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Church Mission Society - News from about Gillian, John, Leah, Natalie and Joel Greetings from all of us Robinsons from a rather cloudy and cooler Bangkok!
We
have been slow in updating you recently, mostly because we have been
pursuing something new that God seemed to be opening doors for, and we
wanted to wait until it was fairly certain before telling you about it.
So
this week, God willing, we will sign a lease on a building that we
believe God told us is to be called the Place of Grace. We knew that
God was leading us to do something alongside the prison work for John
(which is going well), and the church work for Gillian (also going
well), and we have waited on God's timing. For a while we explored a
lady's project who wanted us to take it over, but we came to believe it
wasn't the right project for us when there started to be a number of
conditions which would limit it as a ministry project, such as keeping
on the Buddhist teachers and only being able to work with the current
students.
However
we believe with hindsight that God seemed to lead us there for a while
to give us some thoughts about the sort of thing that he did want us to
do.
So,
months ago John spoke to a Thai man in a food shop, and it turned out
he worked for YWAM. To cut a long story short, he works in a huge slum
community not far from where we live, and had been earnestly praying
for others to come and expand the work there as the needs are so huge
and the doors so open to help. John walked and prayed this area with
this man, and then we started praying.
There
is a building opposite the unreached area of this slum which is just
perfect for the work, and the vision God has given us. It has a large
room downstairs perfect for outreach work, a socialising space and
large room on the second floor ideal for a training room, and on the
third floor two rooms perfect for an office and prayer ministry. It is
a new building which needs no work doing, which is unusual in Thailand.
Our
vision is to be a Place of Grace for this community. To be involved
here in any way we can, however the needs for young people are huge,
with much drug abuse, and John will start a youth outreach as soon as
possible, as we know that God changes lives and gives hope where there
is none. We also want to start a work if God opens the doors as a place
of safety for the many vulnerable small children looked after by other
small children whilst parents work long hours, or struggle with their
own issues. The needs for discipleship are just huge, and we hope to be
able to do training and discipleship sessions, linking in the needs for
Christian teaching for those coming out of prison and many of the other
people we have come across. Where buddhists become christians, the
temptation to mix it all in a pot are huge, as this is what Thai
buddhism does, and without proper teaching, that is what happens.
Then
the need for prayer ministry, in a country in submission to idols. God
gave us a clear vision of the need to tackle some of these issues in
peoples lives, and already we have people with huge issues asking for
help- having a place will be such a blessing.
So
we prayed. We believe this is God's initiative and his Place, and we
prayed that he would send the money for the 6 months rent so we could
take the building on without asking anyone, and by the end of July. And
on the 30th July we had the money. Amazing, what an awesome and
faithful God. So we are due to sign the lease tomorrow, believing God
for every step as he has so far.
We
would so much value your prayers for this. We walk by faith, and are
aware of our need of God in every area. Please can you particularly
pray about the following:
- the lease signing to go smoothly
- to continue to establish good relationships in this needy community
- for the gospel message to penetrate the hearts of these precious people
- for the relationships between our 'sponsoring' agencies. We have good
relationships
with these, but they don't get along with each other. Please pray that
this would not interfere with the project and cms would allow all of
these to be equal sponsors due to this.
- for the finances we need in the next few months for furniture
Please do look at our web site re pictures of the building that is a power point presentation www.tearstoyoureyes.com
Thank you so much, we hope this email finds you all well, and enjoying the summer.
With love from us all,
John, Gillian, Leah, Natalie and Joel xx Back to links page
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