We are currently in our fourth month of Thai school! Language learning can be exhausting and a little mundane at times, but so far we have completed three courses on speaking and listening. We are now in our first reading and writing class! Please pray that we will be able to retain what we learn in class and have chances to use it outside of the classroom in everyday life. We would also love prayers for continued faithfulness in learning and studying, as we know that it will be essential for ministry in the future.
Recently, C had the chance to go with his friend Palm to his hometown. He was honored to be invited into his home and to get to spend time with his family. It was a really fun weekend and was great to get extended time with Palm. His family was so hospitable, kind and kept us well fed! It's always so great to get to have experiences like this where you get to learn the culture in a new way, as well as getting to know a good friend better. We are eager to have more in depth conversations about the gospel with Palm. Although these have been slow to happen so far, we are trusting that the Lord is still at work.
thai - holidays
While language is our main focus during this next year, we pray that the Lord will use us in relationships with our neighbors, tutors, coffee shop workers, and other people we come in contact with as we are studying and living our daily life. We already feel that the Lord has given us favor with some of these friendships and hope to walk faithfully in what He has put in front of us.
Holidays are a great time to share our faith and the reasons why we celebrate. We hosted a Thanksgiving dinner in our home and had friends from America, Thailand, South Africa, and Myanmar join us! We pray that during this Christmas season, we will have more opportunities to host people in our home, share the Christmas story, and invite them to join us for church on Christmas day!
thai - Songkran:
A few weeks ago, Thailand celebrated its most popular holiday, Songkran, also known as the water festival. While Songkran is perceived as a fun and exciting celebration, the heart of it is troubling for Christians. Buddhism is a system of merit, where one has to outweigh the bad that they have done with good in order to have a better future in reincarnation. There is a constant cycle of repentance and personal atonement, making the goal of escaping suffering unattainable. During Songkran, Buddhists will pour water over statues of Buddha and one another to gain merit, good luck, and wash away sin.
This year, Songkran coincided with Easter. There is a stark contrast between the hope Christians have in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ and the constant striving of Buddhism. In Christ, there is nothing more that I can do to make myself more clean before the Lord. It is all by grace, through faith that we have a relationship with the most loving God, who alone has the power to justify us and make us righteous through His Son's blood. We long for Thai people (and all people) to know this kind of love and freedom found in Christ.
Would you pray for the Thai people? Would you pray that as they recognize their sin and need for cleansing that they would long for salvation that is not based on their own merit? Our prayer is that the beauty and grace found in Jesus would be fresh and attractive to people that are stuck in an endless cycle of hopelessly attempting to atone for their own sin!
Thai language
Of the 69 million people living in Thailand, 61 million remain unreached with the gospel. That is over 88% of the population. The need for the gospel is great in Thailand! According to Joshua Project, only 0.6 percent of the population are evangelical Christians.
Although these statistics are staggering, we are excited to see how the Lord is using His church in Thailand and can't wait to be a part of this ministry in just a few months!
Our first official Thai lesson! Our team leader connected us to a teacher in Thailand who was willing to give us lessons via Zoom. We have so much to learn but we are grateful to learn some of the basics before we land in Bangkok!
thai - Carmac's
The Carmac's are both from Montgomery, Alabama and started dating while serving in East Asia. They spent nearly five years learning the language, culture, and sharing the gospel with college students. The Lord used these years to grow them in their knowledge of the goodness and sovereignty of Himself and to develop a burden in them to see the lost in Asia come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. After unexpectedly returning from East Asia in the 2020 pandemic, they worked with international students in Birmingham, Alabama, and married in the summer of 2021.
The Carmac's are grateful for the ways the Lord has used these past experiences to lead them to join the MTW church-planting team in Bangkok, Thailand, where they will work alongside the local church and Thai national pastors. They desire to form deep relationships within their community, allowing them to share the hope of the gospel with those who have never heard. They are humbled to be called to take the gospel to Bangkok and are eager to see how the Lord will continue to use them in Thailand.
Harare Help's - Zimbabwe
Tropical Cyclone Idai hit Zimbabwe eastern coast on March 15, 2019 after making landfall near Beira, Mozambique the day before as a Category 2 storm with sustained winds exceeding 105mph. As of March 20th, heavy rains continue making search and rescue operations and damage assessment almost impossible.
A Zimbabwean couple, the Kirk’s, living in Birmingham, Alabama will be traveling to their native country for a visit. Some of their family members are involved in the relief efforts in the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe that was hit by Tropical Cyclone Idai, a little over a month ago. The Kirk’s are collecting donations and supplies for ‘Harare Help’s”, a ministry in Zimbabwe, helping get supplies to the ravaged areas.
The request is for: Pain relievers; anti-inflammatories; bandages; bandaids; children’s supplements; vitamins; wraps; slings; etc.
Scatter Christ is so thankful the Lord presented this opportunity to be involved in relief efforts across the globe and much of the needed items have been purchased and sent to Zimbabwe with the Kirk’s.
Conaway Gandy Church - Rhino Refugee Settlement
The thankful people in Rhino Camp have worked so very hard! We thank God for the well done work…. as you can see all is not finished yet but each day is getting closer. Pastor Juma Emmanuel will hopefully be able to have Easter with his church member at this new building. Thank you Lord for meeting the need according to Your riches. —Bullen Timo
pillowcase dresses
Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for providing someone to sew these dresses for the orphans in Africa. I know that You have a special purpose and place for each one! Scattering Christ to the Nations.
Aug 24, 2010 A few women in my Small Group are interested in making the pillow case dresses, but we need to know the deadline for having them done and details on who we get them to. Carol Brown.
Sept 2, 2010 I've gotten some response, but plan to contact more in the next week. I believe there will be at least 4 or 5 ladies working on them. I believe we are just going to fund the pillowcases as well as make them. I will check, but I don't think we will need any materials. I'll get back with you.
Sept 3, 2010 Hi Lisa, We are going to get together on Friday Sep. 24th in the morning to sew. There are 9 women who are going to work on the dresses. We will also work independently. I have no idea how many we will be making, but we are going to start collecting pillowcases now. If you have extra pillowcases or ribbon that need to have someone working on them, let me know. Thanks, Carol Brown
Sept 4, 2010 Looks like I have 8 or 9 women now who will be starting on these dresses independently and then we are getting together to sew on Fri. Sep. 24th. I hope we get a lot done between now and the 24th, but who knows how fast it will go for them. I'll be in touch. Carol Brown
Sept 18, 2010 Lisa, Some of our ladies met Thursday night to get prepared for our big sewing day. Some have already started and we have 6 finished. We have about 25 pillowcases to do and twelve pieces of fabric. My goal is about 40 - 50 dresses by Oct 10th. Then we will keep sewing for the next group going in Nov.
I'm so thankful to the Lord to find something these women are excited about doing. I know young people don't understand, but some of these ladies are older, they have also lost their husbands and have health issues. They just can't go overseas for various reasons. They so desperately feel left behind when mission trips in foreign lands are talked about. Now, don't get me wrong, the women and men in the Branches class work locally in several different types of mission endeavors. Just wanted to say, the pillowcase dresses give them a way to extend their hearts to the church in poor countries.Another idea: My granddaughter had an idea about the little boys. She said, we could have t-shirts donated and just make colorful crop pants to go with them. If we had a few small groups bring solid t-shirts, maybe various color blues, then we could buy blue fabric prints for the crops and they would blend well together. Just a thought.Also, I purchased a pattern from eBay,( which has not come yet) of children's scrubs. The pattern says it's sizes 2-8.
Kisses from Katie
I just finished ready Katie Davis’ book and here this is her blog - kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com
This is Katie Davis. She is a 20 yr old from Brentwood, TN who lives in Uganda with her 14 adopted children. In addition to her 14, Katie cares for 400 impoverished children in the area. If you can take a few minutes to read some of her blog, I know you will be glad you did.
I have been following this blog for over 6 months and I look forward to each new post. Some members of The Church at Brookhills visited Katie last month and described their amazing time in Uganda. Uganda is also the home of Murchison Falls (Murchison is my maiden name). I plan to go to Uganda in the next few months with a couple who is adopting from Uganda - I can't wait to visit Katie!
To God be the Glory!
adopted for life .... and in death
After a tortuous adoption process lasting five years, Rowena and Richard Pet finally knew that their long wait was over when they saw Arno walk nervously towards them for the first time.
Haiti: Adopted for Life . . . and in Death
Albert Mohler, Author, Speaker, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Arno was inseparable from Mr. Penguin. The little Haitian boy was almost three years old, and the plush penguin with the word "love" inscribed upon it was his most treasured object. The orphan and his penguin were always seen together.
The boy had been given the penguin just after his birth. A Dutch couple was in the process of adopting him almost from the start of his life -- they had been matched to him when he was only two months old. The penguin represented a promise.
The process of adoption took two year -- the length of time considered adequate to determine that no living relatives might claim him. According to official estimates, there were over 50,000 parentless orphans in Haiti before the earthquake came and orphaned many thousands more.
Richard and Rowena Pet were the young Dutch couple who wanted so badly to be Arno's mother and father. They had struggled with infertility for years before deciding to adopt. As they awaited the adoption of Arno, Rowena became pregnant. Last August she gave birth to Jim, who was left in the care of relatives as Richard and Rowena flew to Haiti in January to claim Arno and complete the adoption process.
The story of Arno's adoption is movingly told by reporter David Charter of The Times [London]. As he reported, "Arno was shy at first but within 30 minutes of meeting his adoptive parents he reached for Rowena's hand and took the Dutch couple on a tour of the orphanage in Port-au-Prince where he had spent most of his short life. He began to call them Mummy and Daddy."
Richard had shared their joy with a friend in an e-mail:
"We got to the orphanage feeling a bit strange. We went around a corner and immediately saw Arno walking towards us. He was OK until he was about half a meter away, but then he panicked. The woman from the orphanage helped out and half an hour later he took Rowena's hand for the first time. I'm sorry but I can't help crying at the moment as I type this. Arno has been showing us everything in the orphanage. He showed us an old car they have for the children to play on. He was holding a birthday card we sent for his second birthday."
According to Charter, adoptive parents often stay at the Hotel Villa Therese in the Pétionville district of Port-au-Prince. That is where Richard and Rowena took Arno. That is where they were when the earthquake came. And that is where they died together.
David Charter tells the story, with comments by Chris Spaansen, the friend to whom Richard had sent the e-mail:
Dutch TV cameras were on hand during the frantic search by an international rescue team with members from the Netherlands, Britain and Canada. . . . Lying there amid the rubble was the unmistakable blue and yellow toy bird, Mr Penguin, marked with the word "Love", that went everywhere with Arno. "That toy helped them to make their first contact with the little boy. It had a really special place in the family. It was a very emotional moment for all of us," Spaansen says.
Then this:
What the cameras did not show were the three bodies, found intertwined together, as if Rowena and Richard had tried to put protective arms around Arno as the masonry began to fall. The disaster cruelly destroyed the new family, creating its own orphan back in the Netherlands. Jim, just five months old, will be brought up by Rowena's sister, who already has her own three-year-old boy.
The bodies of Richard and Rowena and Arno Pet were taken to the Netherlands together, just as they had been found together in the rubble of the Hotel Villa Therese. They had been a family for a few hours, but a family all the same. Arno had a tragically short life, but he ended that life in the arms of a mother and a father.
Who can read this account without heartbreak . . . and a heart warmed? Is there a heart so cold that it does not feel the pathos of this report, and sense the sentiment of this family's tragedy? At the same time, this is not a tragedy in the classic sense. The love of Richard and Rowena and Arno Pet transcends tragedy. That is why The Times published this report, and why it stays with you so long after you read it.
Of course, for the Christian there is far more to this story. In the story of Arno Pet we find a picture of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians:
But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a virgin, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying "Abba! Father!" Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. [Galatians 4:4-7]
Adoption is perhaps the most powerful depiction of the Gospel found in the Bible. We are all orphans, born under the curse of sin. By the sheer grace and mercy of God, those who come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are adopted as sons. Redeemed sinners are adopted as sons "through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise and glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." [Ephesians 1:5-6]
Arno Pet began life as an orphan, but he ended life as a son. He was abandoned at his birth, but he died in the arms of his parents. He did not die as Arno, he died as Arno Pet.
In the rubble of the Hotel Villa Therese the film crew found the bodies of Richard and Rowena and Arno Pet. In that same rubble, we find a picture of the Gospel of Christ. He who has eyes to see, let him see.