ian

This comes to bring you our love and warmest greetings.
May the joy which is part of our salvation in Jesus and His peace be yours over this Christmas time and during the coming new year.

When we landed at Manchester airport at mid day on October 17^th we were met by Dan and Dawn and Zach and Benji, our 2 week old new grandson. He has quite a prominent nose which people say is not unlike the same handsome feature of his grandfather?! After 2 weeks helping with Zach minding and other household and garden chores, we came away wondering however we had managed up in the hills of North Thailand with 2 small children under the age of 3 and no electricity and no mod cons except a temperamental paraffin fridge.

In Thailand we never quite knew what each new day held in store. Life was seldom dull. We have been discovering that life in the UK also has its surprises. We arrived here in Dorset on Nov.2^rd. Six days later, after taking the car for repair to a garage in Lyme Regis, the tide was out so we walked back along the beach to Charmouth. It was just after dark when we reached The Patch. To our surprise there were no lights on. Sensing something was wrong we quickly entered and found Ian’s mother sitting on the floor in the lounge propped up against a radiator. She had fallen when she got up to draw the curtains. Her leg was so painful that we dared not move her. She was taken by ambulance into Dorchester County Hospital 22 miles away and had an operation to ‘pin’ the broken femur the following morning.

After 6 weeks in hospital Mum has just come back home. She is delighted to be back but is very weak and frail. Despite our best efforts she is eating very little. Even with the zimmer she can not walk. One of us needs to be with her in the house the whole time.

News from North Thailand is eagerly awaited. At last the first hostel building on the Mien Outreach Centre site has been completed. Nellie and the hostel children are moving in before Christmas. Ann has gone back to Canada in order to do the final proof reading of the whole Mien Bible. Because many of you pray regularly for the Mien we will include more detailed prayer requests for the Mien overleaf.

With Mum’s fall and present condition all decisions about our future are on hold. We were a bit dismayed to learn that the tenants in our house in Cheltenham will be moving out on Jan.10^th. It is difficult to know whether to rent it out again or sell. Either will require cleaning and redecorating which will be difficult whilst we are looking after Ian’s mother! It is good that the Lord has all these things in hand. We had also planned to go back to Thailand for 4 months in March to oversee several printing jobs including that of the complete Mien Bible and ‘hold the fort’, (of the Mien outreach) until Daniel and Tamami return in July.

We would love to visit the prayer groups and churches that have supported us by prayer and financially but this too will have wait. We are so grateful for their amazing faithfulness supporting the Mien outreach over many years. We are also hugely grateful to John and Pauline Etor who have sent out our general prayer letter for the last 6 years.

Some have asked about continued financial support. OMF provides us with a pension top-up. Any financial support that is received for us will go towards this unless it is clearly designated for our work expenses – in which case it will be sent to our work account in Thailand and be used towards printing the Mien Bible and other literature for the Mien believers in CANs.

With Mum in hospital, preparations for Christmas have been on the back burner. According to the news, even at 4.00 this morning the Asda Super Store in Bristol was busy. Everyone is frantically getting ready to celebrate Christmas - Jesus’ first advent into this world. As those who know and love Him, it is our urgent task during the coming year to help them to see that it is just as important – in fact more important, to get ready for His second advent.

Our love,

Ian and Rachel.

Mien News and Updates for Prayer

Monday
Ann is now back in Canada until March when she will return to Thailand for the type setting of the Men Bible in the 4 different scripts. For months she has been working flat out. Pray that over Christmas she will get the rest she desperately needs and to be able to catch up on a huge backlog of missed sleep. Pray that friends will realize that she needs to be left undisturbed to do the final proof reading of the complete Mien Bible. Pray that she will pick up the mistakes. She is still having problems with her eyes, following cataract surgery, which are making proof reading even more difficult.
Tuesday
Printing is currently going ahead of a sizeable reprint of the Mien hymnbook for CANs. These Christians are desperate for them. For greater ease of distribution we are using a printer whom we have not used before. Printing is not cheap. A lot of money is involved. Pray for good quality so that the books will wear well and, vitally for safe distribution in its different phases right into the hands of the Christians who need them.
Wednesday
We are hearing that the new hostel building on the Men Outreach Centre site is very nice. Thank the Lord for His provision financially. When building started we were considerably short of what was needed. The work is now almost finished and the Lord has provided. He also provided the expertise we desperately needed through Max (Mobile Missionary Maintenance) and Wirot, the Christian Thai local government official who is a civil engineer. There is a problem with red mud (from the bottom of the well?) getting into the water system. Pray Max will be able to it. Nellie has an awful lot on her hands at the moment. The hostel children will be moving from their temporary accommodation into the new building. She has to order and buy all the basic furniture and equipment needed. On top of this she has 2 teams visiting from Singapore. They will not be short of work!

Thursday
Now that we are back in the UK, Jet and May Tsing, the full-time church workers at Palay, are pivotal in the church planting work in the Maechan area. They have recently had their first child – a son. They have both been through Bible School and May Tsing was playing a full part in the ministry speaking at services in Palay whilst Jet visited the Nikhom, Maesalong and Tea Gways Village 2 Sundays a month going to each village once. The Christians at the Nikhom, MSL and Tea Gways Village are able to lead their own services but still need help giving a talk and teaching Scripture. With their new son, Jet was hoping that a Mien Bible School student could come twice a month to take the Palay services and free him to go to the other villages. We have not heard if this has worked out. Pray for Jet and May Tsing in the adjustment to the new baby. Pray that they will keep close to the Lord, have a love for people and a burden to reach out.
Friday

Daniel and Tamami They are on home assignment in Japan. Daniel has slipped 2 discs in his back. He is in constant pain. Please pray for healing. At the moment they are on deputation ministry. They will be visiting churches in Okinawa in the south of the country in January. Over Christmas they will be with Daniel’s mother and Tamami’s parents all of whom are not Christians. Pray for the working of the Holy Spirit in their hearts to give them spiritual understanding and to draw them to Christ.

Saturday
Our family: Carol has been with a Christian tour group to Israel and really enjoyed the fellowship and seeing the places associated with Jesus’ life and ministry on earth. Dawn and Dan, Zach and Benji have been plagued with colds. With Dan these go to his chest and he has been quite ill and off work. Benji’s cold has landed him in hospital with breathing difficulties. Jonathan and Georgie: both have done reasonably well for work as they continue to try to gain a foothold in the media world – Jonathan as an assistant cameraman and Georgie as an assistant locations manager. TV and film work tends to dry up in the colder weather around Christmas. Pray that they will get regular work on new TV series which are shot after the new year in January. Us: With the current uncertainty over the future, pray that we will know God’s leading particularly over where we should live. Ian is struggling to find time to do the Topical Concordance for the Mien in CANs.

Sunday
Pray for the leaders of the small church groups at the Nikhom, Maesalong and Tea Gways Village. Most Sundays they will have to give a Bible message or lead the group studying a passage of Scripture. It is as they themselves feed on God’s Word that they are able to feed others. As God speaks to them through the Scriptures so they can pass it onto others. Pray for understanding of God’s Word and that it will change lives so that the groups will grow in their knowledge and love of God and are living proof of the living Lord Jesus in them.