Greetings to our friends, supporters and prayer partners, and welcome to this eighth update for 2019. Once again, my thanks for your support and encouragement in so many ways. Thank you especially for praying – God continues to answer your prayers in wonderful ways, and we see the Advent Christian ministries in Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, India and the Philippines continuing to touch lives for the Lord Jesus Christ.
INDIA | Yesuway Jeevan Mission
Thank you for praying for the water situation in Chennai and in particular that there would be sufficient for the YJM staff who live on the compound at Guindy. Even since the last update, the Lord has continued to bring answers to our prayers.
Immanuel tells us that the monsoon rains did not eventuate this season as they usually do – in a relatively short period of torrential rain, which, on the very dry ground often brings severe flooding and damage to infrastructure and property and even loss of life! Instead this year the rain has come in a number of longer periods of moderate rainfall which has enabled the water to soak in easier and raise the water table level throughout the city and there has been no flooding – the well on the Guindy compound now has about 4 metres depth of water in it and the deep bore-well is pumping plenty of very good quality water once again. The Chennai meteorological department has indicated that the amount of rain received over the past weeks has brought somewhat more than the amount normally received during the monsoon rains, so the outlook for the city for the coming summer – May to July 2020 – is very comfortable.
It would be easy to say that “Mother Nature” has brought about the change in climate and with it, sufficient water for the city, but we prayed, and God answered our prayers! Please praise and thank Him!
Yesuway Jeevan Mission ministry partner Pastor B. Balu Nayak, based in Mahabubabad in the Telengana State to the north of Tamil Nadu has been in the news again – literally! He was recently awarded a further national award from the Government of India for his social services in his State. He has received several other, similar awards during the past few years. He wrote, in part, to Mission Manager Immanuel as follows…
“Greetings to you all in the most precious Name of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ I hope that you all are well there at Chennai Tamil Nadu State.
By our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ’s grace and you and your A.C.G.C prayer and financial support, both our main and branch Advent Christian Churches are growing very well.
Ayya I would like Inform to you one good news. I was selected for Dr. B. R. AMBEDKAR NATIONAL FELLOWSHIP AWARD – 2019 regarding best social services. I will receive this National Award at a National conference in New Delhi on 8th December 2019.
Ayya, specially through you and your ACGC valuable regular financially support and guidances I have done more Social Charities work continually here in our area in Telangana State. That`s why I was selected for this above National Award. I am so thankful to you and your A.C.G.C. lifelong support. I appreciate you and your A.C.G.C. I am praying for you and so proud of you.
I hope you will bless me, pray and assist continually for my Social Service requirements here in Telangana State. Thank you very much for your regular financially support for social works here. Ayya I am sending few award newspapers covered pictures
All glory to Jesus
Pastor. B. Balu Nayak
Please pray for Brother Balu Nayak, and those who work with him, and thank the Lord for his very strong desire to show compassion to and care for the many underprivileged folk in his area, as he shares the message of life only in Jesus Christ with them.
Although based in the town of Mahabubabad, where they are slowly building, as funds allow, a fairly large church and accommodation building, some years ago Pastor Balu Nayak built a small church building in a nearby village of Baluthanda. Their building at Baluthanda (pictured below) is already too small for the congregation, and Pastor Balu Nayak is thanking the Lord for that problem, but he has recently written to Mission Manager Immanuel about another problem that they have.
He wrote…
“Greetings to you in Jesus Wonderful Name.
Ayya, our Advent Christian Baluthanda branch Church is not having drinking water.
Our Church is facing lot of problems without drinking water, since long time here in Baluthanda Village. Ayya, we need a bore well here in Baluthanda for Advent Christian Church.I hope you will keep in your prayers Ayya , we need nearly 75,000 seventy five thousand rupees for bore well digging , pump motor, pipes , electrical goods and etc…
I and our family and our Advent Christian Baluthanda branch Church praying for you, and your ACGC we so proud of you and loving you very much.
With Christian wonderful love and prayers,
Your beloved spiritual son in Christ,
Pastor B. Balu Nayak
Advent Christian Church
Baluthanda Village”
Please thank the Lord for the growing ministry in Baluthanda and pray that the Lord will provide for this need. About NZ$1,700 is needed to buy 75,000 rupees.
Please continue to pray for the sale of the Guindy land. Mission Manager Immanuel and our Advocate (lawyer) Brother Ravi Paul and senior leaders of the Advent Christian Conference of India (ACCI) are presently having discussions and negotiations with a party which seems to be a very keen, potential buyer.
Please pray that the Lord will continue to clear the pathway and that the sale will be completed as soon as possible. Pray that God will change the hearts and minds and attitudes of those in the ACCI who are opposing the sale process and will convince them that there are very significant, long-term benefits for their organisation if the sale proceeds, or that He will remove them from positions of power and influence.
Pray too please that the three “old” court cases, which were brought against the ACCI and were unsuccessful but need to be formally withdrawn from the court records and two newer, unheard ones, will be withdrawn by those who initiated them – the ACCI is currently negotiating for this to happen, but in true Indian fashion, the stakes are high as individuals see the opportunity to make some money for themselves.
THAILAND |Christian Mission Naratchakwai
On 25th November the Christian Mission Team took their Soup of Love to the elementary school in the village of Ban Kham Pok to show their Christian love and compassion and shared the soup with the children. Ban Kham Pok is Ploy’s and Parn’s home village and it was at the school in the late 1990s that the late John Middlewood met the two then 12-year-old girls and invited them to live at the Mission and study English in Nakhon Phanom. Some of our Work/Ministry Teams to Christian Mission Naratchakwai have visited the school to encourage the children with conversational English.
On 5th November Maeo and Pastor Boontaa, with Dtee driving, travelled to the monthly meeting of the leaders of the churches which are members of the Christ for All People Church Association, which was held at the Dong Noi church in the Srisongkram District of Nakhon Phanom Province.
The CFAPCA now has seven churches, all of which are growing and bringing new members into the great, worldwide family of God.
Please pray for the ministries of these churches – Christian Mission Naratchakwai in Nakhon Phanom Province; Kusumarn Church in Sakhon Nakhon Province; Kudsakoi Church in Sakhon Nakhon; Na Lao in Sakhon Nakhon; Hnong Khon Kaen in Mookdahan; Num Meed in Naan; Dong Noi in Naan – and for their Pastors, leaders and members, praying that God will use their ministries to bring many more into His family.
Christian Mission gave its monthly food parcels to two needy folks in the Dong Noi church.
Please continue to pray for the team at Christian Mission – Maeo and Brother Boontaa and for the seven girls/young ladies – Ploy, Parn, Lita, Kaopun, Job, Guitar, and GungGing – who make up the Leadership Team and for Ploy who leads the team.
Thank the Lord for the time and effort they put into planning, implementing and supervising every aspect of the ministry, including the English lessons.
Ask the Lord to help the girls balance their service for Him with their studies at High School and University.
Please thank the Lord for His answers to our prayers that He would lead a person or a couple to hear His call to serve Him as missionaries at Christian Mission.
ACGC’s International Outreach Advisory group recently met with and interviewed an American couple – Russell and Pohn Yoon (pictured with Maeo) and their daughter Anda. Pohn grew up near the Christian Mission in Naratchakwai, Thailand (CMN) and had Maeo as her elementary school teacher. Pohn’s sister was one of the students in the mission – a leader during her time there and now a teacher in Bangkok.
The Yoons plan to retire to the village of Naratchakwai, near CMN. Russell and Pohn want to serve with Maeo and the Mission as Advent Christian missionaries. Russell has completed the Perspectives course, and International Missions Director Rev. Jeff Walsh continues to work with him as he prepares for the move to Thailand later in 2020.
Please be in prayer for the Yoon family as they get ready for mission work and also for CMN
Russell and Pohn recently visited Naratchakwai and joined the Christian Mission congregation for the Sunday services on 26 November and 1 December. Parn wrote of the 26 November service…
“Thank you God for today. Thank you for Russell who comes to visit us, teaches English to the children and teaches us to play ukulele.”
On 1 December the children got a special treat – Russell and Pohn treated them to pizza for lunch! The children were so excited. Pizza is very expensive for Thais and many had never eaten it before. Ploy’s entry on their Facebook page was…
“Thank you, God for this special day. Thank you, God for Pizza.”
In all things… give thanks! 😊
MALAYSIA | Kluang Advent Christian Group
Please continue to pray for Sister Ruth, Brother Wilfred and their small group of faithful, Advent Christian believers who gather weekly on Sundays for worship in Ruth and Wilfred’s home in Kluang and in members’ homes for Bible study and communion during the week. Christian ministry is not easy or without danger in Malaysia, but Ruth and Wilfred faithfully continue their one-on-one ministries of friendship, practical assistance and counsel to friends, neighbours and other contacts.
MYANMAR | Advent Christian Conference of Myanmar
In mid-October, the shelter that Pastor Timothy and his congregation use for their gatherings and worship collapsed – fortunately, no one was injured by the sudden collapse.
He asked us to pray that the Lord would provide the funds to replace the structure with a more permanent one – constructed from steel framing and corrugated iron rather than bamboo and palm tree leaves.
He estimated the cost to rebuild a new floor and a new roof at 2,781,800 Myanmar kyats (NZ$2,885).
He hoped to rebuild in December. He gratefully advised recently that “God provided some materials for the house and we are praying to start December first week.” Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide what is necessary to enable the project to be completed.
He asks us to also pray for two of the orphaned children he cares for who are hoping to finish and graduate from their three-year course – B Th – in February. He did not name the young people, but the Lord knows them!
Two others of his children are studying sewing courses and he asks us to pray for them in their final tests and exams too. Christine (pictured below left) is doing her final level – Level 4, and Ngun Tha Pen, (below right) who is from the Advent Christian Church of Myanmar church in the Chin State, is studying Level 3.
Please thank the Lord for the happy smiles on these girls’ faces and on those in the pictures below of more of Timothy’s orphan and underprivileged children that he cares for, and thank the Lord for the calling that all four leaders of the Advent Christian Conference of Myanmar have as they care for a total of more than 300 children who are orphans or underprivileged.
Earlier this year, Pastor David Hung Ling, leader of the Fellowship Bible Church of Myanmar told of the Lord’s provision last year for his organization (which cares for 98 orphan/disadvantaged children) of some new land on which they wish to bring most of their activities, presently situated at several sites around the city, together.
He has plans to build dormitories, classrooms and staff housing for their Bible College, housing for the orphans he cares for and associated kitchen, dining and ablution facilities at considerable cost – in excess of US$70,000, and was planning to develop the facilities on a progressive basis as funds become available. However, he now has written to say that the owner of the property which they presently rent for the Bible College and where about 45 children live with his family, has advised that the property will not be available for them from early in the new year.
He asks us to pray for this now urgent need. He wrote, in part…
“God provided very beautiful land – 5 acres – for our ministry last year.
We want to move in new year of 2020
We rented 3 houses for training school and 1 house for children home.
Please remember in your prayer for the following list.
It is urgent need for our ministry. We believe that God is able and
can do everything for our ministry.”
Will you please bring this now urgent need to our Heavenly Father regularly?
Once again, my sincere thanks for your partnership in the Lord’s ministries in South East Asia. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement to and financial support for our brothers and sisters in the LORD during this year that is about to end. As you celebrate Christmas will you please take a moment to pray for the leaders and members of the Advent Christian ministries we support in India, Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia and the Philippines – pray that as they have extra and perhaps special opportunities during the Christmas season to present the message of God’s love for their people and the plan of salvation which began with the birth of Jesus Christ, that they will know the leading, guiding and blessing of the Holy Spirit on their ministries.
My prayer is that you will enjoy a very special time of blessing as you celebrate the First Advent of our Saviour Jesus Christ with family and friends and that you will know the wonderful peace and power that comes with the presence of God as we wait through the New Year for Christ’s Second Coming.
