June 2025 Newsletter

Dear Brethren,

May was a very busy month. We spent most of the month preparing the young people for the upcoming school year. We spent many days buying school uniforms and school supplies. We also visited with every student whom we are helping. This involved many days of travel and long hours talking with young people in groups to give them general information, and then individually to discuss their plans for the upcoming school year, plans for the future, and any problems they are having. This year, we have more students entering university than ever before. That has generated a lot more work and travel for us. We have transported many students to their various universities, bought the uniforms that are required, and helped them move into the dorms and get settled in. Some of the students have problems that you may have never considered. Several of our students do not have Thai ID cards. That means that they cannot get a driver’s license, they cannot cross provincial borders without written permission from the government, and even with a university education, they will not be able to have certain jobs and will not ever make very much money. We have been told that after they graduate from university they MIGHT be able to get a Thai ID. We have three young people entering into university this year that are in that situation. I am in Mae Hong Son as I write this.  I was supposed to be going back to Chiang Mai today, but had to stay to help two of these students get government paperwork in. We brought them last Thursday, (6 hours) to check in at their university with a temporary border pass and checked in with the government in Mae Hong Son. Their government paperwork was not done to allow them to cross into Mae Hong Son Province for the whole school year. We got a call on Friday morning that the paperwork was finished. We did not have time to go, get the paperwork, and get back before the office closed on Friday. The office is closed on Saturday and Sunday. This week it is also closed on Monday and Tuesday for the Queen’s birthday. So, while I have the paperwork, I have to stay till Wednesday morning to help them get it turned into the government office here. The reason I have to stay and get it done is because once the pass is issued, it is only valid for so many days. If you do not use it in the time limit the whole process starts over. We had to get to the university on Saturday to try and get our young people dorm rooms. The campus is out of town so it was important for us to get them rooms on campus… since they cannot get driver’s licenses. The university does not have enough dorm rooms for all the students and they give them out on a first come first serve basis. We got there and 4 a.m. to wait in line. We were blessed in that all of our students were able to get rooms. You may wonder why we go to all of this trouble. Without the help that you all give to help these young people they would not have any hope of a good future. Many of these young people and their families have become Christians because of the generosity and love they see in your help. Because of this program, we have young people who are nurses, nurse’s assistants, school teachers, and training to be preachers. But most of all we have so many more brothers and sisters in Christ.

I am really excited to tell you about the Chiang Mai Bible School. We started have schools with sound brethren from America coming and teaching for a week to ten days several times a year. We will continue with that because of the great encouragement and fantastic teaching that is done, but we also now have four fulltime students. They study 5 days a week and are given practical experience on the weekends. We are working to train these young men in service for the Lord. The four young men who are with us are great young men with huge potential. I teach three days a week and Passakorn teaches two days a week. On the weekends we rotate the work that they young men do. Passakorn takes one of the young men with him and goes to Thasongyang, Maethawah, and Maekhduan.  I preach in Chiang Mai and then drive 5 hours to Mae Hong Son to worship with our little congregation there. We have four people who attend regularly there now. Two of them are Christians and two are not yet Christians. Two of the young men stay in Chiang Mai and hold the evening services there. Two of the other young men take a motorcycle drive 180 kilometer round trip to Phrao and hold a worship service there. If you were counting that is 5 young men.  One of them is not studying in the school but helps on Sundays. Chaichana and Suchat take care of the other congregations. One Sunday a month, Passakorn stays in Chiang Mai and I cover Thasongyang, Maethawah, Maekhaduan, and Mae Hong Son.

You will see three pictures labeled Thasongyang.  Many of the places that we work are right on the border of Myanmar. The civil war is still raging there. We often here the gunfire from their fighting. While I was picking up people for worship there, we saw one of those vehicles with machine guns patrolling the streets. The people in the boats in the pictures are refugees fleeing Myanmar. Currently, Thailand is fighting with Cambodia. It is a border dispute. There is a temple that is on the border of Thailand and Cambodia. They are fighting to see which country the temple belongs to. There is also three pictures labeled Worship at Maethawah. The picture of the pickup full of people, shows them going home from worship. My vehicle, which seats 7, had twelve people in it.

We ask you to pray for the work here, the young people we are helping, the young men training for service in the Lord, and for those who are being devastated by war.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.  James 5:16

I want to thank you all for the part that you are playing in spreading the gospel in Thailand. You are all truly a blessing to us all. May God continue to bless us as we work together for Him.

Michael