Update Thailand from Kelly Hilderbrand

Just added 6/28/06 Update Myanmar from George Butron http://seareport.blogspot.com/
Update Thailand June 2006 Newsletter from the Hilderbrand's

NEEDED:
Native English speakers willing to be trained as language teachers.
Website address: http://www.worldbasethailand.org/

TEACHERS: Many wonderful things are happening in Thailand, but before we get to the good news…. We are still critically short of English teachers. We have had lots of people contact us and say they are interested in coming, but we need teachers by August or September to keep our students at the current level.

TEN YEARS IN MYANMAR
In December 1997, Kelly led a team from Hope Chapel Honolulu to the G*ld*n Triangle region of Burma. There he met a young man named Pastor P. He had just arrived from Yangon the year before to begin planting churches in the region. Permission was obtained from the local drug lords and Pastor P. began his first church in the town of T along the border with Thailand. Kelly attended one of the early services there. The service was in the house of a man from the Shan tribe.

This month, Kelly attended the 10th anniversary of our church planting movement there. Fifty one churches have been started along with an orphanage and a Bible School. However, the Bible School was closed recently by the Burmese government and Pastor P. was arrested and beaten for two weeks. The government was afraid of his growing influence in the region and wanted to make sure that he never used his influence to oppose the government. Fortunately, that situation is over for now and Pastor P. is again able to preach and plant churches.

After Kelly crossed the border and arrived at the celebration, the Shan man from Pastor P.'s first church approached Kelly. The Shan people are racially related to the Thai and their language is similar. This particular man also speaks Thai. He took Kelly to meet two people. One young man had been mute for a long time. Pastor P. had approached the family and asked for permission to pray for the man. A demon was cast out and now he appears to be perfectly healthy. Another young woman was afflicted with a spirit that caused her to run around town like the demoniac in the bible. She was prayed for and delivered. They were both at the celebration.

THE FANG DISTRICT OF CHURCHES
After the two day celebration was over. Kelly traveled to the district of Fang to visit Pastor Timothy. Pastor Timothy and his wife were awarded a grant from the Foursquare Foundation to plant churches among the Hill tribe’s people of the north. In one year, 14 churches and 16 meeting places have been started. Before that, we only had four churches in the area. All we needed were the funds to get things going.

In addition to all the churches, Pastor Timothy has begun taking care of orphans. He now provides for 15 orphans. Many more have applied to come, but there are no funds to take care of all of them. People have given funds to help build an orphan home, but the Pastor and his wife feed and provide for the orphans out of their own resources.

Two young girls recently joined the group. They were found sleeping in a chicken coop covered with sores and rashes. Several of the children have been abandoned. No one knows if they have parents or where they might be. Some have been brutally abused by relatives. But now the children look happy and healthy. They have a one hour worship service every evening and help in the church and have their chores at the orphanage. These will be the next generation of pastors and leaders in the north.

MISSIONS ENCOUNTER 2006
Every year we host a two week training course for people considering missions in Thailand. This year we had 22 people come for the training in Bangkok.

BUILDING
Please continue to pray for our building. All the paper work is done, but the government has not yet given us permission to start. We are only waiting for the paperwork to go through the bureaucracy. We now have a $350,000 loan to begin building, but we still need to raise about $200,000 more to complete the building.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Please pray for several new English teachers to come soon. The school has grown to serve almost 800 students and our second Bangkok branch is also growing and in need of more teachers.

Please pray that the government will approve our application for a Foursquare Foundation very, very, very soon.

We have applied for a building permit to begin construction on our new facility. Please pray that the application will be approved. We still need to raise $550,000 to build a seven story facility that will house two churches, WorldBase, Language school and several social ministries and offices.

Please pray for our language teachers by name: Anna, Evan, Gary, Josh, Michel-lyn, Paula, Ty, Kelly, and Angie. Pray that our teachers would develop friendships quickly and be effective in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pray that these “seekers” and new believers can be discipled in the Thai church.

Please pray for the upcoming Eastern Conference of Foursquare Churches Convention held in Bangkok this November, 2006. Our church is organizing this international conference which is open to everyone. The cost is $150, which includes hotel, food, and seminars. Dr. Jack Hayford is the main speaker. Please pray that God would give us wisdom and discernment in all matters. For more information, please see our website.

Pray for the new Ram 2 church and its pastor, Max.

Continue to pray for our health and continued protection, especially as we travel.

Let us know how we can pray for you.

Update from Ken in Garissa, Kenya

There is nothing as great as being in Love with the Lord. He loved us first even while we yet sinners. Our prayer is that you will experience more of Jesus. May we seek to decrease as he increases in our lives.

We thank God that finally we are feeling more secure after threats to burn our office. I had to release the extra guard we had because things seems to be much better and also because we can’t afford paying him. From the independent investigations we did, the cause of the threats was that there was a debate between Muslim and Christian scholars here in Garissa and the Muslims lost the argument so badly that they lost their emotions and started throwing stones. The place turned chaotic and had it not been that the Police were there in large numbers things would have been worse. Apparently Police had realized possibility of Trouble. After this Skirmishes, the fundamentalist figured out who could have been the sponsors of these event and guess What? Yes, your guess is as good as mine-we were found to be the architect of the debate. We are privileged to take all the blame on all things that go wrong for Muslims here. For the debate itself, my opinion as always been that there is no need of cutting somebody’s nose and then you give him or her rose flower to smell--aaah. I fully subscribe to 1 Peter 3:15,16:But have reverence for Christ in your hearts, and honor him as Lord. Be ready at all times to answer anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you, but do it with gentleness and respect----(Good news version). I enjoy Christian apologetics but only when I know it is likely to bear fruit.

Food distribution went well and the locals are really excited about what we are doing. We also don’t want to give them Fish all the time. Giving them fish net is better and so in July we will supply people with seeds to plant. We want them to engage in economic activities rather that wait for food relief.

About our family, it is such a joy for both Eunice and I to watch Tim able to read stories. He turned four just the other day and he is Nursery. He is one of the youngest in his class but is doing very well. Ann is making every one happy with songs that only she understands.

We thank God for what he is doing through pullman foursquare church. Blessings

Update from Ken in Garissa, Kenya

PASTOR SCOTT
Hope you are doing fine. I pray that the Lord may give you the grace to handle the many responsibilty you have

We had great time yesterday as the whole church in garissa gathered to pray. Eunice has been organising prayer events and We are happy that something is happening in the spiritual realm. Thank God for the good attendance.

We have some relief food that we need to distribute in the next one week or so--pray that God will give us wisdom so that only the needy will benefit from these efforts. Pray also for protection as we enter deep in the villages during distribution. Blessings