April 2025 Newsletter

Dear Brethren,

March was a very eventful month. I will start with the earthquake in Myanmar that was felt throughout Thailand. It was 7.7 on the Richter scale. I went up to pick up one of the young people and bring them to a student orientation in Chiang Mai. We stopped for lunch and went into a restaurant to eat. The building started swaying back and forth. The workers yelled, “Everyone get outside!”. We did our best to walk outside. It wasn’t easy because the building was moving so much. I looked out the window and my car was moving back and forth. The ground shook for nearly a minute. I felt very dizzy. And then the calls started coming in. Family members of all the people who were with me started calling back and forth to see if everyone was okay. Bangkok was farther away from the epicenter than Chiang Mai, but had much worse damage and loss of life. On the property here in Chiang Mai, many of the buildings were damaged. I am attaching some of the pictures of the walls that have cracked. We also had some of our water purification systems in the mountains damaged. We will have to do repairs, but I do not know at this point how much it will all cost. I am thankful that none of our people were hurt. That is something to be grateful for. In the first picture of the earthquake pictures, the young man holding the umbrella is one of our young men that we have helped. Wantanai (Eff) Thipphrai. At worship on Sunday, I told him that I saw his picture in the news. He told me he did not even know his picture was taken. He has just finished university and is working at the hospital. He was on the third floor of the hospital, and in the picture he is helping to evacuate patients from the hospital. Think about the impact we are having through our work together. As brethren throughout the world heard about the earthquake, they began contacting me to see how we all were. The family of God is truly amazing. The love and concern that was shown is beautiful. I am moved by the number of people who have contacted me.

Speaking of God’s family. This month, the family of God here has grown. We had three young ladies baptized into Christ. Emon, Kalayai, and Siriporn. Each of these young ladies is a wonderful addition to the family of God. They are each around 19 years old. We have known and studied with each of these young ladies for several years. They have attended worship regularly even before they were Christians. Kalayai has lived in the dormitory here in Chiang Mai for the last three years. Kalayai and Emon graduated from High School this year and will be entering university to become teachers. Siriporn completed the nursing assistant program and is currently working at a nursing home here in Chiang Mai.

We spent a lot of time this month preparing for the youth camps that we will be having at the beginning of April. We are doing the youth camp differently this year. Instead of bringing the young people all together in one place as we have done in the past, we will be having a series of one-day camps in different villages. The reason for this is that we want to have more contact with the families and neighbors of these young people. It will be much harder on us as we will have to get up very early every morning and drive hours and hours on very poor roads. Many of the villages can only be reached with 4-wheel drive vehicles. We have bought school supplies to pass out in each of these villages. In one of the villages we will be going to, we will be using the medical clinic that they have. We also bought many medical supplies to give to them. One village, we are not sure if we will be able to go to. It is just across the river from Myanmar. Myanmar is in the middle of a terrible civil war. They are currently fighting about 5 miles from the village we want to go to. If the fighting worsens or gets closer to the Maewueytha, the village we want to have camp in, we will have to make different plans.

Preparing for camp.

We want to thank everyone who has a part in the work we are doing together here in Thailand. I am looking forward to seeing many of you in August and September as I make reports in America. My dad will be traveling with me. I am really looking forward to that!! We will be traveling through eight states in nine weeks and visiting nineteen congregations.

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