Aug 07 2011


Prayer Request

Filed under News Updates

Young Buddhist apprentice at the school in LTL

This is just a quick post to ask you to pray for me as I head up to the village on the Thai/Myanmar border.  It is about a 5-8 hour trip depending on road conditions and it has been raining a lot lately.  I will be staying up there for about a month this time so please pray for me to adjust quickly to village life.  Also, please pray in the following areas as well.

  1. Where to live.  I still am not sure where exactly where I will be staying or what things they will have.
  2. Supplies.  I am not sure what they will have up there at the place I will be staying (i.e. electricity, bedding, etc.) I am bringing camp gear to get me through a month.
  3. Language – Again.  I will be able to get by up there with my Thai, but some of the villagers won’t speak Thai.  Only Shan.
  4. What to get involved with and what not too.  I need wisdom in this area as not every need requires me to get involved.

As always, thank you all so much for supporting me in this adventure.

 

In Christ,

 

David

 

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Jul 25 2011


Quick Update

Filed under News Updates

Just a quick update to let everyone know that I arrived safely into Thailand and had no problems with jet lag.  I was actually on a normal schedule within a couple of days.

My time in Chiang Rai was excellent.  I was able to catch up with Rose and the staff at CHH.  Rose’s house is almost complete and she’s hoping to move in in a few weeks.  Also, I was able to visit with Ron Miller at Ban Immanuel who is one of my prayer partners here in Thailand and was the driver of the vehicle in the accident.  He is doing well and has recovered fully from the accident.  I stayed with Lawrence Jackson while I was in Chiang Rai, which is who I stayed with after the accident.  His language studies are coming along well but he’s also experiencing the difficulties of learning a language when your older. I can relate to that.

Next I am on my way to Laos to get a 1-year Thai work visa so I can stay in country for an extended period of time.  If all goes well I will be back in Chaing Mai around the 27th of July.  After that I will be traveling with a team up to the mountains and learning more about Partners and some of the places that they are helping.  After the team leaves I will have a couple of days before heading back up into the mountains and into LTL.

Please keep these plans in your prayers and pray that God would lead me to people who need to know Him or be encouraged by His faithfulness.  Also, that I would be emboldened to speak the truth in love to them.

Thanks again for your support.

 

In Christ,

David

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Jul 12 2011


Final Countdown

Filed under News Updates

Myla and Kyle (Tucson, Arizona)

About 10 more hours before I get on the plane that will take me back to SE Asia and another 14 hours till I touch down in Bangkok and then about another month from going up to Loi Tai Leng (LTL) in Myanmar.  My time in the States was wonderful in every aspect and I had such a great time with family I hadn’t seen in a very long time.  I was also able to make some new friends and I hope deepen other relationships.

I’ve don a lot of traveling while I was home and everywhere I went I was met by love and laughter.  From California to Oregon to Arizona, Pennsylvania, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Texas and back again. I really dreaded the travel but loved being there.

I want to thank everyone who made this trip so wonderful and took care of me while I was visiting.  I know you know who you are so I’m not going to actually mention you by name just in case I forget

Mike and I on the beach... Man that was a cold day (Golds Beach, Oregon)

one in my excitement.  But please know that I appreciate all that you’ve done for me.  I don’t deserve the family and friends that I have been given but that is a testament to the grace of God through Jesus Christ and His care for me through you.  Some of you I hope to see over here soon and others I probably won’t see for a while; some maybe never again.  And yet my life is so much richer because you were in my life.

Lastly I want to say “thank you” to all of you who have prayed for me, encouraged me, and supported me while I have been serving in SE Asia with MMF.  I look forward to continuing our relationship while I am in Myanmar and I will do my best to keep you all up to speed on what is going on in LTL and Myanmar in general.  I would appreciate hearing

Michael throwing Alex into the pool (Lakeland, Florida)

from you as well as you feel led to communicate back to me.  Please send your prayer requests to me so that I may continue to pray for you and be a part of your life as well.  Also you can send me pictures of you and your families from time to time so I can see how everyone is growing.  Little things like that encourage me so much and make me feel like I am still a part of life back here in the states.

So may God bless each of you in a way that ministers to you specifically.  Know that I love you and appreciate you more than words can ever say. And keep in touch from time to time.  We are blessed in many ways to live in a time and culture where communication is so easy.  We don’t have any excuses for not.  And after all, the real things of value in this life aren’t houses, cars or bank accounts; the real things of value are relationships and letting those you love and appreciate know why and how much.

In Christ,

 

David

 

 

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Jul 08 2011


The Past Year

A village along the Thai/Myanmar border

Over the last year my life has changed dramatically.  The following is an account of what has caused that change.  I hope you enjoy it and it isn’t too long for you.

Over the last year God has shown me many things in my life that were not pleasing to Him and began working those things out me.  At the same time I felt like He was calling me to leave Mercy Ministries Foundation (MMF), the ministry I had been with the past 7-years in Thailand, but I didn’t know to where or what.  It was all very confusing from my point of view.  But God knew that all things would come together in His timing.

The first thing that God began to talk to me about is my perspective of ministry and what I consider a successful ministry.  At first, as I thought about this questions I thought success would be if the young men I at the discipleship house would begin to desire a deeper relationship with Jesus.  Or I thought that if they would begin a daily bible reading program on their own, that would be a sign of a successful discipleship program.  But God was showing me that I actually had no control over the hearts of these young boys and whatever happened in their lives would be a result of their choices.  So finally I decided that a successful ministry is if I can live out my life according to biblical principals before others.  And then I would have to trust God to add the increase.  And so that is what I set out to do in the discipleship program.

But I was still confused about why God would be calling me to leave the ministry when the discipleship program was just getting going.

The next thing that God began working on in my life was forgiveness.  I thought I was a pretty forgiving person.  I didn’t hold grudges against people and always tried to help and consider other people who had hurt me in the past.  I didn’t let those past hurts keep me from trying to show the love of Christ to them.  But God was going deeper than that.  He was showing me that if I had a disagreement with some one, I liked to mull it over and over in mind, giving that person a piece of my mind so to speak.  At least in my mind I always won the argument…  But God was showing how this affected my behavior toward that person.  He called me to forgive them immediately and He showed me how the Cross forgave my sins and the sins of those who’ve offended me.  As a matter of fact, if God had already forgiven them before they even committed the offense, than who was I to have issue with them?  At the same time He was showing me Mat 16:24 that say “If any man desires to follow after Me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross and follow Me.” If I desired to follow Jesus than the way to do it was to “deny myself.”  I had to deny the side of me that wanted to be right.  I had to deny the side of me that wanted to justify myself.  I had to deny the side of me that wanted to defend myself.  And in denying myself I found that in order to do it over and over, even when I felt wronged and mistreated, I had to “pick up my cross.”  That is, I had to die to my “self.”

That was very difficult but The Holy Spirit was also showing me that it wasn’t enough just to do these things, but if I wanted to be “perfect” before Him, I had to love in return.  So, if anyone did anything to me that I thought was unfair, or just plain wrong, my only recourse was to love in return.  And then He showed me that there is no excuse for not doing it.  I can’t use the excuse of being tired, for not being loving.  I can’t use the excuse that the person has wronged me severely, for not being loving.  Or they had disrespected me, or lied to me; or done anything at all to me, for not being loving.  God calls us to “be perfect as my father in heaven is perfect.”  Yes, he forgives us when we fail, that’s grace, but he doesn’t excuse our behavior.  If we desire to follow after Jesus, and I do, than we must deny ourselves, pick up our crosses and follow after Him.  That is the only way to follow.

But He wasn’t done with me yet…

At the same time He was calling me in two other areas.  First, He was calling me to go deeper in prayer.  To spend more time in prayer and for the prayer time to be more structured.  I began putting together a plan for what I wanted to pray about, who I wanted to pray for and specifics for them.  Then to pray specifically for those things.  I had to think about biblical principals behind the prayers and specific promises of God.  The second thing He was showing me is What ministry is.  I’ve always thought that I was in ministry.  At least for the last seven years I had been serving with a ministry.  So that was ministry…  But He was showing me that there is much more to it.  The question that has to be asked is, “When are we not ministering?”  Do we ever get to take a vacation from serving God?  Do I get to plan on going to the beach and relax and not talk to anyone about salvation? Or not encourage others in their walk with Christ?  Can I sit on an airplane and not consider those around me that don’t know Christ?  Of course the answer is “No.”

At the same time I was considering these questions about ministry, He seemed to be opening a door for me to serve in a very remote area along the Thai/Myanmar border.  It seemed that the door was open to go there, but I didn’t hear any specific calling to go.  I had a desire to go but again I had no specific calling.  That is when God started showing me that a place is not ministry.  I cannot say that I am called to one place, so  I don’t have to serve along the way of getting there.  I realized that I may have a heart for that place but I may never get there.  God can take me home tomorrow; and if He does than I was not called to that place.  I realized from this that ministry is not a place but a time.  It is where I am right now.  Not where I hope to be in the future, because I don’t know what the future holds.  Ministry is today.  It is right now.  Ministry is the person in front of me, beside me, sitting next to me in an airplane or a coffee shop.  Ministry is now it isn’t tomorrow because I can’t control tomorrow.  I can only control now.

For many of you reading this you may be saying to yourself “duh”, but to me these things were life changing and freeing at the same time.  I could be free in Christ to just live for today; Jesus said “sufficient are the cares of today.” Mat 6:34  I could let Him plan my day and take care of everything in it, I only had to “be ready in season and out of season…”  Be prepared for that which God has prepared me for.

After all that, which pretty much took God a full year to show me everything and work it into my life, came the testing phase…  How well did I learn my lesson.  It was about one week after I left the MMF that I was in a car accident.  The car accident was severe enough that I was in the hospital for a total of eleven days, two surgeries, six broken ribs and a broken clavicle, and oh yea, be loving and kind through it all, take one day at a time, minister where you are called no matter where you go, and continue to “desire to follow after Him.”  That has been the last five months of my life and honestly, at times I’ve done well and at times I’ve faltered.  But God has remained faithful through it all.

I’m ready for the next phase, which seems like it is to go back to SE Asia and continue to work along the Thai/Myanmar border.  But no matter what happens I am confident that God has prepared me today for what I will face tomorrow.  And I wouldn’t change any of it.  All I want is more of Jesus.  I want to know Him.  I want to know everything that can be known about Him on this earth.  And that is all I want.

 

 

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