Greetings to our friends, supporters and prayer partners, and once again my thanks for your support and encouragement in so many ways. There is much to thank and praise the Lord for, but I would like to ask you to specifically join me in thanking Him for two donors – one in the United States and one in New Zealand – who in the last few months have given very generously to enable projects and ministries to continue or be developed. I will outline the blessings that those gifts have funded in the sections below about India and Myanmar. As you praise the Lord for these two donors please also thank and praise Him for the many donors – individuals and churches – in both of the above mentioned countries who give regularly and generously to meet the needs of those who serve in many countries around the world.
Remember especially the hundreds, perhaps thousands of folk in the United States who put much time and effort into fund-raising through the Penny Crusade to ensure that ACGC’s World Outreach Department is able to continue to support Advent Christian ministries in 28 countries of the world. Thank Him too for all those who regularly pray, believing, for these world-wide ministries.
INDIA – YESUWAY JEEVAN MISSION Ministry Partners
The United States donor mentioned above designated his generous gift to be used to assist the ministries of Yesuway Jeevan Mission and it has been used as follows:
- To assist Emmanuel School and Children’s Home Institute in Chandel in Manipur State to complete an unfinished classroom block which was finished to floor level and columns but which could not be completed because of lack of funds.
- To contribute to the cost of having plans, specifications and material quantities drawn up by an engineer for the new buildings – classrooms and amenities – to be built on the recently purchased land for St Xavier’s School, which is part of the Advent Christian Conference of India’s outreach in Khagaria, Bihar State.
- To contribute to the cost of a new hostel building for the Shelter Trust in Chennai to meet government requirements that the boys be housed separately from the girls in their hostel for children and young people who suffer from HIV/AIDS.
- To purchase a motor cycle for Pastor Ahajkumar Pani, in the city of Jharsuguda in the State of Odisha to enable him to travel more quickly and easily around his circuit of 5 villages as well as his own city. (See picture below left)
- To assist Pastor Paul Gandham at Adda Road, Andhra Pradesh State and Pastor B. Balu Nayak of Balunayak Banjara Tribal Ministries in the Baluthanda area of the State of Andhra Pradesh to repay loans raised to pay for the construction of church/parsonage buildings recently completed and dedicated. Both of these ministries are outreach ministries of the Advent Christian Conference of India. (See picture of Baluthanda church below right)
- To pay for the drilling of a new bore-well for Pastor Kirubakaran at his New Life Home for 20 boys at Thuthikulam, near the Kolli Hills in Tamil Nadu State to replace the old one which had gone dry.
- To purchase and install a solar water heater for Pastor Paul Nilavan’s Christ Special High School for the Handicapped at Sangkarapuram in Tamil Nadu State.
- To meet various, smaller capital and maintenance needs at the Advent Christian Conference of India’s Guindy Orphans’ Hostel at Chennai, supervised by Mission Manager Immanuel.
“By the Grace of God, today we have conducted a feeding program in our mission fields in *Orissa, there are lots of poor believers came to this program and participated with this feeding fellowship
This feeding program has been done through the finance help of ACGC USA.
I sincerely extend my hearty thanks to the ACGC USA for your finances support for Orissa ministries.
With lot of thanks, Pr. Ahaj Kumar Pani”
(NB. *Orissa is the former name for the relatively recently renamed State of Odisha. Some residents are not yet used to the new name!)
Please continue to pray that the difficult situations in respect to the Mission’s bank account (which has been closed) and that the renewal of the FCRA (Foreign Currency Registration Act) approval for that account may be positively settled quickly. Please also continue to pray for the sale of the Guindy land – Immanuel is again seeing increased interest from prospective purchasers. The completion of a sale would nullify the effects of the bank account and FCRA situations.
MALAYSIA – Kluang Advent Christian Group’s ministry
Sister Ruth Devairakkam wrote recently…
“Thank you so much for upholding us in prayer and “standing in the gap” with us, for the people to whom we are sharing Jesus. Praises unto God. He is good and His mercy endures forever. Your prayers are touching the lives of our friends in Malaysia.
PRAISES TO GOD
1. A friend of ours who was contemplating suicide found hope in Jesus Christ. We had been talking to her and encouraging her with the Word of God. She made a decision to know Him and allowed God to deal with her deepest pain. She was able to know and experience God’s presence manifested in her life and situation. God is helping her to deal with the strongholds in her life.
2. God is healing the broken marriage of our friend’s son who was about to go for a divorce. The mother called up to tell us that her son is willing to let Jesus help him save their marriage. The son is a Christian. He is now more teachable.
3. A professional gentleman who attended our ACC Sunday school many years ago, called us up for prayer. He was under the attack of witchcraft power, unable to sleep well and focus on his job. We encouraged him with the Word of God. God’s presence was known and manifested in his life. He has fully recovered. He is going to work as usual and keeps in touch with us regularly, with gladness in his heart. He believes in God and sees Him as his hope.
PRAYER REQUEST
Pray for Christian parents facing problems with their teenage children.
– that they will make a new commitment to build a wall of intercession around their children.
– that they will restore the family “prayer altar” in their homes.
– that God will help them to guard their spiritual boundaries and set their spiritual priorities right.”
Please continue to pray for Ruth and Wilfred, Joanna and Jerusha and the members of their group and for their ministries.
MYANMAR – Hot weather and water shortage continues
The long, very hot summer continues in Myanmar as also appears to be the case in many other countries in Asia. News items from Myanmar quote meteorology and hydrology experts as saying that the powerful El Nino weather pattern affecting the country will be the strongest for 500 years and is bringing record high temperatures and drought to many parts of the country which are facing severe scarcity of water. Some regional governments are spending huge amounts of money bringing drinking water to hundreds of villages that they fear will run dry in coming months.
In my last update Pastor Kenneth advised that three villages in which his organisation has planted churches were in a desperate situation as far as water supply was concerned. He wrote: “Because of dry and warm extreme climate three villages of my Church have no water to drink. Please pray for this natural disaster in Myanmar, especially in our Mission fields.”
The same day as the Update appeared on our website, a generous donor here in New Zealand transferred to our bank account sufficient funds (NZ$1,000) to drill one bore-well and they were quickly transferred to Pastor Kenneth in Yangon. He wrote in response to advice that the funds were on the way…“Praise the Lord. The gift has been collected from WESTERN UNION on the past Friday. We do really praise God and do very much appreciate to the donor and to you. May the Lord be Glory through the Gift and His blessing be upon the donor.” Pastor Kenneth assured us that whilst the well would be drilled at the home of the pastor leading the village ministry or one of the members, they would be sharing the water with all the households in the village – in the Name of the Lord.
Just yesterday (Thursday 21 July) Pastor Timothy, who is the President of the Advent Christian Conference of Myanmar this year, wrote… “Yes, the people of Myanmar really need is enough water and clean water. Some places water is much oil, some places water is much salt, some place water is yellow much iron. Most places are no rain and very hot, no water sources and some hill area water is very dirty. Our Govt could not supply enough water and clean water because poorest Govt in the world. … Our new Govt also is trying to have good water supply now.
Our ACCM really needs your prayer and support for enough water and clean water. Thanks for all your help.”
Please thank the Lord for the donor mentioned above and his gift and pray for our brothers and sisters in Myanmar as they cope with yet another very difficult situation. About this time last year they were suffering from the effects of very severe storms and subsequent flooding – this year it is drought and water shortage
Bottled water is available but because of the shortage it is very expensive – 300 to 400 Myanmar kyats (NZ36 cents – 48 cents/ US26 cents -34 cents) per bottle. I have asked Brother Timothy for details of the prices of “small water purification machines” that he has mentioned are available.
If you would like to assist the folk in Myanmar with gifts of cash to enable them to buy drinking water, please send your gifts to our treasurer (on our website : www.acmissionz.org.nz/ become-a-support-partner/ or email: glenise@slingshot.co.nz) We can get the funds to Myanmar very quickly.
Three of the four organisations which constitute the Advent Christian Conference of Myanmar have residential Bible Colleges – all of them in or around Yangon. Pastor David has the Myanmar Bible College which has about 35 students; Pastor Kenneth has the Vernacular Bible School which has about 9 students and Pastor Joseph has The Word College which presently has 5 students. A large percentage of the students in all three colleges come from remote areas of the country where the ACCM member organisations are involved in outreach ministry and church planting in villages in those areas. Will you please remember these colleges regularly in prayer, praying for the faculty members and the students. Many past graduates of these colleges have returned to their home areas to plant churches and share the blessings of the Christian faith with their own people. Most of them go out in faith, trusting the Lord to provide their needs.
Pastor Joseph has recently sent a picture (at right) of the 5 students in his college and wrote….
“This year we have five Bible students. They are from remote area of unreached people groups. We cannot support many students, so some of students are out of our Bible school.
Please pray for them. They are eager to serve the Lord.”
Pastor David has a need for assistance with the teaching of English to their students. This would suit a person, or a couple or a small team who have qualifications in teaching English as a second language or who have experience in teaching.
Generally speaking, their first and second year students would be learning at high school level and third and fourth year students at college level, but it is possible that a few first and second year students would be learning English “from the beginning”. A visit of approximately two weeks would be ideal, teaching for about four hours in the mornings each weekday and Pastor David says that August and September would be the most suitable time for such a visit. Classes would be in the mornings leaving plenty of time for rest and sightseeing in and around Yangon. Because of government regulations, it is not possible to stay in the homes of private citizens so accommodation would be in a “simple hotel” but visitors could be involved in other activities of the College, as well as fellowship with David’s church organisation and outreach to other villages.
Travel, accommodation and meals would need to be self-funded by those visiting, but some meals could be shared with the students at the school. This would be an ideal way to assist and encourage the Advent Christian Conference’s ministry in Myanmar – if you feel that the Lord may be calling you to assist with this need, I have further details which I would be pleased to share with you – please contact me at: ernie.schache@acmissionz.org.nz
THAILAND – Christian Mission Naratchakwai
In my last update I advised that Ploy, the leader of the team of girls who do so much in respect to planning, preparation and leading the ministries at CMN has had a history of syncope – temporary loss of consciousness caused by a fall in blood pressure – fainting – and had at that time been hospitalised because of a turn and had in fact been hospitalised in the past because of this problem. Although she was prescribed a course of substantial medications for six months with a monthly check-up, she recently had another turn which resulted in her spending time in hospital again.
Please pray for wisdom for the doctors and technicians as they seek to diagnose the cause/s of these turns and pray for peace of heart for Ploy and her family.
I also asked for prayer for Ploy’s father who had also spent time in hospital with severe gout, and was unable to work at his trade of furniture making. This meant that Ploy had had to find ways of supporting her family financially. Thank you for praying. Ploy has advised that her father‘s health has improved greatly and he has been able to return to his trade, thus relieving Ploy of the stress of being financially responsible for her family.
Ploy and Parn have just begun their first year at Nakhon Phanom University, studying an English major course. As “Freshers” as they call themselves, they are very busy settling in and this of course is causing extra stress on them both, Ploy wrote earlier this month…
“Please pray for our church because we have a problem in this month. Parn and I are Freshers at the university. So we are very busy this month and can’t go to the church some week. Please pray for Lita, Job, Kaew and Guitar to take care of the church and Maeo. Please pray for Maeo and me about our health. I’m a Fresher and I have many activities to do at the university. The senior at the university are angry but they are friendly too. They help me when I had a fall down turn. Please pray for our organization.”
Please pray regularly for the whole team at CMN at this time – Maeo, Brother (Pastor) Boontaa, Ploy, Parn, Lita, Job, Kaew and Guitar.
I need to explain why I have referred to Brother Boontaa above as I have – “Brother (Pastor) Boontaa”. This brother planted and for many years “pastored” a church in the Laobada village in the Nakhon Phanom area under the auspices then of the New Tribes Mission. He now part of the CMN staff and preaches at CMN’s services and carries out many duties that we would expect a Pastor to carry out. He is a critically important member of the leadership team and the ministry at CMN. He is all that we westerners would want and expect a pastor to be. His knowledge of the Scriptures is such that he is presently assisting the New Tribes Mission’s translation team translate the Scriptures into the local Isan language, which is a group of Lao dialects currently written with the Thai alphabet which is spoken by about 20 million people in Thailand, a little under one third of the country’s population.
But Brother Boontaa is a very humble man and feels that he is not worthy to be called a “pastor” and has asked that he not be called by that title. His humility is in part because he feels that the Isan word for “pastor” carries with it more honour than he is comfortable with. He prefers to be called “Brother Boontaa”.
Please pray regularly for Brother Boontaa and his wife Phon and their severely handicapped daughter Bow.
The team at CMN continue to carry out their weekly ministries – Sunday morning services with Sunday School for the children during the second part of the service when the address is being presented to the older members of the congregation, then fellowship over lunch. After lunch the children have English lessons followed by a time of games and fun together before they are taken back to their homes.
Monthly, the team takes the SOUP OF LOVE to needy or unwell or shut-in people in their village or nearby villages, and gives food parcels to two needy, elderly folk or families in the village.
After the service on Sunday 10 July, Ploy wrote…
“Thank you God for sending us here, there are not a lot of people here but we’re so glad that we can worship God together again and thank you God for our health.”
“Senior’s food parcels this month. We went to give these to two widows.”
PHILIPPINES – Advent Christian Movement (ACM) Manila
Pastor Roy Rocha writes…
“PRAY for One Another” James 5:16
We know that the disciples’ request to Jesus was to teach them how to pray. Prayer is one of the most important values in Christian life. Every believer must be a man of prayer. The photo at right is so touching that Glenn (the one in yellow) prayed seriously for my son, Jojo in black shirt. It so touching because Glenn is not like most young people, he is not normal. He is short (at 21 years old), has a problem with his eyes (vision/crossed eye), he barely speaks for he has language difficulty. But, even in his situation, Glenn is actively involved in our ministries. He joins the praise and worship team and now he is learning to pray.
Please pray for Glenn as he grows deeper in his faith and service to the Lord. May the Lord bless him with special wisdom so he can learn more to read and write. Glenn only finished Grade 2 for he always bullied at school.
Please include also in your prayers our men in the church, that they will completely put their trust to Jesus and follow him faithfully. Men’s ministry is the most challenging ministry in our church today.
Thank you for all your prayers to us!”
May God bless you as you serve Him in Missions by your prayers and support.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.