Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for supporting us to minister to the people here in Thailand! We praise the Lord for the opportunities He has given us recently to share the good news of His kingdom. We’ve also participated in Run 4 Relief to raise awareness about the civil war and refugee situation in Myanmar. And Karl has continued to equip the future church leaders of Thailand through teaching both at Chiangmai Theological Seminary and at McGilvary College of Divinity.

On Feb. 13, 2025, two of our children (Caitlin and John) and I (Sun), joined international church Refuge Fellowship and ELM Pregnancy Center in an outreach to a local Thai elementary school called Baan Tong Gai which is about half an hour away from us. Besides sharing about the sanctity of life in the womb, we and 20+ volunteers also made gospel bracelets with the 150 participating elementary students. I was given the privilege of sharing the gospel in Thai as we added colored beads to a stretchy string: yellow (heaven), black (sin), red (Jesus’s sacrificial blood), white/ clear (forgiveness), and green (abundant life in Christ). Along with relay races, Bingo games, and lots of snacks, everyone had lots of fun. May the Lord do his mighty work in the hearts of the 150 students.

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you’re all doing well and looking forward to Christmas and New Year’s. We’re finally at the end of the year and it is time to look back and look ahead. We really appreciate you standing with us as we minister in Thailand.

Christmas in Thailand

Christmas in Thailand is a bit of a weird time. Churches are gearing up for evangelism with lots of extra activities with non-believers in mind. They are also caroling from house to house and doing outreaches in local schools (among other places). Meanwhile, the majority Buddhist culture is putting up generic Christmas decorations like lights, wreaths, snowflakes, Santa, etc. under the banner of some vague, amorphous winter festival. Retailers are taking full advantage of the opportunity to sell more stuff. Stores and coffee shops are playing what they think is Christmas music, namely Mariah Carey and Wham on repeat.

In the midst of this odd atmosphere where a Buddhist society is vaguely aware that some festival called “Christmas” is happening, I want to ask for prayer in a few areas. First, pray that the Holy Spirit would use the natural curiosity that Thai Buddhists have about Christmas to open their hearts to hearing the Gospel message through Christians friends, family, and neighbors, and to attend Christmas events where they will hear the Gospel. Second, pray that Thai churches would clearly proclaim the Gospel and not give into the temptation to focus merely on a dramatic story about a cute baby or handing out gifts. It is too easy to let the Gospel get lost amid the trappings of Christmas festivities and wanting to retain an audience. Third, please pray that our family will be able to get some rest around Christmas and New  Year’s. The kids have had a busy homeschool year and I have been very busy with seminary and other ministry responsibilities. We need time to rest, reflect, meditate upon Christ and His Word, and get renewed for the new year coming up.

 Click here for video of seminary students Christmas caroling at our home

Dear Family and Friends,

This October was the mid-term break at Chiang Mai Theological Seminary and I was looking forward to some down time after a very busy first semester. But by God’s providence, October did not turn out as expected.

Chiang Mai Floods

As some of you might have seen in the news, there were multiple rounds of flooding in northern Thailand in September and October. Chiang Mai flooded twice. The second time was worse than the first, and the waters were higher than they had been for decades.  Most of the flooding was in eastern Chiang Mai in the area along the Ping River but we live in the southwest, so our house was spared.  But we know many people who were impacted. Some areas received more than a meter of water in buildings. 

We wanted to take a break in October but with the floods, we felt compelled to do something. The international church we attend on Sunday evenings prepared and distributed boxes of food (with gospel tracts) in flooded out areas. We help with this on a handful of occasions.  I almost stalled out the church van in a flooded street and our kids enjoyed riding in the back of a pickup truck passing out food to people.  It was a lot of work, but it was great to be able to provide relief to flood victims in some way.  As the waters went down, I (Karl) joined up with cleaning teams from our Thai church as we sprayed and scrubbed flooded houses of church members.  When the water goes down, a layer of nasty, sticky, brown sludge is left behind. Thankfully most Thai houses have tile floors and concrete brick walls so, unlike many American homes, there were no carpet and drywall to rip out. All the same, lots of people lost a lot of possessions.  After the water went down, there were huge piles of destroyed furniture, bedding, trash, etc. all along the roadside in previously flooded areas. It looked like a war zone. 

For our whole family, it was a good experience to get out and help our Chiang Mai neighbors of various faiths in practical ways, showing the love of Christ. I think it was good for our kids see the value of loving others, not just in word, but also in deed.