Now that the Omicron Covid Spike is over in Thailand, most Thai children are going back to in-person instruction in school for the first time in two years. It has been a great challenge to keep the Blessing Home teens motivated to do their online studies. They do much better with in-person instruction, so we are thrilled that the schools are opening up.
On the left is Maria (formerly called Naet) who is in Christian foster care through the Blessing Home program. Through your generosity, she is able to go to a private school and to receive the love of her foster parents, Dr. Somsri and Mr. Samai. This is possible because of you and we are grateful. Thank you.
Every time we see our Blessing Home kids in their school uniforms, we just burst with praise for God that He has changed the trajectory of the lives of these children, giving them hope in Christ and a wonderful future of good opportunities. God is Great! God is Wonderful! Amen!
Another wonderful thing about the new school year of in-person instruction is that our Pioneer Pastors can once again share the Good News of Jesus Christ with school children through special events at the schools.
Although Thailand is a Buddhist majority country, many public schools allow our pastors to teach about Jesus at special events. Pastors Dr. Wassana and her husband, Rev. Sila, of the Prasiri Wesleyan Church in Bangkok went to an Elementary School where Wassana attended as a child in Chaiyaphum Province.
Wassana grew up in a county that had no Christian church and it is still unreached to this day. This does not surprise us, because 75% of the counties in Thailand are unreached and have never had a Christian church.
Dr. Wassana has a heart for reaching the people in the county where she grew up as a child, so she has formed an Evangelism Team to go to two unreached locations to begin the work of bringing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people. This past week, they were able to tell stories of Jesus to the school children at the Elementary school and they also gave out Christmas Child boxes (yes, this is a little bit late, but the boxes arrived in Thailand long after Christmas had passed).
Above is a picture of Dr. Wassana and the school children who received Christmas Child boxes.
One final word of PRAISE!
Since last month, we have received generous donations towards the Building Fund for Phase 2 of the Abundant Life Training Center. We have now received $102,000, which is enough to construct a church building (which will also be used for training and seminars for the Abundant Life Financial Training Program) and to build a house for May and Teddy, who serve as staff with us. We will begin construction on the church in the next few months. We are waiting for a few months to let the rain pack down the dirt that was used to fill up the land above flood levels. This is necessary so that the foundation will not settle and crack.