Dear Church Members,
I have some updates to share
with your congregation. During the past three years, I see that the Lord has
been working on the Remnant South East Asia Ministry, which I have started at
the Friendship Church in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The church is now growing
spiritually and in numbers. Although some university and college students have
graduated and left the church, there are new students who started to attend the
church. Moreover, there are new young couples that also started to attend the
church. Now we have at least 15 families of young couples. Because of the
increase in church members, the church space is getting too small for our
growing congregation; particularly we don’t have enough parking spaces and
Sunday school classrooms.
At the Friendship church, we
usually have Bible study (The Book of Genesis) and prayer every Wednesday
night. We have family fellowship once a month at one of the church
members’ house. We also gather together to spend time in prayer for the whole
night every last Friday of the month. We have a plan for the church’s future,
which is to purchase a piece of land to build a new church building. My
strategy is to encourage the young couples who came to Chiang Mai to start
their own business and build them to become strong church leaders. Now
there are five young couples that have started their own business.
I wish to build the Friendship
Church to become the mother church of the Hmong Christians in Thailand.
It will be the center for Hmong ministry in South East Asia. As the
ministry at the Friendship church grows, it will gradually extend to the Hmong
in other regions of Thailand, as well as Laos and Vietnam. There are many
churches that would like to join us. On February 16, 2016, I was selected to be
the superintendent of the Hmong Associated Churches in Thailand, which oversees
45 Hmong churches in the association. Among the 45 churches, there are only
nine churches that have their own pastor. The rest of the churches do not have
their own pastor. The Hmong Associated Churches in Thailand has five regions.
Once a month I spend a weekend traveling and visiting some of these regional
Hmong churches.
I have learned that most of these
churches do not understand the True Gospel Message. Their spiritual lives are
dead and they live in sins. They are in need of a spiritual revival. At the
same time, there are several false cults that are spreading among the Hmong
people. These cults are persuading the Hmong Christians to lose their faith.
Moreover, there are still many unreached people that do not know the True
Gospel Message.
During the past two years, some
Hmong church leaders from Laos and Vietnam came to learn about the True Gospel
Message and attended Leadership Training at my place in Chiang Mai. However, we
were short of funds and future training sessions were put on hold. It is
apparent that there is still much work to be done for the Hmong people in South
East Asia.
Every year the Hmong Associated
Churches in Thailand arranges an annual retreat for the youth. There are around
500-700 Hmong youth who usually attend the retreat camp. At this
retreat, I saw many young people accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their
personal Savior and committed themselves to the Lord. Some of them want to go
to Bible school, but they do not have enough financial support to pursue Bible
College.
The Lord has put this
heavy burden in my heart and I have spent a lot of time fasting and praying.
Currently, I am still in the planning phase for 2017 ministry. I believe that
the most important thing is to share the True Gospel Message with the Hmong
people, train them in discipleship and leadership, proclaim the Gospel to the
unreached people, and plant new churches. I am praying and planning to equip
some of the church’s young people to go to Bible school.
Thongchai Sae Lao
Thao is one of the students who have been receiving your help for school
tuition. I spend a fair amount of time with him on a regular basis and he
faithfully accompanies me in most of my visits to the regional churches. He is
growing in his Christian spiritual life. He is currently doing his internship
in electrical engineering and he will graduate from college in March
2017. However, he has made a decision to go to Bible school next
year. I am encouraging Thongchai to also pursue languages, including
English and Korean so that he may have opportunities to attend the Remnant
Theological Seminary in South Korea. I’ve committed him to the Lord so please
continue to pray and support him as well as this ministry.
Overall, 2016 has
been a year full of many blessings and opportunities. I can see the members of
the Friendship Church growing in numbers as well as in spirit. With my new
position as the superintendent of the Hmong Associated Churches in Thailand, I am given new
opportunities to reach out to the Hmong communities in various regions of Thailand.
I hope to be able to expand this opportunity to reach out to the Hmong
Christians in neighbouring countries including Laos and Vietnam. As 2016 has
come to an end, on top of our current ongoing projects, I can see that there
are much more work to be done for the upcoming year. I ask that your
congregation help me pray for the Lord’s guidance in the following areas:
1) The Friendship Church
a. Spiritual
growth for the church members
b. New gathering
space for the congregation
c. Equipping
the church members to serve within the church as well as outreach ministry
d. Business
successes for the young entrepreneurs
2) Hmong Associated Churches of Thailand
a. Funding
for travel costs to visit regional churches ($1500/year)
b. Spiritual
growth and revival for the 45 associated churches ; building up leaders to lead
these churches
c. Outreach
ministry to regions of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam
d. Leadership
and discipleship training ($6000/year, including outreach and leadership
training)
3) Remnant Ministry & Headquarter
a. Funding
to build Hannah’s House on our current property as a prayer retreat for God’s
servants ($12000)
b. Funding
to develop the land into meeting space for future discipleship and leadership
trainings
c. Funding
for a helper/intern to assist with our ministerial work
d. Application
process to become official missionaries sent from Canada (through Interserve www.interservecanada.org) for logistic purpose
4) Scholarships and Sponsored Students (See 2016 Ministry Overview & Mission
Projects for more details)
a. Sukulwat
Sae Vang – spiritual growth, health, academic success
b. Thongchai
Sae Lao-Thao– opportunity to attend Bible College and language schools
c. Financial
assistance and mentorship for students interested in pursuing Bible College
5) Dormitory Project (See 2016 Dormitory
Project Proposal for more project details)
a. Spiritual
growth and academic success for the students currently residing at the male
dormitory
b. Funding
for female dormitory ($7880)
The Lord’s work is ever growing. Sarah and I are excited to be
given the opportunities to continue to serve Him. We are thankful for
His guidance and provision as we move forward into our fourth year of ministry
in Thailand. We are also thankful to your congregation for your prayers,
generosity, and interests in being a part of our ministry. Lastly, I would like
to encourage each one of you to hold on to God’s promise in Galatians 6:9: “Let
us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a
harvest if we do not give up.”
Sincerely,
Rev. Dan Yang
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