Newsletter from Tore and his family working in
Northern Thailand among the Shan people from Myanmar
We are still waiting for some colder weather here in Northern Thailand. We are in tropical regions, but it can still be relatively cold here around Christmas. The temperature in the north can drop to 8 degrees Celsius in the morning and there can be frost in the mountains around us. Because it’s a little colder, I often get a bit of a Christmas feeling around Christmas anyway, even if it’s not snowy and dark like in Norway.
I will mention several things in this newsletter, but two highlights are the story of Pi Wii who has been miraculously healed and the woman with an illness who got an experience of God’s love.
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A Team From Canada Visiting
and Many Children at Our Saturday School
In November we had a visit from a DTS team from Canada who stayed with us for 11 days.
At our Saturday school we gathered over 60 children, and the team had most of the program on the two Saturdays they were here.
They also had most of the program at our Sunday meetings, with testimonies and a short sermon, and it was very encouraging for many people.
They also attended house meetings in the evenings, which the team liked the best of all.
One evening we had planned a big meeting, which we usually have every month, where we serve food and share the Gospel. The last time we had a meeting like this, around 100 people came, and we expected the same. We had prepared food and invited many to this meeting.
Around four o’clock that day, it started to rain heavily, and we wondered if we could even have the meeting.
Many came anyway and we finally gathered around 70 people with big and small, but there were over 30 people from an orange farm who didn’t come. We couldn’t pick them up because of the rain that had made the road muddy and impassable.
When we will have the Christmas party on the 17th of December, they will again have the opportunity to come, and we pray that it will not rain. Many from this orange farm are very open to the Gospel, and few of them are Christians.
A Sick Woman Had an Encounter With God’s Love
A family that became Christians a few months ago has experienced a lot of difficult things in recent months. In the previous newsletter I wrote about the eighty-year-old man who was bitten by a snake and was in the hospital for almost 14 days, this was the father of the woman whom I now want to tell you about.
After our meeting on Sunday, this woman suddenly felt unwell and partially fainted. One of the Canadian team is a nurse, and she helped her a bit.
This had happened to her before, but only in the evening. We don’t quite know the reason for it, but she has had a lot of worries which may have been the trigger.
When people experience this out here, they are often rejected and looked down upon, and others think they are possessed by evil spirits. They themselves often believe this too.
I have had experience with this, so I know this woman is not possessed, but it has a physical and psychological cause. I believe there are still cases of possession in our time (even out here), but often it is fear or stress, which the devil also uses, that causes physical manifestations like this (she also have diabetes, and take medication for that).
On Sunday, when this happened, we gathered the DTS team around her and we sang worship songs and prayed for her. We also had to drive her home, which took us about 40 minutes.
Two women from the DTS team sat with her and held her hands and prayed as we drove. When we arrived at her home she was fully conscious and had tears in her eyes. She had not been rejected by us or the team, and we were not afraid of her, this made a strong impression on her. This was a demonstration of God’s love, as we also explained to her.
She said several times to the team and us with tears in her eyes: You are my family, you are my sisters, you are not afraid of me.
We had tears in our eyes as well, and this was a very special experience. The next day she was back at work and her husband said that something really had happened that day.
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.
A Miraculous Healing
Visiting Pi Wii and his family
A couple of months ago, one of our new Christians had brought a young man to our Sunday meeting.
The man was very ill and could not speak or walk by himself, the doctors had said that he did not have long time left to live.
We prayed for this man, whose name is Pi Wii, at this meeting, and we have had contact and visited him and his family after this.
Every time we have visited and prayed for him he has gotten better.
This week we visited him again, and he can both talk and walk now. He is still not completely well, but he is getting better and better as he trains his body up. He say he would like to come to our Sunday meetings again, when he can ride his motorcycle.
The doctor is very amazed at his change!
Mawkkham has explained the gospel to him, his wife and his mother little by little.
See also the video below. Pi Wii is in the video (and in the picture above).
They are very open to the Gospel and it probably won’t be long until they also want to accept Jesus, but we don’t pressure them.
Pi Wii says he prays every day, so he already believes, but he hasn’t specifically said he’s a Christian.
Christmas Preparations and Many Will Hear the Christmas Message
On the 17th of December we have a big Christmas party at our land where we have our Saturday school and church.
The children are busy preparing dance and drama, and we have started preparing what we will buy for Christmas presents.
We expect over 200 people, and there is a lot of prepare to do.
In addition, we are planning some Christmas outreaches, and we have been asked by a ministry in Chiang Mai to share the Gospel there for about 60 Shan on the 8th of December.
December is the busiest month of the year, so please pray for strength, wisdom and that many will hear the Good News! Pray for us as a family as well, we also want some time together.
In Need of More Staff
We are in great need for new staff in our ministry. Now we are just a married couple and two or three volunteers.
We have a Saturday school with over 60 children, and we both have to pick up and make food for them, plus teach English and Shan.
In addition to this, we have around 30 new Christians we need to follow up, and 8-10 places we would like to visit every week. Some of them are house meetings, while others are people who are interested in the Gospel and we want to follow them up.
Of course, we are not able to do this every week, as a week only has 7 days.
We have some volunteers for our school and older Christians who are with us some evenings and help us, but they cannot every night or every week and weekend.
Please pray with us for this, we really need more workers! Both full-time staff and volunteers.
We also want a foreign married couple to help to teach English. We are welcoming single people as well, but it can get a bit more lonely, and it is better to be two.
Please pray with us, and if you are interested, even if you only want to come for a short period, please contact us!
We have a local couple who have for about two years said that they wanted to come and work with us, but they have some challenges with ID papers, and they have to move from another city which is 5-6 hours from us.
We have almost agreed that they will come, but they cannot move here until March at the earliest, because their children go to school, and it is difficult to change schools in the middle of a semester. (In Thailand there is a summer holiday in the end of March)
Please pray for this married couple and that everything will fall into place! They really have a heart to serve God
Donations
First of all, we would like to thank you who have supported us either monthly or with donations this year, we could not have done this without you!
We are very grateful that we have now received donations to our projects (Good News for the Shan) Christmas event(s) and what we need for it!
As a family we have some extra needs during Christmas so feel free to give a donation, you can use PayPal or contact us!
You can give us a Donation with PayPal (you can also use your credit/debit card)
Make a Donation By PayPal
Visit our ministries website too:https://goodnewsforshan.com/en/
Prayer Subject
- Pray for more staff for our ministry both for a local couple and for missionaries.
- Pray for the Christmas parties and for everything we will do in December
- Pray for the new Christians
- Pray for the two people I mention in this newsletter, Pi Wii and Pi Shong.
- Pray for all the new Christians
- Pray for all the 60 children that comes to our Saturday programs
- Pray for wisdom for us how to train the new Christians, and multiply.
- Thank God for providing for us!
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