August Update
This morning as Narlin was trying to call our Burmese interpreter in Tachilek Myanmar from her mobile phone. Her call somehow ended up in Baguio City to a friend who we have never seen in a while but has been faithfully supporting us. Hearing her warm voice with genuine concern on the other end of the line, help us realized that God has never let us down. People remember us. We thank you for your continued prayers… but we are begging you to please mobilize for us by asking your church to pray for us.
God has been so gracious to us. He sees to it that our time here in Mae Sai will not be spent largely on personal activities. We believe that God brought us here to do his ministry. Some of our activities may look trivial, but we consider them as God’s ways of expanding his kingdom here in the border of Thailand and Myanmar. Please continue to pray for the ministries.
Pray for the Missions Training Center. The center is in its third month. Pray for unity and forbearance among the teachers. Teachers are from different countries and denominations. Pray that in Christ, we can work together in harmony. Pray also for the five students that will have the patience and maturity required for future leaders, church planters and evangelists. Joey is currently teaching Asian Religions and Narlin had just finished teaching song leading.
Pray for the Seminary Education by Extension (SEE). Joey has been approached by local Pastors and being asked to help them get their theological education. Pray that coordination with PBTS will go smoothly. In spite of the internet communication, coordination is not really easy as we think it is.
Pray for the Grace Home Kindergarten Center (GHKC). As time passes by, our relationship with the parents is closer.
Pray that this relationship will continue to grow. Although they are Buddhists, the parents are willing to attend the Bible Study every Friday afternoon. Pray that through this BS, the parents will have a lasting personal relationship with Christ.
Pray for the primary school. Narlin is no longer supervising the local teachers as she used to do. They are now capable enough to do the teaching themselves without close supervision. She just checks their lesson plan from time to time.
Pray for the children home ministry that we helped start a month ago. We wrote letter to our fellow workers here and two of them responded by giving the initial financial support. The need to house some of the children studying at primary school became urgent. They could not go back to the villages where they come from because of extreme poverty and the location has no access to basic services like electricity, water, hospital and school. We worked together with the church to provide these children a home where they will be taken care of. We are envisioning that these children will become the future leaders.
Pray for our bus ministry. As Jepth and Apple (Filipino missionary couple working in Chiang Mai) gave us their Nissan Urvan, coming with it is the understanding that it will be used for the ministry. Joey is the official bus driver. Transporting the children of the, GHKC, church’s nursery and the primary school everyday 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the afternoon. The van is also being used for transporting people to the church every Sunday and also for the weekday activities. The increase in attendance is noticeable. Through the bus ministry, we are able to know the homes of the children and come to know their parents in a more personal way. Bus ministry that includes a quick visitation. Driving is not an easy job but it is rewarding and fun.
Please pray that our support will become more regular. Last month, we end up literally begging to our friends to send us money for our monthly bills. It was very embarrassing but we ran out of options. We are hoping that we will not beg again for next months.
Please pray for Philippine Global Mission (PGM). We pray that PGM will become a full-pledged mission sending body that is able to mobilize, provide missionary care and support their missionaries in the field. Please pray for Dr. Henry and Ate Sonia Silbor (PGM, Chairman) as they struggle financially and emotionally for Dr. Silbor’s dialysis. We pray that God will provide for their needs and God would give them calm assurance and comfort.
We are hoping to send a Video CD of our mission activities and updated missionary profile. But it is hard to find the time. I have to stay awake until early morning to type this update. Our computer’s DVD drive is acting that making the promotional material almost impossible. We are all sharing one computer right now. Jared is becoming more proficient in computer than his father. We are praying for another computer. You can visit Jared’s blog here.
On other note, we thank the Lord for blogger friends,one of them, Dr. Ben Myers who made a friendly appeal to donate theological books for us. The response was overwhelming as individuals, publishers, book sellers and distributor donate theological books for Joey personally and for the Missions Training library.
