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!
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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.
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Stephen preached at a small house church in the mountains.
(Praise the Lord! 3 people are interested
in becoming Christian, as a result) |
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| 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.
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Bible Story telling class with the teachers from
Hawaii |
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| Our soccer team winning another game! |
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Took them out to eat after the game!
More fellowship! |
