Southeast Asia Mission Consultation

October 1-3 is the Southeast Asia Mission Consultation representing UMC missions in Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. Here is the link for more information on this Consulation: http://tiny.cc/SEAM

We are continuing our itineration and are still having problems with infrequent access to the internet. Our phone number while in the States is 270-505-2479. If you need to contact us and need a reply in less than 4 or 5 days, it is probably best to call us.

Thank you for your patience with the lack of blogging while we are on itineration in the States.

Overall, this has been an amazing month and a half. The response has been enthusiastic, too say the least. God is good.

It is getting late and we go early to Greenville UMC tomorrow (Sunday) morning.

May the Lord Bless You and Keep You.

Breaking The Silence

It has been a long time since we have posted, and we apologize for this. Since we arrived in the States, we have hit the ground running. Also, we have had very limited access to the internet.

We have spoken at 10 churches so far, in California, Kentucky, Connecticut, New York, and West Virginia. We also spoke at mission dinners at both the New York and Kentucky Annual Conferences. We had the privilege of setting up displays at both conferences, and were able to connect with many people. This is our first itineration since being missionaries, and the response of God's people has been wonderful.

It has been a blessing to be with God's people and share what the Lord is doing in Thailand. We have met gracious hosts, generous supporters, a strong prayer warriors during our itineration.
Our spirits have been refreshed!

We will be continuing our itineration, speaking at 50+ more churches as well as a United Methodist Hmong Caucus meeting in Wisconsin. Please pray for our safety as we are constantly traveling. We know people have been praying for us, because God has looked after us. In New York we had car problems. We got into the car one night to get a coffee, when we noticed something was wrong with the car. The front end vibrated terribly and it was difficult to control the car. We went to a service station where they changed the tires and gave the car an alignment. One tire was warped and was worn on one side down to the steel bands. We praised God that the tires did not blow out on the highway. God protects us! God is good!

One thing that was a real surprise was the Missions Faire at the New York Annual Conference. Rev. Joseph Ewoodzie, the dynamic Director of Missions for the NYAC, told us to bring things to sell at the Faire. We brought some things, but was timid on buying too much. Well.... we ended up selling out all of our Thai crafts very quickly. We now have a good idea of what people enjoy buying and would like to do this on a larger scale at many conferences in the future.
At a later date, Sherri will post about this in detail. Mission teams will be asked to bring a spare suitcase to pack as much crafts for sale as possible, and then send them to people who will sell the items at the annual conferences. Other missions, like Bolivia, have a whole network that does this very effectively.

We will be on itineration through August 5th, and then we head back. We know some of our Thai sisters and brothers read this blog, so this message is for you. We miss you very much and you are in our thoughts and prayers. We give special greetings to Pastor Sarah, May the Lord Bless You, Pastor Sarah!

Back in the States for itineration

We landed yesterday in San Jose, CA, and it is wonderful being back in the States.  We are guests of the Santa Clara KUMC, the church that has played a primary role in starting the Thailand Mission.  They are very gracious hosts and we feel at home here.

The day we left Thailand, we had many of our Thai brothers and sisters who dropped by to pray with us.  We are very humbled to know that we have hundreds of people in the States and in Thailand praying for us.   These prayers sustain us and inspire us.  We are very blessed!

This past week, Pastor Sarah of Pradumri UMC had the grand opening of a new economic development project at her church.  The economic crisis has hit our province very hard because the export factories are closing up or having many layoffs.  We have seen the impact of this, because some members of the UM churches have had to move back to their family farms in the North and Northeast provinces.  They won't have any money up there, but at least they will eat.  Pastor Sarah wanted to create a project to make jobs for those who were laid off, so Pradumri Church has rented a shop, and it has been converted into a food court with many booths offering a variety of food.  Many members now operate the booths.  Please pray that this new food court does good business and is a success.  Pastor Sarah is truly an incredible leader and we are very pleased at her pro-active approach to helping the members of her church.

Anthony will be working on staff at Camp Loucon in Leitchfield, KY this summer.  He is very excited and we are happy for him.  The Lord has blessed him greatly at this camp, and this is a good opportunity for him to give back.  

We thank you for your prayers and support.  God is good!

Meet Pastors Da and Akerat

This new clergy couple, Pastors Da and Akerat, recently graduated from Phayao Bible College and will be serving as associate pastors at Pradumri UMC for the next 6 months.  In October, they will plant a new church at Nakhon Pathom, the oldest inhabited city in Thailand, just one hour drive west of Bangkok.

Please pray for them, as God prepares them for their pioneering task of bringing the gospel of Jesus Christ to the unreached.

Advanced Course of Study at Pradumri UMC

This week, we had our first Advanced Course of Study (ACS) classes for United Methodist pastors and interns.  ACS are graduate level courses for pastors who have already have a B.A. degree in Biblical Studies or its equivalent.  This week we taught courses on United Methodist History and Doctrine.  Next month we will teach a course on United Methodist Polity.  These three courses are required for all United Methodist pastors across the world.  We are teaching these three classes in time for everyone to complete these required courses before Bishop Goodpaster arrives in September to credential and consecrate the Thai pastors.

Because of the schedule constraints due to our upcoming itineration in America, we have to teach in marathon sessions.  We had 28 pastors, church staff, interns, and leaders at this training who studied morning, afternoon, and evening this week at Pradumri UMC.  We also had many more that laypeople who could not attend all of the sessions, but studied with us when they were available.  Training and mentoring pastors and leaders is at the core of what we do as GBGM missionaries, and we thoroughly enjoy this ministry. 

We are very impressed with the new pastors and interns that started working with us at Pradumri UMC this past week.  They have pastor’s hearts, passionate faith, and keen minds.  This training was a good time to get to know them and listen to them interact with each other.  God is good and has provided for the leadership needs of the United Methodist Church in Thailand.  Praise God!

Meet Pastors Ekerin and Pu

We want you to meet 2 pastors in training at Pradumri UMC.  They have recently graduated from Phayao Bible College.  Pastor Pu is a young pastor who is a gifted teacher and an accomplished musician (he plays piano, guitar, and drums)  Pu will become the pastor of a new church that is being planted in Nakhon Pathom, west of Bangkok.  This church will be planted in October. 

Pastor Aykerin and his family (wife - Hua; daughter - Katherine 'yes, she prefers her English name'; son - Aykerat, and baby daughter - Yuree) arrived a few days ago at Pradumri.  They are from the Hmong tribe.

They will plant a new church at Bangsaray in October.  Hua will be the new nanny for our grandchildren, so we will see Pastor Aykerin's family often.

Their salaries are $300 per month and we need to find churches and individuals to donate for this purpose.  If the Lord leads you to help in this way, please make your donations to Advance #00403A and contact us by e-mail at thailandumc@gmail.com to let us know how to direct your gift.  On the front page of the blog in the right column is an article entitled "How to Support the Thailand Mission Initiative" which has complete information on the many avenues for giving and support.  Or you can click on this link to go to the article directly http://msmorrissey.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-support-thailand-mission.html 

Easter at Pradumri UMC

The members of Pradumri UMC worshipped on Good Friday with a special service that included a feature they did last year.  They build a cross and tomb and re-enacted the passion.

Then on Easter Sunday, the tomb was opened and people could go inside to see that it was empty, and only the linen wrapping cloth was there.  However, this Easter, they added another element.  They placed small plastic Easter eggs in the tomb and people would go inside to get one egg.  Inside the eggs were Bible verses.  It was inspiring to see everyone reading their Bible verses and sharing the Bible verses with each other.  

Pastor Sarah preached a powerful message on the fact that we are not orphans, because Christ has risen.  Because Jesus lives, we have hope, we have a future, we have peace, we have joy.  Jesus is risen!  Alleluia!  

Pray for the unity of the Thai people

We appreciate all of the prayers and notes of concern that we have received this last week as you have watched the news and have seen the violent protests in Bangkok. We live an hour away from the protests, so we are quite fine.

The protests have been called off for the time being, so that Thai New Year, the Songkran water festival, can be celebrated in peace. Our work will bring us to Bangkok today, so we will check out the aftermath.

Please keep the nation of Thailand in your prayers. There is great division in this nation which can easily escalate, as we saw this last week. May God grant wisdom to the leaders of this nation to find a path to reconciliation and unity.

Tomorrow, we will be working at our home office, and we will make post some pictures and introduce 2 new pastors in training at Pradumri UMC. These pastors will plant new churches in October, and we are privileged to have them work with us.

Blessing Home Pictures

We visit the children at Blessing Home in Pattaya (the United Methodist ministry serving orphans and street children in Thailand) quite often.  Teacher Pui does a great job nurturing all 37 children.  We receive records of the lessons each child receives each day.  They learn to read both Thai and English, as well as simple arithmetic.  They receive Bible lessons each day and have a time of singing songs to the Lord each day.  

It is wonderful to see them grow spiritually and intellectually.  And it is encouraging to see them well nurtured, wearing clean clothes, and smiles on their faces.  Thank you for helping these children to have hope.

Pictures of English Camp at Nonsomboon School

A few weeks back, we posted on the blog about the English camp, but I did not have the camera with me to post pictures.  Here are some belated pictures of the camp that was a wonderful success in building good relations with community leaders in that region.

PART 2: Sometimes we really feel like missionaries

Yesterday, we found ourselves in a context that we never thought we would be in.  We were participating in the dowry negotiating ceremony as the "adopted parents" of Allen Metcalf, a missionary teacher at Sammuk Christian Academy.  Allen is a member of our home church, College Heights UMC in Elizabethtown, KY.  Allen is engaged to marry Jahp, a Thai teacher at Sammuk who is a wonderful young Christian woman.

Two days ago, we made the 10 hour trip to Jahp's grandmother's house in Northeast Thailand.  It was a very nerve-wracking day for Jahp and Allen, because they knew that Jahp's mother was insisting on a very large dowry that was totally unrealistic for a young missionary teacher to offer.  We have been praying about this for a long time, because it could become a problem.

We arrived around 8pm and Jahp's mother made a wonderful supper for us.  We now know where Jahp learned her chef skills at (Jahp is a home economics teacher and a master cook).  The next morning, a Pastor Daeng of Pahk Esarn church arrived as the negotiator and master of the ceremony.  Daeng did a great job of negotiating, because the negotiations were very difficult to navigate.   All of Jahp's family and relatives was present for the negotiations.

One thing that made this difficult is that the people of Northeast Thailand speak the Esarn language.  Thai language is their second language.  So our understanding was limited and Allen's understanding of their language was much less.  Jahp forgot to arrange for a translator, so she had to do the role of translator in the negotiations.  This was a problem for two reasons.  The lesser reason is that she was extremely nervous, so it was difficult for her to speak and understand English under such great stress.  The main reason it was a problem was that it placed her in a difficult spot in the negotiations, which were very intense.

The negotiations were moving nowhere, so the negotiator (Daeng) called for a 5 minute break.  We knew what was happening.  Jahp's parents and Allen and us were able to go outside in private.  There, the negotiator was able to talk privately with both parties and soon a more reasonable dowry was agreed upon.

After a dowry was agreed upon, the rest of the ceremony continued.  One part of the ceremony is touching.   Many strings were made to tie around Jahp and Allen's wrists.  As people tied the strings onto their wrists, they gave words of blessing to them.  At the end of the ceremony, they had dozens of strings tied to their wrists as a symbol of love and acceptance.

After the ceremony, we had a large dinner and then Sherri, Anthony, and I made the long drive back home.  We had to get back home soon because we have a new pastor and his family, Pastor Ekerin, will be arriving in Chonburi on Saturday morning, and we needed to get back to receive them.  Pastor Ekerin will be training with us at Pradumri through October and then will plant a new church at Bangsaray.  We have been praying for 2 years for God to send the right leader for Bangsaray, and we praise God for providing the right pastor.

Tomorrow is Easter, so we will worship at Pradumri UMC in Chonburi in the morning.  Then we must go quickly to Bowin UMC because Pastor Jerron has requested our presence at their Baptism Service.  Last week we met with the baptismal candidates and had a chance to speak with them and pray for them.  Baptism services are a great uplifting of our spirits, as we see evidence of the Lord changing the lives of Thai people. 

Today is the beginning of the Songkran festival, which is the Thai New Year.  Thai people take a week off to celebrate by going to the main roads and setting up 55 gallon tanks filled with ice water.  Every throws ice water on each other and also spread a grayish powdery clay material on each other.  The roads are bumper-to-bumper traffic everywhere all week long.  So we will stay at home and spend time preparing for the courses in United Methodist History, Doctrine, and Polity that we will teach in the next several weeks before we return to the States for itineration.

Our son MP and I will be heading out now to go to Makro, a wholesale store much like Costco or Sam's Club.  They open at 7 am, and we can stock up on food and get back before people hit the streets and create traffic jams.  It is 6:45 am now, so I will have to close for now.

Oh, one more great thing!  In two weeks, we will have 2 new missionaries join us in Thailand.  Gary and Cindy Moon will be coming to Thailand to begin 6 months of language studies.  They will be directors of Mercy ministries and economic development projects for the Thailand Mission Initiative.  Praise God!  We need more missionaries!

Sometimes we really feel like missionaries

Most weeks, we serve only in urban or industrial areas. But some weeks, like this week, we are in underdeveloped parts of Thailand. It is at these times that we really feel like missionaries, because we have to just make do with whatever circumstances we are in.

This week, we went to Hoknoi in the Northeast part of Thailand, where Almighty God UMC is located. A team of us went to do a 2 day English camp at the Nonsomboon school, teaching 5th graders to converse in English. The goal was to do acts of service for the community to gain the good favor of the community leaders. Even though Thailand is a democracy, in the rural areas, it is more of a feudal system with village chief who control what happens in their community. The village chief can make you or break you, so having the favor of the chief is very important.
The camp was a great success and God brought about a receptive attitude in the village elders and the chief. They see that we are here to serve the community and it is opening hearts.

The teaching team for the English camp was 7 people, so we had to borrow a van because our pickup was not big enough to carry the people and all of the equipment. The van has many problems. It overheats easily, leaks water, has suspension problems, and the air conditioner is unreliable. But we praise God for free transportation, and we set off on a 6 hour trip. But we had to pick up a new sound system for the church. I miscalculated the opening time of the store, and we had to wait an extra hour for the store to open. And then it took a long time to get things purchased and be on the road.

We had to travel slow because any large bump would cause the van to careen, so we had to be careful. About an hour into the trip, the air conditioner in the front stopped working. It was a 112 degree day, so Sherri and I were pretty toasty in the front, especially since we sit right over the engine and it is normally hot there, even with the air conditioning working.

Then we had to go through the mountain pass. While slowly crawling through the pass, we heard a whistling sound from the engine and saw that it was overheating. We couldn't stop immediately because it was too dangerous, we prayed hard and the van made it to a gas station with a restaurant. There we were able to let the engine cool down while we had dinner and reviewed plans with the team. We filled up the radiator with water and took off again.

Then we were pulled over by police. We did not notice, but the insurance sticker on the van was out of date, so we had to pay a fine. This delayed us some more and it was getting dark. We were hoping to arrive while there was still sunlight.

Fortunately, we arrived safely and were escorted to our cabin at a nearby national park. It had a fan but no air conditioning, but this is OK, we are missionaries, we adapt. We had 2 cabins, one for the men and one for the women. We had to first go through the cabin and kill a bunch of spiders. There were many big spiders, very large ones in fact. (OK, I know many people have told me NOT to kill spiders because they eat other insects, but honestly, I just don't want to be in the same room with a 3 inch long spider.

We went to bed and were soon having all sorts of ants, beetles, mosquitoes, pill bugs, cockroaches, and worm thingies crawling on us. We managed to get some sleep and then we went to do a first day of English camp. Sherri had some bad food that first day, and she was in rough shape, but kept working through it all.

After camp, we went back to the cabins to find that there was a storm and it knocked out the electricity, which happens very often here. And when the electricity is off, it is usually off for several days. We had no electricity for the fans and it was steaming hot, even at night. And we only had one flashlight, so we had to buy candles to have some light. But we are missionaries, we can adapt.

Then that night, one of our team members, Khru Jap, was stung by a scorpion. After contacting doctors, we were told that if she was not having trouble breathing, we should just observe her and make a poultice to bring down the swelling. We were told to look for a certain type of plant to make a poultice, so there Sherri and our translator Nittaya were, with a flashlight, looking for the plant to make a poultice. God answered our prayers and kept Khru Jap safe.

We went back and finished our camp. At this time, Sherri and the team are on their way home to Chonburi. I (Mike) am staying until Friday. We have a Grand Opening Service at Almighty God UMC and many churches are attending. We had the soft opening in November of last year. But now, the building has been finished, and we have a big celebration. Sherri cannot be here for the celebration because our boss, Rev. Jong Sung Kim, and his boss, Dr. Jorge Domingues, will be coming to Thailand on the same day and around the same time as the service. Dr. Domingues will be preaching at Pradumri UMC on Sunday.

Tonight and tomorrow, I will be sleeping in the sanctuary at Almight God UMC. In the meantime, I am praying for safe travels for Sherri and the Teaching team.

It is times like these that we feel like missionaries, because we have to adapt to circumstances and be victorious in them.

On Sunday, Sherri will be going to Vietnam for two days and Laos for one day, doing interviews of UM pastors for the Committee on Credentialing (our version of a Board of Ordained Ministry).
I will be staying at home, working on the Advance Course of Study classes I will be teaching this next month (United Methodist History and Polity).

When I get home, I will collect photos of both the English camp and the Grand Opening of Almighty God UMC and post them for you.

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers. We need divine protection and intervention.

Tons of birthday greetings

WOW! Today is Mike's birthday and we have received many e-mails and cards that have reminded us that people pray for us and the people of Thailand constantly. It would be difficult to overstate how much we appreciate your prayers, because it is only by God's Power that disciples are made and it is the hand of God that sustains us.

Thank you for your prayers and kindness which inspire us.

--Mike and Sherri

Thai VIM (Volunteer in Mission) Team renovates Almighty God UMC in Northeast Thailand

Last week, Pastor Jerron and 4 parishioners from Bowin UMC in Thailand,  formed a VIM (Volunteer in Mission) Team to prepare Almighty God UMC in Hoknoi for the grand opening service next month (we had the soft opening back in November).  There was a lot of work to do, carpentry, painting, electrical, glazing, and decorating.  None of the volunteers on this team were professional carpenters, painters, electricians, glaziers, or interior decorators.  But God used them in a mighty way to do a great job of getting the building ready, but also of showing the Thai Christians in Hoknoi that we love them and we are family together.  

One team member said, "Before I came up here, I was a truck mechanic, but now I learned that God made me to be a carpenter too."  Another team member chimed in, "Yes, and I never knew I was a painter!"  God provided the team with all of the gifts they needed to serve and meet the need.  Pastor Nampon of Almighty God UMC in Hoknoi said, "When I look upon the VIM team, I believing I am looking at God's angels."  Pastor Nampon and her church members were blessed by the outpouring of love by the Bowin VIM team.  

  The team went back to their home church and told of how God blessed them tremendously as they sought to be a blessing to their fellow believers in Hoknoi.  Now Bowin UMC members are excited about their next VIM trip to Hoknoi to help with the day of the Grand Opening Service.

This reminds us that God has given every church and every ministry all of the Spiritual gifts and abilities that are needed to meet the needs in your area.  We just must be courageous in using the gifts God has given us, and He will make us to be a blessing to other and will bless us as well.

It is a blessing to see the Thai Christians serving each other so graciously.  They have seen the loving example of VIM teams from the United States that have blessed them, and now they seek to be a blessing.