August 2026 Newsletter

Dear Brethren,

I hope this newsletter finds everyone well. I have had a rough couple of weeks. I fell and broke a bone in my right wrist. The bone is better, but I am still having problems with my wrist. I will have an MRI next Tuesday because my doctor thinks I have some ligament damage. They will determine then if I have to have surgery. I have two bones in my right hand that should be side by side… but there is a considerable gap between them. I said all that to say… typing is a little difficult at the moment.

This month Johnny Holman and Greg Pollock came to help with the work in Thailand. Johnny came a week before our Bible school. He wanted to see as much of our work as possible. So, we took him on a whirlwind tour of our work. He got here on a Friday. On Saturday, we went to Mae Hong Son. We had Bible class on Saturday evening. On Sunday morning, we worshiped in Mae Hong Son. Then we drove three and a half hours to Maekhaduan and worshiped there. After worship services, we gave scholarships to some of our students. Then we drove another hour and worshiped at Maelaw. Then we spent the night in Maesariang. On Monday, we drove to Maetan and showed him where we worship in Maetan, Maethawha, Thichawmae, and Maelati. On Tuesday, we drove back to Chiang Mai. On Wednesday, we drove to Phrao and visited with one of the members there who is sick. We also visited two schools we help there. Then we drove to Phayao and visited the students there. Then we returned to Chiang Mai. On Thursday, Greg arrived. Our school began on Friday. It was a seven-day Bible school on the time periods of the Old Testament. Johnny, Greg, and I were the teachers for the school.  It was fantastic. It is the best study on this subject that I have ever seen. We went through each of the time periods separately. I especially loved the study on the Kings.  As we studied each king, we mentioned which prophets prophesied during his reign.  Then we studied each of the prophets and gave an overview of each prophetic book.  We gave handouts on the judges, kings, and prophets. We gave an overview of what we had studied in each previous time period before we began a new time period. As we asked questions, I was thrilled because the students all could see the whole picture of the Old Testament.  Greg stayed for a week after the Bible school. We did many of the same things that we did with Johnny. Greg taught a Bible class in Mae Hong Son. We visited Phrao. On Sunday, Greg taught in Phayao. We worship on the university campus. It is a beautiful spot outdoors next to a small lake. It is interesting because across from the lake there is a huge idol on the top of the mountain.

Bible School.

Greg at Ban San Pong School, preaching at Phayao, teaching at Mae Hong Son, visiting Aaning.

Johnny at Ban San Pong School, Mae Hong Son, Phrao Burapha School, teaching outside because the electric went off, with students we help; Johnny, me, Passakorn, Chaichana, and Suchat at Maelaw.

Maekhaduan.

Government official requesting help from foundation.

We are nearly done with our building project. Our new VIP rooms are done. These are rooms for teachers who come from other countries to help teach in our schools and camps.  Our big dorm to hold 120-140 people is nearing completion. We will use this for our schools and camps. In the past, we have had to limit how many people could come to these things because we had limited space. We are really excited about this. We have people from Burma and Laos and NE Thailand that would like to come to our schools and camp, and now they will be able to come. We are very excited about this opportunity.

We are happy to announce… our electricity project here on the farm is now 100% done!! We finally have enough electricity… for the first time!!  It took twice the amount of money they told us it would, and five months longer than they told us it would. However, we are thankful to have it done.

There are some people who bought the property next to ours. They are building right up to the property line on our side. They also built up. During the rainy season, this will cause flooding and erosion on our property. We are going to have to build a fence to protect our property from flooding. Our new auditorium has been flooded twice already this rainy season from this.

Our next big event will be in October. We will have a week of Bible school and then a week of camp. We will have people from Thailand, Laos, Burma (Myanmar), Singapore, and America here for some or all of those two weeks. In our Bible school, we will be studying the book of Hebrews. The theme of our camp will be: Putting God First (Matthew 6:33). We will be talking about the priorities in our lives.

We are maintaining pure-water systems in 7 places. We have a village that has requested a pump to get water to their storage tanks. We will buy the pump sometime next week and take it up and give it to them the following week. In the future, we also want to provide that village with a purification system as well.

We are always looking for ways to make contacts. We have had great success in the mountains. But it has been a much harder task in Chiang Mai. We have decided to start a kindergarten here in Chiang Mai. This will give us a great opportunity to meet young families in our area. We plan to start small and then, in about two years, increase the number of young people we can help. We will use these first couple of years to get everything organized. If all goes like we think it will, we will build a place to accommodate more children. In Thailand, children go to kindergarten for three years. Kindergarten can be very expensive here. We plan to offer kindergarten at a very small price. The name of our kindergarten is “Plookrak Daycare”. It is nicer in Thai. It means “plant love”. This will help poor families in our village. The price we will charge will mainly cover the cost of feeding the children each day. We will turn our present library into the daycare for now.  We plan to start with 5 children. We have two ready to start already. We will remodel the library and build bathrooms with cute little children’s toilets. We have a covered area outside for them to eat lunch in already.  Ratchanok will be the person in charge of the kindergarten and our main teacher. She has a teaching degree with an emphasis on kindergarten. As we grow, this will also help some of our other students who are working to become teachers but do not have a Thai ID card. Our goal in doing this has several goals:

1. Meet and get contacts in our community
2. Offer kindergarten at a minimal cost for poor families
3. Give teaching opportunities to our students who have teaching degrees
4. Help young people grow up with knowledge and love of God

We are helping a large number of students again this year. We have a high number of students in university this year. Many of them are Christians and go to different universities all over the place. So, our Sundays are very full. I usually leave my house at 6:30 a.m. and return home between 8:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.  Usually, I teach and preach at three different places each Sunday with hours of driving in between. This Sunday, I will leave my house at 6:30 a.m. to go pick up the first group of college students. I will get back to the church building about 7:45 a.m.  Then we have Bible class at 8:00 a.m. and worship at 9:00 a.m.  After that, I will drive to Phrao, which takes an hour and a half.  We will worship there starting at around 11:30 a.m.   Then we will drive two and a half hours to Phayao and worship around 4:00 p.m., take the young people out to each supper, and then drive two and a half hours back to Chiang Mai. This week I will have to do all the driving with my left hand since my right wrist is injured. The other three preachers that work with me will have similar Sundays to mine to be able to cover everywhere.

Phrao Burapha School.

Brethren, I need your help. Since we exceeded the budget for getting the electricity problem on the property fixed, we do not have any extra funds. We have enough to finish the buildings, but we need help on three things.  If you can help with any or all of these, it would truly be a great blessing for us. First, we need to build a long fence to fix the flooding problem. This will take a lot of metal, which is very expensive. Our fence needs to be 100 meters long. It will cost about $10,000 USD. Second, while the building will be completed, we still need sleeping mats, pillows, and sheets for 120 people. This will cost around $7,000 USD. Third, we need to build three bathrooms, extend a roof, and repaint the library for our new kindergarten. The estimated price for this is $7,500 USD.  If you can help with any of these, please let us know. Your love, prayers, generosity, and help keep giving us opportunities to teach and serve here in Thailand.

May God continue to bless us all as we work together for Him,
Michael

Food for Bible School.