Dear Team,
Our International School of Leadership classes last week on "Servant Leadership", were amazingly helpful and a huge time of growth for all of our staff. Thank you for your prayers ! We enjoyed looking at God's teaching on this much needed topic and pray that God will help us all to live out the things we learned as we soon start a new year of ministry.
In a few days, the two of us will be taking a trip into a neighboring country to visit some of our staff working there. Please pray for safety for us, that we can be an encouragement in a dark country, and that God will give wisdom concerning how we can best help the work there. We will be out of our home May 17 to June 8, but will be able to keep checking our e-mails.
As soon as we get back from that trip our summer project groups from the USA and other countries will start arriving. This summer we are coordinating three different groups coming to help our campus ministries here in the north. Sometimes all of the logistics of preparing for and coordinating the groups, ( housing, transportation, cultural training, translation, etc.) on each of our campuses feels like it's a big job- but once they get here and bring so much help to our ministry- we remember how worth it- it all is. This summer will be the first time that we bring foreigners up to a city in the north called Chiang Rai, so they will be pioneering a new campus as they work together with our staff team up there. Mike will also be leading three projects that will use part of their time to do physical labor in the south with our Tsunami rebuilding projects.
In these next few weeks, we'll be doing a lot of traveling, translating, and teaching. As always we appreciate you and your prayers for us and Thailand.
Mike and Judy
May 16, 2007
May 10, 2007
E-mail Update / Thailand Summertime/ 5/7/07
Dear Team,
"Nina, Nina, can we make 'copcorn' after dinner?", Collin requested. Marisa, Collin (2 1/2), and Summer (1) brought much excitement and change of pace at our home last week as they were living at "Nina's" house, while Jon and Mike were out of town. The proud grandparents- want to share a favorite photo with you......
Mike has seen a lot of progress during the past three weeks of working on Tsunami projects. A few days ago he handed over the keys for 7 more of the "modular-type"homes that they built on Phyam island. Last week a group of over 25 worked on Elephant Island, (the village they only started building last month) , and now have 15 homes/huts finished. He called one afternoon as he was driving a mother to a hospital who had just delivered a baby 14 days ago in the village on the island, and the baby was quite sick. We thank God for the opportunity to help many from this village, like this new mother through her dr. visit.
Judy's Net Ministry conference in Bangkok went well and was very helpful for her to learn new ways to use the internet for ministry opportunities. She was especially motivated when she heard in the introduction that more people will soon be reached through the internet- than the ministry of the Jesus Film that has been so affective in helping us reach the world for many years. Another bit of education was finding out that the generation of college students now-doesn't use e-mail so much , but prefers communicating though avenues like blogging, face book, etc. We are motivated to develop in this ministry- but it's a process that is taking some time. Here is a picture of our delegation from Thailand that met that week with people from all around the world with Campus Crusade for Christ.
We appreciate your prayers for our family as our four daughters will be scattering here and there throughout the earth this summer. Possibly it's one of the characteristics of missionary kids growing up around the world....
---Lori is finishing up college and doing her internship this summer with a company that is flying her to Hawaii for 12 weeks and paying her to lead young people on outdoor adventures throughout the Hawaiian islands.
---Bethany is traveling with her University choir and performing concerts throughout Korea with their Korean choir director for 2 weeks, and then bringing 7 friends on over here to Thailand for 3 weeks to work with us as we open up the campus ministries in June and start the new school year.
---Jenny is working at Winshape camps in Georgia, and then transferring schools to College of the Ozarks in Missouri next fall.
---Jon, Marisa, Collin and Summer are finishing up their two year stint here in Chiang Mai and have put in their applications to join staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. They will move back to the USA this fall, and work on a US campus to get more training.
This week, we are attending our annual Institute of Biblical Studies week (IBS), with all of our Thai staff held at our center here in Chiang Mai. . It is a week that we set aside each year for them to intensely study the Bible or for self enrichment courses. May 7-12 we have a guests coming from the USA to teach, and the topic is Servant Leadership. Please pray that God uses this topic of development in all of our lives.
Mike and Judy Christian and family
"Nina, Nina, can we make 'copcorn' after dinner?", Collin requested. Marisa, Collin (2 1/2), and Summer (1) brought much excitement and change of pace at our home last week as they were living at "Nina's" house, while Jon and Mike were out of town. The proud grandparents- want to share a favorite photo with you......
Mike has seen a lot of progress during the past three weeks of working on Tsunami projects. A few days ago he handed over the keys for 7 more of the "modular-type"homes that they built on Phyam island. Last week a group of over 25 worked on Elephant Island, (the village they only started building last month) , and now have 15 homes/huts finished. He called one afternoon as he was driving a mother to a hospital who had just delivered a baby 14 days ago in the village on the island, and the baby was quite sick. We thank God for the opportunity to help many from this village, like this new mother through her dr. visit.
Judy's Net Ministry conference in Bangkok went well and was very helpful for her to learn new ways to use the internet for ministry opportunities. She was especially motivated when she heard in the introduction that more people will soon be reached through the internet- than the ministry of the Jesus Film that has been so affective in helping us reach the world for many years. Another bit of education was finding out that the generation of college students now-doesn't use e-mail so much , but prefers communicating though avenues like blogging, face book, etc. We are motivated to develop in this ministry- but it's a process that is taking some time. Here is a picture of our delegation from Thailand that met that week with people from all around the world with Campus Crusade for Christ.
We appreciate your prayers for our family as our four daughters will be scattering here and there throughout the earth this summer. Possibly it's one of the characteristics of missionary kids growing up around the world....
---Lori is finishing up college and doing her internship this summer with a company that is flying her to Hawaii for 12 weeks and paying her to lead young people on outdoor adventures throughout the Hawaiian islands.
---Bethany is traveling with her University choir and performing concerts throughout Korea with their Korean choir director for 2 weeks, and then bringing 7 friends on over here to Thailand for 3 weeks to work with us as we open up the campus ministries in June and start the new school year.
---Jenny is working at Winshape camps in Georgia, and then transferring schools to College of the Ozarks in Missouri next fall.
---Jon, Marisa, Collin and Summer are finishing up their two year stint here in Chiang Mai and have put in their applications to join staff with Campus Crusade for Christ. They will move back to the USA this fall, and work on a US campus to get more training.
This week, we are attending our annual Institute of Biblical Studies week (IBS), with all of our Thai staff held at our center here in Chiang Mai. . It is a week that we set aside each year for them to intensely study the Bible or for self enrichment courses. May 7-12 we have a guests coming from the USA to teach, and the topic is Servant Leadership. Please pray that God uses this topic of development in all of our lives.
Mike and Judy Christian and family
May 07, 2007
Jennifer is Back Home in Chiang Mai
Jenny just finished her first year at Bryan College at Dayton, Tennessee. Next fall she will be transferring to College of the Ozarks at Point Lookout, Missouri. This was a difficult decision for us and her, and we felt the need to spend sometime with her, during this time of transition. Since she had around 3 weeks until her summer job starts at Winshape Camps, we decided to share a free airline ticket with her and bring her home. She had no idea when she'd be home again- so it's been fun for her to surprise friends here in Thailand. Collin and Summer are loving having her here- and it's her daily highlight to get hugs from them. Other highlights her first 3 days have been: eating sticky rice and mango, a luxurious Thai manicure and pedicure, and meeting her Daddy at the airport. 
May 04, 2007
Another week at "Nina's" house.
Jon and Mike are down in southern Thailand's "Tsunami Land" as we call it. Since Marisa's apartment is so small....- she, Collin and Summer have moved in for the week at our house. The kids are sort of at full-time stages, so we've had lots of fun doing things with them. Here's a few photos from the last few days...
Ice cream cones in the front yard...
Nina pulled out her old tramp......
and Nina made a tent in her dining room to play in.
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