August 2023 Newsletter

Dear Brethren,

I hope and pray that all of you are doing well. I am looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible while I am in America. It will not be long now. I will be leaving Thailand in just over three weeks. It seems like there is so much to do and only a very short time to get it all done.

It is the monsoon season here. The word monsoon means wind. What actually happens is the wind picks up water from the South China Sea and dumps it on SE Asia. We are having very heavy rains. I saw on the news this morning that they were expecting 47 provinces here in Thailand to flood today. We are in the mountains. We were planning to go to 4 villages. However, between the first and second village it started raining very hard. We saw several landslides, a lot of trees down, and very high water in the rivers. In many places there was fast running water covering the road. There was also many rocks and deep mud that had been washed out onto the road. We were not able to go to the last two villages because of flooding. Lord willing, we will go to a few more villages tomorrow.

The best thing that happened this month is that Bhaphin was baptized into Christ. She is the mother of one of our students. The student’s name is Ponfah. We are thrilled to have another sister in Christ. The program we have helping young people go to school has opened so many doors. We hope that in the future Ponfah will also become a Christian. We also had a call from another student saying that she has an uncle who is going to start coming to worship and wants to study the Bible with us.

We usually have two weekends a month where we have extra Bible study for the young people in the Maelati area. We have over 100 young people that come each time to learn more from God’s word. Unfortunately, we were only able to have it one time this month due to an outbreak of the latest covid virus and an outbreak of dengue fever at the same time. So, we cancelled one weekend’s study. We used that time to have a day of study for the young people in Chiang Mai. We studied the Bible with them for six hours and then had some games and activities.

We had some sad news this month as well. Passakorn’s grandmother passed away. She was 89 years old and a Christian. She was a great example for her whole family. Passakorn went to visit her regularly to help her, encourage her, and read the Bible to her. When a Christian passes away in Thailand there is an impromptu gospel meeting. She passed away at 5:30 a.m. and the gospel meeting started that same evening. We had three nights of lessons and then a graveside service on the fourth day. She lived in Phrao which is 90 Kilometers out of Chiang Mai. We drove back and forth each day. There is always an evening meal before the evening service. Our young people went each day and were a great help. The boys helped set up tents, tables and chairs. The girls helped serve the food. They all worked together to wash dishes. In Thailand nearly the whole village will come to the funerals. There were people from the church, people from different denominations, and Buddhists there. They were all impressed with how our young people came and helped every day.

It is the time of year that our goats start to have their babies. Last year they gave birth to 21 kids. This month two babies were born… and there are many more are on the way. We will raise them for seven months and make sure they are strong and healthy. Then we will teach a family how to take care of them and give them to them to help them have some income. People are so grateful for a way to take care of themselves and their families.

On a personal note, our second son, Shaphan, is very ill. He is undergoing tests to determine exactly what is wrong and how best to treat it. The doctors suspect it is some kind of cancer and probably stomach cancer. We request your prayers for him.

We thank you all for the love, care, prayers, and help you give continually.  You are all truly a blessing for our lives and our work. May God continue to bless us as we work together for Him,

—Michael