Wish List - Updated February 11, 2007

If your church or group is looking for a special project to give towards, we have many needs:

1. Church Building Rental - when churches are first planted, we will rent buildings in location on the main road for the sake of visibility. It costs about $350 per month to rent a building large enough to support a church.

2. Pastor's Salary - support a church planting pastor through a gift of $300 per month.

--> When your church helps to financially support a pastor or help to pay for the rent on the church building, your church becomes a sister congregation to the one you are helping here in Thailand. We will help keep you connected with your sister church so you can see the eternal impact of your generosity.

3. Radio Station - there is a governent-operated radio station (very few are private) in Bo Win which is a city of about 150,000 people. This is the only radio station in this city. We can broadcast for two hours each day (any hours that we choose) for only $100 per month. We have found that most everyone listens to the radio here and this is a tremendous way to evangelize this area.

4. Video Projector - we need a video projector for our pastoral training center. The use of visuals help in training, especially since we still have a language barrier. Also, newly planted churches can borrow this projector until they can afford to buy their own. A new projector would cost about $2000.

5. Bibles and literature - We need Thai Bibles and evangelistic tracts and discipleship materials. Bibles cost about $15. A large box of colorful tracts cost about $120. Discipleship materials cost about $20 per person.

6. Help poor children go to school - for about $10 per month, you can help give transportation for rural children to get to school, pay for school fees, and have lunch provided for them. Many of these children live in the mountains of the north.

If you, your mission committee, church, or district would like to contribute to covering the costs of these items and strengthen the work of the Thailand Mission, please follow these easy steps:

• Your church (or district) treasurer can forward funds to your Conference Office, with the Project Advance Number written in the memo section of the check. (Thailand Advance # 00403A).
• Please contact us by email and let us know which project you are supporting, with information on how we can contact you / your church, so we can thank you. Email Address: thailandumc@gmail.com

Thank you so much for your prayers, your support, and your love for Christ and the people of Thailand!

Sherri & Mike Morrissey

Morrissey Family Update

We now have two motorcycles that we use to drive short distances (1-5 miles), such as going to church and to the market. These have been very helpful at night when the mini-buses have very erratic schedules. Before we had these motorcycles, we had to walk several miles to get back and forth from Sukumwit Street (the main street) to catch buses to church that still operated at night. And many places, like the food market we shop at, are not accessible by minibus at any time of day. We are very careful drivers and try to stay off of the busiest streets. But we also have to say that they are fun to ride too!

Anthony has two new additions to his life. The first addition is his new dog, which he named "Gaffay", which means "coffee" in Thai. "Coffee" is an appropriate name for the dog because it keeps us awake at night with its barking (we will be glad when he is fully trained!) He is a very cute dog and has won our hearts. The dog was a gift to him from two wonderful church members who have hearts the size of Texas. They knew that Anthony's first dog died on New Year's Eve, so they gave him this Shih Tzu. Anthony went to their home to get the new dog, and he realized how big a gift this is. This couple lives in a very tiny apartment and do not have many worldly goods. Some of the money that supports them is through raising Shih Tzu puppies. Each puppy is about a week and a half of wages for them. Anthony realized that this gift was a huge financial sacrifice for them. Needless to say, it is very humbling when those who are poor are so generous with what little material blessings that the Lord has given them. We all received a lesson in generosity from this couple.

The second addition in Anthony's life is the violin. He has been taking music lessons with Noyna, the worship leader at Pradumri Church. At first Anthony thought he wanted to start taking piano lessons again, but when he discovered that Noyna taught violin, he decided that was the instrument for him. Anthony loves to play his violin and is rather good at making a good tone on it.

We have been spending quite a bit of time looking for a good building to rent for the second church, which will be planted at Bo Win, a city of about 150,000 people 35 miles southeast of Chon Buri. At the present time, the Pradumri Church in Bo Win uses a bus to bring many of the Christians there in Bo Win to our church, but it is a very long drive. During the week, they meet in a rural area for their small group. We went out with some of the church leaders to look for a good building to rent. We found two buildings and they both were good locations. The first building was larger than the second building but was not in as good of a location. The second building was smaller but was right in the marketplace, which is a great location. When we all conferred together, we formed a concensus that we should rent the first building that we looked at. We then went to the Friday night prayer meeting at church. At the prayer meeting, we prayed that God's will would be done. We knew that we had a strong concensus, so we prayed that if God wanted us rent a different building, He would need to close a door. So after the prayer meeting we called the rental company and told them we wanted to rent the first building. About an hour later, we received two calls, the first was from the owner of the first building, who said he would not rent to us if we were going to use the building as a church. Shortly after that call, the owner of a second building called to say that he wanted the blessing of renting to a church and even lowered the rental cost. Within an hour of our prayer, God closed one door and immediately opened another one, and at a cost that is very affordable. We praise God for His guidance. We will be going tomorrow to sign a lease on the building. We will have much work to do there. We need to lay a floor (it is just unfinished concrete at the moment, and fix the place up so it is suitable for worship. The first floor will be used for worship and the second floor will be the pastor's residence. Hopefully, the new pastor will arrive soon and we will be able to open the second United Methodist congregation in Thailand. God is good!

Visa Update

We thank everyone who has been praying for our visa situation. We have some good news and also a need for continued prayer. We did not receive a one year visa but we did receive a 90 day extension of our visa. The Immigration Office told us that our paperwork would be sent to Police Headquarters in Bangkok for processing to make sure we have clean records. We were told that when we our records are cleared by Bangkok officials, we will receive a one year visa. The Immigration officer told us to come back in one month, and they should be ready to finalize the process. We are very thankful to have a visa extension, which came on the day that our visas would have expired. God's timing is perfect! And we still need your prayers that we will be able to obtain one year worker visas soon. We have been told by other missionaries that the first worker visa is difficult to get, but that future renewals will be much smoother. We sure hope this is true. =)