Hopeful in 2023

It was a challenging year for us. The series of events drain our energy and savings. The kids going to college, being sick of covid. Moreover, house repair, truck repair, visa problems, death in the family, and lately the accident. God is faithful. He helped us through the tough times.

Being grateful when good things happen in our lives is easy. But we can choose to be thankful for the good as well as the bad. For the moments of joy as well as moments of sorrow. For the successes as well as failures. This is faith. This is trust in God for everything he has brought us. We trust that we will see God’s loving hand in everything.

This year we celebrated the new year together with Jared and Jillian. Singing, dancing, watching fireworks, eating, and praying. The first we have done it in a long time. We are hopeful that this year will be the most exciting for the kids. We know that God will open more opportunities for them in their studies and their service to God.

We envision that together with the kids we will work as a team in sharing the love of God, in the university, schools, and community. In two years, four of them will graduate and who know what God has in stored for them.

Opportunity to connect people to Jesus

Christmas! Yes, it is the busiest month for us. We heard people say that the Thai do not celebrate Christmas. I beg to disagree. The Thais always find things to celebrate. Christmas is not an exception. They celebrate it in their own ways. They just do not understand why Christians celebrate it. It is a challenge for us to communicate to them the true meaning of Christmas. This is the best occasion to share the gospel.

Local churches and schools invited our team (Narlin, the kids and I) to tell the story of Jesus in schools and villages. We did it through drama skit, dance, and carol singing. Of course, it includes the local Pastor preaching the gospel. Please pray that the seed of the gospel planted in the hearts of the people will grow.

This year, our relationship with our church has grown stronger. We came to know the members more. Our Pastor trust us to preach on regular basis. Jai does the interpretation. Narlin uses her gifts to decorate the church and help the women’s ministry. We now take part in meetings and decision making. They ask for our ideas about the programs and activities of the church.

Moreover, the children are active in youth ministry and in the worship team. We are thankful that through the church we have the opportunity to connect with more people. In so doing, connect them to Jesus and help them grow in their faith.

Thanksgiving and Prayer Concerns

1. We are thankful for another year. God’s provision for a fresh start after a tough 2022. Thankful to the Lord for the couple of friends who helped us out financially at the start of the year. We can take care of our obligations to the university and friends who lent us funds during our time of need. God is indeed faithful.
2. Thankful for two children will graduate this year. Tee from high school and Pia from middle school. Tee will go to technical school. Pia will choose her course that she wants to get for college. Please pray for them both.
3. Please pray for our visa. The immigration extends it for two months. Then we will have a “long-stay interview” on 17th of January by the Department of Social Welfare and Human Security. This is a requirement to get a one-year visa. Please pray that they will give it to us this time.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and happy new year. We are praying that your Christmas will be full of joy spending it with your friends, family, and loved ones. Hopeful that Jesus’ reign will be evident in 2023.

In a few days, the year 2022 is over. We thought it would be a better year in the light of the pandemic that happened two years before. But the year proves to be equally if not more challenging for us and the children too. Despite of the hardships, God proved once again his faithfulness to our lives. The experience makes our spirit stronger and our faith deeper.

The new year is here. We are ready for another challenging year. Our prayer is that God will lead us (with the children) to where He will use us to make Christ real to lives of the people.

Please pray as we will have Christmas presentation in Ban Sanluang Village. The children will do drama, dance, & carol singing. Sharing the story of Jesus to a hundred students.

The year that was

January-February. We spent two whole months processing our travel documents to return to Thailand. Expensive airfares, life insurance, hotel accommodations, and visa. We could have come later but we felt that Jillian and the children needed us home.

March. We came to Thailand. Upon arriving home, we found out the termites ate parts of our home. We spend most of the month fixing our home. We also came to realize that our truck may need a major repair. We told our mechanic about it, but he thought it would be fine. We resume our church ministry with the children. Joey did the preaching and Jai started doing the interpretation. The children were leading the worship.

April. We got covid. The children got it too. This was the month were all the children graduated. From Bible training, high school, elementary school, and vocational school. It was a joyful month. But we realized that four of them would be going to the university. This month we were able to pay the one-year rent on our house.

May-June. Our struggles to get the children to university began. The children knew that we did not have the money to send them to the university. They did not enlist when the university was doing the promotion in their school. We talked and prayed about this need. They enrolled late. The courses were full and closed. But God answered our prayers. Despite being late and fund lacking they were miraculously accepted in university.

July-August. Sixteen people followed Jesus in baptism. We were privileged to be part of our church ministries in preaching, teaching, and leading the worship. Our visa struggles continued. Immigration would not extend it for one year.

September. My (Joey) brother George, who was in prefect health died. He was battling depression and he succumbed to it. It was unexpected. We were devastated. We went home to mourn with our family and joined the funeral. We also took the opportunity to spend the time with our youngest son, Reuven. He quit his job and pursued his master’s studies in psychology. We helped him find and move to his new rented house. We are supporting his studies now. The time was too short to visit friends and churches.

October. We were back home from the Philippines. Our truck that was in the shop for two months had a major engine rebuilt. It was an expensive repair. We once again experienced God’s faithful provisions. This month we joined hilltribes in their thanksgiving services. The first term in the university was over. It was time to pray for God’s provision for another term. I had my CT-Scan here in Thailand for my renal cancer monitoring. We thought it would be cheaper, but it was not. Thankful that the result was favorable. Thank you, Lord, for healing.

November. We joined a church opening in an Akha Village. Narlin taught a song to the church members. We used the time preparing for the thanksgiving worship in our own church. Narlin did the decorations and Joey did the preaching. The children once again lead the worship. Thanksgiving was big deal event here in Thai churches. Our visa struggles continue. The Thai immigration would not extend our visa to one year. We must pay our Foundation another 25,000 THB to help us renew our visa for 2023.

December. The weather started to get colder. Muey and Jai met in an accident. They were riding the motorcycle on their way to the village school early in the morning when it happened. They had to spend the night in the hospital. They are now well physically and as far as we can tell, they have recovered mentally from the accident. This is a busy month for us. Preparing for church Christmas parties, caroling, fellowship and worship. The children are preparing for their Christmas presentation (drama, dance and carol singing) in a village school here in Mae Sai. We are praying that the seed of the gospel will be planted in the heart of the hundred children who will see the drama about the story of Jesus.

Thank you so much for your love and prayers. Thanks for your sacrifices to support us and the children as we served the Lord and the people around us. Those years of partnership with us (and the children) produced a team that God uses to reach people for our Lord Jesus. Glory to God in the highest.

Miraculously Accepted

We consider it a miracle that Jai is accepted into Rajabhat University after classes have started for more than a week. Praise the Lord!

After a long wait, the Chiang Rai Rajabhat University (CRU) accepted four of the children. It was not easy. We overcame hindrances.

First, well-meaning people advised them that university education is useless for them in Thailand because they do not have Thai ID. They told them that no company will hire them. That they could not leave Mae Sai to go to work in other places.

Second, the children were aware of the expenses of sending four of them to university at the same time. They know that it will be difficult for us to sustain the cost of university education. No NGO is supporting us. Our regular support comes from the contributions of friends and a church.

Because of these they enlisted late to the university. We had a long emotional talk to convince them that they need to study. We told them that despite the setbacks, we will support them all the way. We trust that God will provide.

We are thankful that the university gave a chance to those who applied late. They were put on the waiting list.

The waiting for the acceptance call took forever. Samching was accepted first. Then after a week, Muey and Dina made it too. However, they had to take their second-choice course because their first choice of English education was closed already. Dina took culinary education and Muey with Chinese. Jai was not accepted because her second choice, Social Studies, was also full.

We kind of gave up on Jai’s chances of getting to the university this time. We consoled her that she can try again next year. It was just not possible. The classes were already going on for almost two weeks.

Then a miracle happened. Jai received an unexpected call from the university. She was accepted after a student backed out. What is even better is she got her choice course-English education.

The university is one hour away, it was afternoon already. So instead of waiting for another day, we drove right away to Chiang Rai. After we have paid all the fees, we have the assurance that she is in. All of us are so happy for her.

We experienced another miracle! We thank God for providing for their initial expenses. For the university registration and tuition fees. Payments for the rent of the apartments, new uniforms, food, travel, among others.

We are back home

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

We are back in Thailand. Thank you, Lord. We anticipated the complexity and cost of travelling. Transactions online are never assured when you have been doing this stuff in person for fifteen years. Thai Pass system seems to keep on changing every week. Like any other written documents, online communications are sometimes confusing and prone to misunderstanding. We were not surprised that this caused us to make mistakes and forced us to stay five more days in a hotel in Bangkok. A costly mistake.

The Thai immigration was another was another hurdle we overcame. When the immigration officer in charge saw our visa. She thought we were trying to enter Thailand through illegal means. Apparently, many foreigners used blacklisted Foundation sponsored visa to get an easy entry to Thailand during the pandemic. So, we are not blaming her for doubting that our visa is not legitimate. But after the interviews and online research, they allowed us into our home country.

We thank the people who supported and prayed for us through this journey home. We thank the Lord every time we remember your words of prayer and encouragement to us.

Our welcome party. After two years, we are back. Thank you, Lord.

Termites Eat Our House

Twenty days. We could have fixed our stuff, relaxed, and settled down. But we are not living in a normal situation. The house that we left two years ago looks different. Everything looks old and needs fixing. Things may have always been like that, but long absence makes us see things we have not taken notice of before.

We live in an old wooden house, and the first things we notice when we come are the little signs of termite infestations. But we knew that behind these tiny signs are big termite nests. We have no choice but to tear down floors, walls, and ceilings to gain access to these nests and treat them with anti-termite chemicals. Now we are contemplating how much money and how long it will take to restore the parts of the house we tore down.

Moreover, our electric fans and computers are broken or outdated. They children need laptops when they go to the university. We hope we can install wall/ceiling fans and buy computers for the children.
Please keep us in your prayers as we make our house a beautiful and comfortable place for our children.

This is us fighting fiercely against termites who want us to be homeless.

Covid Spares No One

If you think Covid will not get to you, think again. Even though we are doing our best to avoid infection, our best is not good enough. One of the boys suffered flu like symptoms but he recovered quickly. The others have coughs. God gives children a strong immune system. They crushed covid as if it were nothing.
But for older people like Narlin and I, it knocked us out and glued us to our bed for three days.

We relent and administer antigen tests among ourselves. Twelve out of fifteen of us had positive results. Just thankful that we are here when this happens. We are all now on our way to recovery. We must isolate ourselves for ten days so we could not spread the virus. Three of the boys have negative results. Or they have it but recovered quickly. So, they are doing the errands for us while we are in isolation.

Thank you for the encouraging words and uttering prayers for our healing. We are halfway through the road to freedom… from self-imprisonment. Thank you Lord.

Prayer Concerns & Thanksgiving

• Pray for our recovery from covid.
• It is March once again. It is the month of the year when we pay our one-year house rent. We are just waiting for the owner’s call. We thank the Lord for His timely provision.
• Pray for the processing of our work permit. We submitted all the requirements last week and we will wait for a call to visit the Ministry of Labor to get our work permit. Then it will be the basis for the extension of our visa to one year. Pray for smooth
• Pray for our ministries this year. It is like starting over again. We still have to meet people whom we have worked with in the past years. We pray that we can helped the community in bringing more people to a knowledge of Christ.
  We are deeply grateful. First to our God for His faithfulness to us. We know and feel it every day in our lives. Second, for our family/friends in Christ who are always there to help us during difficult situations. Thank you for constantly praying for us. You are God’s answers to our prayers.

Heal me, Lord

Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed, save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.

Jeremiah 17:14

Sixteen years in Thailand, sixteen years of God faithfulness. We went to Mae Sai on the 4th of January 2006. It would take us another four years before we could go back to the Philippines. Airfare was expensive then. Later, we would have opportunities to go to conferences, funerals, and other special events. We were never away from home for more than three weeks.

My sickness and the pandemic caused us to stay for most of the last three years in the Philippines. It is a challenging season of our life. However, we believe that God has a purpose for our stay here. First, we have seen how well the children take care of themselves and the help in our ministry with minimal supervision from Jillian and our Pastors. We are proud of them.

Second, it is time for recovery and healing. Both for me (Joey) and my mother. I wish I could say that our presence was not necessary to nurse my mother to recovery. But I believe, God meant it to be that way. We are thankful for the opportunity to care for her.

After seventeen years and a series of sicknesses (skin disease, foot injury, psychosis, mild heart attack, and Parkinson’s Disease), my mother finally returned to our ancestral home in Cainta (East of Manila). My brother will take care of her.

My mom is so happy to see her brother’s family. They Pick her up in Baguio to Manila.

Returning to Mae Sai

We can’t wait to go home. We are scheduled to go home this month, but the Omicron variant might move back our leaving for yet another week.

The supporting documents for our Thai non-immigrant visa are on their way. We will receive them in a week or two. We have the vaccination certificates and the Covid insurance. We even renewed our passports which will be good for another 10 years. We will buy our airplane tickets as soon as we get our visas. We are ready to go in God’s time.

Please pray for a smooth process in the Thai Embassy and for God’s provisions for our travel back home.

Thankful to the Lord for giving us an early schedule to renew our passports.

Home for Reuven

Reuven, our youngest son, is studying in the Philippines. He used to stay with my sister while we are in Thailand. But that is no longer possible. At the moment, he is staying with us we are renting in Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary (PBTS). They allowed us to stay here for the sake of my mother.

We need to find a place for Reuven when we leave. But we are grateful if PBTS will permit him to stay for another year.

Please pray that we can find a home of our own in the Philippines.

We are praying for a house for Reuven before we leave.

Ready for University

We need to be in Thailand soon. Our five of our older children are going to college in May. They will study in Chiang Rai City about an hour road trip from our home. We need to enroll them in the university and look for a boarding house. We have to buy them each a laptop that they can use in their studies.

The same five children are studying in the Bible School every Saturday under our Pastor. They will graduate next month, and they will go out to share the gospel in the community as part of their training.

Our children with their classmates in the Bible School.

Prayer Concerns

1. Pray for healing both for me, Narlin, and my mother.
2. Pray for our visa and safe travel back to Thailand. That we can pass the covid test and submit all the documents.
3. Pray for a house for Reuven and provision for his studies.
4. Pray for the children as they are preparing to go to university. Pray for wisdom and provision.
   
   Thankful to God for providing for our ministry and needs. Thank you so much for your love, support, and prayers.

When it rains, it pours

We thought the saying “when it rains, it pours” is all about the weather. It came to our mind because it rained non-stop for seventeen days here in Baguio City. This is where we are staying while we are here in the Philippines. It is a city located on top of the mountains. 

But we learned later that this phrase is an American idiom which means a bad thing happens. Followed by other bad things within a short span of time. It happened to us. Narlin had shingles and then broke her ring finger. She also felt the side effects of the vaccine. I (Joey) suffered from inner ear infections, toothache/gum infections. Then accidentally banged my head on the low beam of the overpass stairs that caused a big lump on top of my head. It was a painful month for us.

But thankful to the Lord for His healing and despite pains, His joy is our strength. We went on serving the Lord through our church. Narlin with her online Bible study groups and Sunday School for the youth and children’s classes. I am preaching in our church worship services and teaching adult Sunday School class.

We hope to do more ministry in our church while we are waiting for God’s time to travel back. We are preparing to meet the requirements to travel. These are the insurance, visa, vaccine certificates.  Joey will have the PET-CT scan in November. After this,  we are hoping we are ready to go.

The pandemic has been hard for us being lockdown here and for the children in Mae Sai. The Delta variant forced the school to hold their classes online. They  are attending their classes at home.

As you already know, we are renting a house that has seen better days. It is falling apart and having twelve children makes the process faster. The house needs a lot of tender loving care. When we were around, we do the work of repair and maintenance ourselves. It is a beautiful house with enough space and rooms for our needs. It is near the town and the school. The rent is relatively cheap. God has provided this suitable house for us.

Everything is good until something is broken. Jillian called and informed us that the kitchen door was falling. They also did not electricity for three days because of a short circuit. The electrician could not find the problem. So, he had to do electrical rewiring. We thank the Lord for keeping the children safe from any incidents like fire caused by faulty wirings. We are thankful to the Lord for providing the fund for the electrical work.

We are missing significant events while we are away. For the last two years, the children are celebrating their birthdays without us. It makes us miss them more.

Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers. You help us and the children go through these difficult times.

Prayer Concerns

• Please pray for the safety of the children against Covid and other diseases. Muey, one of the girls got sick of flu. She is well now. Pray that they learn on their online classes.
• Pray for us as we minister to the church that we helped started thirty years ago. The church suffers from the pandemic. Please pray that through our ministries, we can encourage other church members.
• Pray for Jillian who take care of the children. Pray for her health, patience, and strength. Please pray also for Pastor Chang who help look after them and teach them the Bible.
• Please continue to pray for us as we prepare to go back to Thailand. We are doing our best to meet the travel requirements like visa, health certificates, and insurance. Pray for provisions for air fares, and other travel expenses.
• Pray that Joey’s healing. He will have his PET-CT scan for this year in November. We are praying that the cancer cells, tumors, nodes are totally eradicated. Pray that the oncologist will declare him cancer free already.
• Please include in your prayers the situation in Myanmar, Afghanistan and Haiti. May God’s will be done in these countries.

Thank you for your love and prayers.

Hope in Suffering

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One year. This is the longest time that we are away from home. It is taking its toll on our emotions. Narlin could not stop crying. We worry. The feeling of helplessness overcame us when we were talking with the children online.

Even when the vaccine is available, we know that it will take time before we can have it. But it gives us something to look forward to. We hope that if we have the vaccine, we may not have to buy the 100,000 USD (3.5 million THB or 4.85 million PHP) worth of insurance. We can never afford the monthly premium for this kind of insurance.

As of this writing, the cases of Covid infections in the Philippines have been rising. As of March 31, we have more than 10,000 new cases for one day. It was almost the same number each day. So, we may have a lockdown here again soon. The situation is becoming uncertain each day.

Yet we have hope that we can return to Thailand soon to be with the children. And do the ministry that we love to do with the people of Thailand and Myanmar.

Our heart is also broken for what is happening beyond the border. The military junta is getting worst each day. The senseless killing people-children, young and old is too much to bear for us and the children. Their families are there. The situation in Myanmar broke our hearts.

Yet we believed that these difficulties will be over someday. God reminds us of His promise in His Word:

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.

Romans 8:18-19

Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers. Thank you for your partnership.

We are thankful to the Lord despite many limitations caused by the pandemic. God has given us opportunities to serve Him and minister to people. He also provides means and ways we can do God’s works while we are here waiting. 

Thanksgiving and Prayers

• Thankful for the opportunity to lead our church to refocus on its vision and mission. We organized an overnight retreat for church deacons and leaders. We facilitated the formulation of the church’s vision and mission statements. We created different ministries and committees to reach the church’s goal. 
• Thankful for the opportunity to lead Bible studies and teach Sunday School classes. For visiting people whom we have not seen for over a decade and pray for the sick. Especially for the cancer survivors.
• Thankful to God for providing us an old but reliable car. Maintenance may cost but it’s all worth it. We can travel around Baguio City and go to the place of ministry.
• Thankful that He makes it possible to talk with the children online. We are running the children’s home from the distance. It was tough for us. There are times when we could not hold our emotions talking to the children from afar. 
• Thankful to the Lord for healing our sickness and for keeping us healthy. The results of the laboratory tests are not perfect, but they are good enough. My oncologist scheduled the next lab test in June. Moreover, thankful for protection against covid. The number of cases each day is growing by leaps and bounds.
• Thankful to the Lord for providing the fund for our one-year house rent amounting to 60,000 THB (2,000 USD). The owner will come this month to collect the rent. This may limit our spending for a time being but God’s provision is always on time.
• Thankful that two of our children have graduated. Angie from primary school and Aiyong from middles school. We thank the Lord for His provision for the needs of our children.
• Please continue to pray for the situation in Myanmar. Pray that God will intervene and put an end to the evil acts of the military. In the light of this crisis in Myanmar, we believe that many children will be brought across the borders. Praying we can help many of them in our own little way. We believe God is in control.

Once again, our hearts are full of thanks for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. For holding the other end of the rope. It is the reason we can continue our ministry, especially to the children.

On April 3, 2021April 3, 2021 By JoeyIn Prayer UpdateLeave a comment

Religion that is pure

My mother after recovering from mental health problems and fifth digit toe amputation.

Our missionary friend sent us her recent newsletter. Despite being in her late sixties, God is using her to minister to people who are suffering from COVID-19 19. Her faith encourages us. She is an example of a person who serves the Lord in her old age.

But there are those for health reasons could not like my mother. She was faithful and active with Women Missionary Union (WMU) and prayer ministry. Now, she is old and sickly.

This reminds us that we should take care of the elderly especially the ones in our own family. Our favorite Bible verse talks about caring for the orphans and elderly widows too. Perhaps it is a ministry that God is preparing us to do in the future.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

-James 1:27

While we are still here, we will be taking care of my mother. She lived with my sister for sixteen years. She was hospitalized twice. First for mental health. It was caused by many factors. She suffers from skin disease (fungi) all over her body, foot injury, and isolation. She could not sleep for a week. She started seeing strange people and having memory lapse. The doctor diagnosed her with paranoid schizophrenia. She stayed in the hospital for five days.

A week later, her injured little toe in the right foot was not healing. We brought her to the hospital thinking that the doctor would only treat the infection. Instead the doctor confined her to the hospital and amputated her right little toe. She stayed in the hospital for a week. We are thankful for those who pray for her healing and provision for the hospital expenses.

When she got well, she chose to stay with us. After a year, when we go back to Thailand, she will move to our ancestral home to live with my youngest brother.

This is one of our ministries while waiting for God’s timing for us to return to Thailand.

Our children celebrating Muey’s and Angie’s birthdays last 15th of January.

Prayer and Thanksgiving

• We thank the Lord for healing and provisions. Provisions for the hospital fees and medications both for my mother and me. Please continue to pray for our healing.
• We thank the Lord for providing us an inexpensive used car. We cannot afford a brand-new car and we are not eligible for a car loan because we do not have a “real” job. We know that we need to spend a little more to make the car run better. But it is something we can afford with your help.
• We thank the Lord for the opportunity to minister to our home church. We are hoping to hold a retreat and training for the deacons and church officers. We plan to visit the families we ministered more than a decade ago who are not going to church anymore. We are looking forward to encouraging them to go back to the church and disciple their children.
• We thank the Lord for our children in Thailand. Your support help sustain their everyday needs and their schooling. We get in touch with them through video call in Facebook Messenger. We are thankful for this technology.
• We thank the Lord for Jillian who look after them. Our Pastor, Chi Chang is leading them in a Bible Study once a week. He was also training them to share the gospel.
• We thank the Lord for Jared and Jillian helpins us with our expenses here in the Philippines.

Thank you for keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you for your partnership in God’s work and ministry in Thailand. 

Wait on the Lord

Facebook Messenger Meeting with the children

We are waiting for the lifting of the travel restrictions to go back to Thailand. Waiting is hard. The pandemic makes us realize that this generation has lost the ability to wait. A month of waiting is too long. Many went out of their houses in defiance of government regulations. Covid-19 cases here in the Philippines continue to rise, and it makes our waiting longer.

This reminds me of the amount of waiting that the biblical characters had to make to obey God’s will in their lives. Joseph waited a long time in prison. Jacob waited seven years to marry Rachel, and Moses waited 40 years to have a glimpse of the promised land. Those who read the Bible will see the importance of waiting on God.

The word of God gives us insight about waiting, “But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV)

Waiting on God means to hope and to look to God for all that we need. It renews our strength. He enables us to soar above the crisis, to run when the challenges are many.

Prayer and Thanksgiving

We want to thank you for your continued partnership in our ministry. God is using you to sustain our needs while we are in lockdown and more for the needs of the children in Thailand.

We are thankful to the Lord for the house he provided for us while we are in lockdown here in the Philippines. It is what we need while we are waiting. It is small and inexpensive. Thankful for the people who are helping us to sustain this particular need.

We are thankful to the Lord for the internet connection. We can communicate with the children and other ministry partners in Thailand.

We are thankful to the Lord for providing a person we need to help Jillian takes care of the children. We “hire” our 35-year-old, friend Pastor, Saw Lah Mon. He works full time and take care of the boys while Jillian will oversee the girls. Please pray that God will provide for his “love-gift.”

Pray that we can go back to Thailand. For that to happen, the Philippine should have decreasing Covid-19 cases. We are praying that Thailand will open its borders and relax requirements. As of this time, the government is requiring a 400,000 USD health insurance coverage. They also enforce expensive Covid test and quarantine facilities.

Please pray for God’s provisions for the children’s education. Four of them will go to the university next school year.

Please pray for my total healing from renal cancer. I will have a PET-CT Scan in December. Pray that we can travel to Manila and provisions for the procedure. We need to rent a vehicle and a driver to drive us to Manila. We are also praying for a car that we can borrow while we are here.

The Philippines is experiencing typhoons one after the other. Please pray for the protection and safety of the Filipino people.

Thank you so much for your continued partnership. Your love and generosity are God’s assurances to us that He wants us to go on with the ministries He asked us to do.

Living in every situation

Not a day goes by that we do not think of going home to Thailand. However, we are happy and content in whatever situation God put us in. Paul’s words in Philippians 4:10-13 give us great encouragement:

Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

The coronavirus pandemic lockdown caught us totally by surprise while I was having my regular monitoring and check up in the Philippines. The pandemic caused many people to be stranded, displaced, and even become homeless. We are not spared. We did not have any option but to rent an apartment for quarantine and the way things are going, we need a home to stay longer.

We want to thank the Lord for friends who helped us to look for the house and dealt on our behalf about the rent while we were quarantined. We thank Pastor Bernie for transporting our few belongings to our new home. We are thankful also for those who help and will help sustain us financially during this crisis.

The lockdown delayed my consultation with the oncologist for almost five months. We finally met her this mid-August. I had my CMP blood tests and the result was good. She recommended I be swab tested for Covid19 as soon as I feel any symptoms because I belong to a high-risk category.  

The fifteen-inch nephrectomy and three-inch thoracic surgery scars give me pains that do not go away. I also have back pains because of spondylosis. Thankfully, these pains are tolerable because I cannot take a pain reliever because of my kidney problem. My oncologist requested PET-CT Scan again this December. Please pray for provisions and favorable results. Thank you for continually praying for my health.

The school has opened late in Thailand because of the pandemic. The kids went to school three days a week earlier this month and now they go to school every day observing health protocols and social distancing. Limiting the number of students in a room. It means Jillian will spend more time teaching and so are our children will stay in the school longer.

We are thankful to the Lord that He provided the school needs of the children. We bought new shoes, uniforms, paid the school fees, and daily lunch money.

Thank you all for your love and prayers.