Good bye

Dear Readers (yes, the two of you),

We decided to stop updating this blog. At first, Jared and I thought of deleting this blog altogether but we think it would be better to leave it as it is.

Please feel free to email us at delapaz_mail@yahoo.com.ph if you want to know more about us and what is going on with our life and ministry.

Thank you for reading our blog. We appreciate the people who left their encouraging comments here.

Blessings,

Joey, Narlin, Jared, Jillian and Reuven

September update

Once again, we had experienced God’s faithful provision to us this month (September) as many of you, our friends kneel for us before Him. Some people responded and sent us gifts to pay for our monthly bills. We consider it specially miraculous when God’s provisions come from “unexpected” people. With no clear source of regular adequate support, we are experiencing literally how “to live by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7) “as strangers in a foreign land” (2 Pet. 2:11). We praise the Lord every time we remember you are all praying for us. In Christ, we sincerely want to thank you.

Ministry Updates

The Missions Training Center is going strong. The students have proven to be relentless and determined to learn. Pastor Shin Maung (our Burmese Pastor) and Teacher Cherry (volunteer teacher) and me (and in other times Narlin) have been working very hard in preparing lessons and teaching three hours each day. Thankfully, the other two volunteers will come and teach this month giving us a much needed break. Being the only available bus driver around, I really could use a break.

Narlin has been suffering from a terrible tooth ache but that did not stop her from ministering to the children at Grace Home. And with a little help from a friend, we had bought toys for the children. We also find the time to bring the children to the city park to enjoy a day out from their small space. Narlin is also leading a Bible Study for women every Tuesday.

Pray for the ministries that God has entrusted to us. The Missions training center is a ministry made possible only through the partnership of God’s people from different countries and denominations. Americans, Australian, Filipino and Burmese Christians are working

Pray for the Grace Home Day Care Center. The center is attracting more parents asking us to take care of their children, that is, even though we raised the fees a little bit. Please pray for financial resources for our plan to expand the ministry next year. We hope to integrate a hostel ministry for the older children of the Burmese migrant workers. Any kind of help are welcome.

Reuven's second birthday in Mae Sai

Reuven shared his birthday celebration with Zerick. The son of another Filipino missionary couple working in an Agricultural NGO here in Mae Sai. Reuven is 9 years old and Zerick is 4. We surely has been missing home so we celebrated it in Filipino way with “pabitin” and “hataw-palayok.” The missionary kids were gathered together and enjoyed their special time together.

Please continue to pray for missionary children here as they continue to try to live normally in their new country. They have special needs and many of us, Filipino missionaries are struggling and at lost on what is the best thing to do for our growing children. If you know some organizations that can help us, we will be happy to know about it.




Home schooling show down

Another big concern is our children home schooling. Fortunately enough, through God’s sovereign plan, most missionary families with younger children came here almost at the same time with us last year. And because of our common situation and shared experiences, the parents organized creative activities for the children that would enrich their social life and enhance academic learning.

On first of September, missionary kids had gathered together for a home schooling showdown. Children recited memory verses, presented songs and other stuff. And together they presented a mini-play. It was a great experience for the children.

Please pray specifically for our children’s home schooling. This has been an endless struggle for us and for the children themselves. Learning at home by their own is not easy. Please pray for better coordination with their school back home, for our children’s diligence in their study and for God’s provision.

We have been invited to join this year sixth annual CHN Getaway on October 29-November 1, 2007. CHN is Christian Hospitality Network, a ministry dedicated to providing opportunities for rest and renewal to pastors and missionaries. This is CHN’s way of encouraging the missionaries for their sacrifices and acts selfless service. It is an expression of their appreciation. This year event will be held at Phuket Orchid Resort in Phuket, Thailand.


Times of refreshing

We are praying that we can come to this activity. Here we will meet other missionaries and CHN will also provide medical services and counseling. This is offered to missionaries at no cost. However, we need to raise fund for our transportation and because we are five in the family, we need big amount to join. Nonetheless, we know that this will be a time of refreshing and encouragement for us. Although we can never have that amount, we are praying that if God will allow us to enjoy this time, we believe that He will provide. We would appreciate if you can help us join this activity, you can deposit an amount in our bank account and inform us that it is specifically for this purpose.



Pray for Myanmar

Please pray for Burma by whom God has called us to serve with its people. The situation is getting nasty and people are being killed as the military troops opened fire on the demonstrators. They imprisoned the Buddhist monks who initiated and mobilized the masses to protest against the 45 year reign of an oppressive government. We expressed solidarity with the oppressed people of Myanmar. We ask you to join us to pray for a peaceful change in Burma. Let us join the protests and obey the biblical mandate to speak up against injustice committed against the people.

We stand with Burmese protesters. The roar of global public opinion is being heard in hundreds of protests outside Chinese and Burmese embassies, people round the world wearing the monks' color red, and on the internet-- where petitions has exploded to over 200,000 signers in just 72 hours. If you want to join and sign the petition please click here. I also blog about the protests in Burma here and here.

Hope for Myanmar

I can not seem to blog about anything when my mind is being bothered in what is happening in Yangoon. We live very close to Burma and our closest friends here are all Myanmar nationals. I know their stories, their sufferings and their hopes that someday Myanmar will become a free country. My heart breaks when soldiers and police started firing at protesters and killed people in the process. The monks who mobilized the masses to join the protests are all forcibly locked up in their respective monasteries. According to the news the protests falter after the crackdown. “The streets of Myanmar's two biggest cities were eerily quiet on Saturday after a brutal crackdown on demonstrators seeking to end 45 years of military rule. Soldiers quickly snuffed out one small demonstration in Yangon, dragging several men to waiting trucks.”

This development is really sad as I thought that the sacrifices that the monks and the people of Myanmar had been protesting for weeks. I do not want the protests to end. I do not want it to end this way. I want it to end the way it should be, attaining its goal—freedom for Myanmar people. But there is still hope. My hope has been kept alive by people who have been protesting in their own countries where the Myanmar embassies are located. Hope has been kept alive by Christians who are not only praying for a peaceful change in Myanmar but for Christians who follows the biblical mandate to speak against injustices and be in solidarity with the suffering people of Burma.

The picture is from Yahoo! News

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.

Another update

The mission training hall is almost finished

Mission training class holding session at the church library

The mission training school is on its second week. Two more missionaries commit themselves to teaching some courses. Our vision is to have these students deployed in the villages to do evangelism and church planting. Pray for the unity, love and trust among the “faculty” as we worked together. Pray also for the five students that they may be trained and equipped to do what God has called them to accomplish for His glory. God has also provided us a good interpreter. We also praise the Lord for the financial provision for this ministry. We also thank the Lord for PBTS and CSM for helping out in teaching materials that we can use for the training.

Narlin turned down another offer to teach English in a foreign-owned language center here because she does not have the time to do it. All her time is spent in the Primary School and Grace Home. There are times when we are tempted to work so that we can have regular source of income and reduce the stress of thinking if our support will come on time or not. God has been showing us that He is the God who never fails to provide. Please help us in prayer and mobilizing regarding our financial support.

Jeph Garcia, another Filipino missionary serving in Chong Tawng , up to the mountains in the outskirts of Chiang Mai, has given us his Nissan Urvan that we will use as school bus for the primary school and Grace Home Daycare Center. Isn’t this really a good reason to praise the Lord?

Again, we are going to Chiang Mai on the 10th for visa extension, we all beg you to please include us in you prayers.

The whole family wants to thank those who take time to respond and tell us they are praying for us. I guess, you don’t have any idea how those small acts give encouragement for workers like us.

June Update

We want to thank you for your untiring prayers. God’s blessings are pouring upon us because we know that you are all praying fervently for us and the ministries that God has entrusted to us.

• Please pray as we are going to extend our visa for another year next week. The immigration rules have been changing a lot lately and immigration officers have a hard time implementing them thus many foreigners are having a hard time extending their visa. Please pray that everything will go smoothly. We also thank the Lord for using people to help us financially specifically for this need.

• Pray for Narlin as she runs the Grace Home Kindergarten Center. We hired a staff that will help in cleaning and cooking. The salary will be taken from our personal support. She is also work as acting principal and adviser of the newly set up Mae Sai Primary School and Orphanage Center in our church. We have more than 30 pupils from grade 1 to grade 5. Please help us pray for a van that we can use as a school service. She will also be coordinating educational training in the community this year in partnership with our church and World Education Consortium (WEC). In addition to this, she is still holding English club (free English lesson) every afternoon in the community. Please pray for strength and wisdom.

• Please pray for the start of the Mission Training Center today. Five students out of seven people passed the screening and interview. The participants come from different tribal groups both in Myanmar and Mae Sai. Joey will be teaching full time (3 hours a day) together with a partner from the US. This is nine-month training for future pastors, evangelists and church planters. Joey is also acting as the Pastor of the International congregation of Mae Sai Grace Church by which the community have been working together to reach the lost people of the Mekong Region.

• Pray for the Dela Paz children—Jared, Jillian and Reuven as they struggle to adjust in the community and their home schooling. It has been different when they first arrived, when they thought everything seems new and exciting, when the neighbors are excited to see the strange neighbors. The novelty and excitement are gone and they are faced with the reality that they don’t exactly fit. Home schooling is tough for them and for us as well. We need help.

• We praise the Lord for the unexpected support that has been pouring upon us. But there are months when support doesn’t come as we expected it to be. This month of June is one of those months. Although we have received substantial help financially for our visa this month, part of it had been used for our daily expenses. Please pray for a more regular support.

Summer English Camp 2007

This blog has been neglected. I'll be posting pictures from the last Summer English Camp 2007. Uploading pictures takes a lot of time. So this picture post may take a while. I'll be doing if i have the time.

Arrival

Story Telling

Mime

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all the saints… Col. 1:7

God is great and we have proven that He never changes. As a family we testify to the power and greatness of God for providing for His called servants and for revealing himself to people who needs to know him as the most powerful God. Here are our prayer concerns and we are truly grateful knowing that you are praying for us and other missionaries on the field.

Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving

1. We are grateful to the Lord for all your faithfulness in our partnership with the gospel. Thai New Year was over and so was the Songkran festival and while the people here celebrated five-day holiday splashing water, dancing on the streets and getting drunk, we at Mae Sai Grace Church spent the days listening and learning from God through a one week Summer Bible Camp. Thirty people attended the Summer Bible Camp and five people accepted Christ as their God and Savior. Again, the camp was a team effort among missionaries and local Pastors (2 Americans, 2 Filipinos and 3 Myanmar Pastors) here in Mae Sai.
   
   
2. Grace Home Kindergarten Center held its first Anniversary and Recognition Day. Parents of the children under our care attended the said program and some of them enjoyed the children’s special number and many of them heard the gospel for the first time. After a long holiday, GHKC opened again last Monday. The children are happy to be back. We bought them a swimming pool for them to cool the summer heat away.
   
   
3. We finally paid the motorcycle. God touched the heart of the people we don’t know personally who live on the other side of the world. Somehow they heard about our need of motorcycle to be used in the ministry. They responded and we praise the Lord for their love and concern for us and their willingness to support the work of sharing the gospel to the lost. We consider this a miracle and we could not thank the Lord enough for his faithfulness. We are also doing minor improvements with the facilities.
   
   
4. We praise and thank the Lord for providing us friends who encourage us and bless us by sending us email messages, SMS, and calling us through the phone. This really gives us the courage and joy to persevere in God’s work. Furthermore, we have been receiving financial support from our dear friends but what amazes us is that we are also receiving support from people we don’t know personally and the supports are coming at the time we needed them.
5. God is to be praised… God has been touching people to be aware of the welfare of our children. People are sending gifts specifically designated to buy something for our children. If you want to help, Jared is also trying to raise fund for his and his brother and sister desktop PC.

Pray more…

1. The Mission Training Center will be starting soon. Again, this will be a team effort. We see the need of training local believers in their biblical knowledge and discipleship. Local church leaders from different ethnic groups in Myanmar are also craving for more training. We are encouraged that more and more missionaries are volunteering to help us with this program. Please pray for the people to be trained for they need subsidy to undergo training.
2. Our local pastor coordinates with us in organizing a Summer English Camp 2007. This will follow the pattern of DVBS camp we have been doing in the Philippines. The camp will be held in the church and we are busy right now preparing for the details. We are aiming for 30 people (children and young people from age 8 to 18). As the news of the camp is being heard in the community and across the border of Tachilek, Myanmar, it seems that more people will be coming and the pastor has not sent the promotional letters yet. We are praying that God will use this camp to share the gospel to the children and youth and also as a venue for discipleship.
3. Please pray for the Asian Baptist Congress 2007. I haven’t realized this before, but it seems that I will be meeting many Christian leaders and workers that work here in Thailand and in Myanmar. This is a good time for establishing relationships and future partnership for the gospel.
4. In three months, we will be renewing our one-year visa. Please pray that this time everything will go smoothly as we want it to be. Please pray for more provisions.
5. We are moving to a cheaper and smaller house. Please help us to pray to find the right house. We have been looking for a month but the houses we have found are more expensive but not necessary better than our present house.
6. Continue to pray for our children homeschooling. Please we are pleading to God that we can sustain this through our years of stay here.
7. Pray for Reuven. His face is swelling because of tooth infection. I guess this is reminder for us to bring our children to the dentist.

We are blessed to have friends like you and I could understand the Apostle Paul’s feelin when he said, "Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God." (Phil. 1:3)