Hi Everybody,
We hope you are well in the midst of this strange time. Some people have been asking about the situation here and so we are sending this update.
Thailand has surprisingly low numbers of cases and deaths in spite of its proximity to China and the millions of Chinese people that come and go from here. But they've locked things down similar to the US (actually they seem to take their cues from the US).
One of the first things they shut down were schools
.
Thankfully we believe that God had directed us to prepare for that (Todd actually had a dream 3 days before the announcement that this would happen soon). So we were somewhat prepared to transition out of teaching at our building on March 17, and all of our teachers and staff now work remotely doing classes and other meetings via Zoom. It sounds smooth, but it has caused us all to work a lot to get things up and running.
Most of our students
have stayed with us as this hit mid-session. A lot of them like learning online and we think we will be able to keep teaching English and the gospel online next session, which starts April 20 (the lock-down here is scheduled to go through at least April 30). Please pray for sufficient student numbers to avoid staff layoffs or pay cuts, and that we would continue to have new and old students who we can point towards the necessity and beauty of Jesus Christ.
For our church
it has been a big change from meeting in the English center. But it has been sweet too. Karen and I along with some of our longer-term believers fondly remember when we used to meet in our apartment. House church is so special and that's where God has led us now, and we are thankful. Now, the government is discouraging meeting in groups so some of our members still come to our apartment and others stay home. Again, we are using Zoom for the worship service.
Zoom has been working well though we don't think it's ideal for the long-term. One good thing is that at least one non-believer has joined us via Zoom. Most of our church members are handling the situation well, trusting Christ. A couple of them went a bit wobbly early on but they seem to be stabilizing as we continue to preach the absolute sovereignty of Christ over all things. Praise the Lord.
Prayer requests:
- That the fear, stress, uncertainty, and panic that many people feel at this time would not take our eyes of Christ. Outwardly and intellectually we are not afraid of the flu or dying or anything else. But there are times when we unexpectedly feel stress, revealing the deep recesses of a lack of trust in God. Practically for Karen and me, pray we would not be so busy trying to maintain "the ministry" that we neglect the One who sustains us in all things. As many Christians wiser than us have said, pray that we use this time to personally draw closer to Christ.
- Pray for us for wisdom and guidance from God. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning.
- Pray that God would use this strange event to bring many to faith and to increase the holiness and faith of his church. Karen and I think we have both been hearing from God that the focus in this time for us is both in our personal relationships with God, and in building up our young believers in our church.
- . How can we pray for you? We really desire to pray for you, our critical rope-holders in this time so please let us know by clicking here.
