Introducing Our Littlest Baldwin

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We are overjoyed to introduce you to the littlest Baldwin,

Alizah Gracelynn.

Alizah and mommy are doing well and getting in lots of snuggles.

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It seems so strange that two weeks ago we were still awaiting her arrival. We love being a family of four and look forward to new adventures this year as we grow in love for each other.

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Jedidiah loves his baby sister all the way to his toes and her name is the first thing on his lips in the morning. He takes his responsibility as a big brother to make sure that she has enough hugs, kisses and cuddles seriously.

Praises: 
Our sweet pea is here! She and mommy are healthy after a natural birth.

The whole family is doing well with adjusting to being a family of four.

Prayers:
Tomorrow, Sunday, January 21, we will be hosting one of our pre-believer Thai friends in our home for the first time. Please pray for grace over our time of connecting with him and his wife, for open doors to share about the love of Christ, but most of all for strengthened relationship through our time together.

On Monday Matthew is returning to work at Dton Naam after taking a two week paternity leave. In 2017, he was working part time while attending language school full time. In 2018, he will be serving at Dton Naam full time while attending language school part time. Please pray for grace over this transition, for clarity in taking on new roles and continued grace over language learning.

Amy will be taking a three month maternity leave with Alizah before returning to work at Dton Naam. Please pray for her for clarity during this time and wisdom to know what roles she should take on when the time comes.

Thank you for standing with us in this journey. Your prayers and support mean so much to us!

Love,
Matt, Amy, Jed and Alizah

Sawatdee kha from Bangkok!

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We just enjoyed our third weekend in our new town home and our hearts are grateful for the Lord’s provision of a place we feel we can truly call home. We are living in a very quiet, predominantly Thai neighborhood that has some good Thai-style restaurants and a couple of coffee shops and is still only a 10 minute walk from the BTS. We are excited to get to know our new neighbors and look forward to taking walks as a family through our new neighborhood. Though we are still working on getting settled in, we’ve already had the joy of having a friend over to share a simple dinner and fellowship with us. We look forward to making our house more homey and being able to continue hosting friends both old and new.

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Staying Afloat

We’ve already had the chance to see how our house holds up during heavy rains and flooding. This weekend heavy rains in the night (which lasted up to seven hours according to some accounts) pummeled the city of Bangkok, leaving our street and many others flooded. After hearing the rain most of the night, Amy got up at around 3am and found that the water was filling our carport and was only about 3/4 of an inch below our door. Fortunately, the Lord protected us and the waters did not come into our home. Some of our neighbors whose houses are not built as high up as ours is were not so fortunate and had 8-12 inches (or more) of water in their homes. While we felt hard hit, the floods have been much worse in other areas. We are grateful for the Lord’s protection!

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Cross-Cultural and Incarnational Living

A highlight this month has been the training we attended on Thai culture and making disciples in Thai culture. It was a full week of learning from a wonderful Thai family who has made it their aim to truly understand how to reach the Thai for Jesus and share their knowledge with others. One of our biggest takeaways is actually summed up in a couple of simple questions: How can I change so that Thai will find the gospel something that they can feel is relatable, understandable, credible and desirable? How should I become like them to win these people for Christ? How can I share the amazing mystery of the gospel in a way that makes the Thai feel that it’s not a foreigner’s religion? In short, how do I live out what Paul talked about when he wrote about becoming “all things to all men that we may win some” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23)? It’s certainly not a new question, but one that we found a greater context to understand this month as we discovered aspects of Thai culture that will help us reach the Thai. Our hearts are inspired to learn more about Thai culture, Thai history, Buddhism, vivid and engaging storytelling, and embracing a value for fun or “sanuk” in our day to day lives and ministry.

Love, 

Matt, Amy, Jedidiah & Baby Baldwin

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The Ministry of the Spirit

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Amy and I were recently invited to equip a small group at Thailand House Of Prayer (THOP) for three weeks on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, specifically the prophetic ministry. I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. It has reminded me of the centrality of the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the church and has reignited a passion and expectation in my heart to see it increase.

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The Lord tells us in the last days He will pour out His Spirit, causing sons and daughters to prophecy.

“In the last days… I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.”  (Acts 2:17-18)

and

“As for Me,” says the Lord, “this is My covenant with them: My Spirit who is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your descendants, nor from the mouth of your descendants’ descendants,” says the Lord, “from this time and forevermore.” (Is 59:21)

The last days started with life and ministry of Jesus and continue until His glorious return when He will establish the fullness of His kingdom on earth. The Bible also teaches the New Covenant would be characterized by the glorious life-giving ministry of the Spirit of God (Is 59:21, 2 Cor 3:6-8).  As New Covenant believers living in the last days we should expect the activity of the Holy Spirit in every saint’s life causing the church to be strengthened (1 Cor 12-14) and many to be saved (Mk 16:15-18). Since I first became a Christian the ministry of the Holy Spirit has been crucial. I have been empowered, encouraged, and healed by the Holy Spirit as well as seen many others have the same experiences.

I am so thankful for those faithful leaders throughout history, past and present, that have pursued this ministry all over the world. I ask that you would pray with us for a greater measure of the outpouring and ministry of the Holy Spirit in Thailand and southeast Asia. Pray that many would be brought into the kingdom and that the church would be strengthened and grow in maturity in this life-giving ministry.

Finding Our Rhythm

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Rhythm… I think sometimes our year and a half year old has a better sense of it than we do. Four months into our transition in Thailand and we are still seeking to find a life rhythm that will allow us to study Thai, spend time with the Lord and in the Word, exercise, go in to Dton Naam, have family time and rest well so we can do all we need to in this season with excellence.

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The last day of every month our language school takes a field trip.  This month we went to the Ancient City, which is a replica of all the major landmarks in Thailand.  Above is a replica of the laying Buddha.​

Language school is continuing to go well. Matt is beginning the third module of speaking as he decided to repeat the first level to give himself a stronger foundation in the language to work from. Amy is beginning to learn to read and write in Thai, which has its own complex writing system made up of 44 consonants and 32 vowels. While language is challenging we know it is a necessary foundation stone for the future as we want to be effective in our interactions with the Thai and be able to communicate at more than just a surface level without having to have a translator with us all the time.

Some of the gentlemen at a tailor shop we pass by regularly on our route back from language school have been developing a friendship with Matt. The topic of discussion easily turns to faith. Marcos has shared he believes all faiths and Gods are ultimately the same and God is in all of us. He has also indicated he thought all scriptures are basically the same thing as well. Matt shared with him that Jesus and the Bible are not the same as others. We were able to get him a Bible in his own language, which Marcos accepted with joy. Another gentleman who works in another tailor shop, Seresh, we’ve discovered lives close to us and we’ve had the opportunity to meet up with him and enjoy a meal together.

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Making our way through Bangkok on the motorbike. Jed loves his “hat” and always wants to wear it. 

In other news, as you may know, we had purchased a motorbike shortly after arriving in Thailand which has been a huge blessing to us. However, we also saw that it had its limitations, especially since as we recently shared, our family is growing. How would we fit our growing family on the motorbike once Amy’s pregnancy reaches the third trimester? Once baby is born how could we safely navigate the city?

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Our family’s new mode of transportation!

Shortly after purchasing the motorbike we also had an opportunity come up where a friend of a friend was selling his 2004 Toyota Atlis for $6,000 US.  This is a very reasonable price for a second-hand car in Thailand that has been well maintained. We felt that the Lord opened up this opportunity for us and we had to act on it quickly so we went ahead and purchased the car. We now use the motorbike primarily when Matt needs to run an errand and use the car to transport the four of us. While it takes longer to get around in the car than the motorbike, we like that it’s safer and it also makes it easier for Jed to get an extra nap in if needed. While we were able to cover the car and some initial work that it needed done with cash, we have dipped into our start-up fund more than we had intended to and need to replenish our nest egg to cover the remainder of our language school and be able to furnish a place in the future when we find a more permanent home. We are also encountering other expenses we hadn’t budgeted for, especially with our baby on the way. If the Lord leads you to give an extra gift to help us meet the gap it would be a tremendous blessing.

 

Many Blessings,

Matt, Amy, Jed & Baby

Two Months Already?

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At times it seems crazy to me that we’ve only been in Thailand for two months. So much has happened and our days are full. We are entering our second month of language school, which is going well. Learning a new language has its challenges but it also has its joys – like those moments when you actually understand what someone is saying or when you’re able to carry on a bit of a conversation with someone in your new language.

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Our Thai Class

Between language studies and finding our new life rhythm as a family, we’ve began getting to know the staff and students at Dton Naam, we’ve found a church we love, and we’ve gotten connected to a local house of prayer. We feel so blessed to have gotten established in so many ways so quickly as we know it can take months to find these kinds of connections when moving to a new city.

Continue reading →

Confidence in the Will of God

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We have been in Thailand almost 2 months! I’d be lying if I said that adjusting to a new culture is easy, but we know the Lord has led us here and He continues to confirm that are in the will of God. Reminding ourselves of this gives us great confidence and encouragement when challenging times or questions of why are we here come. It also helps us to stay focused on what He has called us to. I want to share with you four practical ways in which we have discovered the will of God for our own lives and principles of how the Holy Spirit loves to direct and lead people into the will of God.

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The number one way the Holy Spirit leads me into the will of God is through His word. As we were preparing to come to Thailand, the Lord spoke to me through a few passages of scripture (Matthew 24:14, Psalm 2:8, and Ephesians 5:15-19) that tell of His promise of receiving an inheritance from the nations and our calling to partner with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit to present that inheritance to Him. These verses confirmed for me that stepping into missions was the will of God for us. At various times while reading or studying Holy Spirit will emphasize a scripture, making it stand out or come alive to me and I know God is speaking. Holy Spirit loves to open the scripture to us as His perfect will is revealed in the scriptures. If we are doing something contrary to what the word of God teaches we should repent right away, ask for forgiveness, press delete, and move forward in confidence in His mercy. Continue reading →

Freedom for the Captives

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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;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
3 To 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.”

4 And 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.