December 2008 update

Greetings from the beautiful country of Thailand. There are a few things that we need (and want) to share with you at this time. But before we do that we would like to send our seasons greetings in this month of December.

First things first. We are ok. As many of you have probably already heard, Thailand has been going through some difficulties. However, apart from the close proximity to the places shown on the news over the last couple weeks there isn't anything similar to turmoil in Thailand. Life goes on as normal as before and people don't even pay attention to the things that are happening on the news. Thailand, though shown to be in trouble, is completely peaceful. The only thing was that air travel was cut off for about a week. We don't fully understand all the reasons for the problems and the protests, but we know that having them stop is a step in the right direction. If you would like to have updated news about the situation in Thailand please visit: www.bangkokpost.com The air travel cut off has led to immediate affects in our family. My (Rob) parents had planned to come and visit us for a few weeks and see the place where we live and the people we are living with, but that became impossible. We are very disappointed about it, but we trust that there will be other opportunities for them to come to Thailand in the future.

Over these last 6 months we have been trying to find ways for us to remain in Thailand permanently without doing anything illegal and without having to leave the ministry that God has called us to. This has turned out to be a failure and we will, once again, need to return to North America to get another one-year visa. This is very frustrating, tiring and stressful for us. We will be arriving in Abbotsford on January 12, 2009.

Due to YWAM policies and our current responsabilities we haven't received permission to return to Canada for a long period of time. In fact, we need to return to Thailand within a week of leaving. This isn't a large issue for us because we were able to touch base with many of you while we were in Canada earlier this year. We will only be in Canada for a week, leaving January 19, 2009. One or two of those days will be spent on a trip to Portland, Oregon, where we can receive our one year visas. Your prayers for our trip and safety would be appreciated. We are really sorry about the lack of time to spend with you and we ask that you would understand our situation and circumstances. We will probably only be able to spend the few days that we have with immediate family.

As a requirement of YWAM Thailand, one of the spouses in a missionary couple must take a government Thai competency test. I (Rob) had taken the challenge to do it. Cy has already spent the last two years learning English and Thai and obviously it has been much harder for her. On November 29 of this year we went to Bangkok and I took the Thai test. I won't receive the results for some time, but I'm sure that I am not at a sufficient level quite yet. The reason why I took the test early was because it happens only once a year and the following year we will be in the middle of our School of Biblical Studies (SBS). Just the same, we will continue to take our Thai classes until the end of July 2009 when we will transition into full-time preparation and training to start the SBS in September of that year.

We are excited about the beginning of the SBS in September 2009. We have received two applications and a number of inquiries already. We hope to be able to start the first school with 7-9 students. Please pray for more applications to come in.

We thank you for your prayers and support during this year. We have gone through a lot, but we can see the great provision of God and the support of His church behind us. Thanks again.

May God reveal Himself to you all in this season of love, Rob and Cy Wiebe