Accepting God’s Plan
When emailing our December 2019 newsletter, we stated the following: “As we look ahead to the new year, there is so much happening with the ministry in Thailand! At this time, we will return to Thailand for the month of March. We’re not sure yet what the rest of the year will look like.” We definitely had no idea what 2020 would look like and still don’t. So many of our plans have been changed. We’re learning pretty quickly that we just need to step back and let God take control.
We were to return to Thailand in March, cancelled. We then made plans to return in July, cancelled. We’re now hoping we will be able to return in January. None of this has stopped the staff in Thailand from completing some much needed improvements. God has a plan, and we’re just waiting to know what it is.
At this time, we are looking forward to a visit from our family in Seattle and wishing our family in Virginia was also able to make the trip. We’re hoping to see them in August.
Upcoming Fundraising Events
We want to thank everyone who purchased geraniums the end of April. We sold 350 geraniums in five quick days! In this sixth year of the fundraiser, they have never sold that quickly. Everyone was ready for spring to begin.
Soon we will be taking pre-orders for our mums fundraiser. We will have bronze, yellow, red, and purple colors available again this year. They will be delivered after Labor Day. We have also rescheduled our fundraiser at Pizza Ranch for Monday, September 14th. We will send more details as the date gets closer.
Proceeds from all of these fundraisers are applied to our educational fund. This money is used to pay tuition for children at Gethsemane Home that choose to attend university or a technical school and so much more. Thank you for your continued support!
The Reason Why
If you were to go to our Under the Son Ministries website and find our June 2014 newsletter, you can read an article that talks about Steve’s first evangelism trip to the Omkoi district. The Omkoi district is in the southern part of Chiang Mai Province. Since that time Under the Son Ministries has made three of the villages in that district a focus of our evangelism efforts. The reason why we built a mission house in Patang Muser (the largest Lahu Shehleh village in Northern Thailand), held a youth camp in LaMu Nai last year, and make many evangelism visits to this area is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a result of men like Judah, Simeon, Zacchaeus, and other Christians in the area, several people are coming to know Christ as their Lord and Savior. Below are some of the villagers who have recently been baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit. What a blessing!
Patang Muser Building Project
Several of the staff members from Under the Son Ministries recently returned to the village of Patang Muser to complete work that had been postponed because of the coronavirus. Before leaving for the village, Steve and Donella had a video chat with Titus and Newa while they were at Home Sukkapan (a kitchen and bathroom store) to help pick out floor tile for the mission house, church, and new bathroom.
After arriving at the village, the men had enough help to divide their crew and install the floor tile in the mission house and the church at the same time. Next the guys built a new bathroom beside the church, followed by adding an extended roof to the mission house to make an outdoor kitchen. Some of the roof tiles from Gethsemane home were used for the bathroom and mission house kitchen roofs. This project is near completion.
New Roof at Gethsemane
The rainy season in Northern Thailand usually begins near the end of the month of May. During a virtual visit with Titus on April 29th, we found out that they had experienced a storm where the wind and rain caused the roof at Gethsemane home to leak. They have had some issues with the roof leaking in the past, but the problem kept getting worse.
We had already talked to Titus about what it might cost to replace the tile roof on the older building with metal sheeting, but now it had become essential that we replace both roofs. Work was started in early May after enough money was raised to replace the older roof. After stopping to work on an already scheduled project in Patang Muser village, the second roof was finally completed during the middle of June. We love the new blue roof and thank those who made it possible.
Back to School
After an extended break, our children will go back to school on July 1st. Their school year ended the middle of March, and they were to begin the new school year the middle of May. Most of our children went back to their home villages when the pandemic started and just recently returned to Gethsemane.
For most of June the younger children were given online lessons to complete, and a couple of the older girls worked with them. We so appreciate these girls and their willingness to help. We have video chatted with them several times during this break. It’s great to see them all back and doing well!
University Students
We have four university students that will begin their school year in August. Three will be in their first year while one will be completing her final year. We’re very proud of these students!
The three new students are in the process of finding housing and laptops. The fundraisers we organize help to provide the needs of these students. We’re excited to see what the future holds for each of them!
