Newsletter - March 2008
Dear Family & Friends
In the USA March brings thoughts of high school sports tournaments and March Madness. Along with that comes spring and warming temperatures. It's much the same here except the temps are 65-70 degrees warmer and we won't get any significant rain (normally) until June. Instead of school sports, we have school terms ending for two months during the hot season (April - May).
We want to thank all of you for your continued prayer and financial support. We are excited about more teams and individuals coming to assist us in our ministry here. We need more people because God is doing great things here and we need the help.
A few weeks ago Esther and Peter decided to come to Foursquare Mae Sot Church in the morning instead of the afternoon. This is significant because when they arrived Diana was the first to greet them as service had just begun.
Esther had just started an orphanage in Umphang in January. Umphang is located about 160 km (100 mi) south of Mae Sot (3 1/2 hours around 1,219 mountainous curves). They have t-shirts, key chains, etc. saying, 'I survived the 1,219 curves to Umphang.
Peter is from Finland and heads an organization called H2O which helps to fund orphans around the world and even more than that -- he is an architect! He just dropped out of heaven into the Mae Sot church that day. He will be drawing up plans for the new Home of Hope Orphanage building, then we will have them looked at here by an engineer and other appropriate people and have blueprints made. Once the blueprints are made we can get estimates and start building!
I'm glad they decided to come early that day, otherwise we would have missed meeting them. Pastor John is trying to start a church in Umphang for a covering for the orphanage there and we are helping him and helping and encouraging Esther.
Esther is 28, single, called by God to take care of these 30 orphans. She has a small staff (all volunteers) and a big heart. Please pray that she does not get overwhelmed and discouraged. She is doing all of this by faith and God has been supplying. She said she has a heart for the border area because of smuggling of drugs and people across the border, she says people can have a new life and have hope when they come and hear about Jesus in the church and orphanage. Also pray for continued favor with the government officials in this area.
DIANA'S DELIGHTS
We live near a busy market and 2 or 3 times a week I take a walk through it to buy fruit or flowers and make relationships. Last week a lady stopped me and told me she had a headache and a bad toothache and the pain was shooting down her arm. I asked if I could pray for her for Jesus to heal her and she said, 'Yes.' I went back the next day to see how she was and she was happy and smiling. She said she had no more pain anywhere and thanked me for praying to my God. I said thank you, Jesus, for healing this woman. Maybe one day she will come to church and hear more about Jesus and even give her life to Him.
We traveled to a Karen village called Khii Daw Gaw Khii to take mosquito nets and repellent to give to thepeople there. This village is where Pagaa, Nonglak and PaeWah are from. Pagaa and Nonglak's mother is now completely blind and we discovered that they have a younger sister who was burned when she was 1 or 2 years old. (see photos in gallery below)
Her arm from the elbow down is scar tissue which has tightened and bent her right hand down and back toward her elbow. Her pinky must have been mostly burned off as there is only a stub. She can use her right hand but there isn't much strength in it. We will be taking her to Home of Hope when the new school year begins and hopefully we can get an operation for her so that she can recover the full use of her right arm and hand.
The accident happened just after her father died and her mother had to work to support five girls, ages 1-10. No one was able to take her to a hospital so it healed this way on its own. To take her to the hospital would have been about a 5 hour motorcycle trip down the mountain and this happened about 10 years ago when very few people had even a motorcycle.
Even when we visited yesterday we saw very few motorcycles as this is a very poor village. The two older sisters both have families of their own and share the responsibility of taking care of their mother. The mother's blindness was caused by a mistake in medicine given to her when she went to the hospital for treatment. Within a year she was blind in one eye and almost blind in the other and that was the time we took in Pagaa and Nonglak. We are so grateful that God has given these girls into our care.
NEILL'S NOTES
God is certainly moving in these 5 'border districts' which include and surround Mae Sot. People seem to be coming 'out of the woodwork' to visit with Pastor John about all kinds of things from church planting to orphanages to English camps to evangelizing villages and more. It is amazing to see God bringing these things about.
I am attaching a photo of the storage building for the new Home of Hope which was paid for by our Midwest team that just visited us in January. For those who have been here you can get perspective by looking at the big tree cut down in order to build the orphanage there and the storage is along the wall you are directly in front of you when you come in the gate.
As you look at the storage building, the orphanage will be built to its left and be built from near the tree toward the front wall. It will be about 26 ft x 79 ft (8m x 24m) and be 2 stories (levels) high when finished, with the option of a third floor being added in the future. We are building the storage building so that we can have electricity run to the property to make constructing the main orphanage building easier. The Antelope Valley Foursquare Church - The Highlands, in California, blessed us with a wonderful donation toward building our new Home of Hope home.
Join with us in prayer and believing for the full amount of construction to come in so no loans will be needed. No matter how small or large your contribution, it all adds up and it seems that God always multiplies it. Be sure to identify your gift by writing 'Home of Hope Land' or 'Home of Hope Building', otherwise it will be used only for the care of the children if you write only 'Home of Hope'.
We use the word 'partner' alot because that is what we do. The orphanage in Umphang is run by Baptists but are willing to have a Foursquare Church as their covering. The mosquito nets were given by an independent church in Tak. We met these people while visiting our friends in the Doi Muser village of Ban Gao around Christmas and they are starting an orphanage here in Mae Sot, also.
Our Midwest Team was made up of people from 5 churches, one being an Open Bible Church, in 3 different states. By partnering, we use the resources of all involved to advance the Kingdom of God so that all parties benefit, most importantly, those whom we are ministering to. So you can see we believe in partnering with those whom God brings into our lives and who have a common vision to reach the lost and take care of orphans and widows and to heal the broken-hearted.
We want to thank you again for partnering with us in order to serve the people of Thailand. We think of you and pray for you often.
PRAYER NEEDS
- A pastor & church for Umphang
- Continued favor with Umphang government officials
- Blueprints & finances for Home of Hope building
- Protection, wisdom & good health for Pastor John & his family
- Finances for church planting
- Salvation and discipleship for Karen people in the villages that the midwest team recently visited
- Relationships to produce good fruit
- Unity and Faith for Foursquare Thailand leadership
- Continued understanding of Thai language/culture
Blessings & Prayers to you,
Neill & Diana
Your partners in Mae Sot
