Leaving for Thailand

How quickly time has past. I cannot believe that we leave this week to got to Thailand. We are so excited about the work we are going to do there. In Thailand we will be working with IGN partner Pastor Naruethep (Arthur) Teerawutroj. Arthur is a national and from the AKHA tribe. The AKHA are a people group that are without a country of their own. They live primarily within the 5 countries of Thailand, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), China, and Vietnam. Because no country claims them they lack opportunities for education, health benefits, and are suppressed by the government so they lack opportunity as well. Arthur has a great vision to lead his people to a life with Christ as well as to educate them, provide for their physical needs, emotional needs, and teach them skills so they can support themselves and their communities. Arthur has many programs but he also has a network of Pastors (all AKHA) he supports, trains, encourages, and works alongside. Currently funds for Arthur's ministry come through donations as well as he has a pig farm and an orchard. Much of the financial and administrative burden for the ministry falls on Arthur and he is looking for a more sustainable way to support and grow his ministry. While I, and a colleague, are in Thailand we will be utilizing the training we recently had in wholistic community development to help Arthur assess his ministry, the funds he has, the villages and Pastors he supports, etc. and see what he can do to best utilize the resources available, both dollars and people, and help him to identify what he can delegate to the Village Leaders, Pastors and their communities. Also, evaluating options for creating jobs and income. While there I will also be meeting with people from the organization called “LifeWind International”. We hope to connect LifeWind, and other organizations who have good wholistic strategies for community development and training materials, to Arthur so he will have ongoing support and encouragement. We (IGN) believe that it is important to have the leaders take ownership in each of the communities and a goal will be to facilitate to help Arthur empower and educate them so they can not only sustain the ministry but take their communities to the next level. Please keep us and the work we are doing in Thailand in your prayers. We are excited about all that is ahead, and know God will use us in great ways in Thailand, but we also struggled greatly with making the decision to go on this trip or not. Financially this is a challenging time and although we can see the HUGE potential for sustainable life change in the lives of those we will train and work with, concern about our own issues hangs over our head. We are trusting Jesus and lay everything at his feet. Please pray for us in all we do and pray for those we influence and affect along the way. Blessings! Cindie