Update on Rachel and Good News from Thailand

It was 2 weeks ago that we had asked for prayer for our daughter Rachel, who went in for out-patient surgery to get feeding tubes in her stomach and colon, but things went wrong. Rachel was in acute unbearable pain, had internal bleeding, her body was rejecting the liquid food formula, and she was getting so weak she could not walk anymore because she has not had proper nutrition for over three months. We asked you to pray and if you had time to send prayers via email to give her hope. WOW!!! God's people are GOOD people. Thank you for being God's people! Within just two hours of sending that blog update, we received over 150 prayers. Sherri printed them all out, and it was 19 pages of prayer. Rachel was moved and received hope from those prayers and she will send a thank you note when she gets better and out of the hospital. But for now, we want to convey her gratitude for your compassion. After that first burst of prayer emails, we received another 200 prayers. All of these prayers are making a difference. Rachel has been in the hospital for 17 days now and things got worse before they started getting better. But now there is hope. The nutritionist found a liquid food formula that Rachel's body will receive and not reject. The anti-biotics are working and Rachel is no longer coughing up blood and the places where tubes are inserted into her body are still very tender, but at least it is healing. Rachel is receiving some nutrition now. She still cannot bear the pain of having the full amount of liquid food pumped into her body, but she is half way there. If she keeps going in the right direction, she may be able to go home in three or four days. So please keep the prayers flowing. The last few weeks have been busy in Thailand. School is on break for 4 weeks, and it is the time that many of the Thai churches schedule revivals and baptism services. Scores of pastors contacted us to see if we could make it back into Thailand to baptize new believers, and since we could not, they took pictures and videos. For the past three weeks we have received videos of baptisms and testimonies of new believers from churches throughout Thailand. We wanted to share one of them with you. We added captions so you can understand what this new believer named Lake is saying.

Finally, please pray for two of our team members, Teddy and May. They are our administrative assistants and we rely heavily upon them for the Abundant Life Savings Group Program. They are now packing up two households of furniture, equipment, and belongings to move half way across the nation to Buriram, where the new training center will be built. Because there is so much stuff to move, it will be done in stages over several months. They will be looking for places to rent for all of us and they must do this without our help. Now is the time because as soon as all of the funds are donated, we will begin Phase One of the Abundant Life Training Center. We have the land purchased already. Now we must fill the land with 6 feet of dirt and then build a tall sturdy retainer wall around the whole property.

We are $12,000 away from completing $80,000 needed for Phase One fundraising. Our request is for churches, Sunday School classes, UMW and UMM groups, and individuals to pray about taking up special offerings during this Christmas season for this project. If you send offerings for this project, please designate it for the "Building Fund". You can give by check or online. Mail checks payable to Thailand NOW to: Thailand NOW P.O. Box 56 Mannsville, KY 42758 OR give Online at https://thailandnow.org/donate/

Children's Camps, a HUGE Answer to Prayer, and an Update

Children's Bible Camps

The school year in Thailand goes according to a different calendar than in the States because it is based upon the agricultural cycles of growing rice. October is the equivalent of winter break for Thai children, and many of the Pioneer Pastor churches are reaching out to the families in their neighborhood through Vacation Bible School.  In Thailand, we don't call it VBS.  Instead we call it Children's Bible Camp.  

Many pastors have asked for prayer for their Children's Bible Camp.  They want to share the Good News of Jesus with the children and their families so that many will become disciples of Christ.  So we are sharing some pictures with you so you can pray for them.  Please pray that whole families will come to Christ and be transformed through the power of the Lord.  The Thai pastors will be thrilled to know you are surrounding them with prayer.

(From top to bottom: Children's Bible Camp at Lamae Church, Children's Bible Camp at Phato Church, Children's Bible Camp at Prasiri Bangkok Church)

Your Prayers made the difference for David and Allie Houle

David at Blessing Home TaPhraya

You have been lifting David and Allie Houle up to the Lord in prayer for several months now as they
sought to obtain a work permit and visas so they could remain in Thailand.  COVID has created many crisis, and the Houle's were in need of divine intervention because all of the normal avenues of obtaining the documents they needed were cut off.  

On Friday, October 2, we received word that Allie and David now have a work permit and visas.  Please continue to pray for them.  The visas are for one month only, and they need to go back to Immigration Police at the end of the month to receive another visa for the remaining 11 months.  This is typical, but still a bit unnerving, because the process is not over until it is over.  However, obtaining the work permit is HUGE and we believe the largest obstacles have been overcome.

Phase One of the Abundant Life Training Center UPDATE

We are getting closer each month to our goal of raising $80,000 for Phase One of the Abundant Life Training Center.  Praise God, we have now received a total of over $67,000!  We have already purchased the land, now we need the rest of the funds to raise the land about 6 feet so it is above flood level and to build a strong and tall retainer wall around the property.  If we had all of the funds, we would begin now since rain season is coming to an end and it will be dry season from November through April.  Buying fill dirt is much cheaper during the dry season, and our budget is built around being able to be as economical as possible.

Members of the Abundant Life Savings
Group at Lamae Church come up front
to make deposits to their
Family Emergency Funds.

This training center is a vital need for our mission.  We have many more churches requesting Abundant Life Financial training then what we have the capacity to fulfill because we do not have our own facilities.  Since the COVID crisis, many pastors and Christian leaders have seen the need for the Abundant Life Savings Group Program.  They have witnessed how members of these groups were financially prepared for this crisis, and they want to be trained in the same way.

It is not possible for our staff to travel long distances to every church that is requesting training.  We can only meet the need if we can have the leaders come to us and be trained in a location where we have lodging and seminar rooms.  

If you would like to donate to this project, please designate your gift to the BUILDING FUND.

You can donate in many ways:

1.  You can donate online at https://thailandnow.org/donate/

2.  You can donate by check and mail to: 

Thailand NOW

P.O. Box 56

Mannsville, KY 42758

3. You can donate stocks and bonds and other estate gifts by contacting our treasurer, Terri Gabehart at thailandmm@windstream.net

Continued prayers needed for Allie and David

 Sherri and I want to thank all of you for praying for Thailand NOW missionaries Allie and David Houle.  They need continued prayer, so we are forwarding their blog to you.  

As you may remember, back in May we lost our jobs when the school that we were teaching English at closed down. This job had provided us with our work permit for our work visa for the past year. This forced us to begin praying and exploring other options to get a visa to be able to stay in Thailand. Under normal conditions, we would have had to leave Thailand one week after our school closed down to change our visa. However, due to Covid-19 the Thai government decided to give all foreigners already in Thailand amnesty until September 26. Praise God! This gave us the time necessary to start our own business, Peachtree Translation. Having a business in Thailand will be such a blessing because it gives us the stability to live and work in Thailand long-term! It also frees up our schedule to allow us to regularly travel to all the Blessing Home Centers.   It is a very long and complicated process to open a business in Thailand and you must have Thai people as co-owners of the business. Thankfully, God has provided many wonderful Thai people that are a part of our Thailand Now team who already translate materials and interpret when needed. Corn has her bachelor’s degree in Business English and Ploy has her bachelor’s degree in Thai Language. Their education and experience is perfectly suited for a translation company. Our new business, Peachtree Translation, will provide us with a work visa and it will provide additional health and social security benefits to our Thai team members.   While we are confident that this was the right move for us to stay and serve in Thailand long-term, we still have a huge need for prayers regarding our visa. Typically, when changing a work permit or visa type, you must leave the country and re-enter with the new visa. Most people are able to do a “Visa run” to Cambodia or Laos for just a couple days and then re-enter Thailand with their new visa. However, because of Covid, Thailand and other Asian countries have closed their borders. This means that we cannot leave Thailand to go to a neighboring country. If we leave Thailand, the only country that will accept us right now is America. And because Thailand is closed, we cannot re-enter Thailand at this time. We are asking you to pray that a border will open or a special exception for us to get our work visa in Thailand will be found.   Please pray for us and specifically that we can get a work visa before September 26. We know that God has plans for us to work in Thailand and that if we are shut out of the country it will only be temporary. We are so blessed to have an amazing team of Thai workers here in Thailand who can continue to provide these services for the Blessing Home kids in our absence if we must leave and return to America for a time. As stressful as it is not knowing where we'll be in a month, we know God is faithful. If we are required to be out of Thailand for a season, we know there are ways to strengthen the ministry through distance collaboration, until we are able to return. Please pray for us. Allie and David Houle