July 2014 Prayer Letter

Grading exams at Bangkok Bible SeminaryDear Friends & Family,

This past June was full of travel for our family so as July gets going, we are all glad to be back home in Bangkok and settling back into a routine again.

Grading and Course Planning

The spring term at Bangkok Bible Seminary finished this past May and most of Karl’s time between now and the new term in August will be filled with grading from the past term and course planning for the new one. Grading is particularly challenging for Karl because his reading speed in Thai is significantly slower than English and the students’ handwriting on exams is sometimes difficult to decipher. That translates to many tedious hours of working through tests and papers. Please pray for Karl as he grades and does course prep this summer. It is fairly quiet around here right now but the campus will spring to life again when students return for the new semester on August 13.

April 2014 Prayer Letter

DField Trip to Bangkok Protestant Cemeteryear Friends & Family,

Every day and every week seems to be very full for us as we plug away at the responsibilities that God has given us in Thailand. Please pray for us and for the Thai people as God moves forward his plan for Thailand one step at a time.

Homeschool Week

At the beginning of March, our whole family joined with other missionary families for a homeschool week at OMF’s guest home in Bangkok. The kids enjoyed themselves, especially the time to play and interact with other children. Since they are learning at home with Mom most of the time, it is helpful to attend these OMF-sponsored homeschool weeks every 6 months to help our kids learn how to better learn and function in a school group.

January 2014 Prayer Letter

DSunday evening Bible study at Grace City Bangkok church plantear Friends & Family,

Happy New Year! Thank you for your abundant prayers and support during this past year. We praise God for a healthy, growing family and continued opportunities to be a blessing to others at Bangkok Bible Seminary, Kanok Bannasan (OMF Publishers), Grace City Church, and various local churches where Karl preaches. As we head into a new year, we have a few updates and prayer requests for you to remember this month.

Grace City Church, Bangkok

Our family is involved with a new Reformed church plant in downtown Bangkok, together with Thai Christians and some other missionaries, from both OMF and MTW. For most of 2013, we met for Bible study and fellowship on Sunday evenings and then for the last few months of the year we had a worship service once per month. Karl has been part of the rotation for preaching and teaching Bible study. Starting in January, we will have a worship service every week, meeting on the 25th floor of a hotel. As we transition to regular worship, please pray that our small core group of people will be built up in Christ, that non-Christians will come, that people will come to faith, and that our children’s Sunday school would have good, regular teachers and teaching. You can find the church website at www.gracecitybkk.org

November 2013 Prayer Letter

DBaby John with siblings Joshua and Caitlinear Friends & Family,

Thank you for your many prayers. As you know, I asked you to pray that I’d be able to deliver our baby naturally, and the Lord has answered graciously and amazingly.  Our initial doctor said she was unwilling to give me the opportunity to birth naturally so I looked elsewhere and was finally able to find one doctor who was willing to give me that chance. But if I was going to succeed in doing this naturally, I needed a doula to help.  At the very last minute, the Lord connected me with a doula who proved to be just right for what I needed.

On the day that I gave birth, I woke up at 4 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Later that morning, I began to feel contractions every 8 minutes or so, and then 7 minutes apart.  At about 2 o’clock that day I called my doula and she said to monitor and to give her a call later when it was getting stronger. By late afternoon, I was about 3 to 4 minutes apart.  Our friends came to pick up the kids to take care of them while we were at the hospital.  The doula came, and we labored for about an hour at home.  Then my water broke and we hurriedly went to the hospital, where I found out I was already 9 cm dilated and wanting to push. The doctor arrived shortly after that and checked me. I was 10 cm and ready to go.  Soon after that, our baby popped out his head, opened his eyes and looked around.  Then his body all came out.  He was beautiful.  I held him and fed him right away while the doctor gave me a few stitches. The baby and I were doing well since we had no drugs during the birth, so we came home less than 24 hours later.

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