A housewarming that was really "heart-warming"

Last Sunday, we invited the members of Pradumri UMC to come for a housewarming party at our home. In the past, we have done many Leadership Training workshops and classes at our home. Usually, the leaders of Pradumri UMC would come and we would have about 25 people at our house for class and for potluck (yes, even Thai Christians love potluck). At our previous home, we would not have nearly enough room and the house was very hot because it had no trees around it.

So we expected the same 20-25 people that came to workshops in the past to come to visit our new home. Well, we were surprised when up pulled 5 vehicles, and then another, and then another..... and then more.

We had over 60 Pradumri friends at our house! The first group to arrive divided in two. One group sat on our front lawn and started a worship service there. We had many neighbors stop to listen and watch and we were happy for the opportunity to witness to them. The second group came into the house to help set up everything. This new house has a large kitchen and we were planning on leaving the food in there, buffet style, and everyone could grab a plate and help themselves. We then learned that in Thai culture that was not how it is done, so they helped to move everything out into the dining room and to set up places where people sit in small clusters to eat together. After the final group arrived, about an hour and a half later (everything happens in its own time here), we had dinner together. Then we had a brief worship time inside the house and they prayed for us and our family. We were very touched by the love of our Thai spiritual family. Our hearts were truly warmed.

Above are two pictures of worshipping outside on the front lawn.

Wish List - Updated August 1, 2008

Wish List - Updated August 1, 2008



Every member of a United Methodist Church has made a vow to support each other with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service. Usually we think of doing this at the local level, but we also do this at a global level.



1. Give your Prayers to the Thailand Mission Initiative

Be a Prayer Warrior, keeping the mission here in Thailand in your daily prayers. Check this blog regularly for updates on what is happening here so you can pray for the needs here and praise God for the fruit He is giving to the ministry here.



2. Give of your Presence to the Thailand Mission Initiative
We cannot be physically present at your church, but you can be a Herald for the Thailand Mission by getting the good news of what God is doing in Thailand out to your fellow church members. In doing this, help to complete the connection of Presence in your church that we cannot do on our own. Print out articles from our blog and put them on your church bulletin board. Put the URL (internet address) of our blog in your church worship bulletin and have us be a link on your church website. Highlight the Thailand Mission in your UMW meeting, Sunday School class, UMM meeting or any other group.



3. Give of your Gifts to the Thailand Mission Initiative.

Your gifts give hope to orphans, makes disciples for Christ in Thailand, provides education and training for Thai pastors and church leaders, establishes

How to Support the Thailand Mission Initiative

We live with a constant awareness that we are small links in a chain of a multitude of United Methodist believers who all work together to make the Thailand Mission Initiative possible. Your prayers open doors here in Thailand and your financial support helps make it possible to start new churches and mercy ministries in Thailand.

The vast majority of funds for church planting and mercy ministries comes through special giving to Advance #00403A. Your churches apportionments help to send us here and pay for administrative expenses and language school, but do not cover starting any new ministries or sustaining established ones. If a church planting pastor's salary is to be given, it will come from special giving to the Advance. If an orphan is to be given shelter, clothing, food, and education, it will be because you have given the funds to the Advance to make it possible. If a pastor is to be sent to Bible college or to Course of Study School, it is because your generosity made it possible.

Special giving to Advance #00403A (Thailand Mission Initiative) is our greatest need at this time. Please note that gifts to our Advance Personnel funds (the ones with our names on them), are placed in a pool used to support all missionaries and is NOT used for programming needs. If you wish to give towards the ministries in Thailand, please give to the Thailand Mission Initiative and not to the Advance numbers which have our names on them. We mention this because it can be a bit confusing.

There are four ways to give.
1. Online;
2. Through Your Local United Methodist Church;
3. By Phone, and
4. by Mail.

1. Online: Click on this link: www.givetomission.org to give online.  The project number is 00403A.

2. Your Local UMC: Give funds to your local United Methodist Church and designate it for Advance #00403A (write this in the memo section of your check). The church treasurer will then send these funds with the monthly apportionments.

3. Phone: Call (888) 252-6174 to give by credit card over the phone

4. Mail: Make your check payable to ADVANCE GCFA.
Write Thailand Mission Initiative #00403A on the check.
Send your check to:
Advance GCFA; P.O. Box 9068; GPO;
New York, NY 10087-9068

Every cent given through the Advance will come directly to the Thailand Mission Initiative. Nothing is kept by the Advance office for their administrative costs.

Thank you for your support

Shining a light in the darkness

Everyday we are privileged to serve the Lord in Thailand, our Heavenly Father blesses us with the opportunity to be His ambassadors. Our prayer is that the Lord allow us to shine the light of His love where there is darkness, that the Thai people will hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Twice each month, we meet with the Thai pastors, leaders, and interns to give leadership training. The past months Sherri has led workshops on the cell group ministry, giving out free resources that have been translated into Thai. One of the ministries we do is to contact authors and publishing houses of Christian education resources to receive permission to translate materials and books into the Thai language and then give them away for free. There are precious few Christian education resources available, and this is a ministry that blesses all Christians in Thailand, not just United Methodists. One of our goals in training is to always send the pastors, leaders, and interns back to their churches with resources they can use to make disciples. We have purchased a new website with 2 web addresses (Jesus.in.th & Methodist.in.th). These websites will be up and running next month and will be a source of free Christian Education electronic books for all Thai Christians. There are thousands of internet cafes across Thailand, so all people have internet access here and can use these resources. Also, each of our churches has a used computer that the pastors can download these free resources onto for use with their congregation.

The last few leadership workshops have had a group of Chinese Christians from Bangkok and from mainland China attend, so the trainings have been tri-lingual (Thai, English, and Chinese). Sherri has had to print documents in all three languages and the translation during the workshops can be rather complicated. But we have a great time. It is humbling to know that the resources we give will be used in China as well as Thailand. Praise the Lord!

On the top left is a picture of the new building that we have rented in Pattaya for the Life Center UMC and their orphan ministry called Blessing Home. In a few weeks, the church will begin to worship there. Right now, they are busting at the seams in their small old building, and they need to move to a larger space so they can grow. Once the church settles in the new building, Blessing Home will expand to give 24 hour care for orphans. Right now, daycare is given for 10 orphans, but more is needed. We are still praying for resources, because we only have enough for the next 2 months and we have opened this orphan ministry as a step of faith. We know God will provide.

This last weekend, we had the privilege of fellowshipping with Darunee and David Lawson and their two sons. The Lawsons are from Alcoa, TN. and are active in their United Methodist congregation which has a reputation in their community for showering the Love of Christ upon all people. Darunee is a Thai Christian, and she saw this website and decided to connect with us when she came to visit her parents in Thailand. She has a powerful testimony of how the Lord touched her in a mighty way through her battle with cancer. And she shared that testimony with the believers at Pradumri church this last Sunday, after Sherri preached. That worship service was the first worship service in the Thai language for Darunee to experience and it was a pleasure to see her soaking it all in. We are glad to have connected with the Lawson family and with their church family too.

One thing that Darunee inspired us about was her life of prayer. She lives a life of constant prayer and teaches this to her children. Her sons pray to the Lord with her throughout the day, and they are blessed to have parents that nurture their souls. We enjoyed fellowshipping with David, who is a fellow SBTS graduate, sharing some of the same experiences that we had. David spent 2 years as a missionary in Africa, and he found many similarities in his experience in Africa with ours in Asia.

Our translator, Nittaya, just found out she has been accepted to King's College in Tennessee, so we will soon be looking for a new translator. We are very, very happy for her... but part of us grieves because we will really miss her.

May the Lord Bless You and You Shine the Light of the Love of Jesus Christ where there is Darkness.

Everyone is moving!

2 weeks ago, we moved to a new home. Our previous home was in an area where we were not able to obtain consistent internet service. Our internet would be down more often than it was up and even when it was up, it was as slow as dial-up. This made posting blogs and using the internet for inexpensive overseas communication very difficult. We will soon be opening up a new website for Thai Christians where they can download free Christian education resources. We need a good consistent internet connection for this project. There are very, very few Christian education resources in the Thai language, and the few that are here are too expensive for most pastors and churches to afford. We want to create a free resource library that will be available to all Christians in Thailand of all denominations. Many generous and kind-hearted authors, publishers, and organizations have given permission to have their books translated into Thai and made available for free online distribution. We thank all who are making this project possible.

Another move is happening now too. The Life Center UMC of Pattaya and the United Methodist Children's Mercy Center in Pattaya are expanding into a new building. We are now moving to a new building that will make it possible to care for up to 30 orphans and street children at this Center. The building will also be used a church facility for Life Center UMC which has been busting out of their old building, which could not contain everyone who comes for worship on Sunday morning.

Right now, we are giving care to 10 children at the UM Children's Mercy Center. There are many, many more children on a waiting list. At the present time, these children, ages 2-10, do not go to school because they do not have a birth certificate, which is required to attend school. Many of these children have been abandoned, and have no family members to care for them. We would love to help more children, but we need funds to be given. Gifts can be given to Advance #00403A Thailand Mission Initiative. It is easy to give online at http://new.gbgm-umc.org/advance/