Bitten By a Snake and Four New Baptisms

Here is a newsletter from a hotter and wetter parts of the world. It has rained more than normal during the rainy season this year, and there have been floods in several places, but it should be the end of the rainy season in the beginning of next month, and we hope it will rain less soon.

A lot has happened since I returned to Thailand in end of August, and it has been a busy time. It has taken me over a week to write this newsletter.

In this newsletter you can read about: Four baptisms and more have become Christians again, a constant growth in the ministry and about a poisonous snake.

I had a very good time in Norway in August and I want to say a some about in this newsletter as well.

Read more about this in our newsletter.

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Bitten By a Poisonous Snake

There are many stories I could have told, but I especially want to tell you about one family in this newsletter.
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One a rainy evening we wanted to visit a family who wished to know more about Jesus. They lived quite a distance from where we live, and we struggled to find their house. We managed to call them and a man met us and led us out on a bad road.
We drove through an orange farm, and we were a bit unsure if we would be able to drive out again, because it was raining and the road was very muddy.

We made our way to the house, and we met this family which consisted of a married couple, a young boy and the parents of the man in the married couple.
The man’s name is Hlong Tama. His parents were perhaps around 80 years old. We asked the elderly man if he had heard about Jesus before, and he said, he had not.
Mawkkham found the illustration pictures and explained the Gospel to them.

A week later, Hlong Tama’s wife says that she wants to become a Christian (the woman in the picture on the right). Just before I went to Norway, we baptized this woman, and she came and comes regularly to our Sunday meetings, even though it takes her almost an hour to get to our meeting.
After a month, while I was still in Norway, Hlong Tama says that he also wanted to accept Jesus.

I had just returned from Norway, and we were to go to their house. When we called Hlong Tama, he was a bit sad in his voice, and said that he was at the hospital, because his father, who I mentioned earlier had never heard about Jesus, had been bitten by a poisonous snake.

Shan people often sleep on the floor, which this old man had done, and when he turned over at night there was a snake lying beside him (we think it was a cobra). The snake bit him, they rushed him to the hospital and he stayed there for over ten days.

We still went to visit his family that evening. We gave them a Shan Bible and prayed for them.
We also visited and prayed for the elderly man in the hospital the next day.
We visited them again when the elderly man came home, and gave them some rice and noodles. He is much better now, but has to return to the hospital every day to clean the wound.
Please continue to pray for this man, and especially that he too will accept Jesus.

Four New Baptisms

Last Sunday we had a baptism where four people were baptized, and Hlong Tama was one of them. They (the family) had driven almost an hour in pouring rain to get to the baptism.

It rained heavily last Sunday, so we were not sure if we could do the baptism, because we had to go to a river to do it.

Just before we went to the river where we were to have the baptism, the rain suddenly stopped, and it didn’t rain until the baptism was over.
When we got to the river we discovered a new problem. Since it had rained a lot in the last week, the current was strong, the water shallow and it was difficult to find a suitable place for the baptism.
Finally we found a place where the current was not too strong, we built a small dam there so that the water was not too shallow, and we finally were able to do the baptism.

The Church and the School

I do not want to make this letter too long, but I still wish to include that we have a steady growth, where we see people being saved and baptized every month. On Sunday, there were over 40 of us at the meeting.
We have baptized 24 people since January this year.

Our Saturday school is also going well, the number varies slightly from around 20 to 40 children.

Since we are growing, we need more staff. We would particularly like to see one more married couple who could help us. We are primarily looking for one local one, but we are also open to others (such as missionaries).

Please pray for this as we have become very busy!

My Trip to Norway

In the whole month of August I were in Norway, and it was the first time in four years I have been able to visit my home country.

There are two scriptures that described my trip to Norway: Finished works (Eph 2:10) and God can do more than anything, far beyond what we ask and understand (Eph 3:20).
I think I only had highlights on this trip. I got to visit friends I haven’t seen in 4-6 years and family I haven’t seen in 4 years.
The two biggest highlights were visiting Betania Kristiansand (Kristiansand is a city in the south of Norway) and the YWAM base at Grimerud (close to Hamar city).

Youth With a Mission
I was well received and had many good conversations at Grimerud, and it was good to visit them again.
I was recently send out by the Church Betania Kristiansand, previously I was send out from Youth on Mission Norway. The change does not mean that I have cut off contact or cooperation with them. I am still what is called a contact missionary, where we have contact, fellowship and cooperation, but they are not responsible for sending me out, and they are not my employers and Church.
I’m still under YWAM out here in Northern Thailand, where I attend leadership meetings and staff meetings once a month (when I am able to go) and receive DTS teams.

Betania Kristiansand
I had grate conversations with leaders in Church DFEF Betania Kristiansand, and Betania’s new pastor.
I knew the pastor a bit from before. He has also been to Thailand and visited my former co-worker some years ago and he knows the Shan people too. I didn’t know this before I came to Norway.

Betania Kristiansand has already supported us financially for a number of years, but now they are also my (and our family’s) sending Church. We are very grateful for this!

As mentioned in previous emails, I lost my membership in the Norwegian Social Security system for about 10 months ago and I needed an employer to get back in. Betania Kristiansand said she was willing to become an employer.
I am still not in the Norwegian Social Security system again, but I have sent an application for new admission. Keep me in prayer for this!

Feel Free to Support Us (Donate)!

As already mentioned, we are very grateful that we have now been sent out from DFEF Betania Kristiansand, and it is a great help and a boost for us.
We still would like to rise more regular donors as support us as a family.
All the income we get for our family goes through me. My wife, Mawkkham, comes from Myanmar and she has no support from Myanmar or elsewhere. So feel free to think about whether you should become a regular support partner.
Contact us if you wish this.

Wish to buy a new private car
We also need to replace our old private car, which is 16 years old now, and well used. You are welcome to give us a gift toward this.
If you want to give a gift for this use our PayPal account.

For PayPal

Use this link!
Or this link http://www.paypal.me/goodnewsforbroken

Make a Donation By PayPal

Our Project

Since the beginning of August, my brother, father and I have been working to get our project registered in the Brønnøysund register (it is a Norwegian register for organizations). It was a bit more work and took longer time than we thought, but we have now got it registered and approved under non-profit organizations.
It is called: Good news for the Shan people (Gode nyheter for shanfolket), Reg. No. 929 712 366
We also have a Norwegian bank account for this now.

The purpose of this is that we as a ministry is growing, and more money comes in for the ministry. We do not want to mix our personal finances with the project, and it will be more orderly in relation to authorities, donors etc.

Those who donate to the project will donate to the following:
1. Support for local workers/staff.
2. Rent of land (we would like to buy this in the future) where we do the ministry
3. Saturday and Sunday school for children of immigration workers and refugees from Myanmar.
4. For project car, transport expenses
5. Humanitarian aid (food, clothes etc.)
6. Evangelization work
7. Parties such as Christmas and other holidays
8. Other expenses in conection with the project.
None of this money will go to us privately.

If you wish to donate to our project, please contact us.
Visit our website too:https://goodnewsforshan.com/en/

Prayer Subject

Pray for my new application to get back into the Norwegian Social Security system
Pray for new support partners for us as a family
Pray for a new car
Pray for a married couple who can work full-time with us (locally or missionaries)
Pray for the new Christians, and especially for Hlong Tama and his family. It was his father who was bitten by the snake.
Also pray that we can follow up and teach the Christians well! Both the new and the older Christians
Pray for our Saturday school and for all the children.
Pray for buying of land and our growing work. We want to buy a land eventually
Pray for peace over Myanmar!

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