Thanks and praise God for the New Zealand Conference and their support of the Christian Mission. Thanks to Tarnya Burge and those who work with her, the Christian Mission now has a website. The first item I came across was posted in January 2009 and was an introduction to some of our folks here. So I think, after two years, it is time to update. First, what I would like to do is to update the 2009 list and then add the new children and bring you up to date.
Our first student on the list was Ah. She is now finishing 10th grade in a special English Program in one of the city high schools. However, she left the Christian Mission last year thinking her boyfriend was more important. She has had a rough year this past year; she claimed to have accepted Christ in 2010, but there is no evidence of any kind of life change.
The next pictures were Annie and Muk. Annie’s mother has returned to spirit worship and taken all of her children with her. Dao, Muk’s older sister still has not returned so Muk left also.
Our three sisters have now become four sisters. Bpun, the oldest disappeared for a while starting 7th grade, but she returned a month or so ago and is trying to decide how much she wants to get involved the second time around. Next is Beem, and she is still with us; a happy 6th grader this year. We are praying she will stick with us. Number 3 is Boom and she is new last year. Their little sister Nong Bee is growing up in the church. Their younger brother is still too young to come on his own. Parents and grandmother are not Christians and only let the kids come because they get some English.
One of our youngest, Cape is now 5 years old – doesn’t seem possible. His mother and father; both mouth Christians and baptized – have divorced; the father has re-married and disappeared from sight; Cape’s mother is in the fast lane in Bangkok. Cape stays with his grandparents – two more mouth Christians who left the church about the time the letter in 2009 was sent out.
Dong has dropped out of all youth activities at the Mission; however he still comes on Sunday quite regularly. He is in the 9th grade and is in with the wrong crowd. We are praying that he will return. He was a hard worker for the church at one time.
Op is now in 7th grade and hasn’t gotten much taller, however his mother kicked out one husband and took on another and now Op has a baby sister.
Gook Kik is no longer with us – she hasn’t been around for a long time now. Many of these kids live in the middle of a strong spirit worship neighborhood and the parents let the kids come to get the “freebees” but if the children start to get serious the parents pull their kids out – “other things more important”.
Kim is one of the stories we though would be a success story, and maybe it will, in God’s time. Kim left the Christian Mission about a year ago because she could not decide if she was a boy or a girl, and moved in with her “friend”. About 6 months after leaving us, we got word that she had married a 30-40 year old man and we have not seen her. Several messages have not been answered and the most recent word was her husband would not let her come to visit us.
Naan and Ning were sisters that we thought might choose Christ, but chose their friends and the world. We see them around the village and they are polite, but not interested in church any longer. It looks as though Ning may haae changed her mind. She and PoPae
The next one has been a favorite of mine for over 6 years and I covet your prayers for her. Her name is Amporn and nicknamed Nam. Until a few months ago she was one of our hardest workers and best witnesses in the Mission. However, Satan got to her through her step-mother. Nam loves her step-mother and step-father very, very much; but she accepted Christ in 2010. Her mother would not let her be baptized. We learned that her mother had dedicated her to the local village spirits several years ago and would not release her. The conflict between her love for God and her love for her parents got to her and she has problems; and she was under medication from a doctor to help her out. Her mother refused to accept it, forced Amporn to go back home; took her off the medication and forced her to go through various spirit worship rituals; forced her to go to the Buddhist temple, bow to the monks and the idols in the building and, from what I hear, is being forced to wear an amulet to protect her from God. Our prayer is that her parents will see the light and see the harm they are doing to their daughter and release her to return to the church and school.
That brings us u to date from 2009, and now, I guess it is time to start introducing you to our current group so you can be in prayer for them. Those who have received my newsletters may know some of the kids, but I haven’t yet sat down and properly introduced them.
We start off with – as many of you already know – we have taken in 7 – soon to be 8 – “daughters”. Four are in a special English Program at a local city high school and in the 7th grade; two are in the same English Program and in the 10th grade; number 7 is a first year University student majoring in English and wants to become a teacher. Number 8 will be coming in at the end of this school year – the end of February. She will be going into 10th grade standard program. Of the 8 only two have accepted Christ and only one has been Baptized – again, parents refusal. These girls are all full time students, with a day beginning at 5:30 am and ending at about 10 pm. Included in that is 2-3 hours of study 7 days a week.
Our next blessing is Nun. She was here before 2009 and left. Praise God, she came back a little over a year ago; accepted Christ and has been baptized. When she came back, she was lost and ready to give up school. Now she is in an English Program at the city high school and is getting grades above 3.0 out of 4. Praise God. She is becoming a quiet leader, teacher, singer and member of our local band. Keep her in your prayers, please.
Next is OhAe. She accepted Christ and was baptized last year and is our second leader. You will see here leading worship service, singing solo, teaching English and anything else that needs to be done, she is there.
Last for this time is our team of Tom and Kip. Tom does all of the musical stuff we do here and most of the computer stuff too. Tm has been around almost since the beginning. He accepted Christ a long time ago, but has only recently really dedicated his life to Christ. He married Kip and brought her to the mission also. Their son PooPup has been here since he was born.
This will bring you up to date for now.
Much more good news – we had eight new elementary students join us this Saturday (February 12)
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