Newsletter

A lot has happened since my last newsletter, but I’m still in Thailand with an un-reached group of people, called the Shan (refugees from Burma/Myanmar). The most exiting thing that has happened is that 7 people were saved in 7 days and several more were healed. Since I arrived in November last year, 12 people have been saved. It seems like a harvest time is here now. In the 3-4 years time we have had the ministry her, we have not seen this kind of results before in such a short time.

We have established a cell group in one of the Shan villages on a rice field called Mea Mau, and this is where a lot has happened. We started a cell group in one of the new Christian’s homes in November, right after they had burned their spirit house and all of their idols. Then, God really blessed this family, and I think this event has a lot to do with the harvest of the Shan people we see now at this place. Almost daily I have gone up to a high location from where I can see the area, and then pray the Lord’s Prayer over it. I pray especially that His kingdom come and His will be done in this place. Many teams have done it before me, too. I also pray that the people will have a revelation about God in their dreams. It’s exiting to see God answer our prayers.
Two people were saved by a dream that God gave them in Mea Mau in the last month. One of them had a dream in which God told him to stop drinking and doing bad things. The day after the dream, he came to the cell group and received salvation. We also prayed for his bad back, and it was healed! God healed him and saved him at the same time.
We have shown the Jesus film for people in the rice field of Mea Mau by using a car battery for electric power. One day when we were showing the film, the battery died after only showing half of the movie. It seems that whenever we try to show the Jesus film, something goes wrong. However, after seeing the film that night, one person went home and received a dream from God. In the dream, the whole world is in darkness and sin, and needs a savior. A few days later, he came to the cell group and wanted to become a Christian.

We have also tried to start up another cell group in Ching’s house, our local Shan worker, but it has been more difficult. We have tried several times to ask two new Christian families to come to the cell group, but conflicts arose. They were sick or had something else to do. They are from a rice field where we have shown the Jesus film and where we have been visiting for at least two years now, but we have seen little results. It seems that something must be broken over this place. I know that fear keeps many of them in bondage, so that must be part of the problem. Even though things seem difficult, we finally got them to go to Ching’s house and the cell group, and other people from the village came too. This was a small victory. But, now we have another problem. A DTS team from Norway was here for a month and they had a car so they could pick up the people. Now they have left, so we don’t have a car anymore. We can, and we do visit the people one by one, but it takes so much longer. Also, Ching works a lot, which is a disadvantage.

As I have shared before, I’m here alone as a foreigner, and now without a translator, which can be frustrating. One of the biggest causes of my frustration is not being able to fulfill my goal of teaching the new Christians, the cell group and Ching in the Bible and Christian living. I’ve started to pick up some of the language, but not enough to teach. However, we have the Bible and I can use it to show them a little, at least by finding scriptures. Yesterday they had some questions about eating pork and other things that the Bible forbids. I showed them scriptures from the old and new testaments, explaining with just a few words, how it is different between the old and new testaments.

My sickness is a big hindrance. It’s definitely not a blessing for me to be sick, it makes things more difficult and misunderstandings arise because of it. For a while, I was almost unable to do anything. I stayed in my bed and tried to focus on breathing, because the asthma problem was awful, and I was unable to take asthma medicine because it just made it worse. Then I started with a fungus medicine again, and I am grateful to God that it has helped me some. I am able to do some things now, but I still struggle a lot. Food complicates the situation because I react badly to all kinds of food. Another problem I deal with is trying to figure out how much medicine I should take, because it makes me sick, too. I am trusting in God for a way out of my illness, but I need lots of patience and wisdom. I pray for a breakthrough and I believe it will come soon, because God has called me to be in this place.

One thing that I have been sure of since I arrived is that God has called me to be here and work among the Shan people for a long time. God has given me a heart for these people; there is no other place I would rather be right now.