Day 12 - Pray for Missionaries During This Holiday Season - Dec 10, 2018

DAY 12 – December 10 – Pray for Missionaries During the Holidays

I want to thank all of you who have been praying for us and reading these updates each day. I pray that they have helped you to see what an awesome God we serve and how deeply our Lord loves all these unreached peoples living in and around Northern Thailand and how He has invited us to join Him in His great work.

Today, I want to ask you to join us in praying for a few missionaries that partner with us in a very special way on a regular basis through Grace Language School like Keith & Taran, Alexa, Glen, Jodie, Derek & Jodi, Brian, and a host of other people from our church family… like Gary and Mem, and Kim and Gahn, and Jon and Chrissy, etc….  who all serve on the field here in Northern Thailand. I think I speak for most of us when I say that this is a time of year that is a time of high emotional strain and adjustment.

We are deeply emotionally connected to our friends, our coworkers, and the people we have come here to serve in Thailand and are involved in Christmas outreach events almost every day, but our hearts also long to be with our families and friends back home and sometime our families do not understand and think we have forgotten then which is not even close to the truth. Our oldest daughter and her husband and our first two grandkids are in North Carolina. Our second daughter and her husband are serving in Bangkok and we are so thankful that they will be coming up to Chiangrai for Christmas. Our oldest son is in Atlanta and it has been are really long time since we have had Christmas together. Our youngest son Caleb will be coming home to Chiangrai, Thailand for Christmas.. yea yea yea. 

I can’t remember the last time we had Christmas together with my mom, brother, Hope’s Dad, Sisters and relatives. I would love to walk up to my mother and give her a hug and say “Merry Christmas Mom. I love you.”  I would love to go over to my brother’s house for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day and have a meal and celebrate Christmas with both of our families. I would love to spend time with Hope’s Dad and sisters and their families as well. Those are desires that we have tugging at our hearts this time of year in a way that is just hard to pen. Please understand and pray for your missionaries especially those that are long term missionaries. This is the time of year that they (we) really do have struggles and they (we) really do need your love and your support. 

Pray for them - us. Yes. Pray for us earnestly. We need your prayers. But do not stop there. Write us an email. SEND US A CHRISTMAS CARD. Send us a care package. Send our children a small gift for Christmas. Make a small Christmas donation on our behalf expressing your support of our mission. Reach out to your missionaries this Christmas in a meaningful way

Prayer Example: “Lord, we thank You for raising up people who are willing to follow You wherever You lead them to go. We thank You for the Johnsons, the Lihavens, the Mays, Jodi, Brian, Glen, Alexa, and for many others who serve You in Northern Thailand. We thank You for the reminder that they really do struggle during this time of year. Please help their families understand the call You have placed on their lives and help our missionaries to stay the course and rest in Your perfect plan for their lives. Help us, Lord, not to forget them but to reach out to them in a special way this year. May You wrap each of our missionaries and their children in Your arms of love and bless them in a special way. Help us do our part in reaching out to encourage them this Christmas too. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.”