October 2024 Newsletter

As I said in my last newsletter, we have been back in Tennessee for the past 2 months. After several years of living through Covid-19 in Asia, extreme heat, and months of smoke from burning fields the last few years, it has been a nice relief to have a bit of a break and spend time in Tennessee. It has been great to let our kids experience an American Fall season, Halloween, and soon, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Thailand & Missions in the 10/40 Window

Family

Mary Ella is now involved in Children’s Choir at church on Sunday nights, kid’s church (called ‘Mission Agape’) on Wednesday nights, ballet at a local kids’ dance studio, and a local homeschool group. She is missing our friends and family back in Thailand, but I’m glad she is getting to experience life in America for a short season, and to spend some time with our extended family here. We just celebrated Halloween!

Youth Group

Over the last month or so, I have been teaching the youth group on Wednesday nights. I have been walking through a series on the biblical view of family, and we took a break for a special Halloween night to talk about aliens and UFOs from a Christian perspective, especially since this is a topic that is trending in culture right now and that drives people to all sorts of wild conclusions. We also took them to a "Judgment House" the week before Halloween.

His Mercy is More

Heartache in Thailand

These past few months, we have been hearing so much sad news come from both our former city of Chiang Rai, as well as our church. If you didn’t see my email last month, our city was flooded almost as badly as what those around Asheville experienced here in the U.S. And then right after the flooding subsided, we heard that two of the guys from the college group (two guys that I had just taught a few weeks prior to leaving), died suddenly in a motorcycle accident. Please pray for their friends, family, and our community in Chiang Rai.

Faith Marriages in Action Program

I have been working with a Christian coaching firm, led by Dr. John Grimani, to help set up a remote marriage enrichment program for the last two months. This program is funded to such a degree that they are paying Evangelical Christian couples to participate, as it serves as both a coaching program as well as a research study with the purpose of studying faith in marriage and promoting marriage in society today, more generally. Right now, we are still looking for couples, so if you are a married active Christian couple, let me know if you’d like to participate, and we can see if you can qualify and get in. Even if you aren't married, we are paying $100 for qualified referrals-- so send some my way!

What Buddhists Believe

I found this video this month, and thought it was a good, short synopsis of what Buddhists, especially Thai Buddhists, believe.

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