February 2009 update — lots of new stuff

Greetings to everyone, Again we have news to share with you. It feels nice to be almost two years into our long-term commitment in Thailand with YWAM because the more time we spend here the more there is for us to be involved with. As many of you already know, about a year ago YWAM Thailand was establishing a base in Chiang Rai where people from all nations can come to be discipled and trained to be missionaries in the places where God leads them. The purpose of the base is the same as all of YWAM: To know God and make Him known. In the establishment of this base we were invited to be on the leadership team known as the Base Leadership Team (BLT – not the sandwich). Six months later the base director needed to return to the US where he spent time processing his next move. In that time I, Rob, was placed in his position as a temporary solution to the vacancy. Now, in his return, he has announced that he will be leaving Thailand in the next 6 months to remain in the US for a indefinite amount of time. The rest of the leadership, both in the base and other levels of YWAM Thailand have approved that I remain base director indefinitely. This is both exciting and challenging. Our passion to see people from the nations falling in love with Jesus and following His call to obedience in missions is being fulfilled in our service to the base.

Cy is an important influence in the base and, more importantly, the SBS director/pioneer. We still remain with 5 students registered to take the school and we're able to accept another 5-7. There are two other people that are interested in coming on as staff. That will be a great help. Cy and I are processing all the applications and praying about each person. It's exciting to see that soon we will be starting that which we came to do.

Some other news is that at the end of November I took a government Thai exam that is required of YWAM Thailand staff. I hadn't had enough time to study over our first year and a half, but I took the exam anyway because next year we won't have a chance to do it. YWAM requires one of the two people in a marriage to pass this exam. With little hope I did the test. I finally got my results (yes, 3 months later) and it turned out that I passed by a mark of 50%. That satisfies the requirements made by YWAM Thailand and it allows me the freedom from taking the test again. That has not stopped our Thai language learning, but has empowered us more to know that we really are advancing and learning more and more of the language. God willing, we plan to continue to learn until the end of July. Our old base in Chile, South America sent us a team from their Discipleship Training School (DTS) to help us out here in Thailand. It has been a blessing to hear about how our friends and family are doing in Chile and that our friends haven't forgotten about us. The team is serving with a YWAM university ministry just down the road from the base.

We wanted to communicate some of these things earlier, but hadn't received permission to talk about them until everything was communicated correctly. We're glad that you have been so patient with us.

We love you a lot and wish that God continues to speak His truth into your lives.

With love and anticipation for His plans to be fulfilled, Rob and Cy