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 His answers to your and our prayers – in regard to the AAM bank account in India and in regard to the CT scan on Ploy’s brain.
There are details about each situation later in the update. As you thank Him for these specific answers, please thank Him for all who regularly bring Advent Christian ministries in India, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines and here in New Zealand to God’s throne of grace in prayer.
INDIA – YESUWAY JEEVAN MISSION/AMERICAN ADVENT MISSION
As you will remember, the bank which the AAM has banked with since 1985 closed our account in February this year giving two reasons – the fact that the Foreign Currency Registration Act (FCRA) registration was not current and because they (the bank) could not or would not understand why the bank account name is “American Advent Mission” when the registered (registered as a foreign company) name of the organisation is “Women’s Home & Foreign Mission Society of the Advent Christian Denomination.”
The FCRA renewal, which had been applied for in mid-2015 was finally granted in mid-August for a further five years. Please thank the Lord for this answer to our and your prayers! Because Mission Manager Immanuel had thought to apply for the renewal using both names, the renewal certificate, which is issued by the Home Affairs Ministry of the Indian Government, showed the name of our organization as American Advent Mission, the legal title: The Womans Home and Foreign Mission Society of the Advent Christian Denomination.
Immanuel has this week made strong representation to our bank in Chennai that this renewal document from the Indian government clearly indicates that the two names represent the one organisation and that the account should be re-opened forthwith. The Chennai branch has referred the case to their head office in Mumbai for their decision. Will you please pray regularly that the decision will be made quickly and favourably, so that foreign funds can once more flow easily to India?
Please also continue to pray for the sale of the Guindy land – Immanuel is again seeing increased interest from prospective purchasers. The sale would bring the possibility of financial stability for the Advent Christian Conference of India and its ministries and allow YJM/AAM to greatly extend our ministries
FELLOWSHIP OF BLESSED HOPE CHURCH
On Sunday 27 July, Mission Manager Immanuel was asked to attend at the morning service at the Ramapuram FBHC church, which is led by Rev D. Solomon Rajan (at left in picture below), to enjoy fellowship with the congregation of about 60 people and to preach the address.
During the service he was pleased to hand over to one of the congregation, a young, physically handicapped lady named Daisy, (at right in picture at right) a new sewing machine which had been purchased with funds donated to Yesuway Jeevan Mission. As well as the machine, sufficient funds were also given to Daisy to enable an electric motor to be fitted to it.
The machine has enabled Daisy, who is a trained seamstress, to start a business of her own and she has already been in contact with Immanuel to thank him for the machine and to tell him that she is already getting orders for work from people in the area.
Daisy is from a Brahmin family – the Brahmin caste are the priests of the Hindu faith – and her Mother, Bhuvaneswari, was vehemently opposed to Christianity and when the church was being built (in 2000) she objected very strongly to the authorities that a church was being allowed in her area. Rev Solomon Rajan and his believers have continued to reach out to the members of the family and, in Immanuel’s words…
“At last her family one by one accepted Jesus. It was a big struggle for Solomon and the believers to bring them to Jesus from the clutches of Satan. Now all the members of the family are in the family of Jesus.”
Please thank the Lord that YJM was able to assist Daisy to start her own business, and thank Him for the working of the Holy Spirit to bring this family into the great, world-wide family of God through the faithful ministries of Rev Solomon Rajan and his congregation.
YESUWAY JEEVAN MISSION Ministry Partner – Balunayak Banjara Tribal Ministries
Rev. Balu Nayak, leader of the Balunayak Banjara Tribal Ministries in Mahabubabad in Andhra Pradesh State was very grateful to recently receive the second quarter’s distribution of funds from ACGC World Outreach’s BREAD of LIFE 2016 mission project which provides funds for the feeding of underprivileged and homeless folk. He sent these pictures with his message of appreciation…
MALAYSIA – Kluang Advent Christian Group’s ministry – Training for marriage and parenting courses
Sister Ruth Devairakkam recently wrote…
“My husband Wilfred and I were invited to a “Marriage and Parenting Courses Team Training” launch on July 28, 2016. Pastors and Leaders from various Churches were present. It was a good time of fellowship with them. [This] picture was taken at the launch of the Team Training.”
Please pray for Ruth and Wilfred as they train to present these courses to their community and pray for the members of their group as they seek to minister in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to their community in many other practical ways.
MYANMAR – August was not a happy month for many in Myanmar!
The long, very hot summer seasons which occur in many Asian countries are often overlapped by or closely followed by monsoon rains which bring torrential rains and flooding with all the accompanying distress and hardship.
Even as the powerful El Nino weather pattern affecting the country which was recorded as the strongest for 500 years was still bringing record high temperatures and drought to many northern parts of the country which were and still are facing severe scarcity of water, the rains in the southern part of the country were bringing misery and hardship to the people in the Sagaign, Irrawaddy and Yangon Divisions. Even in some northern areas, heavy rains brought flooding and landslides which destroyed homes, wiped out rice crops and destroyed roads, bridges and other infrastructure and of course caused a shortage of drinking water. (Pictures from the north below)
Early this month ACMissioNZ was able to send some relief funds to the Conference, and they sent Pastor David and a team of helpers to the Irrawaddy Delta area in the south to take much needed relief to some of those affected.
Pastor Timothy visited one of the poorest villages in the Yangon Division where he has some church members and sent pictures (below) of the flooding including one of the President of Myanmar, Ktin Kyaw, assisting with the relief efforts.
Pastor Kenneth wrote that one of the villages in which his organisation has planted a church – Okshitgone – which just a few weeks ago was desperate for drinking water was now flooded – with crops in paddy fields lost, and homes and belongings damaged, no work available to earn wages and still no drinking water. (Pictures below)
Then to add to the troubles of the people, on 24 August an earthquake of magnitude 6.8 on the Richter Scale struck in the Magway Division to the north and east of Yangon, in the very old city of Bagan, severely damaging or destroying 140 ancient temples/Buddhist pagodas in the city and surrounding areas. Only four persons lost their lives but hundreds of homes were also destroyed.
We have been very concerned about the supply of clean drinking water for the leaders of the Advent Christian Conference of Myanmar, who together care for 271 orphan or underprivileged children, mostly in their homes. Our enquiries indicate that there is an urgent need for bore-wells and water purifying systems for all four of the leaders. Where water is available, even from deep bore-wells, most of the time it is not suitable for drinking without treatment and purification. As I quoted Pastor Timothy in July…
“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.”
We would like to work toward ensuring that each of the four member organizations of the ACCM has a bore-well to supply water and a proper water purification system for that water at least for their respective “headquarters” locations, to ensure that their families and the children they care for are protected from water borne diseases. The cost of a bore-well is about NZ$1,000 (about US$750) and a suitable purifying system is available for NZ$2,100 (US$1,570). We have already had a very generous gift of NZ$1,000 for a bore-well, and an Advent Christian church in the United States has pledged to raise funds for a purifying system. If you would like to assist us to assist the folk in Myanmar with gifts to go towards providing these vital items, please send your gifts to our treasurer (on our website – www.acmissionz.org.nz/ become-a-support-partner/) or email glenise@slingshot.co.nz or contact me at ernie.schache@acmissionz.org.nz. We can get the funds to Myanmar very quickly.
THAILAND – Christian Mission Naratchakwai
In my last updates 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 having fainting turns caused by a fall in blood pressure – and has been hospitalised several times recently because of this problem. Although at the beginning of the year she was prescribed a course of substantial medications for six months with a monthly check-up, there has been no sign of improvement in her condition, in fact it has worsened. She recently had a turn whilst riding her motorcycle and was involved in a relatively minor accident. By God’s grace she was not seriously injured but of course is not allowed to ride the motorcycle any longer.
She is also now experiencing very severe headaches fairly often and these caused her to see another specialist doctor who sent her for a CT scan of her brain, looking for neoplasm (tumour/s). After some delays she finally had the scan on 27 August and the scan showed nothing abnormal or sinister in her brain. Please thank the Lord that this potentially very serious possibility has been ruled out. This of course still leaves the doctors looking for the cause of her fainting turns and the very serious headaches that she has been having in recent weeks.
Please continue to pray for great wisdom for the doctors and technicians as they try to diagnose just what the cause/s of her problems are and please pray for peace of heart for Ploy and her family, especially in regard to her being able to continue her university studies and her leadership of the team at Christian Mission Naratchakwai.
Ministry activities continue at Christian Mission, with the Sunday morning service and the fellowship meal afterwards and afternoon activities for the children, including English lessons, being the main focus. The Facebook posting after the service on 21 August said…
“We have 9 new children today from Ban Sukkasem. [“Ban” is the Thai word for “village”] Thanks God for sending them here. Today is very hot and we got many problems with our electricity equipment but all is solving by God. Thanks God for today. God bless you all.
19 August is Bow’s birthday. Happy Birthday to Bow.” (Centre of picture at right below)
The Facebook posting after the service on 28 August said…
“Thanks God for today, there are 54 people in our church today with 42 children. Thanks God for this exciting day.”
Please thank the Lord for these young lives who hear the message of God’s love and His plan of salvation in Jesus Christ each week and pray that the Holy Spirit will touch the hearts of many of them and draw them to faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Please continue to pray regularly for the whole team at CMN at this time – Maeo, Brother (Pastor) Boontaa, Ploy, Parn, Lita, Job, Kaew and Guitar. Fai and Eib who assisted Ploy for close to two years have moved to live in Bangkok to attend university there, so are no longer part of the leadership team, but are still in regular contact with Ploy and Maeo.
PROJECT BARNABAS
Planning and arrangements are well under way for a team of young people from the Takanini Community Church in Auckland to travel to Thailand late in December to fellowship with the leaders, members and the children and young people at Christian Mission Ban Naratchakwai.
Five young people, accompanied by two adults, will leave Auckland late on 27 December; will spend 12 days at Nakhon Phanom and will arrive back in Auckland on 12 January. We will be joined by one adult from the United States.
The main aim of the team is to encourage the leaders and members of the congregation at Christian Mission, and in
particular to encourage those learning English with their conversational English. We will visit one or two schools to encourage those learning English there too. We will also attend to some light maintenance and painting tasks around the mission compound and will be looking for opportunities to meet with and bless underprivileged children and young people in the area with fellowship and gifts.
Ploy and Parn, who will be on vacation from university for the time we are there will be our guides and translators.
As our main aim is to encourage, the team has been named Project Barnabas.
We would appreciate your regular prayers please for all members of the team as we finalise travel arrangements; raise funds for travel and accommodation costs and for ministry opportunities and for the cost of materials for the maintenance tasks; for safe travel and for wonderful fellowship with God’s family at Christian Mission Ban Naratchakwai
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.