Newsletter from the ministry: Good News for the Shan, working in
Northern Thailand among the Shan people and other people groups from Myanmar

A lot has happened the last few months, and it has been a busy time.

In this newsletter you can read about: Four baptisms and more have become Christians again, a constant growth in the ministry and about a poisonous snake.

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Bitten By a Poisonous Snake

There are many stories we could have told, but we especially want to tell you about one family in this newsletter.
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One a rainy evening we wanted to visit a family who wished to know more about Jesus. They lived quite a distance from where we live, and we struggled to find their house.  We managed to call them and a man met us and led us out on a bad road.
We drove through an orange farm, and we were a bit unsure if we would be able to drive out again, because it was raining and the road was very muddy.

We made our way to the house, and we met this family which consisted of a married couple, a young boy and the parents of the man in the married couple.
The man’s name is Hlong Tama.  His parents were perhaps around 80 years old.  We asked the elderly man if he had heard about Jesus before, and he said, he had not.
Mawkkham found the illustration pictures and explained the Gospel to them.

A week later, Hlong Tama’s wife says that she wants to become a Christian (the woman in the picture on the right).  Just before I went to Norway, we baptized this woman, and she came and comes regularly to our Sunday meetings, even though it takes her almost an hour to get to our meeting.
 After a month, while I was still in Norway, Hlong Tama says that he also wanted to accept Jesus.

I had just returned from Norway, and we were to go to their house.  When we called Hlong Tama, he was a bit sad in his voice, and said that he was at the hospital, because his father, who I mentioned earlier had never heard about Jesus, had been bitten by a poisonous snake.

 Shan people often sleep on the floor, which this old man had done, and when he turned over at night there was a snake lying beside him (we think it was a cobra).  The snake bit him, they rushed him to the hospital and he stayed there for over ten days.

We still went to visit his family that evening.  We gave them a Shan Bible and prayed for them.
We also visited and prayed for the elderly man in the hospital the next day.
We visited them again when the elderly man came home, and gave them some rice and noodles. He is much better now, but has to return to the hospital every day to clean the wound.
Please continue to pray for this man, and especially that he too will accept Jesus.

Four New Baptisms 

Last Sunday we had a baptism where four people were baptized, and Hlong Tama was one of them. They (the family) had driven almost an hour in pouring rain to get to the baptism.

It rained heavily last Sunday, so we were not sure if we could do the baptism, because we had to go to a river to do it.

Just before we went to the river where we were to have the baptism, the rain suddenly stopped, and it didn’t rain until the baptism was over.
When we got to the river we discovered a new problem. Since it had rained a lot in the last week, the current was strong, the water shallow and it was difficult to find a suitable place for the baptism.
Finally we found a place where the current was not too strong, we built a small dam there so that the water was not too shallow, and we finally were able to do the baptism.

Our meetings and the School

We do not want to make this letter too long, but we still wish to include that we have a steady growth, where we see people being saved and baptized every month. On Sunday, there were over 40 of us at the meeting.
We have baptized 25 people since January this year.

Our Saturday school is also going well, the number varies slightly from around 20 to 60 children.

Our Project (Donation)

Since the beginning of August, we have been working to get our project registered in the Brønnøysund register (it is a Norwegian register for organizations).
It was a bit more work and took longer time than we thought, but we have now got it registered and approved under non-profit organizations.
It is called:
Good news for the Shan people (Gode nyheter for shanfolket),
Reg. No. 929 712 366
We also have a Norwegian bank account for this now.

The purpose of this is that we as a ministry is growing, and more money comes in for the ministry. We do not want to mix our personal finances with the project, and it will be more orderly in relation to authorities, donors etc.

Those who donate to the project will donate to the following:
1. Support for local workers/staff.
2. Rent of land (we would like to buy this in the future) where we do the ministry
3. Saturday and Sunday school for children of immigration workers and refugees from Myanmar.
4. For project car, transport expenses
5. Humanitarian aid (food, clothes etc.)
6. Evangelization work
7. Parties such as Christmas and other holidays
8. Other expenses in conection with the project.
None of this money will go to us privately.

If you wish to donate to our project, please contact us.

Prayer Subject

  • Pray for a married couple who can work full-time with us (locally or missionaries)
  • Pray for the new Christians, and especially for Hlong Tama and his family. It was his father who was bitten by the snake.
  • Pray for our Saturday school and for all the children.
  • Pray for buying of land and our growing work. We want to buy a land eventually
  • Pray for peace over Myanmar!

Contact us