March 2013

Greetings in the New Year!

Our Christmas season was good. We overcame all of our previous sicknesses, spent time with friends and connected with loved ones in our respective homes (thank God for Skype). Cy was even able to make special Venezuelan Christmas food together with her sister through Skype.

With the turn of the year, our work schedules turn into a new cycle.

SBS

The School of Biblical Studies (SBS) has recently started again. This year we have been able to add two new staff members (Jue from Thailand and Eun-Jong from Korea), so altogether the SBS staff team is now 6 people. There are five students from Vietnam, India and Holland. Once again it is a wonderfully multicultural school with all of the students studying in their second language. Cy has been busy teaching the first two weeks of this school (teaching around 6 hours/day).

DTS

The current Discipleship Training School (DTS) has just left on outreach going to Sukhothai, Sisaket, Mae Sot and Ratchaburi in Thailand, as well as Cambodia and Vietnam. This school has been a wonderful blessing because of the long-term fruit that it is producing. To this point half of the DTS student body is committing to coming back and staffing with us in one capacity or another.

New outreach 

With the new year comes new initiatives as well. We’ve begun a new discipleship club for the kids in the school next door to us. The goal is to preach the gospel to them consistently and relevantly throughout their school years, while equipping them with basic skills and abilities to further develop them as people. Together as a base community, including the schools that we run here, we’re partnering to bless the local neighborhood.

New programs 

Rob and a few other staff are in the middle of creating a new staff development program called “Language and Leadership” which will serve to equip both Thais and foreigners in acquiring language and growing in leadership. This program is set to begin in June of this year. This coming March we will also begin our first TESOL course which will equip those in our community who seek to impact this nation (and others) by teaching English and giving testimony of a transformative gospel we preach. It’s very exciting for us to see the increase in courses and ministry opportunities as God continues to multiply us and impact a greater number of lives.

Family 

Our family is doing well too. The work is much and we’re getting tired quickly, but we’re also experiencing the community in which we live that supports us and helps us carry the ministry that God has given us forward. Elias is growing quickly. He’s getting much more talkative…in all three languages…and is extremely active. Sometimes he reminds us of the energizer bunny that never stops.

We do have some prayer requests that we want to share with you:

• Health and energy – we have been learning a lot about our physical limits and we are starting to take action regarding the overall health of our bodies. Please pray for us to be able to make permanent changes and remain healthy.
• Personal Relationship with God – God has been so faithful to us over the years and we have had the privilege of seeing the answers to many promises that He has given to us. However, our commitment and love is given to the God of the promises, not the promises of God, so we ask that you would continue to pray for a deepening of our walk and intimacy with the Lord.
• Finances – Again, we have seen the faithfulness of God in our finances over the years, but we are also seeing the reality of inflation and the greater cost of living that our ministry is leading us into. We are asking God for an increase of about $300/month of support. (If you would like to support us, please click here)
• Leadership – As we begin to increase in numbers and in ministries we are looking at how to expand our leadership and structure to support this missional community. We are asking God for wisdom and grace to understand how to move forward and grow into the design that He has for us and our community.
• Evangelism – As a community we are entering into a new way of reaching out in our community. Please pray for God’s Spirit to be moving in our hearts and in the lives of the people of our community so that many would come to know Jesus and give their lives to him. Also pray that our kids club for the neighborhood would be fruitful in producing long-term nation-changing disciples as we follow them through their school years.

Thank you for your support and prayers through the months and years that we have been in Thailand. Without them we would not be able to do what we are doing.

Blessings,

Rob, Cy and Elias