Sherri and I have been praying that we will have the full $150,000 needed to complete construction of the Fire of Glory Church building when we head back to Thailand on July 5. It was just a month ago that we had only $98,000. And now we need only $2,000 more to be complete with this project. Praise God! Below are two pictures of the construction happening at Fire of Glory Church in Nonthaburi.
Two weeks ago we were contacted by our landlord in Thailand. She said our water pump has been very loud and working continuously for 2 full days and the neighbors were concerned. It was a Sunday evening when she contacted us. We immediately contacted our staff and told them to please go and check. It took them awhile to get there because they were working about an hour's drive away. When they arrived they found that a pipe burst in our downstairs bathroom (Praise God it was not upstairs!). The water flowed from the bathroom through our office and then to the kitchen and then out the door. We will have to replace quite a bit of furniture in the office and kitchen now. But it could have been a lot worse.
The Abundant Life Savings Group Program lifts up families out of poverty and debt.
May Kuntisa is Sherri's assistant serving in the Abundant Life Savings Group Program. She not only translates curriculum and materials but is being trained by Sherri so that she will lead this program in the future (our goal is to always train Thai leaders to do the ministries).
May and her husband Boy have been faithfully doing the program, saving her money to build up an Emergency Fund equal to 3 months of income as well as paying down debts. Back in March, May stood up in the morning worship service at her home church, Life Center UMC of Pattaya, and celebrated that they were able to meet the goal of having a fully funded Emergency Fund. This was a great encouragement and inspiration to the others in the group and helped others to become motivated.
Two weeks ago, May stood up at her church again, this time to celebrate their debts are paid and they finally paid off the last credit card. Part of the celebration that we do in these groups is cancelling the credit card account and then coming to church on Sunday morning to cut the credit cards up in front of the church. Sherri receives pictures of people cutting up their credit cards at church and we were delighted to see May doing this. Below are some pictures. May said the Abundant Life Savings Group at Life Center UMC was very happy for their success and that the members of the group are seeing progress in their lives as they move towards Financial Peace that comes from doing finances God's way.
