Prayer Requests

Thank you so much for your prayers. We are blessed by your continued commitment to us!

1. Pastor Wiripong and the new Chiangrai Akha Church plant that started last Friday.
2. Future teams and workers to come help with our ministry. The field is plentiful but the workers are few.
3. Cheryl's parents - traveling to Thailand in a couple of weeks - health and safety.
4. Troy - as he prepares for the 6th grade equivalency language test in October! This is an extremely difficult test and will take many, many hours of preparation.
5. Determining the route of education for Naomi and Natalie this coming school year.
   

1st Ahka Speaking Church in Chiangrai

Troy had the wonderful opportunity to be at the Grand Opening of the first Akha speaking Church in Chiangrai, Thailand, this past Friday. It was incredibly special for him to be able to watch this dream come to fruition. Pastor Wiripong was one of the first tribal pastors that met with Troy and began sharing his dreams about reaching the Akha people, something they both had a heart for. Pastor Wiripong started a church in an Akha village several years ago, and Troy was blessed to bring a team in to build it's first permanent Church structure in that village. Two years ago, God began to use others to encourage Pastor Wiripong to start a church - in Chiangrai. Chiangrai has the largest concentration of Ahka speaking people in all of Thailand.

Pastor Wiripong, also Akha, began his ministry about 14 years ago. He felt the call on his life and left his small village in order to attend Bible School in Bangkok. Once completed, he returned to North Thailand to start churches in Akha villages. He has started at least 5 Ahka churches and works with many others.

The Chiangrai Aseembly of God Grand Opening had around 60 people and was standing room only. We can't wait to see what is in store for Pastor Wiripong, Chiangrai and the Akha people!

Nathaniel Graduates this month

For many years, people have been asking us, "Where is Nathaniel going to graduate?" Our family had always intended on having Nathaniel attend Grace International School (GIS) here in Chiangmai, for Nathaniel's senior year, allowing him to graduate with his classmates at Grace. This is the same school that Nathaniel attended during his 9th and 10th grade years, so he has established many terrific friendships. Our family was unable to make it back to Thailand until the end of February of this year - halfway through his senior year. GIS has a policy in place, that we were unaware of, that states every graduating senior must attend their entire senior year or they will not be permitted to graduate. Because Nathaniel was unable to attend this entire school year, he is unable to graduate at GIS. When we heard the news, we contacted North Lakes Academy (NLA) - the school that Nathaniel attended his Junior year in the states. In explaining our circumstances, the principal was very sympathetic and said she would take it before the board. We are thrilled to report that Nathaniel is being granted a diploma from North Lakes Academy, Forest Lake, MN. He has enough credits that he no longer has to take classes, and has the ability to spend quality time with his friends before they all depart back to the states for college. Unfortunately, our family will not be able to return to the states for the graduation ceremony, so we have decided to host a private Graduation ceremony for Nathaniel on April 27th at TLC center, here in Chiangmai. Thank you so much for all of the encouraging words and prayers that we have received since all of this began back in February. We are truly blessed!

Hitting the ground running...

After only a week of being here in Thailand, we hosted team from Wadena, MN. We had been planning and preparing for the team for a little over a year - but from the U.S. As time grew closer for us to leave for Thailand, so did plans for the team from

Wadena.

The project: 2 classrooms, an office, a storage room and a kitchen at Pastor Prasomsuk's Maneenorporat Church. There weren't any rooms to have Sunday School while church was going on. The children were meeting outside, under a tarp next to the church.

We had one week in country to prepare for the teams arrival. Drawing up plans, ordering materials, gathering all the tools. It doesn't sound like much, but when you are dealing with jet lag, in a country where you can't buy all the items under one roof, you still don't know all the names for things, products are different, or they don't tell that it is a special order item until you arrive to pick it up and they don't have any...it can make things just a little more complicated. Even through all the ups and downs, when the team arrived - we were ready and excited to get started.

The team arrived late on Tuesday March 6th, and by Wednesday night they had traveled around the city getting to know the transportation system, bartered with the locals learning how to handle Thai money, as well as learning a little about Buddhism and Thai culture.

On Thursday, the construction began. They built a two-room addition to the church as well as finished a kitchen area, office area, and storage area. With some extra funds and a little extra time, they decided to throw in a new platform.

During there time here, they also had an opportunity to do ministry at a new school that had been started by Pastor Prasomsuk. They played red light, green light, taught American football, blew bubbles with the kids, and as a part of the lesson had water balloons thrown at "Goliath" (Caleb Monson) with the kids pretending they were "David". The team also had a chance to go to the new Hope House dorms and paint the Living area and bedrooms for the girls.

We are so grateful for such a wonderful group of of people who sacrificed so much to come and minister here with us!! We can't wait until we have another opportunity to work with people like these! Please pray for Team Possible as we continue to host teams and work towards sharing Christ's love to the Thai people!

TEAM POSSIBLE