Christmas with a Big C

Ruthie and I had a wonderful Christmas here in Chiang Rai with our Dutch colleague, Wessel,  and his fiancée, Ut, (from Laos) staying with us.  Yesterday the little inter-tribal church we have been attending was asked to present a program at a local superstore called Big-C and I was asked to speak.  So, given the atmosphere, I opted for a kind of question and answer format—questions like "Is Santa Claus in the Bible?" and “What is the Real Meaning of Christmas.”  Many Thai are crazy about celebrating Christmas, at least in a commercial way, but really don't know much about it's origins and meaning…  It was so wonderful to be able to speak openly about my faith and what Jesus means to me!

Across the Mekong

House and Home

Ruthie and I have moved into a very nice, 2-year-old house we have rented in the south of Chiang Rai.  Located in one of Thailand’s many housing developments this one represents a fairly broad cross-section of Thai society.  Starting at one end, with large homes and big yards, they get progressively smaller and more compact, ending in dense apartment units.  With five bedrooms and 4 baths, our house has plenty of room for the many guests we expect over the coming year.  Just in the last few days we have finally been able to bring all of our household belongings over the Mekong River into Chiang Rai with a lot of help from Michael Avrit and our friends in Laos.  It’s wonderful to have comfortable chairs to sit in, pots to cook with, and our books out on our shelves—just in time for Christmas.  God is good!  

Team Building

Another blessing has been to see God continue to pull the team together which will be working in our mission business. Wessel Huisjes, our Dutch friend, is just finishing up a short term consultancy in the Burmese delta area, location of the recent tropical storm disaster, and will be joining us full time by the first of February. Besides this, we have welcomed Michael and Miriam Avrit, independent missionaries who have been working in Laos. Michael’s mechanical and engineering capabilities will be very important to us. The Avrits are ready to join us at any time, but are looking for the right house and timing in their move from Laos to Thailand. Then, out of the blue we received an offer from a Canadian man, a mechanic, to work for several weeks helping us with the factory set-up in February. In the meantime, we are still praying for Nate and Jessica Sperry, who are applying to come as Covenant short termers—possibly arriving the end of 2009.

An Added Blessing

We had the joy of officially welcoming Jim Gustafson back to our meetings after a long season away.  In case some of you have lost track—Jim has been working in Thailand all along, with the same passion and creative energy as ever.  But now our executive director of World Mission, Curt Peterson, has asked Jim to help with strategic direction both in Thailand and Covenant world mission at large.  Jim related some of the exciting things God is doing among Muslim, HIV-positive people in south Thailand, as well as among tribal people near the Lao border not far from us here.  As young missionaries—and all through our careers, Jim has been a special mentor and friend.  It was good to have him back!

 

Covenant Family

Another big joy for us has been renewing friendships with our colleagues in the Thai Covenant missionary family—the Groot’s, Bevis’s, and Jim Gustafson.  While we have never been “out of relationship”, our living in Laos with its remoteness and different issues necessarily meant a certain distance.  But we really enjoyed two days of mission meetings (that might be an historic first!) where, yes, we took care of “mission business”, but mostly we shared from our hearts and ministries, prayed for each other, counseled each other.  

Plant Plans--Preliminary

Intentions and Plans

We sent you a picture in an earlier posting of a wonderful big building/warehouse which seemed ideal for the corn and soy bean processing factory we are going to set up.  This was the first place God led us to—on our first day in Chiang Rai.  Now we have signed a letter of intent to rent the place and are going through the process of seeking the appropriate permissions and clearances with the departments of zoning and industry.  With a lot of help from our friends in the Christian company from which we are buying the equipment, we’ve been drawing up multiple floor plans and equipment layout designs to give us maximum efficiency and flexibility.  This has been a very interesting, fun task (for me, Peter).

It's Official!

Mekong Valley Foods Co. is now a juristic entity in Thailand, a company which makes food for export to countries in the region!  With a registered capital of 6 million baht ($180,000), we can provide visa slots for up to three foreigners and are expected to have a minimum of 12 Thai employees.  Right now we are researching the pros and cons of becoming a project which qualifies for pro-investment policies under Thailand’s Board of Investment.  If we do qualify, we would be eligible for exemption from many taxes during our first eight years; but we would also need to meet ISO 9001 standards of manufacturing and administrative excellence, a time-consuming, bureaucratic process.  Please pray that we would have the wisdom to make the right decision.