May Update

We had an incredibly busy, struggling but extremely exciting month. We are constantly experiencing God’s miraculous deeds and provisions and of all these happened because of your untiring prayers. We can’t thank you enough for all your support, encouragement and prayers.

Visa Extension

The month began with our struggle to raise the amount needed for our one-year visa. We sent out emails requesting for prayer about this particular need. And God miraculously provided the right amount at the right time. We cherished your words of encouragement and for assuring us that you are all praying for us. God alone deserves all the praise and glory. And we thank Him immensely for touching people’s heart and help us out of seemingly uncertain moment (but God is in control so it wasn’t really uncertain). From the bottom of our hearts we want to thank you all (although some of those who contributed chose to remain anonymous). Praise the Lord!

More of Summer English Camp

The summer camp is part of our regular yearly activities. Normally we were just doing one camp a year. However, this year a breakthrough happened and God allowed us to hold a camp in a more restricted country of Myanmar. And we believe that this could not have happened without your prayers. More than 120 children and young people attended the Tachilek camp. We thank the Lord for sending people to help us in the persons of Sandra and Isaac of Asia Vision Short Term Missions.

For those who helped financially for Narlin’s expenses for her one-week food and lodging in Myanmar, we sincerely thank you. This was the first time that we held the summer camp in Tachilek and this camp paved the way for a strong partnership among local churches and children’s ministries over there. The challenge for us now is how we will make the camp better and bigger next year.

Children Shelter

The Lord has put a burden in our hearts about the plight of children from Myanmar who keeps on coming to Thailand hoping for a better life. For over three years, we have been taking care of the children of the poor migrant workers (through Grace Home Kindergarten Center) while their parents are doing menial works. We’ve been around these little ones long enough to know and even witness how one of them lost a parent to AIDS right before our eyes. Moreover, we heard stories how they fell victim to greedy human traffickers and many other heart-breaking stories. We tried hearing from God about this and we believe that God wants us to help these children in our own small way. And we do this by opening our home to orphaned and abandoned children. Having said that, seven children are living with us. At the moment, two of them are going to Grace Home Kindergarten Center and the rest are going to a Thai preparatory school.

We will never become a “professional” orphanage because we could not be. We limit the number of children so that we can provide the best care for them. You can help us by praying for these children. Please email us and we will give you their stories so that you can pray intelligently for them.

The Green Canopy

For those who had been at Grace Home would know that what makes it a cool place is the vine that creeps overhead. We planted the vine two years ago and now it serves as a protective shade for the children against the hot tropical sun. However the canopy is made of bamboo and now it was about to fall down. With the help of the Bible School students, the canopy and fences have been restored to its former beauty.

For us this event represents the struggles that Grace Home have been going throughout the year. Differences among the local staff are destroying the beautiful testimony that the day care has to its community. The staff inability to follow instructions and guidelines reduces the efficiency of care that it is giving to the children. Only through the wisdom and empowerment from God that Narlin were able to resolve problems and issues at the daycare center. Please pray for Narlin that God will continue to do her responsibility as overseer of this ministry.
The challenge to evangelize and disciple the parents are still of utmost importance to us. Pray that we can consistently do this ministry in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Furthermore, the owner of the property where GHKC is being housed put a “for sale” sign on it. We are not certain how long we will be staying in this place unless of course we are able to buy the property. Please pray that together with Angela, we can raise the fund needed to buy the property.

Engage Camp
The hope of our own children to have a “normal” social life and proper education seemed to be hanging in the air for several years. Our prayer is that the Lord will provide a way by which Jared and Jillian can have a circle of friends and ministry involvement. In addition to this is the difficulty they are experiencing with home schooling. We are happy when people are concern about our needs and the ministry we are doing here but we are very much encouraged when people express serious concerns about our children’s odd situation as missionary kids.

We thank the Lord for our friend Alison who provided the means financially for them to join the Engage Camp held on second week of May in Chiang Rai. Their experience in the camp serves as catalyst for Jared to have confidence in playing the guitar and Jillian to lead the praise and worship in our church. Furthermore, they are now helping ministering to the children at Bann Nana (the largest children shelter in Mae Sai) every Sunday morning. More than anything else, the most significant help you can give to our children is to pray for them.

Full-time Preacher For the Mean Time

We were happy when Pastor Shin Maung (Pastor of Grace Church) asked us to help start and lead the international congregation in Mae Sai. But we are happier still when he told us that he could take over the leadership of the international community. We worked on the schedule of preachers for the whole month. For the last two years, I only preach once a month and listen to the other preachers the remaining Sundays. I liked the arrangement because we likewise receive feeding from other teachers. In the last two, months I had the privileged of being the full-time preacher as Pastor Shin Maung went to Yangon for his studies and other missionaries return to their country for their home assignments.

The international congregation of Mae Sai Grace Church is composed mainly of Asian and Australian-New Zealand long and short-term missionaries and teachers. Initially few Americans joined us but for some reasons they have stopped coming. We learn that they will start another international congregation here at Mae Sai. This is of course a good development but it creates an impression that there is division among the Christians in Mae Sai especially among His workers. Pray for unity among missionaries in the field.

A Friend Accepted Christ

What is friendship evangelism? It can be defined as an outreach strategy based on the idea that building relationships with the lost will eventually break their resistance, thus making them more open to the gospel. In other words, befriend people in order to present to them the gospel. However, God has taught us that if you will really care for a person and develop genuine friendship without ulterior motives (yes even sharing the gospel), the Holy Spirit will actually work in your friend’s life and he or she will come to you and will ask you how to know Jesus. We had experienced it so we can testify to this truth.

We became friend to our children’s Thai language teacher. She is a Thai citizen but originally a Burmese-Chinese Muslim (I know how confusing it is but we live in the border). The friendship has been very close and fruitful. We listened and helped her when she was in trouble. Like when her husband left her for another woman and took their daughter with him. We (Narlin and our friend Megan) counseled and prayed for her. However, when we moved to our new house, we lost contact with her and had not seen her for quite a long time. Until two weeks ago, we saw her and gave her our mobile phone number.

Last week, she called us up and told us she needed help so bad. She was running away from her mom who is cruel to her. She had nowhere to go so we welcomed her to our home. Incidentally, the team from Asia Vision Short Term Missions was staying with us for two days. And we took this opportunity to jointly pray for her. While were praying for her she fell to the ground and jerked, as if demons were coming out of her. She talked about her fears and terrible experiences with her husband and stepfather. And because we did share the gospel to her before, she publicly confessed and received Jesus Christ as her Lord and savior.
For the meantime, she is staying with us because her relatives disown her for becoming a Christian. She goes to the church with us and readily gives her testimony if she is given a chance. Pray for Rajima (not her real name) as she grows in her faith and knowledge of our Lord Jesus. Pray also for all our friends that we may have the same opportunity to tell them about Jesus and that God may reveal Himself to them.

Bible School

The opening of classes is on July that is a month earlier than last year. The schedule for the interview for the prospective students will start on June 15. Eight students were able to finish the intensive discipleship training last year. This year we are praying that God will bring to us the right students. We are praying for those who have potential to become leaders of the local believers and are able to initiate church planting where they are living.

Please continue to pray for us, as we will have a series of meeting with our partner Cherry (who provides the finances) about how the school will run this year. This will include such issues as scholarship grant, food and lodging, immigration matters, curriculum, class schedules among others. This will be a very busy time for Cherry and I (Joey). The two of us will be the only full-time teacher this year. Narlin will not join us this year because she will concentrate more with children’s ministry.
Please Pray for Us

We are very much encouraged when people ask us what are our specific and urgent needs. It means that they would want to pray intelligently for us. Here are prayer requests:

We need a vehicle to take the children to and from school. A new (second-hand) van is what we need. We will also use this van in going to church and other ministries. The van will be made available also to Grace Home Kindergarten Center for any activities that will require transport. Moreover, in the last few years, missions teams have been visiting us. A van will be very useful in bringing them around town and transporting them to different places of ministry. We know that the van will cost a lot of money but with God nothing is impossible.

We need some help with the orphaned children we “adopted”. We need help for the children schooling, clothing and daily food expenses. We are expecting to have ten children (we have seven now).

Some kind of help is also needed at the Bible School. Cherry and her church are primarily supporting the school’s daily expenses. Please help us pray for her church that will not stopped supporting this ministry. We also need help with teaching materials written in Burmese language. In case you know some resource center in Burmese language, please let us know.

When we left our home, our regular support was barely enough for our daily food and utility expenses. We thank the Lord for his provision. We could not have imagined that the Lord will touch more people and churches to support our ministry and us. Please pray that these future provisions will be fulfilled.

We are praying for an online home schooling for our children. The bulk of schooling materials are expensive. Not to mention the postage or the amount we need to pay when we are transporting the home schooling materials here. Also my children worked well with computers.

Grace Home Kindergarten Center needs a permanent home. Pray that we can buy the property. Angela (our local partner) will help us in raising the money. The property costs four million baht. We trust that the Lord will provide. Help us through your prayers.

Once again, we thank you all for your support and prayers. If you want to know more details about our particular ministry, please email us.

Visa update

We want to thank you all for praying for us with regards to our visa expenses. We trust that the LORD will provide us the necessary amount just at the right time. The lawyer of the foundation called us on the phone twice today asking for the money. However, we are not able to raise the needed amount, nonetheless, we assured him that we will send the money as soon as we have it. If we could not pay the amount, the most that the foundation can do is cancel our work permit and our one-year visa. This means that we’ll be back to 15-day tourist visa and after this, only the LORD knows what will happen to us. We fully trust that HE is in control.

In the last couple of years many people were able to help us in paying for our visa fees. It was because two years ago, the Asia Baptist Congress was held in Chiang Mai and many people were able to give their support to us personally. Likewise, last year, Narlin went home to the Philippines to attend the PWMU-Triennial meeting and when the need arose, she was able to send the money given to him by friends and supporters. We do not have the same opportunity this year but just the same we trust that GOD will use people to provide for this need. Thank you so much for your unceasing support and prayer.

Quick Update

We want to thank you for your support and prayer. We praise the Lord for more than 120 children and young people who attended the camp. It was an occasion when the saving love of our Lord Jesus Christ was shared to the people. This is the first Summer English Camp (aka DVBS) organized by Narlin in Tachilek, Myanmar. This will be a regular annual event for us. We are hoping we will have enough fund so our children and I can join next year. We need your prayers.

Presently, Narlin is training teachers from Tachilek, Myanmar and Mae Sai, Thailand with the help of Sandra, an Asia Vision Short Term Missionaries. They are being assisted by Isaac. The Training will be finished today. Grace Home Kindergarten center will open on May 4. A reorganization is needed to make the GHKC better this year. Please pray.

We are in tight spot once again this year regarding our visa. Please pray for us. The lawyer of the Foundation called us again this morning and asking for the fee. At present, we do not have enough fund to pay for it and we also can’t buy time. We have to pay them on Monday. We really would appreciate it if you would really pray hard for us tonight regarding this need.

We are now enlisting students and preparing for the next term in our Bible Training Center. Please pray that God will give us the right students. From these students, we will form a team that will do evangelism and church planting in Mae Sai, Thailand and Tachilek, Myanmar.

Songkran Reflections

You don’t need to live long in Thailand to know that they are living different year than the Western counterpart. It’s now 2553 here. The Thai new year celebration is also called Songkran. It is celebrated on 13-15 of April. Thai people closely follow the traditional activities during the three days. Although in some provinces the celebration last longer than three days.

The throwing of water is the most fun part of the celebration. It seems everybody in the community should join because people will look at you with disdain for spoiling the fun. Our children and their friends join in this activity. I drove them around the town on the back of a pick-up truck and splash water to every people we came across on the streets. The most fun however, was when two or three pick-up trucks crisscrossed on the street. It was like a war with water as the weapon. There was a lot of cheers and laughter. And since they are all young people and observing them from afar, it was like a hint of friendship was about to start. But of course, a few seconds of fun really don’t amount to anything in terms of relationship. However, a sense of being in one community was stronger at least for that particular moment.

On the following day, the splashing of water should be over and people should visit temples, shrines, monasteries to watch the washing of the statues of Buddha with scented water. It was also the time to offer prayers, gifts, food to the monk. Following this is the releasing of fish to the water and birds to the sky. This believe to bring good luck for everyone. Our house is just two blocks away from the temple and I saw only a handful of people observed this activity. While on the streets, the people were still having fun getting each other wet.

I’m sure for many of the younger generation, the religious significance of the Songkran have been lost. Nonetheless, the fun and the sense of casual friendship and sense of community that the festival brings were enough to reflect on the goodness of God.

We are hitting the road again

I thank the Lord for giving me the opportunity to preach at church today. I felt God’s anointing in this particular sermon. Maybe because this time the sermon was not translated into Burmese. Preaching with interpreter is difficult. It hinders the continuity of the sermon’s delivery and in some sense lost its power. Translation is not really necessary because the people who are attending the international worship understand English anyway.

The church celebrated its fifth anniversary and also held the dedication service for the new school building. The church has tremendously changed since we joined it three years ago. The first time we attended the morning worship service it seems to me then that there were only eight persons present excluding the Pastor’s family and mine. But the church has grown a lot.

We will be hitting the road again tomorrow. Cherry will go home to Australia on Tuesday and we are taking her to Chiang Mai tomorrow. It will take 4-5 hours drive and we don’t know if we can come back home in the evening.

This has been a stressful week and we are anticipating another stressful one. We are preparing for English camps. And this will take a lot of work. We also need to raise some money for the expense. We appreciate your prayers.

Terrifying Quick Rainstorm

We went to Chiang Mai yesterday with a family friend to avail of the services that the Philippine Embassy were extending to the Filipinos living in Northern Thailand. We drove from five hours to be there. Because we arrived early we decided to check the hotel were the event will be held so that we would not waste time looking for the place the next morning. Chiang Mai streets are just hopelessly confusing for us. After getting lost a couple of times, we finally found the place.

We planned to eat at the Night Bazar. But as we were driving along the road, the rain started falling down. It was still summer so we thought the rain would be little. However, the rain got heavier than we expected and strong violent winds blew. We saw electrical wires snapped and sparkled. Leaves and branches were falling down. Light posts dangled from it connection. Parked motorcycles fell down upon one another like dominoes. I can barely see the road because of heavy rains. It was really scary. So we decided to park inside the Huad Saen Kaew for safety and had our dinner there also. We thank the Lord that we were able to hide from the storm just at the right time.

Unity and humility

Have you ever bought something that was an imitation—it looked like the real thing but lacked the quality of the original? Chances are the imitations wore out or broke before too long. There is nothing like the real thing, whether it be a cherished painting, a treasured piece of jewelry, or a precious relationship. Nothing quite meets our expectations except the real thing. But there are times in life when we are supposed to try to imitate someone—times when we want to model ourselves after an ideal or a role model. We don’t expect to be as good or perfect as the ’original,’ but it is in our best interests to try. Why? Because we have a perfect model for all we do in Jesus Christ!

Philippians 2:5-11 is one of the greatest passages ever written about Jesus Christ. It paints the perfect picture of humility—the humility of Jesus Christ. No one has ever come close to humbling himself like Jesus Christ did, and no one ever will. Yet, if the problems of the church and of the world are to ever be solved, we must humble ourselves just as Christ did. The church is too often divided. The only answer is the declaration of this passage: letting the humility of Jesus Christ flow in and out of our minds. The unity of a church depends upon every Christian walking in the humility of Jesus Christ.

More on graduation

After six months of intensive training our eight students finally graduate. Eight students, four males and four females, were able to complete the six-month discipleship-training course. The students believed that the training had fully prepared them for the ministry that God called them to do in their own respective villages and other unevangelized places in Myanmar.

The graduation ceremony was held at Mae Sai Grace Church and lunch was served afterward at the training center. About a ninety people attended the ceremony, but because it took so loooong to finish. The program ended about two-thirty in the afternoon by that time the lunch almost became a dinner.  As a result, only the family, the staff and the visiting teachers made it to the training center for lunch. It was understandable though that many could not restrain themselves from talking too much, anyway, it was a very special occasion for us.

During the ceremony, the students presented tribal dances representing their ethnic culture, Akha, Karen and Kachin. They also sang their graduation song written they had written themselves. Two students delivered their response speech.

With the graduation over, the school would be closed for about three months. The students will go back to their villages and two of them will have new ministry assignments near the Myanmar-China border.

Cherry will go home to Australia for two months to renew her visa. Narlin and I, however, will stay and we will use the break to promote the school, to look and enlist students with leadership potential, we will make improvements with our curriculum based on our past experiences and we will do our lesson preparation. We are expecting more students in the next term but we are keeping in mind that a limited number of students will make learning experience more efficient.

Please continue to pray for Narlin and I as we work in partnership with Cherry. The burden of running the school efficiently falls on our shoulder. This would not be possible if we depend on our strength and ability alone. We need your prayer here. We are looking forward to a fruitful church planting activities this year through our students. Pray for us.

I miss the van so bad

For the first time in almost four months, I missed my 25-year-old-hands-down Nissan Urvan. The van broke down last year in October and is still in the shop. Holding on for its dear life. The mechanic advised us to change it with a new second-hand engine but Narlin and I are having second thought. We think it’s not worth it. The van’s body has dent, its bronze paint is scratched and cracked, the seats upholstery are are duct taped, the ceiling is falling, the aircon is not working and the steering is not powered. However, it is the only vehicle we have and we love it.

This morning nobody picked up the children going to the church. A co-worker usually does that for us, but not this morning. In the first place, we should not be depending on somebody to bring us to church. So I have to make three trips to the church bringing the children on the motorcycle. Not that I’m complaining, in fact, sometimes I enjoy the ride. But rainy season is fast approaching and I could not do this anymore when the time comes. We need the van so badly.

The van is also being used transporting church members to the church. It is also the church’s school bus. And though I end up as the driver, I am happy that I can help the church and its school in my own small way.

So please help us pray for a new van. Some people learn about this need and express their intention to help. The children home, the church, the Bible school, the Day Care and other ministries need it.

They finished the course

After six months of intensive training, we had our graduation last Thursday. Eight students were able to finish the course. Within the time that we were together, we come to know them better, their strengths and weaknesses, their great potentials. We do pray for them all the time that after the course their knowledge about the ministry from which God called them would increase by leaps and bounds.

I am hoping that I was able to teach them some practical skills. I didn\’t do Bible study with them, I taught them how to study and teach the Bible. I didn\’t interpret the Bible for them but I taught them how to interpret the Bible I didn\’t teach them theology but I taught them how to do theology. My prayer is that when they are on their own working in the field, they would learn to think for themselves. Other teachers are worried that their students would not be able stand the false teachings that they will encounter, but I am confident that my students know how to defend the fundamentals of their faith, not because of the information I have given to them, but because they had develop the skills to discern what is false and the skills to refute them. These skills with the guidance of the Holy Spirit (who are the real teacher anyway) are the assets they can use in the proclamation of the gospel of the Kingdom in wherever place God called them to be.