Newsletter - June 2009
Dear Family & Friends,
We had another adventure with Thai Immigration early in June. We file papers every 90 days to let them know where we are living. Diana remarked about a ring on the official’s finger and she replied she was married the day before to one of the men at the immigration office. So we talked and joked about getting married and coming to work the next day and that we were happy for them. We have also offered to teach English to them for free in the past. When we presented our passports we were told we were “overstayed”, which means we were supposed to ‘check in’ long before the date we were there. The charge is 500 baht per day per person, which came to $1,650 US. Our previous visa had been connected with our work permit and the dates for renewal were the same. We got a new type visa earlier this year because we were not allowed to teach English in the government (public) schools anymore because neither of us are certified teachers. We didn’t realize our visa date was now different from the Work Permit. I even asked a man earlier (not the one that got married) what date we needed to come back and he told me June 1, so that is when we returned and discovered we were overstayed. Long story short, because of our good relationship with these people over five years, they let us by without charging us. So we thank God with finding favor with them.
DIANA’S DELIGHTS
Every morning at the Oasis, I have a discipleship Bible Study for the three workers. May was a Christian when she came, Noi gave her heart to the Lord last year and a few weeks ago Anna became a Christian! Each day one of us picks a topic to study and then we open our Bibles and talk about what God’s Word says about it. It has been wonderful! The girls really enjoy it and are learning a lot. See the pictures attached. The three from left to right: Anna, May and Noi
May, house parent at Home of Hope, is having some complications with her pregnancy. This is her first child and she has a growing tumor in her abdomen that is causing her a lot of pain and this past Sunday she went to the hospital to find out she has low blood pressure. Please pray for her and her husband, Visanuk. See picture.
The building project is at a standstill until more funds come in. Please continue to pray. We will have a better construction crew working on it when we start up again.
NEILL’S NOTES
We see a lot of irony in Thailand. Above you read how we had to get different visas because we weren’t certified teachers. I am now teaching English in the same schools I was before but it is much easier to do because I don’t need to go through the Department of Education now, so I only need one letter from the school. I also do not have to do it for my visa but I do it for continued good relationships with teachers and school directors and the community.
It has been almost three years since we have been to the USA and we are about to return this August for about 3 months. Our main focus is seeing family so please understand that we won’t have the time to visit all the churches we would like and to see all of you. We will attach a schedule of the churches we will be at and if we come to a church near you, you could try to visit us there. We may visit some additional churches for mid-week or Sunday night services, if possible, so in August, ask your pastor if we might be coming. Please continue to support us during the 3 months as Home of Hope and Oasis need to continue to operate and we need to keep up our house rent, truck payments, etc. here as well as live in the States as we itinerate.
We are raising support for another three year term, so please let us know if you would like to pledge support to us (if you haven’t already), to continue to support us with the same or increased pledge amount, or if for some reason, you need to decrease or stop financial support. We don’t like to assume anything so we would appreciate hearing from everyone concerning this. We need to know what our budget will look like, so we will be grateful for your prompt reply. Pastors will receive a separate email concerning support. We will continue to keep in touch while in the USA through emails and we will also have a cell phone, which we will give you the number so you can call and talk if we aren’t able to see you in person.
I will cut and paste our ‘proposed’ schedule at the end of this newsletter. Remember that the schedule may change, so keep in touch with your pastors and us.
Prayers and Blessings to you and hope to see you soon,
Neill & Diana
Your partners in Missions
Mae Sot, Thailand
