Thailand Missionary Updates

As we have shared previously, our Thai staff team has been reading through Romans. It's a mixed group of Christians and Buddhists. A couple of weeks ago we were reading through Romans 15 and Tiew (pictured above on the right) turned and asked Evan, "Why did you become a missionary to Thailand?" At first Evan was taken back by such a direct question in front of our team, but then was able to explain that we believe God has called our family here to share the good news of Jesus with Thai people. Evan went on to explain that it hasn't been easy. He shared about how we have left family, good friends, and the comforts of our home culture to come to Chiang Mai. While sharing about these hard losses, Evan emphasized that it's also been like an offering that we've given to God. It was a great opportunity to share what we've sacrificed to serve here while also sharing the hope we have in God.

Keeping Eternity in Mind
Two weeks ago as we finished Romans, Joe started sharing about heaven and hell and describing each one. Matt prompted Joe with the question: "So according to the Bible, who goes to heaven and who goes to hell?" Joe answered that most people think bad people go to hell and good people go to heaven. However he explained that in reality bad people go to hell and bad people who put their faith in Jesus go to heaven. Two of our non-believing staff, Amber and Game, visibly perked up and started asking all kinds of questions about what Joe had shared. Please pray that their curiosity would lead them to peace with God through Jesus. Now that we're finished with Romans, we will dive into Proverbs next.

The God of All Comfort
At 3am on Saturday July 29th, there was a house fire at one of our client's homes. Miraculously, the mom woke up, yelled "Fire!" and their family of five escaped through the smoke. While their lives were spared, they lost almost everything else. When Evan met with the dad at the house, they both cried tears of joy, grateful God had spared their family. Evan walked through a LOT of heaviness that week and fault is still being disputed between the owner and the renter. Evan and Tata have been caught in the middle. While it's been really hard, it has produced good, vulnerable conversations between Evan and Tata.

Stepping Back In
Emily really enjoyed stepping back into the counseling realm last year, feeling like that part of her had been asleep and woke back up. She knew if she continued, it needed to be a less involved role than what she was doing to help at the kids' school last year.
While praying for clarity, Emily was invited to co-lead a women's trauma group. So she is now going through a curriculum called Mending the Soul with 6 other missionairies who each have areas of trauma or abuse they would like to process and hope to heal. It meets one afternoon a week while all the kids are in school, and Emily has loved walking alongside these women.

Playing & Coaching
This year Benson is playing U14 boys basketball for Grace this year. Benson worked very hard over the summer to get ready for this season. Evan loves coaching and couldn't turn down the offer when asked to be the assistant coach. It's been very rewarding for Evan to disciple these 12 & 13 year old missionary kids through basketball.

Thank you so much for being an important and faithful part of our team through your prayers and support. We really appreciate you!