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Having no furniture in our
condo was no problem for these young men from Phrasiri church |
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PRINCE OF PEACE |
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“Prince of Peace” is what the prophets
proclaim |
Oh, how amazing is the love of the One, |
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May you ever give thanks to the Saviour who came, |
For those who have followed our news of the past eleven years, we thank you so much for your interest, prayers and support. Mostly, our move back to Australia to live (we still visit Thailand for ministry) has gone as planned. We sold our Nundah unit in February, bought a modest home in Coopers Plains in March, and had renovations done before moving in mid-May. We were blessed to be able to stay in the Corinda assembly missionary home in the intervening period and also blessed to be able to store our furniture and effects from Thailand at AMT’s facility at Holland Park until our final move. No, we still have not sold our Bangkok condominium—we continue to wait on the Lord for His timing and plan. Meanwhile, Russ stays in the condo when visiting Thailand. Russ visited Thailand in August, preaching at the Bangkok church every Sunday whilst there except the first. He had the privilege of spending time and sharing with the young people at a personal level and was |
most encouraged with the way in which the Lord continues to bless. Russ also visited Maliwan and Saeng at the Jomthien Baptist church, and spent time with friends from the Mahaphon church at Rangsit. Apart from a virus that laid Russ low in November, we continue to keep well for which we praise and thank our wonderful Lord. |
The New Zealand “Global Connections in Mission” organisation have a youth program for gap year students called “Headspace”. After months of training, teams have been coming to Thailand each year, mostly led by Mark and Emma Stokes, for about 10 weeks to teach English, run One of the teams present their skit
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children’s programs, and other practical projects. At the end of an English teaching program at the Phrasiri church in August, there was a team contest of skits to test the locals’ English skills. Russ had the task of sitting on a panel of “judges”, and then to sum up the results. What a wonderful opportunity this program has been for cross-cultural fellowship between young believers!! The NZ Headspace Team
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In May of this year, the Christian Brethren Assemblies of Thailand (CBA) biennial combined assemblies camp was held once again, this time in Phuket. These camps have provided an excellent opportunity for fellowship between the young people of all the different areas, and has given a sense of cohesion and community between churches of the CBA. |
Young people came from all the different areas of Thailand for 5 days of ministry, music, studies, fellowship and fun. As usual, the young people considered it a huge success and look forward to the next camp in two years time. The camp was held at a school often used by the Phuket assembly for their own local camps. The Phuket building project includes a camp site on their own land but it may be some time before it is ready for use. |
A group photo taken at the CBA Camp at Phuket earlier this year
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In spite of missionary activity in Thailand for well over 100 years, the penetration of the Gospel has been slow until the last couple of decades. In our 2005 newsletter we described some of the exciting ways in which we are seeing the Lord at work, including the TV campaign offering the booklet “Power for Living”. Although the assembly work in Thailand is small by any measure, we have also seen blessing in recent years. We now have eleven churches in Thailand who are part of the CBA. Five of these groups are in the north of Thailand—Chiang Mai, Lampang, Mae Hae North, Mae Tien, and Huay Yen. |
Five are in the south—Phuket (the oldest assembly in Thailand), Raway, Go Siree, Go Phi Phi, and Phangngaa. In Central Thailand is our Bangkok assembly called the Phrasiri church (literally “Glory Church”). There are now 23 full time Thai national workers (including wives) who are working in these eleven churches, and an approximate total of 400 baptised believers in fellowship. Full time workers from all eleven churches meet annually for reporting, sharing, and planning combined outreaches and other activities (including the biennial young people’s camps). They also take any opportunity to work with other evangelical churches in Thailand. Please keep praying to the Lord of the harvest and for His labourers. Matt 9:37-38 |
FamilyWell it has been quite a year for our family this year. Earlier in the year our two young families organized a retreat to Bunya Park Mountain Resort for a special weekend to celebrate Ruth’s 70th birthday. It was a most memorable and awesome few days!! We celebrated Russ’s 70th with a family day at Australia Zoo. But what a climax to the year came with the arrival of twin daughters for Ben and Joy on the 27th October, bringing our grandchild count to nine. Victoria Sally and Philippa Stephanie arrived just one day after Ben’s sister Colleen gave birth to their first child, Sylvie, so Ben’s parents were presented with three more grandchildren in less than 24 hours. |
The twins, Victoria and Philippa, just three days old Melody and Simon bought a house in Salisbury earlier this year and we also bought our house not far away in Coopers Plains a few months later. |
A family photo at Bunya Park Resort earlier this year
Simon and Melody, Rebekah, Holly and Jake
Ben, Philippa, Susan, Katelyn, Melody, Natalie, Joy, and Victoria
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