Tidings of Comfort & Joy (39)

Create Thailand Christmas: Where's Steve?

Oh tidings of comfort and joy! This is how the author of one of our favorite carols “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” likens the good news of Jesus’ birth and encourages us to sing praises to the Lord. It is a wonderful gift to us as a family to be finally reunited for Christmas. It’s been nearly a year since Steve saw Sam face-to-face, and nearly four months since being in the same room with Allyson, Rachel and Abby. We are enjoying each other’s company again and looking forward to just spending time catching up. Thank you to those who contributed to make this reunion a reality.

 A scene from the movie

God’s word to us in the time apart was to “finish strong” and we all did our best to live that out with God’s help over the past four months. The Lord has also been speaking to us about counting the cost of discipleship, which is something all of us as Christ-followers need to do. The cost of not serving God is greater than the price we pay to obey him here and now. We made some necessary sacrifices as a family this Fall, but the divine dividends are immeasurable. One evangelistic film to be narrated in ten languages was produced. Six students from around the world successfully completed the SFM program with flying colors and are now seeking God about how to best serve Him in the future. Girls are well adjusted in their new surroundings and thriving at Falmouth High School. Mission accomplished. You can see a trailer for the Indian film A Beautiful Hope here: http://youtu.be/olZJh6V-JmY 

Steve on the set

We are here now in Massachusetts to obey God, to follow him, to serve him as media experts, filmmakers, trainers and mobilizers. 2013 will take us around-the-world again to create cross-cultural gospel films in the language and culture of people who desperately need to know about a baby born in Bethlehem. Thanks for sharing this journey with us. Remember, Christ, our Saviour, was born on Christmas day to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray. O tidings of comfort and joy! 

Praise & Prayer Requests:

Praise that Steve was able to return home for Christmas and finished strong in the SFM program having overseen a number of video edits. 

Pray for:

• Wisdom also for the six students and their families who are seeking God about their futures 

  

  SFM Thailand with Create India

• timely completion of the editing and field-testing of this new Indian film A Beautiful Hope

• Ongoing clarity as we continue to seek the Lord’s will about the specific details of our future

• Our transition to being reunited as a family after many long months apart

• Sam, as you feel lead by the Lord 

• A blessed time of deputation in 2013 and an increase in our support to provide the difference between our ongoing needs and our current income shortfall 

• wipe out the debt from the medical emergency and other underfunded expenses earlier this year. 

Hindu Hospitality (Vol. 38)

Ready to cook dinner!

Happy Thanksgiving! Although this American holiday is not celebrated in Thailand, Steve would like to express his gratitude for all of you who have read our newsletters, and supported and prayed for us. Steve had some prayer time this morning to thank God for you, too. 

Steve recently returned from directing Create’s latest film in India and the film editing is well underway. When finished this movie will be widely distributed throughout Rajasthan in ten different narrated versions, increasing its reach and impact. Steve would like to thank the A-Team of staff and students who contributed to the projects success including Alicia, Anima, Barry, Bill, Carla, Elianderson, Jason, Jeremy, Manoj, Mila, Paul, Penny, Prince, Rachel, Simon, Wendy and of course 

Action!

Calvin and Carol. As you can see, it takes a lot of people to make these movies and we didn’t even list all the actors, translators and cultural advisors without whose contributions the film could not have been made. 

One of our actors started to cry while we shot a particular scene. We later learned that we were making a version of her life story. God is clearly at work already in this film and exceeding all of our expectations! Another remarkable aspect of this particular production was the tremendous help we received from a Hindu family who graciously loaned us their home for several days for our principal location and served as actors. Their gracious hospitality was very humbling to our team, not to mention some of the best home-cooked meals and chai you can find anywhere in India! If you would like to learn more about Deepak and his family, or you are ever in Rajasthan, look them up at bishnoivillagesafari.com and tell them Steve sent you! 

We thought it might be fun to take a brief look back at the past year to

Taj Mahal

 highlight past events: 

Oct 2011 Co-Directing the Pattani Malay film in Southern Thailand

Nov 2011 Training and mobilizing at the Call2All, Long Beach, California 

Dec 2011 Christmas with the family back in Cape Cod 

Jan 2012 Return to Thailand with Michelle, Steve’s sister, who did her YWAM DTS!

Feb 2012 Training at NTC in Derha Dun and the MDTS at Create India

Mar 2012 Training and mobilizing at the Call2All, Cebu City, Philippines

Apr 2012 Film production in Indonesia with Create Perth 

May 2012 Production of School of Frontier Media (SFM) training videos and school prep

June 2012 Staff training and the SFM begins! Awesome group of students! 

July 2012 Leading and teaching scriptwriting and video production in the SFM

Aug 2012 YWAM regional conference and ongoing SFM leadership and teaching

Sept 2012 Ally and the girls return to Cape Cod then Steve leaves for India

Oct 2012 Directing the film in India with Create staff and the SFM students

Nov 2012 Film editing and ongoing SFM post-production responsibilities including a behind-the-scenes video we are eager to share with you next year.

2013 is shaping up to be just as ambitious and productive. Lord willing, we will continue to do all that he asks of us for the sake of his Kingdom. 

Some of our team

 In other news, we have seen a sharp decline in our support now for three months and we are no longer making ends met. We don’t yet have the funds we need to put Steve on a plane to be reunited with his family for Christmas, and we regret at this point any funds coming into YWAM  before December 7th will not be credited to us until December 21st. If anyone reading this would like to help Steve fly home, donations can be made through Paypal.com for Allybaldwin5@gmail.com or you may contact Allyson to make other arrangements. Thank you very much for all of you who recently gave to help with this or other urgent needs as outlined in last month’s newsletter. 

Prayer Requests:

• An urgent need for the money for Steve’s return trip to the States to be reunited with his family for Christmas ($1500) 

• Finishing strong in the SFM program and completing a number of video edits on-time

• Hassle-free and timely completion of this Indian film and its many incarnations 

• Wisdom for Steve as he continues to lead the SFM program during the internship phase 

Rajasthan!

• Wisdom also for the six students and their families who are wondering about their futures

• Ongoing clarity of vision as we seek the Lord’s will about the specific details of our future

• Our transition to being reunited as a family after many long months 

• An increase in our support to provide the difference between our ongoing needs and our current shortfall in income and to wipe out the debt from the medical emergency and other underfunded expenses earlier this year. 

Wow, what a year! If you are still reading this, we thank you even more for continuing to be a part of our journey together. Lord willing, we hope to see all of you in 2013! 

(This was published here on the blog late . . . )

Incredible India or Bust! (37)

Presenting our outreach location

A little known fact is that using MailChimp to deliver our newsletter to you allows us to track the number of people who actually open it. We were very encouraged by the statistics that our last newsletter was our most read one ever! Thank you for tracking with us on this journey. We are sincerely grateful for you. 

Paul sets up a lamp

We received many gracious encouragements about our transition to leading a new Create International team next year. Some of you wondered how we had come to this surprise decision. The biggest factor in the decision is that we felt that God spoke and said this was the right timing. We definitely continue to feel both God’s leading and peace about our decision. Some of the more practical concerns that this decision addresses for us are:
- a desire to keep our family better intact and to not be so far away from Sam 
- better and more affordable educational opportunities for Rachel and Abigail (Rachel will graduate from High School this year and is looking at college options now) 
- a drive to accelerate our ministry goals of seeing the 20/20 Vision accomplished. If you don’t yet know what the 20/20 Vision is you can watch this short video:  
http://www.createinternational.com/partnering/2020-vision

We want to assure you that we are as committed to frontier missions work as ever and very much apart of Create International’s ongoing work in evangelistic film production, mobilization, and media-for-missions training. On the one hand we are a bit intimidated by the extra responsibility we will be undertaking; on the 

Cleaning Lady in India

other hand, we are excited about the opportunity to expand our ministry’s work. We have a great opportunity to do that moving forward and are excited to share more details with you in the future. Thank again for your faithful support and fervent prayers for us during this transition. Together we are being a light to the nations in Jesus name! 

Steve is about to depart for India where he will continue to lead the School of Frontier Media and train students in effective video-making for missions. He will direct a short evangelistic film that is voice-over driven so that it can be dubbed into up to eleven distinct Indian languages for people in one of the least evangelized areas of all India. You can imagine this is both an enormous task and a tremendous opportunity to provide a clear gospel presentation for a very large group of Indians. Literally millions. Consequently, the enemy is attempting to thwart our efforts and we’d like to encourage you to pray often for our entire team during our expedition there September 23rd-October 20th. Steve is entering India still $1000 short of what he needs for his outreach expenses so please contact Allyson about how you can contribute. 

Back to School

Here is how you can pray: 
- provision of the actors, cultural advisors, translators, narrators and locations for the film 
- health and safety for the cast and crew
- grace and patience with logistical challenges 
- team unity, peace and answered prayers 
- success with our ambitious schedule 
- protection over our personal belongings, equipment, cameras, footage and finances 
- acquisition of all the footage and recordings we need to edit the films 
- financial provision for Steve and his students who are still short in the necessary funds for this outreach and Allyson and the girls at home
- for wisdom and strength to serve God and minister to Indians as his salt and light in a dusty land. 

Allyson, Rachel & Abby are getting settled in Falmouth. The school year is off to a good start and Allyson has gone back to work part time at Royal Megansett Nursing & Rehab Home. Everyone is enjoying being back in the States and they have already been to visit Sam in Amherst twice. It’s nice to be back within driving distance! We feel God’s pleasure at our obedience in coming back and are looking forward to seeing what is in store for the coming year. Thanks for your prayers for our transition. We see God at work!

A Dramatic Turn of Events (Vol. 36)

Steve & Tiger

Steve by Gabrielle

God never ceases to amaze us. We remember that during our training at YWAM Perth back in 2009 one of our instructors told us that God’s path for missionaries is often less linear than zig-zaggy. We don’t always move directly from Point A to Point B; instead we take a rather complex road to the same destination. We seem to be living proof of that during these past five years. Our desire has been to serve faithfully with Create International and God has made that happen despite many challenges. He has faithfully used you as a part of our team to make that vision a reality. Now that vision is expanding! Some very recent circumstances have lead us to start making a slow return to the United States. God has orchestrated this return very beautifully, despite many initial reservations on our part. Honestly, we expected to be in Thailand for years to come, and planned accordingly, but as it turns out God has made other exciting plans for us. 

Our beloved leaders here at Create International in Thailand have graciously granted us permission to forge a new Create team with the primary objective of leading short term teams to produce evangelistic short films for unreached people groups in fulfillment of our 20/20 Vision. We could not be more excited 

SFM Cast & Crew for our short Thai film

about that! We will also be tasked with some mobilization and training and our schedule for 2013 is already filling up quickly. You can learn more about the 20/20 Vision here: http://www.createinternational.com/partnering/2020-vision

Our new team will use a different model to multiply the efforts of Create International by producing more films to achieve our goals. For 2013 we will be located in Massachusetts and asking God about where we will be based in the future. You’ll be hearing more about this in the months ahead as the details become more concrete. In fact, you may even have an opportunity to join us on one of those gospel film expeditions. How would you like to be an active part of making an evangelistic film in another culture to help reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ? 

Yes, that is a real tiger

In the short term, Allyson and the girls will be immediately returning to Falmouth, Massachusetts to enroll the girls in school there. Meanwhile, Steve will remain in Thailand to continue leading the School of Frontier Media into December. Additionally, Steve will direct and help produce the next evangelistic film in India. We’ll be telling you more about this outreach in the weeks ahead. Thanks in advance for your prayers for this expedition to India. 

Steve will be reunited with his family at Christmas and we’ll then begin a few months of furlough after two years of service. We hope to have an opportunity to meet with many of you face-to-face to hear about our future together in this mission. We covet your prayers and your continued financial support in this major transition. We can’t do this without you and we are so grateful for your ongoing partnership with us to make God known through media in the hardest to reach places on planet Earth. 

Praises & Prayer Requests: 

Rachel and Mara, Sisters in the Lord

* Praise God for returning Allyson and the girls safely back to Falmouth in time to begin the school year

* Thanks be to God that Rachel’s friend Mara became a Christian while on her visit here with us in Thailand

* Thank God that Sam is able to start his junior year at UMASS Amherst this fall and pray that he will continue to do well academically

* Pray for Allyson, Rachel and Abigail to have a successful transition to life back in the United States after a year in Thailand 

* Pray for Samuel’s physical and spiritual well being, he still suffers greatly from eczema and we long to see him healed as a sign of God’s care for him, and for his salvation

* Please ask the Lord to wipe out our medical debt for Abby’s hospital stay back in May ($1250) . . . with all of our current expenses we have not yet had the extra funds to reduce this emergency medical debt

* Pray for funds for travel expenses for Steve and all the SFM staff and students for the upcoming outreach to India in late September (each person needs $2000)

* Pray for the six students in the School of Frontier Media to continue to make the most of their experience here and that God would speak to them about their future missions work 

* Ask God to give Steve increasing wisdom, patience and sensitivity for the ongoing administration of this media missions program

* Ask God to provide all that we need to successfully make this gospel movie later this month in India

* Please ask the Lord to provide more regular support to cover increased monthly and quarterly expenses

* Pray that God would continue to give us all His wisdom as we continue to follow his leading on our lives. 

Rachel leading worship with the student band featuring Kyla, Melissa and Paul

Meet the SFM (35)

“I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord’s people.” - Philemon 1:6-7

You have indeed refreshed our hearts and encouraged us greatly, and for that we are sincerely grateful. Recently, Steve has been serving as a teacher and School Leader for Create International’s School of Frontier Media. Six students and three staff persons from around the globe have gathered here in Chiang Mai to be better equipped to serve as missionaries using media for effective evangelism. Steve has often remarked about his high level of job satisfaction. Your prayers, encouragements, and financial support have made this training school a reality. 

We’d like to introduce you to the students whose lives and calling you are helping to impact so that they can go and impact the world in Jesus name!

“I am so excited to be here in Thailand and learn more about media and how to use it to further the Kingdom!” Alicia, Student (USA)

“As I learn with God about media I feel like I am becoming more the woman God created me to be. The SFM is an exhilarating ride of revelation as God equips me with media in ways I've never dreamed about.” Carla, Student (USA) 

"SFM has been more than learning new tools, this has been a life-changing experience." Elianderson, Student (Brazil)

“As a missionary, I've been in Asia for 12 years and been involved in many types of ministries and evangelism projects. But after seeing the different things that CREATE is doing, I feel like there are few better tools to help long term workers in the field...I only feel more and more positive that God's hand is with this ministry as they use various forms of media to reach the lost and to train and equip missionaries.” Jeremy, Student (USA)

"Staffing the SFM with Steve has been a great delight. Steve is an enthusiastic leader and cares a lot about the students growth in the Lord and in their vocation. We have a heart to reach out to  the Thai college students and Unreached People Groups in India. May God be glorified amongst those who do not know him yet." Mila, Staff (Brazil) 

“The way I see cross-cultural communication, media for missions, photography and filmmaking has now been completely transformed!” Manoj, Student (Nepal)

"It hasn't just been an amazing learning experience so far, but rather an inspiring one because of the community of gifted professionals who are living an example of obedience to their callings, who believe in helping me develop God's gifts in me, and who are laying down their time, talents, efforts, energy and life for the extension of His kingdom. Amidst any other worries, I feel very motivated and truly blessed to be here.” Paul, Student (India)

"I love being a part of people's journey as God leads us and equips us for His kingdom work of spreading the astounding truth of His grace and mercy that sets mankind free..." - Peter, Staff (USA)

Soon we will all embark on an outreach to North West India to make another evangelistic film for an unreached people group in one of the most resistant places to the gospel. Each student and staff person needs $2000 for all the expenses for this expedition. Please take a moment to pray for:

- each one of these students and staff by name that they will be able to join us in this important evangelistic film outreach 

- success in our preproduction planning and scriptwriting before leaving for India

- unity and humility for the entire team as we work together 

- identification of and collaboration with skilled cultural advisors and translators 

- $2000 for each person involved with this project for all expenses related to the expedition 

- openness for the gospel in India and open doors to minister while there 

- the opportunity for many in this part of India to see this film and to come to know Guru Yeshu (that is Hindu for Jesus the Great Teacher) as Lord and Savior.

Allyson, Rachel and Abigail recently returned to Thailand after a challenging summer while completing their online school experience. And they brought a friend from Falmouth, Mara, who will be staying with us for the next few weeks in her first-ever experience outside America! Mara says this trip has been completely life-changing for her already! 

Praises & Prayer Requests: 

• Praise be to God for returning Allyson and the girls safely from Boston all the way back to Chiang Mai! And thank Him that we received sufficient funds to bring Allyson and the girls all the way back without creating debt! And that God provided for their every need while in Massachusetts!
• Thank God that Sam’s university tuition for his summer courses was paid in full and that he has been doing so well academically
• Praise God that the girl’s home school is finally done after twelve grueling months
• Pray for Sam’s salvation and for his health: May God heal him from a really awful case of eczema that has kept him up at night itching and scratching  
• Please ask the Lord to wipe out our medical debt for Abby’s hospital stay back in May ($1250) . . . with all of our current expenses we have not yet had the extra funds to reduce this emergency medical debt 
• Please ask the Lord to provide more regular support to cover increased monthly and quarterly expenses
• Pray for funds for travel expenses for Steve and all the SFM staff and students for the upcoming outreach to India in late September 
• Pray for the six students in the School of Frontier Media to continue to make the most of their experience here and that God would speak to them about their future missions work 
• Ask God to give Steve increasing wisdom, patience and sensitivity for the ongoing administration of this media missions program
• Pray that God would continue to give us all His wisdom as we ask Him about important, upcoming decisions.

Top Ten Lists (34)

Rachel and Rachel and the Worship Team

Chiang Mai Forecast

Top 10 Things We've Learned to Live with in Thailand:
    1.    Being so far from family and friends :(
    2.    100+ inside with no AC
    3.    Living beneath the CNX airport flight path, loud three legged street dogs, squawky lizards and other frequent noise intrusions
    4.    Babbling Thai with the vocabulary of a two year old
    5.    Being bare foot indoors almost all the time
    6.    Driving motorbikes on the wrong, ahem, left-side of the road
    7.    Eating rice or noodles with nearly every meal
    8.    The high cost of cheese
    9.    Getting our fresh water from a vending machine on the street corner
    10.   Locking ourselves in with padlocks every night.

A Chiang Mai Park

10 Things We Love About Being in Thailand:
    1.    Thai food every day, baby!
    2.    Motor-biking on the wrong, ahem, left-side of the road
    3.    Thai Lessons with Pii Watt our Thai tutor
    4.    Monday morning worship with Rachel & Rachel (And sometimes Peter and Kyla!)
    5.    Our International Church community at the House of Praise
    6.    Ten baht ice creams (about $.32)
    7.    Waterfalls, mountain views and tropical flowers
    8.    The King of Thailand and his good reputation for his many achievements
    9.    Friendly Thai people (The Land of Smiles!)
    10.   Working with our cool Create Colleagues from around the world.   

10 Fun Facts About our Family right now:

Michelle & Steve

    1.    Allyson and the girls will be back in the States this summer to get a new Thailand visa
    2.    Steve is about to welcome the School of Frontier Media students to Chiang Mai
    3.    Samuel just had a straight A semester at UMASS Amherst 
    4.    Rachel has joined three different worship bands
    5.    Abigail has been accepted at Grace International School and starts her sophomore year in August
    6.    Allyson just celebrated her 43rd birthday and still doesn’t look a day over 31
    7.    Steve’s doctor in Thailand reports “Your diabetes is under control. Good job!”
    8.    Steve’s sister Michelle just completed her Discipleship Training School here with us at Create International! We are really going to miss her. (That’s Michelle in the photo)
    9.    Our girls will be bringing back a friend from Falmouth for a visit to Thailand in August.
    10.    You can view a short evangelistic film that Steve directed with Create India media students earlier this year here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOV0ooR5DxM&

Abby in the Hospital

10 Praises & Prayer Requests:
    1.    Praise our Lord God for Abby’s full recovery from Typhus last month (not Typhoid Fever)
    2.    Please ask the Lord to wipe out our medical debt for Abby’s hospital stay ($1250)
    3.    Thanks be to God that the girls are able to fly home for their mandatory visa run and for the friends, family and churches that contributed to this substantial financial need
    4.    Please pray for the girl’s safety in travel and for additional funds to come in to pay for the Thai visas and the other extra expenses in the States
    5.    Praise the Lord for Abby’s acceptance into Grace International School
    6.     Please ask the Lord to provide more regular support to cover increased monthly and quarterly expenses here in Thailand including the tuition costs for our children
    7.    Praise God for the six students coming from four different continents for the School of Frontier Media (officially starting June 29th)
    8.    Pray for Steve to have great wisdom, patience and sensitivity for leading this media missions program and for the students to make the most of their experience
    9.    Pray also that Steve will feel better soon and to have the strength to endure very long work hours for the next six months (often 60+ hours/week)
    10.    Pray that many Indians in Rajasthan will come to the Lord after hearing the Gospel for the first time as they watch this new short film (link above).

Our Regional Field Director Reports (33)

Ripe for Harvest get-together 2012

We were very surprised and blessed to recently receive the following endorsement from our Regional Field Director of Ripe for Harvest in Asia. Although technically speaking we are now fully with YWAM, we still maintain a relationship with our original sending agency, mostly because they are a great bunch of people.

Dear Ministry Partners of Steve and Allyson,

My name is Steve Hines. I am the Regional Field Director of Ripe For Harvest in Asia. Part of my job is to visit all of our missionaries within this region. Although we are no longer directly responsible for them (now that they are with YWAM), I just wanted to share with you how inspired I was, recently, as my wife and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Steve and Allyson, your missionaries serving in Thailand and other countries in Asia.

Create International: Thailand

Steve gave me permission to write to you to give you an update on their ministry. Before I go on, I want to sincerely thank you for your financial partnership with Steve and Allyson. From what we personally saw and experienced, their ministry is meeting a tremendous need as they continue to give their lives wholly for the Lord's work and the expansion of His Kingdom.

We arrived at their beautiful facility and were warmly greeted by a smiling Steve and offered coffee and cookies as we settled into our chairs. We were amazed to learn about the incredible and diverse ministry that they are a part of. Their work in teaching classes to the new volunteers in the School of Frontier Media (Create’s program to equip volunteers to be part of the worldwide missions’ movement through media) and making powerful films with life changing stories using native actors, authentic music, and in the languages of unreached people groups is truly outstanding!

Steve (Not Steve Hines)

These evangelistic films that their team (called Create International) makes are used by missionaries and local workers in many countries in their evangelistic campaigns. Media is so popular all over the world that it is a great tool for sharing the gospel! We saw their enthusiasm in their work and we can tell that they clearly enjoy the calling to which God has given them! We got a chance to view some of their latest films and hear about upcoming projects and it made us proud to be a little part of their ministry and I'm sure you are, too!

Our time spent with Steve and Allyson and their girls (Rachel and Abby - Samuel is currently in the states at the University of Massachusetts) was a blessing. We praised the Lord for the work that they are doing.

Your partnership is bringing in eternal dividends beyond anything you can imagine! If you haven't done this yet, check out their web sites at

http://7lampstands.org and www.createinternational.com

Ally at the Create International table in Cebu

Space will not allow me to share with you all that I saw and experienced during my time with Steve and Allyson, but I would like to take the liberty to bring to your attention two needs that they presently have. First, their personal financial support is down and they currently need an additional $1000/month in regular monthly support. Additionally, the girls have a visa run coming up where they will need to return to the states to get new visas for Thailand. The current estimated cost of that trip is $7900. They no longer have their funding processed with RFH so please remember to follow the YWAM instructions. Without your continued help, none of this would be possible. Steve and Allyson are pressing on for the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Please prayerfully consider these two urgent needs that they have.

I hope that this short letter will be an encouragement to you. Our prayer is that you continue to partner with them through your prayers and support as they diligently spread God’s love and forgiveness to those throughout Thailand and the peoples of other nations that they are able to touch with their films and seminars.

Warmly in Christ,


Steve Hines

Ripe for Harvest 

(Steve also supplied the first three photos above taken during his visit to Chiang Mai.)

Indonesian Princesses

On Facebook Steve has been uploading one photo every day from his recent trip to Indonesia. If you are on Facebook, stop by and enjoy the virtual, ongoing tour.