May 2023 Newsletter

Dear Brethren,

April was a fantastic month. Exhausting… but fantastic. God truly blessed us throughout the month. It was a month of fellowship, blessings, growth, and fun. Our youth camp was amazing. We had over 180 young people who attended the camp. The only negative… was the extreme heat. It was over 100 degrees F every day.  One day it was 112 degrees.

Most of our congregation here in Chiang Mai left for camp early Friday morning. I stayed in Chiang Mai to get people from the airport and welcome the people from the NE of Thailand and those who came from Bangkok. We had brethren fly in from Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and the US. We all worshiped in Chiang Mai on Sunday morning and then drove four hours to the camp and had an evening serves there. The camp started on Monday evening. On Monday morning, we took five vehicles and picked up 52 young people. The others were already at the camp. We had people picking up young people on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday as well. We had two classes and two learning activities in the mornings. Then after lunch we had two young men give lessons. Most of the young people played sports in the afternoon. But there were 32 young people who requested extra Bible teaching. So, we divided them in half and I taught two one-hour classes in the afternoon. Three young people out of those classes were baptized. Two were baptized during camp and the third one on the Sunday after camp. We are thankful for these precious souls who are now sisters in Christ. There are several others, who are very close to being baptized. On Wednesday of camp, Chanada and Tanwalai were baptized. On Sunday after camp, Chamaiporn was baptized. Every one of the young people who attended said that it was wonderful and they want to come back next year. I was really pleased with our young people from Chiang Mai. Four of the young men gave lessons, five of them lead singing, lead prayers, and helped organize activities. They also did room checks and made sure everyone made it to the right place at the right time. The young ladies from Chiang Mai were also amazing. They helped the cooks, took care of what ever need to be done, helped check the girl’s rooms and made sure all the girls were in the right place at the right time. One of the young ladies who wants to be a nurse took care of the nursing duties. She cleaned scrapped knees and bandaged a cut finger.  She also revived a girl who fainted because of the heat and went with us to take her to the hospital. All of our young people were an example in dress, behavior and leadership. I love all of these young people so much.

We took four days getting all the young people to the camp… we had to take them all back in one day. The young lady who fainted, fainted on the last night. We got her back to the camp from the hospital after midnight. I had to pick up the cooks to prepare breakfast at 4 a.m. So, I only got three hours of sleep that night. The next day I drove 15 hours taking people home. I stayed in the mountains with the four Americans that came. On Sunday we drove to Maelati to worship with the brethren there. Perry preached, I translated into Thai, and Chaichana translated from Thai to Karen. Three people were baptized… Chamaiporn who I already mentioned and then a husband and wife who we have been studying with. The husband’s name is Nawjaw and the wife’s name is Yacuri. They have two small children. Then we drove back to Maesariang and had lunch with about 20 of the kids who had been at camp. Then we drove about 2 ½ hours to Nadoi and had a worship service there. Once again… Perry taught, I translated into Thai and Chaichana translated into Karen. We then drove the Americans back to Maesariang to spend the night… but my day was not over yet. One of our students, Ratchanok, informed us that her grandmother passed away. Her grandmother was over 100. So, I drove and hour and picked up Chaichana and we drove another two hours and spent the night at Maetawa.  It started storming before we got there. When we got there the whole village was dark… the electricity had gone out. We got drenched getting into the room we stayed in. Early Monday morning we traveled to Mae Ooie Tha to visit the family.  It took us 2 hours to cover the 32-kilometer distance. The road is dirt and was very muddy from the rain from the night before. The family was very grateful for our visit. They gave us many bottles of wild honey that they had collected to thank us for coming. One of them broke on the way out because of the terrible road. The back of my truck was covered in honey. I then drove Chaichana home and then went and picked up the Americans in Maesariang and then we drove back to Chiang Mai. Two of the Americans had to fly out on Tuesday. On Wednesday we had to make a 7-hour trip back into the mountains. Two of our young ladies do not have id cards. So, they have to have government permission each year to study in Chiang Mai. Thursday, we went back to Chiang Mai and Friday Perry and Jordan flew out. Now we are back to our normal level of business.

I also am attaching a picture of the young people who will be staying at the dormitory this year. Three of the young ladies in the picture are not staying at the dorm. One is a student we help who lives in Chiang Mai. Two are studying to be Nurses’ assistance… so they only stay with us on the weekends.

I want to thank all of you who helped us have such a wonderful youth camp. Your love, prayers, encouragement, and help means more to all of us here than words can express.

God bless,

—Michael