Be Thankful For What God Has Given

 I can never forget the song,  "Give Thanks With A Grateful Heart" Although I heard this song many years ago, it is still one of my favorites. One of the themes in the Bible is Thanksgiving. I am reminded of Jesus praying in John 6 where Jesus is feeding the multitude with only 5 loaves and 2 fish. The scripture here tells us that Jesus gave thanks to God the Father. We are called to follow this example. We should stop in the middle of all the things that keep us so busy and say "thank you Lord." We should be thankful for all the things the Lord has done for us in the past. If you are a Christian then God has done something for you. Many times I rewind in my mind and thank the Lord for the times when He touched me, ministered to me through His Word and supplied all of our needs. The Lord has met me so many times in very important decisions in my life and I am so very grateful! We should have the presence of mind to stop and give God thanks for all that He has done for us. Having given thanks for what He has done we should be thankful for what God is doing in our lives and for what He will do in our lives. He holds you and His plans for you in the palm of His hands. You may not realize it right now but God is working on your behalf. God is working to fulfill His covenant with you because that is the nature of our Father God. God will not violate or alter His covenant towards you (Psalms 89:34). As you go about on your daily activities Father God is at work to will and do of His good pleasure and to complete that which He has started in your life (Philippians 1:6). Thank Him for His goodness, His kindness, and His faithfulness. I am not thankful for sickness, for poverty, or destruction, but I am thankful that in the midst of all the bad He is at work to to bring victory into your life. A heart of thanksgiving acknowledges the favor of God and the gifts that He has given to us. "Faithful is He who has called you and will also bring it to pass." (I Thessalonians 5:24). Psalms 5;11 says, "But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them sing for joy; And may you shelter them." Lord we thank you, for sending Jesus for our redemption, we thank you for the precious blood of Jesus which purchased our salvation. Lord we thank you for your steadfast love towards us and your favor that surrounds us!

Update Children's Home January 2017

Now that we have been in the midst of the dry season we have been able to move fairly quickly with the building of the Children's Home. Actually the builders have moved the project along quicker than I had thought. We have a good portion of the eastern wall up and also the walls of the children's home in place. This coming week we will be putting the roof on as well as the windows. Believe with us that we will be able to get both of the buildings up and completed by the end of 2017 as well as much of the landscaping and the water drainage through the property. We are quite sure that it is the will of God. We should be putting the first group of children in one of the homes by the end of May or early June. Thank you so much for all of you that have been such a wonderful blessing to us. We are very grateful!

The New Year 2017 Begins

On the 9th of January we began our new school term and we have all the students back ready to tackle the new semester. We had quite a Christmas as we did some local outreach right here in Mae Sai with our students to the local area. We had lots of children and families show up for the outreach and we are proud of how our students gave their hearts to the work. We were also blessed and honored to have Pastor Scott Fletcher, Pastor Stephen Eicholz, Pastor Henry Schmidt and Pastor Ed Elliot with us over the past 2 1/2 months.

Ministry Update

We are back in the Bible Training Mode again this fall. In September we moved the school to a village where my sister in law is now pastoring the Victory Life Church Mae Sai. This has made it quite easy for the school to now function under a legal covering and we are grateful. As for the students we have all the same students from last year plus 1 more. This fall we had a new teacher from the US come and teach the students on the Love of God. Pastor Stephen Parker came and ministered for our students and another Bible School nearby. Pastor Stephen minister on the Love of God and the students were impacted by his message. Thank you Pastor Stephen! Just this past Monday we sent the students to the Burma side of the border to work on our property. We are now in another phase where we are building the east side of the wall and soon we will begin the process of building the first children's home. We have been able to raise some money for the home and we trust we will have it built by the end of May of 2017. Stand with us and believe with us as we make this home possible for children in Burma. God has a plan for this nation and we are delighted to be a part of Gods plan!

Update On The Property

As for the wall around the property we finished a good portion of the wall. Another $7000 will finish the east side of the property. We are certainly grateful for what we have been able to do thus far. Some people may ask, "why the wall around the property?" In this area it is really necessary for the safety of the children. Most Bible schools and children's homes have wall's around the property for the safe-keeping of the children and the equipment. Believe with us to finish this and to put up our first building. We should be able to put a children's home up for around $35000. We will then have to drill a well for the property. Thanks for praying and believing with us on this endeavor.

May 2016

The school year is finished for the spring of 2016 and I am sincerely grateful for our hard working staff. We had 11 students for the second part of the year and an additional student who is a pastor's wife also audit the classes. Susan who has been in the ministry with her husband Joseph said, "she learned more in 7 months than she did the previous 4 years of schooling." One of the goals of our school is to not only bring spiritual impartation but also bring in the practical part of ministry. Most ministry schools in this area have a tendency to focus on just the knowledge part of ministry. Also on the last weekend of school we sent our students out to do practical ministry in the villages. They learned to preach, teach, and pray for others in the villages. We are so grateful yet we have great expectations for the future.

Building The Wall On The Property

Since the end of December we have been building a wall around the property in Burma. We are almost finished with two sides of the wall. We have great expectations for the future on this property. We are believing to give a children a wonderful home where they will experience the Love of God and where we will be able to give them the tools to develop into Godly leaders for Jesus. Hundreds and thousands of children in this area lack the opportunity and the skills they need to succeed in their lives. Believe with us that we will be able to provide them a home! I want to thank all of you for believing and giving into this work!