There
is a saying “there is strength in numbers,” which is true in many occasions.
When people help each other, they could delegate work and be more efficient,
especially when everyone brings in their strengths and abilities. This was the
case, many decades ago, as the Lisu people migrated from China to settle in
Myanmar and Thailand. They traveled in groups and when they found a flourishing
area with a river and wild game, they would begin to build houses out of
anything they could find. After a while, when the village grew large and
resources were scarce for everyone, a small group of people would break off in
search for a new place. Smaller groups or unprepared groups have a hard time
surviving the wild, and many end up having to assimilate with other ethnic
groups and lose their Lisu identity; such is the case in Laos, for we know
there were several small groups who traveled into Laos from China, but the
contacts were lost, long ago (we are still searching for this lost Lisu groups
in Laos to this day). Other reasons groups would leave to find a new home would
be because of wars in the area, belief conflicts, and even internal politics. This
is why there are many Lisu villages spread out across the mountains of China,
Myanmar and Thailand.
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Present day Lisu village in Thailand,
living on the mountain side
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As
you may have known, Stephen began training up a new class of Lisu leaders. Yes,
this group contains member in their 50’s and 60’s, but they have been
diligently studying week long intensive courses each month. Nevertheless, God
is using these guys who are mostly retired in reaching out to the lost in
Thailand. One of the core requirements of Asia International Seminary, a grass
roots non-traditional seminary under Asians for Christ, is for the students to
go back to the biblical times in order to search for the original meaning and
then contextualize what they have learned on the field. In order to train up
and disciple these leader-students to evangelize and disciple others, Stephen
with these leader-students have been going and evangelizing to remote villages
of Thailand and converting many people each week. In the worldly perspective, our
team is a small and weak, perhaps; even this particular mission’s task is led
by a group of retire-aged people…oh! How many would say this is futile. But we know
we can accomplish great things when God is with us! |
| Stephen with the Lisu leaders ready to go evangelize! |
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| Stephen teaching New Testament Exegesis |
Perhaps,
you might be foreign to miracles or question if it still happens, because maybe
you’ve seen something suspicious on television. We would just like to share
this wonderful story of our powerful God. A lady in her late 70s arrives to
meet us one evening as we were talking with a few villagers. People could tell
there was something off about her. The way she would have ticks, moving of her
facial muscles. On top of this, she complained about some type of pain on the
inside. As she spoke with a frail tone, Stephen and the team offered to pray
for her. She accepted. Immediately after they finished prayer, you could see an
immediate change in the room. To everyone’s amazement, she no longer had ticks,
was able to communicate with more strength than before and even started
smiling. God moved to show His power in this place. After this incident,
several people wanted to learn more about Jesus, and some believed and were
baptized. From strangers, they became our brothers and sisters in Christ. God
is so good! |
After this prayer, she was healed
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| She believed and was baptized in a water storage |
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Several others were also baptized on that day. Praise Jesus!
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In
the recent decades, missions to the ethnic minority groups in Thailand seemed
to have been over saturated. You would have thought that everyone would have at
least had a chance to hear the Gospel. Boy were we wrong! As we discussed
together about the potential area for evangelism in Thailand, several villages
came to mind. To our surprise, there are still Lisu villages in Thailand yet to
be reached. Several villages held heavily to their animistic belief in these
villages, evangelists were threatened by force to never show up in the town.
So, no one ever dared enter these villages because everyone there were openly
against Christianity. Through prayers, we finally decided to try and reach
these villages. First, we connected with the local in the town, and when the
other villagers saw us, they openly laughed and warned us to watch our backs.
But, the thing with unfamiliar places is that we need to rely on God all the
more.
After a couple months of intensive prayer and frequent visitations, we saw the first villager in this small town accept Jesus Christ and was baptized. Oh how beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tiding of good things (Romans 10:15, NASB). These new converts are gathering at house churches, until they overfill the house; then raising money for a church building would be necessary.
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Stephen and Mary singing hymns and teaching the youth
in one of the villages |
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In another village, they assembled a team
and went to teach the youth at another village |
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Stephen and the team were asked to tell the gospel
at many houses
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Mission Field:
The
ministry in Laos has expanded greatly, almost daily people believe in Jesus
Christ. Praise God! Please continue to pray for this mission field as we work
with the locals in equipping and empowering them to evangelize in their various
communities. Please pray also for a group of local evangelists and their
families, particularly, their needs for filling gas in their motorcycle to
carry out the Great Commission to the lost souls.
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| Many believe and are baptized in Laos weekly |
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| New brothers and sisters in Christ, in Laos |
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| Another group of new brothers and sisters in Christ |
In
Myanmar, the war still tears through those lands. Unrest still remains. Help
from outside the country is slowly dissipating. We are still teaching and
encouraging the people in the country via online teachings/podcast.
Unfortunately, it is not safe for us to go into the country. Several of our
graduated students are still evangelizing in the north but it’s been tough.
In
China, the bible class continues while the government continues to monitor with
CCTV inside church buildings. In the midst of such circumstances, many Chinese
Christians remain true to our Lord and Savior. Actually, a couple of the
evangelists in the area came to see us in the past month. By the way, Stephen
is still teaching the Bible for Christian leaders in Myanmar and China weekly
via podcast. He has 85 leaders who are studying with him at the moment.
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The group of Chinese evangelists came to visit us
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Spiritually,
many wander around exploring for a place to put their trust and hopes. Rarely
do people find Jesus, the true hope, unless someone goes and tells them. We
believe God is showing His Greatness, especially through obstacles. We continue
to reach out to every corner of Southeast Asia and China even if it is
potentially dangerous, because that’s part of the risk of evangelistic trips in
many of these areas. Surely, there are many potential challenges along this
spiritual journey. However, we believe that at the end of the day, it is
rewarding to serve God and to see life transforming in each individual who meets
Jesus Christ!
Family:
August
turns out to be a celebration month for our family. In Thailand, mother’s day
is set in August. Stephen and Becky were born in August. Mary is busy on taking
care of daily needs not only for family but also for leader-students of the intensive
classes, even though they took turns in cooking and cleaning. Isaac got a
silver medal for the project of the Development of Hydrogel used as Mulch, which
can delay the decomposition of fertilizer for his project in Indonesia
International Olympian competition 2023. His other project for data sciences on
depression is at the national competition. On top of helping teach Bible
classes online with Nick, Becky started teaching English classes for little
kids up in the mountains each month. This has been a very great opportunity as
the little kids really like Becky’s classes. Nick volunteers in a youth
ministry with Khao a local church in Chiang Mai. They have been serving there
every other weekend and God is definitely working in the kids’ lives. The
neighboring kids also asked Nick to continue to coach their soccer team. Nick
has also dedicated his time to mentor to these high school/young adult age kids
in the neighborhood. It has been tiring for Nick to study his Master’s program
in mental health and to also do ministry, but he has now started to be able to
balance and manage his time very well. Please pray for God to give him strength
as he studies and serves the various communities.
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| Nick teaching the youth at a Thai church |
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| The soccer students Nick coaches in a small league in town |
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| We went out to eat to celebrate Thai mother's day |
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This month was also Stephen's birthday (Becky's soon to come)
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We
hope that you continue to pray for us as our ministry grows exponentially. We
are baffled by the wonderful things God is doing on our mission field. Please
take time to look at these pictures of all the things that has been happening!May God Bless You,
The
Wongs
