ACMissioNZ SSE Asia Update – April 2014

Dear friends, supporters and prayer partners,

Thank you for your prayers for our brothers and sisters in South East Asia who serve the Lord under the Advent Christian banner. God is bringing fruit for their labours and men, women and young people are accepting Jesus Christ as Saviour and are being baptised.  This update will include some of the ways (there are too many to include in this update – please look at the website for details of them all) in which the Lord has brought blessing into the lives of those with whom Advent Christian workers have shared the Gospel of Life only in Jesus Christ. Your interest, your encouragement, your prayers and your support in many practical ways are a great encouragement to our workers and are much appreciated. May God bless you as you have blessed our folk in South East Asia with your prayers.
INDIA                                                                                                                                                                            

The outreach ministry of the Advent Christian Conference of India in BIHAR, led by Pastor Paul Sunder Raj, continues to do its part in the transition of the State from the ”Graveyard of Missions” to the “Vineyard of Mission”. Along with workers from many other evangelical Christian organisations spread over the entire State, our workers are seeing God’s power working in the lives of many. Here are some excerpts from recent reports from the team in Khagaria, the district of the State allocated to our denomination – the emphasis is mine…

“The person in the photograph is Bro. Raman, residing at Rampur village and Hindu in religious back- ground. He has three daughters. He works as a compounder in an interior village, where he started to build pukka (i.e. good quality) house. The reason is that in Bihar, Hindu culture, if there is no a boy child in a family there is no blessing in the family, whether he is rich or poor! Therefore the people were joking that “For whose son you are making your house”. One day he was worrying a lot and he came to know about Jesus Christ through Pr. Gabriel (branch church pastor – Bakri field). He and his wife believed that Jesus only can offer them a boy child. They prayed and wept earnestly and the Lord heard their humble prayer. They got a boy child and named him Daniel.

He (Raman) offered 3 katthas of land to build a church in the village (the worth of his own land is Rs. 850,000/- for 3 katthas) One kattha of land measures 1900 sq.ft. He had only 6 katthas land, now he offered his half of his land with no cost to build church.                                                                                                                                                  Kindly pray for his family to be blessed more in the village “

(In giving half of his land Brother Raman gave land to the value of approximately NZ$16,600 – a very  large amount for an Indian family! Ernie)

 “The person we see in the photograph (at right) is Bro. Vidthiyarthi. He is an astrologer. He was busy in his village, foretelling by evil spirits. The village Hindu people would get advice from him, for fixing auspicious days for their family’s marriage ceremony, funeral, house dedication etc.  Our Pr. Gabriel declared to him the word of salvation. He accepted Jesus Christ as personal savior and has taken baptism too. He is a witness in his village for our Lord’s kingdom. Please pray for him, that our God will do miraculous work through him.”[clear]

 Annual Convention 2014 Report 

Greetings to you in the loving name of Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. As the Bible says in Matt 9: 37 “The harvest truly is plenteous, but laborers are few.” Through this word we are doing our best in the Bihar ministry by God’s grace. Without His grace and your valuable prayer we can’t shine for Jesus. In each year and month we are seeing new blessings from God.

As we conduct every year our annual convention, in this year also it was held on March 7, 8 and 9 and we could see the presence of our living God on those days. We were really blessed by God.

In that meeting we called different God’s servants from different places – Pr. Saravanan (GEMS), Pr. James Jeba Oli (GEMS), Pr. Kasi Mani (Indian Bible Society) and Pr. Johnson Raju (Asian Indian Mission, Maryland, USA). They shared God’s word. In that meeting different sections were held – family meeting, youth meeting, children meeting, common meeting and skits. God blessed all the sections.

On the last day of the convention 23 people took baptism. It was given by head Missionary Pr. M. Paul Sundar Raj.” 

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On the 15^th and 16^th of March, new church buildings were dedicated by the ACCI President, Rev Moses Barnabas, at Bakri, where ministry started in 2007 (left) and in Bala Bazar where ministry started in 2003 (right).These church buildings were mainly funded by gifts and donations from Advent Christian churches and individuals in Chennai.

 Please thank and praise the Lord for these and other answers to our prayers, and pray that many more in Khagaria District will be touched by the Holy Spirit to commit their lives to Jesus Christ.

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PHILIPPINES

Pastor Roy Rocha and his family (pictured -standing left Jojo, right Peniel; seated left Roy, right his wife Llerma; front Keziah) lead the NEW LIFE IN CHRIST ministry in the Novaliches district of Quezon City in Metro Manila.

Although the ministry is an independent one, Pastor Roy, who graduated from Oro Bible College, says “I am an Advent Christian minister and living on Advent Christian principles.”

Pastor Roy sent the following report to ACMissioNZ’s February prayer meeting – we have been praying for his ministry for many years – the emphasis is mine…

“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.” 3 John 1:2

The verse above is also our prayer for all of you my dear friends in the ministry. The Lord continues to prosper us financially, physically, and spiritually. His grace and strength is always sufficient for all of us!

 I always thank God for your kind hearts that you continue praying for me, my family, and ministry.

The end of 2013 made us so busy in the ministry. December was holiday for most of the people but for me, it was lots of ministry work. We held Christmas worship services every night that started on the 16^th to the 24^th. We had baptized 3 adults and 7 young people; it was the second baptism for the year. I also had the opportunity to solemnize a wedding in the 28^th; it was both a great and blessed experience for it was my first time.

Our Christmas party was meaningful and blessed as each cell-group presented native songs and dance representing some ethnic groups of our country). We believed that every tongue and tribe of our country should give praise to the ‘new born king’ and know that JESUS CHRIST is LORD. It was fun and encouraging for it made our eyes open to reach the unreached tribal/ethnic groups of our country.  The youth made a fund raising activity for the purchase of new DLP projector, and the Lord blessed us with new Projector as the result of it.

As we welcomed 2014, we held a New Year’s Eve worship service. Our first Sunday was great for we had great attendance. Everybody felt 2014 would be a blessed year. Some of my members made an accounting of the membership of our ministry; we were so blessed that officially we are 110 – last year we were only 80. No wonder we need and are praying for more chairs. One leader proposed that we start fund raiser for church building, and everybody agreed, but for now, we are praying on how we can expand the church. To God be all the glory!

Prayer request:

Mission Trip to TACLOBAN on April 23-28, this time I will be taking my family to join my school alumni days program to be held in that place. International Graduate School of Leadership (IGSL) where I graduated from Master of Divinity program, is encouraging all the Alumni to muster to the place. The kids will minister to the kids, the women to the women, and the guys for the guys. I do believe it is a great opportunity for me and my family as they begun to learn to embrace and be compassionate to the depressed people. I am praying to raise 35,000 pesos for fare and lodging. May you consider this in your prayers, thank you!”

Please pray for Pastor Roy and his family, for those who serve with him in Novaliches and ask the Lord to bless the ministry by bringing more fruit for their labours.

MALAYSIA

Praise the Lord for answered prayer!
On March 4, Sister Ruth Devairakkam sent a report thanking the Lord for answered prayer and giving us new items for prayer. One of those items asked “We are experiencing a dry season in Malaysia.  Please pray that we will have rain soon.”
On 16 March – she sent another report, thanking us for praying. She said…

“Greetings in the Name of Jesus.
Thank you so much to you and your prayer team.
For the first time, after a long dry spell, we had rain today.  It is a great relief to us.”[clear]

 

Rejoice with our brothers and sisters in Malaysia and thank the Lord for His answers to our prayers – even about the weather! Please continue to pray for the members of this small group in Kluang as their one-on-one ministry touches many of their friends, neighbours and contacts.

THAILAND

John Middlewood recently reported – the emphasis is mine…

“Greetings from Thailand.

Sunday is over and we had 18 new children from a nearby village join us for Sunday service this morning. (Picture at right is welcoming the new kids) They are here as a direct result of the Christmas Child Program. Most of them are 4-6 graders. They have also indicated they will come to our Summer Camp on April 2-4.

Many of our regular children from our village were not here this weekend and will not be here next weekend because of fun and games in the village. We are thinking and praying about shaking the dust off our feet and moving out to other villages around us. The Christian Mission has been working [in Naratchakwai] with the school, health clinic (hospital), village headmen and others for the last 12 years, providing support for a variety of things, including English programs both in the school and here on the weekends. It is heart-breaking sometimes, but the truth seems to be when things are free and fun, they come but when there are other things to do, those come first. We have spent so much time with this one village, that we have kind of ignored the others.

Please pray as we begin visiting other villages such as: Ban Na Ratchakwai Noi – about 4 km from here; Ban Sang Hin – about 5-6 km from here – they had 18 kids here this morning. We will be targeting them with Senior food packets next month and Soup of Love this month.”

The “Summer Camp” that John refers to above is their Vacation Bible School programme. A recent gift from a Kiwi supporter will provide funds for food, materials and awards for children who attend VBS this year. John commented as follows…

“At this point, we are praying for 60 students – hopefully many of them will be like the students from Sang Hin and not have been here before, and from neighboring villages. Pray for this activity, it is a major outreach for the year.”

Please continue to pray for John and Maeo and their team at Christian Mission Naratchakwai– which continues to grow.

Pray for Dtee, Maeo’s brother, who is doing much of the driving to transport the children and young people; for Bee, Lita, Parn and Ploy who carry significant responsibility for planning and leading the recreational and spiritual activities for the children and young people on Saturdays and Sundays; for Pastor Boonta and Bee as they each preach at the morning service one Sunday a month; and for Pastor Boonta’s visitation in the villages. These folk’s willingness to accept these responsibilities relieves John of a great deal of pressure.

Please pray also that the Lord will lead a suitable Thai pastor and family to permanently join the team.

MYANMAR

 Pastor  Kenneth, leader of “Gospel for Myanmar” reported  recently as follows – the emphasis is mine…

“Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I hope that you are in a good health. I and my family are also in a good health as you pray for us. Our mission work also going well. Our organization “Gospel for Myanmar” decided to visit all our mission fields. As I am the president in my church I and our Mission Director (Pastor Mawia) will visit all our mission fields. Our church did not have any mission fund since our church is very young. Therefore, I sincerely would like to request you to pray for having enough mission funds.

This mission will start in February, 2014. I praise God for His wonderful blessings and increasing His mission field through our activities. This is also the answer of your prayer and the fruits of the seeds which you sow since 2005. As God has increasing His Kingdom in Myanmar, we really need to work hard and please pray for the increasing mission fields in Myanmar.”

(Gospel for Myanmar has a total of 10 mission fields/church plants in Yangon and throughout the country)

“I have two month course Bible School since October 2013 and this is the second time from February to March. I have 10 students and we are really excited. Every Saturday we have outreach, every Friday night, Sunday morning and Sunday night we can have worship service. On coming Sunday (16 March) we will have new concerts to accept as members in our new local Church in Ohshitgone village. And also we will have Salvation Camp during the water festival – in April. Please continue to pray for us as you did before.”

(The Water Festival Kenneth refers to is a secular festival –“Thingyan” – from 13 to 16 April. Their camps in previous years have resulted in conversions and baptisms.)

Pastor Kenneth also gave us details of two more of his church planters…

 “Coming Sunday I and three teachers and all the students will go for Gospel team to Pastor HlaThaung’s Church and there we will stay for two nights. Along with this letter, I send you Pastor Hla Thaung’s family picture and their house. (right,top)  Along with that I also send you Pastor Sein Thun’s family picture (right,bottom) and their house.

At the end of March, I and our Mission Director will visit to ten of our mission fields as I had been telling you in my first letter. We are your mission fields and we are your partners in the Lord’s mission field.”

 I and my family and all my co-workers really appreciate for your love and support. We will never stop praying for you and for all the donors who are with you. May the Lord continue to bless you all.”

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Please continue to pray for Pastor Kenneth and his family and his co-workers for the Lord as they serve the Lord in very basic and difficult conditions. Please also pray that the Lord will meet their practical needs.

Pastor David, President of the Advent Christian Conference of Myanmar recently reported as follows – the emphasis is mine…

“Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from Fellowship Bible Church.

We are happy to report you about our ministry. By the grace of God we all are fine and going well in ministry. Our Bible College students are doing outreach and they all are fine. Some of students are going very remote area of village and they call me by phone and some are going evangelism outreach in their village. Praise Lord. But they can not send their report pictures.

Most of the children are fine and finish their final exam and they are happy to have free time now.

(Pastor D and his wife and organisation care for a total of 120 orphans)

Here is some of our church planting work report with pictures. They are doing well and share the gospel to many villages and reach unreached people who not yet hear the Gospel. They are working and leading Bible study, prayer group and cell group and conducted home church service. (pictured right)

Thank you so much for your support with prayer and financial for our ministry.

Thanks and God bless you.

DHL”

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Many thanks once again for your prayers and your partnership with us in Advent Christian ministries in south-east Asia.  God bless you as you serve Him in this way.