Greetings in Jesus Name,
Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place (2Corin2:14). Friends, can we too make this same confession about our lives? Sadly for many of us, this proclamation does not ring true in our lives. It is not so much of what we do, but rather, who we are in Christ. As we yield every part of our lives to our Master, then the fragrance of His life and character will diffuse through us. Oh Lord, continue to draw us to yourself, and change us for your glory!
I must begin our news with a note of gratitude and thanks for all who have been praying for Samuel. Praise God! For we have seen the breakthrough in the area of Samuels behavior. Most of you would know that he was diagnosed with a form of epilepsy and given medication, but to no avail. Shortly after coming off the medication, I prayed and fasted for my sons deliverance. I know many of you also sought the Lord on Samuels behalf. Thanks be to our merciful God who always leads us in triumph in Christ. We are still seeking assistance with Samuels learning needs, but the stress level in the household has lifted, and the peace of God reigns once again (at least most of the time).
The family is all well and growing up seemingly very fast! The eldest 2 girls are participating in some of the sporting activities at the local international school and continuing their volunteer work, Rebekah is enjoying her schoolwork, especially reading, Samuel is about to start back with Cub Scouts, and the 2 youngest boys are enjoying their 3 mornings a week at a bilingual preschool. Sarah is always busy, but looking to increase her language lessons to twice a week. I am back into fulltime language learning after a reasonable break, but feel (maybe for the first time), that I am making some progress. One of the things I did while on a study break was to assist my friend Bobby, in leading another Youth mission trip, this time to an un reached village near Namgat.
We took 20 young people (including Christina and Rachel) into this mainly Black Karen village that had no electricity and limited clean water. Our project was to install about a kilometre of new water pipe, which we completed quite easily, due to the help of the villagers. The Headman of the village is a devout Buddhist but was open to us preaching the gospel. As a result, an older lady was lead to Christ by one of the youth who speaks Thai and is on fire for the Lord. The lady was initially reluctant, but allowed some young people to pray for her leg which had been in terrible pain for some time as a result of an accident. The youth prayed and massaged her leg. Within the day she had noted a dramatic improvement. Later that day she surrendered to Christ.
In following up, Bobby’s wife, Namatah, went back to visit after 2 weeks, both to encourage the lady and also take some balm for her leg. Pa Kham (the new Christian) told her that she had had a vision of a tall man in white clothing come down from heaven. She told the man how she had forsaken her old ways of worship to worship the True God! Pa Kham asked Namatah if she would help her remove the Buddhist alter from her house. This is truly a significant sign of conversion for these people, and as Namatah recounted, a teary moment. She also told her that her leg was completely healed, and did not need any balm. A husband and wife (who have a blind baby), also asked Namatah to lead them to Christ. What a glorious day! A Christian worker from a nearby village will be visiting the village every week to teach these new disciples. I also will accompany Bobby to this village and Namgat when I can. I have included Christina’s report of the trip for your information and encouragement.
The mission trip was from Monday, the 3rd of August, to Saturday, the 9th of August.
For five days, 20 brave youth and 6 adventurous adults lived in Huay Salop; a little village 20 kilometers outside the city of Mae Hong Son. This village is home to a few different tribes, but primarily the Black Karin. The headman was a Northern Thai, but only about half the villagers could speak and understand Thai. Once again we had Myrrh a wonderful person and translator so that helped us greatly! She was there to translate our English into Thai for many different purposes.
What really touched us all on this trip, were the children. They were so innocent and completely without knowledge of Jesus, who they need desperately. Most of them wore shirts with gaping holes in, and pants that were either too small, or too large. They didn’t say much, just stared at us, talking in Thai and laughing. But when different groups of youth walked the short distance to their school, they opened up, playing games and singing together with us. Duck Duck Goose was their all time favorite game!
Mon and Sat were traveling days, so we didn’t work then. Split into 5 teams, we worked two and a half days total. We cleared weeds from rice and bean fields, dug trenches for the PVC pipes we’d brought, and played with the kids.
Each morning and evening we had devo’s, with one of the groups leading each night.
On Wednesday night, we had the most amazing praise and worship night. I don’t know if I can even begin to describe how awesome it was, but I’ll give it a go. We were just finishing out daily evening “devo’s with a song called I will not be Shaken. It is such a powerful song, and we sang it twice, then another time; we just really felt God’s presence in the room. Marcus, the Canadian Youth Pastor, then suggested we go on a prayer walk around the village, in pairs or alone.
Some of the youth decided to stay put in the headman’s house, where we were staying; while others went to walk the road inside the village. I paired off with another girl, who I had not known very well before the trip, but was now good friends with. We just started walking in the direction of the fields, near the end of the village.
Both Julie and I were starting to cry, and silently prayed over the village. When we got to the village/field borderline, we just stood there and prayed. I asked God for the souls of the little innocent children, who didn’t know any better, since they had grown up in a Buddhist family, and were taught in the ways of Buddhism. Julie asked that God would show them the way, and that we could be just a little example of God’s love for them. Then we started slowly walking back, and instead of going back in to the house, we kept walking up the road that led to the school, and out of the village. Over the hill we met up with two other girls, and we just started crying and hugging each other, we all felt God so close to us. Then we prayed together, and asked God to fill this place, and to chase out the demons and evil spirits that instilled fear into these people. Suddenly, one of the girls said Lets go to the school, and stand around the altar house to cast out the evil spirits that are surrounding the school.We all agreed and walked to the school, where we met up with two guys who were heading in the same direction. We invited them to join us, and then we stood around the spirit house, and started to pray for the villagers souls. One of the guys fervently prayed If I was one of the men back in Bible times I would get a hammer and smash this altar down, Jesus, because its so false.
Walking back, I was reminded of something Marcus had shared the first night we were there, from John 4.14. He had talked about living water, and how we were planting seeds, and would maybe harvest the crops. I was hit with the thought that, by us walking around praying for these people, we were spreading living water over this village.
Wednesday night when everyone had made their way inside – we sang I will not be Shaken once more, and listened to Marcus talk for just a little. Then we made to get ready for bed. But then we heard the chanting next door, some men of the village were repeating words after one person. One of the girls said Hey guys, I think we should pray. And so a group of girls sat down in a circle, on our sleeping bags on the floor, and started to pray out against the demons. We just kept praying, and crying out to God. Then we paused, and noticed that the chanting had stopped! We all started getting really excited, and one girl shared two of her favorite Bible verse’s, which had really helped her. Then we decided to sing a song, and we chose Did you feel the Mountains Tremble. But when we started singing the words, we all started crying and laughing, because it was the perfect song at the time, and we had to stop singing it, since it was just so touching. (Not to mention it was 10.30 and we had to be quiet!)
I trust you always pray for those people who don’t know Jesus, and I hope you endeavor to do something about it, in any way you can. Because after going on this mission trip, my life was changed, as were the other youth’s, and the chaperones. We all grew so close to each other, and friendships were formed and strengthened throughout the hardships and joy we went through together, as a team one in Christ Jesus our Lord!!
In Him, Christina
Exciting stuff! To God be the glory for the great things He has done, and I must add, is doing.
We had our first official team meeting with the Shan team about 6 weeks ago, and were excited and encouraged by the hearts of the other team members. Our plan is to move to Mae Hong Son in the New Year, which we feel is Gods timing for us.
Thankyou, our friends and supporters, for your continued prayer, support, and correspondence. We really do need it, and pray that God would increase the measure of His grace toward you as you serve Him in hope.
Yours in Christ
Dave (for the tribe)
*The effective discipling of new Christians in Huay Salop
*A special Ed teacher for Samuel
* O and Meela in Namgat
*Preparation for our move to Mae Hong Son
*Increased prayer and financial support
*More laborers for the Harvest field
Email:info@evanstribe.org
David and Sarah Evans
61 Suthep. Soi 4
T. Suthep A. Muang
Chiang Mai
Thailand 50200.
Phone: 0011 66 53 810446
Don't forget to visit Evans Family on Mission in Thailand web site