Thailand and Burma Update | October 2021

Dear Christian friends and supporters,

Psalm 145: 18-20 says,
"The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them. The Lord watches over all who love Him..." (NIV). In believing and trusting God's promise of this scriptures, we want to request you all to pray for Burma and Thailand's political and covid 19 pandemic situations.The situation is getting worse every day. The National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG) had announced on September 7 to fight the military regime of Min Aung Laign at all costs. Since then fighting and bombing on the streets, buildings and villages in the entire Burma occur every day; as a result, the Burmese armies have burned down the villages everywhere that the people of Burma are having severe hardship beyond what we can describe. The innocent people and villagers in the entire Burma do not have a place to live. It is heartbreaking. The Rvwang people who are my fellow race are divided, half of them on the military side, and half of them are on the civil disobedience movement side and they are going to kill one another very soon. It broke my heart. Our evangelist families in Yangon are in danger of covid 19 and civil war in the areas where they live. The evangelists in Yangon have to conduct ministry on the phone lines only because going out here and there is not safe. Since the spread of covid 19 pandemic they used to hold worship services on zoom but now their internet lines had been cut off by the military. In spite of the difficulty one Burmese boy was baptized last month.

We want to thank many of you for providing funds for food for hundreds of Burmese Christians who are in desperate need due to the civil war and for the loss of their jobs. The largest amount of fund was provided by our forwarding agents,Mr. and Mrs. John and Kathy Miller for many months. We are deeply grateful to them and we pray for God's blessing and to reward them for their generosity to the hungry Christians in Burma. Every time they receive food distribution the Burmese Christians are in tears of gratitude and joy and they pray for you every day. Many can not send food distribution photos because their internet has been cut off. The photos are from Hlegu, Shwebyda and Insein townships. We do not receive any pictures from another 4 areas or townships in Yangon due to the above mentioned situation.

The pictures of the food distribution is just few samples. We can not include all pictures in this email. Thailand's political and covid 19 pandemic situations are getting worse. No sign of improvement. Therefore we want to request for your special prayers for Thailand and for Burma.

Karen ministry update
In these days of great challenge we continue to serve our Lord helping the people who are in need to the best we can. We continue to care for the children's home, giving them a place to stay and food. The children grow vegetables for their food in their free time after school. Many have grown up and some go to colleges in the cities for their education preparing for their future.Mercy home is another place we help in whatever we can. It is in Chiang Mai near the provincial hospital.They needed a place of worship and also some seats so we bought some plastic chair type seats for them and they use them and worship together every Lord's day with people from different places who come to the hospital for various illnesses. Karen young couple minister those people providing a place to stay to those patients who do not have a place to stay while they are in treatment at the hospital. Some people come from far away needed a place to stay and most of them are hill tribe Christians. When non-Christian patients came to stay the couple witnessed to them about Christ and many did accept Christ through these couple's witnesses. Wounded people in the war zone in Karen State from Burma were also brought to the hospital and the young couple cared for them. We see that it will be a great blessing and a great outreach to many people. Most people who come to stay are from far away villages and are very poor.A young father who live at a far village who worked at his rice field fell from the tree and broke his hip and paralyzed. We paved the floor for him so that he can move around with this wheelchair. This wheelchair was given to him by a hospital but it is very old.The wheelchair is worn out and is very difficult to move and he said that he is praying that the Lord will provide a newer wheelchair.There is another old couple who live in a very old bamboo house which is leaking. So we put up the roof for them with tin sheets.So they were so happy and thanked us. Now at least they can live in a rainproof home. These are very poor Christians so we are happy that through your support we can extend some help to those people in desperate need. Thank you so much for your continuous faithful prayers and financial support. May God bless you richly and keep you all in His watch care.

With our deepest gratitude,
Jerry and Boonporn