Thailand August 2010 Update by Andy and Christina Opie

Dear family and friends,

We are preparing to return to Thailand after our furlough, a great time of connecting and refreshing with all of you on our ministry team. We are so grateful for a great group of churches, family and friends that partner with us to make transformational changes in the lives of people in Thailand. We are able to serve without distraction, because each of you joins with us to see the vision of God fulfilled in Thailand. Even though we left for Thailand three years ago, it was almost six years ago when God connected our hearts with the Thai people.

In the late fall of 2004, we were scouting Bangkok, Thailand as a potential place to serve overseas and see God’s call to mission accomplished in our life. We wanted to know what the city would be like, the food, the transportation and meet the people we would serve with. We enjoyed the food, city and bustle of life; acknowledged the heat we needed to become accustomed to; and learned to navigate the transportation. We even took a water taxi, which should be called a water boat the way people jam into the narrow and long wooden boat that motors up and down the rivers and canals. In Thailand, as with many other cultures, there is always “room for one more”, so we would squeeze to the side and squish to allow another passenger. The Thais riding with us always look on with curiosity when we ride the boat as the foreigners rarely take this working class form of transportation.

Toward the end of our brief visit, we took the boat across town to visit the center where Our Home Chapel meets and the English School holds classes. We wanted to meet Kelly and Angie Hilderbrand, the senior missionaries and founder of the Foursquare church in Bangkok, and see the ministry center. Andy had ridden the boat several times, but in no way was he used to getting in and out of the low level boat. The step down from the dock to the boat changes depending on the location of the pier. Sometimes the step is shallow and other times the step is steep; uniformity does not describe the way things are built in Bangkok. Each time, Andy grabbed tight to the rope that ran along the tarp roof of the boat. And looked to step into the boat cautiously not to step on other passengers. Then he could find his way to a seat. To increase the difficulty of getting onto the boat, or maybe it is to speed things along for efficiency; the boats never fully stop at the dock. They just keep floating through as everyone jumps in and out.

When we were getting off near Our Home Center, Tina and her father grabbed Andy’s arms to hoist him easily out of the boat and onto the dock. They were pulling him up while all the Thai people looked on with eyes wide open. They wondered how this would work and wished they could help in some way, but since we didn’t speak Thai they couldn’t help us. They kept watching with their eyes fixed on the scene of Andy being pulled onto the dock by two people not familiar with the moving boat. As the boat slowly floated through the stop, they pulled him up and onto the dock not realizing they now were right next to one of the posts on the pier. Andy came up smack into that post, head on.

At that moment, all the bystanders gasped. Their hearts went out to the foreigner with a bump on his head reminding him of the trip that morning. Andy made believe he was okay, shook his head, and walked it off. They went on to see the ministry center. However, something in that process settled in Andy’s heart. He could have easily said this country would be too hard to live in. He could have allowed this to be an easy excuse to go home and never come back. Instead, he resolved to learn from this mistake and not allow a knock on the head to stop him. When he remembers that incident, all he remembers now is how the Thai people wished to help so much. They cared for a perfect stranger. Our hearts inseparably connected with the Thai people in that moment.
Thank you again for being a part of our ministry team to see the Thai nation changed one life at a time.

Indonesia Youth Revival 2010 by Dr. Jerry Stott

Over the past two weeks we have been holding youth revival meetings in a few different locations in Indonesia. The place I just left in Sulawesi was incredible! It seems that the Holy Spirit is moving in a greater way than I've ever experienced before. This last week seemed to be like something you would only read about in the Book of Acts. During this time, thousands responded to the Lord over the week of meetings that were held in a very remote area. From my estimation, there were somewhere around 3000 that came to be filled with the Holy Spirit, during two different altar calls. Just before I caught my flight back to Jakarta, we held a baptismal service right by the Crusades location. In two hours time we had already baptized over 400 people, before I had to leave to catch my flight. They estimated that by the weekend it would be over a thousand baptized.

Global Leadership Training Network

Foursquare Missions International celebrated its first Global Leadership Training Network in Atlanta this year for three days during the 2010 Foursquare Connection. The GLTN is a leadership development program for top national leaders and board members of national Foursquare Churches around the world. The Network’s initiative is to engage current and future national leaders in training and consultation encounters designed to assist them in providing culturally relevant leadership to their national movements. The goal is for that leadership to allow for long range Kingdom expansion through the Foursquare church, while at the same time providing some networking and mentoring in top leadership focus.

GLTN in Atlanta had more than 42 leaders present and 27 countries were represented. It was a powerful time of sharing and learning as one global community. We are grateful for the support and please pray for us as we get ready to have a GLTN in Israel this coming Fall 2010.

The Heart of Africa by Dan Lucero

 
There is not another swarth of geography where I minister where I see more potential and more challenges (the Sudan - Darfur region blends into Central Africa!) for growth and change. The area of Central Africa is Huge - nestled in the heart of the Continent and comprised principally of The two Congos - Brazzaville and Kinshasa (the ex Belgium Congo which is alone the size of all Western Europe!), Chad (at the northern end) The Central African Republic, Gabon and Cameroon. With in these nations there are numerous peoples and tribes still to reach! to serve ! to help! 

From the north to south of this area ethic division and conflict, war, poverty, civil instability, areas of un-matched beauty and natural wealth, as well as radical religious manifestations reign.

So what to do when the only airline that flies between Bangui (capital of The Central Africa Republic) and N'Djamena (capital of Chad) disappears overnight? I had set up very very key and strategic meetings to try to work through major problems in both places... The Chadian National Airline did have only one plane! so kinda a precarious adventure and plan from the get go... ultimately you improvise - and the 1700 Km trip I had to plan at the last second on the ground allowed me to travel overland where after many nights in the open (and only 6 blown tires!) I felt to intimately touch in some small way and be touched by this place where millions of often forgotten people live ... The over-land trip was longer b/c we had to avoid rebel areas as well as cross a few borders (which takes hours and hours). Long-story short the results were I believe significant - as I could help process some major hurdles/issues with indigenous and missionary people that were blocking the advancement of works in both these two countries and connect with Cameroon....

Please, please pray for Chad - it is a young pioneer work that we have in the capital of N'Djamena - vast potential  and needs -  tremendous help/potential in a key orphanage there... Chad also strategically borders and gateways into a vast area of great need! I didn't take many pics... it just wasn't that kind of trip... and people don't like cameras here... but still, here are a few:

Pastor Michael Jackson by Paul Greer

A couple weeks later I was preaching in the middle of the 9-mile settlement. Pastor Michael Jackson (that’s right, he’s not dead, he’s pastoring a Foursquare church in a settlement in PNG) has recently taken over this church and he has doubled the church attendance in 6 weeks!! Praise the Lord. 11 people got saved that morning as I preached God’s word on the importance of how God rewards us for what we do in secret (Matthew 6). God is moving in that church. Foursquare owns a good size piece of land right in the middle of that very populated settlement so there is potential for lots of good things at that church. Please pray for the 9 mile church and their new Pastor Michael Jackson.

We are now weeks away from our first trip back to the USA in almost 2 and a half years. We want to sincerely thank every one of you that have partnered with us in prayer and in financial support. God has used you to provide for all of our spiritual and physical needs, as well as funding for fruitful ministry in Papua New Guinea. Thank you for your continued partnership as we visit our churches, friends and family. We love you all and we are looking forward to seeing all of you in the coming months.

Provision by Ami Spencer

Last Thursday night when I got home from church I had a sweet surprise wanting on my doorstep…. 3 boxes with over 200 kids yoplait yogurts. (Thanks Brennan and Mariajose!) We brought half of them with us on Friday to the kids in the terminal and treated them to a snack after we did homework. I know their resources are limited and water isn’t super accessible, but watching them stick there dirty little fingers in the yogurt to scoop it out, we quickly realized there was a need for a new lesson theme. So on Sunday when we went to visit them again we came prepared to teach them all about GERMS!

We printed some gross looking germ coloring pages off the internet, grabbed the rest of the yogurts out of the fridge and dug out the the box of hotel soaps I had from mission teams in the past. Willy did us the favor of acting out a story of a mischievous little boy who spent his morning running around the streets, playing soldiers with his buddies, playing catch with a stray dog, building castles in the sand and a few other little-boy type adventures. When his mom called him home for snack Willy was certain his hands were clean because he couldn’t SEE any dirt on his hands, but when the kids pulled out there “magnifying glasses” and looked at Willy’s hands we could see that they were covered with germs and bacteria that would end up in his tummy if he ate his snack without washing his hands. The kids all agreed it would be much, much easier for Willy to wash his hands than to have to deal with going to the doctor and taking medicine to get them out of his stomach.

After the kids learned a little about germs and how easy it is to protect ourselves against them by not putting dirty things in our mouths and washing our hands they each got to color their nasty germs. When they were finished we gave them each a bar of soap and told them to take their pictures to put by the sink or pila or bucket of water they had to remind them to wash their hands before they eat. When they came back and showed us their sparkely clean hands they were rewarded with yogurt and a spoon to fill their bellies with something good. One little boy even washed his face with the soap and water, and I almost didn’t recognize him when he came back!

It’s a sweet thing to see the way that God provides for this ministry and his kids. This isn’t the first time either. Twice now there has been a gentleman who occasionally goes to the terminal to buy supplies, he’s not even from the city, he comes from some town a ways away. Both times that he has seen us there he has come up to us and told us he’d like to buy a snack for the kids and asks how many are there with us. A few minutes later he’s back with a bag of around 20 little packs of cookies and juice, and coke and crackers for us. He doesn’t even know us, but God has used him to bless us and the kids!

News of Hope

Today I had the great opportunity to travel around to different sites with Pastor Roseinel Michel, associate pastor of the national church, under Pastor Guy Tomas. We are in the process of helping Foursquare families, affected by the earthquake, get into the best temporary shelter situation possible, while the rebuilding process continues. We visited four tent camp sites, ranging from 50 families living together, to one with several thousand families. Each family had a different story of how they were effected by the earthquake and what happened to their home. We visited one block of homes in the region, just outside Petion-ville, (Click on the map for a picture of the site and zoom in to see close) Rachael’s home site. Driving in one of the areas most devastated by the earthquake, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The hillside came crashing down, and houses crumbled and fell into others. After climbing over 8-10 destroyed homes, we were finally able to reach sister Rachael’s home. We are providing her with a temporary shelter for the 8 family members in her home.

After leaving her home with Pastor Roseinel, he said to me, “Chad…you’re a cool guy.” I thanked him and asked what he meant. He answered,’ you don’t get excited or irritated like others, brother.” You see we had worked for about 3 hours to find these homes. We drove or walked down countless dead end roads and roads overloaded with debris. We worked through major language barriers. When he said that, I immediately remembered the events of the day and looked for a time when I may have sounded short- tempered, but realized that the peace of the Lord was on both of us. Through that we were able to do a lot of impacting work. Without that peace, I would have missed out on the opportunity to reach 4 different families with the compassionate hand of Jesus. Through that we were able to provide 4 tents, open the door for water filtration, food,and continued ministry. We were also able to share the Gospel with 6 other neighbors just sitting outside near us.

In a country filled with chaos and confusion, and lost,hopeless people, some of the most needed resources for survival, like food, water and shelter were given through the peace of God. Many people heard the news of Hope and of a Savior who cares about them. And they were touched by the peace He gives in a real and tangible way….

Thanks for being part of what God is doing in Haiti!!!

Blessings

Chad Isenhart