A New Season

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.  Ecclesiastes 3:1

Sawasdee (Hello) from the Attaways,

Blessing to each of you.  There have been many praises over the past few months in ministry in Thailand.   God is good and he is faithful.  We were able to continue to have students come to our home on Tuesdays for English Club.  There were 6 new students who came regularly and joined our regular group  We enjoyed being able to spend time with them.  Our days included snacks, cooking, music, games, lots of laughter and sharing.  This gave the students a chance to speak English in a comfortable, loving environment.  "Teaching" English in this conversational/relational method produced fruit and deep relationships which we believe is a great model for others to follow.  Pam's brother Tommy was able to come for a short visit and was able to meet and share life with our students.

                                                                                

Several years ago God have us a vision of opening a coffee shop where students could come to practice English and have a safe, comfortable environment where we could build relationships with them.  Doors never opened for us to pursue this in Roi Et, but we continued to believe it was something the Lord had put on our hearts.  When the Greenlight gateway students 2 years ago came to Thailand our Thai teammate Kat asked if we could go to the community Nong Phok where a Christian couple had left their comfortable life in Bangkok to move to the small rural community to build a coffee shop in front of an existing church.  The church has struggled for years and only had 5 members.  The couple hoped to build the shop for sustainability and to grow the church.  We took the American group to the shop, unfinished at that time, to pray over the space and ministry.  God laid on our hearts that this is the area we were to invest in.  We asked if we could come one day a week to teach English classes and hopefully grow business and the opportunity for people to hear the Good News.  The community was 1 hour and 20 minutes from our home, but we knew it was something the Lord was calling us to.  We took some of the Roi Et students for a "mission" day and cleaned the church so the doors could be reopened.  Last December we took the Roi Et team and drama team to the Nong Phok church for Christmas, over 150 community members were present.  For the next year we, our family, went weekly to teach students, encourage the Thai couple living there and to share our lives with the people in the community.   Todd and Hannah Grace taught the younger students with as many as 40 kids showing up.  Pam spent time with high schoolers, teaching them and encouraging them.

The Lord has blessed these efforts and the church membership is slowly growing.  Kids come to the shop each week to learn English and be loved on.  The Thai couple offers food, love and encouragement to the students and their families.  They recently told us when they started the shop they had prayed for the Lord to help them start ministry, they weren't sure how to do it.  That was around the time the Lord put on our hearts to go and help there.  God is faithful.   A missionary couple who recently went to Thailand to serve in the Northern area has now felt the Lord speak to them to move to this community Nong Phok and work there in full time ministry, pouring into the Thai people and sharing the Good News.

Ministry at Banon English Learning Center also has been fruitful.  The people in the village live with little resources, but they seem to live contently.  The community takes care of each other and share rice with one another.  We have been so blessed to be part of this community and pray for the light and love of Jesus to pour over it.  In the village many of the children come to the English Learning center to learn english and also study the word of God and experience the love of Jesus in a caring faith community.

Praise to God for the baptism of three Thai girls.  One was Patdy, our Thai teammate who we have worked alongside for 4 years.  She has loved Jesus for three years and has been following him, but she had been worried about talking to her parents about her faith.  Patdy asked for prayer for her mom's heart when she shared the news.  God had softened her parent's hearts.  Although they are Buddhist they affirmed Patdy and said they already knew she had been following a different faith.  They supported her decision to be baptized and follow Jesus.  This was a great blessing and relief for Patdy.  Please continue to pray for Patdy and her family as she bears witness to them about the freedom of life in Christ.

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For the past year we have been in prayer and discernment about how we can best serve him.  He put on both of our hearts, at different times, we were needed to return to the US for a season.  Although we have adjusted to living in Thailand and are involved in fruitful ministry we could not ignore the nudges we were feeling from the Lord. 

 Several months later we learned that both of our dads faced serious health problems.  We have learned a great deal from the Thai people, one thing being honoring our parents.  We decided that we needed to return home at least for now.  We will spend this time in the US, helping with our family and their needs.  TMS-Global has asked us to work with them in the area of mobilization, helping in the discernment process as people are being called to serve Jesus.  We have already been involved in this work during our term in Thailand so we visualize this as a continuation and opportunity to help more laborers who are called to bring the name of Jesus to the world.   Our work in mobilization with TMS-Global will give us the chance to continue serve in ministry and mission, but we will continue to have to raise our own support to do this work.  We are so grateful for God using you to provide for our needs while on the field and we are praying we will continue to get what we need to do his work in the US.

We have had a season of goodbyes for now that has been beautiful, but also very hard. We have developed close relationships with our Thai teammates and friends so leaving is never easy.  We are grateful for the seeds that have been planted and are expecting the Lord to continue to tend to their hearts.  We are blessed to share that in each of the ministries we have been involved with, there is now new missionaries coming or already there to fill in the gaps.  We continue to support them and walk alongside them in their serving Jesus in Thailand.

Prayer Requests

Please continue to pray for the people of Thailand, for the ministry there and the new laborers going to the field.
Please pray for our family during this transition and that God will continue to use us to expand his kingdom on earth.
Pray for our hearts and the hearts of our Thai friends.
Pray for our parents and that our time with them is valuable and glorifying to God.
Please pray for our continued financial provision so we can continue to serve in ministry and mobilization.