Dear Family & Friends

We hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and will have the best new year! We don't even try to have New Year's resolutions anymore because the first time we fail, that's it! It's over! And we feel like a failure. What we do is set goals for the year—to see what God would have us do and then try to accomplish that. If we fall short of our goals we still have many successes along the way. Even if we make mistakes, we always learn from them—they are life's best teachers sometimes. I like this definition of success: "Find God's purpose for your life and do it." May this year be your most successful yet.

Diana's Delights

I am feeling much better. My blood pressure has returned to normal and eventually I will see if I can go without medication. I still have blurry or double vision at times and ringing in my ears, but I have improved a lot. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement.

Our missionary retreat in Chiang Mai was a time of good fellowship, resting and (of course) good food. We had too much Western food again, now we have to lose more weight. The Mae Sot Church's Christmas programs were full of fun and joy. The Home of Hope children and staff had a great time at there celebration, too. We had a "Korean BBQ" where we cooked our meat and made soup over small clay "ovens" fired with charcoal. I have attached some pictures. Issamoei and Samchai are playing guitar and bass with the youth worship team. The youth lead worship at least once a month as they rotate with two other worship teams. They do a great job and bring a new vitality to the church with their enthusiasm!

I look forward to our Saturday night International Fellowship meetings, it is a mix of denominations as well as countries. It seems God has brought many new Christians for discipleship and mentorship to us. These meetings are always thought-provoking and interesting.

Neill's Notes

In December we had an evangelistic and healing crusade with Dr. Matthew Thomas Tue from India. One man in our church suffered from similar symptoms as Diana plus a couple of other health issues. He was healed of all his symptoms and health problems. Another woman, who came to the Lord last year at the Mae Sot Church after being a witch doctor for her whole life, brought nine family members to church. They are now serving the Lord. She also brought four neighbors, in need of healing, to the church since the December crusade and they are now new Christians. Pastor John said that in the Hill Tribes near Chiang Dao (north of Chiang Mai) people of different church denominations are getting baptized in the Holy Spirit and then going to other villages to preach the Good News. Even the teens and young people are getting excited and telling others about what Jesus has done for them. Pastor John, who has been in ministry in Thailand for over 20 years, said he has never seen anything like this before. It is an exciting time in Thailand.

For close to a year, we felt God was changing our ministry. We did not know whether it would be in the U.S., Thailand or another country. We also thought it might be somewhere else in Thailand. We have been praying, asking others to pray and seeking the counsel of godly people concerning this. We feel that we should stay in Mae Sot. We are not sure what this new ministry might be. Please pray with us. After making the decision to stay in Mae Sot for now, we received confirmation. Sunday morning in church a man gave his testimony and thanked God for us being in this church in Mae Sot. It was the first time in 6 years that anyone thanked us. We've heard it takes 5-6 years to be accepted into the Thai culture at all. Maybe this is the start of new and better things God has for us here. We are excited to see what it will be!

Our goals this year are to get the new Home of Hope home built, fill it with new children at risk and more staff, grow spiritually in the Lord and do what He calls us to do.

Love, Prayers and Blessings to you,

Neill & Diana

Your missionary partners in Mae Sot