Dear Friends,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Hello everyone! Well it is the loveliest season of all here in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Thailand - the cool season. I wear my jacket and long sleeves now though I don't really need them and pretend it is fall. Though the trees are not cooperating with my fantasy and persist on being green. Oh well! It is nice that it is not sweltering anymore and the monsoon is over.
We are preparing now for Christmas - we have a big Christmas outreach in the city here scheduled for the middle of next month. We are helping to give Christmas to 6 children's homes here in the town where we live. We will also be taking gifts to some of the poor villages in the mountains to give some very poor children their very first Christmas present as well as to share the gospel in some unreached villages. If you would like to help buy gifts for this effort it would be much appreciated as we try to give Christmas to as many children as possible. This year I am encouraging my children to give some of their Christmas money to buy gifts for these poor children who have never had Christmas. I want to teach them about giving so they can be blessed in their lives.
In the last few months we have been very busy. I have gotten roped in to doing something I don't like to do - travel to preach. I preached and lead worship in a seminar at a place that has been in revival for 2 or 3 years and itwas an intimidating experience. The last day we had around 400 people come. It was awesome to see revival in Thailand on that scale and it gave us vision for what God is getting ready to do here in our town.
We had a big seminar for all the children sponsored by Compassion Int'l. The children came from all over the mountains surrounding us for two days of preaching and worship. I taught two hours the last day on the Holy Spirit. The best part was praying for the children at the end. We had about 250 children attend. Some of them had to walk 5 kilos through mudslides because the road was unpassable for trucks so they could attend.
The most exciting thing we have done has been the weekly youth meetings we have been having for several months. We got a lot of opposition when we first started but we were persistent and finally we have a good steady group of about 50 youth that come every week from 4 different children's homes. They have changed so much. I can see that they are hungry for more of God. One girl testified that all her life she knew she had to read her bible and pray but it was so boring and she didn't enjoy it at all but since we started teaching her the word of God and how to worship God from her heart now she is excited about God and the word of God and loves to come to our youth night. The great thing for me is to see my youth leading the worship and how passionate they are. Their friends are learning from them - they are certainly very bold leaders at such a young age. I have one girl – her name is Holly – she is an awesome worship leader. I watch her and see how passionate she is for God and how pure her heart is and I know already that girl will surpass me soon if she hasn’t already in her ability to usher the presence of God into a room in worship. She is fantastic. She comes from an extremely poor family and her mother had 10 children and she is the only one who survived infancy. She has had to overcome illness and the shame that comes from being the poorest family in your village but she knows God loves her and chose her and she has suffered but God brought her through and you can see her passionate love in her worship. It is impossible to express how proud I am of my children and I know that if God called me home right now I will have left something that will last and my work will carry on for years to come. It is a good feeling.
I am enjoying working not just with my own children but with other children’s homes. The staff from the children’s homes in the area pray together every week and it gives me an opportunity to teach them as well as see what their needs are so we can help. We have been helping another children’s home buy food as the children were all malnourished. I am so thankful that this has never been a problem for us because of you my wonderful sponsors. Our kids have more than enough to share and we are happy to be able to bless other people as well. I can’t imagine what it would be like to have all these kids and not be able to feed them. Unfortunately this is a common problem here in Thailand. Our children have the unheard of extravagance receiving shampoo and soap and toothpaste every month from us. We are the only children’s home around that does this. I hope in the future to be able to help more and more – financially as well as providing training for these other homes.
I am also preparing to come home for Christmas soon. Time flies so fast. It has been an extremely difficult time as the devil does everything he can to destroy our work. It encourages me that he is so frightened – it makes me expect God to do incredible things ahead. And God has been so good. Just when I think I really can’t take it anymore God does something so fantastic for me that I am speechless. Just blessings upon blessings. Dreams that I had forgotten come true. We may forget our dreams but He never does. And through suffering and rejection and betrayal God says I am still here and I am still God and I will handle it – you just keep your heart right. I have learned some of the most valuable lessons of my life these last few months. Lessons about love and forgiveness and the tenderness of God. It seems to me that the most simple lessons are the most important. One day when I was worrying about something God whispered to my heart – I am real. Just that. I’m real. God is real! Why do we live our lives like practical atheists? Thinking we have to handle everything ourselves? I think if we really believed these three things our lives would be so different. 1) God is real 2) God ADORES us 3) The God of the universe lives inside of us every minute of every day. I am so hopeful about the future. God is going to do great things and we get to watch and be apart of Him changing the world. I feel it. It is always the darkest before the dawn but joy comes in the morning. And it is almost dawn. Keep us in your prayers and thank you so much for your love!
Love,
Candace
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