Dear Partners in Ministry

Another month has passed and we wonder where it has gone.  For us it has been a month of visitors and meetings.

Retreating and moving forward.

We were blessed by John and Janice Reid, who travelled from Australia for our team retreat and led us in Bible studies.  We were also able to spend time with the rest of the team in looking forward to the ministry challenges ahead of us. After the retreat we had opportunity to host newcomers Dema and Caroline and their kids and show them our area and some prospective ministry sites.

Oops!  It was just an idea.

It was an accident at first.  Muana had told one of the believers that since the believer lived in another village from where we were meeting for worship, maybe we could start a new house church in his house.  The next Sunday Lamoot calls up and says, “We are all here.  We have snacks and are set up.  We are just waiting for you to come and teach.”  Muana hurried over and on the way thought desperately about what he would teach.  In the end he decided to start a discussion on what people were looking for in their lives and to share how Jesus can help.

It has continued from there, and since the fifth week Inn and I have gone over to do the teaching twice while Muana was away.  We were covering for him.  Actually some of the other believers had taught the previous couple weeks, but they thought they would bring us in to help the pace of the teaching.  When we got there we saw only four believers from the other house church.  Where were the new people?  It had been a long drive for Inn to come over in the evening. Would it be worth it?  After about an hour of waiting one showed, then two, then three.  We started the service, and after a few minutes of Inn’s teaching the discussion turned to things that they sacrifice for.  We are leading up to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.  We are excited about the potential for growth and about new people hearing the gospel in ways that they understand.

We’re Grandparents!

That got you.  We skipped the parenting stage and went to the fun stuff. We had Muana and Villy’s two older girls, ages 9 and 7, with us while they took their baby, Libi, to Bangkok for surgery.  We had to juggle our schedules and are grateful that they came complete with their homeschooling tutor, Stan, who arrived just a few days before the big event.  We did some fun things.  Making mini pizzas and taking long bike rides were popular.

So it has been an interesting month, a month of new challenges.  Praise God, we can grow through these things and be both blessed and a blessing.  We pray that this is your experience too.

Thank you for your continued partnership.

Jan and Larry
 
 
Prayer and Praise
 
• Praise God for a meaningful retreat, and pray as we meet the challenges of the future.

• Staffing—Pray for more long- and short-term staff.
• Cultural wisdom—Pray that we will have discernment in using things from this culture to make the gospel more readily understood.
 
• Praise God for the new group in Ban Sra. Pray for both the believers as they share with their neighbors and for those learning about Christ for the first time.
 
• Praise God that Libi’s surgery was successful, and that those left behind had an almost tear-free time.
 
Upcoming Events
 
• March 24:  Larry has a meeting in Bangkok
• March 30-31: Team meeting in Chiang Mai
 

 If you would like to support this ministry you can do it through the IM web page at www.internationalministries.org/missionaries/76