Our hearts have been bursting to tell you about two wonderful answers to your prayers, but we had to wait until now.
Wonderful
Answer to Prayer #1 – Allie and David Houle are now parents!
You have been praying for Allie and David Houle during the
past few years as they sought to adopt a special needs Thai child. We thank you for your continued prayers, because
many people tire of praying for the same need for a long time.
So, we would like to share with you the blog article that
David and Allie just published.
We have wonderful news to share!
We finally brought our daughter home! Hallelujah! God is good!
Thank you all so much for praying with us! It has
been a very long process but we are overjoyed to have our little girl home.
About a week ago we got news that our case had been approved by the adoption
board and the orphanage began working to put together a final meeting with us.
It was an all-day affair where we got to meet with the caretakers, the nurse,
the social workers, and even the director of the orphanage. They showed us
around the orphanage and gave us more detail into her care before having lunch
with us and taking pictures. We are just so thankful that we have brought her
home. It truly is an answered prayer. Moving forward, there are still a few
things we have to do to finish the adoption process. Next week we have an
interview with the adoption board in Bangkok and that’ll kick off the start of
the 6-month probationary care period. During which, we will have a social
worker periodically come out to our house to check on how things are going. The
orphanage has asked us to not yet share photos of her or post any online at
this time.
We are so happy and we look forward to sharing with
you all how she learns and grows. Please continue to pray for us and our family
as we get to know each other and bond. Also, please be praying that our
interview and the final stages of the adoption will go smoothly as well. Thank
you all so much for your love and support. We are very happy parents!
David and Allie
Wonderful
Answer to Prayer #2 – Pastor W receives justice at court from those who want to
persecute Christians
Four months
ago, we met Pastor W (we cannot use his name or reveal his location for safety
concerns) who is an experienced church planter.
Pastor W has planted three churches in our region, and he is now
planting his fourth church. Hardcore
COVID lockdowns in Thailand devastated his church and his business. For almost two years, his church could not
meet in person and could only worship online.
Church donations plummeted at the same time Pastor W’s business was
tanking. The church could no longer
afford the rent on the building they were renting, so they moved worship to Pastor
W’s home, which is very small. There was
not enough room for everyone to come worship, so many had to worship online. Even those who came to worship in-person
could usually not sit inside (which only could seat about 12 people, and most
had to sit or stand outside.
This past
year, they began construction of a simple church building on the plot next to
Pastor W’s house. Because they did not
have much money, they used free or discounted scrap materials from other nearby
construction projects. By the time we
met Pastor W, church construction was 75% complete. Because of your generosity, we were able to
give funds to Pastor W that will be enough to complete the construction, so
that all of the members can worship together.
This church is in a strategic location, near the new local
university. Many apartment buildings for
students and faculty are being constructed around the church.
Three months
ago, Pastor W noticed a pile of cans of old paint on the sidewalk in front of a
paint store (The paint was past it’s expiration date and could no longer be
sold). There was a sign on the pile of
cans that said “Free Paint for Donation”.
Pastor W selected three cans of paint and then went back to the church and
began to paint the sanctuary. Soon after
Pastor W began to paint the sanctuary, police arrived at the church and
arrested Pastor W and brought him to the police station where he was charged
for stealing paint.
Pastor W explained
that the paint was on the sidewalk, and there was a sign saying “free paint for
donation”, and the owner of the paint store acknowledged this, but said that
Pastor W should have come inside the store to receive permission to take the
paint. The paint store owner said he
objected to the paint being used for a Christian church, and that he would have
been OK if it had been used for a Buddhist temple or school.
Pastor W offered
to pay for the paint but the paint store owner refused. For the next three weeks, Pastor W was
summoned to come to the police station on a daily basis for interrogation. He was threatened that the penalty for theft
would be reparations equal to 20 times the cost of the paint (a sum that would
be equal to 6 months of his normal income) and one year imprisonment.
Pastor W asked
for us to pray and also requested anonymity, because it was a dangerous
situation for his family. So, we did not
post his story on the blog, but instead just asked a smaller group of people to
pray without putting Pastor W’s story in print.
This past
week, Pastor W went to court and the judge determined that Pastor W was
innocent of all charges and that the lawsuit by the paint store owner was
frivolous. The judge then offered Pastor
W the option to immediately counter-sue the paint store owner, and said that he
would be awarded the same amount of money that the paint store owner tried to
extract from him. With the humility of
Christ, Pastor W declined to prosecute the paint store owner and said he wanted
peace.
Below is a
picture of Pastor W and his wife hugging each other outside the courtroom (For their safety, we have modified the picture to not reveal faces).
NOW an
update on the Abundant Life Training Center
It looks like
we have found the contractor to build the church building and the house for the
Thai directors of this ministry. We hope to begin construction in a few months
when rain season ends.
We really
need to raise the remaining funds needed for Phase Two of the Abundant Life
Training Center, so we can build a Kitchen/Restroom building and a small office
too. So far we have $102,000 of the
$140,000 needed for this project.
If you want
to give to this project, please designate your donation for the Building Fund.
You can give
online at https://thailandnow.org/donate/
OR
Send a check
to:
Thailand NOW
P.O. Box 56
Mannsville,
KY 42758
