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Dear Christian Friends,
Praise our Living God again for another blessings month! Of course, because of your prayerful and financial support, Christianity is growing; more and more people are not only hearing the Gospel of Jesus’ redemption but also accepting Jesus as their own Lord and God, if not daily but quiet regularly.
This past month, Asians for Christ financially supported two camps for Christian youth; one mostly for Lahu (Chiang Dao area) and the other for Lisu at Mae Hong Son province. Almost 200 young Christians attended at each camp. I attended at the first camp as one of the main speakers and Mary and Becky helped in taking care of younger kids. The result of the camp was very blessed: 12 young people have baptized at this camp. We could not attend at their baptismal day because Isaac suddenly got very bad food poison. He threw up very badly so we had to take him to the emergency room and taking him back to Chiangmai where there is better hospital located in order to closely watch over him. Thanks God! He is fine now.
Because of the health problem, my family and I could not attend at the second camp. I also got severe back pain right after the first camp. I could not even move my body neither turn my neck and shoulder. I was not brave enough to go to the hospital. Rather I went to receive the traditional massages. After receiving several back massages, I am fine since then. Sergius went to the second camp to be the main speaker in my place and contribute the Asians for Christ’s financial support to the camp. At this camp, one spirit-house was put down because one Lisu family has accepted Christ plus 15 people were baptized. Recently, 200 Wa people have accepted Christ at the border area between Burma and Thailand (in Burma side). This area is very a restricted area. It is what people called a “red zone.” Most of Amphetamines or illegal drugs come from this area. Needless to say, these new Christians need the Bibles. Each Bible costs almost $6 and plus $4 for mailing. We now have enough a fund to buy 200 Bibles. We received some money from an anonymous mission plus $80 from the VBS of Keystone Christian Church, PA, filling up the cost of these 200 Bibles. However, we urgently need $800 for mailing or delivering these Bibles. As you may know, there is indeed no mailing via post office system at the border and this restricted area. In order to deliver these Bibles, we need to hire people to carry and walking through jungles and handing over them directly to the people. We also need to hire a pick up-truck at some point along the delivery process for transporting these Bibles. Your partnering at this particular need is very grateful.
As you may already know from my recent brief report, our late mission trip to China was truly another God’s blessings. Many people have heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many lost souls have accepted Christ and were baptized by the Name of Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Again, we have received another calling from the mission field in China. Yasa and I are invited to be main teachers/speakers at two CHRISTIAN leader conferences: one at Kegma and another one at Teung Chong/ Yi Jiang, where we have never been yet. I personally am invited to speak at another NON-CHRISTIAN Lisu conference at Kunming, the capital of Yunnan. Different from the first two conferences, this conference will be organized by the Chinese government. Most attendants will be non-Christians from Lisu people. They invite me to speak about Lisu cultural diversity from Christian perspective. I do really need your prayers on this speech. The outcome of the speech can be either positive or negative or perhaps both. Positively, I hope many non-Christian and very high educated Lisu leaders who are working at the government office will hear the true Gospel of Jesus Christ and hopefully they will have positive attitude toward Christianity which will lead them one day to their conversions. Negatively, in the case they are not pleased with my message (hopefully it is not a compromising message), the speech may (pray that may not) cause me trouble in future mission works in China. It is a requirement all speakers to send their topics to the central government at Peking for the approval. So far, the central government has given me an approval on this topic: Re-theorizing and Repositioning Lisu Cultural Diversity with a Wholistic Mindset. After those conferences, we are planning to do our evangelistic works and visiting and mentoring those young Christians who just converted not long ago. This is indeed one of our main purposes for this coming mission trip. However, this mission trip will not be occurred unless you are financially participating. We do need $3,000 to buy tickets and for all traveling and accommodation expenses inside in China. We are planning to leave on the last week of July, 2009.
Your prayers for our mission trip in China are always vital. As you may know, doing mission works in China is essential but very difficult. From the first stage of evangelistic works, prayers are crucial on where/when to go or not to go, what to say or not to say, etc. In case any person accepts Jesus, we have to deal it with the government. Dealing with the government is very sensitive and of course dangerous. Then we have to find the best location and time for baptismal performing. Baptistery at church building is uncommon. In fact, I have never seen one anywhere that I have been in China. Besides, the river in China is very chilly and giving baptism in frigid river can cause people, particularly those older people who seldom take bath, a sickness such as cold or flu. We have to be aware of their health issue. If any person gets sick due to the baptism, Christianity can be stumbled. The baptismal performer can be arrested. Because of these above reasons, we deeply appreciate your daily prayerful supports beside of the financial supports. For we believe that we are His tool in carrying out His Great Commission to various ethnic groups of people in China.
In Him alone We are Serving, Stephen and his teammates
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