The Guibian

This week’s UPG are the Guibian.

The Guibian live in China, in the provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan. There are 1.1 million of them, and, just like the four people groups before, are 0.35 % believers. There are people working with them at the moment.

Pray that those working there that they would be filled with the Holy Spirit, and that they would spread the fire to those around them.

Our Vacation

We returned from our vacation at Dolphin Bay about three weeks ago, sometime after Christmas. That being our first away from our home here in Chiang Mai, we can agree pretty unanimously that it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience.

Leaving on December 19th we piled into a van with the Feniaks, our friends with an equally large family. The trip there and back was extremely long, with us leaving Chiang Mai at four in the afternoon and arriving at our resort at six in the morning.

While we were there we enjoyed the scenery, since living in the mountains there isn’t a lot of wind, or sky like there is next to the ocean. The younger boys enjoyed playing in the sand and frolicking in the waves, while the parents did a lot of sleeping, simply glad to get away from work.

We were able to spend a lot of time together as two families, learning new games that we’d never known how to play before. It was good being able to have another family to hang out with, as we were far away from anyone we knew.

Our entire vacation has been a real blessing, so much so that I may have to post an additional entry going into further detail over the events that transpired. Thank you for your prayers, and a Blessed 2008 to all of you!

The picture above is, clockwise from the left: Juanita, Linda, myself, Eric, Eng, Megan, John, Jared, Daniel, Eli, Ethan, and Joel.

The Guibei

Many apologies for the lack of updates, the holidays have got one up on me, and it's been difficult.

The first Unreached People Group for the year 2008 is the Guibei.

Like the three people groups before it the Guibei can be found in Guangxi, China. Compared to the previous three they number much less in population, numbering only 1.45 million. In a strange turn of coincidence, the Guibei are 0.35% believers, just like the previous three. However, they are not being worked with at the moment.

Please join us in prayer for the Guibei, and in thanking God for the New Year.

Season's Greetings

Christmastime is coming around once again, and celebration is in the air.

It's nothing new, of course. Most of us have done this our entire lives, complete with candles, candy canes, and Christmas dinner.

We’d like to pray that the Holy Spirit would be present in all of your Christmas celebrations this year, and that you would be filled with His joy and peace throughout this season.

Please pray for us as this will be our first Christmas outside of Chiang Mai, and our first trip down south as a family. Blessings to all of you, and a Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas Picture: (clockwise from far left) Eli, Eric, Eng, Evan, Linda, and Ethan.

The Liujiang

All of us here in Chiang Mai, Thailand apologize for the late updates.

Last week my father was going to update about his trip up to Doi Inthanon, but was unable to due to his heavy work load.

This week’s Unreached People Group is the Lijiang. Like the Hongshuihe and the Yongbei they live in Guangxi, China. There are much less of them, numbering only 1.65 million. Unlike the first two, they are not being worked with.

Pray that the Lord would send sufficient workers to reach all in that area, that His holy fire would spread through people groups and would not be kept within only one village or people. Pray that the fire would spread.

The Future of Grace

Some of you may have heard about Grace International School and the issues that have been going on legally as well as relationally.

Our school is located within the muubaan (neighbourhood) World Club. In fact, GIS’s main building is the muubaan’s clubhouse, which was essentially a place for the people living in Word Club to work out and swim and such.

Recently the muubaan has come up with many complaints about Grace, one of them being that the building was sold to us illegally. Considering all of the money that we have poured into it cleaning up the property, setting up classrooms, and just generally improving the entire building, you can imagine our shock when we found that World Club wanted us to leave.

Recently an email has been sent out to all of the teachers and, my mother being the first grade teacher, received a copy. It reads as follows:

Statement from the Grace International School Educational Foundation (GISEF) and the Trustees:

We have prayed and come together as the GISEF and Trustees to discuss GIS’s future. It is our decision to direct the Superintendent to locate suitable property for building a K-12 campus. It is our intent to see GIS become all that God has planned.

That plan may also include continuing to use our present location. We await the outcome of the action being taken against the school to determine the future use of our current facility. In the meantime, the school will continue to operate as usual. God has blessed us greatly in the past and we will continue to trust in Him for the future.

Basically this means that Grace is now looking for new property, and is fully ready to leave once we have found another building or land on which to build a new one.

No matter what happens, I believe that God will work things out for His own great purpose. His ways are higher than our ways, and He works everything out for good.

Please pray though, for all of those who have put their wholes lives into the school, building it and watching it grow into what it is today. For many of us who attend Grace, nothing is certain, but even if we have to move, pray that there will acceptance of what God wants.

The Yongbei

The Yongbei number 2.31 million, and have 0.35% of the population recorded as believers. They are currently being worked with and live, like the Hongshuihe, in Guangxi, China.

Please join us in prayer for the Yongbei.

Also, I apologize for the lack of posts recently. We have been very busy lately.

-evan