January 2023 Prayer Letter Update

For a one-page printable version of this letter click here. 

Dear Friends,

I would like to begin this letter by thanking you for your prayers. In the October letter I explained how the church had lost quite a few members or attenders in the past year or so. Although there were positive things happening, there was no denying our numbers were down. Many of you responded with notes of encouragement and assurance of prayers. Thank you so much for both the notes and especially the prayers. God is answering prayers.

In the time since that letter, we have seen an unusual number of visitors and new attenders at the church. Among this group is a lady who is already a Christian. She has generously provided almost all our Sunday meals for about two months. (We have a meal together after each Sunday service.) Another younger young lady showed up on Christmas day. She had responded to an internet Christian TV channel that we knew nothing about. But they somehow knew of us and sent her our way. She told us she had just trusted Christ a few days before. Almost without fail for the past few months there have been people show up on Sunday that we have not met before. Many of them have come multiple times. That is encouraging for sure. Please pray for us that we would do all we can do to make connections with them and find the time and place to have one-on-one gospel conversations with them. We need your prayers to that end. I can think of at least five who have all come to church repeatedly (two of them regularly) and have shown genuine interest, but we think they have not yet come to faith in Christ.

The students at the elementary school thanking us for coming to their Christmas party

Christmas was a busy, but good time. We were able once again to put on a Christmas party at an elementary school at a local Buddhist temple. Besides having fun and teaching a little English, we were able to tell the true Christmas story. On Christmas day we rented a larger meeting room. There was a really good group at our worship service and then a Christmas party in the afternoon. The annual Christmas party is a time when many of the old English students and friends come back to see us. We pray that getting reconnected with so many people will ultimately bear fruit for them to consider once again the gospel message.   

Siridet (Gun) sharing the gospel at the Christmas party.

For our family, a special Christmas gift was that Elaine was able to travel back to Thailand for her Christmas break from college.

Now that the Christmas season is over, the weekly routine resumes. Hannah and I both lead some weekly Bible studies. At the start of the new year, we were able to increase our monthly prison ministry from every other week to at least three times a month. We’ve had a renewed effort at passing out church brochures and gospel tracts in the neighborhoods, and we have seen a few come to English classes and one person visit the church after receiving a brochure.

It has been an encouraging few months. Please join us in prayer that this encouragement would result in fruit that remains.    

Your Partners for the gospel,

Duane and Hannah