Dear Family & Friends

With so many natural disasters continuing to happen around the world, it is sometimes difficult not to get discouraged or depressed about things. The Bible talks about things like this happening in the end times. We need to be ready when Jesus comes to meet us in the air and that is where our hope lies, with Jesus. We pray that no matter what your circumstance is right now, that you have the joy of the Lord and that you are encouraged by our newsletter this month.

Diana's Delights

We go to have steak on special occasions at a certain restaurant in Mae Sot. We have gotten to know the owner and have found out he was a Christian but he said his family kept telling him he was a bad Christian for various reasons. Over the past couple of years he has gotten to know us and has openly talked about his faith and his family. We are encouraging him to come back to serving the Lord. A couple weeks ago he came to our table and gave us a bunch of money and said, "Here is my tithe. I feel I need to give a tithe but I have no where else to give it to, so I want you to use it for your children (Home of Hope)." Please pray that he will continue his journey back to God.

We really enjoyed our time with the team from the Heartland District and we want to express our deepest gratitude for the way they served the Thai people. Some of them almost didn't make it because of the huge snowstorm that hit the day they were supposed to leave the US, but God got them all here safely. They loved the Hill Tribes, Home of Hope kids, ELPIS School, working on the church building and the warm weather. Everyone was excited when we visited a Karen village that had never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ before. It is such a great feeling when God uses you to bring His light into the darkness.

The Home of Hope children and staff want to thank you so much for praying and giving toward the Home of Hope building project. During the last 4 weeks we have received all the money we need to put the roof on. It seems as though God only wanted two floors because right after we had decided to not build the third floor, the money seemed to pour in! Praise God—now we need to pray for the next phase of getting walls, smoothing, paint and plaster = $24,000US. This is higher than the amount mentioned in a previous email. Pastor John told me that all building materials have gone up between 10 and 30 percent! We have just found out today (Mar 18) that on one Sunday a Heartland District church has raised almost two thirds of the money needed for the next phase of construction.

Neill's Notes

I held my first funeral service in Thailand for a missionary friend that passed away here suddenly. He was not sent by an agency and we didn't have any family references handy but eventually with the help of some friends, we were able to contact his family and pastor. It was quite a week dealing with the Thai police and the hospital—another learning experience to say the least and another plunge into Thai culture. After his death, neighbors near his apartment told the landlord they had seen Shane walking in the street at 2am so we were asked to do a Christian ceremony to get rid of any spirits (They said that a pair of his shoes that were thrown away also came back to sit near the entrance of his apartment). We told them we would do that so we went and prayed in and around the building and they would do their Buddhist ceremony later. We discovered that we knew his landlord and he and his sister helped us tremendously in dealing with the police, hospital and other things. It's a good thing we had a good relationship with him for almost seven years.

The Ban Gao church had its first paint job in over 10 years. The people are very excited that someone cares enough to help them make the church look nice. Please pray for my language learning as I am trying to teach and preach in Thai. It does not flow smoothly too often but they understand, they help me and they are very patient.

We were privileged to be able to attend a Ralph Moore seminar on making disciples and church planting in Bangkok. It was a lot of great teaching, learning and fellowship with people from various countries and with some friends we hadn't seen for a while.

Prayer Requests

• Pastor John, Sara, Gift and Got
• Pastor Dear, Dtay and Dew
• Diana's health—complete healing for chronic health issues
• Other missionaries in Thailand and around the world
• If you have a need that we can pray for, please email us and let us know. We will join you.

Peace, Joy, Blessings & Prayers,
Neill & Diana
Your missionary partners in Mae Sot

ndgthai@hotmail.com
www.gilbertthailand.com
www.homeofhopethai.org

If you would like to write to us or send us something please use this address:
Neill & Diana Gilbert
c/o Foursquare Mae Sot Church
P.O. Box 13
Mae Sot, Tak
63110 Thailand

If you would like to support us financially you can donate online. Otherwise you can make your check out to "Monticello Foursquare Church" and mail it to:
Lynette Rohde
c/o Monticello Foursquare Church
P.O. Box 1356
Maple Grove, MN 55311

Churches and pastors who send their support through FMI, please use the following P.O. Box to expedite the processing of your gifts to us.
FMI
P.O. Box 26776
Los Angeles, CA 90026