January 2012

Happy New Year!

We had a great Christmas with friends here in Chiang Rai. It’s always a more difficult time in Thailand because of the culture not having Christmas, but the time with friends has helped us share it with people we love. Skype and other means of video communication has also helped in sharing special moments with family around the world.

It’s a year of new hope for us as we begin again the SBS (School of Biblical Studies). This time around we have staff from 5 different nations: Venezuela, USA, Philippines, Vietnam and Korea. And if you think that’s not too international, well, we are also receiving six students from 5 different nations: Canada, Singapore, Nepal, Fiji and USA. So, altogether there are 11 people from 3 continents and 9 nations. What an expression of the heavenly group mentioned in Revelation 7:9-10 which says, “After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb!'”

We’ve been hosting a DTS (Discipleship Training School) team that is based in Pichilemu, Chile (the YWAM Base that we used to serve in 5 years ago). There are 8 team members and they have been serving us here in Thailand since January 2nd. They’ve also been doing 4 day trips into the mountain villages where they serve the community and preach the gospel in various ways. It’s been a great time together as they have led us in worship and prayer in Spanish and have brought in a new flavour to our base community.

We went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to renew our visas to Thailand. We received another 3 months. Now we are finally going to process our work permit here in Thailand, which means that we should no longer need to leave the country every 3 months to get a new visa. Please pray for this to go through without any problems. The work permit costs us $1,100 for the year (less than a trip to Malaysia). We still need to see this money come in from somewhere so please pray for the finances to do this. If you want to help us financially please click on the “DONATIONS” tab above to see how to give or contact us at robandcy[at]gmail.com

Prayer requests:

-Health (especially energy)

-Finances (we need to have our monthly support increase by a few hundred dollars)

-Wisdom and grace to lead in the different areas of responsibility

-Wisdom to know how to balance work and family so that we glorify our God in every aspect of our lives

Thanks to all of you who have blessed us through your friendship, prayers and financial support over the years. We are so honoured and blessed to have the type of support that we do.

BLESSINGS!