January 2024 Newsletter

Dear Brethren,

Let me start by saying Happy New Year!! It has been 2024 for 8 hours here, so, only a few more hours and those of you in America will catch up with us. Just let me say… so far it has been a great year!!

December was a fantastic month for us here in Thailand. The first week we got everything ready for the brethren from Singapore to come. There were 13 people who came from Singapore. Most were from the Jurong congregation. A few were from the Lim Ah Pin congregation. They really were an encouragement for everyone here. We started by having a short gospel meeting at Maelati. The lessons that the brethren from Singapore gave were fantastic. We had four baptisms during that week. Wanchai and his wife Kawsah were baptized. I am not sure exactly how old they are but I think they are in their 70’s. There were also two teenage girls baptized, Nantida and Phridi.  We are so thankful for these new brethren in Christ. The ladies from Singapore held Bible classes for the young children. My little Cocoa has only been around Christians and Christianity since she came to live with us in November. I tell you that because she came away each day and told me what she learned. She has also been going around singing the children’s Bible songs she learned every since then. After the gospel meeting the brethren helped us with two work projects. One was setting a water system at the school in Maengao. The second was pouring a concrete area at the church building in Maelati.  The brethren from Singapore worked very hard and were a great help. They also got to see first-hand how that type of work is done here. After the work was done, we had a couple of days to rest. We spent one day by the river at the Maengao National Park. The next day we returned to Chaing Mai and went to an elephant camp. We are very thankful for all the hard work that they did while they are with us.

December was a fantastic month for us here in Thailand.

We always do follow up work after we have a meeting like that. We are so pleased that two more baptisms came as a result of that work. A young couple was baptized. Nattanon and his wife Suda. They have three small children. We are so thankful for all six of these precious souls that obeyed the gospel in December. Just a reminder: I told many of you while I was in America. When we do baptisms in the mountains, I do not do the baptizing. Passakorn, who works with me in Chiang Mai, does not baptize people either. We let the preachers that work with us in the mountains do the baptizing. The reason is: in the past people were made to wait till someone special came to do the baptizing. The denominations still do this in the mountains. We teach and follow the biblical pattern. We want people to be baptized immediately when they are ready. We do not even want them to wait a few hours for us to get there from Chiang Mai. So even when we are there, even when we do the teaching… we do not do the baptizing.

Wanchai, Kawsah, Phridi, Nanthida after being baptized.

Suda’s baptism.

Nattanon’s baptism.

After the brethren from Singapore left, we all got sick. We were sick for about a week. The husband of one of our members was hospitalized for a few days. After regaining our health, we all got back to work.

Lung Tai in the hospital.

We are doing paperwork that I have to turn in at the beginning of January. It is to get a letter from the social section of the government to give to the immigration section telling them that in March I can renew my visa for another year. After we turn this paperwork in, it takes two full months to get the letter. In March we will have to turn in another large stack of paperwork to the immigration department. These are the joys of living in a foreign country. Plus, every 90 days we must report to the government and tell them where we are living.

We spent a lot of time visiting the homes of some of our newer students and some homes of some of the young people who are asking for help. They are all very poor and have very sad stories. We will help as many as we are able to help.

We also are worked a lot with the young people. One girl Fahsai had to test to get into the next school. She is going from 6^th grade to 7^th grade. We took her on the test day. The rest of our young people test this next week. So we are studying a lot with them too.

Fahsai.

On Sunday, December 31^st, we had our New Year’s Party. It was a lot of fun. We had Bible class and worship. Then we played games and ate and played more games exchanged gifts and ate some more.  Then we had an evening worship early and went home before dark to be sure everyone got home safely. The brother of one of the young ladies that we help was hit by a drunk driver on Saturday the 30^th. We just met him the previous Thursday. He is in the hospital and had to have surgery. We are not sure of his condition at this point.

Happy New Year!

My prayer for this year is that as we work together here in Thailand planting and watering, God will give as a great increase. Our theme for this year is: 1 Peter 1:15-16… Be ye holy as He who called you is holy.

—Michael

Singapore work.