Little Tam Sue

My wife holding "little" Tam Sue

After a great holiday weekend and looking forward to a day off on Monday, my wife discovered early that this would be no day off. Her phone rang a little before 8 a.m. and it was Shun Nun Tun one of the ladies from our Karen ministry who is pregnant. She asked my wife to take her to the hospital. So my wife called Tamaner another Karen lady in our church and cancelled her plans with her that day. Tamaner asked my wife if she would like her to come with her to take Shun Nun Tun to the hospital. So my wife readily accepted since Tamaner is one of our interpreters in our Karen ministry and Shun Nun Tun's English is limited. My wife speaks some Karen, but Tamaner made things easier for my wife to communicate between the hospital staff and the would be mother. By afternoon time Shun Nun Tun and her husband were the proud parents of a beautiful baby girl.

When it came time to fill out the paper work for the name, the parents asked my wife to fill it out and to name the girl after herself. My wife's name is Tamara Sue, but I often call her Tam Sue. So the parents decided that would be the name. So now our church has gained another Tam Sue. Praise God for the opportunity to serve and love people and influence their lives for God!

Ending the Year with a New Beginning

This is the Reed family! The mom and the children have been coming to church for several months. However, the dad was off of work today and able to attend our services. He had been led to Christ several weeks ago and the mother several months ago. They both followed the Lord in believer's baptism this morning at the invitation time. Praise God for ending the year with a new beginning in their lives. Next week starts the new year, so please pray for this family to grow in the Lord in 2017!

It's the Exciting Time of Year!

Christmas time is always the exciting time of year to me. Often times I get the opportunity to receive some money from someone who wants to remain unknown and give some gifts to some people who could use them. Then my family and I always add to that or give extra for a family that is in need. This year I did not have anyone approach me about giving gifts, however, we still continued with our practice of giving gifts to folks over the Christmas season. This year we gave to four separate families. I will tell you about two of the households that we gave gifts to and that I captured some pictures from.

The first was a family of new comers from Vietnam that just arrived December 1st. They are a very sharp family, but seem to have a special need since they are just arriving here and trying to establish themselves. They were very excited to receive their gifts.

Second pictures are from a Karen household who regularly attend our church. Their father is still in Thailand and so the mother and two children just barely get by on what they have. I wanted to be a blessing to them and so we brought a gift for the mother and for each of the two children. They fully enjoyed their gifts as we brought them on Saturday morning and they were definitely surprised by the arrival of them. It is a great joy to bring happiness to others. Upon our departure we also had the opportunity to lead two Congolese people to Christ in their back parking lot. Praise God for the best gift of all... eternal life through His Son!  

Dong  and his family receiving gifts from me.

One of our little Karen girls giving her approval

It All Starts with Thursday Night Soul Winning!

Dong Tran Family

For us the weekend always starts with Thursday night soul winning. I was able to meet a family of new comers from Vietnam that just arrived December 1st. This precious family actually could speak English very well having studied it before their arrival. I was able to lead them all to Christ at their home on Thursday night. Then I picked them up for church Sunday morning. All five of them came down the aisle at the invitation time and followed the Lord in believer's baptism.

Thao and my wife

Then my mother had one of her converts from Thursday night come also. Her name was Ja'Selena and she also came forward at the invitation time and followed the Lord in believer's baptism. So we ended up having a total of six make professions of faith and six follow the Lord in believer's baptism. We also ended up having 112 in Sunday school which is definitely a little lower attendance, but given the fact that we started out with -11 degrees this morning and lost a bus due to gelling in the fuel, we did pretty good. Praise God for His goodness to us!

My mother with Ja'Selena

Ja'Selena getting baptized!

Karen Ministry makes a Boom!

Mrs. Painter waiting with two riders for the bus.

  

Shwe Thei and Htoo Eh 

  Today we had 53 Karen (pronounced Ka Rin) folks come to church which is a really good boom in the Karen ministry that we have at our church. We have had a few larger days in the past, but this is definitely a good Sunday with 30 riding the bus route and 23 driving in. We fight the Jehovah's False Witnesses for these people which means that I spend a lot of time teaching them the truth about the Bible and exposing the error of the JFW's. I have even written a tract exposing what they believe and having it translated into the Karen language. God is really blessing this ministry. In fact last Summer I had the opportunity to travel to Thailand and even reach some of the relatives of our people to Christ over there. Please pray as we hope to take advantage of this tremendous opportunity working with this people group and eventually start churches on that side of the world!  

Htee Say gets the quiet seat prize

Sunday School Christmas Party

Ter Kaw Wah video's Tamaner and Mrs. Miller in contest

This past Friday night we had an adult Sunday school class Christmas party with a Lumberjack Theme to it. Everybody had a great time. We had Chili and Cornbread to eat and played Lumberjack themed games. Christmas time is a great time to gather with brother and sisters in Christ and fellowship. We enjoyed ourselves and then got back to work on Saturday morning out visiting and soul winning for Sunday. We had 12 saved Saturday morning despite the cold weather! I have included several pictures from the party....

Bro. Williams having a good time

Picture over the "logs" that had to be sawed

Record Drive In Crowds

Thursday night soul winning with Peter

  We did some calculating the other day for an information project for our church and I discovered the drive-in numbers for our church during a four week period was the largest four week stretch we had ever had in the history of our church. They were 96 (150 total), 98 (159), 94 (157), and 100 (159). That is a great stretch of drive-in attenders!
  Last Thursday night I was able to lead a Buddhist lady to Christ while out soul winning. The lady to the right of me in the picture runs an Asian grocery store and is already saved. I have met her before in her store and she speaks very good English. I used her to interpret the Gospel presentation to this Buddhist lady on the floor in front of me using an illustration book given to me by Dr. Bowen. Praise God for willing servants!
 On Saturday and Sunday we delivered several Christmas presents to some needy refugees. We also saw three trust Christ while out. The snow hit Saturday night and dropped several inches bringing our weekly attendance down to just 111 for Sunday school. However, the Karen route had a banner attendance day with 38 riders. It was so funny to watch some of the riders come in their sandals trudging through the snow as if it was nothing. My wife and I got a good laugh out of it asking them if their feet were cold. They told me "NO." AMEN!

Beka and Debbie helping deliver presents