Church Planting Movement in Thailand!
August 27, 2018
Praises
A church
planting movement in Thailand is seeing thousands come to
Christ!
God's continued blessings as we serve in Louviers, CO at Faith E Free Church and at OMF
God's continued blessings as we serve in Louviers, CO at Faith E Free Church and at OMF
All of our children are doing
well
God helped Alysha in the situation of
the dead goats
Prayer
Continued perseverance in ministry in
Louviers and wisdom to know how to reach
out
How to love others well while holding
firm to the truths of the Scripture
God's work in China in this difficult
time
Wisdom for Alysha in where to board
Lady, her dog
Dear Friends and Family,
I am so grateful for those who
continue to pray for Scott and me, our ministries and our
family. Some of you have been praying for us for many
years!
One of my great joys recently has been
reading about a church planting movement that is occurring in
Petchabun, Thailand. Through this church group, there are
7195 new believers since September 2017. From just a
handful of churches in December 2016, there are now 238 churches.
This is all happening through a group of Thai Christians! I
was excited to hear that in July, the Free in Jesus Christ Church
Association (FJCCA) trained 40 Thai believers and 10 missionaries
from the IMB, OMF, Mennonites and Covenant church in Northeast
Thailand. And in August, they trained 30 members of the
Mahachon Church, a Baptist church in Chiang Mai. Then the
Mahachon church members went out and produced fruit immediately.
In one week they led over 100 people to Christ and they add new
believers daily. Rejoice with me in how God is at work in
this country that we love so much. If you'd like to know
more about this, let me know and I'll send you the updates I've
been receiving.
Alysha recently returned to Lamar
Community College so we are back to being empty nesters.
Alysha is in her sophomore year of an Applied Associates degree
in Equine Business Management. She is settling in well as
she has a church she really enjoys, some friends and a good job
in the school office. She finds her business classes
challenging - her heart is really in the care of animals so the
horse classes are fun! Alysha took her dog Lady back to
school with her and has been boarding her nearby at a
ranch.
Please pray for Alysha as she went
through a traumatic situation last Wednesday. She went to
the ranch in the morning to feed Lady and found that her friend's
dog (also boarding there) had gotten loose and was running
around. When Alysha was walking the dog back to her stall,
she found that in another pen that held 4-H goats, one goat was
dead and the other was covered in blood. The owner of the
goats arrived and was very upset, screaming that she was going to
shoot the dog (assuming the dog had attacked the goats), and make
Alysha's friend pay for the damages. Alysha had to go get
her friend out of class and the sheriff was called.
However, the neat thing was that as Alysha prayed about the
situation, she realized that the dog had no blood on it.
The sheriff also noted this and thus Alysha's friend was not
charged or made to pay anything. But the fear that the
owner would try to hurt the dogs in retaliation has made the
friend look for a new place to house her dog. Alysha is
also unsure if she should keep boarding her dog there. Very
stressful in Alysha's first week of
school!
Meanwhile, Scott continues to enjoy
pastoring our church. He loves studying the Greek and Bible
commentaries each week as he prepares to preach God's Word.
He has been working his way through Ephesians and this week will
preach on "Children obey your parents in the Lord" (6:1).
Yesterday the two of us had a sweet visit with one of the couples
in our church. We also attended the art reception of
another member of our church who paints beautiful cowboy
art. A number of our church members were at the reception
so it was a good chance to connect. Scott and I continue to
pray about which people God would have us reach out to in our
neighborhood. In June, we passed the four year mark of
living in Louviers. This is the longest we have lived
anywhere in our 28 years of marriage. We are learning to
persevere and dig our roots in as we seek to be faithful where
God has planted us.
Recently, we've had a couple of harder
conversations about homosexuality and the Bible. I think it
is challenging to convey that God loves those who have homosexual
desires (including those who act on them) while at the same time
continuing to believe that this is not God's best or God's design
for people. So many people are wrestling with this issue
these days.
Both of us would appreciate your
prayers for our outreach efforts in town. Scott has made
many forays inviting guys to play horseshoes, to hang out, to
talk. So often people are busy or don't follow
through. Several of my Bible studies have been on hold for
the last month or two as people have been busy with work or other
projects. How we long for people to be hungry to talk about
spiritual things. We have plans to have dinner with
neighbors on a few upcoming weekends, and continually look for
other opportunities to connect with folks as we walk around town,
attend events or stop in for visits. May God show us which
people to focus on and how to shine the light of Jesus through
our words and actions.
I continue to work 3 days per week for
OMF. With my boss carrying 2 roles this year (VP for
Personnel and Acting Director), the workload has been
heavy. I work closely with him on many emails as we try to
provide member care for our missionaries. In July, 28
missionaries with their 18 children were here for our HART (Home
Assignment Reunion and Training) - usually 5 days long, but cut
to 3 days this time due to our National Conference (which we only
hold once every 5 years). It is always wonderful to see our
missionaries and hear their stories from the field - lots of
challenges, lots of victories. While our workers were here,
I met with many of them to discuss their financial support as one
of my jobs is to make sure their support is at 100% in order for
them to return to the field. I also led a debrief group
which allowed missionaries to share some of the joys and sorrows
of living cross-culturally and sharing the love of
Jesus.
Currently, China has been cracking
down more and more on Christian freedoms. Here is an
article on hundreds of churches that were destroyed in one
province: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/china/article-6034995/Christian-heartland-opens-window-fight-Chinas-soul.html
During HART, I gave a workshop on
"Training Kids in Child Safety" which I've developed for our
missionaries. Inappropriate
touch is very common and considered normal in many of
the places where our workers live. Though I find this part
of my job difficult, I believe it is so important to continue to
train and screen our workers. In January, I've been invited
to attend an international consultation with our other OMF Child
Safety Officers in January. This will be my first time back
in Asia in 6.5 years! I'm praying about visiting some other
Asian countries (including Thailand) while I'm there. It
will be neat to see some of my missionary friends, and also to
see their work firsthand. I know this will help me
pray.
Updates on our boys - Matthew and
Rachel continue to thrive in Tyler, TX. Matthew got a
promotion to be Sales and Training Coordinator at the beginning
of the year. He has enjoyed the challenge of developing the
onboarding process and working on various projects for the owner
of his company. Rachel is halfway through her courses to
get her Real Estate License. She hopes to take her exam at
the end of September. They are going to begin working with
the youth group at their church in September. Joshua has
been in the Navy for over 2 years getting lots of training.
In mid September, he will go out for his first 3 month voyage on
a ballistic submarine, working as a nuclear tech. He has
been enjoying the beauty of Washington state (based in
Bremerton), and has taken a number of hikes when he has
time. Nathan started working as a contractor for John Deere
in June, doing embedded systems engineering on a hydraulic
excavator which is manufactured in China. He has had
virtual meetings with Chinese co-workers as well as an Indian
teammate. Nathan is settling well into Dubuque, Iowa.
We are thankful that he has been "adopted" by the pastor and his
wife of a large Evangelical Free church. Nathan plans to
join a life group for young professional men and also start
working with the youth group.
That's probably enough of an update on
us for now. Let us know how to pray for you - we love
getting your updates!
With
appreciation,
Jennifer, Scott, and
family