Boomerang Vol. 10: Chiang Mai, Thailand

To greet you in Thai we say “Sawat Dii Khrap”

It's been about two weeks and we all really love it here in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We are settling in nicely and staying extraordinarily busy with the School of Frontier Media (SFM). We are getting to know our classmates—all of whom are staying to serve with Create International—and spending time with Create Thailand staff. We are privileged to be studying under the Create founders who are sharing great ways to communicate God's message of love to unreached people. With nearly six thousand unreached people groups today, there has never been a better time to use media to share God's love worldwide. Thanks for continuing to partner with us for this very purpose. We are most grateful for your ongoing support and plentiful prayers as we begin to integrate into this ministry from the inside.

Here are some newly relevant prayer requests for our time in Thailand.

#1 Our biggest challenge to date is that because the SFM training is very time consuming, we are challenged with finding activities for the girls each day. They are looking for ways to make friends and get out of the house more often. School is out for the summer here, and their home school work only takes up a portion of the day. We do live very near the Johnsons (friends here from our home church in Hamilton) and hope to get a chance to spend more time with them in the future. The girls are also looking forward to some upcoming youth group activities at the local church we've been attending.


#2 Even now we are praying for our upcoming outreach project in October. Please pray for our team as we plan and prepare for an evangelistic film project for the Shan people who live on the border of Burma and Northern Thailand. The Shan are a Southeast Asian ethnic group that live primarily in Myanmar, but have been migrating to Thailand in recent years due to persecution and lack of work. Today, it is estimated that there are 6 million Shan and they are unswerving Theravada Buddhists with no significant Christian population or church. We will be producing a number of different video projects for this unreached people group in the coming months. Right now this project is in the preproduction planning stages. We'll be sharing more about this in our next newsletter as we get closer to the date of departure. In the meantime, please pray for the Shan and their openness to the gospel and our ability to serve as appropriate ambassadors of Christ to these people.


#3 Regrettably, we are losing financial support rather than gaining momentum and the declining dollar has effected our budget adversely. Consequently, we have recently fallen behind in our financial obligations and have an immediate need for finances for:

• our remaining school fees for the SFM training
• upcoming outreach fees to create the evangelistic film for the Shan people of Burma/Myanmar
• travel and conference fees for the YWAM Thailand National Conference in early August
• our ongoing local expenses such as transportation around Chiang Mai, meals and rent.

If you are willing at this time, please consider a gift to our sending agency, Ripe For Harvest, or contact us to make other arrangements. Information about sending contributions can always be found at the top of our blog. In total our need comes to $6500 and our timetable is the end of July. We have the peace of God that He will provide all we need, even if he calls you to be a part of that provision. Our confidence is high because we have been witness to many amazing financial miracles in the past year, particularly since our departure.

You may send gifts and donations for our support to Ripe for Harvest and please designate Account #247 in the memo line but please do not include our name on the check. Send it to:
Ripe for Harvest
2824 N. Power Rd #113282
Mesa AZ 85215-1674
Ripe for Harvest is able to issue a tax deductible receipt in the USA, whereas YWAM Thailand is not.


#4 Another concern is that we are losing touch with people who have either chosen not to subscribe to our blog or have had trouble subscribing to our newsletter via Google Groups. Recently Google stopped supporting our ability to send bulk emails to all of our friends and supporters. This lead us to create an online subscription-based newsletter via Google Groups. Unfortunately, Google Groups is not without its problems and many of our support team have been unable to access the material. We need a solution soon that will allow us to be back in better communication with everyone.


#5 We have identified some of the spiritual strongholds (or problem areas) of Thailand to be idolatry, fear, lust and unfaithfulness. We would appreciate your prayers for us to be able to actively engage successfully in the spiritual warfare that is both apparent and pervasive here. We actually heard a proverb that “to be Thai is to be unfaithful” and have heard of the many broken marriages in this land. We ask for your prayers to protect our marital and family relationships. Please also remember to pray for Sam as he pursues his education back in Massachusetts.


Lastly, if we can pray for you more specifically, please let us know. We have really enjoyed praying for all of you, and love to hear how everything is going for you, too. Drop us an email anytime. If you are reading this, then you are on our prayer list. Specific prayer requests are just more effective than the generic “please bless Johnny” type prayers in our opinion! Bless you guys heaps (as they say in Australia) for being so faithful and encouraging. “Khorb khun khrap.” Thank you!