Read Sara’s July newsletter in pdf format:
Hi everybody,
I hope you’re having a great summer! It’s been great over here– I have a lot of good news to share!
First of all, I want to thank you so much for your prayers, interest, and investment here. Every person I have asked you to pray for has come to house church in the last three weeks. In addition to this spiritual curiousity, God has answered our prayers in visible ways! They are in bold.
Lat- (The pregnant alcoholic in an abusive marriage) has given birth to a lovely baby girl, B
ea-u (from the English “Beautiful”). She was born premature, weighing about 4 lbs., but praise God with no significant health problems. Just before and after she was born, Lat’s husband Bo visited our house church as we ate and sang together. He stopped drinking as much during this time and expressed a lot of pride in his first child. Since then, his drinking has gotten worse, as has Bea-u’s health, but Lat who has read through all the Christian materials P. Pen has given her, told us that she is “100% sure that Jesus is real”. She came to our house church for the first time last week, bringing Bea-u, ate a lot of food and was happy to be around people with such “comfortable hearts”. Please continue to pray for her family.
Pan and Randon- (Our former housemates who took us up-country for holiday) have decided to become Christians. They seem to be stable financially, at least according to P. Pan, but “have been Buddhists for a long time and not yet had a better life”. They think that Christianity might offer that, so they visited our house church for the first time last weekend to start to study and see who Jesus really is. Please pray for them and their burgeoning faith.
Jum- (The single mom who came to camp with us) was reunited with her mother and son last week after a long and rocky separation. Jum has moved back into the community, as has her family, and she is trying out a number of new financial opportunities to address problems with her house, which has water and termite damage. She is steadily studying Christianity, taking things in, and visited our house church for the first time three weeks ago. She also has been excited about teaching us about community development work, since she’s on the community council. Jum is a blessing to us. Thank you for praying for my neighbors!
In other good news, our ministry network, Santisuk Chumchon (literally, “Peace in the Slums”) seems to be at a pivotal point. We are a network of 5 house-churches in slums, as well as a foundation to aid in community development. In addition to all the good things that are happening in my slum, Samaki Patana, another American teammate, Lisa, moved in 3 weeks ago!!! Also Kevin, who founded the church network years ago, recently returned from the United States after a year of reflection, insight, and planning for the future. The foundation is at a turning point– it will be changing but it’s not been decided yet exactly how. We have a training regarding “community organizing” in September with people flying in from U.S., India, and Mexico. Within the house churches, there are rumblings; people expressing a desire for expansion, depth (esp. with the youth, and also in worship) as well as more unity. There have been a lot of questions about how to use money well. We have a leader’s retreat for the Thai leaders on August 10-12. Please pray for wisdom and unity during our retreat, also that each of the Thai leaders would be able to come, as many of them have pressing financial and family concerns.
And lastly– my life here seems to have taken a turn. Thanks for praying for my personal retreat– it was amazing! In addition to that, here are some ways my life has changed recently:
1) I have real friends here! My friendship with Pen and Bui, Christian women in my slum, has recently taken 
on a quality depth, honesty, and genuine care that I can’t stop smiling about. My birthday, which I celebrated with my teammates, Thai teacher, and Thai officemates, was a full and touching celebration where I felt really (surprisingly) well known! After such a short time here.
2) I feel really happy! As you might have seen from my emails, February through May was a rougher time for me. I was frustrated more often than not. But something happened- the air cleared, I got more fluent, hot season ended…. I’m not sure what! But I am so happy with my life right now. It might not last forever, but I’m grateful.
3) I think God is leading me into ministry that involves inner healing, counseling-type stuff. I’m not qualified as a counselor, so I know i can’t offer any answers. But God’s been leading me to listen more and more, and teaching me to ask simple questions like “What do you want?” And it’s cool because I’m seeing more chances to pray with people for whatever is bothering them inside… sometimes I don’t know what to pray for, but I trust God’s doing something. Please pray that God would give me opportunities to grow in this area, to “practice” or to learn and understand it more.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for everything! I’d love to hear from you. Contrary to recent evidence, I do love email conversation– we’ve had a zillion guests in the last months and thus i’ve been really slow about replying. But. I would LOVE to hear from you! The longer I’m here the further from my friends at home I feel… so please fill me in!
Take care and much love and gratitude,
Lexie
Read Christy’s July prayer letter in pdf format:
Thankful for a Year of Renewal
Our year of home assignment is coming to a close and we are truly thankful for how it has been a year of refreshment, renewal, and reflection. We enjoyed personal and marriage retreats to reflect on our experience and direction in life. We grew through Cynthia’s training in Stephen’s Ministry, and a class in counseling. Kevin audited classes at Bethel in spiritual direction and community development that will be helpful in our work. This has also been a time of reconnecting with churches, relatives and friends. Thanks to all of our churches that gave us such a warm welcome. We have been encouraged by many. Kevin has been visiting churches each weekend during April and May and will continue through June.
Eighteen years of experience is a lot of years to unpack. The joy of lives God has blessed and the disappointments, trials and failures we have faced all serve to teach us more about God, ourselves, and our context. Lessons that we are learning for ourselves include:
Do less and focus more;
carry less and pray more;
initiate less and follow-up more;
lead less and train more;
Above all depend less on self and more on Christ.
FAMILY NEWS
We celebrated Amy’s graduation from High School this month. She chose to attend Bethel nest fall. Josh is home after his second year at Wheaton and is spending the summer working and traveling. Jon and Lukas are making the most of their time here with friends before they return to Bangkok. This may be the last time our whole family is together for a couple of years so we value these days.
PLANS TO RETURN
We are thankful to be fully funded and able to return to Thailand. Kevin will leave for Bangkok on July 5 and Cynthia, Jon and Lukas will join him on September 1 after Amy and Josh are in college. Kevin will have time to make preparations for where we will live and will begin a transition to a new role with an emphasis on training in community development and evangelism. We are excited by the challenges that lay ahead
Please Join Us In Prayer
- Pray for discernment over where we should live that will allow us to practice and train others in evangelism and community development in a low-income community.
- Pray for the house churches in Bangkok we work with among the poor that are struggling to move ahead under their own leadership and finances.
- Pray for the time of separation we will have as a family this summer, for safe travels, and for Cynthia as she is a single parent for seven weeks.
Read Christy’s June prayer letter in pdf format.
