Dear friends, supporters and prayer partners,
Greetings to you and thank you for your continued support and prayers for our brothers and sisters in South East Asia who serve under the Advent Christian banner. I arrived back in New Zealand late last month from my five week trip to the United States, where I first attended the Triennial Convention of the Advent Christian General Conference and then visited a number of Advent Christian churches in New England, North Carolina, Washington State and California.
As I presented a PowerPoint® presentation which gave details of the ministries in India, Myanmar Malaysia and Thailand I reminded those who listened that with one exception, there are now no foreign Advent Christian workers in these countries and the nationals in each country have the responsibility for leading and carrying on their own ministries. The one exception is of course Brother John Middlewood at Christian Mission Naratchakwai in Thailand, but John is not an employee of ACGC and has made Thailand his permanent home.
James says in James 4:2 “You do not have because you do not ask God” – I believe that it is our responsibility as partners with the national Christians in India, Thailand, Malaysia and Myanmar, and many other countries too of course, to “ask God” on their behalf – praying fervently that many of the millions of unreached in those countries can have the same peace of heart and mind concerning their eternal futures that we have about ours! That is one of the aims of this newsletter and the ACMissioNZ website (www.acmissionz.org.nz) – to give you information to help you pray more intelligently and more specifically and to know where to get ongoing assistance to do that. If there is ever any specific matter about which you would like further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at ernie.schache@acmissionz.org.nz; I will be pleased to give you as much information as possible.
I spoke to a total of 13 groups including at the weekly chapel service at AGGC’s office at Charlotte and I was blessed to again meet a number of “old” (not necessarily aged!) friends and to make many new friends. Without exception the fellowship and hospitality extended to me was wonderfully gracious and generous – to the extent that I have been somewhat afraid to stand on the scales following my return! I am so grateful to all those who listened to the information contained in the presentation and undertook to pray regularly for those who serve the LORD in Asia. Many of my hosts generously gave time and effort to allow me to visit places of interest and beauty – there were many wonderful highlights but spending a few very early hours on a foggy morning on a lobster fishing boat in the bays of the coast around Friendship, Maine with Greg Havener and Russell Carle, and being able to experience the beauty of Mt. Ranier and the surrounding mountains in Washington State with Clio and Kathleen Thomas and John and Jody Fenlason were among the most memorable. I was also able to make friends with Homer, the mascot of the Charlotte Knights baseball team – sadly the game was “rained out” early before I had been able to witness the complete game.
Rev. Tim Fox resigned from the position of Director of Outreach on 29 July, to become Senior Minister of the Oxford Advent Christian Church in Maine, and until a new appointment is made to the position, Executive Director Rev. Ron Thomas will be filling in as Director of Outreach, ably assisted by Outreach Department Administrative Assistant Mrs.Trena Efird.
Will you please pray for Rev Ron Thomas as he carries the extra responsibility and seeks to find the person of the Lord’s choice for the very important position of Director of Outreach. Please pray also for the three Area Directors – Asia Pacific Area Director Rev. Clio Thomas, Africa/Europe Area Director Rev. Russell Carle and Latin America Area Director John Gilbert; for Urban Ministry Consultants Lee and Caroline Welkley and for Trena. Please pray for the entire team (pictured on next page) at the ACGC office at Charlotte as they carry out their duties to “encourage, equip and empower Advent Christian churches worldwide to be obedient to the Lord Jesus Christ’s Great Commandment and Great Commission”.
MYANMAR
God continues to answer your prayers and to bless the ministries of the Advent Christian Conference of Myanmar. We have received gifts to enable a total of 28 sets of bunks and mosquito nets to be purchased for the orphans being cared for by the leaders and members of the Conference – thank you to those who have responded to this need. Please thank the Lord for this response and pray that we may be able to meet the total need.
Thank the Lord also for gifts given to allow the two pastors whose pig herds were decimated by the recent pig flu epidemic to re-stock their herds and thus continue to fund their ministries by this means.
Pastor T recently wrote: “Thank you so much for your gift for pigs and I bought a mother pig with 5 children two days ago. The cost was kyats 410,000 [approx US$560]. Now I have two female pigs and 5 piglets. For 2011-2012 my family has two 11 grade students and my local Church has 4 students in 11 grade, other local Churches have some 11 grade students. In our country 11 grade is the door of University. Please pray for students and Bible students. I hope these young students will become good leaders for our Church and for our country. God bless you richly.”
Pastor D recently reported:
“Before knowing about the Savior of Jesus Christ, they are influenced by worldly things or the flesh. They have no hope, security for future, no light, and no God. They had been enjoying living in the darkness. Fortunately, they had opportunity to know just only Christians. But, unfortunately, they don’t know the way to get to heaven and the salvation of Jesus Christ. As we always look the Lord in prayer, God opens the door to have salvation campaign for those who don’t know the Savior clearly. The result of conducting it, the Holy Spirit reveals them to convict in their hearts and minds to perceive the plan of God for future lives, and thirteen people accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior.
All of them said, ‘The joy in heart was cannot be expressed by words of mouth’, adding that we have hope and security for our lives and are ready to be with Him if we died now. They praise God for sending His begotten Son. After confessing by mouth, they are baptized in water.”
Praise the Lord for these thirteen new brothers and sisters!
THAILAND
Rejoice with John and Maeo Middlewood that one of the young ladies who are staying with them has recently accepted Jesus Christ as her Saviour and has asked to be baptised. Bee, who is studying at university, and Mon, the wife of their intern Bpaw, who spoke to John concerning her commitment early in July, will be baptised on September 4th. Please pray for these two young ladies and for the rest of the teenagers as John and Maeo speak to them about their standing with the Lord. John asks for prayer for two boys – Jok and Tao – who have accepted Christ but up till now their parents will not allow them to be baptized. Pray that God will open the parents’ eyes and hearts and allow their children to be baptized.
Please continue to pray for Amporn, one of the teenagers who were living with John and Maeo last year and until earlier this year when her mother forced her to go home and to recant her commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. Amporn is the girl whose mother had dedicated her to the evil spirits which she (the mother) worships and who had forbidden her to be baptised.
John writes “{Amporn} has started calling me every once in a while. She has been told that she will always be welcome back here any time she wants to come, but given the situation, it will have to be with her mother’s approval. So we are praying that God will open her mother’s eyes, if not for herself, then open them enough to free Amporn to make her own choices. I know Amporn is not totally at fault for her situation; I believe she has become victim of her mother and the evil spirits that surround that place over there. Mother is keeping her isolated from us.”
Let’s bring God’s power to bear on the situation by concerted prayer both for Amporn and for her mother.
Please continue to pray for the proposed Work/English Teaching/Ministry Team which we are planning to send to Thailand in late December this year and early January 2012. Several folk in the United States indicated interest in joining this Team and there are a number of folk here in New Zealand who are considering going. Arrangements for travel will need to be finalised very soon – please pray that the Lord will give clarity of thought to those considering joining the Team and please encourage anyone you know who you feel would be blessed by involvement to contact Garry or myself for more details.
Once again, my grateful thanks for your partnership in the Lord’s ministries in Asia.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.