Dear friends, 

 

We are so thankful for you and your support and prayers, and believing in the power of your petitions, we are asking you to pray for two special concerns during this season of Thanksgiving. 

The school that our children attend is called the Family Learning Center.  It was started by a missionary family as a Christian home school involving about ten kids from three families.  Today it has grown to include about 75 children from both Thai families as well as expatriate.  It's a wonderful little school. My wife, Tan, works in the library there and generally the kids are learning well and loving their experience there.  But we have come to the point that the FLC needs to become legal or the Thai authorities won't allow us to operate. To do so, we need to have certified teachers, an approved curriculum, and a facility that meets the normal standards for a school.  

 

We don't meet any of the criteria.  A facility that meets standards can only be built and that would cost us $300,000 minimum-and probably closer to 1 million dollars.  We don't have any money to pay teachers so we are dependent on volunteers from United States.  And, although we are working on it, we are short people to help develop our curriculum to become approved by the Thai education authorities. So please pray for the Family Learning Center and it's future.   

Also, please pray for the children that attend and the teachers that are working at the FLC. One of our American Baptist missionary families, Chuck and Ruth Fox, are very involved in the school. They are on home assignment in the U. S. now, and we are praying they can help us to raise some support for the building project and find willing qualified teachers who can give of their time for a year or so.  

 

The ministry that I am involved in is a local foundation that works to enable local tribal leaders and communities to develop their own ministries that respond to the poor and needy and un-reached around them.  We are just completing our first four years of existence and are in the process of determining how God would have us proceed into the next four years.  God has blessed us greatly and our twenty-staff team is eagerly trying to work out our plans and raise the funds to continue.  Please pray for the Mekong Minority Foundation and that God will guide us to serve his people in the Mekong sub-region where we work.

Two requests, but it pretty much encompasses the little world that the Coats family is involved in right now.  

Thanks again for your prayers and for your enquiries into our needs.


May God Bless you richly,