January 2015

Dear Friends,

This morning we celebrated the baptism of three of our girls who live with us.  I am attaching photos from this morning.  Two of them grew up in Christian families but had never been baptized.  One of them is from a family of new believers.  As I was talking to one of them about being baptized she said that sometimes she is afraid that after she is baptized she will make a mistake.  I had to laugh and tell her that I promise her she will make many mistakes after she is baptized, probably every day and that is okay.  That is why Jesus died, because we can’t be perfect, we just have to accept His perfection as our own.  It was a happy day.  It was also a hard day for our youngest girl, Joonie, whose family is Buddhist.  She has become a Christian here at our home but her family will not let her be baptized and do not even realize she is a Christian.  They don’t want her to be a Christian but of course they can’t do anything about the fact that she loves God.  I talked with her and cried with her and let her know that God loves her and has a special plan for her life.  When we were praying about the children to take into our family, God made it clear that this girl, even though she is supposedly Buddhist, is very special to Him and we were to take her with us.  We just pray for her family and someday I know I will watch her be baptized as well.

As I was watching our girls standing there waiting for the baptismal service to start, I looked around at the jungle mountains around us and I was struck by how different it is from the place I was baptized in.  They were singing in their lovely Karen language and it was beautiful to me.  I thought about when I was baptized as a young girl and how I had no idea, that someday I would be a missionary in Thailand and all this strangeness would be normal for me.  But God knew.  God saw this day way back then as I knelt and gave my heart to Him.  And He sees what these girls will become as well.   He, no doubt, will do in their lives, way more than they ever dreamed, just like He has for me.

God has been working in a great way in our lives as we are preparing to move to Chiang Mai.  The idea of looking for a house was very stressful to me because Chiang Mai is a two and a half hour trip through the mountains.  It is very hard driving and going there and back on a Saturday.  After teaching all week, it is very tiring.  We were preparing to have to start traveling there on weekends to look for a house when I got an email from some dear friends who were closing up their house in Chiang Mai to move back to the States.  We met them and got their house, much of their furniture and house things (at second hand prices) and their truck!  The house is in a very quiet, safe neighborhood, 15 minutes from our school.  It is nicer than anything I have had in Thailand (screens on the windows!)  and big enough for us and our 6 children for a very reasonable price.  Our truck is 17 years old and we cannot fit all our children inside out of the rain so a new truck (similar to an SUV) was definitely an answer to prayer.    We just were stunned at how God provided for us so splendidly. 

Thank you so much for all of you who pray for us and support us so faithfully.  God is definitely working in our lives and in our new family.  Having 5 girls in our house is definitely stretching sometimes but for all its challenges, we get so much more joy.  They are wonderful girls - driven, studious, funny, silly and sometimes very wise.  We love them and are excited to see what God has planned for them.  We are still looking for sponsors for their school tuition next year.   Please consider sponsoring one of them next year in the bilingual school they will be attending.  All of their school fees for 6 children together come to about $500 a month.    God Bless you!

Love,

Candace