pullman foursquare missions

About Pullman Foursquare Missions

2011-10-11T15:00:00.000-07:00

There is so much activity and so many people in our blog that I've provided this overview.

Missions 2012

Spring of 2012 Pullman Foursquare will be heading to SouthEast Asia. Our trips are always exciting growth and giving opportunities; everyone who has gone in the past has been particularly blessed.

Thailand and nearby. We'll be traveling to SE Asia once again and we will minister with old and new friends. The trip Corresponds with WSU spring break (March 10) So College students are encouraged to go. Youth 16 and older can go and 14 - 15 if accompanied by another adult. Of course anyone under 18 will need parental permission. But any age is welcome. The trip will be customized based on the number, age, and experiences of the participants, and we may not all do the same thing.

Cost about $2000.
There is not a specific 'charge' as we do the trips based on the actual cost, so the more frugal we are the less it costs. ALSO, funds needed for ministry will be raised by the group and therefore be the only church wide fundraising.

We'll be going to other 'closed' destinations and hope to have wonderful experiences there. Contact Bruce or Laurie directly if you are interested.

In SE Asia we have three primary goals:

To come alongside local pastors in Northern Thailand and SE Asia, partnering with them in projects that help expand the impact of their ministries.
To build on the relational foundations with pastors and missionaries in SE Asia formed during previous mission trips, thereby opening doors for future mission trips and for individuals to return and participate in full time missionary work.
To preach the Gospel in various villages and to make disciples.

For the security of the pastors and missionaries in SE Asia we no longer (or rarely) post their information in this blog. If you would like to receive emailed updates about happenings in Myan mar/Bur ma V. please contact me heimbig @ gmail.com

Who's Who
Dr. Kelly and Angela Hilderbrand, FMI Missionaries to Thailand responsible for and the English Language Center with hundreds of students and multiple Church plants in Thailand. Bangkok is usually our first stop in Thailand. There are three month to a year English language teaching opportunities in Bangkok.

Dr. Christopher Curry currently lives with his (a Thai medical doctor) in in Bangkok and his ministry supports Pastor P. in the Golden Triangle area of My-anmar, also one of our first contacts.

Pastor Timothy: Pastor, Missionary, runs an orphanage, started and supports many hill tribe churches in the Fang, Thailand area and all around good guy. He was one of our first contacts and is always helpful when we look to Thailand for outreach.

Pastor P. is very active in the Golden Triangle of Myan-mar, he has started dozens of churches, an orphanage, Bible college, drug rehabilitation center, education house, and is Senior Pastor in Tachiliek and district supervisor for Eastern Myanm-ar. Pastor P. was another of the first people we visited. Since Pastor P's arrest and prison beating and the forced closing of his college in 2005, we purposely misspell the country and city and no longer include his actual name. It is NOT that we (or he) are doing anything illegal, just that we do NOT want to draw the My an-mar government's attention to the work.

George Butron is the SE Asia director for Foursquare Missions International and is always helpful for me to determine what we can/cannot do or should not do :-)

Kennedy Ochieng gave up a promising career in Kenya's Agriculture to minister to the Muslim, poor, refugee camps, and tribal populations of South East Kenya, along with his wife Eunice and children Tim and Ann. Scott Linklater made contact with him through Calab Nindo of our church (also from Kenya.) Scott and Tyler Anderson ministered with Ken in Africa in 2006(?) and Ken visited Pullman and other cities in the USA in 2007.

I meet Paul and Lari Vernon in September 2007. I'm sure there will be some kind of continuing connection. Their web site.

Donations
You can support Pastor Timothy, Pastor P. or Ken or Chris Curry's ministry through direct donations made out to Pullman Foursquare Church. You can donate directly to the Golden Triangle ministries http://give.foursquare.org/Curry and Chris will see to it that donations will be used where most needed.

Regular monthly donations are preferred and the amount doesn't matter. For missionaries to know they have a dependable supply is extremely helpful. For Pastors Timothy and P. you can indicated either for the general use or specifically to support orphans. One time donations are of course accepted. You can also support Ken by purchasing his book. 100% of money donated to foreign missionaries is sent directly to them. Contact Bruce or Laurie for specifics.

Contacts: Pastor Timothy Tang timotang @ hotmail.com

Christopher Curry christopherjonny @ gmail.com
Pastor P. khim.gtm2007 @ gmail.com his web site.
Kelly Hilderbrand kahildy @ gmail.com
Paul & Lori Vernon's web site.
George Butron george @ ebible.org
Ken Ochieng: kenyochieng @ yahoo.com
Bruce Heimbigner heimbig @ gmail.com
Laurie Heimbigner llheim @ gmail.com

To email just remove the spaces on either side of the @ - this prevents spammers from automatically harvesting Email addresses.

Why no recent posts?

2011-04-28T14:06:00.000-07:00

The internet is amazing - a great way to share. But, we haven't been able to post lately because most of our contacts are in locations that are under local oppression. Our contacts and local supporters have been harassed, beaten, and facilities burned down. Amazingly no deaths. When we advertise successes it may result in local trouble - we don't want that.

We DO still have ongoing connections with the people on this site, if you want specific information please email me.

So we are looking for a way to get the word out and protect locals.

BTW Laurie and I plan to visit our contacts Thailand, and Myanmar spring 2012 AND we'ld really like to send a team to Kenya as well.

Bruce Heimbigner

Check out new blog for Paul Delei

2011-04-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

See new blog for Paul Delei
http://pauldelei.blogspot.com/

Video clips from Kenya trip

2008-06-26T06:21:00.001-07:00

Somali Tribal area near Garissa, Kenya

Frontier Life School, Garissa Kenya. Flag Raising, Welcome to the class, and fun song.

Worship Service in Garissa, Kenya

Ethiopian Worship Service in Dadaab Refugee Camp near border with Somalia.

Worship Service at Garissa Teachers College

Seven days in East Kenya

2008-06-13T21:11:00.001-07:00

Beautiful downtown Dadaab

Our host, Ken, providing security for our luggage.

the Highway to Dadaab.

Home made Drums (the only instrument) for Ethiopian church in Dadaab refugee camp.

ah.... err... Africans have a different cultural concept of holding hands.

Ethiopians in their new uniforms

Somalis in their uniforms

OK, so I'm fascinated by cornrow art.

Giving out basic supplies in refugee camp

cute kids

more cute kids

Still more

Caleb (Professor at U of I and Kenyan native) talking with locals in camp.

The Ethiopian church building in refugee camp

It is amazing what can be done with just sand and NO paint.

Ali Preaching

Sean Preaching at camp

Lupita preaching

Supplies being given out a Somali tribe near Garissa, Kenya.

Standing room only for bus trip from Nairobi to Garissa. You can't seem the armed guard (he gets a seat) up front.

Bruce and Caleb filtering water from the local supply at Dadaab.

Caleb pumping water to overhead storage tank (so we have pressure for showers in the morning) in the Canadian Baptist compound in Dadaab, Kenya. There was 12v solar power only, but cellular service was excellent.

School in the Canadian Baptist compound

Sean after yet another proposition... for marriage. this time 4 wives of his choosing all he has to do is convert.

Basic Supplies for Somali tribal people near Garissa Kenya. Per family 1 each plastic cup, metal spoon, a cooking pot, large plastic bowls for washing, 30 liter water jug, mosquito nets for everyone. They also got a Solar oven for the community. As a nomatic tribe they lived without this kind of thing because they just couldn't haul it around, now they can use it as they build permanent structures and create a village.

Preparing for Medical mission pharmacy

There are great needs.

Ya we gave out a football (soccer ball for us Yanks)

Classroom at ken's School. "Frontier Life School"

morning meal at school

Ya I stole the ball.

Classroom at Somali tribe, they are dedicated to educating their children.

A lot of trash in Kenya, and in the background the huts that are the homes for this Somali tribal community. the huts are designed to be completely portable (by camel) but since they've decide to end their nomadic ways I'm sure they will change soon to more traditional housing.

Another school/community (Ibnu-Khaldum Integrated Program) we give out another solar oven, this is also the community we broke ground for the well.

At Ibnu-Khaldum Integrated Program (school) Head teacher, Committee head, and my wife at this same community/school. Giving out more books.

Used books handed out at all the schools. We maximised our allotment of checked luggage in the form of books.

Head of Frontier Life school is a South African (jocov ??) and Ken.

It was so packed the only way we could get water to people doing the medical outreach was through the wall.

A Sean moment, teaching at the school

Solar oven gift. The guy in the white cap is Ken's full time solar oven minister. He oversees the construction, delivery, training in the use, and some of the recipes.

Head Teacher at Ibnu-Khaldum Integrated Program

People coming for the medial outreach.

more medical outreach - Laurie taking medical histories.

Ground breaking ceremony for new well at Ibnu-Khaldum Integrated Program. the well be used for drinking and irrigation for several hundred people. There will be a manual (foot) pump people trained in how to use and maintain it, a local will be in charge of the well which will be locked when not in use.

Ground breaking.

Catholic run Rosa mistica spiritual center and hostile, where we spent a couple nights at $10 per person in nice clean rooms.

My guess is the don't have PETA. yes those are chickens lashed to roof of a van.

and in the van Goats under the seats.

amazing.

Somali tribal camp.

Sean in traditiona Somali garb.

Seven days in East Kenya, we've taken 1000's of pictures

Thursday

Shortly after our arrival and while driving into Nairobi from Airport we got a Flat tire.

Lost luggage (Guitar) Still at airport

Learned about Kenyan Drivers and the Matatas

Checked in to the Santa Maria Mystical Spiritual Center

Ate out of gordes at a late breakfast

Went to Nairobi Museum and the Nairobi National Park

Carnivore for dinner, they no longer server wild game Sean and I were really disappointed.

Friday
Kenyan Banking (DO NOT BRING TRAVELER’S CHECKS!!!)

Bought 2 full sets of soccer uniforms (Bright Green and Bright Orange) and 4 leather soccer balls.

Took the bus from Nairobi to Garissa This trip was delayed b/c of Friday Prayers for the Muslims so we left 2 hours late.

Bruce decided to buy some random So-called Camel meat from a “non pushy” Muslim street vendor, This mystery meat was actually really good.

He also picked up some amazing cookies that we shared with other people on the bus. These lasted for days for the desparate people -- us.

Once on the bus Eliza was propositioned by the Somali help to hire him for work and he would be happy to marry her daughters for her.

We thought it was crowded we found out later that if there is still room to stand and only move by crawling over the seat then there are still tickets to sell.

The healing tonic of East Africa we have found out is Camel Milk. According to local taxi’s take 1 drink, expel everything from your body and you will be fine… we don’t agree.

The bus ride was about 6 hours.

Arrived in Garissa at night and checked into the Nomad Palace Hotel. The nicest place in Garissa, which has been great. Of course only the team leaders got Hot Water, and the rest of us all got A/C which is a huge treat!

We had an amazing dinner prepared by Eunice Ochieng.

Saturday.

Meet with Ken and headed downtown to dive into the market. Here we met up with Jacob who was our Nurse Practitioner who bought the medical supplies for our medical mission that day.

Headed out to a school in a local Muslim Community. Here we set up the medical distribution. Laurie and Jacob checked the patients, Caleb and Lupita became pharmacist and Eliza and Sean handed out mosquito nets while Bruce tried to keep control.

We found that when dealing with Muslim women that a man’s voice won't go very far, however, another Muslim with a big stick can make a crowd move. Check out the video… wow.

The money for the well ($3000) was given to this comunity, we preformed a ground breaking ceremony and learned that this well will be giving water to the school and the local community which has about 150 households with an average of 10 people per house.

Bracelets: We each handed out at least one “Good News Braclets”

Sean taught spelling, math and the colors of the rainbow.

Bruce played with the kiddos, and found that kids in Kenya are amazing with a camera.

We were at this school for about 6 hours.

Eliza was blessed by being asked by two of the mothers to visit their local homes which is a great honor. It was obvious that they appreciated us being there.

That night, we split up and started our teaching.

Caleb and Lupita headed over the Garissa Teachers College with Eunice while Bruce, Lori, Eliza, and Sean headed over the local Catholic Guest House to give a short Marriage Encounter to the local Pastors. This was our first experience presenting with an interpreter and ended up using flashlights to light the room as all the lights went out.

After feeding us a great dinner the pastors headed out and as they van was out we headed back to the kitchen and had a blast washing the dishes.

We headed back to the Nomad about 11 pm.

Sunday:
Divide and Conquer

This morning we headed out in groups of 2 to preach the good word to the local churches.

Lori and Eliza headed off to the Garissa Teachers College

Bruce and Sean headed over to the Mororo Baptist Pentecostal Church and
Caleb and Lupita went to Redeemed Gospel Church
We had an awesome time and loved to preach, experience the worship (WHICH IS AMAZING) and meet the congregation.

That evening we all headed back to the Garissa Teachers College and listen to Caleb speak about planting a seed and harvest.

After the talk we headed out to dinner at the Almond (which is another hotel in town) This ended up being not such a great choice, especially for Lupita who fell ill. No worries she gets better and it is a great story.

Monday:

At 7 am we had the honor of being a part of the Life Frontier School Flag Ceremony where we got to hand out the books to the students. We also got visit many of the classrooms where we listened to the students sings songs about God and we taught science and geography topics on the spot. Life Frontier School is the school that Ken help establish.

We then got to meet with Jacu the Manager of the school and the Head Mistress and talked about different ways the school is advancing the students education and collects funding.

This is also the place where the Solar Cooker manufacturing shop is located. They also create Solor Dryers. This small business is helping local tribes prepare food and creates a source of income by selling the cakes and breads that they make in the cookers. As well has keeps them from cutting down all the local bush 'forest'.

Pullman Foursquare purchased 6 of these cookers to be donated to local tribes.

We then headed over the Boji Village on the outskirts of town. This is about the most primitive village anyone on the team has ever been in. No water, no electricity or sewer of any kind. This of course is 100% Muslim. There were 3 communities within this Nomadic Tribe. They live in small huts that most of us had to get on our hands and knees to enter.

They are progressing and like most of Kenya, believe that education is the best option for their children. Their school is the only permanent structure around.
We were privileged to see local dances by the older women in the tribe and introduced ourselves to the group.

Sean is the only member of the team who is not married and we found that to be a highly desirable trait for the local women. At this instance Sean was offered new born babies and at least 4 wives if he decided to convert, Sean is still single.

Speaking of babies, Eliza was offered a little, this one was not yet born, she is waiting for John’s approval. We will all wait and see.

At this tribe we handed out medical supplies, water judges, a solar cooker, eating spoons, cooking pots, mosquito nets, 1 soccer ball.

These materials were safe inside the school b/c of our leader Bruce who was not afraid to touch/ shove / knee in the rear Muslim women to keep them out. Thank You Bruce.

We handed out hundreds of items to these women and their children.

That night Eliza, Lori and Sean gave the first part of another Marriage Encounter at the Anglican Church of Kenya. Once again the flashlights and headlamps came to the rescue as the lights went out.

The enemy tried to keep us in darkness, but with the Word of God there is no darkness only light! AMEM

After this encounter Lupita and Sean stayed home while the rest of the team went to the Ochieng house for dinner. Unfortunately Lupita has gotten food poisoning and Sean had a head cold.

Lupita’s illness got worse over the night and ended up having to go to the local hospital where Ken, Caleb, Lori and Jacob got her taken care of. Not only did the hospital do a great job and were very caring they did not CHARGE for any of the services! AMEN

She was much better by later that day and was able to travel with us to Dadaab.

Tuesday:

We missed our first bus due to Lupita’s need to check out the local medical facilities so Bruce and Ken got us a bus later in the day.

This bus ride was 1 in a million. Luckly the conductor did a great job and got all of the ladies a seat, the fellas on the other hand got the chance to stand. This ride took us 2 ½ hours for a 4 hour trip on an all sand road. Just enough bumps to throw your head against the ceiling and make you hold on for dear life.

Laurie was concerned about the bus actually tipping over … well yeah it happens.. about 3 times in the past 3 months, thank God ours made it just fine. To show how small the world is, Laurie ended up sitting next to a women from Seattle WA. Who was visiting relatives in the camps.

DADAAB!
We arrived in Dadaab (which is the local city surrounded by the 3 UN Refugee Camps which house approx. 150,000 people.) Dadaab is about 80 KM from the Somali Boarder.
We were housed at the Canadian Baptist Ministry Guest House in Dadaab. Ytani and Irene were our host and treated us with great hospitality.

To get a little extra work out in the heat of the EQUATOR we had a stair stepper pump to pump water to the houses. Nothing like working up a little sweat while you are already dripping in it.

For dinner we headed over the UN Compound, which took about 1.5 hours to get permission to get in. Once in we visited a restaurant that liked to use dirt as a spice. Mmmm mmm. Delicious.

Wednesday:

It took a little long to get a cab due to the Canadian Commissioner in town and no cars were allowed to drive. They also shut down all cell phone communication which made it hard to find out what was going on. After prayer and patience a cab arrived and we headed out to IFO Camp and the Gambella Block. Gambella is an Ethiopian Tribe.

Here we did our Encounter at their beautiful churched called “God Help Church” This was a non denominational hand made brick church that houses over 100 members. The brick was covered by sand plaster that had amazing art work.

Their praise and worship was truly amazing and glorified God with every part of their mind, body and soul.

These members have been traveling here since 2003 when the massacres started in Ethiopia. We heard many devastating stories that broke our hearts. It is amazing what these people have gone through and still they praise the Lord and have Jesus as their Savior. AMEN!!!

The Encounter took 2 days.

Day 1 Morning Session was Sean, Lupita, Eliza and Bruce and was translated into 2 languages as the same time, Ethiopian and Somali.

The afternoon session was Laurie and prayer for deliverance accompanied with local worship.

Over 100 people plus children came to the Encounter and the church overflowed with people, song, prayers and the love the Father.

During our lunch time we got to listen to Ali’s (who is a Somali convert) story of his life with Christ and the persecution he has gone through from Somlia’s. He is the Somali Track Master and handed out tracks in Arabic, Somali, and local languages.

We also found out that Ethiopians do not have the Old Testament Translated in the local tongues. This of course makes it very hard to understand the full message of the word.

After the Encounter we headed back to Dadaab for another unsatisfactory meal at the UN. That was the last time we choose to visit there which worked out nicely b/c they decided to ban us from the facility.

Thursday:

Headed back to the Gambella Block of the IFO Refugee Camp for the rest of the Encounter.
Caleb spoke about the Holy Spirit and we prayed for the Holy Spirit to enter the lives of the believers. This was amazing proclamation of faith and we experienced the Holy Spirit enter that church and the IFO Camp. AMEN!

Since not all church members could attend we held another shorter version of the Holy Spirit talk in the afternoon. Ken closed the meeting with a great Vision Talk for the Gambella people. After the Encounter we handed out the soccer uniforms we purchased in Nairobi and watched a match between one of the Somali teams and the Gambella Ethiopian Team. It was a dirt field with ashes from cooking fires as lines on the field. Before the game began the field needed to be cleared… of Goats.. 3 young local boys did the work for us and the game began. They were amazing athletics and it was a great game to watch. As we left in the Taxi that drove across the field during the game (which didn’t stop play) the Ethiopians were winning 3 to nill.

We headed back to the Baptist guesthouse where our host Irene made us a incredible meal that put the UN restaurant to shame.
I also need to mention that the food given to us for lunch at the IFO camp was incredible, Ethiopian Meals are amazing.

Friday:
Caleb left at 6:30 am to head off to Nairobi to catch a plane and head over to visit his family. The rest of the group was ready for our bus at 9 am which ended up being 1 and ½ hours late. We were very happy to all have seats this time around and with room to spare.

The ride back included, 6 goats that reluctantly stayed in the storage compartment under the bus, 4 police checks, 3 hours of travel and a lot of sand.

We arrived back in the Nomad Hotel safe and sound with all of us feeling good and ready for a meal.

This afternoon was a relaxing day of shopping in the local market and having dinner with Ken and his family at the Nomad.

Sean and Bruce and the team.

Laurie's Update

2008-06-12T18:04:00.000-07:00

Hi there,

Bruce and I got back from Kenya around 11:30 last night. We quickly discovered that our plans to send lots of email updates were futile—we were definitely off the beaten track most of the time and internet access was rare. When it existed, it was often interrupted by power outages. (My flashlight came in handy as we finished both evening marriage seminar sessions in pitch black except for my light on the speaker!)

I know I say this every time that I get back from a missions trip, but it really was an absolutely fabulous trip—I’m so glad we went! Kiswahili is Kenya’s national language but English is Kenya’s official language, so many, many Kenyans speak fluent English. Since we traveled on the local bus inside Kenya, we came in contact with number of English speaking Muslims. The “Good News Bracelets” we wore turned out to be a powerful and effective way to share the Gospel. I shared the Gospel with a Muslim woman and man who acted as translators for me while I was taking histories for a medical outreach. My female translator was delighted that she could have the bracelet if she could tell me what each bead stood for—she learned it in a flash (as did the man who was listening) and wore the bracelet proudly. Later I got to chat with a Somali woman on the bus to Dadaab who was going to a refugee camp to visit her family. When we started talking she asked me where I was from. I answered “Pullman, Washington” and she got really excited. She replied that she was from Washington State. It turns out that she was relocated out of the refugee camp to Seattle 10 years ago and has been living there with her children ever since, except for occasional trips to Kenya to visit her mother and brother who are still in the camp. It really is a small world! We chatted about her struggles to learn a new culture and I asked about the Muslim prayer beads she wore around her wrist. In response she wanted to know the meaning of the bracelet I wore, so again I got to share the Gospel.

Other things I got to do included preaching the Sunday sermon on “Reaching Higher to Win the Battle” at two different churches in Garissa, speaking on deliverance at two different “Encounters with God” (one in a church of Ethiopians and Somalis in a UN refugee camp in Dadaab—80 Km from the border to Somalia—and one to members of a variety of different churches in Garissa) followed by amazing prayer times, and speaking on love and respect at two different marriage seminars in Garissa (one for pastors and their wives and one for their combined congregations). Scattered between teaching and traveling to Dadaab were visits to schools to distribute the books we brought (which were received with great excitement and gratitude) and two different villages for “medical camps”.

The medical camps definitely were NOT what I was expecting! Ken, the Kenyan missionary in Garissa who we were working with, had arranged for a nurse practitioner to buy the necessary drugs and accompany us to the camps to do the diagnosing and prescribing. Once word got out that we were there CROWDS flocked to the huts we used as a dispensary. The first day there wasn’t a door on the woven stick hut and it immediately became jam packed with people to the point that no one could get in or out and the air temperature rose from hot to sweltering. (Eventually we shut down the operation and told people they had to go outside or we wouldn’t start up again. To our shock it took an older woman with a stick—who wasn’t afraid to use it to get compliance—to disperse the line so we could empty the building!) At the second camp we were wiser and the hut had a door, so Bruce became the “bouncer” controlling when and who got inside. To my surprise medications were dispensed based on history alone, without any physical exam. Most people (including little children) suffered with symptoms of malaria (night sweats, fever, chills, headache…) and shortly into the second camp we ran out of antimalarial drugs and antibiotics for diarrhea. On the whole though, the people were much healthier than I had anticipated—the adults and children generally looked adequately nourished and hydrated with no open sores. Mothers did talk to Eliza matter of factly, though, about sometimes going 2 to 7 days without food due to lack of money.

After 10 days of ministering in Garissa and Dadaab, half our team returned home and Bruce, Eliza, and I went on safari (which means “traveling” in Kiswahili). Roads are a challenge in Kenya (understatement) so we spent a lot of time bouncing into potholes and ruts and breathing dust (on the major highways), but after a 6 hour bus ride to Nairobi from Garissa, then about an 8 hour (including breakdowns) 4 wheel drive van drive south we arrived in the dark at an incredible “tent camp” in the Maasi-Mara National Game Preserve. I say “incredible” because our “tent” was the size of our living room with 3 canopy beds complete with ruffled mosquito netting, an attached fully tiled bathroom, and Simon our room steward (who straightened our shoes and neatly folded any clothing we left lying around). The compound where we stayed was surrounded by heavy duty electric fences to keep the wild animals out, but both evenings we were escorted to our tent by Peter--our spear toting guard. (Upon questioning he admitted to never actually having to use the spear, which was reassuring.) We were awakened in the early mornings by the sounds of elephants, lions, and hippos! The first morning out we saw two lionesses finishing off a meal of fresh wildebeest while hopeful hyenas prowled around then, two male lions on the hunt, and herds of zebra, giraffes, wildebeest, elephants, and innumerable different kinds of deer. That evening we visited a small Maasi village and were invited inside a dark, smoky dung covered hut. The Maasi we met throughout our stay were unfailingly friendly and the women do beautiful beadwork (including around the earlobes which are pierced with a red hot poker at age 13 and are eventually stretched to a fashionable 3-4 inch length.)

Due to road closures we had to return to Nairobi before moving on to Amboseli, our next game park. There we stayed two nights in a beautiful bungalow with grounds patrolled by Maasi warriors in traditional clothes. We got to know “Sami” who had to be at least 6”5’. Like any proud papa he told us about how well his children were doing in school, and about his cattle and goats. We talked, too, about how culture is encroaching on traditional ways of doing things. As a rite of passage he killed a lion at age 15 and got a new name, but now the government won’t allow lions to be killed unless they have been preying on the cattle or goats. While Maasi Mara was a savannah, Amboseli varied between dry salt flats and swampy watering holes. The swamps were full of water buffalo, hippos, ostriches, and elephants with playful little babies. We had a great time wildlife watching, taking photos, and getting glimpses of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Then it was on to our last park—Savo. For the trip to Savo we had to meet up with a “caravan” which had a machine gun toting guard in the front vehicle. (During our entire stay in Kenya we never had any problems or saw anything worrisome, but it most people we talked with had sad stories about the violence that occurred this spring. The tourist trade has been heavily impacted and the first two places we stayed were at about 10% occupancy. Lack of business is starting to really hurt the pocketbooks of the tour operators, resorts, and the locals who work at the resorts and who make and sell crafts to supplement their very small incomes.) To our surprise, if we didn’t know that we were in Kenya we could have sworn that we were on the way to Wenatchee as we drove through the terrain in Savo and looked at the rock formations, bushes, and mountains in the distance. The hotel we stayed in wasn’t that special, but they had two strategically placed watering holes that were lit at night about 30 feet away from the open air bar and restaurant. The balcony of our room overlooked the holes as well. About six p.m. the animals started heading in. First deer, then water buffalo, then herds of elephants blustering for dominance. At 6:30 a staff member hung up a hunk of meat in the center of a frame made of tree trunks with hopes of luring in a leopard. At 7:15 the leopard showed up for his meal. It was an amazing experience to sit there watching elephants and a leopard from 30 feet away, then go to sleep with elephants slurping and snorting right outside our balcony!

My big worry about this trip was that I figured I wouldn’t like African food. Unfortunately that wasn’t a problem and I haven’t yet gotten on the scale yet because I don’t want to see what it says! Ken’s wife, Eunice, fed us amazing meals as did the Ethiopian women at the refugee camp and the teacher at the Canadian Baptist Mission compound where we stayed in Dadaab. Dinners or lunches generally included a savory stew (generally goat meat) with potatoes and other vegetables, delicious sautéed cabbage, hearty chunks of ugali (Kenyan polenta), fruit (usually slices of tree-ripened mango) and chapattis (Kenyan tortillas). At the refugee camp we were served anjera (a thick Somali sourdough tortilla) instead of chapattis.

All in all, we had an amazing time meeting, talking with, seeing how they live, and ministering to so many different people. The game parks were just icing on the cake. Thanks for your thoughts, prayers, and financial support.

Love,

Laurie

Update from Dadaab, Kenya (UN refugee camp)

2008-06-10T08:00:00.000-07:00

I got a phone call from our team in Kenya this morning with an update. They didn’t have access to internet to update the blog, so they relayed a message over phone. Their cell service was great…insane – they are in a refugee camp in the outer reaches of Kenya and have cell service; I can’t get cell service in my living room in Las Vegas.

It’s night there – 10 hours ahead of Pacific Time – and things are going well. One of the team members, Lupita, was not pretty ill and went to the hospital in Garissa, but after treatment/medication/prayer, she is feeling better. They are now in Dadaab – approx. 60 km from Garissa/3-6 hour drive via bus.

Bruce said the bus ride was incredibly packed, standing room the whole way, and none of the Muslim women that packed the bus wanted to stand near the Americans.

The team is staying at the only Christian church/compound in Dadaab – a Canadian Baptist church. They will be doing an Encounter for a handful of Christian refugees (Ethiopians, Somalis, etc…).

Check back often for more updates!

monday photo update

2008-06-09T11:52:00.000-07:00

Things are going well. We've been really busy and had a lousy Internet connecting so slow updates. Tomorrow we leave for Dadab until Friday so probably no Internet there. But we will have a little more time so we can type up the blog and updated it when we get back.

For now just these photos.

Checkout Sean's blog at: http://chewyinkenya.blogspot.com/

Please pray for Sean and Lupita both are battling colds, and Lupita is battling intestinal issues.

Ken told me some of the comunitity members would haul our stuff. I figured theyld be at least 16.

Laurie nosing in to home (we were invited)

Ken and Sean checking out the inside of a local tribal home.

Post celebration. and heading back to building for medical support and distribution of solar oven, cooking supplies, plates, spoons.

Youths at Life frontier school receiving books.

Our reception in one of the classrooms

this is lunch at school beans and corn it was pretty good and very healthy.

Ken demonstating a solor dryer

The shop where the solar ovens are made at Ken's Life Frontier School.

our first day Friday June 6

2008-06-06T14:13:00.000-07:00

30 hours of travel since Pullman, we’ve arrived in Nairobi, Kenya. Everyone is well and pretty tired this first day. It is cool in the 70’s in Nairobi. Ken picked us up at the airport and we are staying one night in Rosa Mystica Spiritual Center, a Catholic run guest house. It is clean and does the job. Breakfast, at the guesthouse was followed by a visit to the local ATM, the Nairobi National Museum, and the Nairobi National park where we saw a great many African locals. See Pictures below.
My sprint phone is working here but the sprint simm card was useless. I bought local Safaricom simm and we are buying minutes so you can expect calls from us. If you really need to contact us the new number for the Safaricom simm is (Kenya prefix from US is + 254 I think) then 0713957884 from the us you don’t dial the preceding ‘0’ most USA cell phones don’t have international service so try a land line.

And we are off

2008-06-03T07:27:00.001-07:00

Bruce, Laurie, Lupita, Eliza, Sean and Caleb.

We all leave in just a couple hours from Pullman for our 30+ hour trip to Kenya.

We arrive at 6am on Thursday (Kenya time) in Nairobi where we'll recover and buy some of the supplies people donated money for. We'll leave the next day for Garissa. We want to thank everyone for their abundant generosity--not only were all individual financial needs met, but we received donations for nearly all of the sharing tree tag items--including the well! For those of you who included a legible email address we'll send an email to you when we donate or use your item. We'll also include info about how the donations were used on posts about the trip along with photos in this blog. We don't know how available internet is there so the blog update may be sporatic, but we'll try to have an entry per day.

This is for sure the most printed materials we've ever taken on a trip as we have plans to put on both an encounter and a marriage seminar for Ken. I hope they have good photocopiers in Garissa :-)

Everyone is really excited--we can hardly wait to get on our way. We'll have a lot to report on in terms of the spirirtual and financial blessings we'll be able to share, so keep checking the blog. We know that God plans on doing great things in and through us during our time in Kenya.

God bless you all!

Team Kenya (Bruce, Laurie, Eliza, Lupita, Caleb, and Sean)

May update #2

2008-06-03T07:26:00.001-07:00

Greetings in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Greetings from a cool Garissa—the weather here cant be any better and we are enjoying every bit of it.

Thank God for evangelism and discipleship class that we started a few days ago. We are glad that key Christian leaders including pastors from different Churches are trainees in this course. Our desire is that those same leaders will start the same training in their churches after they have graduated.

During the training for the next ten weeks, we will be going out to share the gospel with people around us. It is our hope that a strong spiritual movement will emerge out of this.

Pray for the following:
1 The trainees will be faithful in boldly sharing their faith
2 The trainees will capture different concepts in the training such as follow up, leading discipleship groups, Movement building, Spiritual multiplication, “M” evangelism etc
3 Pray that the trainers will be good models to the trainees
4 Thank God for those that have already come to the Lord through the ministry of the trainees—pray that they will stand firm in the faith
5 Pray for Protection upon us as we will be sharing with “M”. Pray that the truth shall set them through
6 Pray that we will honor God both by our life style and the words of our mouth.

As an organization, we have heard to move from our office. We have decided to relocate to where the School is. This is a temporary measure we are taking. The owner of the place kept increasing rent arbitrarily and we felt like we were not needed there. Being very strong Muslims, they have been uncomfortable having us around and we know that there concern is genuine given the kind of pressure they get from their own people. Pray that we will adapt well in the new environment. Pray that we will get a permanent solution to office problems.

Thank God for what is happening in the refugee camp. We are very glad that over a hundred of the Ethiopian and Sudanese refugees we trained have really been putting into practice what they learnt. Through their ministry, a few “M” have come to the Lord. The latest information I got from the refugees is that majority of them are in the process of being relocated to Canada and other countries. Pray that God will help us raise new laborers continue the good work in the camp.

As a family, we are forever grateful to God for you. As we keep saying, only eternity will reveal the reward God has for you for investing both your time and resources touching lives of people you may not meet this side of eternity.

Shalom

Ken
For Eunice, Tim & Ann

Your commitment to the work of the Lord will pay off even in this life and remember Revelation 22:3 "And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him."

CYCLONE UPDATE 2008

2008-05-22T15:44:00.000-07:00

CYCLONE UPDATE 2008 Thailand Newsletter from the Hilderbrand's http://www.worldbasethailand.org/

TRAGEDY IN MYANMAR
This weekend I will be travelling to the border of Myanmar for the second time since the Cyclone hit killing an estimated 100,000 people. Many more are homeless and facing starvation and disease. The weather service is also reporting that another storm may hit the area in the next few days.

Please pray for the survivors and that sufficient relief supplies would be allowed to enter the country.

The Foursquare Church is working together with several Christian relief agencies to get supplies to the affected area, including Thirst No More Org, CITIimpact and others. To date, Myanmar has stopped issuing visa’s for foreigners to enter the country. Foreigners cannot get in, but we are in contact with our Foursquare Churches in Myanmar.

We have transported a ton of rice, water purifiers, family packs of supplies and other relief materials across the border just inside Myanmar. Again, we have been able to move supplies into Myanmar. More relief supplies are being transported to the border as I write this.

THE PROBLEM: We are not able to get the relief supplies from our location in Myanmar to the disaster affected area. The government is confiscating material and causing trouble for those who attempt to move material into the affected region, including nationals of Myanmar.

We have been in contact with people who may be connected enough to move material. However, it will cost money to transport material through rebel held areas and past government check points. I will be trying to ascertain where we are at in moving materials when I arrive this weekend. We also have contact information for a member of the Thai military who might be willing to allow us to transport material through them.

Please keep us in prayer this week.

If you would like to donate to the relief effort, you can send money to:
Foursquare Missions International
Attn: Paulette McCammon
Myanmar Relief
1910 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026-0176

PRAYER REQUESTS
Pastor Tommy, the pastor of our Burmese church in Bangkok, is back from Myanmar. Thank you so much for your prayers. He only has a temporary visa. Pray that he could get a permit to stay in Bangkok.

Please pray that the rest of the funds for the new building will be raised soon. The seven story facility will house two churches, WorldBase, Language school and several social ministries and offices. The pillars for the building are now going up. We are still short $100,000.

Pray for the revival among the Hill Tribes people. Pray that we would wisely steward this movement. We just received a Foursquare Foundation Grant for $25,000 to help us!

Please pray for our language teachers by name: Mike, Michel-lyn (Canada), Michele, Evan, Sarah (Australia), Andy, Tina, Frank and Meryl Whitmore (Australia). 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.

Two students from the Pacific Life Bible College team are staying to help us through our teacher shortage in June. God has answered our prayers again. We will still need more teachers come August/September.

Pray for our new Bible College that is beginning in June.

Pray for God to raise up new leaders so that we can follow through with our plan to plant more churches in Bangkok.

Continue to pray for everyone’s health. Also pray for our continued protection, especially as we travel.

Let us know how we can pray for you.

Ken and Eunice in Kenya - update May 2008

2008-05-13T10:40:00.000-07:00

We thank you so much for your continued support and prayers. God has been so faithful to us as a family and also as a team.

The School opened last week and we are glad to have all the teachers and students back in good health—we are praying for a fruitful second term.

Eunice is back from Uganda where she had attended meetings on a training called “Cross roads”---this is training on behavioral change among the youth. It was a great success.

Thank God with us for the community who have given us 30 acres of land for high School. We are not paying anything for this other than the normal government fees charged for surveying, gazetment and other documentation costs. Even though this is a Muslim community, they have seen our contribution in improving education standards amongst their children and they would want us to embark on high school also—thank God that even those that have been fiercely resisting us are becoming great allies in advocating for us to have more land. God is able to direct the hearts of kings just like a water course—to him be the glory!.

We are still trusting God to come through for us so we can finish repairs of classes and fencing the compound---the flood really wrecked havoc here

This week, we will be starting a three months course in evangelism and discipleship. This training is called New Life Training Curriculum (NLTC). Members of different churches here have been requested to join the training. I have decided to include Muslim evangelism course as part of this program. For the next three months, Trainers and Trainees will be going out to share the gospel as part of the practical.

PRAYER POINTS

NLTC
-Pray for the right people to join the evangelism and discipleship training
-Pray for the trainers that they will always be filled with the Holy Spirit as they give presentations
-Pray for many to be saved as the trainees and the trainers give a presentation of the gospel
-Pray for the safety of the trainers/trainees as they will many times be going back home at night
-Pray that the training will ignite revival as members of different churches take back the fire of evangelism and discipleship

SCHOOL
Pray that our standard eight class will adequately prepare for the National exam (KCPE)
Pray that our teachers will build relationships with the children that will allow them to easily share the gospel
Pray for Muslim workers in our school to accept Jesus as their Lord and saviour
Pray for believers to faithfully share their faith both in words and action
Pray that our love to the Muslims will always be unconditional
Pray that we will be the salt and the light of garissa

REFUGEE CAMP
Pray for “A”—he is facing many challenges from those who know he is a Christian
Pray for two new MBB’s—that they will grow in the knowledge of the Lord
Pray for salvation of more “S”

Thank you so much for standing in the gap
Blessings

Flooding causes significant damage to school in Garissa

2008-04-18T09:17:00.000-07:00

We have once again experienced serious flood that has left quite some destruction in our school. Please, do pray that God intervenes as we seek his face on how to do reconstruction. Below are some photos that capture what happened on Wednesday.
Blessings
Ken

School compound and classes flooded with water

Concrete Pillars for our fence pulled down

More Pillars down

Our School compound in river

Children helping to rescue some of the things that were swept from the school

Our Children playground flooded

Boys’ dormitory full of water

Our Goat shed destroyed

Our Water pump destroyed

Ken's update for APRIL 2008

2008-04-14T17:20:00.000-07:00

Head man” Salad making mud for the wall. I was glad that the community was involved in this. All I needed to do was to mobilize them and provide iron sheets, timber and nails

Building ready for Children—they no longer have to read under tree

Councilor Kunyo—Munyoywaya leader showing me their water pump. They have given us land for Agriculture next to the river

“Banana in the desert”—this is in Kunyo’s farm. We intend to train farmers on modern Agricultural practices using the farm we have been given

Our Jesus film team had great time in Mwingi---over fifty people gave their lives to Christ

People in attendance as our JF team present the gospel

PRAISE ITEMS

Eunice did organize a successful prayer seminar last Saturday. We had people from all the churches attend. The hall was packed with people who are hungry to seek the face of the Lord on behalf of “M”.

I ministered at garissa medical college last Saturday. I was talking about “overcoming discouragement” and many indicated that they were blessed by the message---to God be the glory.

Thank God that the community has given us 30 acres of land for high school. This was done through full council approval.

Thank God for Tim’s good performance in school—he was 2nd best student in his class (just one point behind the best student). Ann is in nursery and they don’t get positions. Mary (our niece) whom we stay with was also position two in her class.

PRAYER ITEM

Pray for a very influential “M” who has challenged me for a discussion on both the Bible and the quran. Pray that I will not just win the argument but the soul.

Pray for “M” girl called “F” in our school who has a desire to know the truth. She has gone through painful experiences and is currently getting closer to the truth as a result of us being available to her in her time of need. She has requested for a bible—pray that she will have revelation as she reads it.

Pray for Land documents that we are currently pursuing with the government officers. We intend to start high school after getting these vital documents.

Our School is closing today and opening early may—pray for safety and protection of both teachers and students.

Pray that all our staff will have a burden to consistently share there faith with “M”. Pray against fear that holds people back

Pray for our Jesus film team that will be going for mission in Mwingi—many people to know the Lord.

Read Colossians 3:1-4.

The Lord richly bless you

Letters and Fundraising Information

2008-03-31T20:46:00.000-07:00

Here are Microsoft Word files for various Letters and Fundraising Information.

Mission Partner Card

Sample Thailand 2008 Letter

Sample Africa 2008 Letter

How to Fundraise for Short Term Missions - Letter

Ken and Eunice Africa Update 2 - March

2008-03-25T11:16:00.000-07:00

We do hope that Easter has provided you with opportunity to reflect on the great price our lord Jesus Christ had to pay for our redemption.

Josh (a friend of mine) and I went to the refugee camp to spend time with the refugees. We organized for the whole Gambela community from Ethiopia to gather for tea and celebrate Jesus. It was just great seeing smiling faces amongst these refugees who have gone through so much. Besides, they are still applying the training we gave them some time back. We have Somali people giving there lives as the Ethiopians apply the training.

Three Somali believers and I—two of them on my left are Somali Bantus. The Two of them are new converts who needs your prayer. They are H and M. Pray for A on my right to continue being fruitful.

This has been my “five star hotel” in the camp over the years—I love the place. The bed is raised floor made of mud—a good way to keep off orthopaedrician.

Tea being made for over two hundred people who attended the Friday meeting at the camp. Josh and I spoke during the three services.

Refugees giving their lives to Christ.

Beautiful Street in the camp.

Keep on praying that the glory of the Lord may cover this region as waters cover the sea.

Blessings
Ken & Eunice

Ken and Eunice Africa Update - March

2008-03-19T12:58:00.000-07:00

It is always great to send you update. The past few weeks have been busy but the grace of the Lord has always been sufficient. We thank you for praying for our country. Yesterday, the parliamentarians past the constitutional amendment bill 2008 that will guarantee peace (humanly speaking)—we know that peace that surpasses human understanding can only come from Jesus—the prince of peace.

I decided that I could do something about Muslim children studying under tree at bula secondary---I organized for them to get iron sheets, few timbers and iron nails. Together with my friend Josh who is visiting, we decided to help the villagers in the process. We are likely to finish this project next week so the children can move in. Below is the sequence of events:

Children under tree

We are starting to put the poles up—I am really not an expert but when you are a missionary you can do everything—you know!

Salad—the head man hammering nails

We are just left with putting iron sheets and mud walls.

This morning, I had the privilege of showing hippopotamus in a river half a mile to a visiting friend (Josh). This is the picture he took. This river that is not far from home hosts lots of crocodiles and hippos.

PRAYER POINTS--Josh and I will be traveling to the refugee camp tomorrow—pray for fruitful time

Pray that we will be able to finish building the class so that the children studying under tree may move inside
Pray for Josh as he speaks this Friday at refugee camp and garissa teachers training college this Sunday
Pray that children in our school may come to the knowledge of the truth
Pray for all the workers with life ministry that they will live spirit filled lives and be focused in making Christ known.
Pray for my discussion with one of the most influential Muslim here who has given me a challenge: he wants me to bring the Bible and he brings the Quran for us to know which is the truth. He seemed to think that I can become a Muslim—pray that the lord who revealed himself to Saul on his way to Damascus may reveal himself to “M’
Pray for God to help us raise a spiritual movement that will see many coming to the fold of the master.
Pray for the glory of the Lord to cover the land as waters cover the sea.

May the Lord’s face shine upon you

March update from Chris and Apple

2008-03-19T12:46:00.000-07:00

I will be glad and rejoice in your love!

“I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul. You have not handed me over to the enemy but have set my feet in a spacious place.” Psalm 31:7-8 NIV

Let me start out by sharing that last month was one of great affliction and anguish. It seemed like almost every area of my life was in turmoil: Apple and I amidst the trials of wedding planning, family back home, ministry efforts at the English school and promoting APU’s program along with frustrations of still not working full-time in the Golden Triangle. I felt burned out and told God, “I give up!” Apparently that’s what he was waiting for me to say.

After that breaking point, God brought me to the realization once again that I can’t live on my own strength and understanding, but on His. With that discipline came new perspective on life’s trials and within the past couple weeks things have started to be restored and make sense.

Apple and I have been communicating and caring for each other more. The family issue back home was resolved after months of battling. God has brought two key characters to the stage to help make the APU program work in Chiang Mai if we get enough interested people. And I’m satisfied to be juggling responsibilities working full-time at the English school and with the ministry in the Golden Triangle until God brings the necessary financial support. The American economy might be in bad shape, but God’s economy isn’t. Thank God for discipline and new Christ-centered perspective that has replaced affliction and anguish with gladness and joy.

We’ve finished most of the wedding preparations for May 31st and wish that you could make it, but of course we understand that it’s just a tad bit difficult to attend here in Bangkok. It’s unbelievable how much time, effort and money is wrapped up in a wedding. We will be ecstatic to finally have our special day and then disappear on our honeymoon.

As resurrection Sunday approaches, I hope that this brief newsletter is a source of encouragement for you to worship Jesus as the resurrected King of His Kingdom and subjects therein. He passionately desires for us to live in the resurrection life that He procured with incalculable suffering through His own life on earth, death and resurrection. He is alive!

Please pray especially for peace of mind and the ability to walk in the Spirit and HIS understanding during this time.
With Love,
Chris & Apple

Update from Ken/Josh in Garissa

2008-03-13T08:21:00.000-07:00

Good news is that i picked Josh two hours ago and will spend in the same guest house where you and Tyler spend in Dec 2004 (in Nairobi at a catholic guest house). We are heading to garissa tommorow. We are looking forward to a fruitful time with Josh.

February Update From Ken & Eunice Ochieng

2008-02-19T08:40:00.000-08:00

We want to thank you so much for every single prayer you have uttered to God for us. We also thank you for prayers made on behalf of Kenya. Mediation talks have been going on and the negotiators have agreed that the way forward is a political solution. Continue praying that peace will prevail in this country.

As a family we have continued to experience God’s presence in our lives and we testify that his grace has been sufficient to us.

Eunice continues to lead a vibrant prayer group that is seeking God on behalf of the people around. She is also leading our HR department—pray that the Lord may give her wisdom and strength.

Tim joined standard one and is really enjoying the fact that he is in primary school after three years in pre-school. He loves the colors of his new school uniforms too. He is among the top five best students in his class. He is one of the youngest in his class.

Ann moved from baby class to Nursery and she is happy to have many friends in her class. She has poor appetite and has proved to be poor in feeding. We have to force her some times to eat. Please pray that she will begin to feed well. She is however very active both in school and at home.

Our School was blessed with a new bus after an organization donated money to the same. Our students are really enjoying this gift. We still need another bus so we don’t have to do so many trips every day. Pray that God will grant us another bus at his own time.

Our students celebrating the arrival of the new bus.

Some of our Teachers in front of the bus.

We are glad that we have build four new class rooms to accommodate the second stream for each class—we are expanding by a stream every year to take care of our growth. Below is the new building:

When construction was going on

Finished building

God has been opening doors for me to speak in a number of churches here and I thank him that I can be a vessel of reconciliation at this time when our country is so divided. Please pray that the Lord will give me utterance whenever I stand before his children to declare his oracles.
Thank you for touching garissa from so far.

We plan to set a day this week to pray and fast for friends like you. Please, let us know how best to pray for you.

Yours for the fulfillment of the great commission,

Ken & Eunice Ochieng

Interview with Ken from Garissa regarding political violence

2008-02-04T19:58:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! From Chris Curry

2008-02-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! January has already been such an incredible month, but first let me share a bit about our Christmas activities last month. Though Christmas in western countries seems to be a time when people tend to reconnect with family and relax with each other, it’s much different for Christians living in Asia. We use this holiday that’s gaining popularity as an opportunity to share the Gospel.

Our church joined with 100 other churches in Bangkok’s popular Lumphini Park to give away free food, sing songs, perform skits and evangelize. We were blessed to be part of this outreach and our church gave away around 1,000 kilograms of fruit! Apple and I invited two of our close non-Christian Thai friends to join and Apple had a great opportunity to give her testimony to them. Our church also went caroling to the department stores to share the message of Christ’s birth!

At work, I had an opportunity to share the Good News in its entirety to students for one of my chat classes with the topic of “Christmas”. I even shared Scriptures! They had many questions and were very open. Oh, get this; one of the unbelieving teachers was lazy to prepare for her chat class, so she used my lesson. Hahaha. She unwittingly shared the Gospel with the students via the Scriptures and information about not only the birth, but life, death and resurrection of Christ. I love it!

I also had another fantastic opportunity to share with two of my colleagues who believe that God exists, but think that Christians shouldn’t be missionaries and impose their beliefs on others. I asked them if God sending Jesus to Earth via a virgin mother in order to turn the world right-side up was any imposition. We talked about it briefly and then I simply said, “Christians ‘impose’ their faith upon others for the same reason God imposed His Son….out of LOVE.” Silence followed and that was the end of that opportunity. They didn’t like what I had to say, but they don’t hate me or ostracize me.

We need to choose the right time and place, but I’d like to propose to you that our silence to popular secular beliefs spoken in the workplace is as good as us saying, “I agree with what you’re saying.” We must have a voice of truth in the workplace. Let’s not shrink back and just hope that our actions are speaking loud enough that they’ll be interested in Christ. Every day is an opportunity and I encourage you to look for those windows of opportunity throughout the day to open and be prepared to speak up.

Well, how about some exciting news from this New Year? For starters, I was offered a promotion to be the Service Manager of Wall Street Institute, Lad Prao Branch. This is huge. It’s the highest position I can have in a center. WSI is the premier English institution in Thailand and the branch I work at is well-known for being the best branch. I would work at that very branch and the pay would be right at $2,700 USD per month with benefits. With an expensive wedding coming up, I was thinking God had given me favor and the financial floodgates had broken wide open. But, I asked my boss if the time he spends on the computer allows him to do anything besides work…i.e. would I have more time to work with the ministry in the Golden Triangle with this position, or less? He said that I would have less. The decision was instantly made. If this new position doesn’t provide me with more time to fulfill that which God has clearly called me to do, then it’s not part of God’s plan. Plain and simple.

That’s one reason why it’s important to spend time pressing into what sometimes seems like empty darkness behind our eyelids. It’s necessary so that we know what it is God is speaking to our hearts now—not what God has spoken to us, but what he is presently speaking. Our faith grows and is strengthened as we continue to hear. As the Bible states, “Faith comes by hearing…” HEARING, not having heard, but continually hearing. When we’re clear about what God’s speaking to our hearts, we’re usually prepared to deal with important decisions and we’re always ready for opportunities to dispense hope to those who are perishing or in need of encouragement.

This is part of what I shared this past week in Myanmar when I met up with a fantastic team of pastors from the east coast who taught and encouraged the students and leaders. I was blessed to teach one afternoon. I taught about bringing the Kingdom of God to the Golden Triangle...what that means and how to do it. I also shared about laying down our lives and following Christ by listening to his word when we’re reaching up into His Kingdom through prayer, worship, Scripture reading, & fellowship. Then, how they should share this word with others (Christians and non-Christians) and finally, how this will lead to our ultimate goal of getting God’s approval.

During a workshop time, they had the opportunity to share with others what God had recently spoken to them. Aside from listening, watching and joining in worship with them, this was the highlight of the trip. (I’m honestly about to start crying now as I type.) The passion that these young people have to worship, learn and share about God is mind-blowing. In their extreme poverty, THEY HAVE NOTHING, yet I suggest that they possess more than the majority of Christians around the World. They have intimate and active relationships with God and THEY WANT TO BRING THE KINGDOM TO THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE. (I’m in public typing this and I refuse to be ashamed of my quivering chin or the tears in my eyes now.)

The young man pictured below shared about his diligence to do anything his heart pursued. When he was a soldier he trained and performed his task to the best of his ability. When he was a drug addict, he would use the drugs until they were gone. Now, he said that even though he knows his decision to be a preacher means he will be poor and struggle, he’s willing to give all of his energy to pursue God’s call for him to minister.

What is happening there is brought by the hand of God and they need help and assistance. 64 churches, over 1,500 people, and people desiring to intimately know Father God! I urge you to help me find partners to support me full-time. God has blessed me with a great job teaching and opportunities to share, but I want to do what He’s been calling me to do—work in the Golden Triangle. I feel that God has been increasing my faith during the wait and that he’s tested my resolve to what He’s called me to do. However, I feel that the time of waiting is coming to a close.

I ask you to commit to finance this ministry. Apple and I are currently in the process of becoming FMI Missionaries and while she’ll continue earning money as a doctor and lecturer, I need to raise at least $1,500 USD in order to work full-time with the ministry in the Golden Triangle. When my boss offered me his position at WSI (because he was promoted to corporate), I soon thereafter told him that I actually wouldn’t be working there much longer and promised to give him at least 2-weeks’ notice. I am ready to serve the Burmese by developing curriculum, coordinating, teaching, consulting, administrational and organizational assistance, teaching English at a language center, etc. I can resign from WSI at any time. I’m committed to helping expand the Kingdom in the Golden Triangle. Will you commit to financing this ministry?
Thank you so much for your love, encouragement, prayers and donations.

Much love,
Chris

P.S. Please check out the Latest News for the Golden Triangle Ministry at http://goldentriangleministry.page.tl/

P.S.S. Please contact me if you’d like to commit to monthly giving or a one-time gift. Otherwise, you can send your gifts with “Chris Curry” to:

Whitefish Foursquare Church
233 Kalispell Ave.
Whitefish, Montana 59937
U.S.A.Email: whitefish4square@centurytel.net
Phone: (406) 862-1653

News from Myanmar and the Golden Triangle

2008-01-23T13:05:00.000-08:00

The orphans of Tacheliek had a very special Christmas.
64 Foursquare Churches in the Golden Triangle this month focused on Christ’s birth. The tribal people we work with don’t celebrate each other’s birthdays, so you can imagine that they also don’t celebrate Christ’s.
Lahu people celebrate New Year in a unique way and we’ve combined our traditional celebration together with theirs.
Wa State Army leaders’ hearts have been opened. Thanks so much for your prayers and thank God that even though we can’t have open air crusades, they will allow us to continue ministering in the area.
All of the members of five families are now saved and baptized because of the birth of twins.
An old man saw three angels in long white robes who didn’t talk. 6 families (23 people) agreed to call Pastor Peter and received Christ and baptism.

Read details and photos at the Golden Triangle web site

January Update From Kenya

2008-01-22T12:17:00.000-08:00

Greetings in the matchless name of our coming king!

The Bible makes it clearing Mathew 24:6 that before the Lord comes, we will hear of wars and rumors of wars. It is happening right here in Kenya and all over the world.

Kenya has enjoyed peace for the last 43 years since it got independence from British. Kenya has 42 tribes (each tribe has unique language and culture—Kiswahili is the national language and English is the official language) and yet the country has remained intact. It is always difficult striking the ethnic balance because as expected some tribes do see themselves as being marginalized especially in terms of resource allocation. The recent election led to explosion of deep seated suspicions and prejudice that different communities have against each other. The consequence of this is death of 500(this is official figure although it is reported that the figure is much higher) and a quarter million people displaced.

Our region has been experiencing tension but we haven’t experienced serious violence as yet—our prayer is that this place will remain calm because religious fundamentalists can take advantage of the situation and bring religious angle to the problem—this will exacerbate things here.

What complicates things for our country is that some (especially the opposition) do not want stability at the expense of truth, justice and democracy—the government has shown no signs of giving up holding to power. The church is divided than ever with some leaders being partisan. Many Church leaders seem to sacrifice Truth and justice at the altar of tribal affiliations. The work of God is slowed and I am personally disappointed (should I say frustrated) at what is happening.

Deep in the hearts of many believers, we knew that all was not going to be well after the election—in fact there were many prophecies on the same yet we believers never paid enough attention. Some of us are convinced that it is the Church in Kenya that is being judged—many leaders had adopted prosperity gospel message from the west. Salvation of souls became secondary. In the midst of all that face our country, I am persuaded that the Church in Kenya is going to come out like gold that is refined seven times ready to take the gospel to the four corners of the earth. Meanwhile, we are returning to God in Prayers, fasting and repentance. The people of this great country have proved to be resilient and I believe that when God is through with us, we will be raised to another degree of glory.

Below are some pictures in places that experienced violence:

Above are some burnt bicycles that remained after a church was burnt killing 30-50 people that had sought refugee inside

Children who have become refugees in their own country

Refugees of the clashes that has taken ethnic dimension

Pastors donating blankets to the refugees

A Pastor looks at one of the arrows that were used in shooting. Neighbors turned into enemies.

Above are some of the burnt houses.

Would you please stand in prayer for the body of Christ in Kenya. Pray also for the women, children whose houses have been burnt and there is no place to call home

We thank God for your friendship.
May he grant the desires of your heart this year

Prayer request from Chris

2008-01-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

Hello,

I'll be spending the next few days in Burma and would appreciate you prayer requests for supernatural insight and wisdom, health, the Holy Spirit's power as I speak and meet with ministers and His favor. Thanks so much!

Bless you!

-Chris

Update from Ken in Garissa, Kenya regarding election violence

2008-01-04T09:36:00.000-08:00

What is happening in Kenya is saddening. Our Prayer is that the country will come out of this united and strong. We have been the highland of peace in a region that is identified with conflict.
The situation in Garissa was very tense four days ago but we are now experiencing relatively calm situation compared to the rest of the country--all this because of an election that observers have described as flawed.

Too sad that neighbours are slaughtering one another, churches being burned (with people inside), women and children being refugees in their own country.

Many of our Teachers and students are traped in places that have been experiencing violence--we will have to postpone the date of opening (we were meant to open next wendnesday)
We ask you to continue remembering this great country in prayer.

Come Lord Jesus Come.

Pray for Ken & family in Garissa, Kenya

2008-01-01T15:35:00.000-08:00

Be praying for Ken Ochieng and his family in Garissa, Kenya. There is tremendous political unrest due to the recent presidential elections and alleged corruption, increasing the overall death toll to 270. Near Nairobi a church was burned with people still in the church, accounting for approximately 50 of the deaths. In Garissa, it is reported that people have been hiding in mosques to stay safe.

Ken and his ministry can come under physical attack during these periods of unrest, and it is crucial that we keep him and family in our prayers.

Transportation needed for orphans in Thailand

2008-01-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

Pastor Timothy has a need for transportation so his orphans can get to school and for various trips with the orphans. He’s been borrowing a truck, but the owners now need it full time for their business. He wants to buy either a mini-van or pickup and convert it to a Sawngthaew. (Sawngthaew’s are the standard mode of ‘taxi’ in rural Thailand. They’re pickups with the bed covered by a ‘roof’ and seats along the sides.) Considering that many Thais live on about $200 per month and the cost of vehicles in Thailand is only slight less than here in the U.S., vehicles are very expensive there compared to Thai income.

Pullman Foursquare Church will match donations up to a total of $300, so let’s see if we can raise at least $1000 to send. 100% of the funds raised, as always, go directly to the missionaries.

We will have an offering container at the welcome center on Sunday. Please place your money there or in the offering plate, indicating that this is for the Thailand Orphan Van.

Dec. & Jan. Update from Ken in Garissa, Kenya (w/ photos)

2007-12-28T08:19:00.001-08:00

We want to thank God for his love and faithfulness in the year 2008. This far he is Ebenezer! We have seen God work in and through us as we have sought to make him known. Our greatest priority as a family remain to know him intimately and to make him known—the process of making him known may not be as quick as we want but we have rested in him. Time and space will not allow for us to testify how God has answered our prayers this Year—it has been amazing to see him at work. We are not able to take Christmas break because of a number of things that we need to finalize before the beginning of the year. We are currently building extra classrooms to take care of more students next year. Our National Examination results have just come out and we are happy for the excellent performance of our students—our leading student has 413 marks out of 500.

Ken standing next to classrooms of Life Frontier School

Our excellent Academic Standards have caused high demand for the school—we are having to increase our intake hence the need for more class rooms—this new one is likely to be finished early January.

Through our efforts to distribute “water guards”, villagers were able to drink clean water.

Our Carmel being loaded on to a trailer—it was the best Carmel during our Annual North Eastern Province Agricultural Show—talk of ways of opening the way for the gospel!

Anna (first right) blowing candle during her fourth birthday party. She was joined by other kids including Tim (3rd right). Eunice is giving some instructions.

Please, do pray for Peter and Zakayo (our Jesus film staff) who are in missions this week screening “Jesus film”. Pray for many to know the Lord and for protection upon Peter and Zakayo.

Kenya is holding election this coming Thursday—pray that we will choose godly leaders to lead us for the next five years.

We thank you for standing with us as we seek to make Christ known among the least reached people groups.

We wish you Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2008

Ken, Eunice, Tim, Ann

Our First Post for Chris Curry, Missionary to Myanmar

2007-12-07T11:12:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Life has been BEYOND hectic. I've been working here in Bangkok and running up north meeting with Pastor P. There's so much fruit coming from the ministry there and it's so encouraging. I'm grateful that I can take part helping them. I finished up the New Testament Survey curriculum which they're now using and will start the OT Survey curriculum. I also JUST finished the Website which I hope you will take time to check out. http://www.goldentriangleministry.page.tl/ There's a lot of information about the ministry and it'd be good for you to know what all has gone on, what's going on and what will be going on there.

I've been very encouraged by our one-on-one leadership meetings. We've been talking about team work and Pastor P. is REALLY putting it into action by sending people out in pairs and having them work together as a team to reach people in a specific area. In the past he sent them out one by one which isn't exactly how Jesus sent out His disciples. So, it's great to see that our time spent together discussing team work is showing fruit. He said that they're catching on and enjoying working together. Now this area (Wa State Army area by Mine Sat) has over 1,000 believers! In our next meeting, we're going to focus on how each of them can better develop themselves as leaders.

I have something to share with you that's wonderful. God really opened the door of opportunity at Wall Street Institute (where I teach English). Yesterday, almost all of the teachers were sitting in the teachers' room chatting and the loudest and most openly agnostic guy at work starts asking me about Christianity. The first thing he asked was, "So, you're a Christian, right?" And I replied that I am. Then, he asked if I believed in evolution. I stated that I didn't believe in macroevolution and that there isn't any evidence to prove it. I told him that the 'missing links' between each species and monkey to man have been disproved by many leading scientists and it would take more faith to believe that than to believe in an intelligent creator who designed animals and humans separately. He then told me about how some scientists (can't remember what kind...some sort of physicists???) become Christians because of their research. I responded that when I was studying Phi the other day on the Internet and the 'golden mean' it made look to God and wonder at how great he is.

Then, he asked about the church I go to, and I was able to describe what our worship songs are like and how they enable us to enter into God's presence and feel the Spirit. From there I explained how Apple is a fairly new Christian and how she was able to enter into God's presence for the first time just about a month ago. I described how she felt goose bumps and then started to weep. I'm sure they couldn't help but notice how excited and happy I was to share how Apple was able to 'feel God' for the first time. I told them that I know that she is definitely a Christian and not just a Christian for my sake because she was able to come to God and personally feel the Holy Spirit.

They all just sort of sat there dumbfounded and didn't know what to say. They could have easily argued against something like evolution, but how could they argue about our mystical union with God in the Christian experience? That one moment looking at everyone gave me insight into their lives. It was as if their emptiness was revealed and a hunger for depth and meaning in their life was just beneath the surface. It was encouraging to share and to open their eyes to the hunger that lies in each human life that we Christians sometimes forget about. We need to share with them the hope that is within and God will give us the words. Thank God that he gave me the opportunity and the words for such an awesome time to witness with such a large audience!
"But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us." 2 Cor. 4:7 NIV

Apple and I are doing well, but haven't seen much of each other with our schedules. We're reading a book together to help prepare us for marriage (May 31, 2008) and we have another premarital counseling meeting in December. We were glad to spend Thanksgiving dinner together and had all the fixin's. I got off work (WSI) at 9 pm and we dashed to the Conrad Hotel for their special Thanksgiving Buffet. YUM! We're looking forward to having time to spend together to celebrate Christmas both on the 24th and the 25th. Philip Ahone's daughter and her family will visit us from Yangon, Myanmar during that time and we'll celebrate together here in Bangkok. Kelly and Angie Hilderbrand might be free to have dinner with us on one of those days as well.

This week, I'll start filling out the forms to become an FMI Missionary. Please pray that will go smoothly. I'll also leave you with some more prayer requests below.

I'm grateful for you and thank you for your love, prayers and support!
-Chris

Prayers:
Answers to prayer and thanksgiving:

Thank God for safe travels up North.
Thank God for all the support and provision.
Thank God for the opportunities to share His Gospel and love at work.
Thank God for all the souls coming to Him through outreach efforts.
Thank God for loving Christians I'm in contact with both in the U.S. and here who encourage, pray and support.
Thank God that Apple is deepening her walk with Him through prayer and worship. We've also started meeting with a premarital counselor.
Thank God that I'm able to meet with Pa Khim and that our meetings have been productive.
Thank God that Pastor P. received the Foursquare Foundation Grant I helped write up 4 months ago ($80,000 USD over 2 years).

Requests:

Please pray for a deepening relationship between Apple and I and the Lord.
Please pray for focus and clarity with the work I have to do with Pastor P. I don't have a lot of time and need to have a very disciplined schedule and a clear plan.
Please pray for continued opportunities to share the Gospel at work....AND fruit.
Please pray for safe travels up to the Golden Triangle.
Please pray that my work permit will be completed soon without any hitches...it's still not completed!
Please pray for increased financial support from the U.S. I'd like to be supported full-time by May, 2008.
Please pray that Pa Khim and I can communicate with each other effectively (his English is quite poor and I need to simplify things).
Please pray about processing the application to be an official Foursquare Missionary.

Myanmar update From George Butron

2007-11-26T16:57:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

For those of you in America, I hope you enjoyed your turkey, family and friends on Thanksgiving. We got together with friends here and did some serious damage to a 10kg bird along with salads, potatoes, pies, etc. Also did some damage to my diet!

I want take a moment to give thanks for some great ministry that is happening in the Golden Triangle area of Myanmar.

It is rumored that long time drug lord Khun Sa (once at the top of America's most wanted criminals list) died in the past few weeks. Unfortunately his legacy of drug trade in the Golden Triangle continues. Producing huge amounts of heroin and meth, not only do traffickers export these deadly products but they also encourage use in villages by giving out free samples to the kids. They tell these simple village people that the meth pills are vitamins that will give them added energy to work. The result is a generation of young people addicted to drugs and distributors with lifetime customers.

This month a new property was found just outside of T. (just across the border from Thailand) that has a small house, a natural source of spring water, a fish pond and enough land for a large garden. We are purchasing this property to open a drug rehab center that will help new converts kick the habit and receive intensive discipleship and vocational training to get them moving in a new direction. We do not know of any other rehab center in the area and believe that this will have a huge redemptive impact. The cost of the property (about 4 acres) with the house is under US$20,000.00. The owner is the wife of a drug lord who built up a big gambling debt and had to sell at a low price. The husband has moved to Vietnam to avoid the Burmese Army so this great property that was originally purchased with drug money will now become a drug rehab! Want to help us develop it? (see details at the end)

Pictures on the way:
Golden Triangle Drug Rehab Center

Spring fed water supply

Fish Pond

Our Bible School in T, was closed by authorities over two years ago (along with other Bible Schools in the area) and it is now used for the orphan ministry (40+ kids from ages 6-16) while the Ministry Training continues in the cramped quarters of the town church under the leadership of Pastor P. Since it was the central military authority (not the local police) that closed all the Bible Schools, there is no way for them to use the old site for training. By changing locations, we have found a way around this roadblock. Training will continue in town at the church and also at the new rehab center as it is developed.

The 70 Foursquare Churches and outreaches in the Golden Triangle are making a difference and communities are being touched in multiple ways. Jesus is proclaimed in power through outreaches and crusades and the message is lived out through local churches that use community health evangelism, agriculture projects and preschools to help meet practical needs in villages. The momentum is building and in the month of October, these ministries saw a combined total of 760 people come to Christ with 387 receiving water baptism! We are working on getting a support team of missionaries established just across the border in Northern Thailand who can help with the training and development of these projects. Continue to pray for this great ministry and the new team members from America who are preparing to move to Thailand in 2008!

Ken diagnosed with Malaria

2007-11-24T16:53:00.000-08:00

It is a great joy to be able to update you. We do hope that you are experiencing the favor of God in your life.

The past two weeks have not been easy for us. I was hospitalized for four days having been diagnosed with malaria. It was very difficult for Tim & Ann to comprehend what was happening. Although it was so serious, we made it look as if there was no danger. Eunice & I had to spend five days away from the Children. I learnt not to take good health for granted. I led two people to the Lord in Kisumu where I was hospitalized.

Our standard eight students did their exams last week. Pray with us that they will maintain position one that we have had for the last five consecutive years. Both our preschool and primary will be sitting their end of year exams starting this week—pray that both the children and the teachers will be in perfect health.

Last Saturday, I was privileged to teach at Garissa medical college—they are training to be nurses. I was asked to teach about end time—and this immediately after coming from the hospital where I had thought it was time to meet Jesus. Pray that they will take the message and see their profession as a calling to reach out to people with the gospel.

I had wonderful time training about 100 Teachers at Garissa teachers college last Sunday. They are now equipped with skills on evangelism. Our Jesus film staff—Zakayo is joining the same team this Friday for a four days mission in Embu—Pray for salvation and deliverance of many people.

Eunice continues to experience God’s favor in leading the prayer movement. Many people continue to flock our office every Monday for one hour of prayer. The good thing about this is that all the churches here are represented. This Sunday, we will be gathering to celebrate together what the Lord has been doing—pray that we will have great time in the presence of the Lord.

Kenya will be having its election on 27th December this year—political temperatures are already high. Violence have been reported in different parts of the country. Garissa is bracing for a tough duel between two very powerful Somali people who want to represent us in the next parliament---pray that God may give us the right Member of Parliament and also the right president.

We thank you for allowing God to use you to bless the work in Garissa.

BLESSING
KEN, EUNICE, TIM, ANN

Ken sharing in Muslim countries in northern Africa

2007-10-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

God is at work all over the world. It is amazing what he is doing all over the “M” countries. For me, it was time to see answers to prayers I have made over the years. Being together with saints from Jordan, Lebanon, Algeria etc was a great reminder that God is at work. I will not indulge in this for reasons better known to you. Pictures speak louder than words!

Last Days in Thailand 2007

2007-09-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

The Fountain in front of the building.

Overall it was a great trip. Those going on future trips will benefit.

A condensed list of potential opportunities:

In my-an,mar we can teach at college but it must fit curriculum and there are access restrictions.

Boys dormitory needs to be built but first land must be purchased and there are access restrictions.

By travelling further in we can support people who have less governmental interference.

For those interested, a small group can continue on to China, make a loop through Laos via the Mekong river, and back to Thailand.

Timothy has a need for a week long pastor and spouse retreat: family (marriage) & ministry & teach things they can use and replicate.

Teach them (Timothy's church and others?) how, why, show effectiveness of skits. Remember bible verses read in Thai are twice as long as English.

Build bamboo church and pastor's house in a hill tribe; can be completed in a week.

Paul & Lori - Medical team - doctors or nurses would be most useful, they can handle everything else.

They could teach us how they do mobile medical.

Stop at their Ahka tribe north east of Fang and hear their story.

Ask them what to do teach?/do? skits.

The last days:
I did the first Sunday morning sermon in the new building - a skit of David, Saul, and Goliath (starring me.) I stole Dan's 5 smooth stones talk and made it better :-) George Butron also spoke about happenings in Vietnam and Cambodia.

I got to explore more food, and learned the 'intestinal' problems we experienced are often due to diarrheic herbs, not microbes. I experienced century eggs for the first time, these duck eggs are buried raw and cook/rot in the ground, it was better than it sounds. There was lots of durian around but no one to help me eat it. Lots of stews and soups prepared in a clearly Chinese way.

After church, and the served lunch, everyone else was heading north so I took the 3rd class bus south to Chiang Mai, no air con, an unforgettable experience. It 'stops' for anyone along the way, but most wait at the mini-bus stops every few miles. No bathroom break in 4 hours, I guess you just get off the bus use the non-existing facilities and catch the next bus in 30 minutes.

I spent a lovely night in the new Bangkok airport, very modern yet somehow still dingy Thai. With many sushi restaurants and bars, I stole away in small coffee shop with WiFi and worked. Since I flew unrelated airlines I needed a new boarding pass which was a massive task. I learned they are at the entrance, but from inside there is no obvious entrance.

A typhoon hit Taiwan just as I arrived, and the airport closed for 7 hours. That gave me more time to try the food - mostly really good noodle soup.

After 49 hours of non-stop travel (and waiting) from Fang, Thailand to Pullman, it is nice to be on the right side of the road again.

The view out my hotel room in Fang.

Stacy treated everyone to ice cream.

Saturday: Fang Thailand, Church Dedication

2007-09-15T05:58:00.000-07:00

Today was the dedication of the new church in Fang, Thailand. We had a ribbon cutting ceremony and many speeches and mini-sermons, including me. The place was to the max with flowers.

Today I also was able to meet the SE Asia Foursquare head, George Butron, missionaries Paul and Lori Vernon. Chris Curry was in town and Kelly Hildebrand. I had productive discussions with everyone. I extracted many ideas for future trips and how to be more affective on our trips.

Ribbon Cutting

People entering church for the first time

The crowd gathers

The church is PACKED!

The Bangkok people are duly impressed.

Timothy Expresses his gratitude.

Photos

2007-09-12T03:05:00.000-07:00

Photos of Photos

Pastor P's orphan children in their truck. The orphanage is now where the school used to be.

Timothy in front of new Church

New Church Interior

Me, Fong Fang, Timothy, Pastor P.

worship at orphange

Wednesday Update: Fang

2007-09-11T07:24:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning with 2 calls from the US and very fogged over windows. When I left my room my glasses fogged over, too. It had been raining hard and humidity was high. But the rain made it cooler, 70% humidity and 85 F. By afternoon the rain stopped, by evening it was 60% humidity and what seemed like a cool 80 degrees.

Today was another work day. We did some cleaning up, purchased more plants, including aquatic plants for the fountain and cleaning the fountain. I also balanced the various ‘spouts’ to spew out about the same amount of water each. I spent a lot of time in the fountain, and my lower legs were pretty itchy, but ok now.

Last nights Korean barbeque caught up with me, but I think I’m ok now, just take more pepto. Once again we had breakfast, second breakfast, lunch and dinner. We successfully avoided Ritzys and KFC. We ordered family style Thai. I had my usual chopped chicken and Holy Basil, it was good. We also had Tom Yum Gook and deep fried Tilapia (excellent.) Of course Timothy tried to mess with me and ordered what he called pig intestine, which if definitely was not, probably buffalo rumen it was very flavorful but very rubbery.

I’m getting just enough chocolate to survive but the coffee situation is sad.

Tomorrow we’ll travel to Chiang Rai to pick up the team that will be doing leadership training and evangelistic outreach on Thursday and Friday.

Good night,

Bruce

Monday: Mai Sai and Fang

2007-09-10T06:25:00.000-07:00

Today, after 10hrs of sleep, Pastor P woke me with the hotel phone at 7am. We didn’t set a time.

We had a good conversation, many ideas for future trips. I visited the orphanage, did a short sermon and impromptu skit at the Sunday morning service. Also visited possible sites for boys orphanage dorm and a drug rehabilitation center. With 80 chuches, a college, orphanage, and his own church Pastor P. now has someone to oversee/manage the orphanage, college, and his church has a new pastor.

I traveled with Timothy and Fang Fong to Fang and we stopped at little noodle place in the mountains for lunch, turns out to be the same place that Scott Linklater, Chris Curry and I ate at 5 years ago on our first trip. And the noodles were as good as I remember.

We went to the new church; it is really nice. We did a few items around the building while other workers buzzed along on the finishing touches. I purchased some plants for front of the stage and steps leading up, it was a bit bare. The outside is very nicely landscaped with multistage fountain and GRASS around it. Most of the fence that we put up 1.5 years ago has been replaced with solid walls 6 to 8 feet tall. Pastor P purchased a last supper print in T where we had it framed along with 2 Palouse prints that Laurie took and we printed them at home with verses. They did a professional frame.

Tonight we went with 2 of the ‘boys’, young pastors to a ‘Korean’ barbecue’. This was NOT an experience for the faint of heart or picky eaters or those concerned about food born illness. There was standard chicken, pork, beef, clams, shrimp, and squid. But also all their insides were available and NONE of it was kept cold. You cook and eat with the same chopsticks. There were 3 bowls of excellent dipping sauces for the meat. They kept bring out new odd things which I of course HAD to try, I felt like Andrew Zimern, consuming one slimy, transparent, strange, or oddly green item after the other. The no live plant matter ‘salad’ was other worldly in appearance and texture, but rather plain flavor. For all five us, all you could eat, the total was $17.00 including drinks!

I have wireless Internet in the lobby so I hope to have regular updates.

Bruce

Saturday: Travel, arrival in Mae Sai

2007-09-08T06:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been in Mae Sai for about an hour, no travel problems, 6 hrs of sleep since I left. Had a super spicy meal for dinner.

Traveling alone is sure faster. I probably would have missed my bus in Chiang mai but zipping out of the airport (no checked luggage) and with a quick and only slightly scary tuk tuk ride, I made it to the bus station with 5 minutes to spare. The bus was second class but the AC worked so I was happy. My cell phone works here this time, but not data. Also cannot get my vioce mail.
from the bus terminal in mae sai I took a scooter taxi the 3 miles to my hotel, at significant risk to life and limb - but it was only $1.

The 2 transfers, tuk tuk and scooter, cost MORE than the 5 hour bus ride :-(

Well I'll be visiting Pastor P and speaking at his Sunday morning service tomorrow. then he and Timothy and I will meet for breakfast back at the hotel and timothy will take me on to Fang.

Garissa Update from Ken Ochieng

2007-08-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

As indicated in the previous update, our Jesus film staff went with University of Nairobi students to reach out to the people in Garsen with the gospel. Below is the pictorial account of the mission

The mission team headed to Garsen

Missioners crossing the river to reach the other villages. One of the “boats” carrying missioners overturned in the middle of the river—it took a miracle for the people to be rescued.

Talk of poverty?—it is real in Garsen

People gathered to watch Jesus film at night

Excited children after the show

Zakayo—Our Jesus film staff helping people follow the show

LAGBADANA MISSION

Mwenda—Our Jesus Film show leader helped organize a mission in lagbadana(5 miles from Garissa) for “Bridgers”—Students in transition between high school & University. This muslim lady is so generous—she cooked a meal for the team

Multitudes watching the show

The team constructing a school in lagbadana—Practically demonstrating the love of Christ. The class almost ready—just waiting for mud wall

The House of the headman—How does it compare with yours?

Ken

Thailand Update

2007-08-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

I'll be making a trip to Fang, Thailand and Myanmar in September. Among other things, I'll be participating in the dedication of the church building that we started in March 2006. The trip will also allow me to connect with old friends and learn what they are up to. I plan to meet hill tribe missionaries and others so I can keep our trips fresh, interesting, and challenging. We'll be sending a Pullman / Montana team sometime in the winter/spring of 2008.

Our initial meeting for Thailand 2008 will be the last Sunday of August (26th), and we'll get things going later in September after I get back from Thailand.

If Asia isn't your thing, we'll be heading to East Kenya in summer 2008 for a very challenging trip.

Bruce

Kenya Update - Ken Ochieng - Garissa, Kenya

2007-08-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

Psalm 63:1-3 says “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirst for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you” NIV. These words capture the longings of my heart. My prayer is that he will be the priority of our (including you) lives and that every other thing will be secondary.

I have been reading a book on “Boundaries” by Dr.Henry Cloud & Dr.John Townsend and have drawn great lessons on how to be saying No to those things that look urgent but are not quite the priority of my life. I have always taught people that God must always come first, Family second & Ministry third but I find myself not abiding in the same things I teach as most of my time is spend in ministry—sounds hypocritical but then it is an area of growth—I covet your prayer in this.

We have been having busy time here: Eunice has been active in meeting the prayer groups that meets in our office every week and also helping the office with HR issues. Last Sunday she was speaking in Anglican Church of Kenya here in Garissa. Last Sunday I spoke at Glory restoration sanctuary. Two of us speaking in different venues presented a good problem of who was to go with the kids—I had to go with both Tim & Ann coz it was possible for me to preach and manage them at the same time. This Sunday, I will be speaking at the Redeemed gospel Church—Pray for God to use me as his Voice.

Our Jesus film (JF) staffs have continued to work faithfully in this unfriendly environment. This week, Zakayo (JF staff) is together with Students from the University of Nairobi who are studying Medicine, Pharmacy &Dental surgery. They will be treating people during the day and showing the film during the night. Because of high illiteracy levels, Jesus film and the lives of believers might be the only “bible” this people would be able to “read” the whole of their lives. Pray for safety of the team and for God to reveal himself to the people who would be watching the film.

Kenya government is currently recruiting trained teachers and we are likely to loose some of the Teachers. We don’t pay our teachers as much as the government does and it takes those with a calling to remain with us. We have experienced high turnover of teachers as they move to the “greener pastures”. We can hardly pay a half of what others are giving.

Pray that God will bring people with a burden to serve and not people interested in money. Pray that we will get enough resources in order to give competitive remuneration to our staffs (we are about 50).

We intend to have 40 days of prayer & fasting this coming September. We ask you to consider full or partial fast. We even welcome those who will skip breakfast for those 40 days. We will not rest until we see the kingdom of God established in the hearts of Somalis, munyoywaya, Malakote, Wata, Orma, Wardei. The Knowledge of the glory of the Lord must cover this land as waters cover the sea. We hope to give you the prayer points for every single of those fort days soon. Please, shoot back if you want to be a part of this.

Lots of Blessings

Your commitment to the work of the Lord will pay off even in this life and remember Revelation 22:3 "And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him."

KEN,EUNICE,TIM and ANNA.

Update from Fang, Thailand

2007-07-27T15:49:00.001-07:00

Greeting to you in Jesus Name.I could not belived that it a long time since we comunicate. I am very sorry for this latr reply.We have been praying for you all the time .I am very excited to that young people are very intersted in more missions work look forward to work with them.The Orphans are doing alright and we now have 30 of them,and all are in school. and they have been praying for a new track (truck) to bring to school and back,as of now they all sqeese in to our little blue track,have attach their bios.We are now entering the final stage of our new church building I have attach some picture of the building.We are praying that it would be finished by September and Dedicate the Church building September the 15 2007.so that we would be able to us it immediately.do you think any one from Pullmen church could come for the dedications.?We still need more funds for floor tiling,chair and cutrians.Please help pray for us.We are very excited that it will be finished on time and are trusting God for the finances. Thank you again and we appriciate you all very much.Blessings Thailand for Jesus.Timothy, Fong Fung

July Update (2nd) - Ken Ochieng - Garissa, Kenya

2007-07-24T16:20:00.000-07:00

PRAYER POINTS

---The knowledge of the glory of the lord to cover the land as the water covers the sea

---God to reveal himself to the locals through visions, dreams, miracles

---Believers to be bold in sharing their faith both in life style and by word of mouth

---God’s Protection upon the local believers

---More laborers to come over

---Unity among believers

---Our School to maintain academic excellence

---Peaceful campaigns in this region during this year of election

---God to enable us to be strategic in our approach. That we would reach out to “Samaritan woman” whose conversion would cause great revival in the horn of Africa (Garissa, Somalia, Djibouti)

Eunice & Our school children carrying Somali children who have been abandoned by mothers at birth—this habit is on the rise

Our School children showing love to the innocent children

Eunice bottle feeding the baby abandoned by a Somali woman

It is time for raising the national flag in our school parade

A student in our School: Pray that they will worship the true God.

For the fulfillment of the great commission,

Ken & Eunice

Update from Ken Ochieng in Garissa, Kenya - July 2007

2007-07-10T08:26:00.001-07:00

We thank God for you and pray that you enjoy intimacy with him.
Life has been busy with lots of activities geared towards connecting with the locals.

Our visit to children’s home run by “mama Hani” was so successful. This old Muslim lady (72 years) has been working so hard to take care of the children majority of whom were dropped by their mothers. In the Somali culture, it is so bad to have a child out of wedlock and so there are a lot of Somali ladies (those who don’t want abortion) who have to carry the child till birth and then drop them in the garbage. People who find these children know where to take them—“mama Hani”. The long clothes that cover the head to the sole makes it easy for these girls to carry the pregnancy without people noticing. Some parents throw their children if they have disabilities. We took our boarding children so we could all spent time with this underprivileged children—many of our students learnt to appreciate who they are because they realized that others are worse.
Our own children, Tim & Ann learnt the importance of giving—we told them the story behind those children’s predicament and they were so touched about it---they gave clothes to be donated to those children. As a family, we are praying to God to help us know the workable strategies that will enable us reach out in love to those children. We hope to send you pictures of the same.

On 5th July we distributed mosquito nets and cooking utensils to a number of Somali ladies that lost things during the flood---the impact of the flood is felt to date

Please, do pray for a Somali brother “A” below that I won to the Lord and am trying to follow him up. He seems to be under intense pressure to give up Christianity. Thank you for standing in the gap.

For the fulfillment of the great commission,
Ken & Eunice

Ken's trip to U.S. and return to Garissa (including attack by...)

2007-06-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

(below this post there are some great photos - check them out!)

Everything about the trip was a miracle—right from the process of getting the visa to booking the flight.

On 12th April, I left for Seattle where Scott was to meet me. I arrived in Seattle at 16.35—it was a warm reception from Scott, his wife Hillary, daughter Emma and sons Grady & Gavin. We managed to spent a few days in Seattle at the house of Scott’s brother—Jason. The good thing was that all of Scott’s family was there. I felt like I was co-opted into the family.

You talk of Seattle and all that comes into my mind is rain—no wonder the all place is dotted with star bucks. I already noticed the difference between where I came from and America. Here, roads are really nice (Americans should be faithful in paying their taxes) and buildings are really planned. I also realized that Americans drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road—this scared me to death because I thought we were going to collide with the oncoming vehicles. Many times I would enter the side of the driver (when I was supposed to be a passenger).

After few days of recuperation in Seattle, we started our journey to Pullman. I was able to see nice sceneries on the way but what excited me most were the sites of snow covered land—I had never experienced this before. Scott was gracious enough to allow me step out of the car to touch and taste the snow—great experience. Landscape kept varying from mountainous to flat land.
On the way to Pullman, I started experiencing something new—‘Drive through”. If we needed a meal or coffee, all we needed was “drive through”—Life is really made easy.

We finally made it to Pullman—one of the most beautiful sites of the world (it was actually ranked top 10 best world sites for photography—I was told but I don’t know who ranked them—I believe it anyway).

The programme that Scott came up with could not have been better. Mine was to meet with people and share my story—I enjoy doing it.
Below is how my itinerary looked like:

Stayed with Scott’s family for most part except below. Among the foodstuffs that I ate for the first time included: Tacos, Lasagna, Salmon fish. Off course there
were all these strange juices (apparently they were nice) like Crane berry, blue berry etc. People (read Dan) like diet coke—I have never seen them in Kenya.
20th April 07—was with Pastor Dan (he is so funny). We went to see a movie (Amazing grace).

I spent in the house of Jamie & Sherry Hawes.
21st Apr—Visited Kamiak national reserve with Jamie, Sherry, Cole, Addison, Clay. Very exciting to do this kind of exercise. It is here that I realize that Americans love there dogs. Scott has one too called “Lu”

22nd Apr---Spoke at Pullman foursquare church. The topic: “the way up is down”. In the evening, I spoke on the book ‘prayer that works”.

23rd Apr—Stayed with Caleb and Stella (together with their children—Brian, Lauren, Andrew). It is here that I ate ugali & Kuku (this reminded me about home).

24th Apr—Stayed with Jeff & Angie Feuerstein (together with Annie, Tom, and Rosie). I felt like I was President Bush being in this beautiful house.

25th Apr—Stayed at Jeff’s place. Dan, Scott & I drove to the top of Steptoe—the guys who designed the road must have been genius. We had great lunch in Colfax.
I joined Jeff in conducting the gospel survey at WSU. I think the guy we talked to was philosophy major—very interesting talk indeed.

26th Apr---Stayed at Jeff & Angie’s house

27th Apr---Arrived at Springfield national park for Men’s encounter week. Joe talked on “Lost Son returns home”

28th Apr—second day of encounter. Went out together with Jamie and Ryan to Snake River—I think it was five hours walking. Experienced two rattle snakes on the way. Great experience for me although I was really exhausted.
Jan Busboon talked about “the transcedency of God”
Chad Jeffrey talked about “Forgiveness”
Jeff Feuerstein talked about “deliverance’.
We later lit the fire and burnt what was written against us.
Great teachings.

29th Apr—Scott taught on “The Holy spirit”
Dan closed the meeting. We drove back to meet the rest of the congregation at Pullman foursquare church. Ryan and Bruce cycled (it doesn’t sound real especially for Ryan who walked five hours the previous day).
30th Apr—Visited Oliveto’s (Stephen, Tiffany, Zach & Connor). I had Vietnamese dinner!

1st May—Attended Jan Busboon’s cell

2nd May—went with Scott to Eastern Washington state university. I briefly shared what we are doing in Garissa. Scott shared the message—he is a great speaker. Many students showed interest to come over to Kenya.

3rd may—stayed at the house of the Salvadalena (Russ & Janie, Shianne, Nick).
Attended my first bowling game (courtesy of Russ). Won the second match (out of five of us—can’t share about the first game).

4th May—Stayed in the house of Joe and Sue Watson—beautiful place to view other sites in Pullman

5th May—Joe and Sue took me to watch their grand son Jessy play baseball—my first time. Great game although Jessy’s team lost.

6th May—Attended Church—Reinhardt Bonke’s series.
Stayed with Bruce & Laurie Heimbigner. Got to meet two of their sons and their daughter in law. Had good talk around the great meal.

7th May—Traveled together with Bruce & Laurie to different parts of Eastern Washington. Got to join Bruce’s brother plough his huge trucks of land. Visited Grand Coulee, salt lake among other places. Had dinner in Spokane.

8th may---Visited different places at Washington state university. Saw Labs for Victor, Bruce, and Masaro before linking up with Jan

9th May—Spent most of the time at the church

10th May---Visited Jan & Janice Busboom—cut trees, fed sheep. Ate dinner

11th May—Visited Steve 7 Serena Bravard. Tried moving the boat. Did shooting---using different guns (The noise was really scary). Great dinner.

12th May—on Steve & Serena’s four wheeler meandering through the steep hill—great excitement for me. Fed horses.
In the evening, I joined Victor, Lupita & Jeff—we went to Jeff’s deck. We passed through India reservations. Great experience as Victor 7 I tried a game neither of us was familiar with. Sad that Victor Beat me.

13th May—Attended Sunday service—Reinhardt Bonke’s series.
Did preparation for the following day

14th—18thMay---Las Vegas, NV

18th—24thMay--Virginia

24th—30thMay--San Jose, CA

31st May—Preparation for the following day

1st June—Drove to Okanogan/Omak

2nd June—Attended Okanogan centennial celebration

3rd June—Spoke at Omak’s foursquare church

4th June—traveled back to Pullman. Great Dinner at the house of Pastor Dan, Patty, Bowen

5th June---shopping & saying bye to those who came to bid me farewell
GREAT, GREAT, GREAT EXPERIENCE. THANK YOU ALL WHO MADE MY STAY A SUCCESS.
THANK YOU SCOTT FOR ALLOWING GOD TO USE YOU TO
BLESS ME.

6TH –9TH---NJ
9—12TH---PN
13TH---WARM RECEPTION FROM EUNICE, TIM ANN.

I MET THE OBJECTIVES OF LAUNCHING THE BOOK & RAISING FINANCIAL SUPPORT---TO GOD BE THE GLORY!!!

I am now back to Garissa where there seems to be plenty of work
Already. My wife Eunice worked so hard in my absence. She did organize a
Prayer seminar that was well attended by members of different churches in Garissa--it was very successful.
In my absence, some Muslim thugs invaded our school at night where
They slashed our watchman leaving him for the dead--God spared his
life and is recovering--this is now a police case. The intention of the attack is still not clear. The thugs managed to break into our school offices and made away with lap top computer amongst other things. Please pray for safety of the school children who are borders and also ourselves

Ken on Tour

2007-06-08T18:08:00.000-07:00

Ken in Cougar Country - Sorry couldn't find a live one.

American Bison / Buffalo

Visiting a Wheat Farm in Eastern Washington - No cougars here either

Dry Falls Washington

Grand Coulee Dam

Fun in Spokane

My wife even gave him a haircut

More later, Bruce

Ken (from Garissa, Kenya) is in the United States for the first time!!!

2007-04-20T10:26:00.000-07:00

Ken is in Pullman, WA, USA until June 6th raising awareness of the work he does, building relationships, raising prayer & financial support, releasing his first book (click here to buy a copy online), and seeing snow for the first time! Below are from the Cascade Mountains in the state of Washington where he saw (and tasted) snow for the first time. We will be updating the blog with news from his trip, so check back often! Also, yesterday was his 35th birthday!!!! Happy Birthday, Ken!!

Ethiopia vs. Somalia Soccer Match in Dadaab, Kenya at refugee camps

2007-03-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

When you talk of Somalis and Ethiopians the next thing that comes in mind are enemies that cant see eye to eye. This is worsened by the recent war that was in Mogadishu (capital of Somali) in which the Ethiopian troops helped to remove Islamic courts that had ruled Somali for a number of months. Around that time, we had a lot of influx of Somali refugees to daddaab refugee camp.

I have trained quite a number of Ethiopians on how to do evangelism and discipleship. We needed something that would bridge the gap between these refugees who are neighbors and yet enemies. Having talked with a refugee from Ethiopia who is taking care of the church in the camp, we decided that a match between these groups was going to be the bridge to use to share the love of God to them.

We hade two categories of matches: under 15 years and Adults.

Saturday 10th match: Ethiopians under 15 beat Somalis two goals to nil. We had about 1,200 Refugees watch the match.

Sunday 11th: It was a match of the adults between Somalis and Ethiopians. At the end of the 90 minutes they had equal goal aggregates two versus two on each side. They went on penalty and both scored three more goals. It became dark and a deal was made for the match to continue the following day. About 1,500 Refugees watched the game.

Monday 12th: They decided to have full match again. Somalis emerged the winners having beat Ethiopians two goals to nil—it was real celebration time for the mammoth of Somali supporters who had cheered their team all through. About 1,600 refugees watched the match.

As I think about it, I realize that adopting relevant strategies in reaching out to the hurting world is going to go along way in bringing people to the Master —sharing HIS Love in multifaceted ways is something we need to boldly do.

Giving smiles and joy to faces of some of those people who have seen death so close is something I would not trade with anything.

Here are a few photos so you can have a taste of what happened:

Look at that—Somali players (in red) with Ethiopian Players (light blue)

Ethiopians holding the two cups that were being “fought” for & Ken holding the cups before giving the leaders

N/B: most Ethiopians who played are from Gambela region—they are called Anywak—they are river-Lake nilotes. We also have other Cushitic Ethiopians in the camp (I have trained quite a number of them) only that it was tricky involving them also. Thanks for being apart of this !

Myanmar update

2007-03-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hi Bruce,

Thanks for the in-depth and encouraging update on what is happening with you guys and the church. My apologies for not responding sooner. I was in the States for ten days of meetings and my inbox is very full (still 75 messages to go!).

Let me say that your continued partnership in Thailand and Myanmar are making a difference and bearing fruit. I am in regular contact with P (talked to him last night) and the ministry there is mushrooming in every direction (its now up to 58 church and doors opening all over). Our big challenge now is to help them get some buildings up! The evangelism is going great but the government and economic situation are very tough and they need our help. I will be there in two weeks for a graduation of the students who have now finished their course work since the Bible School was closed. P is using the church to continue the training and we are looking at finding a way to reopen the Bible School as a vocational training center.

Another need is additional room for the orphans. As they get older, it is essential to separate the boys and girls and they are looking for a way to build a dormitory that will allow for this. The church property is pretty maxed out but P manages to find a way!

You may have heard about increased persecution from the government. Six churches have been closed in Mandalay and officials have been cutting the crosses off of church buildings in the Golden Triangle. So far, none of our ministries have been impacted but the situation is tense.

One thing I have discovered is that places where we have missionaries get a lot more attention and help than the places that do not. That is one reason I pound the drum for Burma a lot. Our involvement with some very solid and proven ministries will greatly multiply the fruit and I have a strong sense that it is God's time for breakthrough in this nation. I have been north to Chin State where the revival started in the 70's and south to Moulmein where Adoniram Judson began a ministry that has left a lasting legacy. In Yangon, Mandalay and the Golden Triangle, a young generation of leaders is rising.

Please convey my thanks and those of the Pastor Philip Ahone, P and the leaders in Myanmar for what you and the Pullman Foursquare Church has done.

Philip and Mie Mie Ahone are in the Seattle area now. Their daughter Charis will be graduation from Seattle Pacific U. in May. I would encourage you to contact them. Philip is the founder and leader of Foursquare Myanmar and I would love for you to be able to spend some time with him. They have a daughter in Portland, Glory.

Thanks again Bruce. I will be happy to work with you and the 20 something's who what to come to SE Asia! Sounds like a great trip. I would love to spend some time with you and this group. Let me know dates, etc and I will help you set this up.

God bless you,

George Butron

Cornelius in Burma

2007-02-19T12:44:00.000-08:00

BREAKTHROUGH IN BURMA

The news out of Myanmar (Burma) is often negative but God has a way of getting redemptive work done even when things are looking bad. After hearing about increased opposition to Christianity in some parts of the country, I paid a visit this once prosperous SE Asia nation which is still known as, "The Beautiful Land." After visiting several ministries that are growing under difficult conditions (the economy is weak, the spiritual atmosphere is heavy and the Buddhist religion and world view is pervasive), a unique opportunity came to meet with a highly placed government official.

While not a believer, this man is like Cornelius from the book of Acts chapter 10. He is a man of peace who fears God and genuinely wants to help people. He has a greburden and spoke with compassion of needs in his nation regarding health care, orphan care and other areas where development and transformation are needed. The health care system faces huge shortages of medicine and supplies with increasing spread of diseases. Regarding orphans, he stated that when poor children and orphans are taken to the Buddhist temple to be raised by the monks it dooms them to a life of poverty and begging with no education or future advancement.

After hearing about Foursquare orphan care, medical teams and development projects in Cambodia and other places, he was genuinely interested to see these things happen in his nation. He said they need the help, offered his assistance and said that many of these projects could be run through local churches--a most unusual opportunity.

After all the negative news--there are powerful players who are actively opposing Christianity-- this was certainly a positive and unexpected conversation! God has a way of arranging divine appointments and opening doors. He is also putting a burden for this nation on the hearts of many people who are banding together for a breakthrough in Burma!

Help is needed and if you are interested in being a part of this project, please contact me at:
fmisea at singnet.com.sg

Thanks!

George Butron
Foursquare Missions International SE Asia

News from Myanmar

2007-02-04T22:38:00.000-08:00

I've found several news articles on this, but it difficult to know the accuracy.
http://english.gospelherald.com/article/asia/959/section/more/1.htm
http://www.cbn.com/CBNnews/95502.aspx
http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2005/003/1.42.html
http://www.mnnonline.org/article/9490

Dear Friends,

The News from Myanmar recently has been a mixture of both good and bad. On the good side, churches are growing like never before and three is every indication that God is doing something unusual and wonderful in this impoverished nation. The bad news is that there are indications of a severe campaign against Christians that has already resulted in the destruction of several church buildings and caused believers to flee for their lives. According to an official document that was recently published in London, there is a “Program to destroy the Christian religion in Burma,” (Charles Colson, Breakpoint Commentary 1/31/2007).

I travel to Myanmar on Monday Feb 5th and return on Saturday the 11th. Some strong prayer support, intercession and warfare would be much appreciated.

Thanks for caring!

George Butron
Singapore

Garissa/Dadaab Ministry Update from Ken Ochieng

2007-02-01T10:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Scott
Greetings from a hot and meatless Garissa. Meatless because we have had an animal disease outbreak called Rift valley fever. Mosquitoes transmit the same disease to Human beings. The government slapped a ban on eating meat in this place (the locals love to eat meat). We have learnt to be vegetarians—I think I am enjoying it.

The year is getting busy and you can join me in praying that more laborers will come here and join us in reaching the Muslims with the gospel.

The exciting news to report is that God enabled our school to top 83 other schools in our district in the 2006 national exams whose results came a month ago. This being our fifth consecutive time to top the district has made many parents flock our school to bring their children (majority are Muslims). We decided to increase the number of streams (classes). The school now has >400 students. Continue praying that they will see the light of the Lord.

The year started in a very tough way—what of with the conflict in Somali and the Rift Valley fever. Garissa not being very far from Kenya-Somali border is seen by many people as not a very safe place to live in. many people expected us to leave the place when things were tough in Somali. We thank God that now things are much better.

Somali is one country in the world that has very few missionaries reaching them. Because of lacking a government for the past one and a half year, the place is so unsafe to missionaries that many decide to keep off the place yet the God I serve whose ways are not our ways has opened a great door here in garissa and daddab for me to mobilize believers to reach out to them. Somali people are more open to the gospel when here in Kenya as opposed to when they are in Mogadishu. I am planning to organize a football match between Somali and Ethiopia soon in daddab refugee camp. As you are aware, people are so idle in the camp such that they prefer to play football every time the temperatures go down. We have over 150,000 refugees in the camp and many are coming in. I have tried to equip believers especially from Ethiopia and Sudan with skills on how to reach out to there Somali colleagues (they freely mingle in the camp). Pray that the football match I am organizing will be successful and that the believers will use that to connect with Somalis and plant the word of God.

Through out this week, I have been teaching the word of God to our workers—two of them are Muslim. The study is such that even the non believers can attend. These studies are laying foundations that are going to help these two Muslim colleagues know the Lord—in fact one of them came to me asking me to spend more time with him explaining to him some things that are not clear—please, pray that the Lord may bring them to the knowledge of truth.

People that were affected by floods are still in camps although many of there places are dry. We continue to help them with medications and clean water. The government has come to appreciate our work the more through our intervention in this situation. It is true that everything works for good to those that love the lord and are called according to his purpose.
I plan to run training on evangelism and discipleship starting this match here in garissa. We believe many will be equipped. One of the things I will train on is how to do Muslim evangelism.
Keep praying that God will fulfill his purpose in this place through our lives.

We thank God that you are helping us lay foundation of the word of God here where deception has reigned for long. I am looking forward to seeing you in US this April so we can strategize further on how to accelerate the process of reaching out to our friends here.

Blessings

Urgent prayer items from Ken in Garissa, Kenya

2007-01-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

Other than the impact of the flood that is still with us, there are two urgent prayer items:
1) The fight in Somali is causing a lot of influx of refugees here (we are not very far from the border). Pray that Christians will share the love of God with them. Pray for a lasting solution in the conflict in somali
2) The outbreak of "Rift valley fever" is causing many deaths here. The disease is transmitted by mosquitoes from Animals to people. Victims die after 48 hours--signs are fever, bleeding etc. Pray for God's intervention.
Thanks for standing in the gap
Regards to Hillary, the children and the church

Highlights of 2006 from Ken in Garissa, Kenya

2006-12-22T16:46:00.000-08:00

Ken, Eunice, Tim, and Anna

Life Frontier School

Ken training teachers

Flooding

Anna

Tim

OUR PRAYER FOR YOU IN 2007 IS THAT:
You will walk with God --- you will not loose strength
You will continually talk to God –you will not loose breath
You will wait on God—you will loose no time
You will Trust in God—you loose no faith
WISHING YOU LIFE GUIDED BY ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE IN 2007

N/B---We are having ‘Pamoja Africa” conference at Kabarak University where University + other tertiary students from all over Africa are gathering (We expect over 3, 000). Ken will speak on two topics: Building prayer movements and reaching least reached people groups. PLEASE PRAY THAT GOD WILL RAISE A NEW BREED OF LEADERS FOR AFRICA AFTER THIS CONFERENCE

More pictures & update from Ken in Garissa

2006-11-21T11:05:00.000-08:00

So far five people are dead because of the flood—thank God because many more lives would have been lost.

There are thousands of people marooned in an island---I have learnt that ten elephants and a number of Lions are also in the island and as the flooding continues, the animals are getting closer to the people and this is a great threat.

Not far from our place, crocodiles and hippopotamus are freely moving around enjoying the blessings of rain.

We have all moved from our house—I initially remained but finally decided to move out after our house was surrounded by water.

It is really hard for our children Tim and Anna who don’t understand what is happening—being away from there familiar house is also complicating the issue.

We have to move to a better house which means more money which we don’t have. We purpose not to complain or ask questions why this is happening. If anything, we are now helping out people who are in more serious situation than ours(At least we have a place to lay our heads).
We thank God for giving us opportunity to go through this kind of things—they cannot compare with the eternal weight of glory awaiting us and all those that are living for him. Greater love has no one than this, that one should die for his friends--Amen

Tana River Overflowing

Flooded House

Eunice outside their house

People fleeing the flooding

Flooded Ministry

URGENT: Tana River Causes Mass Flooding in Garissa, Kenya (Update from Ken Ochieng)

2006-11-19T15:31:00.001-08:00

So here we are in a serous situation. I have heard of tsunami, Katrina etc but never thought it would be that close to us. We have serious disaster of flood caused by the overflowing river bank of tana river. I evacuated my wife and children on Thursday and remained in the house hoping that things will become better—it has not. Below is our house

Things are bocoming worse—about 25,000 people are affected. Much as we are victims, we are trying to see how we can show the love of God in this. Below is a muslim friend helping to shift our furnitures

People are in great crisis here and buildings including churches are submerged. I was suppose to preach in a church today but could not because the church is under water and besides, I had to be rescued.

Please Pray

Update from Kennedy Ochieng in Garissa, Kenya

2006-11-14T08:55:00.000-08:00

Greetings in the matchless name of our Lord. Below are photos of our standard eight students who are did their national exams last week---please, pray that they will glorify God with good results

We had music festival for our school—it was amazing seeing muslim children dancing Christian songs. Pray that they will embrace the truth \ Lots of love from us

Update from Ken Ochieng in Garissa, Kenya

2006-10-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

Scott
Greetings in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I trust that it is well with your soul. we thank God for you and pullman foursquare church because of keeping us in the mission field through your faithful giving and prayers.

As you are aware, this has been the month of ramadhan when muslim pray and fast--this is one of the five pillars of islam. About fifty christians joined in fourty days of prayer and fasting asking God to save the descendants of Ishmael. Eunice has been the one giving leadership to this group. Many chose to survive on breakfast only or lunch only and only eternity will reveal what has been happeneing in the spiritual raealms.

We have been praying that people will become disatisfied with what Islam has to offer and that they will meet with Jesus who only can satisfy the thirst of our souls as he did to the samaritan woman. We have seen the answer to this prayer as many young muslim people have not been faithfull in the fasting. They also prefer to watch English premiership matches in the television than go to Mosque.

Last sunday evening, a sheikh(equivalent to a pastor) came into the church where our team was screening "jesus film" and actually stayed there for quite sometime--we believe that God will convict him to come to the way, the truth, the life.

We are at the moment very busy preparing our standard eight students for National exams that will be taking place early november--please pray that we will glorify God with good results.

I ministered at the teachers training college last week. After the meeting,a young man who was a muslim until last month was brought to me so i can disciple him--please pray that i will have time to help establish this man in the faith.

In early November,I will be speaking at the only Medical training college in the province. Pray for God to use me.

Pray for God to send more missionaries as the number that is here isnt enough although i also know that God doesn't depend on numbers
Lots of Love from us

Kaarin Swanson in Australia

2006-10-04T19:03:00.000-07:00

Whoa.
So, here I am, in Australia. The flight went well, so much better than i expected. On the LAX - Sydney flight, in the morning, they handed me a hot washcloth with tweezers... I pretended I knew what to do with it, but not before laughing at the confusion. It's not hot, just warm, like an early summer day and the geckos are pretty cool and make this chirping sound. There are some stowed away in this computer room whom were chirping last night and we thought it was a bat and even identified a peice of wood as that bat. But we were corrected and told that the bats won't come around until about april and they have a wing span of about two feet. HA.

There are two schools going on at the base right now, a Frontier's DTS and my MAD DTS. The Frontiers focus on underdeveloped countries and reaching those who havn't heard the gospel, so while my school is practicing music/art/dance they will be learning about medicine and stuff. They're leaving for the weekend to stay at a cabin but my school is staying here and we have some classes and are going to go into the city. My school (the Art part) leader was talking to me this morning about some photographers she's been looking into and art events around the city that we'll go to... there are only 4-5 of us art students which is AMAZING. I'm so glad there arn't many of us.

We have breakfast and morning tea, lunch and dinner and there's always a bin full of bread if we get hungry inbetween. So that's good, I'm glad it's bread and not something unsatisfying and lame! :)

I just wanted to drop a note and let you all know what's going on and that I REALLY appriciate your prayers!

Where the money goes - Myanmar

2006-10-02T14:20:00.000-07:00

Brother Bruce Heimbigner

Praisethelord !

Thank you very much for your letter and I receive all the money safely today. This is our difficult time. I will buy Rice, oil, Exercises book {for school}, Pencil, slipper, ....Ect. God will give Many blessing to you and all the brothers and sisters in your church. Every mornning and Evenning we are strongly pray for your team will coming safely in our church. I am so joyful in my heart. Today I arrive form Mainsat mission field today.

In christ
Rev.P

Church building update in Fang - and recent events

2006-10-02T10:17:00.000-07:00

Just a short note to let you know that we have received the funds. Thank you very much and we greatly appriciate it.

The church building is up and we are still waiting for any one who want to help us complete the building. Its has now wall stage rooms but the roof and ths drop ceiling is not up yet. They are the most expensive. As of now we have to stop working as we are waiting for more donations.

Attach are some of the latest picture of what happens last week. Rivival are taking place in the North Thailand KEEP PRAYING FOR US. You might want to share the picture around.

Thank you so much again .

I God Blessings
Timothy

From Bruce:

Here are photos one of the Largest Churches in North Thailand. We broke ground on it in March 2006, and with the help of other churches it continues to be built.

Orphanage, revival meetings, and our friends:

Update from Fang, Thailand

2006-09-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

From Pastor Timothy, Fang, Thailand.
Hi Bruce,Laurie.

Greeting to you in the Mighty name of Jesus.

Just a short note.
We will be praying for you all.

This week have been very busy as the team from Georgia is here since early this week and we have been doind Pastor conference and night crisade as well. Some how did not expect is that we have so murch rain and yet people still come to the rally.

This afternoon we will be heading to Mae-sai to do another Pastor confrernce with Pastor P for two days and than to Chiangrai Pastor confrernce/Revival at the YMCA.
We will be very busy till the end of the month. i WILL NEED YOUR PRAYER.
By the Grace of God , we might see 600 soul added to His Kingdom and one new church planted.

Update from Myanmar

2006-09-28T13:40:00.000-07:00

{Since the pastor in Myanmar has been arrested and beaten and had his bible college closed for a year we don't list his name or town on our web page.]

Brother Bruce Heimbigner:

Thank you very much for your letter and you love in our ministary. By the grace of God, all the kids is have a good healths but eatting is very poor. This time is very difficult all in T {his town}. The rain is very havey and some part of T is many water and stop school one week already. Please pray for our orphanage Kids in this difficult time. All the goods is very high {expensive} then Thailand. Because all the goods is form {from} Thailand. Many water and rainning everyday then all the way of T and M {a neighboring town} can not cross.

I am very welcome you and all your team. How many days all the team can use their time in our church? We are free time when they coming in T. What I need to preparation for the team? We are ready for Leadership trainning, bible seminor, Childern ministary and teaching orphanage kids.

When your team coming I will call in bible college and see 740 books over I receive form Timothy and put already in our libarary. All this books is form you and all the team bring when they coming early{er} this year. All the staff and me, we need to say heartlity Thanks to you and all the team. God will give many blessing to you and all the team. This is our prayer. We are still hope bring more books for our libarary. All the christian books is very useful in our land. Christian books is very very few books in {this area}. So please bring more books , When the team is coming in T.

I need to write long letter but my poor English is not enough write letter. Please read slowly my letter.

Pastor P.

Ken in Garissa, Kenya - Sept. 19th

2006-09-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

Hi Scott,

God is helping us do exploit for his Kingdom. Yesterday, 6 military officers who took several months going through training on evangelism and discipleship graduated at the Garissa military camp. It is good to have this people equiped because thay can take the gospel even in dangerous places---they have been helping us show Jesus film even in hostile places. Once in a while we make use of their helicopter in taking the film to remote places of the province . We were blessed to have the seniormost officers in the region grace the graduation. The 1st attached photo are the graduates and myself, the 2nd attachment are the graduates, officers (including military chaplain) and myself.

On another note, Yesterday,I was privillaged to have Attended a wedding of muslim couple. I had recieved an invitaion by an influencial local leader to attend the wedding of his son---this was a purely muslim affair but Eunice and I were there. Attached photo is the bridegroom, myself, the father and best man.It is amazing what God can do

Update from Ken in Garissa, Kenya - Sept. 19th

2006-09-19T10:38:00.000-07:00

Update from Ken in Dadaab / Garissa, Kenya

2006-09-13T08:04:00.000-07:00

Greetings in the matchless name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hope you are fine. God is moving in unprecedented manner here.

The graduation of the evangelism and discipleship class on saturday at dadaab refugee camp was great. 113 people graduated from a course that we took them through.Through their efforts, 101 people came to the Lord and are in discipleship groups. Before the graduation ,i had told them to bear fruit by investing their time in evangelism and discipleship. This result is amazing.

There are certain somalis( from Mogadishu) who have been won to the Lord by the same people that we trained---one of them is standing next to me giving testimony when i was preaching in the attached photo.

The story of Ogut (refugee from Gambela--Etrhiopia) is a moving story.I had been given one of the refugee rooms to sleep in next to his room and he was attending the training. He developed some problems that Doctors could not tell since tests had to be done in Nairobi ( i suspected kidney problem because of the swelling legs). While the issue of tests was still being pursued, he died. When his pocket was being checked after his death, the witnessing material we gave him was found in his pocket---he was ready to witness even at the point of death--he died a soldier in the army of the Lord.

Quite a number of people who have given their lives to Christ had opportunity to share about their new found faith during the graduation. God bless you for being apart of what is happening here. We thank God for pullman foursquare church
Attached are pictures that were taken at the camp

Update from Ken in Dadaab, Kenya

2006-08-24T09:37:00.000-07:00

These are photos from a recent evangelism training at United Nations refugee camps in Dadaab, Kenya. It's truly incredible that Ken has access to these camps and is able to teach nearly 100 refugees about evangelism!

Ken also taught about water supply safety and agricultural techniques.

DADDAB REFUGEE CAMP UPDATE (Ken in Garissa, Kenya)

2006-08-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

DADDAB REFUGEE CAMP UPDATE
I did training on evangelism and discipleship last year at Ifo camp and over fifty refugees graduated at that time. Since that time the refugees have been making Telephone calls asking to be taken on Training of trainer level. They also mobilized other members that had not taken the training to do so. This kind of training is a very expensive venture and as you might know I am a Man of faith who doesn’t have material endowment and have to trust God on everything. The good thing is that My God doesn’t disappoint. So on 7th August, I set out to Daddab together with other six trainers to go and run the evangelism and discipleship programme. These programme is normally suppose to take three to six months depending on the amount of time you take daily. The refugees decided that they wanted to do the training in about ten days and that meant we had to start our lesson from morning to evening—thank God we had carried a generator. It was a tight programme but the refugees have gone through so much and they can cope with anything.

I decided to divide us in three groups---I was handling training of trainer. Three trainers (Cheres, Keith, Ambija) were taking new class in IFO camp while three others (Peter, Lawrence and Cecilia) were taking new class in DAGAHALE camp. The two camps are about ten kilometers apart. We were almost overwhelmed by the number that came for the training----33 for TOT and 80 in the new class. We however made sure that Quality was not compromised—this meant we had to spend extra ours coaching some that needed help.

One great thing about this training is that it was a training for the trainers I went with. I had insisted that we were going to eat the same food the refugees were taking and sleep in their houses. They were initially scared but later confessed to have liked it. Now, in refugee camp we just have beds made of mud---raised like a half a meter from the ground. Those are wonderful beds that kept our back straight—I guess it is a good thing for those with back problems. Many trainers I went with tasted some of the foods the refugees provided for the first time. It was strange hearing foodstuffs like Injera, shirowat, alichawat.

I am so excited that from the previous training, 19 refugees were won to the Lord and are actively involved in small group bible study. This time round, I am expecting much more. The “Jesus film’ was also screened at Dagahaale camp on Friday and two refugees received the Lord!

The generosity of the refugees is something that amazed all of us—it is a classic example reminding us of the church in Macedonia that gave so much out of its poverty. These people took care of all the meals we took while there.

The refugees kept giving me even a higher challenge—to take the training to their brothers and sisters back at home. We had a representation of different countries in the training: Sudan, Ethiopia, Congo (formerly Zaire), and Eritrea. By the way, according to a friend of mine who works with organization that help persecuted believers, they say that Eritrea has one of the highest persecution index and things are becoming worse with time.

One disappointment was that A (Somali believer) never attended TOT (training of trainer). He was one of the best students in the previous class—in fact during the last graduation he brought in another Somali he had won to the Lord during the training. This time round, he is changing camps because he is concerned about his security—Pease pray for him.

We will be having graduation ceremony on 9th September 2006. I hope to send lots of pictures then. Blessings

UPDATE THAILAND from the Hilderbrand's

2006-08-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

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

SET BACKS AND PRAISE REPORTS

We also have been hit with a large number of illnesses. Almost half of our staff has been in the hospital for various illnesses this past month, including pastor Dton who fainted. The staff has been working so hard, night and day doing outreaches and has not been getting enough rest.

On a positive note, Good News Church is growing! In July we had over 200 college freshman attend our annual “Freshy Camp.” Teams from New Hope Montana and Florence Avenue Foursquare in California came to help. They were a big blessing. Several made a commitment to Christ and we will be baptizing seven of these new believers in a couple of weeks.

We are also looking at starting another Burmese church by the end of the year. Pastor Tommy has started a group across town in an industrial area. The factories in that area employ around 50,000 Burmese workers under harsh conditions and for a very low wage. At present there is no Burmese language church any where near this area. We are still looking for funding to make this happen.

BUILDING
We still have not broken ground for the building. There has been one problem after another to work out, zoning problems, access to electricity and water. But all indications are that we should be granted permission to build very soon. We are still short about $200,000 needed to finish the project.

THE SOUTH
The whole family traveled to the south of Thailand the first weekend in August to celebrate the second anniversary of one of the largest Foursquare churches in Thailand. Pastor Borvorn is a strong pastor raised in the south and the southern people love him. That Sunday we witnessed 26 people being baptized. We traveled by overnight train to arrive early Sunday morning in the city of Had Yai, a southern city with a strong Chinese influence. Just to the south of Had Yai, Muslim separatists have been fighting to form their own country apart from Thailand. There have been many terrorist attacks and a neighbor of ours was injured in a bomb blast there about one year ago, but generally Had Yai is quiet.

One of the girls being baptized was recently healed during a Friday night prayer service. She had pain on the right side of her body for many years. But one day, members of the church went to her neighborhood to talk about Jesus. They talked about how Jesus has the power to save and heal us. So the young girl traveled to the church on a Friday night. She sat in the church from 4:00 p.m. until the service started at 7:00 p.m., but nobody asked her why she came so early. Finally, someone asked her if she needed prayer. She explained her condition and the whole church prayed for her. She is now completely healed and out of pain. Because of her healing many of her family are also now coming to church.

TEACHERS
New teachers are coming to help, but we are still short. Pray about joining us.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Please pray for several new English teachers to come soon. The school has grown to serve over 800 students in two locations.

Please pray that the government will approve our application for a Foursquare Foundation very, very, very soon. We need to foundation to legally own property and to carry out our various charity activities (orphanages, schools, tsunami relief) under the Foursquare name.

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, Norma, 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 helping the ECFC Committee in 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 Ram 2 church.

Continue to pray for everyone’s health. Also pray for our continued protection, especially as we travel.

Let us know how we can pray for you.

Update from Evangelism Training in Dadaab, Kenya

2006-08-12T15:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings in that great and mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are doing fine as a family and ministry and experiencing the love of our God.

I came from daddab refugee camp to Garissa to get more training materials. The training is great---we are having about a hundred refugees attending in three different venues. The third venue is actually training of trainers (about thirty five of them). They are already applying the principles of the training and are winning fellow refugees to the Lord.

Pray for the remaining topics and that this explosion will be sustained untill all refugees have had opportunity to say Yes to Jesus. I will be going back on sunday--pray for safety and protection. Hope to update you once i am back. Blessings

[Ken Ochieng]

Update from Ken in Garissa, Kenya at a refugee evangelism training

2006-08-09T11:08:00.000-07:00

Just left daddab today briefly to come and collect materials needed for training. It is already wonderfull--over a hundred refugees are attending the training and they are busy evangelising as part of their practicals. I will be back on sunday. Many of them still remember you and Tyler.
Blessings

Update from Ken in Garissa, Kenya

2006-08-01T08:10:00.000-07:00

Scott
I have been in Mombasa (second biggest city in Kenya after Nairobi) speaking in a church that invited me.I have spoken in four services within the three days i have been around. It has been nice only that The journey from Garissa to Mombasa took more than twelve hours and that was exhaustive. Starting next week , i will be running three trainings on Evangelism and discipleship at the different camps of
Daddab refugee camp--Pray for fruitfullnes.I will basaically be passing the same principles that you taught here on bringing people to the Lord, discipling, mentoring and sending them to be spiritual multipliers. I am following the modell of pullman foursquare church. There are about a hundred refugees that want to attend the training that will be running from morning to evening for ten days. I will be accompanied by others that i have taken through the training--Pray that they will adapt to the live of staying in the houses of the refugees and eating the same food for those days. I am hoping that after the training, the refugees will be on fire reaching out to their colleagues with the
gospel. Thank you for praying.

Blessings

July update from Ken Ochieng in Garissa, Kenya

2006-07-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

We hope that you are safe in the hands of the master. It is unusually cold in this place. It is amazing that people can use blankets here—under normal circumstances we don’t cover ourselves.

We had a successful time on sunday as I taught at Garissa Teachers College. My subject was on obedience and I am thankful to God that many confessed they were blessed by the message. It is time to submit fully to the will of the master. It is time to cross the line---no more waffling and wavering.

We intend to distribute fifty-four water pumps this week. We will also distribute seeds—maize, beans. We desire to inculcate in the people a culture of working hard with their hands rather than waiting for handout.

I am looking forward this week to taking people through appropriate agricultural practices this week. I used to wonder why God took me to the University to learn about Agriculture only for me to be called as a missionary—now I know that he is a God of purpose. He doesn’t let anything go to waste (twelve baskets of bread from a miracle was never thrown away}.
Pray for the mission to Daddaab refugee camp this August—I will be going there to train the refugees on how they can become spiritual multipliers everywhere they go—I need seventy two hours for classes and a few days of practical if the training is to be succeful.

We thank God that you have accepted him to use you to be a blessing in this part of the world. May the Lord continue to increase pullman four square church as they reach out to people they may never meet this side of eternity.

Update Phil & Family in Antwerp, Belgium

2006-07-03T15:57:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and supporters,

Well July has finally arrived. Besides some very hot days here we have people crazy about the World Cup Football being kicked out in Germany and the Tour de France beginning today. I'm considering catching some of the Tour along the way but not sure I can keep up!!!
Angela and the children have been in the States for 2 weeks now and its very quiet around here without them. I been involved in teaching as a chaplain at a Belgian Airbase every week and I enjoy this. I also have had opportunities to preach at local churches recently which is awesome.

Thanks for your prayers for Luc. He is scheduled for another surgury in the week ahead. Please pray that he would be open to learn more about Christ and living for him from the Word. His hope level has been low because of this health battle. I want him to let the body of Christ come alongside him to battle on the spiritual front (those unseen elements) and to show him he's not alone. I have also met a neighbor who is practicing Dutch/Vlaams with me every week. He's a really friendly guy who is also a dad and needs the Lord. His name is Ludwig.

Please pray for our Hoop Kerk group. This week we will have Pastor David from the mother church in Holland coming down to share. We are seeking to establish some leadership roles that everyone from the Antwerp church can both work with and come behind. This requires wisdom and sensitivity to the Lord's leading, as well as faith to move forward in this leading. Please pray for this Tuesday night and the road ahead.

Those of us internationals are feeling good about what were seeing with the group. It seems this time is the closest we have ever gotten to standing on our own feet and seeing each other not simply as a group but a body- a church! Pray that we keep going forward in our trust and love for both Christ and for each other.

Thanks so much for standing with us in pray and support. Please keep us in mind even as vacation time hits.
We need and appreciate you!!!

Rest in Him,
Phil

Update Thailand from Kelly Hilderbrand

2006-06-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

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

2006-06-05T10:58:00.000-07:00

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

Update from Ken in Garissa, Kenya

2006-05-30T16:07:00.000-07:00

Scott
Greetings!. Some people went to our office on friday and threatened our night watchman that they will come to burn our office. I am not quite sure about their intention. This case is being handled by Police. I intend to see the OCS (officer in charge of the station tommorow). We have had to boost security in our office because we dont want to take things for granted especially after what happened at hope FM(the same station where you spoke was bombed). Our watchman was too scared and so we have added another one with a gun. Pray for God's protection upon the team.
Barissa--a malakote (muslim) who works with us lost the dad yesterday and the people accepted our people to participate in things like getting him out of the mortuary and even the digging of the grave!--they addly allow 'kafir' in this.
Pray as i speak to the MTC (medical training college) students tommorow.
Pray for the vision conference that will take place next week here--we are trusting that over thirty leaders (pastors and elders) will come to be equiped.
Pray that we will continue to impact the people

Update and prayer request from Ken in Garissa, Kenya

2006-05-19T09:07:00.000-07:00

Some muslim fundamentalist came and threatened our watchman last night that they will come and burn our office--he is now too afraid. We have taken the matter to the police--Please pray

Thailand needs native English speakers

2006-05-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

UPDATE THAILAND April 2006 Newsletter from the Hilderbrand's
NEEDED BY SUMMER:

Please pray about coming to help us. We really need native English speakers willing to be trained as language teachers. Next term we will be short teachers.

Website address: www.worldbasethailand.org

HAWAII

At the end of March, Kelly traveled to Hawaii to recruit teachers and raise money for our new building. It was great to see old friends and make new ones. Every day was filled with meetings, lunches and dinners. Kelly gained 3 pounds. Kelly also preached at Hope Chapel West Oahu one Sunday, was interviews by Ralph Moore at a Friday night service at Hope Chapel Kaneohe Bay and then preached at Hope Central the next Sunday. Many thanks to all the people who have given so generously to the ministry here in Thailand.

Support can still be sent to:
Foursquare Missions International
P.O. Box 26902
Los Angeles, CA 90026-0176
Designate checks to WorldBase Thailand ministries.

EASTER SUNDAY

Most people go to church on Easter Sunday, eat lunch with family and friends and enjoy the warming spring weather. Easter in Thailand this year was a little different. At church most members of Good News Church were dressed in black and then after a quick lunch we gathered in cars to travel 1 ½ hours outside of Bangkok to a temple deep in the midst of the rice fields of central Thailand.

Poppy’s father had died. Poppy is the daughter of a second wife and throughout her life she was beaten by her father. The beatings were often and vicious. Sometimes Poppy’s father would use large wooden boards to beat Poppy until she was almost unconscious. She finally left home to go to college and live with a friend. Her friend brought her to Good News Foursquare Church. There Poppy found Jesus and the healing that He brings. Poppy began bringing her mother to church and Poppy’s mother became a Christian.

Poppy then began to pray for her father. While most of us might hate a father like Poppy’s, Poppy wanted so much for her father to come to church and be saved. She prayed for him and kept inviting him to church. One day, he walked in and sat in the back. He left early, but he came. Off and on, Poppy’s dad would come to church. Poppy and others sat down with him to explain to him about repentance, forgiveness and the love of Jesus.

Shortly, before Kelly left for Hawaii, Poppy’s dad prayed to receive Jesus. Then shortly before Kelly returned from Hawaii, Poppy’s father died of a heart attack. God’s timing is perfect.

Thai funerals are seven days long. The last day is the cremation. While Poppy’s father prayed to receive Jesus, the rest of the family set up a traditional Buddhist funeral in the home village of Poppy’s mom. Easter Sunday was the last day of the funeral and the cremation was set for 3:00 p.m. Half the people present were from Good News Church. We had prepared a small pamphlet to hand out at the funeral. We included a biography of Poppy’s father, and a message about how he had received Jesus and how others could also.

The monks chanted. The family carried the casket three times around the crematorium. Once the casket was placed in the crematorium, people passed-by placing paper flowers near the casket. Then the casket was opened and coconut milk was poured over the face. The casket was again sealed and placed in the fire.

PRAYER REQUESTS

Please pray for four new English teachers by May 1. 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.

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 $500,000 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, Maureen, Mui, Michelle, Nave, Paula, Simon, Sucharn, Kelly, and Angie. Pray that our teachers would develop friendships quickly and be effective in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Pray for the new Ram 2 church and its pastor, Max.
Continue to pray for our health and continued protection, especially as we travel.

Latest update from Fong, Thailand

2006-04-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

Here is latest update from Timothy in Fong, Thailand:

Hi Bruce, Laurie,and all the Pullman team.
Enclose are some of the photos of ths New Church Building as of this morning.
It will be able to accommodate 4 to 5 hundreds people with room for future expansions on both side of the building. Especially if we need more class room. We are so thankful to for all your prayers, we know that God is behind putting it all together.
The whole building will cost @$20,000 and $5000 for workmanship .All total which is about 1.2 million baht.@ $25,0000.

Thank you Pullman Foursquare Church youth has donated $3000.to help us with the Church foundation. Beside that we have not heard from any body. By 11 April we need to pay 20,000 to the builder, Please pray with us. We are putting our faith forward believing that God will keep bringing in the finances to help us finished the projects.

Thank you again Bruce and the Pullman youth team.
Please keep praying for us.
Thank you all again.Peace be with you all.
Thailand for Jesus.
Timothy & Fong Fung.

Donors from Pullman offered to buy landscaping now so that plants could grow and be the same as the plants at the childrens center"

Kenya Update for April '06

2006-04-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

We greet you in Jesus name. The words in 1 Corinthians 15:58: So then, my dear brothers and sisters stand firm and steady. Keep busy always in your work for the Lord, since you know that nothing you do in the Lord’s service is ever useless. We always thank God for your partneship. Life has been busy, exciting and many times challenging. We have had to learn to wait for along time to see results and this is not easy. We were privileged to distribute relief to thousands of people in this place. The whole exercise was successful as we gave them maize, rice, beans and cooking oil. Many locals have come to appreciate the role we are playing.

It is now one month since I took over leadership of Life ministry garissa. Jaco and Helleen are now in South Africa raising support and will come back to concentrate on school and farming. We enjoy great working relationship with them.

Life ministry garissa has four missionaries and about fifty workers and this needs the grace of God to lead. We also have about four hundred children in our school. We believe that it is easy to reach out to people when they are still in their formative stages and that is why this is a great priority to us. Pray that our teachers (about twenty of them) will be fruitful in taking care of this young people Our Jesus film has been working tireless to screen the film in some very unsafe places—thank God for the protection he has granted and continue praying for them. As a family we are doing fine. Tim became four years three days ago and is doing very well in nursery school. Anna is two and a half and is talking a lot. We are happy that they make the house warm.

The picture below is not a true representation of us now because it was taken about one and a half years ago—I have since lost lots of hair on my head—aah aah and every one of us has added weight! We cherish you and are praying that you may experience more of God in your life. Blessings!

Prayer point for eastern Kenya

2006-03-26T15:27:00.000-08:00

(from Ken Ochieng in Garissa, Kenya)

Great revival has broken loose in wajir (second biggest town after garissa in north eastern kenya). Many young somali youth have recieved christ in the recent past weeks. They had to be taken far away to be baptised ( to muslims, baptism is very significant to confirm salvation). I was there sometime last year doing feasibility study to alert the church the door that the lord has opened. This interesting story is also accompanied by persecution. Missionaries were ordered to get out of wajir and the local believers are being looked for so they can behead them--the situation is not good even though the government is trying to calm it.

Update from Ken Ochieng in Garissa Kenya

2006-03-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

Hi Pastor Scott!
Greetings my friend. Hope you are experiencing G and family.od's power in your ministry
We wanted to show God's love to people in this region by way of providing relief food. As you might be aware, we have had drought and famine here for quite sometime and many livestock have died.Many locals who were rich are suddenly poor because they have lost their cattles, carmels, donkeys, goats. We wrote a proposal and God worked a miracle that an agency has accepted our propossal--this means that in the next two days or so, we will have >1500 bags of maize (90kgs each), >1500 bags of rice (50 kgs each), >1500 bags of beans (90 kgs each), and 1600 litres of cooking oil. Jaco (missionary we work with) and I met with government leaders to plan for the distribution.
Out target groups are the women and the children who are extremely poor.
We always discourage relief food because it is not a long term solution--but now we have to intervene because the situation is disperate
As a long term solution, the agency has approved our proposal of 30 small water pumps for irrigation (they call them money maker pumps). We will liase with agricultural officers here to make sure that the people are actively involved in farming. I will offer my self as a plant pathologist to help with disease and pest control. Pray for the exercise of distribution asking the lord that this foodstuffs and pumps will reach only those that are in great need. Blessings

New Thailand Pictures

2006-03-20T17:27:00.000-08:00

New Thailand Pictures #2

2006-03-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

Bruce's Blog

2006-03-19T10:03:00.000-08:00

What a fantastic week. People’s lives changed, salvation, water baptisms, Holy Spirit baptisms, prophecies, healings, teaching, preaching, sharing, giving, meeting new friends, growing, traveling, eating, digging, stringing, praying, singing, meeting, greeting, bandaging, sweating, playing (with children), but not a lot of sleeping. Sleep is optional.

What can I say?

Saturday we rounded up our trip with a tour of a large tangerine farm (the owner built the hotel we were staying in.) Our tour guide is the Hotel manager. We were kind of expecting to trudge around in muddy orchard but we had a nice duck/truck that drove us to various viewpoints. It was in a huge valley, incredibly meticulously landscaped, a beautiful place.

In the afternoon we had a 3 hour service and pig roast to dedicate the church in the Akha hilltribe we built last year. Laurie did the main preaching but several others also spoke, the ribbon cutting was supposed to be Laurie and Bruce but we had Tom the Lahu pastor who lives with and is the pastor of the Akha tribe, and one old person and one young person who help last year. We all put our hands on the scissors and cut it – that was cool. There were dances and songs, and talks, and prayers, and laying on of hands. Since this building was built (the first for Grace Church) they have built 5 other hilltribe churches. Timothy and Fong have also built an orphanage (they call it a children’s center) that can handle up to 40 children. And this year our team started the 7th church building and the largest.

The needs here are great, Breaking into the kingdom of the snake is very difficult. The gospel has been here for 190 years but not a lot to show. The Tribal people who are ethnically not Thai and not Buddhist have responded to the gospel. For the Thai’s what has started in the mountains will sweep down the valleys and spread. Hilltribe people learn ‘the way’ and English from the missionaries and the Thai government teaches them the Thai language. These second class citizens become first class pastors, teachers, and reaching the lost in Thailand. This along with orphanages (Thais don’t adopt and pretty much only Christian organizations take care of them.), God is doing powerful things here.

We also come across children who have fallen between the cracks of Thai society; parents have ‘green cards’ to work legally in Thailand but their children are illegal and so cannot go to school. Grace church is trying to work out a way to help these students with a school to allow them to get a complete education. (They get none now.) On the other hand, the orphanage is for the poorest children in the worst situations of abuse, poverty, lack of education. For now Timothy has limited the numbers to about 20 because he just doesn’t have the funding for more, but he also needs to establish the children’s center with the basics like a refrigerator, a Clothes washing machine; then teachers, cooks, groundskeepers, transportation. The dining hall still needs to be built and the list goes on.

There is also a bible training center (maybe some day a college) in the church with young and old, pastors and lay, who want to learn more of God.

Sunday, we attended church at Grace church in Fang (population 400,000) several spoke but Pastor David from Singapore preached in English and translated himself to Chinese and Fong translated to Thai. “cross over to the other side to where God is working and he has a plan for us.” Was the topic Mark 6:45 and 53 on. And acts 16:9 and 2 chron 16:9, “if you do the ridiculous he will do the impossible.”

We caravanned to Chiang Mai. Tonight (Sunday and tomorrow) we are at the www.raminglodge.com (1200 baht per room which is about $30). It is midnight and the youth and Angie are out shopping, the rest of us have wisely put our heads on pillows. We’ve invited and Timothy and his family have come along for couple days of relaxation.

We will be flying back to Bangkok on Tuesday morning and besides some shopping and maybe Thai massage, we hope to also attend English classes in Bangkok. And leave for home on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Bruce and Laurie will travel on to the south for R&R see http://www.heimbig.wsu.edu/schedule/

Michael “The Dirt Destroyer” Largent’s Blog

2006-03-19T08:39:00.000-08:00

(Typed by Mark Reynolds and influenced by The Dirt Destroyer)

(NOTE: sometimes in this blog Michael Largent will be referred to as The Dirt Destroyer.)

The Dirt Destroyer has been crying all night making mud over his wife Audry. The whole group loves him like 3 year old children in a sand box with kitty poop. The Dirt Destroyer gave his first sermon ever in a lahu Village. No one knew what to expect from the one and only Dirt Destroyer, as he approached the stage people cheered him on in excitement. (note: the Singaporeans were more joyful of The Dirt Destroyer speaking then the Americans) From my stand point Michael gave an excellent sermon, he looked like he has been preaching all his life instead of farming. The next big event for the Dirt Destroyer was when the akha Village wanted to give us presents to show us their love for the group. Michael happened to be the lucky winner of the woman’s hat made by the hands of the village tribe. The hat was decorated with beads and other thingy ma jigs. As Michael put on the hat he found out that it was 2 sizes too small, (just like the Grinch's heart). Michael forced on the hat and everybody laughed (he seemed so proud and happy of him self). When he entered the crowd again Laurie confiscated the hat from The Dirt Destroyer and he begun to cry AGAIN!!! The DD only cries and whines about everything - first it was Audry, Then the hat, the sun, the dirt, his toe hairs, the bug in his soup, the baptism of his camera, the losing of the race against Tyler, then pulling of hamstring, yada, yada, and etc…

From Scott F.

2006-03-19T08:36:00.000-08:00

Tuesday

We went to the school and taught the older kids about 13 they were willing to learn the songs we thought them “in times like this, head shoulders knees and toes, and Jesus loves me.” In the last class we went to we wrote up on the weight board Jesus loves me like we did en every other class but the kids wrote it down in there note books and then we song that song together. In almost all the classes we asked if they had any questions and I kept getting asked if I was single it was pretty funny. What else was funny is that people laughed when Michael said he was a farmer people laughed at him. We don’t know why but the only thing we could think of is that farmers are normally poor.

Michael says that I am the babe magnet of Thailand. (Inside joke)

After the school we went to the building project and got 10 post holes dug and the posts were just set in them.

Wednesday

I went out to the building project with Ryan, Ty, Michael, Bruce, and Lorry went out the building project we dug the holes for the posts. By the end of the of the day we had all the holes dug and part of the barb wire strung.

Thursday

I went out the building project today with Abby, Ty, Bruce, Michael, and Jan. We got all the fence posts put up and the entire fence finished.

After we finished we guys decided to go for a walk. We ended up going through someone’s rice paddy and then finding the road, when we kept by some crematorium then we walked a little further this is where Bruce, Jan And Tyler had a foot race and Ty won Bruce was about 4 yards behind and Jan dropped his water bottle and stopped to pick it up and lost by about 20 seconds and this was only a 30 yard race.

Friday

I went out to the building project we dug then took the dirt out of the holes and dug some more. The holes were for the foundation.

By Abby

2006-03-19T08:35:00.000-08:00

So I got to hang out with the kids from the orphanage for a few days. They are very special. I can tell that they need love, but there are just not enough people to give them attention. I also really liked going to the hill tribe where the guy received his hearing after we prayed and we also prayed for a little boy who I have faith will be healed if I continue to pray for him. One other highlight for me has been spending time with Bekah, KC, and Rosie, and Bruce. They cut my hair! Also I like being with Tyler and my Daddy.

There’s a lot of other great things and this trip has been very good for me. I’ve begun to consider a longer mission trip here sometime except Pastor Timothy wants me to get married first so it could be awhile. Anyways I love you mom and Hannah and everyone else.

Mark’s Blog:

2006-03-19T08:33:00.000-08:00

WOW, this trip has impacted my life so much! Through this whole trip I have developed increasingly more then I ever expected. This trip has prepared the group and me for a spiritual battle that waits all of us when we return home. Personally I' am excited to return home not just for the comfort and food but to teach and share my experiences with everyone, Christian and non Christian.

The word that I have been telling my self on this trip everyday is persevering! This one word is all I need to keep my self going when the talks become long; digging while the dirt is hard and the sun is hot; eating to be polite while the food is dirty and gross.

I feel each place of Thailand is teaching/training me for new things. While in Bangkok dong and josh took us to go share our faith on campus. I learned from this experience a lot on how little we really need to prepare to share our faith, it just takes boldness. In Myanmar it was just great encouragement and a spiritual shock on how age really does not matter. In the Mountain tribes the faith people have was amazing. They had enough faith to believe in prayer healing, you really don’t see much of that in America. In the high school it showed me how compatible I really can be with kids younger to me and how I can minister to them. To keep things short I well end here as well as not going into any detail in the teachings/training thingy ma jigs above.

See you all on Wednesday and please pray for a safe trip for us, Thailand has been great and fun.

Friday

2006-03-17T09:54:00.000-08:00

We split into 3 groups. The builders dug holes for the big posts that hold up the building, then they took a break, then water, then dig, break, water, dig, break, water. They got several 3 foot by 3 foot by 4 foot holes dug. Jan and Michael dug like moles.

A youth team (Ryan, KC, Abby, Beka, and Rosie) and Bruce went to a mostly Christian Lahu hill tribe and did several songs and skits. Rosie preached a description of each skit. Thum translated to Thai and Tom to Lahu. We had people come up for prayer for: knees, hearing, stomach problems. One older man let us know he couldn’t hear in one ear—it was obvious he couldn’t when we spoke to him. When we finished he had a big smile. As he was walking away he let our Thai translators know he could hear. It seemed obvious because he was able to understand them.

Angie and Laurie stayed in Fang and taught at Timothy’s leadership training at his church. Laurie taught the mountain model while Angie taught on cells. It was well received with the students taking lots of notes. David, the Singapore pastor, and Timothy were very interested in both topics. Two people received the baptism in Holy Spirit.

We had a late lunch and traveled to the Queen’s school where we all meet up with the entire Singapore team. They did a terrific large group ice breaker, but, even though we counted off ‘fair’ groups, we had some pesky HIGHLY competitive Americans who kind of threw off the game. For the last couple rounds the Americans were thrown out of the game. One of the Singapore team preached an encouraging message. We donated 5,000 Baht to the Christians in the school to pay for transportation to summer church camp in Chiang Mai for 52 students, that also was to help pay for a guitar.

In the evening we went to an Akha hilltribe and Michael preached a great sermon. Between Michael and the rest of the team I think Dan could take months off now. We prayed for healing for several people and for the pastor and his wife.

- Bruce

from mark

2006-03-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

When we came back to the school after lunch we decided to stay in a group and did 4 more classes each about 45 minutes long. The classes ranged from 3rd to 4th grade all of which had the same English level, none. We did the exact same songs and dances and skits for all four classes. This is when the day became hard, the group started to get annoyed with each other and the songs. After noticing that our group was dieing we got together and decided to persevere and end with a bang. As we were leaving the school, the children flooded us with enough high fives to leave a pain in the hand. We took are final picture and left to go meet up with the old folks at the church.

Amazing

2006-03-16T11:14:00.000-08:00

Laurie and Angie got to give 2 hilltribe women new 'Christian' names. What a responsibility - on the spot! "name now" said Fong (Timothy’s wife)... Ruth and Martha. Tribal people (lahu) said Root and Marta.

Laurie also commanded 2 dogs (one a few seconds later than the first) to stop barking (they were interrupting prayer) and each time they stopped instantly. EVERYONE LOOKED at her.

Myanmar Trip - Jan & Mark

2006-03-16T07:06:00.000-08:00

Jan Busboom: On Wednesday, March 15, Mark Reynolds and Jan Busboom from the PFC Thai team traveled with Alan, Matthew and Vincent from the Singapore team by van to Mai Sae (about a 2.25 h drive) Pastor P. met us at the Wang Thong Hotel (Very nice) and we walked across the border into the Union of Myanmar. The border crossing was reasonably uneventful:

1. Made 1 copy of passport (It cost only 15 Baht for all 5 passports)
2. Go to Thai immigration point and they just ask check your passport and ask if you are just going for the day
3. Continue to Myanmar check point. You have cross from the left side to the right side of the street in no man’s land. At Myanmar immigration you go into an office and you can pay them U.S. $5 or 250 Thai Baht. They keep your passport. We continued into Myanmar.

In no man’s land and as soon as you cross into Myanmar there will be many people there to sell you things or offer you services (like telling you that you need to cross the street in no man’s land. In Myanmar we took a songthaew (taxi truck) that Pastor P. had hired for 400 baht for the day. We first went to the church and orphanage (which is officially a free boarding house for children without parents or parents who cannot support them). The older children were in school, but there were 20 younger children who sang several powerful praise songs and then prayed powerfully for us. At least one professor was weeping. It’s an awesome sight to see 20 two through five year olds with their hands raised to heaven singing and praying with all that is within them.

Then each of the visitors spoke a word of encouragement to them, Mark taught them a couple of fun kid’s songs and the Singaporeans taught them “I Love You Jesus Deep Down in My Heart”. Then we passed out small gifts like bubbles, candy, face paint and stickers. The children love the gifts but they are very thankful just to have you there. They love to shake hands with you and give great hugs. They are indeed beautiful. Pastor P. then gave us a tour of the facility. They have 44 orphans. They have an elevated pig pen that they feed leftover food and a little corn. They provide much of the protein the kids consume.

We then traveled to the Bible school that was closed down last spring. Pastor P. believes he will get government approval to reopen in June. He had 40 graduates of the school who have all gone on to plant churches and the government now believes him that his school is devoted to ministry and is not a potential political enemy. He will welcome visitors to help teach at the school and to conduct training for pastors in Myanmar.

We ate lunch at a Burmese restaurant, drove to the Buddhist temple overlooking the city and then visited the “long neck” village that has received Christ. Then we crossed back over the border.

At Myanmar Immigration they gave us back our stamped passports. At Thai immigration we had to fill out arrival cards.

On the road back to Fang at a check point they stopped us and they checked all of our bags and checked the Singaporeans passports but not the US passports. It was obvious Mark and I were not illegal immigrants from China.

New Pictures

2006-03-15T18:16:00.000-08:00

Abby and KC really get into their work.

A Quick Update

2006-03-15T17:43:00.000-08:00

Pastor Timothy has been keeping us pretty busy. We’ll update with more details in a couple days.

Our team and the Sigapore team have gone to Queen’s school a couple times (sometimes together sometimes separately.) They’ve also been to Lawho tribe and Angie led one girl to the Lord.

More students were saved (than when we went) when the Singapore team taught at the Queen’s school. I think that generated some competition. The Singapore team is ½ adults and half pre-teen youths.

Adults and youth have been working on the church building project. So far we have built a fence around the property (nearly done.) More soil has been brought in and leveled. Today, Thursday, is the official ground breaking.

More later.