Omkoi Revival

Last Sunday, we had the privilege of attending the tail end of a conference at Omkoi, a town situated on the mountains approximately 3 hours away from Chiang Mai. It was quite a trek, with our 15+ year old car heating up twice on the way and once on the way back. But, since almost all the Christian Thai people I knew wanted to be in Omkoi for the week-end to attend the conference, I just felt that we had to be there too. I was excited to see what the Lord was doing there. And, He didn’t disappoint.

When we got there, a Filipino evangelist named Jerry Ocampo delivered a powerful message that was translated in Karen and Thai. We sat on the ground with thousands of mostly Karen people. The meeting wasn’t in a church building; there wasn’t a place big enough in the small town to house 15,000 people. The conference’s meetings were held in an empty level field. The only shelter against the elements was bamboo erected poles that had green tarp attached on the top to keep the sunshine out. The speakers were on a platform with nothing but their microphones. However, for such a huge crowd, everyone (kids and adults) were attentive. Even though worship started at 6 a.m. and it was already past noon, the people still remained. We found out later that at 4 a.m., even the Karen children as young as 4 years old were already there interceding. When the time came for corporate prayers, a number of the Karen women were openly weeping. It was remarkable and worth the long hard effort it took to get us there.

Please join us as we pray this week for the Karen people of Omkoi. May the Lord continue the work that He’s started there and may it begin to spill over to the neighboring towns until the whole of Thailand is transformed. Let’s all praise the Lord. Amen!

Out of Gas

Last Friday morning, just a little bit over a week after Eng left for Canada, as I was driving us to school (with 3 kids of our own and 3 from the neighbourhood), the car suddenly coughed, sputtered, and died. We were out of gas. As this unbelievable thought gloomily sank in, I realised that I've relied way too much on Eng putting gas in our car. How stupid. But, BIG BUT, even before the car slowly halted to a stop, our neighbour's van pulled up alongside ours and they asked if they could drive the kids to school. I of course very happily agreed and our car quickly cleared of its passengers. Then, as I pondered my predicament (about 1 second), another friend drove past and asked what the trouble was. I asked if she could purchase gas for me and she did come back with it in the next half hour.

Later, as I drove to school, I couldn't get over how in the midst of my messing up, the Lord showed His kindness to me. The night before, I was careening up and down the main roads at top speed and I drove past deserted lanes and seedy places. We could have stalled then and easily gotten into a fatal accident as the brake locks (meaning 'no brakes') when the engine is off, or endangered ourselves by stopping at unsafe spots where hardly anyone passed, BUT, we didn't. Instead, we stopped just 5 blocks from our house, at an intersection where we were too hard to miss by people passing by.

How the Lord orchestrates these situations is too much to comprehend. Life will always be unpredictable, gas will sometimes run out, but His grace? Never, ever, will it say, 'out of grace'. The Lord is too full of grace and so fresh and new every morning. Thank you, Lord!

Rakhines

The Rakhines are from the Lolo-Burmese affinity and number 1.9 million people. They can be found in Myanmar and Thailand. There are no known Christians in this unreached people group and no one is sharing about the Lord with them. Please join us this week as we pray for this group to know about our Lord Jesus through whatever means He sees fit (visions, dreams, revelations, etc.). Let's also pray for people to be burdened to pray for them and for workers to go. Thank you!

Burmese Bible Dedicated

Just last Sunday, the Adoniram Burmese Bible was dedicated to the Glory of our Lord. 60,000 of these Bibles were printed and ready to be taken in to Myanmar. As our Pastor talked about the dedication, he urged us to pray that another 100,000 copies would be printed and brought in the country. With the country's population numbering over 47 million, 100,000 isn't really a whole lot!

We rejoice and praise the Lord that although we had nothing to do with the production of this project (other than praying for Burma), it has been completed. Please join us as we pray for more Bibles to be printed and distributed, 100,000, and more. Thank you.

The Lord's Faithfulness...

In answer to our prayers, my parents came all the way from Canada to visit with us. My father (Justo Angeles) is 85 years old while my mom (Lily Angeles) just turned 83 years old. They were here when we celebrated our 20th Wedding Anniversary (when the picture above was taken). My sister Lib, a homeschooling mom who has 5 kids of her own, (from Salmon Arm, British Columbia) accompanied them from Canada and took care of them here while we were working. Later, my brother Joel from Manila, Philippines, also came and did the same. All in all, my parents were able to be here for a total of 26 days! It truly wouldn't have been possible without my siblings' help. It was a blessing to be able to spend time with them and literally care for their needs. My father had his infected gall bladder removed and recuperated here. He even had to be spoon fed.

Eli turned 11 years old while they were here while Ethan turned 6 years old. We also received our spiritual blessing when my father prayed for all six of us, very much like when Jacob blessed his sons in Genesis 49. The sweetness of our having been able to be together and pray for one another is priceless. Praises be to our Lord and King, for His faithfulness.

The Karens in Burma

Just a month ago, we started off the year by requesting prayer for Burma. Thank you for praying. The need has become even more obvious as a few days ago, we received an email from a local pastor about houses numbering 200, belonging to the Burmese Karen tribe, being burned.

The displaced Karens are now at the Burmese border. The Thai army allowed some of them to cross over to Thailand but around 3,000 Karens are still in Burma and without homes or food. The ones who crossed the Thai border are getting food provided by the UN.

Please pray for the Karens in Burma at this time; for them to have hope and see the Lord’s love at this time, for the provision of their basic needs (food, clothing, shelter), for the oppression to stop, for a place to call ‘home’. Thank you, bless you.

Happy Valentine's

Well, Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! To all of you fortunate enough to have a dearly beloved, my wishes that you have purchases for them a gift of great meaning and forethought.
For all of you people who have been reading this blog since its untimely conception back early last year, you may recall a posting about Valentine’s. Dated in March. This was due to the fact that not a lot of plan or purpose was put into it, though we are glad to say that has changed.
Carrying on, it just so happens that this year our school has finally decided to bend and break and give us, the students, what we want. Dances. Just last weekend, we were blessed with our third dance ever. This exciting event took place just last Saturday, and I must say, it was pretty fun.

Yes, I went with someone. It being Sadie Hawkins and all (meaning, ‘girls ask the guys’), I was asked by a good friend of mine, Jessica Johnson. And before all of you swift-minded ones start jumping to hasty conclusions, allow me to explain a few things. Jessica is a senior, she has a boyfriend who has graduated and is in the States right now, we are just friends.
To the main point of this article, do any of you remember what last year’s Valentine’s post was so specifically about? It was about my shirt! Not about who I was going with or what I was going to, it was about what I was wearing. I just decided to add the above to make it more interesting and semi-personal.

It seems I have formed a little tradition conjoining this year and last year, for, as I was scrambling to find something to wear that would fit this year’s dance attire format “Fire and Ice”, I decided upon making another shirt. It was created by both yours truly and my awesome friend and amazing artist, Megan. Between the two of us we managed to create with our own four hands and permanent black markers, a shirt that represented in all of its former-plain-collared-blue-ness, Ice.

The picture is up! From left to right we are Jessica, yours truly, Kayla, and Jason. Jess and myself went with Kayla and Jason and ate at her house pre-dance-wise. If you look closely you can see the rose inked on the left pocket. And if you look really closely then you can see a snowflake-snowman pattern that goes around the bottom of the shirt. And i know what you're thinking, all of you people who have never been to Canada. Snowflakes and snowmen? It's not Christmas! Well, I've got news for you, it snows on Valentine's Day.