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We’re back!
After a busy few months, we’re back online with our blog and newsletters. Much has happened since we last caught up with you.
MARCH 2013
In March we hosted a wonderful team from South Abbotsford Church. They helped us jumpstart our connections with the kids of the surrounding neighborhood by leading two separate 3-days Bible camps. They played games, shared the gospel, made crafts, and most importantly, impacted the lives of children who will one day be leaders in the nation of Thailand. It was a privilege to have them be a part of our community.
One of the new things that God is doing in our community is expanding our property. We’re on the verge of purchasing another half acre of land connected to our current property. There were a couple miracles occurring in the beginning of this project that I would like to share:
1. The land owners have agreed to sell (for over a decade this was never an option)
2. We (41 people on base at the time) prayed and took up an offering amongst ourselves and God provided USD$14,300!!!. That’s an average of almost $350/person. And most of it came from the asian missionaries among us!
If you’d like to read more about this amazing project, please click here.
Also, our Discipleship Training School (DTS) had their graduation at the very end of the month. Some have returned to be staff with us in Chiang Rai, while others have plans to return to missions full-time. One couple is even moving to China to pioneer a new ministry among an unreached people group. PRAISE GOD!
APRIL 2013
April marked the end of the first quarter of the School of Biblical Studies (SBS). There was a two week break for the staff and students. My (Rob’s) parents came out to spend time with us. We hadn’t seen each other for about a year. Our little boy enjoyed every moment he had with Gramma and Grandpa, as did we. Because of their time with Elias, he is now speaking lots of English to go along with his Spanish. We enjoyed a well-needed family vacation in southern Thailand, where Elias fell in love with the ocean. We really valued our time with our parents and appreciate the gift of having them come out and be with us. It was really important for us to have Elias connect with his extended family.
I (Rob) joined up with a new YWAM DTS in Phuket, Thailand after our vacation. I taught for a week about Intimacy and Relationship with God. I had fun sharing the word of God and personal testimonies as well as catching up with our old staff. The pioneering leaders of this new DTS in Phuket had been sent out from our base after having lived with us for over 3 years. It’s great to see how God is multiplying our efforts to extend His kingdom in Thailand and abroad.
MAY 2013
As a base leadership we had our yearly meetings, praying and listening to God about His goals and plans for our community this next calendar year. Our times together as a team were some of the most special ones that we have ever had, having God speak so clearly and specifically about our schedules, our multicultural community, our local evangelism and our foreign outreach.
We had the wonderful privilege in participating in a global congress of mission leaders called Call2All. There were hundreds of missions organisations, independent missionaries, and church bodies present, gathering together to strategize about how to finish the Great Commission. It was amazing to rub shoulders with the founders of YWAM, Campus Crusade, the Jesus Film Project and the leaders of organisations like Wycliffe, Back to Jerusalem Movement and more. We were reminded of the unreached peoples of this planet that have yet to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ and be impacted by it’s power. Together, we will reach all the unreached peoples on earth in our generation.
TESTIMONY (This is one testimony that I really like and I want to share with you because you can be used by God in a similar way)
One of the leaders of the Jesus Film Project was showing a group of pastors the new technology that was available for them to use at a local US restaurant. Jesus Film Project just created a new phone app for iOS and Android. It has all of the Jesus Films in all of the available languages accessible on people’s phone through the internet for FREE. When the restaurant owner came by the tables to greet his customers, his foreign accent was obvious. The Jesus Film Project leader asked him where he was from. The owner said he was from Albania. The leader asked what language he spoke and found out it was one of the dialects of that country. The leader asked him if he ever watches movies in his mother tongue. The owner said that it was impossible to do that in America, but that he would love to watch them in his own heart language. The leader pulled out his phone, opened the app, selected the country of Albania, found the language of this restaurant owner and began to stream the Jesus Film in this man’s native tongue. The Albanian man was completely amazed and asked if he could have that movie. The leader got his email and instantly sent him the Jesus Film by email. Now that Albanian immigrant heard about Jesus, the full story, in his own mother tongue. GOD IS GREAT! Please download the app and start to share the gospel with immigrants in your life (You don’t even have to say anything!).
Connected with the Call2All Congress was the large YWAM gathering of over 800 people spread out across Asia and the Pacific Islands. We felt at home among others from our “YWAM tribe”. Together we celebrated YWAM Thailand’s 40th anniversary. In 40 years, God has expanded YWAM in Thailand from one couple in the 70’s to over 450 full-time staff (180+ are non-paid Thai volunteer staff) all over the country, serving in 80+ ministries. Praise God for His faithfulness!
One of the things that God highlighted for us as a YWAM base is that we need to be focused on sending Thais (and others who come to our training programs) as missionaries to the unreached peoples of the earth. There are still over 500 people groups (making up millions of people) who have never had anyone go to tell them the gospel. And so as a YWAM community we committed to engage with 3 of these people groups, one in each of the following nations: 1. Sudan/South Sudan, 2. Bhutan/NE India & 3. China We are praying/planning to send teams to each of these places by the end of this year (and we, as a family, want to be a part of it, taking our Thai staff & students to these places).
JUNE 2013
This June is a very full one. We recently started another DTS here with 13 students from Thailand, USA, Indonesia, Japan and others. I (Rob) has just pioneered, together with Matt (a base staff member) the new Language & Leadership course that we have on our base. It’s exciting having people from USA, Canada, Thailand, Mongolia, Vietnam and Fiji with us in that course. This course is going to bring a lot of new life, service and outreach to our base and share the load of leadership in many different areas. I thank God for those who are with us.
So, with Cy’s leadership in the SBS and Rob’s leadership of the base and of the Language & Leadership course, we’re doing a lot of teaching over these weeks. Cy is teaching the book of Judges in the SBS and Bible Overview in the DTS all in the same week. Rob is giving orientation to the new staff/students and teaching Deuteronomy in the SBS. We’re overloading at the moment, but at the same time God is graciously supplying us with the strength and wisdom that we need. Please pray for this because it looks like a busy season until the end of the year, especially in the area of teaching.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Health – we don’t have issues at the moment, but if we did we could have some problems that would be too big for us. Pray for continued health.
2. Finances – we want to praise God for His provision. One couple has decided to help us financially every month with $100. That’s a huge help and it brings us closer to our goal. We’re still asking God for another $200/month. If you would like to partner with us in this way, please click here for information. If you would like to be a part of our expansion project by donating money, please click here.
3. Anointing – we can see that we can do nothing apart from Jesus working through us and so we want continued prayer for God to anoint our teachings and our leadership, giving us wisdom from on high and not human understanding/wisdom. We also want to see the Holy Spirit ministering to the lives of the people we touch.
4. Personal Growth – though we serve as career missionaries with Youth With A Mission, our first and primary priority is to grow in our knowledge of God and our relationship with Him. Please pray that God continues to take us deeper, increasing our hunger for Him.
5. Local evangelism – We’re running to separate programs for evangelism: a kids club to reach out to the almost 2,000 kids at the local elementary and high school AND a regular university evangelism program. We want God to begin to multiply the amount of people coming to Christ on a regular basis.
Thanks for praying for us and being a part of our family and God’s ministry in Thailand!
If you would like to contact us to ask questions or just connect, please email us at: robandcy[at]gmail.com