December 2022 Prayer Letter

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Dear Family and Friends,

How do you prepare for Christmas? If your family is like mine, it might involve putting up a tree, decorating the house, making Christmas cookies, buying gifts, attending holiday parties, and reading an advent devotional together. It is both a time of celebration and traditions as well as reflection and meditation on the wonder of the Son of God coming into the world.

In Thailand, however, Christmas looks quite different. In a majority Buddhist country where December 25th is just another day, you see nearly none of the cultural trappings of Christmas that appear in the U.S. That said, in our globalized world, most Thai people have heard of Christmas from movies and media. And some entrepreneurial Thai shopping malls hang lights and tinsel in an attempt to capitalize on this “Western” celebration to make extra sales.

But “What is Christmas?!” This curiosity question in the mind of the average Thai defines the whole month of December for churches in Thailand. December is a month of evangelism in Thailand as churches hold evangelistic parties, outreaches, and local school programs.

This December, will you join us in praying for Thai Christmas evangelism?

One of my former M.Div students, Surachet, whose D.Min dissertation research I am currently supervising, is pastoring a Thai church in Hong Kong. On Dec 18th and 25th, he and his congregation will host Christmas outreach events and are inviting staff from the Thai Consulate in Hong Kong to join them. They are hoping for 200 people to attend, including many non-Christians. Surachet sent me the photo below. He would be grateful for your prayers for these outreaches.

Written by Karl Dahlfred on 11 December 2022.

November 2022 Prayer Letter

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Dear Family and Friends,

It feels like an awfully long time since we’ve been in Thailand and undoubtedly, some of you may be wondering, “What’s the deal with Karl and Sun? Are they going back or not?” Following the completion of my Ph.D. in Scotland, we moved back to the U.S. in March 2021, thinking that it would be a matter of months before we could go to Thailand. At that time, no visas were available, tight COVID restrictions for entry to Thailand were in place, and we were low on financial support.

In the past year and half, we’ve been glad to see visa applications re-open and just this past month, we were delighted to learn that Thailand has now dropped all its remaining COVID-related entry restrictions. The only piece of the puzzle remaining is the financial component.

Written by Karl Dahlfred on 31 October 2022.

July 2022 Prayer Letter

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Dear Family and Friends,

Thankfulness is vastly undervalued in our society today. We grumble. We gripe. We give our attention to everything going wrong rather than what is going right. And I fall into those ruts too. But thankfulness and counting your blessings is highly valued in Scripture. In my Bible reading the other day, Psalm 50:23 stood out, “The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!” We want you to know that we are thankful for each of you reading this, for your prayers, encouragement, and financial support as we seek to return to Thailand and do some stateside Thai ministry during this stage in our lives.

Written by Karl Dahlfred on 13 July 2022.

February 2022 Prayer Letter

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Dear Family and Friends,

It has been a number of months since I have written, so an update is overdue. We are still living in Florida and still looking to return to Thailand, but have not yet made it back.

Visiting Churches, Family, and Friends in California

This past autumn, we visited several churches, both those with whom we’ve had long-term relationships and some who are brand new to us. I traveled to Seattle one weekend, and as a family we visited a church near Fort Meyers, FL and then drove from Florida to California where we spent a busy few weeks visiting four churches and meeting with many supporters, friends, and Sun’s side of the family.

Catching up with relatives and enjoying Cambodian food during our trip to Southern California this past autumn.