We are very excited to bring you this update regarding our ministry and movements. To quickly bring you up to speed, Lisa and I started Home Assignment (furlough) in mid-August after a two-year term on the field (Aug 2022-Aug 2024). We are currently staying in Deerfield, IL (a suburb, North of Chicago). We will be transitioning down to Phoenix on the 17th of December. From there we will return to Thailand on the 25th of February 2025.
THANK YOU for your faithful prayers and support over the last year. Lisa and I both are doing very well. I daresay we've never felt so well and encouraged.
Happy belated New Year, everyone! 2024 is already flying by. We hope each of you are experiencing God's goodness and love as you start out the new year. We are missing you all.
God has been so gracious to us over the past year and we want to share some of that with you in this newsletter. We have prepared a little "2023 Year in Review" with pictures. I hope you enjoy these snapshots from the past year. It is a taste of our life and ministry here: the joys and challenges, a peek into the context that we experience everyday, and a glimpse of the work that lays ahead.
The national Thai church has opened a new Evangelism Center in our ministry target area. Pastor Victor, the new minister stationed there along with his wife, have opened up new partnership possibilities as well as regular Christian fellowship for our team.
Lisa's Dad passed away on April 16th. We praise God he made a profession of faith and was baptized less than a month before he died. We are so grateful to CCUC-S for all their love and service to Jing Zhao throughout his life.
We have been back in Thailand for three months and it has been a fast paced adventure since we stepped back on Thai soil.
Return to Bee Creek
We were pretty scared opening the doors of our house after 18 months of no one living there but were pleasantly surprised that everything was still where we put it and only a little bit dusty. It was a little hard to believe actually.
Our reunion with the team in Bee Creek was very sweet indeed. It's been years since we were in person with James, Josh and Mindy. So grateful to have such wonderful teammates and partners in the Gospel. It's been amazing to see our Thai friends again also. "Wow. You've gotten so big!" is something I've been hearing a lot. "No. You just forgot how fat I was."
Trip to Chiang Mai
Work Permit for Lisa
After cleaning the house a bit we were off again to Chiang Mai to get a Work Permit for Lisa. We were amazed that she was given two years which also guarantees our visa for the next two years. We are praising the Lord for this vital provision.
We also finally had the privilege of meeting in person with Anita, a new teammate who is doing language study in Chiang Mai for the next two years before joining our team in Isaan. It was a miracle that she was able to be deployed during the Covid season and the Lord provided a temporary team for her to call home in Chiang Mai while she studies Thai. Her first trip out to visit the team in Bee Creek will take place in December, 2022.
Anita, Lisa and Weston face-to-face at last after two years of video conferencing
Ministry Update
On the ministry front there are a couple of important things to update you on.
Sharing the Gospel with Dune, a Drug Addict
We have reconnected with Pastor Celebrate, a local minister who has a broad vision for gospel fruit in the surrounding villages. One of the families he has been working with for years is the family of Dune, a 34 year old woman who is addicted to Methamphetamine. She has two kids in the house, Film (10) and Sophia (8). Her boyfriend lives with them.
Left to right: granny, Pastor Celebrate, Film, Dune, boyfriend, Weston
In October, Pastor Celebrate felt the urgency to go and share the gospel with them and we were invited to accompany him. Dune really opened up about her background and we were heartbroken to hear about the many tramatic events she experience as a child and young teen. Pregnancy and drug addiction started early. It is a heartbreaking story that is all too common in this part of the country. The story is not over though! We are praying and trusting that she will come to know God's plan for her future; a future full of right relationships, healing from her trauma, cleansing from her addictions and a new birth into the family of God.
Our team is celebrating the first new believers in our target area. This took place in late September through the ministry of James and Pastor Celebrate in Pure Glory Village, Plate Hill County. Since that time James, Pastor Celebrate and an assorted team of local Christians have been visiting on Saturdays to teach, encourage and strengthen the new believers.
We covet your prayers for them because, as of this writing, there appears to have been some pressure from local Buddhists to abandon the meetings. This is very common but easily could put a stop to the faith of these young believers very quickly. We request urgent prayers for them as they learn to face opposition.
As you can see, we have rebuilt our website. Some of you might remember our old website when we first came to the field. Over the years it became very expensive to maintain and so we had no choice but to take it down temporarily. Since March, I have been working to get a new website up and I am quite happy with the result. It looks great on a phone and is very fast. My prayer is it will especially enable us to keep you updated on urgent prayer needs and more detailed reports from the field. These things are difficult to do over an email newsletter.
We are so happy to inform you that we are returning to Thailand on the 23rd of August. The Lord has provided visas and we have tickets in hand. Everything is set for our departure.
We are SO excited to be finally returning to our home and ministry in Bee Creek!! The past 18 months has been a very challenging season of serving and waiting and, quite frankly, it feels so good that we are finally closing this chapter.
Even so, we are mindful of God's grace to teach us so many important lessons as we cared for Lisa's father, led the team remotely during the Covid lock-downs and made ourselves as productive as possible from the US.
As we pack our bags and say our goodbyes I've noticed that things feel quite different than previous terms of service and I think it is indicative of the changes that have taken place in us. I sense a more disciplined heart: we crave more intimate time with the Lord than some of the distractions we can been prone to. There is a greater sense of resolve in completing our mission: God's kingdom being established among the Isaan people and is worth any cost to ourselves.
Some of these are areas of heart change I have been praying about for years. How merciful our Father is to give us the desires of hearts in becoming more like Him (Heb.12:10). It reminds me again that God's work of transformation comes often through the especially hard seasons (Jam.1:2-4).
As the field looms large ahead, there are a couple of changes that I want to tell you about as we return.
First, a major departure from previous terms is that Lisa will now be the NGO volunteer and main visa holder. As you know, we are given a visa to Thailand in exchange for providing some kind of service to the community in which we reside. For the past few months Lisa and a Thai ministry partner have been making plans for a new ministry. Upon arrival Lisa will have 90 days to get the project off the ground and report back to the government so that we can be issued a 1 year visa. Please be praying for Lisa as she assumes this large responsibility.
With the visa responsibility off my shoulders I can devote more time to further developing and implementing our team's long-term church planting strategy. This began in 2020 when our team spent approximately 6 months hammering it out together. Our church planting strategy will have three phases: evangelism leading to baptism, discipleship leading to church formation and leadership training leading to appointment of new elders. All three of these phases are critical to the establishment of a new, healthy, independent gospel community. What now remains is to further develop our methodology and timeline for this strategy to become a reality. This is the how and when of the church planting effort. I will be taking on this challenge when we arrive.
These are exciting times, friends. Thank you so much for your continued prayer and support and for continuing to stand behind us as we strive toward God's glory in Isaan.
On the 8th of January Lisa's father, Jing, returned home to live with Mom. It is a big answer to prayer that his health has improved enough to return home.
One Year Care-Giving Journey
When we returned to Chicago in February 2021 we weren't sure how long we would be here. We knew only that Lisa's Mom desperately needed a break and that Dad needed more thorough care. There were a lot of unknowns in his situation, most of which required an in-depth assessment of Jing's health to resolve.
Over the past twelve months, Lisa, with the help of her sisters, has spent enormous amounts of time and energy caring for her Dad, observing his condition, testing new diet ideas, getting health assessments from doctors, evaluating and eliminating some unnecessary medications and discussing with Lisa’s mom the help she would need if Dad moves back home. While there has been no dramatic change in Jing's condition, there has been a gradual improvement and finally the discovery and treatment of a persistent infection. In December, it became clear that there was nothing remaining for us to 'figure out' and, because Jing was feeling better overall, the burden of care had been reduced enough for him to move back home. We praise God for this!
Dad and Mom are settled at home now but they still require help to live on their own. Finding caregivers is very challenging everywhere, but especially so in Chicago. This has been a big concern. But we have had no choice but to trust that only God can and will provide. He has never forsaken us! We have been absolutely amazed how God has provided able and willing people to step into this role at just the right time. Lisa has spent the last three weeks helping Mom and Dad transition and training the new caregivers to take over this role. Lisa's last day of responsibilities was Friday.
We do covet your continued prayers for Lisa, her parents and sisters as they walk through what has been a very trying time. Also please pray for Lisa's Mom who now bears a lot of the burden of care once again.
Return to the Field
With Dad settled at home we believe it is the right time to return to the field. We have requested clearance to return from our sponsoring church, sending base and field leadership and are hopeful we will receive this by mid-February. We plan to be back on the field in early Summer.
We have much to do before we can return. Here is a rough outline of our goals and travel plans:
Feb-March -- Support raising | Phoenix, Los Angeles
April-May -- Support raising, field term planning | Chicago
June -- Visa applications, misc. travel | Chicago, Orlando
July -- Return to Thailand
More details are forthcoming regarding our events and presentations at various locations. We look forward to the coming months, visiting and connecting with you in person before we return to the task appointed to us by God in Thailand.
Thank You for Your Support
As we close this chapter of our journey we want to pause and thank you: our friends, home churches, prayer warriors and supporters who have stuck with us through this long and difficult season. At times the frustration and weight of responsibility was unbearable. Without your prayers, encouragement and generosity we could not have made it financially, spiritually or emotionally to the point of being able to return to the field. Because of your prayers and generosity we have seen God provide everything we have needed and more. I know that Lisa's entire family is grateful to you for your sacrifice in 'holding the ropes' for us while we served her Dad. We thank God for you and ask that He will bless you for your faithfulness.
Lastly, all praise to the grace of our Savior!
That's the end of the most recent newsletters. To read older stuff check out our archive.
Weston and Lisa have been serving in Northeast Thailand for the past eight years among the Isaan people. They are currently leading a team engaged in church planting in the rural countryside.
