As you pray...July 1, 2024
Praise
Praise God for a fantastic first Merge trip to Thailand!
Praise God for Thai teachers who want to know more about our faith.
Prayer
Pray for continuing unity among Thai churches in the Northeast who are working together to see the gospel shared in the least churched and most resistant part of Thailand—the Northeast or Isaan.
On a personal level, Ruthie’s father passed away on June 21st at the age of 97. Pray for her family and especially her Mom, Mary Jo as she adjusts to life without Don. They celebrated 75 years of marriage on June 5, 2024.
Are you over 60? Could you help mission in Thailand by joining a trip this coming year? There is a Merge “Crescendo” trip scheduled for September 1- 10, 2025. Please write us or Dale Lusk (Director of Covenant’s Merge Ministries) at dale.lusk@covchurch.org!
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As you pray...Dec. 23, 2014
Please read
our new requests and updates in italics below.
2015-001. Mulberries and Livelihoods. Please continue to pray for "Mulberries and
Livelihoods," the new project we started in Xieng Khouang. Though we are unable to work with them in
this project, many poor rural families are being helped through it. Pray for funding and personnel.
2015-002. Daniel Aquatics. The
fish spawning farm/nursery has gone into production, but has not yet been able
to realize its full potential because further construction is needed. Pray for Daniel and the Lao manager to be
able to plan together and find the personnel and funding they need.
2015-003. Move to Roi Et. We have recently rented a house in Roi Et in the
same neighborhood as most of the Covenant Church leadership. Pray for us as we unpack and settle in to
life with the team there.
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( As of October 5, 2013 )
Please read our new requests and updates in italics below.
2013-001. Project Funding. We are excited about "Mulberries and Livelihoods," the new project we are starting in Xieng Khouang, but so far we are short on our fund-raising goals for this. Please pray that we would be able to connect with the right funding organizations. We have seen God provide over and over in the past and have stepped out in faith, again. If you, as an individual or church, would like to get behind this work, please contact us...
2013-0027. Daniel Aquatics--Buyers for Fish Fry. The fish spawning farm/nursery is well under way. But we need to now connect well with buyers. Pray we can make the right connections, and that these connections would lead to opportunities to share on a deeper level.
2013-003. Ruthie's Spiritual Direction. After completing her certificate in SD, Ruthie has had numerous people, both Lao and expat, ask if she will be a spiritual director/companion. She keeps a busy schedule meeting with people. Please pray that God would give her wisdom and spiritual discernment to help each one she sees. She also visits in the local prison for foreigners and does the accounting for our projects and the Thailand Covenant.
2013-004. Help!. We are looking for some talented, committed 20-somethings OR 50-somethings to help in the work. If you think you might be able to help, please contact us.
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(
As of August 5, 2012 )
Please read our new requests and updates
in italics below.
2012-007.
Found Dead. We
personally know several believers who have been “disappeared”. Recently a young man, a bright light in the
group in our former province, was found dead in the jungle. We still don’t know all the circumstances of
this incident, but intended or not, these kinds of incidents serve to greatly
intimidate those other believers in the area.
Please pray for strength and boldness!
2012-007.
OTC. Part of the agenda
for our upcoming trip to China is to continue the process of finding a new
location for a new OTC! Please pray that
the right connections will be made!
2012-006.
Peter’s knee & shoulder. I
continue to recover from surgery to my knee and shoulder that I had in
April. My shoulder is much better
finally, now in July. But I am still
hobbling around with pain in my knee.
·
My shoulder is almost
completely healed! For the last couple
of weeks I have been able to stretch & bike regularly which have made a big
difference in my knee. Please pray I can
keep it up over the next two weeks of travel we have in front of us!
2012-005.
Pray for Covenant personnel who are in
the States after a short term and working hard to return overseas…. I
think of Christy Taylor, Diane & Chris Wiebe, and Neil & Liz
Peterson. Many of them are finding
fund-raising to be challenging in this economy.
Liz & Neil are dealing with many issues related to Liz’s obtaining
United States citizenship. Christy and
the Wiebe’s are doing on-going education to enhance their teaching skills. Please pray that these times would be
refreshing times of
rebuilding and encouragement.
·
Neil & Liz have flown to
England to visit family and churches there.
Please keep praying for these future Covenant personnel—they need it
during the time when they are in the States—people often forget to pray when
you are on HA, but that is often the time when you need it the most!
2012-004.
Praise the Lord for the strong church growth in Taiwan and
for the many ways the churches are reaching into their communities and
countries around them. Pray that the new
sanctuary for the Xindian church would be completed in time for a 60th
anniversary celebration in October.
·
Oct. 4 I travel with Daeng
(Khamphan Sudcha), the Thailand ECC Chair to go to Taiwan for the 60th
Anniversary. Pray that this would be an
encouraging time for Daeng!
2012-003.
A house, a visa, and energy to make the move back to our former country of
service. We
hope to move sometime in October or November.
Please pray that all the important things will come together.
·
We have a date! September 28 we travel to Vientiane to begin
the process of getting out visa, finding a house in which to settle, buying a
vehicle appropriate for the country. We
will move our household beginning Nov. 5.
Please keep praying.
2012-002. Ruthie and I are in the States for two weeks for meetings and study. Please pray for Ruthie as she continues her program in Spiritual Direction at North Park Seminary in Chicago. Peter will be returning to Thailand on July 16, Ruthie on July 26.
·
Ruthie
got back safe and sound and had a wonderful time with her cohort of
students. She is weighing carefully now
whether she can continue in the program for the final year, given all the
requirements of the program and all we have on our plates..
2012-001. The smell from the mill that was such a big problem last year….
·
Has
now been solved! Thank the Lord we were
able to find an environmental engineer who was able to help us design a system
that totally eliminated the smell. We
closed down the mill in mid-January and then worked hard to make many changes
in the ventilation system. When we
turned on the system it worked!
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(
As of October 14, 2011 )
Please read our new requests and updates in italics below.
2011-011. A Sweet Aroma in Chiang Khong. Our little food mill in Chiang Khong produces a strong aroma like the popcorn smell that hits you when you open the door to a theater. Nice at first, but now the neighbors are complaining. So we are working hard to contain and filter out the smell. This is all by trial and error. Pray that we would hit on a good solution!
2011-010. A Godly Man from Iowa. What an encouragement it was to have Dave Welander from the Pomeroy Covenant church join us for just over a month. After working with us, Dave visited Neil & Liz Peterson in a neighboring country and spread the blessing down there too...
2011-009. Ruthie and I are in the States for two weeks for meetings. Since the closure of the school in East Asia, there are many people whose lives are turned upside down right now. Please pray for each of these members of our Covenant family who are undergoing transition: Christ & Diane Wiebe, Christy Taylor, Kristi Byford, Krista Waller, Dave & Jeanne Palleschi , Nancy Jo Hoover. Pray that we will discern together new directions for each of these committed servants.
2011-008. Too much work at Mekong Valley Foods! Actually, praise the Lord for this. After months and months of waiting and working we were finally inundated with orders for the food we make for refugees and schools. So much so that we struggled to keep up and produce the orders in time. But praise God, he has enabled the team to keep up the pace...
2011-011. A Sweet Aroma in Chiang Khong. Our little food mill in Chiang Khong produces a strong aroma like the popcorn smell that hits you when you open the door to a theater. Nice at first, but now the neighbors are complaining. So we are working hard to contain and filter out the smell. This is all by trial and error. Pray that we would hit on a good solution!
2011-010. A Godly Man from Iowa. What an encouragement it was to have Dave Welander from the Pomeroy Covenant church join us for just over a month. After working with us, Dave visited Neil & Liz Peterson in a neighboring country and spread the blessing down there too...
2011-009. Ruthie and I are in the States for two weeks for meetings. Since the closure of the school in East Asia, there are many people whose lives are turned upside down right now. Please pray for each of these members of our Covenant family who are undergoing transition: Christ & Diane Wiebe, Christy Taylor, Kristi Byford, Krista Waller, Dave & Jeanne Palleschi , Nancy Jo Hoover. Pray that we will discern together new directions for each of these committed servants.
2011-008. Too much work at Mekong Valley Foods! Actually, praise the Lord for this. After months and months of waiting and working we were finally inundated with orders for the food we make for refugees and schools. So much so that we struggled to keep up and produce the orders in time. But praise God, he has enabled the team to keep up the pace...
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( As of May 15 , 2011 )
( As of May 15 , 2011 )
Please
read our new requests and updates below (in italics)
2011-007. We travel tomorrow to China to visit Peter & Anna Kim and OTC. Please pray for us and the team there as we help make plans for the future.
2011-007. We travel tomorrow to China to visit Peter & Anna Kim and OTC. Please pray for us and the team there as we help make plans for the future.
- We've just returned from a great trip to China. We had productive meetings with the team at OTC and saw some very impressive work at the organization in which Peter & Anna are working.
2011-004. MVF is still waiting for permission to import vitamins and minerals to go in our blended flour.
- Permission was granted, but we are still waiting for the vitamins to arrive and be cleared through customs. Please keep praying with us till the day we actually begin producing blended food.
2011-003. Missionaries and churches in Japan
are mobilizing
to bring relief and care for the suffering people of northern Japan.
- Keep praying for the relief efforts under way in northern Japan. The United Project has brought together the Japan Covenant Church, Covenant World Relief, and several other church groups to bring relief supplies and short -term teams to help do relief work.
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( As of May 2 , 2011 )
( As of May 2 , 2011 )
Please read our new requests and
updates below (in italics)
2011-007. We travel tomorrow to China to visit Peter & Anna Kim and OTC. Please pray for us and the team there as we help make plans for the future.
2011-006. Eric & Karyn Sorenson are praying about future directions in their ministry. They have been at Pacific Islands University & seminary four years as project missionaries.
2011-007. We travel tomorrow to China to visit Peter & Anna Kim and OTC. Please pray for us and the team there as we help make plans for the future.
2011-006. Eric & Karyn Sorenson are praying about future directions in their ministry. They have been at Pacific Islands University & seminary four years as project missionaries.
- Please keep praying for Eric & Karyn.
2011-005. Pray for Jun Pejji and
his family as they live in the midst of a mess while their house is renovated to become the future meeting place of
the Pasig City church in Metro Manila.
- Jun writes that the church/house remodel is moving along well after some holidays when the workers took off.
2011-004. MVF is still waiting for permission to import vitamins and minerals to go in our blended flour.
- Answered! The Thai FDA finally gave approval for 2 of the 3 products we needed to import. The last one, also, is not expected to be a problem. We hope to clear these products through customs in a week or two. Thanks for praying!
2011-003.
Missionaries and churches in Japan are mobilizing to bring relief and care for the suffering people of northern Japan.
- Dave Husby, Director of Covenant World Relief, made a quick visit just before we arrived in Japan. Curt Peterson and Gary Walter will be traveling north this week. Rolling Hills Covenant Church sent a team, including their senior pastor, Byron MacDonald, paid a visit and are considering making Japan and this relief effort one of 3 strategic foci. Samaritan's Purse, Food for the Hungry, and many other quality organizations have teams in the field. Praise God for this quick response! Please keep praying for the thousands who have lost family members.
2011-001.
Kevin and Ramona are searching for jobs now in L.A. After a year working in Laos, our son and daughter-in-law, are back in
Orange County contemplating further studies, and looking for work.
- Answered! Both Kevin and Ramona have found jobs. Kevin will be working as assistant manager in a branch of Starbucks. Ramona will be working with an NGO which responds to people around the world in need of wheel chairs.
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( As of April 7 , 2011 )
( As of April 7 , 2011 )
- MVF is still waiting for permission to import vitamins and minerals to go in our blended flour. Please pray that permission would be granted this week! When that happens, we give the green light to a company in Germany to ship the vitamins. Hopefully in a week or two we will be able to produce food for our first contract!
- Missionaries and churches in Japan are mobilizing to bring relief and care for the suffering people of northern Japan. Please pray that they will come together in unity and have the funds to make a real difference in the communities in which they work.
- We're headed for the Philippines and Guam. Please pray that we will have productive visits and that God would use us to bring encouragement to his workers on the front lines.
- Kevin and Ramona are searching for jobs now in L.A. After a year working in Laos, our son and daughter-in-law, are back in Orange County contemplating further studies, and looking for work. Please pray that their interviews would go well and they would both find the jobs they need!
