DOWNLOAD PDF - DECEMBER 2010 DAHLFREDS PRAYER LETTER

Dear Friends & Family,

At the beginning of this month, I (Karl) was in Bangkok for a few days to renew my visa.  Believe it or not, it is less of a hassle to fly all the way back to Thailand to renew the visa than to apply for a new one.  My body is still recovering from all the time zone changes but it was a good trip for many reasons.

Besides successfully renewing my visa for another year, I had the chance to talk again with the same taxi driver who brought our family to the airport this past October.  At that time, he had been studying the Bible with the Mormons and objected to the idea that God could just forgive someone, letting them go scot-free.  We had a good conversation and I gave him a Gospel of John to read.  As he took me to the airport again this past week, I asked if he was still meeting up with the Mormons.  “Oh no” he replied, “I stopped meeting up with them after we talked, and I am a Christian now.”  Wow!  This was a great encouragement to me after a difficult term in Thailand when we did not see much fruit in our ministry.  I wasn’t able to determine to what degree he truly understands the Gospel but he talked about how God can help us, and no longer objected to God forgiving people.  I encouraged him to get involved in a local church to continue learning about Jesus.

Coming back to the States, I found my family eagerly waiting for the first snowfall of the year.  Our children have never experienced snow before and four year old Joshua is bouncing off the walls in anticipation.  We also bought a Christmas tree and have begun reading selected Bible stories (and hanging corresponding ornaments) in the Advent lead-up to Christmas.  Avoiding Christmas consumerism in America is harder than in Thailand but not watching TV certainly helps.

During our final month in the Northeast, God has blessed us with speaking opportunities throughout the month, at a number of different churches (as you can see in the calendar at the bottom of this post).  It is our hope and prayer that through sharing about missions in Thailand, both in groups and individually, God would be pleased to encourage and challenge His church.  May God cause many to rejoice at how He is working, and be spurred on to engage themselves in the remaining task through praying, giving, or even going to the mission field themselves (not to mention reaching out to the international folks in their own backyard).

Though we are back in the U.S. at this point, we still feel like we have feet in both worlds.  The house we were renting in PhraBaht still has some of our furniture sitting in it, and we have been trying to figure out a storage solution as the rent contract ends on Dec 31st (Thailand does not have self-storage units to rent).  I have also had to remotely arrange for some repair work on our car in Thailand so that someone might want to borrow / buy our car in our absence.  We hope that both of these remaining details should be resolved before too long.

And please pray for our time in the States this year - for rest, renewal, recruiting, and refocusing as we wait to see all of what God has planned for this year in the U.S. and when we return to Thailand. Merry Christmas!

by Christ’s grace,
Karl & Sun Dahlfred

PRAYER POINTS

• Taxi driver who is professing faith in Christ
• Speaking engagements
• Wrapping up house & car arrangements in Thailand

PRAISES

• Successful visa renewal
• Taxi driver who is professing faith in Christ