May 2008

Dear Prayer Warriors;

We are truly blessed to have each and everyone of you lifting us to God's throne of Grace every time you remember to pray for us. God has reminded us on numerous occasions this month that our prayer support system is varied and unique. Each one of you are a part of our ministry even though you are across the big pond from us. When you go to the Father on our behalf we want you to know that you are truly appreciated. There have been many times this month that we have needed your prayers.

We have had a team with us almost all month and we have had lots of fun doing what God has given into our hands to do. We did a food distribution that went well even though it was to a predominantly Muslim area. God allowed us to distribute nearly 900 food packs which included 7.5 kilos of rice, 1 liter of oil, 2 cans of canned fish and water. That was enough food to last probably 1-2 weeks as a result of the price of rice almost doubling in less than 3-6 months. The government official thought that he was going to get special treatment but he has not had to tangle with Brenda. Some of the poorer families did not get their rice because the government official only gave it out to his friends. They were complaining to us and we turned it back to the government official and allowed him to explain why they did not get what was allotted for them. The people were really excited to get the food. We prayed God would hold off the rain until we were finished with the distribution and God was faithful it did not rain the whole time we were distributing the food. As soon as we finished it started to rain only lightly.

We had an opportunity to go to a Burmese school that we have never been to and the team shared the gospel message with about 150 children through song and crafts as well as a story. We know that was an answer to many prayers as we always ask you to pray for more opportunities to share the gospel message.

We also had a training seminar with a group of mostly men about 4 hours form our house. The seminar was teaching "Good News For Man" written by Charles Brock which is an evangelism/ discipleship training material. At the seminar we had the opportunity to give out nearly 20 Bibles to people who could not afford to buy a Bible or have never had the opportunity to possess a Bible for themselves. It was really fun to see the looks on the men and women's faces as they were getting a Bible for the first time. We saw these men and women excited about having the opportunity to read and study the Bible for themselves for the first time. There are some things that we take for granted in America and one of those things is the opportunity to have and study the Bible for ourselves.

We went out to one of our cell groups to work with children and we had probably 15 -20 children who had never heard any stories about Jesus. The blessing of this opportunity was that their parents came along as well and many of them had never heard the gospel presentation as well. God continues to open doors of opportunity for us to start new studies in new areas. We went to a new area to share with some unbelievers and had a little bit of trouble with the village headman. Wherever God is working Satan tries to come in and distract and try to cause division or problems. We are not immune to it as well. We were able to work through this as a way to show that God is bigger than any village headman. We ask you to keep this group in prayer since there is only one believer in this group and he is a relatively new believer. This group is approximately 10-20 in it but it has great potential.


Answers to Prayers:

  1. Our son got a job that will help with his tuition. He also passed all of his classes and will be able to transfer into his new college with more credits.
  2. The food distribution was a success
  3. God did not allow it to rain while we were distributing the food.
  4. The training seminar was well received
Prayer requests:
  1. Pray for Pastor C as he is visiting family and friends affected by the recent cyclone in his home country
  2. Pray for the National workers to catch the vision and make it their own.
  3. Pray for all of the graduates that they would honor God through their celebrations.
  4. Pray for Khun Joy as she adjusts to a new baby.
  5. Pray for Brenda and Ben as they travel then go to meetings during this coming month.
  6. Pray for the people in the pictures as each one represents a life somewhere along the way to either following Christ or not knowing anything about Him