A Day Of Blessing

• Nan with her sister Noi.

•  Anointing of oil

• We witnessed a new birth after the service, of Nan, the daughter of our co- worker Prawit and his wife Suni.  Nan has been considering baptism for many years, and what a joy to see her decide to commit her life to Christ!

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•  Thai New Years traditionally includes a blessing.  We feel it is an important part of Thai culture and one that fits into the Christian life.  We had a blessing ceremony of tying strings around the wrist, only we tied the string in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Traditionally the older person offers the blessing to the younger one, but in a spirit of unity and love we were tying strings on each other offering a blessing in the name of Christ.  It was a wonderful time of fellowship and celebration of unity, forgiveness and blessings.

• Jerry is offering a prayer at our blessing ceremony.

•  After the sermon Sunday we gathered around Surin's leaning house to see what could be done.

 We decided we could fix it ourselves and with the man power of every man and woman, boy and girl, we were able to stabilize the house.

 While we held the leaning house upright,the young people found stones and blocks to prop up the house.

We need to do some roof repair, and a repair of one of the supporting posts, but we are happy that we were able to save the house!

The Sunday Jon Came ... April 10th 2011

• Jan is a Lahu man whom we have known for over 20 years. He was one of our students in the Bible College in which we used to teach many years ago. He and his wife and children are faithful servants of the Lord. Jan has a home for children who have not been able to be cared for. Some of the children are orphans, some have parents who are too poor or too sick to care for them.  There are 14 children in all.  The building where the children stay is falling down, leaking, and is not at all suitable to keep the children. Jan is busy trying to find money to build something more substantial for the children to live in.  We are teaching our congregation to be more about giving than receiving.  They raised over a hundred US Dollars to give to Jan and the children.  We invited Jon to preach and then presented him with the gift for building the housing for the children.

Jan's sermon was about the Christian life... more than going to church and reading the Bible, it is a life changed, an offering of your life to serve the Lord.  Jon's life reflects what he preaches.

BAD WEATHER

• We had two very windy storms this week, and the temporary housing for Surin has turned out to have been very temporary!  Surin is away on vacation. In Thailand, we are celebrating Thai New Years.  It is on the same level of celebration of Christmas in America. Everyone goes home and tries to be with family, businesses shut down.  We gathered up Surin's belongings and put them in our office.  Our temporary meeting room survived the storm better, but some saa paper was destroyed.  We are thankful it wasn't much and it can be replaced for little cost.  Mud, leaves, and debris are everywhere. Some folks from the near by village came over early this morning to help repair the mushroom shack (the first storm almost tipped it over, so they reinforced it, so when the second storm came in the night, it withstood the wind better, but still needed some repairs.) 
• The rains are early this year, and we had rain when it shouldn't normally have been raining. Its great for our gardens! 

• Jerry preached the sermon on Sunday, we had the largest attendance on Sunday than we have had in almost a year. That is encouraging to us, as we reach out to the communities surrounding our new venue for ministry.

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• Surin is posing with the garden produce that we are reaping. We gathered some on Sunday to allow attenders to buy what they need first. We have several marketing venues ready to take our produce. 

• Recently the Saa paper group were asked if they would like help to begin raising mushrooms. They asked us if they could construct a small "shed" to raise the mushrooms on the property.  We agreed, and the blossoming mushrooms arrived.  Yai is on the left, Oley, and Eet on the right. This is supposed to be an easy project to do on the side, while the group are busy making paper cards and bags.  We are glad to support them in this project, and may even buy a few mushrooms!!!!

• Oley posing with the group's mushroom project.
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• Sunday after church the youth plan their yearly retreat. They are planning an evangelistic outreach program.  Surin is our Youth Leader.

• Lunch for everyone after the church service.

Sunday morning, Surin (black shirt) is preaching the message. The young man in the striped shirt came for the first time.  He is a student attending a near by University and looking for a church home close to school.

• Graduation service for Lanna Theological Center in which Jerry teaches part-time.

• Praying for the graduates at Lanna Theological Center graduation service. Jerry is on the left end.

• We participated in the graduation service at Lanna Theological Center. Jerry is second in from the left.  Some of these students have helped us out at our Philokalia worship service.

• Gung is teaching the visiting team to wrap paper hearts with mulberry paper

• A group of ladies from the States visiting Lanna Theological Center, were interested in coming to help the Saa Paper group.  Tum is teaching them how to glue the flowers to the heart. 

Marching along in March...

• The folks from Empower International looking over our products

• We are excited about our new supporters for our Saa Paper project. Empower International visited our center from Australia.  They are interested in placing orders from us for their new store. They are very impressed by the quality of our products and were excited to place a large order from us before they left.    This was such an encouragement to our group. 
• Our handmade paper  products are still available in the States through Adele Spurgin  at spurgina@hotmail.com. 
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• The surveyor marked out the sites for the buildings. We are still in process of the necessary red tape that every step of the building process entails here in Thailand.  Prayers for patience and perseverance are appreciated!  Even though it is slow, progress is being made, and we look forward to construction in the very near future!
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• Our garden is doing great even though the weather has gotten very hot and it is very dry.  We put up little tents of straw and netting to help protect the plants that don't like too much sun.
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