Greetings to all of you from Thailand! We pray you are doing well and that the Lord is blessing this new year so far. May His grace and peace be with you throughout the year. Here are some recent updates/highlights about our life and ministry. (It’s also your ministry.)
• Moved to New Building — We finally started using the new building! We’ve been busy getting the building ready, and it’s an exciting step for us all! Everyone loves and is grateful for this place. We have some essential stuff we need for Sunday worship, and we will work on slowly adding things as we go. We are also praying/planning ways we can utilize this building for different outreaches.
• First Draft Next Book Completed — After writing on and off for a while through all kinds of challenges in life and ministry, the first draft of my next book(s) is finally completed! It’s on the Parables of Jesus. The work contains 20 of Jesus’ most famous parables with an attempt to explain the meaning and apply the stories Jesus told. The book has turned out to be bigger than I first anticipated (24 chapters). Because of its size, I think it’s best to divide it into two volumes. I’ve been doing more editing before handing it over to the publisher for further editing and formatting. Lord willing, I hope at least the first volume will be out later this year, if not both. That’s just an idea because most of the process from now on will be in the hands of others. Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to do so.
• New Year’s Celebration — Each year, we have a New Year’s celebration at our house in the evening. But this year, we decided to do it right after church one Sunday, and most people were able to come. We had lunch together, then exchanged gifts. It was a great time of fellowship with everyone from church!
• New Videos — Because it has been a while since we recorded some videos, we set aside some time to record this month. What made it different this time was that we recorded the videos at our new building instead of our home. We did about 10 videos on important topics, which will be posted online. I’m thankful for Bro. Tao, who helps serve us in this way and is very good at it.
In addition to the videos, I’ve been writing short thoughts from the Bible, and our church will post them online a couple of times a week with the hope of encouraging/challenging others. This is an example (an equivalent translation):
“Whatever God says (in the Bible) is ‘sin,’ it will always be ‘sin’ no matter what the rest of the world says. Therefore, we should not interpret the Scripture to suit our feelings, follow the trends of society or convince ourselves that it is right and then continue to live in that sin. Doing these things will not change the consequences of sin. Rather, what we must do instead is to ask God to help us fight, repent and turn away from sin. The good news is God has promised to forgive everyone who repents and turns to Him. (I John 1:5-9; John 6:37; Mark 1:15; Acts 16:30-31; Matt. 5:3-4).”
You can find all the videos and posts on our church’s Facebook (facebook.com/nbkkchurch) and YouTube ( youtube.com/@NorthBangkokChurch). Pray that the Lord will use these resources to touch people’s lives.
• Ping-Pong — We recently got a ping-pong table for the boys, for the church and for anyone from our neighborhood who would like to join. It’s a way to open our house to others. A couple of our neighbors came over to play with us. Also, men from our church had a mini competition to win a prize, but that day, a guest joined, and he won the game! The men were joking about how he showed up (not knowing we had the game), beat all of us and walked away with the prize!
• Same-Sex Marriage — For the very first time in Thai history, same-sex marriage is officially legal as of this month. There is a lot of news about LGBTQ+ getting married, including some famous people here. While there is nationwide celebration regarding this law, this is sad news for those here who hold firm to the Bible. We don’t know what the future will be like for churches and Christians who openly disagree with this law. Nevertheless, may God help us to stand firm according to His Word. Please pray for Thai churches/Christians here.
• Titus & Noah’s New Thai Tutors — Many of you know we homeschool the boys. However, we want to make sure their reading and writing in Thai are also good. They are now trying new tutors who are very close to our home, and they have been enjoying it.
Thank you for reading. We are grateful for your love and support! (thailand.forhisglory@hotmail.com)
