December was a great month!! Four people were baptized into Christ during December. I believe that there are many people looking for truth, looking for a better life, and looking for salvation. It is our job to find them and teach them. We plant and water as we teach people the gospel. God will give the increase. The Bible teaches us that if we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly. The Bible is the seed… let us sow more seed in 2022 than we ever have before. I know that some of the seed will fall on honest hearts and they will be obedient to the gospel. Let me tell you about our brethren. The first young man is 17 years old. His name is Baddiphat Thepthip, his nickname is Fook. He is one of the people that is working to build the dormitory here. After he was baptized, he threw the Buddhist amulet, that he had been wearing around his neck, in the trash. One of his friends, who is not a Christian yet, asked him, “Why did you do that?” He said, “I have God now, I don’t need that anymore.” The next one is Thanet Tamah. He is married and has a young son. You will see that he had long hair when he was baptized. We told him that we wanted him to start learning how to lead in worship… the first thing that he did was go to get his haircut. At first his wife was not interested in studying the Bible at all. After seeing the change in his life over the last few weeks, she is now interested in studying. God’s word is powerful and can change lives. Baddiphat and Thanet were baptized in the first week of December. The next two people who were baptized are husband and wife. Their names are Attaphon and Thay Doithee. They were baptized in the third week of December. They have two young daughters. The oldest daughter (Ying) is in 2nd grade and the younger one (Fon) is in kindergarten. Baddiphat, Thanet, and Attaphon have all waited on the Lord’s table and Baddiphat and Thanet have led some songs. Please pray for each one of these new Christians as they begin their lives in Christ.

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   We continue to help the young people here with their schoolwork, as schools are still not open. Some of the private schools have re-opened, but the public schools in Chiang Mai are still closed. I am pleased with our young people. The older ones are starting to help the younger ones. It is truly beautiful to see. Young people taking time out to help others. This is what we want to see more and more in our young people. We want them to learn how to give to others and to help them.

This month we also went to the Northern Welfare Center for the Mentally Retarded. At this center they teach these young people who do basic life skills… feed themselves, cloth themselves, bath themselves, and brush their teeth and hair. After they have mastered these skills, they learn work skills so they can help provide for themselves. The people who take care of these young people are fantastic. They are very patient, loving, and kind. We went to provide lunch for all the young people. They have about 45 young people living at their facility at the moment. Usually, they do not have that many living onsite. Due to Covid restrictions, they are not allowed to go home. This is putting an extra burden on their budget. They are having to house and feed all of these young people. We went and took lunch for the young people and the staff there. This helps with their expenses some. We hope that our going and helping out from time to time will give us an opportunity to teach the staff there and family members of these young people the gospel of Christ. We are going back on January the 13th to feed them again and to have activities for the young people. It is Children’s Day here in Thailand. Children’s day is a day when they have activities for kids, give away school supplies, let them go to the zoo for free and things like that. We hope to bring some joy to these young people and show them what Christianity is all about.

   It is very hard for many of the young people in Thailand right now to get their schoolwork done. You can study online… if you have internet and a phone or a computer… but many of the villages we help don’t even have electricity. One such village is Thichawmae. The young people there are really struggling. They are getting work that the schools have printed out and are expected to do the work without any instruction. We made a one day, 18-hour, trip to encourage the students and try to get the parents to understand how important it is for their children to get an education even if it is difficult right now. The parents have very little or no education. They grow rice… but do not get enough to live one, little less sell any. They have trouble understanding that it is important for their children to get a good education so that they can have a better future and help them too. Hopefully, everyone understands the importance of education more now.

   A quick update on Miboon. You will remember that we helped him get nose reconstruction surgery at the beginning of 2021. He is doing fantastic. He can now go to school and do everything else young children his age can do. Look at the pictures of this handsome young fellow!!

   We had a great New Year’s party. I am sending a couple of pictures with this report. We played lots of games and ate a lot of food. This year I had the young people make Pinatas. They did not know what they were. They made them, I filled them secretly, and then they decorated them. We actually made six pinatas. Before we started playing with the pinatas, I passed out bags to everyone. They said what are these for… then we started with the young kids on the first pinata. When it broke and candy and little gifts started pouring out… they were a little slow picking everything up. But on the second one on… they were pinata professionals… as soon as the pinatas started breaking there was a mad dash to grab the goodies. Much laughter and fun were had by all. The best round for me was when the older ladies took a turn!!

May God bless us all as we work together to teach the lost,

Michael.

   His name is Baddiphat Thepthip, his nickname is Fook. He is one of the people that is working to build the dormitory here. After he was baptized, he threw the Buddhist amulet, that he had been wearing around his neck, in the trash. One of his friends, who is not a Christian yet, asked him, “Why did you do that?” He said, “I have God now, I don’t need that anymore.” The next one is Thanet Tamah. He is married and has a young son. You will see that he had long hair when he was baptized. We told him that we wanted him to start learning how to lead in worship… the first thing that he did was go to get his haircut. At first his wife was not interested in studying the Bible at all. After seeing the change in his life over the last few weeks, she is now interested in studying. God’s word is powerful and can change lives. Baddiphat and Thanet were baptized in the first week of December. The next two people who were baptized are husband and wife. Their names are Attaphon and Thay Doithee. They were baptized in the third week of December. They have two young daughters. The oldest daughter (Ying) is in 2nd grade and the younger one (Fon) is in kindergarten. Baddiphat, Thanet, and Attaphon have all waited on the Lord’s table and Baddiphat and Thanet have led some songs. Please pray for each one of these new Christians as they begin their lives in Christ.

   We continue to help the young people here with their schoolwork, as schools are still not open. Some of the private schools have re-opened, but the public schools in Chiang Mai are still closed. I am pleased with our young people. The older ones are starting to help the younger ones. It is truly beautiful to see. Young people taking time out to help others. This is what we want to see more and more in our young people. We want them to learn how to give to others and to help them.

This month we also went to the Northern Welfare Center for the Mentally Retarded. At this center they teach these young people who do basic life skills… feed themselves, cloth themselves, bath themselves, and brush their teeth and hair. After they have mastered these skills, they learn work skills so they can help provide for themselves. The people who take care of these young people are fantastic. They are very patient, loving, and kind. We went to provide lunch for all the young people. They have about 45 young people living at their facility at the moment. Usually, they do not have that many living onsite. Due to Covid restrictions, they are not allowed to go home. This is putting an extra burden on their budget. They are having to house and feed all of these young people. We went and took lunch for the young people and the staff there. This helps with their expenses some. We hope that our going and helping out from time to time will give us an opportunity to teach the staff there and family members of these young people the gospel of Christ. We are going back on January the 13th to feed them again and to have activities for the young people. It is Children’s Day here in Thailand. Children’s day is a day when they have activities for kids, give away school supplies, let them go to the zoo for free and things like that. We hope to bring some joy to these young people and show them what Christianity is all about.

It is very hard for many of the young people in Thailand right now to get their schoolwork done. You can study online… if you have internet and a phone or a computer… but many of the villages we help don’t even have electricity. One such village is Thichawmae. The young people there are really struggling. They are getting work that the schools have printed out and are expected to do the work without any instruction. We made a one day, 18-hour, trip to encourage the students and try to get the parents to understand how important it is for their children to get an education even if it is difficult right now. The parents have very little or no education. They grow rice… but do not get enough to live one, little less sell any. They have trouble understanding that it is important for their children to get a good education so that they can have a better future and help them too. Hopefully, everyone understands the importance of education more now.

A quick update on Miboon. You will remember that we helped him get nose reconstruction surgery at the beginning of 2021. He is doing fantastic. He can now go to school and do everything else young children his age can do. Look at the pictures of this handsome young fellow!!

We had a great New Year’s party. I am sending a couple of pictures with this report. We played lots of games and ate a lot of food. This year I had the young people make Pinatas. They did not know what they were. They made them, I filled them secretly, and then they decorated them. We actually made six pinatas. Before we started playing with the pinatas, I passed out bags to everyone. They said what are these for… then we started with the young kids on the first pinata. When it broke and candy and little gifts started pouring out… they were a little slow picking everything up. But on the second one on… they were pinata professionals… as soon as the pinatas started breaking there was a mad dash to grab the goodies. Much laughter and fun were had by all. The best round for me was when the older ladies took a turn!!

 

 

May God bless us all as we work together to teach the lost,

Michael