Dear Friends,
Merry Christmas everyone!
I am attaching our latest newsletter.
This was a very weird Christmas for us because we had to
work Christmas day. It is not a holiday
here in this Buddhist country but it was still good. The day before Christmas the school asked one
of us to tell the meaning of Christmas at the morning assembly at school. So I was able to talk about Jesus in front of
about 1500 students and 40 teachers and a big Buddha statue. It was a golden opportunity and I made the
most of it. I brought my friend and
interpreter Debra and she interpreted for me as we preached the gospel in under
5 minutes. I think it was well
received. I think it helped that the
students know me and know that I love them and maybe they know the reason why. It was a lovely day.
Christmas Eve we hosted a cookie decorating party. We made about 140 cookies and all 35 children
came over to decorate them. They got to
eat one and make one to give away. Then
I took the give-away cookies to school for the other teachers and the students
I was teaching that day. It was very
fun.
At the end of the year, like many people, I like to reflect
on what God has done in the last year.
It has been amazing. I would like
to say I came to Thailand excited and ready to go work for God, but that would
not be true. I was not exactly kicking
and screaming but pretty close. I came
just out of sheer obedience to God and to my husband but not with any real
desire and not seeing the purpose of what I could do here that I could not do
in the US. I had no idea God would have
such a new and different ministry for me with our girls who live with us
now. It is the most rewarding thing I
have ever done. God has made me a mother
- of all things! It is startling and
wonderful.
Many of you know the circumstances of my leaving my ministry
here in Thailand back in 2010. I was
severely depressed, suffering from anxiety and totally burned out. I almost lost my faith, along with my mind
and went from being furious to disappointed and eventually indifferent to
God. That I am back here in Thailand,
joyfully working for God is nothing short of a miracle. What is amazing to me is how God is using
all the pain I suffered now as I have the opportunity to minister to
others. A few weeks ago we had a team
from a bible school in the refugee camp come to our church. I was asked to teach them for a few
hours. I taught a two-hour lesson on the
Holy Spirit and then spent time praying for each one. Afterwards, a young woman came up to me with
a bandage on her eye. She asked me to
pray for her. She had lost her eye when
she had cancer as child. She knelt down
and I knelt down with her, holding her hand.
She told me that sometimes she is disappointed with God about her eye. And because of all that happened to me in the
past, I could look at her and say I understand because I have been disappointed
with God too but I could also honestly tell her, that God will redeem
everything that is broken if we give it to Him. If God was to stamp only one word across my
life I think it would be “REDEEMED”.
There are no words to express how thankful I am that He did not let me
go.
God has been doing amazing things as we make plans for our
girls. We were offered positions at a
bilingual school in Chiang Mai. The
owners of the school are Christians. It
is a very expensive school but without even asking, the owners offered to let
our 3 girls and 1 boy come to the school for less than half the tuition. It is an amazing opportunity for them to
study in a wonderful school. Every room
has a “foreign” teacher so the teaching methods are more up-to-date as well as
the incredible exposure to English. It
is a hundred times better education for our students than they could ever get
here in Mae Chaem. So because of it we
are making plans to move to Chiang Mai.
It was a hard decision because I love the mountain kids so much. It is not my preference to go teach students
who are wealthy Thai kids and missionary kids.
But if our long-term goal is to start our own private Christian school,
this is a good way to learn about how to do it and how to run a successful
private bilingual school here in Thailand. Gavin is brushing up on his calculus
because he is going to be teaching high school math. I will be teaching high school language arts
in a situation that is more similar to what I was trained to do in the States
as an ESL teacher.
Please continue to pray for us. Also, please consider sponsoring a portion
(or all) of one of our student’s tuition next year. The cost per child is $1200 for a year in a
private bilingual school. This includes
everything from books to lunches and uniforms. Please pray for our students as well. This is a big step for them. They are very brave to be even attempting
what they are about to do. They are from
a culture that does not celebrate people who do anything different, yet these
brave young people are leaving their language and culture behind and entering
an almost all-English world. They will
go from being tops in their class to being very far behind and needing
intensive tutoring and ESL support. It will be a ridiculous amount of work for
them. I tell them that God rarely asks
us to do what WE can do ourselves, but rather He asks us to do what only HE can
do through us. They are trusting in
God’s good plan for their lives and in the Holy Spirit who will go with them
and help them.
Thank you to all those who support us so faithfully. We appreciate you and pray for you often.
Love,
Candace
For donations go to our website theknowteam.org or send a check to The Know Team at 3120
Jonesboro, AR 72401.
No comments:
Post a Comment