“Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” 1 Corinthians 15:58. As team members in this work with you, we are so grateful to report that your contributions in prayers, encouragements and finances have not been in vain. This Labor Day weekend we thought we'd put a new twist on this old holiday and provide you with a report on our labors with you for the Kingdom. Here is a brief look at the work accomplished and anticipated with your active participation in our ministry.
A Look Back
After her Vietn*m trip Allyson stayed home in Massachusetts holding down the fort, while Steve was protected from bodily harm and spiritual attacks during his recent teaching tour of Asia. There were certainly some hurdles to overcome. Quite possibly the worst thing that happened was the sunburn Steve received by the Rajasthani sun on a trek up the mountain to the Jaighur Fort on his day off. Gratefully, that was not life threatening and he fully recovered. Strike 1. He also learned that not having your luggage arrive is a bit of a challenge but not without benefits. After several days without luggage, the airline provided delay compensation from which Steve acquired new wardrobe items that met Allyson's standards! Twelve days later his bag was delivered in India—apparently it was on its own sight-seeing tour of India. Strike 2. Lastly, Steve confesses he inadvertently insulted a good friend through a cross-cultural faux paus, which is another good reminder of the importance of proper cross-cultural communications. What others hear is not always what we mean and great patience must be exercised when communicating across cultures. Thank God He has also shown us the power of forgiveness and repentance for when our tongues fumble even if our hearts have good intentions. Strike 3. We are firmly committed with Create International to provide culturally appropriate gospel presentations to the peoples of the world without a gospel presence.
Thankfully, even with these three strikes, Steve was still able to play a good game to the end. Thank God for extra innings, right? The teaching times in both Thailand and Indi* went exceedingly well. Teaching on the School of Frontier Media in Thailand had the extra challenge of pausing after every sentence for translation into Thai. Despite the awkwardness of such disjointed speaking, the students were successfully introduced to the basic principles and a practical approach to directing. Meanwhile, Steve was grateful to be reacquainted with friends and colleagues in Chiang Mai who went out of their way to bless him and encourage us to come back soon to Thailand. Steve has another opportunity to work with this school this fall during their outreach to the Tai Yuan, the people of Northern Thailand. Please pray he will be able to return and participate in the team's outreach at the end of September into October.
Steve's next stop was J*ipur Indi* where he taught the basics of video production to many Indi*n staff and students plus one guy from Kore*. His time there was also extremely blessed. The students in the school were very attentive and appreciative, which rewards any teacher. The feedback received on his week of teaching was graciously positive—a nice confirmation of his call to help raise up other missionaries to use media to share the gospel. The Create Indi* leaders are already asking Steve to consider returning twice a year to continue teaching in their programs. The long-term plan would be to train himself out of a job. Someday soon our brothers and sisters in India won't need us to come teach anymore—because they will be teaching each other about using media effectively for missions. In the meantime, we are grateful for any excuse to come see our dear friends and Steve was thankful to reconnect with the Martins, Anselm, Thapas, Vijay, and Ashish. Please pray for these teams of YWAM students and staff as they are now doing ministry outreach in that Northeastern parts of India near B*ngladesh and Bhut*n in an effort to “Make our Lord Known” to the nations.
The evangelistic Sh*n film we worked on this time last year is completed and we are eager to share it with you at your request. The film has been well received by Sh*n congregations in Northern Thailand who will help distribute the film in My*nm*r. The response has been enthusiastic and the film definitely sets a new standard for excellence in Create's video catalogue.
A Look Forward
The ministry work continues right up through Christmas. As Allyson described in the last newsletter, she will be very busy this fall working part-time for Create International doing online research for the ministry, when she is not working part-time as a substitute teacher in the Falmouth public schools. She is also starting her new work as an associate editor for the Center for the Study of Global Christianity and is happy to tell you more about it. Allyson also has her hands full editing a number of videos about the orphanage in Vietn*m. As a family we are also planning on mobilizing and equipping other missionaries at upcoming YWAM 50th Anniversary conferences in both Canada (Sept) and Florida (Nov) representing Create International.
Meanwhile, Steve plans to contribute to the following projects this fall:
complete the editing of the M*rw*ri ev*ngelistic film based on the feedback from the Indi* and Thailand team members, project partners and test audiences
return to Thailand in late September to work with the teams on the Tai Yuan video projects—which may also lead to more editing work for this Fall and Spring
participate as an official delegate at the Cape Town 2010 Lausanne Conference in mid-October as a representative of frontier media missions
continue editing the Papua New Guinea footage from last year (which has taken a back-burner to all the other work lately).
There has never been a better time to contribute to our ministry work. Our ongoing support is currently at 72% which means we are closer to reaching our goal of being able to return to a Create center next year! Because we are still below our required goal we find that we need to pray and hope for additional funds above our regular support in order to participate in all these upcoming events. Please contact us if you need some help getting started in regular support or making a special contribution for our upcoming projects.
This verse sums up our enthusiasm to be serving the Lord so wholeheartedly these days. We are exceedingly blessed to be able to proclaim Him through the work we do advancing the Kingdom of God around the world. “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” Colossians 1:28-29. Amen.
Just wanted to let you know I am in B*ngladesh and they just ordered another 1000 copies of Ami Doshi (Ev*ngelistic film for Beng*li Hindus) to distribute thru their radio program to their listeners. We also gave out the calendars and they were very excited to get them. We also used the calendars in an outreach that our Beng*li believers did last month and they were very well received and a very effective evangelistic tool. Thought you might like to know this. Thanks for all you do.
- A YWAM Frontier Missions South Asia leader
Thanks to Sameh, Ricky, Ashish, and Vijay for these photos.
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