March 2024 Newsletter
Happy March! Happy (late) Saint Patrick’s Day! And most importantly, happy Easter!
This time of the year can often feel slow, and here in the North of Thailand, we not only get nasty smoke in the air from farmers burning all month, but also crazy hot temperatures during the day. So, it’s easy to start feeling cabin fever and a little depression from not being able to go outside as much, but at the same time, we have so much to be grateful for, especially since we are only a few weeks from meeting Baby Theo! In fact, we have officially set the date of the C-Section to be April 10th, so you can definitely be praying for us on that front, and be looking forward to pictures and videos.
Other than that great news, here are some other things going on this month, and ways you can pray with us.
Sermon with Ball
Over the last few years, I’ve had the privilege to translate several times for our Thai preachers at Baan Athitaan Church, since we are a bilingual church. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve also been co-teaching the Thai university Sunday School class with Ball, and it’s been a blast. I’m so grateful for him, his heart for the Bible and ministry, and our friendship for the past 8 years.
St. Patrick’s Day Coffee House
We had another “Coffee House” this month at Grace Language School, and this year was St. Patrick’s Day theme.
I shared the story of St. Patrick, which I’ll post a link to below in video form (not the one I showed, but I know that not everyone is aware of the full story.)
Celebrations!
This month, we not only got to attend the birthday parties of 2 of Mary Ella’s kid friends, but I also flew down to Bangkok from Chiang Rai in order to attend the wedding of a friend of mine from our old workplace. The last weddings we went to were back in July, so it was a great privilege to get to go to another one here in Thailand, and it was an awesome ceremony. (My friend walked in to the Spiderman theme song, and I went out with him and his new bride, along with some of her Chinese friends, the following day.)
Disney on Ice
The week following the wedding, I flew down to Bangkok AGAIN, but this time with Mary Ella, in order to take her to a showing of Disney on Ice. Mary Ella got to visit with one of her lifelong friends, and it was some great bonding time for us too.
The Crux
This month, we also had the chance to speak at a small church in Minnesota over zoom. We spent some informal Q&A time with them and shared about our context here in Thailand, how we have seen God moving over the last year, and how we are feeling he might be leading going into the future.
One of the things I shared about, during that conversation, was just how great the opportunity here in Thailand is right now for sharing the gospel, not just with Thai people, but with people from all over Asia. Just this month, I have had several great conversations with both students as well as people I have met in the community (usually at coffee shops). To be honest, sometimes it feels like we are more welcomed here by the Thai people, and that they are more open-minded, than some groups in the U.S., which makes me optimistic about the future of this country.
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Easter in Thailand
This Easter, Mary Ella and the other kids sang a special song during our weekly worship service at BAC, and we celebrated the baptism of a new sister from the Isan region.
An Update from Chiang Mai
Sometimes, I like to highlight good news from other faithful ministries here in Thailand, and today I want to “repost” some great news I saw from a brother serving in Chiang Mai. He wrote, “Our church here in Chiang Mai recently celebrated the baptisms of 7 adults who’ve come to faith, namely 5 Thai and 2 Chinese. People ARE coming to Christ in Thailand. Praise be to God!”
Guitar
I have been learning guitar for the last few months, and am starting to finally get somewhat of a hang on it. The first full song I’m learning is the worship song called, “King of Kings” (only transposed in the key of G of course 😅) . Pray for me as I continue to learn; my goal is to be able to lead worship in English and Thai by the end of 2024. Once I get somewhat proficient at guitar, I want to learn piano too.
Prayer Requests:
Liz has been doing much better this month, as far as breathing is concerned. However, the smoke here is still bad and we are STILL dealing with the effects of it on our health. Now it’s me that is starting to cough like a smoker.
I have asked for prayer for some friends and partners that were pregnant, but their baby had a very rare disease and they were pretty certain she would not make it long outside the womb. They were able to meet their baby this month and hold her for a very short time before she went to be with Jesus. Pray for these friends, especially their other 2 kids, as they process through all of this.
I know I mentioned this at the top of the newsletter, but I want to ask again for you to pray for all of us as we welcome our new boy into the world. Mary Ella will no doubt have to spend time adjusting– despite how extraordinarily excited she is right now. So pray for not only physical health and rest for all of us in the early days, but also for wisdom as we help Mary Ella through that transition.
THANKS FOR BEING PART OF THE TEAM!
By God's grace, we have witnessed many lives transformed, and some family legacies changed forever. But the story is not over yet, and we are anticipating and believing for even greater things moving forward. Consider becoming a financial supporter so you can play a significant role in sharing the gospel, creating Christian resources, and raising up young leaders in Asia.
