Planting Trees with Meaning In Northern Thailand - Building Update - July 12, 2021

PLANTING TREES WITH MEANING IN NORTHERN THAILAND – BUILDING UPDATE – July 12, 2021

Dear Family, Friends, Partners in Ministry,

I continue to be amazed at the Lord’s Lovingkindness and declare along with one of the writers of the Psalms that “The Lord is good and His Lovingkindness never ceases” Psalm 100:5a. Even during one of the most horrific pandemics our world has ever seen, God continues His work of transformation and preparing for the future. God is moving mightily changing lives here in Northern Thailand and preparing a building that will give us a long-term foundation for joining God in expanding His kingdom for many generations to come.

As we shared with you in our last update in June, for well over 20 years, we have seen God reaching deep into families in this part of God’s world where there has never even been one person who was a follower of Jesus and then through the context of relationships and teaching English and sharing our lives with people, God begins to draw that young person – normally a senior high school or university student – to our Lord Jesus. What a great joy it has been for us to continue to see God working like this and allowing ordinary people like you and me to join God and see an amazing God do extra ordinary things. I could go on and on telling of the great things our God has done but today I really simply just want to give you an update on our Building progress.

UPDATE ON LIGHTHOUSE BUILDING PROGRESS

It doesn’t really seem like it but, in May we passed the 2-year mark of construction. Even in this horrible pandemic, God has continued to provide us with the funding and workers to bring our main building project closer to being finished. As I shared with you last month our target move in date was in July and that date is here. We are preparing our first move of things this Saturday July 17 and will begin the next week in our new building.

As we shared with you last month, we will still have a few “projects” to work on after this building (A and building B) have been completed. We will soon be working on a few projects like “Thai style Outside Kitchen,” “a Sala and eating area,” “an extra restroom and shower facility,” “an extra guest Housing quarters,” “Landscaping” and a children’s playground.

This week we have also been working on planting trees and today they will begin laying grass in a few areas where we can put it down. Here are a few pictures of the building taken yesterday.

Here is a short video clip of the crane lowering one of our trees that we thought you might want to see. Here is the link on Youtube:

We are planting 4 different kinds of trees that will bloom at different times of the year and below is what they will look when in full bloom. However, the most significant tree is called a "White Meranti" and in Thai is "พะยอม" and has the word "ยอม" in it. Since the flower is white, for many Christians, it carries the idea of purity and holiness when we surrender "yom" to God. It will be a beautiful tree and for us represents the purity of God’s Light reaching out into the darkness with the love of Jesus. We also have several other trees. We also have 2 "Flame Trees" which are a beautiful burnt orange color, 1 "Indian Oak" tree which has a beautiful reddish flower, and 1 "Milettia Brandisiana" tree which has a beautiful purple flower. The Lord sent us "Pii Wii" who is part of the church family to help us both with helping Travis design our "Nursing Mother's Room" on the second floor, as well as helping us with our landscaping and keeping our costs low. God has been good and it will be beautiful when these trees begin to blossom.

We are still working on the stage and sound system, working on the fencing around the property, working on the landscaping, and many other areas.

Here is our Facebook link if you want to look at all the pictures that we took a couple of days ago:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=www.gontim.org&set=a.4709315275750919

Here is a picture of our sign we are looking at putting on the building to the left. 

Please keep us in your prayers. These are very busy days and things in Thailand are getting back to normal so to speak. We still are not vaccinated yet and do not have access to any of the vaccines but they will be here soon as I understand it.

May God richly bless you. Thank you for your generosity and for sending us to Thailand.

Until the People in and around Northern Thailand know Him,

Michael for the team

“For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5

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Financial support can be given through NTIM....

Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM), P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL 35260 USA Main Website: www.gontim.org

NTIM is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization based in the USA. We are committed to connecting people in need with people who care and are focused in the heart of Southeast Asia where poverty is high, education is low, needs are great, unreached people groups (UPGs) are all around us, and the love and message of Jesus is needed to transform lives.