A Season of Blessing

As the window draws closer to a close on 2011, I reflect on a challenging year while I enjoy a season of blessing at this time.

The year began with our return to Thailand for our 2nd term of service, after a wonderful furlough time in Australia. On the flight over as I listened to God, He said to me we would experience change, challenges and new things in this term. That has certainly being the case!

February to April - 'settling back in and new fruit'

After working 'flat out like a lizard drinking' to get paperwork in for our new work permit, visa and Samut Prakan branch office of our Foundation, God directed us back to live in the same neighbourhood which we had left 6 months beforehand. We praised God to see that the new believers (in our local slum community) from earlier last year were still following Jesus and growing. We marveled at the Grace of God in then bringing more people to follow Jesus , together with His abundant provision for our needs.

Picture - praising God with a New Believer

May to August - 'hitting a wall'

I 'hit a wall' with the contraction of Dengue Fever in early May, which put me out of the action for at least one month. As I lay everyday in my bed, too exhausted to even walk down the stairs I reflected on the Grace and Sovereignty of God for me - that this ministry is not about what I do, but it is about HOW God works in His timing and for His Glory. As I cried for release from the intense back and stomach pains and begged God to take me either back to Australia or to Heaven, His quiet still voice spoke and reminded me why He had called me here to Thailand. I remained depressed, however, for a few months.

Picture - praying no matter the circumstances

Work in our larger slum community also 'hit a wall' and we even toyed with the idea of throwing the work in this community away. I was tired and depressed, not only from Dengue Fever but from the heat and humidity and the fresh new discouragements in the ministry. After complaining to God He challenged me to 'run with the horses' in much the same way as He challenged Jeremiah in Jeremiah 12:5. God then showed me to persist by still providing encouragement for us in the fruit from our local slum community (different community from the larger discouraging community mentioned above). He also used an overseas friend on Facebook (whom I have never met face to face to encourage me with these words "I know you long to be full speed. I also know Isaiah 40:31 is woven tightly into the fabric of your soul" .... God was calling me to rest and retreat more in Him.

Picture - labour of love: building a new house for a Believer in the larger slum community after it was eaten by termites

September to mid October - 'consolidation and new direction'

I began to feel the worst of Dengue was now behind me. God took me into a retreat period when I spent a few weeks seeking His Face on future direction in my life and ministry - first at a leadership training retreat and then on a personal retreat in the lead-up to my 50th birthday. During this time I also completed my autobiography "Saved from the Fowler's Snare", which I am praying about releasing next year.

God produced more fruit in the ministry and started to consolidate the house church plant in our local slum community to provide encouragement for our souls.

Picture - community of new believers in our local slum community

late October to now - 'a season of blessing'

God poured His blessing out by gifting me with my first grandchild (a son to Karis and Noom) - 6 days before my 50th birthday! This fulfilled a promise God gave me at the age of 18 years old, that I would be a grandparent before I reached 50 years.

Picture - Getting to know my grandson

God also spoke clearly into the ministry with a new direction of discipling and training the emerging group of new Thai believers with our vision to reach all Slum Communities in Samut Prakan with the Good News. Again, we saw more new fruit as God brought people to Himself. Despite the immense challenges training new leaders was presenting, God began clearly leading in this way!

Picture - flooded market behind our house BEFORE the Great Flood of 2011

Despite the horrific damage caused by the Great Flood of 2011, God used this occasion to bless the Thai church by giving them an opportunity to be the 'hands and feet of Jesus'. We were very blessed by the generosity from friends back in Australia to our Flood Relief Fund.

One of the greatest blessings of all was the opportunity God has now given for Jen and I to have all our kids in the same country for 2 and a half weeks. Tim arrives today (12 December). We have been blessed thoroughly to have Matt with us since early November. We then plan to travel with our sons to Ubon to be with Karis and Noom and our grandson (Eliyah Sartugan), as we share the first family Christmas together for 3 years.

The New Year 2012 - ?

We don't know what God will do next year or where He will take us in His Sovereignty (Psalm 115:3). We are prepared for a ride, however, along this journey of life and ministry that He has for us. Whatever that is, He is by our side encouraging, building and taking us to new heights as we echo the words of the prophet in Habakkuk 3:19 "the Sovereign Lord is my Strength; He makes my feet like the feet of a deer, He enables me to go on the heights" :-)

Picture - end of one season, beginning of next

Bless you all for a merry Christmas and happy New Year :-)

Good news story

By God's Grace we have been interacting with people and working in our local slum community for around 3 years now. Our approach has been very simple ....

- pray ... into strongholds and for new openings,

- serve ... the community according to their needs,

- build ... relationships through whatever means God opens and provides,

- search ... out 'a person of peace' (c.f. Luke 10:1-9),

- pray & prayer-walk ... regularly through the community,

- pray ... again and again,

- wait on God ... for opportunities to share about His Grace while praying again,

- wait on God ... to bring people into a believing faith of Him while praying again,

- celebrate ... new birth and encourage new believers,

- meet ... with new believers regularly, with emphasis on getting them into the Word of God and praying with believing prayer,

- build ... a new church around the original 'person of peace',

- seek God ... to build a vision of outreach into new communities and pray together for these communities to start the process over again.

With praise to God we celebrated 5 new believers in this community last week. :-) Our small fellowship has grown by 50% overnight. It is by God's Grace that these new believers will remain faithful over the years. I don't know the outcome of that at this stage. Other new believers in our other slum community, a further distance from where we live, have struggled. BUT, the new believers in our local slum community who met Jesus around 18 months ago are going strong and loving new discoveries in the Word of God.

Jen & I with 3 of the new believers of 18 months ago and 2 of the original members of this church plant

It is beyond my human comprehension how God begins to transform a community that once had no hope. Ephesians 3:20,21 reminds me that nothing happens in my human comprehension anyway. It is an awesome privilege to serve the Living God and be a part of what HE is doing. In our 4 years here there have been huge setbacks and unbearable periods of pain (physically, emotionally and spiritually). But it is all worth it when a community begins a process of transformation before your very eyes!! It is all worth it when the God of the universe decides to involve the worst of sinners (i.e. me) in His plans!! There is very little else that brings such tears and weeping to my heart and eyes.

Escaping the poverty trap

Over the last two years we have been praying about helping those living in poverty to begin a new occupation that will provide sustainable income. We've been asking God to lead us to the right people who He has prepared and have been waiting for His guidance.

At the same time, over the last two years, Khun Jaa has had a dream to help her community by learning a new trade. She hopes this will provide a sustainable income to support her family and enable her to give more money to help her community church. Many of you have visited or read about or financially helped this slum community church led by a blind pastor, Ajarn Charlie. Besides supporting her family and church, Khun Jaa also has a burden to teach others in her community so they too can have an income to support their families.

On a recent visit to Ajarn Charlie's church we were chatting with Khun Jaa on the way out. She happened to mention her dream to us and asked that we would pray for her, that God would provide the money needed to make her dream a reality. As we listened more to Khun Jaa's desire to help her community and church, and as we talked to God about her we were excited to realise that God had brought us together. God had placed us there in order to play a small part in bringing about His plan for Khun Jaa and her community.

This is a photo of Khun Jaa with the items she was able to buy with the funds provided by our Foundation and some of the flowers she has learnt to make to sell at the market. There are already many others who are keen to learn when Khun Jaa opens a class at the church and passes on to others what she has learnt.

May God use this enterprise to help many escape the trap of poverty, to help grow this small church and to bring glory to His Name.

House Hunting - A Cultural Lesson in this Oral Society

Who needs a real estate agent when you have friends, old nieghbours, acquaintances, and even strangers to show you around? We've been blown away by the kindness and generosity of the Thais around us as they've helped us in our search for a home to live in for this next stage of our journey. All we have to do is mention that we're looking for a house to rent and they're already offering to help us, whether it's our closest friend walking around the streets with us, an old neighbour taking me on the back of her motorbike, the father of one of the boys in the slum where we taught English riding around on his motobike with us sitting in his little Thai-style side-car, or the assistant pastor at our Thai church taking us around his old car.

Everything happens by 'word of mouth' so they'll take us to where they've heard of something available, and ask people on the street, who then will often join the search with us and take us on to another location. In one slum community a man with a bottle of whiskey in his pocket heard of our search and led us down a path to a house he knew of. In another, a street vendor drew a map for us and called ahead to his fellow coffee vendor to take us to see a landlord he knew of. In our old neighbourhood the mother of one of our previous English students who would have loved to have us rent her place that wouldn't be ready for another two months, instead took us to another neighbour who has a townhouse for rent. This one we are hoping will be the end of our search, funnily enough in the same street as last time.

We had been praying about living in one of the slum communities alongside the people we are working with and knew of several homes there that would be suitable for us to live in, but as none are available to rent at this time, it seems that God has other plans, perhaps because our vision is to reach into many communities not just one. We only pray that we'll still be able to share not only the Gospel, but our very lives with the poor in the communities around us. (1 Thess 2:8) Even though they may be poor materially, they are certainly very generous in giving of their time and the resources they do have. We have much to learn from them.

Exciting Opportunities in Samut Prakan

We are increasingly focusing on our next term in Thailand (2011-14) and in which direction the Work is heading. Recently, there has been some exciting developments regarding longer-term visas, work with the Foundation, and future partnerships on the ground in Thailand, which we will write about soon to those who regularly receive our prayer letters. Our Home Assignment time in Australia over these last 6 months has been enjoyable catching up with many friends and seeing so much of our beautiful home country again. But, now it is preparation time for another term of service overseas.

We were blessed in the previous term (2007-10) with many short-termers visiting and this looks set to continue over the next year at least. But, one of our priorities over 2011-14 is to build longer-term team - given the enormous amount of work to be done in planting new cell churches in every slum community in the 1.2 million urban-industrial province of Samut Prakan. Yet, at this stage, it is only Jen & I working among this group on this task. So, here goes a little plug for the many job opportunities on the Samut Prakan team followed by 3 pictures depicting some life there ....

Our focus is on the urban poor. Our strategy is firstly to share Jesus holistically (as meeting spiritual, physical, emotional and mental needs). Secondly, to disciple new believers, in a church planting context, so they are equipped to reach out to their own people. This strategy is mindful of the need to adopt a learning approach and to offer ourselves as servants of the people – as shown by the examples of Jesus and the Apostle Paul. To this end, we need people who love Jesus and want to make Him known, have a desire to serve the urban poor and have skills, or experience and/or training in any of the following areas ...

- TESOL teaching
- Starting up micro-enterprises with the poor
- Youth and/or children’s ministry
- Sports ministry(soccer, basketball etc.)
- Community / health development with the poor
- Health professionals (esp. doctors, dentists)
- Musicians
- Artistic / craft design
- Providing addiction recovery
- Environmental management
- Training leaders and/or discipling new believers

If any of this speaks to your heart, then please contact us. Then we can journey in discovering together whether working in this exciting ministry is for you. If God is prompting you, PLEASE listen to Him :-)

Some of our kids in our local slum community on our last day with them in June this year

Our cell church in our local slum community

Living conditions for many are very poor - this guy's name is Phil :-)

Feel free to comment or discuss further and to pray and partner with us in Samut Prakan for God's Glory. Until we see Him face to face, Phil

Settling back into Australia

We have now been back in Australia for 3 weeks. Leaving Thailand seems like a blur, but before we know it we'll be back again to the ministry in Thailand in mid January 2011. Some things have been strange back in Australia such as:

- cars stopping for you at zebra crossings,

- relative absence of people in the streets (maybe because of the cold in Canberra),

- the rough Aussie accent (especially that of our new Prime Minister), which we appreciate would be hard for new learners of English to understand,

- the huge choice in the shops in varieties of Tim Tams and Easy Mac ...... and the list goes on!

But now we are back we are fully into re-connecting with people. It has been our priority to understand where many of our friends are at after 3 years and to appreciate their vastly different journeys to ours. We have also spent considerable time lately sharing with organised groups about the needs in Samut Prakan and the unfinished job at hand.

Our sendoff from our friends in Samut Prakan in early June seems sooooo long ago now, but below are a few images of this occasion .........

Some of our stuff is carried off by a friend to storage for the 7 months

I'm Saying goodbye to one of our key ministry partners - Ajarn Chaiyut

Two friends saying goodbye at Bangkok airport with Jen

Some of Matt's friends giving him a final hug

So, we have left Thailand for now. We ask you to pray that we remain faithful as we continue in ministry for these months in our own culture. :-)

It's time .....

We are drawing close to the end of our 1st term in Thailand and are now preparing to return to Australia in early June for 7 months. Over the month of May we will be making sure arrangements are in place for the ministry to continue over the June to January period and saying goodbye to our many friends here for 7 months.

April has been summer holidays in Thailand ..... schools have been closed and many of our friends have gone back to the rural provinces. So, over this last month we have interspersed holidays while continuing some ministry in the slum communities in which we work.

The joy of the Songkran festival - I'm on the left joining in on the water throwing

The annual Songkran festival was a real highlight with all our children joining us in Samut Prakan. But even better was the opportunity Jen & I had to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary - firstly, on our own, then with all our kids together. On both occasions we went to the sea, thanks to God's bountiful provision of a monetary gift. At this time, we do feel blessed by God's goodness to us - His provision of strength and energy during this hot season, His provision of 25 years of marriage partnership, and His provision of 3 wonderful adult children who love to follow the Living God. I feel in a good place as we conclude our first term of ministry in Thailand - God has done much to establish this ministry to the urban poor of Samut Prakan, we recognise His Hand in all things. What a joy it is to serve the Living God !!

Jen & I took the opportunity to thank God for 25 years and think toward the next ? years until death parts us

If you had seen the news you would realise that Thailand is in the middle of a political and economic crisis that has the potential to shake up the country significantly. We would ask that you please pray for the Thai people in this period of political uncertainty that their desire for peace and resolution would turn their attention to the Only One who binds the broken-hearted (our Lord Jesus Christ).

Neighbourhood offering to monks

Thailand is a country of festivals ..... never a month goes by and we see a festival of some description. Last month we witnessed a parade of monks coming through our area to give their new year blessing to the neighbourhood. Receiving this blessing from monks is very important to the Thai - from their perspective it will give them good fortune, protection from evil spirits and earn good merit - all part of a journey to earn their own salvation.

A neighbour prays over her offering for the monks

An official precedes the monk procession to collect a monetary offering from the neighbour

The procession of monks comes down the road calling into each house

Another neighbour shows respect while they receive blessing from a monk

All the 'goodies' collected are thrown into a ute accompanying the procession

Please pray with us for release for the Thai from the burden of making merit. We know that Jesus has made perfect merit for us that lasts for eternity and provides a free gift of salvation for all people.

A warrior of the faith

It is refreshing to meet Thais who love their people and have a burning desire to see their fellow Thai come to know the Living God. These people are true leaders who give and serve, even when they're feeling tired, for the sake of their own people. One such man is our friend Citichai. He loves Jesus greatly and works tirelessly to see Jesus become known amongst the Central Thai.

Here Citichai works with some kids from a slum community

Citichai is a happily married man aged 40 with 3 beautiful young kids. He works as the Assistant Pastor at our Thai church. However, life was not always happy for Citichai. He sold himself into drug addiction for 13 years, which took away many years of his life and plunged him into a life of hopelessness and poverty. However, Jesus rescued him 14 years ago and transformed him into the new man we know now.

We love Citichai, we laugh with him at his constant forgetfulness - a consequence of the long hard years of drug addiction - yet know that Jesus never forgets him and is with him every day in the tough battles God calls him to fight as a warrior. He understands the many addicts that live in our slum communities - having been rescued from this lifestyle.

He recently told us that now he has children (which take a lot of his energy) he gets up as late as 6.00am everyday to meet with God. I am not sure what time he used to get up, but even at 6.00am this is a real commitment that obviously results in an infectious love for Jesus.

Kids tend to be drawn to Citichai's infectious love for Jesus

Thai kids cling to Citichai because there is something different about him - maybe it is the transformed life and love that flows naturally from him as he walks daily with the Living God. There is nothing in terms of possessions that makes Citichai smile, he has very little. The car he drives (essential for his ministry) is VERY old and breaks down every day. One day he turned up late for a leaders meeting at church because his car broke down and then he had to catch a motorcycle-taxi during which time his glasses blew off and subsequently broke. A friend at church was quick to do some temporary soldering work so Citichai could see again :-) Citichai's wife must work full-time (although they have 3 young children under the age of 6) in order for them to be able to feed and clothe their children.

Although he has little in terms of material possessions, Citichai loves serving the Living God

This is an example of a new/first-generation Thai believer who we are working closely with in one of our slum communities. Please pray for Citichai that his infectious love would continue to touch his people and the schemes of the evil one would be ineffective against him.

Please also pray for us as we work with Citichai on Christmas outreach over the coming weeks.

When prayer offensive takes place opposition is certain

Last week we were blessed by a group of Thai believers prayer walking with us one evening through our communities of ministry - the slum communities in which we work and the schools in which we teach. It was stirring prayer, in which we claimed territory for Jesus Christ, and in which we claimed the end of exploitation of human beings by the evil one. Also, I've been prayer walking through one of these communities almost weekly now for the last year and a half. One would think the job is done, right?

I'm afraid not. The very next day, Jen & I went as usual into one of these slum communities to teach the children, including opening God's Word together. However, this day we saw the greatest disruption we have had - with most kids being troublesome so that even the few that were interested could not have the opportunity to hear a story about the Lord Jesus.

Then last week both schools that we prayer-walked past contacted us to cancel our Christmas Day outreach (Note: Christmas Day is a normal working day here as it is considered a 'western festival' only and therefore is NOT a holiday). The reasons for cancelling seemed minor and irrelevant (i.e. an all-day 'teachers meeting' to close the school for the day, rescheduling of exams to take place on 25 December). This disappointment comes despite our excellent relationships with both schools and the credibility God has built up for us there over many years already.

I could slip into disappointment and depression about this, because it does tear my heart apart. But God has been speaking to me (no coincidence, of course) in Nehemiah chapters 1 and 2. After engaging in 4 months of prayer, Nehemiah sought the king's permission to rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem. Yet he faced ridicule and opposition. Further reading shows he pressed ahead in strength claiming the power of God over opposition. It seems to me that this is what I need to do in this circumstance - not to give up prayer-walking or serving in these communities, but to press ahead in the strength and authority that is available from the Living God through Jesus Christ my Lord.

Some of "our kids" in one of our communities

- they get an opportunity to hear God's Word every Saturday

Will you pray with us, please? , because when a prayer offensive takes place then opposition is always certain !!

An Attempt to Ease the Poverty Dilemma

Last month we blogged on the poverty dilemma that we see every day in our local communities. As we have prayed and talked with people and brainstormed with our local pastor, an idea that we have had in the backs of minds for a while now, is beginning to look like becoming reality.

There are many women in the slum communities who are constantly trying to find ways of making enough money to live on. We wrote about Mae Gulaap who looks after a baby for the equivalent of $3 a day. Others sweep streets, clean toilets or collect recyclable rubbish from rubbish bins. Last week when I visited a friend, Pi Eew in her home, she was putting pegs together. For 10 hours of this menial work she receives the equivalent of $2.


At the same time, another friend, Pi Anong, has craft skills that she would love to share with people in her community but has not been able to get any support from her community leaders. Another friend at church is ready to teach women jewellery making skills in order to give them another option for earning an income. The only missing link is a viable market. This is where you could come in.

If after looking at the accompanying photos of jewellery and Anong's handbag, you have ideas for selling these products eg, in churches, coffee shops, at parties, please let me know, as we can't begin a project like this without being sure we can draw an income from it for the women.