February 2022 Prayer Letter

Written by Karl Dahlfred on 08 February 2022.

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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.

It has been great to share about Thailand, with entire congregations and over coffee or meals with many friends, both new and old. We have been encouraged to see the interest that people have shown in both Thai ministry and ourselves personally. Our family is in a state of extended transition, not having a firm role and identity living in the U.S. but also not yet able to get back to Thailand where our roles and responsibilities would be more defined. As such, it is good to talk with people about where we are, how we are doing, and where we are going.

Now back in Florida, we continue to seek out more opportunities to visit churches and build partnerships. Please continue to pray for us as we seek to move forward in life and ministry, and figure out the timing of our return to Thailand. We are glad to report that our financial support level is rising and getting closer to where we need it to be. That’s a good sign. As we watch news coming out of Thailand, the Covid situation is still concerning with regard to restrictions. Thailand has been slower, compared with the U.S. or U.K., in shifting to learning to live with the virus, as evidenced by a near universal mask mandate and daily news updates on numbers of cases and deaths. We would love to see further moves towards normality by the time we go back to Thailand. Let’s all continue to pray that policy makers in Thailand and around the world will have wisdom in charting the course forward, balancing the various concerns and needs of the general public. Pray also for us as we watch and make decisions in light of what is happening in the world around us.

Thai media outlets continue to give daily updates on Covid statistics

Thai Diaspora Ministry

One of the aspects of ministering among an unreached (or under-reached) people group is reaching out to diaspora populations. Everyone knows that Thai people live in Thailand, but how about Thai people in Hong Kong or Florida? Living outside one’s home country presents new challenges and often causes people to be more open to new ideas and experiences that they would not have been open to in their home countries. One of the Thai Doctor of Ministry students that I am advising is the pastor of a Thai church in Hong Kong. As we meet together (virtually, of course) to help him develop his dissertation proposal, I am interested to see what he will uncover in his research on reaching Thai people in the diaspora, and the special factors that impact evangelism and discipleship among Thai people overseas. Here in Florida, we’re learning about some of those factors firsthand. At the end of January, our family again visited the South Florida Thai-Lao Church where I preached and we fellowshipped with the believers there. More than one Thai Christian there has told me that many Thai people move to the U.S. with high hopes of starting a business (usually a Thai restaurant) and making a lot of money. Sadly, that hope is often disappointed as life in America is far less prosperous and easy than expected. However, one effect of this disappointment is greater openness to the Gospel. One Thai Christian brother related his long struggle with alcohol after life in America wasn’t going as he hoped. But Christ grabbed hold of him. Now he has hope.

Pad Thai, perhaps the most well known Thai dish in the USA