Our Neighbors – Prayer Update

July 11, 2018March 5, 2019 / Matt & Amy / Leave a comment

1e30ac42-3e47-477c-b816-a1f2fa7fe77b Over the past couple of weeks our little neighbors have continued to build relationships with us. We are encouraged to see how love is making a difference. Non, for example, has been asking for hugs from Matt when he comes to our house. This isn’t typical for Thais, who generally speaking, are hesitant to give or receive physical affection.

It’s also beautiful to see Jed learn how to pray for his neighbors. Each night before bed he asks to pray for his friends and will ask Amy to sing “Jesus loves me” for JJ, or one of his other friends.

We would love to ask you to join with us in prayer this week for our neighborhood as we have had a special opportunity come up to reach them. Each month, the house of prayer we are a part of does an outreach into one of the neighborhoods around the city. This past weekend, they informed us that they would like to come to our neighborhood specifically to pray for the families of the children who have been coming to our home and to share the gospel with our neighbors. The leadership of the House of Prayer has been aware that the neighborhood children have been coming to our house and relationships have been forming, but the Lord was the one who put it on their hearts to specifically target our neighborhood with their upcoming outreach. Please join with us in praying that the Lord will move powerfully this weekend and bring those in our neighborhood into a radical encounter with Himself.

Thank you for reading our updates, for praying and believing with us that Jesus will have His inheritance in this nation and in our neighborhood.

Much love,
Matt, Amy, Jedidiah & Alizah

Freedom for the Captives

May 3, 2017 / Matt & Amy / 1 Comment

The other day we took a break from the chaos of Bangkok in one of the city’s beautiful parks. While sitting on a park bench listening to the birds chirp and the squirrels chatter, the tranquil of the park seemed to speak deeply to me, though at the time I wasn’t sure why.

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The park was built on the site of a century-old city prison and bits of the old architecture remain.

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It strikes me as odd that a place so beautiful was once a place which held captives and prisoners and was a place of torment.

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It makes me think of one of my favorite passages, Isaiah 61:1-4:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives,
And the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
²To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
³To console those who mourn in Zion,
To give them beauty for ashes,
The oil of joy for mourning,
The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;
That they may be called trees of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”

⁴And they shall rebuild the old ruins,
They shall raise up the former desolations,
And they shall repair the ruined cities,
The desolations of many generations.

This park makes me think of what I feel the Lord’s desire for this city is. He wants to heal the brokenhearted, proclaim freedom to the captives, open (or in this case, demolish) the prison for those who are bound, and proclaim his favor to this city. He desires to comfort all who mourn and give beauty for ashes, the oil of joy where there has been mourning and give a garment of praise to those who have been heavy laden. He desires to establish his dear ones as trees of righteousness. And then, these ones who have been broken will rebuild the ancient ruins, even those places that have been left desolate for generations. May it be so. Even on earth as it is in heaven.

Hello Bangkok!

April 17, 2017 / Matt & Amy / 1 Comment

Hello Bangkok! Our first week in Bangkok has been a blur (thank you, jet lag and culture shock). While we arrived safely, all seven of our bags containing all our belongings were lost in transit thanks to our first flight out of Denver being delayed three hours. Thankfully, all our bags were delivered in-tact to our apartment within 48 hours of our arrival.

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8 Days and Counting…

March 30, 2017March 29, 2017 / Matt & Amy / 1 Comment

Well third time’s the charm? We are currently on our third itinerary to Bangkok and trusting that this time we will actually be getting on a plane on the intended date!

The New Launch Plan
Our airline contacted us a couple weeks ago letting us know that there was a change to our original itinerary that would have only given us 30 minutes to get off the plane in Taipei onto our next flight to Bangkok. Since that won’t work, our best option was to push our departure back to April 7th.

We will be arriving in Bangkok early in the morning on Palm Sunday and later that week we will join in the Thai Songkran festivities as the whole country will be shutting down for a three day water fight.

Here’s what we are hoping for during our first couple of weeks in Thailand:

Get settled in to our apartment, explore our neighborhood!
Get our phones, internet, etc. set up.
Visit language schools to determine which one we will be attending and get enrolled.
Do some orientation at the Dton Naam building.
Begin getting to know our team.

main_900 What is Songkran?
Songkran is the celebration of the Thai New Year. The festival is a joyous time for the Thai people, but also a highly spiritual time where the Thai seek blessings for the New Year. Please join us in praying for the Lord to reveal Himself as the one who washes clean from sin those who trust in Him. See More…

Prayer Requests

Please join us in praying for grace in this time of transition in our family.
Pray for complete health as we go. Jedidiah is currently being treated for his first ear infection. Please pray for this to clear up before our departure.
Pray for ease as we transition into our new home in Thailand and wisdom as we make decisions concerning language school.
Please pray for us as we continue in all the logistics of packing, preparing, and saying our “see ya laters” to family and friends.
Pray that the Lord will continue to sustain and expand our partnership team.

Praise!

Praise God that we were able to secure a new itinerary that will allow us the time we need to make our connecting flight!
The doors have opened for us to share with one more church before our departure: The Filling Station in Wellington, CO on Saturday, April 1.
We will also have a final sending from Fusion Ministries in Greeley on Sunday, April 2.

We’re truly blessed and honored to have so many folks behind us who believe in us and what God is doing. To each of you who stand behind us: Thank You!

To God Be the Glory!

Love,
Matt, Amy and Jedidiah

Restored to Royalty

October 12, 2011October 11, 2011 / Matt & Amy / 2 Comments

Warning: The story shared in the following video forever wrecked my life. View with caution.

Commericals: The Value of Life

October 18, 2010October 4, 2010 / Matt & Amy / 1 Comment

Here are some pretty amazing commercials about the value of life, love and family:

As I watched these, I was very touched by the importance of living life fully. Imagine if we all lived like Mae Toi and lived not like the cup was half-empty but full. Imagine if we lived willing to love fully for 60 days like the man who decided to marry his dying sweetheart. Imagine if we all lived with a full understanding that we were Sons or Daughters of God – so much more valuable than knowing one’s earthly father was able to embrace him or her once before passing. Imagine if we stopped imagining and started living in this way. What would happen?