Newsletter - May 2009
Dear Family & Friends,
We had two teams from Canada minister in Mae Sot during the month of May. One was from Pacific Life Bible College in Canada (near Vancouver) and the other was from Northside Foursquare Church. They came with plans to help build the new Home of Hope home, minister to the children at Home of Hope and help Pastor John wherever they could. From the very beginning we have struggled with this building. If you remember, it took a year and a half to even get an architect and then he caused all kinds of problems, delays and extra expenses because he wouldn’t listen to us. Long story short, Dennis Hixson, leader of the college team, got to talking with the Foursquare leadership here in Thailand and they have promised him, and us, that they will oversee the construction of this new home so that it can get done as quickly and inexpensively as possible. This is a long awaited answer to prayer. The teams were able to help a little at the site but mostly worked on painting at the church and knocking out some walls to enlarge the capacity as we have outgrown the current sanctuary. The teams also spent time with the Home of Hope kids, had a two-day youth camp and traveled up north to assist Pastor John with church planting in the Hill Tribes near Mae Hong Son and Chiang Dao. A student named Sasha added to our wall murals at the Oasis. A picture is attached.
Speaking of Mae Hong Son, we currently are operating Home of Hope 2 there. The house parents, Oh and Meelaa, have three children of their own and have started a church in their home, out of which Home of Hope 2 is managed. They are trying to raise their own money for supporting 10 children. We had asked them to come to Mae Sot to care for the children here but they felt that God wanted them to open a home for at-risk children there. Please spread the word about Home of Hope 2, pray with us that this home will continue to be a blessing to the community and that sufficient funds will be raised to support them. Picture attached.
DIANA’S DELIGHTS
We had International Fellowship party night a couple of weeks ago. We got together with other foreigners who are working in the Mae Sot area and had a night of fun, food and fellowship. We are from different denominations as well as different countries and each country had a special cultural thing we presented. We played a couple of Dutch games as we were hosted by a couple from the Netherlands. It was good to get to know some more people and just relax. Picture of game where team mates must drop there strings (tied around their waist) into the bottles at the same time without using their hands. You can try this at home! Picture attached.
NEILL’S NOTES
Nothing about Thailand should surprise me anymore but sometimes I just look at the way things are done and wonder. I am attaching a picture of a truck being loaded. If you look closely at the front tire, you will see it is about 3-inches of the ground. One man showed the people loading the truck but they didn’t seem to care; just piled a couple more things on top. I guess they figured when they got in the front to drive, their weight would bring it down. Who knows? We have seen trucks ‘loaded to the sky’ go around curves in the mountains literally on two wheels (of a four wheel truck). I have slowed my driving considerably in the past year because you really don’t know what it coming around the next bend.
We will be coming to the USA in August for about 3 months. We have been in Thailand over 5 years already! We can hardly believe it! New people are coming to the Mae Sot church and getting saved, we are excited about the house parents at Home of Hope and Home of Hope 2,
the Oasis is maintaining and serves many purposes for the community and Pastor John has received a second grant for Hill Tribes Church planting. We thank and praise God for all these things! We would love to see all of you but please understand that we haven’t seen our families in three years and we are limited even to the number of churches we can visit because of the time frame. We will soon be setting up dates with pastors to visit churches. We will send out a schedule of our itinerary so that if we can’t make it to your church, you might be able to visit another church we are visiting, district or divisional meeting or some other venue. You do matter to us and we’ll try to see as many of you as possible. We will see what God does with arranging these things.
Please pray:
That our time in LA with FMI is productive and restful.
We have sufficient funds for travel
Our time in the USA is fruitful
Safety and protection and good health
For our schedule to be lined up quickly and so it will be efficient for traveling
For our preparations to go to the USA
For funds to complete construction of the new Home of Hope home
Let us know how we can pray for you.
Remember to visit our websites: www.gilbertthailand.com www.homeofhopethai.org
They are being updated right now but should be completely updated in a week or so, so visit them next month sometime. You will see the new children and houseparents.
Love & Prayers & Blessings,
Neill & Diana
Your Partners in Mae Sot
Acts 20:24 & Jeremiah 29:11
