Singapore While walking around the streets of Bangkok, it was common to see monks and spirit houses. Bangkok - ABTS Staff Bangkok - Buddhist Shrine We visited a Buddhist shrine. It was so sad to see people praying to this idol. They burned incense sticks and offered gifts of flowers to gain favor with their god. How we long for these people to come to know the free gift of grace! Buddhists can pay to hire dancers to help lift their prayers up to heaven. Below is a video of one couple having their prayers lifted up to heaven by the hired dancers. Bangkok - Pakistani Fellowship One night while in Bangkok, Thailand we had the chance to participate in the beginning of a small church plant start-up of Pakistani Christian refugees. Bangkok has many Christian refugees seeking religious asylum because of life threatening persecution, but their lives are still very difficult because they are not legally allowed to have jobs in Thailand. Greg shared a message on Romans 8 - emphasizing how our trials make us more like Jesus Christ. After the time of teaching and worship, we found out more about the trials of one precious couple and their story broke our hearts. Read their story: Hope Amidst Persecution The video below is of these sweet brothers and sisters singing to our Jehovah Jireh in Urdu. Allow the depth of their praise to wash over you. Our God is worthy of praise from people of every tongue during every season of life. Chiang Mai Chiang Mai is a beautiful city! We enjoyed exploring this city, eating lots of wonderful Thia food (Greg ate grubs - he said they tasted like soggy french fries), and at the night bizarre we saw people getting fish therapy (where fish eat the dead skin off your feet - we were told it tickles). The neigborhoods are very quiet and almost every home has a little spirit house to please the spirit world. Chiang Mai - Umbrella Making Process We saw the process of making Asian umbrellas. They position wooden sticks and tie them with string to create the frame of the umbrella. They stretch wet white paper over the umbrella frame. They set the umbrellas in the sun to dry. Once they umbrellas are dry they paint them and then set them in the sun to dry again. Chiang Mai - Silk Making Process While in Chiang Mai we saw the silk making process. It all starts with little caterpillars. The caterpillars spin silk cacoons. The cacoons are boiled and the silk strands are removed and turned into usable silk. The silk is dyed and pulled tight to dry. The ladies use their silk looms to create the cloth. Below is a video of the ladies hard at work creating silk cloth on their looms. One night while in Bangkok, Thailand we had the chance to participate in the beginning of a small church plant start-up of Pakistani Christian refugees. Bangkok has many Christian refugees seeking religious asylum because of life threatening persecution, but their lives are still very difficult because they are not legally allowed to have jobs in Thailand. Greg shared a message on Romans 8 - emphasizing how our trials make us more like Jesus Christ. After the time of teaching and worship, we found out more about the trials of one precious couple and their story broke our hearts. The husband and wife are Christian refugees in Pakistan, but like most refugees in Thailand they aren't officially recognized by the government and are therefore not allowed to legally work. When they do work they are underpaid and risk imprisonment by immigration officials. The couple who shared with us have a 2-year-old son and 4-month-old daughter. The wife has already been imprisoned once. Monday evening the immigration officials were pounding on their door, but they quietly hid. Their 4-month-old baby girl was sick and the day before they used the last of their money to purchase her medicine. They had no money to purchase their 2-year-old son milk and food. Monday they had nothing to eat until they joined our fellowship that night. They are 2 months behind on rent and facing eviction. It's hard to explain what it felt like in our hearts as we heard this sweet couple's story and saw their tears. Mamas, can you imagine not being able to provide your baby girl with medicine or your toddler son with milk? Daddies, can you imagine longing with every ounce of your being to work to provide for your family not being allowed to because you'll be thrown into prison if you do? And all of this because you had to feel your country because you refused to renounce Christ. Friends, this is where God graciously allowed many of you to be part of this story! We were so blessed with many of you giving to our survey trip and the funds that came in were over and above what we needed for our trip. Monday night one family in the church helped provide this couple with money for food/medicine/milk, and we were able to use the money you gave to cover the rent costs this sweet family owed! Thank you so much to each of you who gave toward our survey trip! God has used you not only to help us determine which city we'll live in when moving permanently to Asia but also to help provide for the needs of this persecuted Christian family. The body of Christ is beautiful. To God be the glory great things He has done through the generosity of His people! This family still has many days of hardship ahead of them, but praise God that through the power of His Word and your gifts we were able to give them a glimmer of hope amidst persecution. The video below is of these sweet brothers and sisters singing to our Jehovah Jireh in Urdu. Allow the depth of their praise to wash over you. Our God is worthy of praise from people of every tongue during every season of life. We leave for our 10 day survey trip to Singapore and Thailand tomorrow morning! The purpose of this trip is to help us determine which city God would have us live in when we move to Asia. We desperately need your prayers as this trip is an extremely important step in our missionary journey. Over the next 10 days we have 9 flights and will spend significant time in Singapore, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai. Our goals are to learn more about our future ministry, build relationships with future teammates, and learn the basics of daily life in these beautiful cultures. Below is a link to a printable sheet that lists our itinerary and 1-2 specific prayer requests for each day of our trip. Would you please print the prayer requests sheet and pray for us daily over the next 10 days? Please keep in mind that while we're in Asia we'll be 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, so in general be looking a day ahead to cover our upcoming day in prayer. Also, while on our trip we will be posting on our ministry Facebook page regularly with pictures and updates, so please click the link below and then like our ministry Facebook page to stay informed on how our trip is going. “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” Philippians 1:3-5
Thank you so much for your love, prayers, and partnership in spreading the gospel! This year we're doing something extra special for Valentine's Day! For the 14 days of February leading up to Valentine's Day, each night we're going to tape up a heart on our children's doors listing something we love about them. We all need to be built up and we want our children to see in a tangible way some of the reasons why they are so special and we just adore them. Each child's set is unique - tailored to them with no exact repeats from another sibling. And each child gets a color (Christian's favorite color is red, Abbie's favorite color is pink, and Isaac's set is white), so especially for the boys who share a room/door it will be obvious which hearts belong to each person. Do it with your kiddos too! Let's build our little ones up this February and always!
"Encourage one another and build each other up!" 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Praising God for His amazing provision of another $250 monthly partner! We now have 23% of our monthly committed support!
Why are we crazy enough to move our family of six to the other side of the world?
One candle to burn. That's it. How are you using your candle to penetrate the darkness? Today was THE BEST day of my little girl's life! After the morning worship service she decided she wanted her own story of becoming a Christian, so she accepted Christ into her life. This afternoon I had her write it out in her own words and this little piece of paper is a treasure without price. Have a tissue handy when you read it.
Our January newsletter update has been posted - check it out!
http://www.vrugginks.com/newsletters.html |
|