Hello again! Hope you are doing well and enjoyed a blessed Easter weekend, full of resurrection power and plenty of chocolate Easter candy! We had a wonderful time ministering in a small country church on Easter Sunday. Many of the members are new believers so it was the first time they had ever heard a teaching about the Resurrection of Christ. It was such a blessing just to see their hope and excitement begin to rise as they learned about the many blessings and promises found in the message of the Resurrection!Every now and then, I'd like to send out an Off The Record update just to keep you informed about various family and ministry activities that don't make it into the regular monthly newsletter. Nan and I are involved in many different projects and ministries and don't always have the space to mention them all in the monthly newsletter. So hopefully, these Off The Record updates will give you greater insight into our life and work here.
Upon returning to Thailand in January from our visit to the US, Nan and I decided to enroll Sam in a local daycare/nursery. In Thailand, parents place a premium on their child's education and try to give their children a head start by involving them in educational activities as early as possible. Most children of Sam's age will spend a full day at a daycare, being prepped to enter the 2-3 years of preschool/kindergarten required by the Thai government. Our reasons weren't necessarily educational but, since there aren't many children available for play dates, etc., we felt enrolling Sam in a daycare would be the best option in providing him with some social interaction with other young kids. We have been pleasantly surprised at how well he has done in adjusting to the school. Besides quickly adapting to the rountine of getting up and going to bed early, we have noticed a marked improvement in his social skills, manners, and ability to speak both Thai and English. Many of the things that we have been trying to teach him for months (like potty training), he picked up after the first couple of weeks in daycare. I guess peer pressure can be a positive force as well!
In March, Nan accepted a position as the director of Wesley International School here in Korat. The school is the vision of a Korean missionary friend, Pastor John Kim, and he desires to use the school to evangelize upper class families in our city. Nan has been working extremely hard in getting the school ready to open for the beginning of the school term in August. While the work of contacting lawyers and officials, managing the Thai staff, preparing curriculum, translating documents, and marketing the school has been exhausting, she has enjoyed the interaction and the variety of activities that come with the job. With Nan's education and natural organizational skills, this job is tailor-made for her and she has quickly become an invaluable member of the staff, helping Pastor Kim and the other international staff navigate the cultural intricacies of Thai society.Also in March, I assisted the local churches in our city of Korat in hosting a 3 day healing crusade held by Pastor Henry Madawa and his international team. Pastor Henry Madawa leads a large church in the Ukraine and has held several large healing crusades in different parts of Thailand. More than 10,000 people attended the 3 days of meetings and over 3,000 people responded to call to receive Christ as their Saviour! Praise God! My role was to oversee the area that seated the crusade attendees who needed healing and to lead the international team who interviewed the sick attendees who had been healed. Each night, those who had been miraculously healed during the meeting would ascend the stage and share their experience with the crowd. Our job was to interview them beforehand so that we could communicate the details of the miracle to the ministers on the stage. It was so exciting to see God move in such a powerful way! Blind eyes and deaf ears were opened and the lame walked, some for the first time in their lives! Not only were the meetings a powerful testimony to the Name of Christ to the city of Korat, but the church members who were involved in the various roles and services necessary in hosting the crusade were greatly encouraged in their faith by Pastor Madawa's teachings and by the powerful acts of the Holy Spirit.
The week following the crusade, I hosted a pastors' meeting for friend and fellow missionary Tony Foster. Tony and his wife Margaret live in Penang, Malaysia and lead a church planting ministry in several nations of Southeast Asia. The Fosters' ministry, named the E5 Project, assists indigenous church leaders in starting new churches by helping them become financially self-supporting and training them to be successful in leading new groups of believers. I have hosted several of these meetings with Tony Foster and have been able to introduce him to some of our key contacts in Thailand and Laos. This particular meeting was focused on identifying pastors and Christian leaders who were willing to join in the vision of the E5 Project. Moving forward, I am positive that the Fosters' ministry will be a great blessing to the churches and leaders here.
The day after wrapping up the conference with the Fosters, I boarded a plane to Australia to visit a network of churches there that has shown some interest in working more closely with us in our church planting efforts. The host church, The Promise Centre in Wagga Wagga, is led by Pastor Rob Cunningham and is a thriving church with a great heart for missions. Two years ago, the associate pastors, Mick and Karen Baker, led a missions team to visit us and minister in some of our churches here. We made such a great connection during their visit that they invited me to visit their church to further cement our relationship. The 10 days that I spent with the members and leaders of the Promise Centre reminded me so much of my home church in the US. It was so refreshing to be with brothers and sisters who have such a burning passion and hunger to experience God in their lives! The church is excited about getting involved in our work in Thailand and Laos and Pastors Mick and Karen are planning to lead another missions team to visit us again later this year. We're looking forward to seeing them again and are confident that they will be a great blessing and encouragement to the churches here. After several weeks of non-stop meetings, I was ready for a break. Thankfully, the week that I returned from Australia was the week of the Thai New Year festival, called Songkran. This celebration is the official beginning of the rainy season, the main rice-growing time of the year. During this 3 day holiday, the people fill the streets and pour water on each other as a sign of blessing for the new year. The festival has evolved into a huge 3 day water fight and is alot of fun. I was able to bring Sam to "play water", as the locals call it, with several friends from a local church. Celebrating the holiday with Nan and Sam and our family here was a great way to relax and recharge after an exhausting stretch of travel and meetings the month before.
Now that the Songkran festival has passed, life is returning to normal here in Thailand and we are getting back to our normal routine of school, work, and ministry. Thanks again for all your faithful prayer and financial support. Without the integral part you play in our ministry, our work here would not possible. Thanks for believing in us and the vision God has given us for the peoples of Southeast Asia.
With much love,
Chad, Nan, and Sam
On Wednesday afternoons, I hold a leadership training meeting for a handful of potential leaders in the new church. I bring many of them visiting with me in the mornings so that I can model ministry for them. In the afternoons, we discuss our morning visits and I give them more in-depth instruction on mentoring new believers. I also have begun teaching them the basic doctrines of the Christian faith using the discipleship booklet One-to-One. After I have finished teaching the 7 miracles of Jesus found in the Gospel of John, this group of leaders will begin teaching the One-to-One booklet to the new believers we regularly visit. I will continue to accompany them on the visits to observe and encourage them in their ministry efforts and help them overcome any obstacles that they may encounter.
