The Brown Family
Spring 2018 Update
The Vital Message, Year 14, Number 1
Homecoming!
No, not the football or basketball kind of homecoming. Right now, homecoming for our family means the end of a four-year term in Thailand and the beginning of what we hope is a brief season of reconnecting with our family and friends in the USA. We will be arriving in Florida in mid-May, just in time to attend our district council meetings. After that, we have a few weeks to deal with Rebecca's legal and insurance issues, then we are off to Springfield, MO, for a couple of weeks of meetings at our ministry headquarters. We will rush back to Florida as soon as those meetings are complete to begin what we hope will be a short itineration season. We do have a 34% budget increase this term, mostly due to loss of support over the past 14 years, so we will need to move quickly to reestablish our finances. But we are not worried, because we know that God has called us to this work and He will call others to partner with us in the work.
Finishing Strong!
While part of our attention is on our upcoming return to the USA, our primary focus continues to be on our study abroad program and our three major community outreaches. Last year we launched a brand new "Let's Talk" outreach in a public housing community near Bangkok's international airport. Tammy and our APSAI students focused on serving the children of the community while Wayne focused on helping the youth and adults. Together, we were able to serve more than 120 families over the past eight months. And, we've begun to see the emergence of persons of peace, people who want to know more about our faith and our hope, in this community. Pray for these children, youth, and families, and pray specifically for Romyen Church as they undertake the task of planting a new church in this unchurched neighborhood.
Ram 42 has been our home for the past seven years and is the location of our neighborhood "English Station" outreach. Over the years we've seen dozens of children visit English Station, but we've been blessed to have a core group of students who've stayed with us each semester. One of our great joys is being able to connect our study abroad students with the children we serve right here in our own neighborhood. This semester, we are blessed to have Cortney, from North Central University. She has been a true blessing to our ministry and to our family.
Our longest running outreach over the past seven years has been at the Sataban Saeng Sawang Foundation school, a school for special needs children. Volunteering here has given Tammy and our study abroad students the opportunity to connect deeply with the school’s students and staff.It is through these connections that Tammy has been able to share about her faith in God and to function in her spiritual gifts of prayer for healing. Tammy has been invited to pray for school staff and administration when they have faced extreme difficulties in their life. And the results have been supernatural with miraculous signs and wonders. There is a growing desire among those with whom Tammy serves to know more about our God and the peace and faith we have through Jesus Christ.
Prayer Requests
“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”
- James 5:16(b) KJV
Did you know that everything we do here in Thailand is only possible because of you. As missionaries serving among the least reached peoples of the Buddhist and Muslim world, we depend on your dailyprayers and monthly financial support. Both are critical to our ability to continue in our ministry. Please join with us in prayer over the following critical areas:
1. APSAI, the study abroad program that we helped to create in 2011, is now in its seventh year. Pray that many students from USA Assemblies of God universities will sign up to attend one of the two full-semester programs in the 2018-2019 school year, or the special summer session in the summer of 2019.
2. We have two communities where we do weekly outreach; the Ram 42 neighborhood and the Lat Krabang public housing project. Pray that the Lord would raise up a person of peace in each community who can become the starting point for church plants in each neighborhood. Pray that new workers will rise up to carry on this ministry while we are stateside for itineration.
3. Pray for the leaders and staff at the Sataban Saeng Sawang Foundation school. Many of them are wrestling with serious personal needs and some have openly approached Tammy to say that they are following her lead and praying to our God in Jesus' name. Pray that their prayers will be answered and that the Holy Spirit will guide them to the truth of ultimate salvation.
4. Pray for us as we transition from Thailand to the USA for our upcoming itineration. Our schedule calls for us to successfully conclude this itineration year by July 31, 2019; however, in order to maintain our visas and work permit, we really need to be back in Thailand by March 31, 2019. This is a difficult target, but with God's help and the generous support of our friends back in the USA we believe we can reach that earlier target.
5. We need to quickly find suitable housing and transportation once we arrive in the USA. Pray that the Lord will guide us and that we will be aware of the opportunities He is guiding us to so that these needs can be met. If you know of a modern and affordable wheelchair accessible vehicle that might fit our needs, please contact us. If you know of a good, affordable, single-story home in central Florida that would be suitable for us, please let us know. The home does not need to be wheelchair accessible.
As Assemblies of God missionaries, we are dependent on prayer and financial support from individuals, families, businesses, and churches. We work in partnership with our donors back in the USA and the family of believers here in Thailand to spread the gospel throughout this country. When you support our work with a financial gift, you become part of our ministry team, reaching the unreached with the good news, bringing light into spiritually dark places, true hope to those who've never heard about Jesus.
You can make a donation to our ministry as well as setup a recurring monthly donation and faith promise on our donor management page at http://give.thevitalmessage.org/. On the donor website, click on “Give Now” to make a one-time donation or “Set up New Recurring Schedule” to setup a faith promise and an automatic monthly contribution.
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