Vol. 21: Lanna Thai Project Report

Thailand is a beautiful place and we especially remember the people there fondly. It was not much of a hardship to be there last year and, Lord willing, we are eager to return as a family next year. In the meantime, it's important to remember the great spiritual need among the Thai people. With God's strategic placement of Create International's ministry in Northern Thailand, as a ministry we have proximity to millions of unreached peoples in Asia, and responsibility to bring the gospel to these people "right in our backyard."

A Thai Christian friend who grew up in Chiang Rai tells us, "Many foreign missionaries have gone to the hill tribes for many, many years. But not many go to the Northern Thai people. Only less than 1% of the Northern Thai people know the gospel...I wish for more workers to go to them, and now also I want to go to share with my Northern Thai people."

In October, Create teams are going to produce gospel resources for the least reached peoples of Northern Thailand: the 7 million Tai Yuan, otherwise known as Lanna Thai or Northern Thai. Create staff persons in Thailand have already been in meetings with project partners and are diligently working on treatments, scripts, and identifying the right story lines that would be specific and relevant to the people in their language and culture. They have asked me (Steve) to come to Thailand and join the team from Sept.27 to Oct.15, where we will be on the field filming in this region! In October through December we will be editing the films as well as producing animated resources for the Northern Thai.

"We were lacking good evangelism tools to reach our people group, the Northern Thai. When Create approached us to make these films to reach the Northern Thai, we were very excited because it was something we see a huge need for. The Northern Thai don't generally like to read tracts and books, but they do watch a lot of television shows and movies—so we think it would be a tool that would be very effective with our people group." - Greg, Field Worker, OMF

We will not simply translate a Western gospel story. Instead, with the help of our project partners, Create Thailand staff and students will produce "contextual films" using Northern Thai analogies, indigenous elements, and cultural bridges. "Contextual" describes a way of introducing Jesus in a personal way, as a God who is their Maker intimately acquainted with who they are as a people, who speaks their language, and loves their music and art.

A word from our Project Partner(s):

We have several organizations and denominations coming together to put this video together. We need people across the world really praying for this project; that we'll have unity and we'll be able to move forward in consensus. We need prayer for wisdom on how to really present the gospel in a way that will communicate to the Northern Thai people—right to their hearts, right into their families, so that they really understand what the true love is that Jesus Christ came to present. They need to be able to not only just understand it, but accept it as their own and see their lives changed because of it.

Please pray for:

1. God to anoint and guide us in unity as we work together as a partnership of missions agencies in the Body of Christ.

2. all the script preparations, cultural advisors, actors, and participants for the films, viral videos, and animation projects that Create International is producing for the Northern Thai peoples.

3. safety, wisdom and creativity for the Create International staff and students participating in this field production.

4. full provision of finances and resources to complete the work.

My current need towards participating on this outreach is still $1800 at this time, basically a round-trip flight to Thailand. The funds I need for the outreach itself (food, accommodation, and transport over the duration of our field production) have gratefully already been provided.

If you would like to give, please contact me immediately. Donations can also be sent:

Ripe for Harvest, P.O. Box 487, Monument, CO 80132
http://ripeforharvest.org/donations.htm

Our account number is #247 and should go on a note with the check rather than on the check.

You can view a short video on You Tube about this project:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzkWQG08kRg

Yours, till ALL have heard,

Steve & Allyson

Vol 20: Labor Day Report

“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 50^th 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.

MA RI CT NY NJ PA DE DC VA MD

Soon after returning home from teaching in Asia, most of us were in a rented car off to PA, VA and MD on official furlough business which included a reunion with Steve's father! The trip started later and ended sooner than we hoped—which meant we hit the ground running hard every day to keep on schedule.

Nevertheless, we were grateful to see some friends, supporters and family on this five day trip all the way to the Blue Ridge mountains and back. We were reunited with the Montoyas, our CDTS classmates, fresh from their work around the world, who graciously returned one of our suitcases we had left behind in Perth. Thanks again!

While visiting them in Charlottesville, VA, we celebrated Steve's 43^rd birthday. We also wedged in a few hours here and there to take in a some sights along the way, including the wonderful view from the Skyline Drive and an impromptu dinner in Times Square. And our twenty minutes in our Nation's capitol has whet our appetite to return someday when we have more time to enjoy the museums and monuments more fully. Drive-by shootings just don't quite satisfy.

It was great to see my dad, his wife, my sister and her daughter after almost two years. It was a short but sweet family reunion.

Back from Vietnam!

Dear friends,

Hello to everyone! I have returned from an excellent trip to Vietnam only to be replaced in Asia by my traveling husband! As I write this from the comfort of Falmouth, Massachusetts, Steve is teaching and sweating in India. His time at the School of Frontier Media in Thailand went well and I know he was blessed to see our teammates who continue to hold down the fort in Chiang Mai. He has moved onto Jaipur, India to teach in a Media Discipleship Training School for a week and to test the rough-cut (sort of the first draft) of the evangelistic film in Marwari that was shot in April. He has even had the unexpected blessing of being reunited with his suitcase that was taking its own trip in India for the last 12 days! I'm sure he will have many details to share when he returns on August 20th.

My trip to Vietnam was a blessing and a treat! I was able to accompany my oldest friend Jenifer (friends since 7th grade!) as she led a short-term team to Da Nang, Vietnam. Jenifer runs an orphan ministry in Western Mass and this trip was to support the work of Orphan Voice, an agency caring for orphans in two locations in Da Nang (check 'em out: www.orphanvoice.org). I had the privilege of coming along to help and to shoot video. I will be producing and editing a promotional video for her ministry as well as a travelogue of sorts to document the trip. While we were there, we spent as much time as possible just holding and getting to know the kids. We also took all 50 of them to the dentist and spent time beautifying one of the orphanages with paint and a new wall. The three guys on our team completed an entire playscape—no easy feat since there are no Home Depots around and the lumber was delivered by bicycle! It was a wonderful opportunity to be part of this trip. I loved every minute of it.

Now that I am home I am quite busy with two research projects for Create and running my kids around to appointments and things. In addition to my work with Create, I have also signed on with Todd Johnson (fellow YWAMer and director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon Conwell) to assist as an editor in his next publication The World Christian Chronology. Todd has recently co-edited The Atlas of Global Christianity, a beautiful book that references the status of global Christianity for the past 100 years. These volumes are important to understanding the status of world missions and for planning the continuing work in the unreached world. I am very excited to be part of it! This does not change my status as associate staff with Create International but complements the work we are doing in the field nicely.

Once Steve is back we are taking a short support-raising trip down the east coast with stops to see Steve's dad in Maryland, and other members of our support team in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia. We are cramming this trip in while getting the kids prepared for school and Samuel off to college! It continues to be our busiest summer ever and no vacation yet! :) Please pray for safety in travel, great appointments with family and friends, and the finances necessary to pull this speedy trip off successfully.

As we are learning, it seems to be these busiest times that the enemy comes against us. I'd like to ask you to join us in prayer for a few things. First, Samuel has been battling headaches and persistent, severe eczema for a while now. Despite many doctors' advice, medicines and creams he just can't seem to get ahead of it. It has been an increasing problem all summer and seems to be in a bit of a crisis now. Would you please pray for relief for Samuel? He is worn down and depressed and we want to see him healed of this—especially before he heads off to school. We want him to start off his college career in great health—and we will need a miracle now for this to happen. Gratefully, we believe in a God of miracles.

The second prayer request is in the area of our finances. Through many of you God has provided so beautifully and generously for our ministry travel expenses—it has been a miracle to watch and we are always in awe as the Lord gives us the green light for a project and then provides for it. While our travel has been covered, our living expenses have become steadily more and more difficult to manage. Our regular support has recently diminished because of changes in people's employment and income level. It also seems like our car is requiring regular trips to the garage to keep it going and that repeated expense has been beyond our budget. We know what it is to enjoy an abundance and to be in want. We have had many natural ups and downs over the past years but this time it feels like an attack designed to discourage us and throw us off course. Our desire is to raise the necessary funds to return to the field with the rest of our team. Would you please join us in prayer as we resist the enemy in the area of financial discouragement? We know that God means to keep us dependent on him—and we welcome that—but we also know it is not his way to beat us down. And we are feeling a little beaten these days.

Thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy lives to follow along with us. We are grateful for you. We are also grateful for the extraordinary privilege it is to do this work for the Lord. We would not trade it for any amount of money or the promise of health or even for a brand new car. We intentionally stepped out of the world of working for profit in order to follow this call and we do not regret it—no matter how hard some days may be. Thanks for standing in prayer with us. We pray for you, too!

Bless you all,
Allyson & Steve

Return to Asia

It's been about a month since we last wrote here on the blog and so much is going on. We are like Grand Central Station here at our furlough base in Falmouth these days. Rachel is recently back from Mississippi and extremely blessed by that experience. Allyson is wrapping up her tour-of-duty in Vietnam with Orphan Voice and Redeeming Families. And Steve is only one day away from leaving on his return trip to Thailand where he will be teaching on “Directing Video” in the School of Frontier Media. After a week in Thailand with old and new friends, Steve flies directly to India for about two weeks to continue work on the rough-cut of the M*rwari film and to teach young Asians on video production in a discipleship training program.

Praises for:

- Rachel's successful ministry trip to Mississippi with the Lanesville Congregational Church

- Allyson's time of abundant blessing in Vietnam (She returns Saturday night)

- Steve's ability to finish the rough-cut of the M*rwari film on time and for the school preparations going well

- a wonderful tour with old friends and family in Southern CT in July.

Please Pray for:

- a continuation of ministry effectiveness in Vietnam for Allyson and the team for this week

- for the orphans of Danang (more on them in the next post)

- safety for travel for Steve and Allyson coming and going from Asia in the next few days and

specifically for on-time, uneventful flights—Steve has some tricky connections that if missed will be problematic so we hope to avoid that

- all of Steve's equipment and gear making it all the way to Chiang Mai and back in one-piece

- health during the trip

- Steve to be a blessing to the students and teammates at the two centers he will be visiting over the next month.

- overcoming jet lag and great focus for teaching and editing video in the next few weeks.

- Nana and grandpa who stay with the kids for 4 days while Steve leaves before Ally returns

- Samuel's preparations for University and the girls returning to school in the fall

- an increase in our regular giving needed for us to return to our base of operations overseas

- wisdom in making decisions about the many exciting ministry plans for the Fall (Thailand outreach, Cape Town 2010 conference in South Africa, YWAM 50^th Anniversary in Florida, etc.).

Attached you will find an exciting ministry report from Create for July 2010. This is a newsletter they publish twice a year with great insider-information on current and future projects. The international directors are also planning on touring the America continents in 2010.

"Above is Create International's latest E-newsletter--just four easy-to-read pages with condensed yet very exciting reports from all of our Create International centers. If you are unable to receive this version of our E-news please follow this hotlink to the web browser version which you can read online. Alternatively you can visit our website at http://www.createthailand.com/ where you can view and download higher quality versions of this E-news as well as past E-newsletters. Most Create International centers and staff are also on Facebook--so please keep in touch!

God bless you and thank you for your continued support of this ministry. Please let us know if you would like to have a presentation by us or one of our Create International staff. Carol and Calvin plan to be traveling and speaking throughout both North and South America March-May 2011."

Simon Says

It is my honor to introduce you to some new friends of ours of whom we are quite fond. It was a privilege to work closely with Simon and Anima of Create India. They are the international directors of the base in Jaipur with whom I recently partnered in order to direct the Marwri evangelistic film. Here is Simon's report on that work that we did together.

Simon says: " The climate has been very hot, 45 degrees Celsius (113 F) and dry, with lots of sand storms along with strong hot winds blowing making it difficult to do our work effectively, but by the grace of God we have been able to do our work and accomplish things...There were times we had difficulties in getting actors for the film but God helped us and we were able to complete the filming successfully. Even with the climate being very hot and other problems coming up everyday for us to carry out the filming, the crew and actors were patient and did very well. We thank God for His help so that we could successfully complete the filming. Now the editing is being done in the USA by Steve, the film director, and should be completed by Sept'10." Thanks, Simon!

Simon and Anima have invited me back to India in August to work on the rough cut of the film that I'm editing now. While there I will also teach video production for missions to young Indians and other international students. I will also stop in Thailand to teach in the School of Frontier Media for one week. My goal to teach young people in the areas of media and missions has very quickly become a reality!

To make this trip a reality we need $2900 in funds primarily for flights to India and Thailand. If you would like to contribute to this special project, contact us at sevenlampstands at gmail dot com to find out how to best support this work. You may also wish to make an additional donation to help support the work of Create India.

Please pray for:
* stamina and focus to complete the rough-cut of the Marwri film on time
* wisdom in booking the jumble of flights from Boston to Delhi, India to Bangkok, Thailand to Chiang Mai and back
* $2200 in funds to come in right away to purchase the round-trip tickets and an additional $700 prior to departure for the other expenses
* focused time to prepare for teaching two different classes in Asia this August
* safety in travel, including equipment
* an openness and readiness for the students to both learn and to ignite a passion for using media effectively in frontier missions work!
* Create India to receive the funds they need to continue their work
* that workers will go to engage the M*rwari people who desperately need to hear the life-giving Good News!

Simon's closing statement to his prayer partners is true for us as well. "We hope and pray that you are doing well by the grace of our Father in Heaven. We as a family remember you every night in our family prayers and thank God for you for partnering with us in the work that He has called us to do here. There are many of you that pray for us, write encouraging letters to us and support us in different ways. All this and your friendship helps us to keep moving forward here in Jaipur, India" . . . and even, by God's grace, in Massachusetts!

Coming attractions: Allyson shares about her upcoming trip to Vietnam and Rachel's report on her missions trip to Mississippi!

"I would like to thank Steve, who had taken time from his busy schedule to come to Jaipur, India to help us with the production, filming and editing of the evangelistic video drama film for the Rjasthani, Mrwari people group. The Rjasthani Mrwari are a mega unreached people group with no known church happening in their own language for their own people. Steve came here in the month of April, an extremely hot time of the year here in Rjasthan. I and the team were very blessed by Steve's attitude and his hard work, committing himself everyday to finish the work even when he felt a bit sick some days due to the heat and food. Steve's positive attitude and fun loving nature was a great encouragement to many of us on the team, the crew and actors, in the midst of difficult situations arising due to power cuts, the heat, actors not showing up on time or even pulling out, equipment problems, etc. He always had a positive attitude. Steve also took time during the Mrwari filming to train and help our local staff get some experience in filming and directing. Now even while he is back in the USA, he is working on the editing of the Mrwari film. I personally as the ministry leader here in Jaipur was very blessed by Steve and hope and pray that he continues to come back to India to help us make many more films for the numerous unreached people groups that live here. I thank his family for releasing him to come to India to help us." - Simon, Director, Create India

"In addition to being a deeply cherished and trusted friend and co-worker, Steve was our positive and persevering film director on the set. Early on, he committed himself and never once wavered. His contributions go above and beyond; yet humility goes before himself. He blessed us tremendously with his humility in receiving feedback on cross-cultural interaction, and the way he attempted to apply it immediately for the sake of team unity." - JoAnne, Create International Global Communications & Resource Centre, Thailand.

"I just thought it'd be cool for you to know that there is a Brazilian audience excited about what we did! ;) And I am sure they will be amazed when they see the end product. I love the passion you and your family have for the Kingdom! And the fact that you guys are bold enough to step out in faith and do what you do, wherever it takes you. I will stand in prayer for you." - Teammate Mila, School of Frontier Media graduate, Brazil

"Working with a talented, hard-working group to accomplish the goal of creating a relevant evangelistic film and overcoming trials and tribulations together to get there is just what I signed up for!" - Steve

Rachel Strikes Out On Her Own

Hi, this is Rachel! 

It's been my heart's desire for a long time to be a m!ssionary. In the past year I've had amazing opportunities to step out in m!ssions with my family. Now I have a chance to take a trip without my family to Mississippi with the Lanesville Congregational Church in Gloucester. We're going at the middle of July, and driving down to Canton, Mississippi. There we will be running a VBS and doing some minor construction work for the poor and needy. The trip is for two weeks and I'll be there with my best friend and thirty other kids my age.

The entire cost for this trip is $450 for food, accommodation, and transportation. I've been able to pay the registration fees of $75 and I'm hoping to raise the rest in support. Would you please pray about contributing to this trip? 

If you feel at this time that you can support me, please contact my parents about making a donation for this work. 

Thank you for considering my need, and please keep me in your prayers as I take this trip.

Sincerely, Rachel