ผมชื่อ นายอนุชา หุ่นธานี อายุ 18 ปี ที่อยู่ 48 ถ.สามล้าน ต.พระสิงห์ อ.เมือง จ.เชียงใหม่ 50200
ผมเกิดในจังหวัดเชียงใหม่ ที่โรงพยาบาลมหาราชเชียงใหม่ ผมมีพี่น้อง 2 คน ผมกำลังศึกษาอยู่ที่โรงเรียน พณิชยาการเชียงใหม่ เรียนการจัดการธูรกิจท่องเที่ยว อยู่ชั้นปวช.3 ผมต้อนรับพระเยซูวันที่ 31 สิงหาคม 2549 หลังจากที่รู้พระเยซูชีวิตดีขึ้นเพราะว่ามีพระเยซูเป็นแสงสว่างในชีวิต

ผมได้เชื่อเกี่ยวกับศาสนาพุทธ แต่ที่ผมเปลี่ยนศาสนาเพราะว่า ผมรู้ว่าพระเยซูเป็นพระเจ้า
และพระเยซูเป็นความจริงและผมเชื่อว่า พระเยซูเป็นผู้ชำระความบาปให้แก่มนุษย์
-เพราะว่ามีสเตฟานเป็นคนบอกเล่าเรื่องเกี่ยวกับพระเยซู -มีเพื่อนที่โรงเรียนบอก -พระเยซู
ปรากฏในความฝันจะช่วยครอบครัว -เวลาอธิษฐานรู้สึกว่าพระวิญญาญบริสุทธิ์ลงมา
1.เวลาผมสอบปลายภาคแล้วผมทำไม่ได้ผมอธิษฐานให้พระเยซูช่วยผมและพระเยซูช่วยผมด้วยว่งพระวิญญาณบริสุทธิ์ลงมา
2.เมื่อก่อนผมกลัวผีหลังจากผมต้อนรับพระเยซูผมไม่กลัว ผีเพราะว่า พระเยซูฟื้นมาจากความตาย
ผมได้อ่านทุกวันพระคัมภีร์มีพระพรมาสู่ชีวิตของท่านเมื่ออ่านแล้วอย่างไรบ้างและสาเหตุที่ท่านอยากได้พระคัมภีร์
1. ผมอยากรู้จักพระเยซูมากขึ้น
2. ผมอยากให้รับเชื่อพระเยซูพระเยซูมากขึ้น
ชื่อพระคัมภีร์ที่ท่านชอบมากที่สุดและข้อที่ท่านยึดไวเป็นข้อประจำใจคือ โรม 1 บทที่ 17 “ คนที่พระเจ้ายอมรับจะใช้ชีวิตด้วยความวางใจ”

Anusha’s Testimony (Translated by Stefan)

The testimony of Anusha Unthany, 18 years old, address 48 Samlan Road, Prasing, Chiang Mai 50200. I was born in Chiang Mai at Maharaj hospital. I have two brothers. I am currently studying management and tourism at Commercial College, Chiang Mai. I am in my 3rd year.

I became Christian on the 31 of October 2006. After I knew Jesus my life became much better because Jesus became the light of my life.

In the past I believed in Buddhism, but I changed religion because I know now that Jesus is God and Jesus is the truth. I also believe that Jesus paid for the sins of mankind. I know this now because Stefan shared the story of Jesus with me. Also a friend at college shared about Jesus with me.

Jesus appeared in a dream to me and told me that He will help my family. When I pray I can feel the Holy Spirit coming down and touching me. When I have exams I can not do it on my own. I pray that Jesus will help me and every time the Holy Spirit comes down to help.

In the past I feared ghosts. After receiving Jesus in my life, I am not scared anymore because I know Jesus rose from the dead. I read the bible every day and God is blessing my life through it. I want to know Jesus more every day.

My favorite verse in the bible is Romans 1:17 which says: “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”

Baptism of Nong Anushit by Stefan and Anusha

Let us start with the family:

Family

We are doing well as a family. We enjoy life here in Chiang Mai and feel satisfied that we do something meaningful at the same time. However, the downside to all of this is my (Stefan’s) health, which has not been good for quite a long time now: Bronchitis, trapped nerve, and an ear infection, just to name a few. In addition, 2 months ago, I had Dengue Fever. This is a tropical disease like malaria, where you are infected through a mosquito bite. Symptoms are severe body pain and a high fever. It takes a long time to recover fully.
Tobias and Tina are well. They do not seem to have any health problems and we thank God for that.

Ministry

Moving Kam Siri Community Centre

For quite a while we felt it was time to move Kham Siri, our center where we teach the Bible and English, and build relationships, to its new location. The old place was great for 3 years but we had outgrown it so we prayed for a new place. God provided a great location right at the market. It is still part of and close to our original community but also has the potential to reach new people as well. We moved with the help of many locals from the community.
It was also great to have a small team from our home Vineyard church in London coming to Chiang Mai to support us.
During the opening day, it was wonderful to see so many locals, young and old from the community come for the occasion of introducing our new community center. We had a lot of food cooked by our close friends from there and everybody enjoyed the day playing table tennis, games and eating.
Since the opening day the center has been busy. Besides teaching English and German, we teach the Bible and pray together several times a week. On one of those days Joy, a 25-year-old woman from the community, phoned to tell me she wants to study the bible on Tuesday. From that time I met with her and laid the foundation about the gospel. She realized the good news in the Word and gave her life to Jesus! She is a real example of someone coming to Jesus because of community. She saw that Annush’s life had changed by the power of God, that we teach for free and spend a lot of time building relationships, and that, most of all, she is accepted in our community, which is a big thing for someone like Joy, being mentally slow and also different looking. She is one of the group who has been baptized.

Baptisms

As we spend time together to share our lives, pray together and support for each other we really are developing a sense of family, a sense of community. I suppose that is the way it must have been in the early church where the followers of Jesus shared their lives, prayed together, studied the Bible, had meals together and went out to share the good news with their neighbors (Acts 2:42-47). Our new believers grow in their relationship with Jesus and their understanding of the gospel.
I felt we should baptize some of those new believers immediately. It is just another level of declaring their faith and of commitment in a public setting. We went off in our pick-up truck. Before we left we met Suun Tam. He knows Jesus now for over a year and really loves him. He is 73 years old and rides a Tricycle to earn an income. Sombuun, Anushash’s grandmother who God healed of TB, came too. All together, there were 16 of us, young and old, fat and thin, tall and short. Everybody ached from the walk by the time we arrived at a beautiful waterfall. Those aches were forgotten quickly as we stepped into the water.
Joy, Anushit and Anushon were baptized first. They really sensed God’s presence and were pleased about it. After we baptized those three in deeper water, we went back to the shore, talked, and explained more about baptism to Suun Tam and Som Buun. It was beautiful. We all had that real sense of joy and peace as we simply took a plastic cup filled with water, poured it over their heads and prayed with them. I was especially glad for Suun Tam and Som buun, as their lives were previously filled with so much tragedy. They both lost their spouse and most of their children due to disease or drug/alcohol abuse. Because of these tragedies, both of them had real alcohol problems and suffered from depression. Now their lives have changed. They are not addicted to alcohol anymore and God lifted the depression, as they surely know their Lord and Saviour.
Shortly after those baptisms, I fell 3 meters deep into a gorge, which left me with a deep cut in my leg. It could have killed me. Nevertheless, I thanked God for a wonderful, satisfying day.

God is certainly doing something here: extending his kingdom and building a community of believers. God also opened a door to ministry to working girls, drug addicts and HIV victims. I will tell you more about that in our next letter.
Tina is still faithfully looking after and caring for Matthew. She is part of a team now, as he needs constant care and attention due to his many infirmities. Matthew is the orphan, who was born with severe brain damage due to a lack of oxygen at birth. Tina will extend God’s mercy to him as long as he is alive.

Prayer points

• Please pray for Stefan’s health. It seems to be an ongoing problem, which is hindering the ministry now.
• Please pray for all those new believers, especially those who have been baptized
• Pray that the kingdom of God will break in and the light of the gospel will penetrate that community more and more
• Pray for our new community centre. May everybody who comes into the centre sense God’s love.
• Please pray for Matthew that God shows his mercy in and through his life.

Translated by Stefan Mickel

Stefan Mickel, born in Germany has surprised me when I first met him. He spoke Thai rather fluent, even though he has a slight accent. Stefan who has his base in London lives here together with his wife and his son for 3.5 years. When they came here, they first studied Thai at a language school and practiced speaking Thai with their neighbors mainly in the community around Wat Buak Daem, where they lived.

Stefan’s trademark of a smile and building friendships causes the neighbors not to be scared to speak with a foreigner and they are treated like one of them. After a year of bonding there, they felt established in their neighborhood. They started a place that receives children and youth and they all together call it “youth club”. They have different activities there all aiming to learn English. The reason for this is to help and support the community. Stefan feels that education in Thailand is very expensive; therefore many children miss out on education. Being equipped with the ability to speak English is very important nowadays. This is the one thing he is able to give to the children. They have activities 3 times a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays in the evening where they study the Bible, English and German. On Saturdays they mainly have activities like sports, drawing or arts.

Studying and teaching of Stefan is not a tight learning by heart method or practice but he uses a method of listening and telling a story. This causes the children to feel they have fun and learn vocabulary at the same time in an easy way. For the older kids, Stefan will speak with them in English in order to lower the anxiety level of speaking in a foreign language. Because when they are bold to speak, they will soon find out here they still make mistake and can develop skills to get better.

Stefan never forces kids to study. Every kid can decide for themselves. They want to study, they can study. They want to play, they can play. Stefan believes that all of the kids have freedom to decide for themselves what they want. It will cause them to feel more relaxed.

When Stefan talks to the children who came for the first time, they are mostly likely shy, but when they join in activities or listen to a story, they start to feel more relaxed and want to participate with all the activities as well. Right from the start the club had about 10 members and more. When the numbers increased, the burden for Stefan increases too. The need for more equipment, which is necessary increases. Fortunately he has received some financial support from friends from abroad. He also has been given some games and books which are useful for the children’s development.

When I asked Stefan if he sometimes feels tired, he certainly says that he feels tired. He’d like to have an assistant but he doesn’t have enough money to employ one. Nevertheless he sometimes has a friend from abroad coming here temporarily to help with the teaching and activities with the children. But even so, in the evening he is tired. Stefan and his wife strongly aim for giving it their best shot. But Stefan is certainly very happy and satisfied that he is doing something useful for the community. He is happy that the parents of the children have told him that they progress very well in their language skills. In the future, Stefan has the concept plan of setting up a counseling centre for young people and wants to manage to be able to give credits at low interest rates, which would certainly help the community.

Stefan says the community development is very important. He wants the people in this community to become very strong in order for them to become leaders in their own community, and therefore to continue to develop the community themselves. He just wants to be a small part in it. One part which helps the community to develop in their own pace.

This way of thought makes me think he is doing it right. It is also not important what the children’s’ belief system is or if they practice the same religion, the only thing they have is common is a united heart…….

Volunteers sacrifice themselves as part of the community…..

Even so it looks as if they only work with a small group within the community; one can compare it with a light of a candle that maybe can be extinguished anytime. But this small light, this candle is able to send/bring light and to lead the way in the community in their own pace in the future- that’s for sure.

Family

As a family we are doing well, especially Tobias ,who is really enjoying life.
We are also fostering little Matthew, who has his good days and his bad days. Because he has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy, to care for him is a lot of work and esp. Tina is at times very tired.
4 weeks ago we had a burglary in our house and they stole our computer, my PDA and our camera, hence another delay to send out this prayer letter.

Ministry

We had the privilege of baptizing Anusha. It was a wonderful occasion, as the Holy Spirit was there. Even now we still meet regular for bible studies. He is certainly growing as a Christian.

Saturdays at Kam Siri
“Chek came in proudly with her own bible, asking me, what time we’ll study the bible”.
Then we told the kids the story of the prodigal son today. When we prayed the kids were lying on the floor with eyes closed , receiving the fathers’ love. Then Garfield told Tina, she wants to receive Jesus into her life. So we prayed and she received him. We also prayed against the fear of ghosts and darkness.”

We are not teaching English a lot, but having some worship songs and then telling the kids bible stories. They really, really love it and 3 weeks ago 6 more children gave their lives to Jesus. Jesus is simply good news.

Youth club atmosphere.
We bought some new games again. So, some kids play games, some learn English, some do colouring, some play badminton – relaxed, but good atmosphere.

The adults
I‘ll actually copy a part of my diary now:
Uan told us that his niece, Eeh had a very bad accident. Head injuries, bleeding from the ear, having fits and throwing up. Despite the heavy symptoms they released her from hospital after one day. In the evening we prayed for her. She was very frail and bruised.
We prayed. We sensed God’s presence in the room . Waves of mercy, waves of peace came and I had a sense of “The Lord is my strength” for her. With such a presence of God there must also be his healing presence…….
We went back the next day into her room. Here she was, conscious, talking and looked much stronger. She had a meal already.
I think God has done something here.

Eeh has seen a doctor today. He told her the only problem left for her is dried up blood in her ears. God simply healed her and dried up the blood flow.
What an awesome God we have!!!!!!”

For the last 6 weeks I’ve seen Sawad’s mom almost every day. She started with a very heavy cough and has been diagnosed with Tuberculosis. She is very poor and had a difficult life, but she knows Jesus now. She knows that God has chosen her and prepared a place for her. She is rich now in her heart and every time we meet she wants me to pray for her.

One more quotation from diary:
“2 days ago I talked to Meela, who sells little Buddhas outside AUA. Language School, when a mentally handicapped girl crossed the road. Meela introduced me to her and asked me to go with her to find her dad, who is apparently not too well. So I went with her and after a long walk through a lot of small lanes we found her dad. He is living on a pavement, surrounded by some plastic sheets, outside a run\close down shopping unit. He is the poorest person I ever met in person .Besides being extraordinary skinny, he also has no clothes. Only a few very dirty blankets. He cannot go anywhere, because he has no clothes to wear!! No money, help for clothes or food!! We talked a bit. For his physical condition, he is mentally rather in good shape. After a while he asked me why I look so satisfied. So I told him about Jesus. He believed everything and I prayed with him to receive Jesus in his life. So he did and I bought him some food and promised him a bible.
I went back today with some clothes for him and his daughter. I also gave him a bible.” End of quotation
His name is Sii and his daughter ‘s name is Chek.
I see them regular now, talking , eating and praying together.

God is really extending his kingdom here and we love to follow the fathers’ lead.
It’s a great privilege to see God working amongst the poor.

Prayer Points:

• Please pray for us as a family. Having Matthew living with us puts quite a strain on us, esp. where it is a lot of work for Tina.
• Please pray for Matthew. He needs a big healing miracle from Jesus, there his cerebral palsy is rather severe.
• Anusha and his family. His grandmother , aunty and uncle are already Christians. His parents and brothers seem more open now.
• Please continue to pray for all the new believers.
• The kids at Kam Siri. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will fall on them and reveal the fathers’ love. Please also pray that we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and the needs of the children, as we build relationships with them.
• Please also pray for Sii and Chek, that God will continue to be with them and protect them.
• I will tell you more in our next prayer letter, but God opened a great door into the prison and psychatric hospital here in Chiang Mai. Please pray that God will guide Stefan and he will see healings and salvations in there.
• We need a team to build on the work. Pray that God will bring the right people ho share the same vision.

It has been over 3 years that we are in Chiang Mai, Thailand and God has open doors and guiding us in the ministries that we are doing and continue to open more doors into other area where His heart is. Thank you so much for your support and prayers.

Family

Stefan’s knee is nearly fully recovered from the motorbike accident. Tobias is enjoying school very much and is fluent with German language. He is speaking 3 languages well for his age (English, German & Thai).

Ministry

Khamsiri ministry is still very alive and kids are enjoying playing and learning.

Prayer points

• Proctection as a family.
• For us as a family that we will be sensitive to God’s guidance in every area of our life here in Chiang Mai.
• Matthew – total healing of epilepsy (he is on medication) and he will continue to grow physically. Pray especially that he is heal of stomach reflux and drink/eat normally.
• Sawat’s mum

How to contact us:

We will be distributing regular news for prayer. This will be

• By group email
• Hard copies
• Through prayer gatherings.

For those in our home church – Riverside Vineyard , London
admin@riversidevineyard.com

For others contact Ian Watts – 020 8944 0982 – hallelujah150@yahoo.com

Or if you want to support us in any way, you can contact us here in Chiang Mai. Our Email address is mail@mickels.org
Our website is www.cornerstoneasia.co.uk
Thank you all so much for your support and prayer. We miss you a lot, but it is great to know that you are right behind us.

Lots and lots of love

Stefan, Tina & Tobias

Dear friends

Thank you so much for your support and prayers. We really value your friendship and support. It is great to know that we have you behind us, who are backing us in prayer and encouragement.

Family

It has been nearly 2 months since we are back here in Chiang Mai, after visiting Stefan’s parents in Germany, friends and home church Riverside Vineyard in London. We settled in quickly again. Tobias is going to a Christian German kindergarden and loves it. He is doing very well and enjoys life a lot, making friends at school and of course at Kam Siri.
Tina is studying Thai by herself at the moment, where as I, Stefan, got to know 2 girls in the park, who I teach English and they in turn correct my Thai. So we all enjoy it.

Ministry

Kam Siri feels more and more like a youth club. We seem to have an identity now, where some of the children come for English classes, but some come for play or just to hang around. They enjoy the worship songs we do and I think the time is coming very soon, where we’ll start on Saturday afternoons a time of worship and praying for each other. Some children and some of the adults are ready and show interest in that.

Anusha, who is coming regular right from the start, is 16 years old and is the son of Sawat (grandson of one of the lady who is a new believer).He has asked Jesus Christ into his life about 3 weeks ago. He has seen us pray with his grandmother, aunty and uncle, who all received Jesus into their lives and he’s seen God’s presence and power in their lives. For example his uncle Sun Tam stopped drinking and feels much better and his grandmother stopped smoking. She is still having a drinking problem, but God is obviously working in her life. His aunty also follows God. God healed her from arthritis in her knees. She knows now that she has a Father in heaven, who is looking after her. She is also very secure now in the knowledge that she will one day spend eternity in heaven worshipping Jesus, her Saviour.
Stefan is doing the follow up with all of them, visiting them in their homes. With Anusha we have a bible study twice a week, where Phom is joining us at times also. When we asked Anusha, if he already sees a change since he received a new life he said, that he was afraid of ghost before, (which is very common here in Thailand) but since having Jesus in his life, he is not afraid anymore.

Before he received Jesus, he had several dreams that Jesus is showing all the
children at Khamsiri his sacrificial love and many will receive him. He only mentioned this to us on the day of his conversion. Recently he saw/dreamt that Jesus came into his house to visit him. The light has certainly come into that household.

Stefan is meeting up with Uan and Lek (they are brothers and young believers) for sharing and prayers on early Saturday mornings. It is also a great opportunity to lead them closer to God and to get to know each other more.

Stefan continues to visit the others like Sii Wan, Soon Tham, and Sawat’s mom (these 3 are brother and sisters). We also continue building relationship with the other families in the area that God has put our heart.
Stefan likes to hang out in the market place nearby to meet people. Pray that God will guide him as he talks to them.

A neighbour of ours came to our house recently, seeking advice about his health. He had cancer in his bowels and as a result lost blood daily. We told him about Jesus, who is longing to touch and heal him. So we prayed for him. The next day he came again and told us that he feels much better now and asked us: ”Can you do this thing again? referring to prayer. He comes for the last few days and God certainly touches him. Now he has no pain and the blood flow stopped. He’s asking more and more about this Jesus, who healed him. His name is , he is from Taiwan ,living here for the last 20 years and seems to be very poor.

I(Stefan) almost forgot to mention that I had an accident 4 weeks ago. I fell off my motorbike at considerable speed. Besides cuts and bruises I also in injured my knee. After 2 weeks I went to see a doctor because the pain didn’t cease. He told me that I partially ruptured a ligament. So far so good. I went again 2 weeks later and he told me I might have damaged my meniscus, cartilage quite badly as well, which might result in an operation. This could knock me out for several months!
Please pray that God will heal my kneecap, so the ministry won’t be disrupted as well.

I still have to mention what happened today. When Anusha came for the bible study, he brought Chek with him, who is also coming regular to Kam Siri. She showed a lot of interest today and wanted a bible. Then I explained her about Jesus and the basic outline of the gospel. She wanted it all, she believes it all. So she received Jesus today.

Prayer points

• Proctection as a family.
• Stefan developed some breathing difficulties. Please pray for his healing there and the healing of his injuries resulting from the accident.
• For us as a family that we will be sensitive to God’s guidance in every area of our life here in Chiang Mai.
• Anusha – continue to thirst and hunger for Jesus Christ as he grows in his new life.
• Chek, the brand new Christian
• All those new believers like Sun Tam, Sawat’s mum, Sii Wan, Uan and Lek. May they grow in Jesus, as the seed falls on good ground.
• Anusha’s family. His grandmother is already a Christian. His parents and brothers seem to be more open now.
• Phom – after quite a difficult time as a result of wrong choices, he’s come back and also found a job now working in a hotel. Please pray for some stability in his life.
• The kids at Kham siri. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will fall on them and reveal the father’s love. Pray for us also that we are sensitive to the Holy Spirit and to the needs of the children , as we build relationship with them.
• As we plan to have children living with us, pray that God will guide us too in this next big step. Pray especially that in the long term we will be able to balance the ministry in the city and at home with the children.
• We need a team to built on the works – God will bring the right people who share the same vision and work with.

Dear Friends,

Family

Hi! It has been just over 2 years now that we have been in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We settled in well here and God continues to guide us.
We are still having classes for Thai language. We both feel that we are getting better, there we can hold conversations with Thai people easier now.
Tobias just turned 3 on the 9/3/06. He is a very joyful child, who enjoys life here with his many Thai friends. He will start kindergarden at the end of next month. He is looking forward to go and make more new friends to play with. This time it’ll be the Germans??!!!
It actually is a Christian German school.

Ministry

The Children

We continue to teach basic English to the kids in the poor area and the turn out has been great. There are more kids from the local area coming every week. At the moment w have about 15-20 children coming regular. They come to learn and also play with toys and games, which have been given to us by various churches. We have classes 3 times a week for 2 hours each time. On Saturdays we have lunch with the kids between two classes, which is a great opportunity to get to know them more.

We introduced Jesus for the first time during the Christmas period in our lessons and many did not know about Jesus nor ever heard about Him at all. We had a wonderful Christmas party and the kids learn more about Jesus. We are now finding ways to integrate the Bible into the lessons. We continue to building relationship with them and also with their parents/carers.

Tobias had a wonderful birthday party. Many children came to Kam siri for a ‘swimming pool’ party. We had 3 small pools and they certainly enjoyed themselves. Some of the parents and adults came too. As we prayed for Tobias and the kids joined in, we could certainly see them very eagerly blessing Tobias in Jesus’ name.
We also notice that some of the children love to sing along the various worship CDs we play before and after the classes.

The Adults

Stefan has been spending a lot of time just “hanging out” with the locals in that poor area. Since Uan gave his life to Jesus in October last year, after he received his healing from Diabetes, God’s kingdom has come by means of physical healing again to show His great love, mercy and grace . An 86 years old lady, Sii Wan never heard of Jesus before. She can neither read nor write. God’s kingdom came down on her, when God healed both of her knees, which troubled her for many years. Her seeing doctors did nothing to alleviate the pain she has been suffering, which caused her not to be able to walk well. We both agreed that Dr. Jesus is the supreme doctor.
Then I told her that God hasn’t forgotten her and in fact has come to bring life and his light into her household, she happily received Jesus into her life.

Weeks later her brother Soon Tam received Jesus. He is 68 years old and very poor. He rides a tricycle and didn’t have enough clothes to keep warm at night. Of course we bought him clothes and blankets and told him about God’s unconditional love for him. He could not resist Jesus’ invitation to follow him. And just last week (mid March) Sii Wan and Soon Tams’ sister, aged 73 gave her life to Jesus. Stefan has been praying with her for almost one year now and she recently had a breakthrough. She stopped smoking and strongly reduced drinking alcohol. She was in tears, when she understood His compelling love. She has been smoking for many years and has chest problems. As she was always open to prayers, Jesus touched her many times and now she has Jesus in her heart. Imagine it is the first generation in that large extended family receiving Jesus in their lives. We just have to continue praying that salvation will come into the household (that is a big family). Stefan is meeting up with them to pray, have lunches and continue to build relationships with them and the others in the families.

Prayer Points

Please pray for:

• Protection as a family.
• Tobias to adjust quickly and well in his new environment at the kindergarden next month
• Thai language studies.
• For the kids who come for English classes – safety and openness to hear about the gospel.
• Wisdom for us as we teach the kids English using the Bible and songs
• Wisdom for us as we share more about Jesus during Easter period – kids will be open to listen and receive Jesus.
• Stefan as he continues to share the Bible with the new believers Uan, Sii Wan, Soon Tam and Sawad’s mum (Sii Wan & Soon Tam’s sis).
• We continue to bring the light into that area and continue to build relationships
• with others.
• Spiritual protection, there we go into areas, which have been for centuries places of Buddhist worship.
• May God’s glory fall.
• God opened the door into this area. We want to see more people come to Jesus. Some people close on my heart: Sawad, Dtao, Manit, Prong, Meela,, Poan, and so many other precious people.

Family

It has been just over 2 years now since we came to Chiang Mai, Thailand. It was about 5 years ago that we felt that God wants us to be in South East Asia. After much prayer and also meeting with some people, we felt that Thailand is the place. The first year was rather difficult in many ways especially the language study. Fortunately, our Thai neighbours were (and still are) very patience with us and also teaching us along the way.
We had our ups and downs here trying to settle, learning about the culture and the people here and finding “our feet”, where we belong. Things seem to get clearer starting the 2nd year and have improved since. We as a family is getting better and building more stable relationships especially for Tina with other mothers. Tobias will be 3 years old in March 2006 and is a lively happy boy. He is the main person for our connections with people in Thailand (evangelist). He is learning to speak 3 languages simultaneously – English, German and Thai from everybody he meets. We think that is enough for now (maybe Chinese and Malay for later).

Ministry

Though language was a challenge for us, we managed to build up many relationships with the locals in a particular area which we felt God ‘gave’ us. When we first came to Chiang Mai, Thailand, we move into a rather poor area. We felt that this is ‘where God’s heart is’. We continue to build relationship with the people in the area where we lived for a year and since we have moved, we continue to visit them regularly. Our new house is only about 10 mins drive to ‘old’ area. Stefan is spending a lot of time with the people in that particular area and led 3 people to the Lord in recent months and continues to follow them up. 2 of them received physical healing. They do not speak any English at all. Stefan is studying the Bible in Thai and is doing very well. There are many more out there need Jesus. Just continue to pray for their salvation. This is where we spend most of our time besides learning the language.

Since returning from London last year in the summer, we started English classes and playgroup. Many kids came and they enjoy playing and learning English at the same time. We never thought of teaching English but a lady approach us and asked if we could teach English as it is a need in that area. God gave us this perfect building and that place is call “kamsiri” – means Word of Glory. Isn’t that amazing! Parents in that poor area cannot afford to send their children for English classes as they were expensive. English are taught once a week in the ‘temple’ school. Most kids go to the temple school as it is the cheapest and the standard are very low. Over the Christmas period, 2005 we managed to share to the children about Jesus and what Christmas is all about. The children have no knowledge about Christmas except it is commercialised in the shopping malls. They only know about Santa and Christmas trees and snows – very westernized. We had a great party for Jesus, games and foods and lost of presents. They had great fun and so did we. We want to build relationship not only with the kids but also their parents. We will share more on Jesus towards Easter. The children know that we are Christians. On Saturdays in between lessons, some kids stayed behind and we have lunch together. We pray before having our lunch and they joined in. We have between 7 – 12 kids for each class. We have the classes 3 times a week. They range from 4 – 13 years old.

Prayer Points

• Continue to go with God in ministry
• Unity and good health in the family
• We will be the fragrance of Jesus to the others we meet
• Stefan, as the follow-up the new believers
• Thai language study for Tina
• Pray for the children we are teaching especially during Easter period as we want to share more about Jesus Christ and also using English to share the gospel.

Thank you for all you support and prayers. You all are a great blessing to us.

Family
We are doing well here, settling down in our new house, which is about 10 mins drive from the Old City.
Tobias is doing well overall. He is now 2 years and 7 months old and talking a lot in 3 languages, but predominantly English. He is also becoming more independent and knows what he likes to eat and wear. He is looking forward to going to school next year as he knows many of his friends do already. Tobias is very sociable, has a lot of friends, opens doors and is really a lot of fun to be with, so he can be a hand full at times.
We continue to study Thai language. Stefan is concentrating on reading the Bible in Thai and he enjoys it very much, and also challenging, as the vocabulary is different from normal daily spoken Thai. Tina has more time to study now, as we share looking after Tobias. She has more confidence to talk more to our neighbours now, there her language skills are really picking up now.

Ministry
Even so we have moved to another area God still places in our hearts the previous area where we lived in the city. We still continue to visit people in the “old” area, continue to build relationship there and getting to know more people.
After praying and talking to some neighbours we recognized some of the needs of this community. One of them is teaching English and also we felt we should do a playgroup for the younger ones. Learning via play, which is a new concept in this area.
Through Godstance we found a building right in the middle of the community, called “Kam Siri” which translated means “Word of Glory”. We certainly pray over that building and the entire area that God’s glory will come and draw people on to Jesus himself. In fact- God’s kingdom has come on some people already. We prayed for Uan, who had Diabetes. A week later he told us his doctor sees a substantial improvement of his condition. Stefan, visit him regular, we read the bible together and pray.
Another friend, her name is Duan, was involved in an accident and broke four ribs. She was to rest for two months. After we prayed for her she was back working at the market after two days, telling us the fast improvement was due to our prayer.
So we started teaching English. 4 weeks ago we had registration and a big party for the kids. About 20 children came and they had fun with games and lots of foods. We started the classes for free as it is a need in that area and the parents cannot afford to send their kids for extra classes in English language. One of the parents was so touched that she sewed a curtain for us for free and another parent brought us lots of delicious food and fruits on the opening day. They really blessed us.
Last week we went to a Vineyard conference in Bangkok, where we met many old friends and made new ones. People came from all over Asia. It was awesome to worship together and spend time with so many people from different cultures. Very encouraging.

Prayer points

• We want Jesus to draw all those he has given us to himself. Please pray for the kingdom of God to come more and more and manifest itself in the area
• Uan, Manit , Sawat , Duan, Lombow, their families and many others to come to know Jesus. They all live in a very poor slum in our area
• Nit & Na are 2 Thai mothers – their salvation and their family too.
• We will be sharing with the kids about Jesus in Dec, what is Christmas all about. Pray for their hearts and openness to Jesus and His love.
• Home group in the near future in Thai ???
• Christmas party for the adults too – Christmas message.
• For us as we teach English classes with our limited ability.
• Finance for buying gifts for the kids for Christmas and also foods.
• Continue to pray for our Thai language study.
• Protection as a family.
• Phom is a friend of ours, who gave his life to Jesus about 6 months ago. Please pray for him, there he is in need of direction and what to do now with his new life. Also how can we help him in a constructive way , which points him to Jesus
• Please pray with us for the future as we are seeking God about expanding the ministry by having a sort of “drop in center” during the week at Kam Siri. We just need to know how to attract people to come and feel comfortable.(if God shows you anything, please let us know)

How to contact us:

We will be distributing regular news for prayer. This will be

• By group email
• Hard copies
• Through prayer gatherings.

For those in our home church – Riverside Vineyard Church, Feltham – contact Claudia Lamb (Tel 020 8751 6635 – Email mail@twolambs.net)

For others contact Ian Watts – 020 8944 0982 – hallelujah150@yahoo.com

Or you can contact us here in Chiang Mai. Our Email address is stefan@mickel.freeserve.co.uk

Thank you all so much for your support and prayer. We miss you a lot, but it is great to know that you are right behind us.

Lots and lots of love

Stefan, Tina & Tobias

P.S.
Uan gave his life to Jesus yesterday. He told us that he understand the bible better now, when he reads it. He also had a dream a week ago, where God showed him heaven, which he saw in the dream as a beautiful place, where he experienced piece, happiness and a lovely cooling breeze.
Please pray that God will protect him, speaks to him and draws him close to himself.
Also pray for me, Stefan, as I help him to grow in his newly found relationship with Jesus.