Dear Team,
It’s so good to be back home in Thailand again and a bit hard to believe that three weeks have already passed since we left the USA. Bringing Judy’s dad back with us, we have been on the go non-stop to show him as much of our life and ministry as possible. He just arrived back in snowy Iowa again and poor guy- is probably going to need a month to recuperate. We thank God that all of our connections in travel and luggage went well.
During his time here, we were able to visit a ministry project in a very rural area and help with translation between English and Thai speakers concerning the projects. It was a ministry to tribal children who have very little and who come into a rural city and live in a dorm so that they can get an education. We were encouraged by the commitment of the Christian workers there and the simplicity of their life style (especially after just coming from the affluent USA). The children sleep 6-9 in a room that is about the size of most walk-in closets in the USA and the children are so thankful for the chance to just get an education. We took Dad to another orphanage here in town twice where the children have so little materially and yet their faces beam with the joy of Jesus in their lives because of what he has done for them.
We’ve also been encouraged to see our Thailand Campus Crusade for Christ staff continuing on in faithfully meeting with students on our university campuses and having new students each week become new followers of Jesus. Our stint team of 8 Americans this year have particularly seen a lot of fruit. They opened the work on a new campus, Rajabhat, last June with just one Christian student and had a Valentine Party last week with 41 students who have gotten involved during the year.
After a trip to southern Thailand to check on our projects with the Tsunami victims, we feel that we are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel in the building of homes for them. Mike would like to finish about 5 homes that didn’t quite get finished and then build about 25 simple bamboo huts on the shore of an island, for a group of people who are still sleeping in a church. He will be administrating three more teams that will work with us to get those homes done. We feel that one of the greatest needs now is for the follow-up of those who became Christians as a result of the disaster. Most relief organizations have pulled out by now and there is a great need for them to be taught basic Christianity and given a foundation as they begin to study the Bible on their own. There are a few itinerant Thai pastors traveling around from island to island meeting with villagers—but not near enough to get the area covered. We will be mailing Bibles down to these pastors to give each family, but would like to ask you to pray for more workers for this harvest field.
We appreciate your prayers for us as we continue to settle back in again. We will have houseguests helping us with different ministry projects for the next few weeks. Judy is going to focus on getting our Chiang Mai ministry center done with some decorating projects. We have several large and small groups meeting in the center weekly, and the acoustics really need a lot of help. We’re thankful for the four cement walls, but need some ways to absorb the sounds of music, speakers, etc. Mike will be making another trip to the south this week, to help a team working on rebuilding and to set up the logistics of some more teams to come.
Thank you for your prayers for us and the country of Thailand,
Mike and Judy
