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Building the church in 4D
by Jon “One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.” Psalm 145:4 (NIV) “You know, old churches need missionaries too.” A long-time Thai believer once said to us. I was reminded of her words when we spoke to a pastor’s wife in a worship hall of an empty church. The…
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Jesus – The Great Merit Maker
By Jon ” For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves “ 1 Colossians 1:13 When we were in full-time language learning, I went through a module on sharing the Gospel in Thai. While a good starting foundation, as we start to…
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Lives of many deaths
by Jon “To those who are dying, we are the smell of death. To those who are being saved, we are the perfume of life” 2 Corinthians 2:16 (NIRV) “I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!” The lady cried hysterically as the coffin lid was closed and the body was slid into the temple furnace accompanied by the chorus of chants by the presiding Buddhist monks. We were at…
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Living waters or broken cisterns?
by Phoebe “for my people have committed two evils:they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.” Jeremiah 2:13 Recently, Jon has been helping our church members install some portable water filters for their homes. They were very happy to receive the water filters because this means…
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Roots
by Jon “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58 When we heard from the local believers in Takhro that it was nearly the end…
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Keep watch!
by Phoebe “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Matthew 25:13 There had been several times when members of our village church came to our home without advance notice. They had come to check if we are doing okay. They had come to share with us about a family…
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Hinges
by Jon “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11 One of the first things we noticed when we moved in to our new place is a bent hinge at our guest bathroom door. This is likely due to wear and tear of the hinge, with…
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Join the party!
by Phoebe “Call me when there is another big gathering in future!” One of the first believers who had moved from the village of Takhro said when she heard that many fellow brothers and sisters in Christ had visited the village to do outreach events. She wanted to witness what God is doing in her…
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Puzzles
by Jon “I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” Psalms 139:14 After moving to Takhro at the end of June, one of the ways that has gradually grown more apparent is the need to engage children in the village. With this in mind, we started our…
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“Are these signs in your household?”
by Phoebe I asked my language helper, Kae, this question as we read Mark 16 as part of my Thai language learning. Each lesson is also a bible study for Kae as she is also a member of the house church where we are ministering. When we reached verse 17 of Mark 16, I casually…
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Jon and Phoebe's thetomyumkongs journey. 