LOVE - 'OUT of the BLUE'

On a sunny February afternoon in 1997, Clayton King was preparing to preach to 3,000 college students at the University of North Carolina when he saw a young lady in the crowd. In some mysterious way, he knew he would marry her, though he had never seen her before and did not even know her name. 

This young man had an interesting background God began opening doors for Clayton to preach almost immediately after he was saved. He began ministering with a team at several local correctional facilities where he learned much about discernment, and being authentic. His experiences in prison ministry helped him develop a love for those that society forgets about, as well as wisdom when dealing with people from different circumstances. 

Clayton had always dreamed of playing football in college and the pros, but God had other plans. He was recruited by several small colleges and offered opportunities to pursue football, but a severe shoulder injury his Senior year made it obvious that football was not in his future. His dream of attending Clemson University almost became a reality when he received a full academic scholarship there, but he knew that God had called him to preach so he stepped out on faith and turned down all athletic opportunities and academic scholarships that would keep him from pursuing ministry. God provided and he received the Presidential Scholarship at Gardner-Webb University where he graduated in 1995 with a degree in Religious Studies as the Graduate of the Year. 

How did Clayton's  'out of the blue' belief that he had found that one special person turn out? Great as far as he was concerned. he actually got to meet Charie right after that event, she applied to work at Crossroads prison ministry, and they fell in love.

They were married on May 1, 1999 and have two amazing little boys named Jacob and Joseph.  Isn't it interesting how these things seem to be co-incidental? Well not to this couple. They believed the Lord led them to each other while they were involved in His work.














They met that night after the event, she applied to work at Crossroads, and they fell in love. They were married on May 1, 1999 and have two amazing little boys named Jacob and Joseph.

LOVE to SPARE

George, Rita, Prateep, Baptist Pastor, Machas, & Saenthong

Prateep is a small lady with a very big heart for the Lord Jesus.

She married her sweetheart and she and her husband began a church among the ricefields in Suphanburi, Central Thailand. Besides attending to her family Prateep faithfully laboured alongside her husband to build up their congregation.

Sadly after many happy and fruitful years together, Prateep's husband fell very ill. She believes the Lord prompted him to give her some excellent advice.

First, he told her to learn how to drive their car. Then he said she would need to learn some special skill to be able to provide for herself and the children. That was the very beginning of a change in her whole life, because some time later her love of many years died. She grieved, but thanked the Lord that her husband had given her the encouragement to become independent.

Prateep learned to design and sew beautiful items for sale, such as tablecloths, place-mats, tissue box covers etc. These exquisite, lacy pieces have become so popular that she now exports them throughout SE Asia. They are usually pastel-colored and often have seed pearls attached. I have several myself.

When her business began to grow she had the idea of handing out the work to local women to help them in turn to add to their small incomes. Better still, the love of Jesus shone through her personality. She has an appealing and quirky sense of humour and loves and cares for each one of her sewing workers.Not surprisingly, eventually forty of them became believers. Machas - in the photo above - is one of them who is now a close friend.

 After my husband and I took a Sunday service in Hotel Khon Kaen for international visitors, this picture shows some of our team. Prateep and Machas regularly join Somchai & Saenthong, Thai evangelists, in their travels throughout Thailand. It has been our great joy to minister alongside these enthusiastic Thais when we minister for a month each year to tell about Jesus.

GYNAECOLOGIST* CHANGED by PRAYER

Doctors Wallapa & Wirach  Wisawasukmongchol with their daughters

When you truly love someone, you'll never give up on them. That is the strongly held opinion of Dr Wallapa of Bangkok, Thailand.

As a convinced Buddhist, she and her husband were quite content in their busy, productive lifestyle. That is until one night this enthusiastic lady had a dream. She saw Jesus and wondered what it might mean. The next night she had the same dream and from then on tried to learn more about Him. Finding a christian church, she then began to grow in her faith.

However, convincing her husband about her new found Saviour was quite a different matter. He simply thought she was going through a phase and that it wouldn't last. "I am and will remain a Buddhist," he declared. As a successful gynaecologist* now teaching in the Dept.of Obstetrics and Gynaecology* in the Faculty of Medicine Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, he had a certain reputation to consider.

Wallapa soon learned she couldn't convince him to become a Christian, it could only be God who could do that. So each night she waited until he slept and holding one hand over him, she raised the other to God. "Please save him, Lord Jesus," she prayed. "Change my dear husband's heart." She never wavered in her longing and persisted in her prayers.

Twelve long years later Wirach came to believe and follow the Lord Jesus Christ. For those twelve years he had watched his loving wife and experienced her heartfelt concern for him. And now besides his medical work he pastors a growing Alliance church with the enthusiastic help of Wallapa and their children.

When this couple booked a special room in a large Bangkok hotel, we, along with our interpreter/evangelist Somchai Soonthornturasuk, had the privilege of sharing the Gospel and to explain Christianity to many of her colleagues, some of whom were parliamentarians.

Praise the Lord for her faithful, loving and persistent prayer!
*Australian spelling.

THE VOW

A massive head injury as the result of a tragic car accident left Krickett Carpenter in a coma just two months after her marriage to Kim. When she finally emerged from the coma, she recognized everyone in her life except her husband Kim! 
Starting all over, they built a new love and dedicated their lives to each other all over again. Their story was captured in book and film and entitled The Vow.

Imagine. It would be like fitting all the odd pieces to make sense of the pattern.  Knowing you once loved this stranger, yet possessing none of the emotions you would expect to experience. You would need to accept your husband or wife filling in all the special memories you had forgotten.

I'm certain it would be a horribly frustrating and scary situation in which to find yourself. Everything that was told to you would have to be accepted by faith. And could you really trust this stranger? Would everything he or she told you be the truth? It would be something you'd have to figure out by listening to the relatives also, and watching how everyone related the whole story. Look at wedding albums and see the proof with your own eyes.

Even so, it would be a matter of faith in the long run. Do you believe what others tell you about this person? It's your choice to believe and accept, or to reject. You don't have pictures to look at but you do have the testimonies of many hundreds of people from long ago and also the present time.

Maybe this is similar to the Christian faith. Can you accept what others say about Jesus?  Are you prepared to read what is written about Him in the Bible? Or you can simply reject what others have experienced of Him and go your own way. After all our gracious God has given us a free will. This is a precious gift we should not hold lightly.

Let us face this New Year learning all we can about this God Man Jesus who cared enough about us to willingly come into our world to teach us the way to live and the Way to follow. And may you enjoy a Happy & Blessed New Year!

CHRISTMAS PRAYER

Is Christmas a holiday you've been looking forward to? It's a special time for family members to get together and celebrate, isn't it? 

Yet Christmas can be a very stressful time with all the planning of meals and gifts associated with it. Even buying the right gift for the person who has everything is a real hassle. And too often the credit card is stretched to the point of incurring a sizeable debt.

My friend asked her small son to end his prayer with the Lord's Prayer and when he got it muddled up she corrected him. What he'd said touched her and she wrote this poem.

Forgive us our Christmases

“Our father who are in Heaven”,  Prayed the lisping three-year-year-old.   He paused while Mummy prompted, then continued as he’d been told.

Again he raised his sweet clear voice, “Give-us-this-day-our-daily-bread,                             

... and-forgive-us-our-Christmases ...”   Then Mummy lifted her head.

That isn’t in the Lord’s Prayer, dear,  She gently reminded him.                    

It’s “forgive-us-our-trespasses”,     And they bowed their heads again.

The prayers were done;  he was tucked in bed;    And Mummy tiptoed out,                            

But the words he had prayed,  still lingered on,     Perhaps he was right at that.

“Forgive-us-our-Christmases?”   Oh Lord, It is so true,                           

We pamper ourselves and everyone else,      But forget to remember You.

We buy the presents for our friends,    When it’s really your birthday,                            

 We decorate and motivate,              It's our favourite holiday.

How this must grieve the heart of God,     When He looks down upon ...                         

The sons of men to whom He gave,           The greatest GIFT, His Son!

“Joy-to-the-World” we glibly sing,           And promptly then forget,                    

That to Him Who made the Heaven’s ring,     We owe a tremendous debt!

“Forgive-us-Lord,-our-Christmases”,     With all their wasted endeavour,                   

And may this Christmas honor Him,        Who lives and reigns forever.

But there's another side of this special holiday. Police say that squabbles break out even among family members. Too often long held bitterness comes to the fore, because of alcohol freely consumed. And it's not long before violence erupts and things get nasty.

And what of those who haven't families to gather around them? So often they're left out in the cold. If it wasn't for charities offering the comfort of Christmas dinners, so often these folk would go hungry.

Let's remember it's Jesus' birthday we remember and honour. He is the Prince of Peace. Let us share His love and His peace to those around us.  Happy Christmas!

HEARTBREAK

Abbie (pictured) shares her thoughts when "things don't work out".

Hovering beneath Christian jargon and hiding our authentic God-given judgment hides us from reality. Some days will be hard (like when you want to console, or be consoled by, an ex), and some situations are plain awkward (like seeing an old crush or seeing a new one with your old best friend). The alternative, however, is to stuff our pain in statements like, “I know God, so I shouldn’t be upset,” or “God always has a happy plan and future for me, so I’ve just gotta suck it up and move on.” Truth never modeled such a tale. To risk hurting one’s feelings, or risk handing over your real feelings, will usually be hard. But if God is true and truly Lord over outcomes (including feelings), we’re better off being authentically upset, heartbroken, and maybe even awkward, rather than maturing a lie.

Scripture says His overarching will for our lives is holiness. But what about when holiness doesn’t fix us or necessarily make us feel happy? And why is it that holiness seems to happen more often, even, through the likes of heartbreaks and breakups, than smooth-sailing life? Although sometimes holiness involves happiness, other times it involves suffering, even unfulfilled longing. However, the challenging belief is that God is good and has His (and your) best interests in mind.

Either God is good and for our good and knows what He is about, or He doesn’t. Either pain and death are the end of our stories, or they’re not. Successful dating should not just be classified as those who “get hitched.” Successful dating, or “courtship,” or life, that is, happen when a man and a woman are moved closer to God. Even in courtships that break up, then, or unrequited love that never requites, God’s hand is still initiating and making something new. Sometimes God breaks up two good people with two good paths for no other reason than to draw us closer to Him.
 

CHINA - Book on Marriage

 As a former corporate executive ,Andrew Yuan Da Tong is possibly China’s most famous proponent of marriage and parenting. He has been in ministry since the 1990s  in China, ZDL Books, are proud to be long-standing supporters of Andrew. His most recent book on marriage is entitled  Marriage, a Covenant for Life.

Andrew’s primary goal is to influence leaders, to share with them that their marriage is a reflection of their spiritual life and has a direct correlation to a healthy family and church. For many Chinese pastors, this is counter-intuitive. The perception is that ministry and service to the church come above their responsibility to their wife and family. This year alone, Andrew has conducted training sessions for over 12,000 people. He has spoken at the Three Self Patriotic Church, the Family churches and has been asked to teach at Yanjing Seminary.

 Some responses from pastors:

“This content is not from overseas. This is heartfelt and your teaching really touched us”
Pastor from Anhui Province

“We have never heard this before. When can you come back again?” Pastors from Wenzhou

Please pray for Andrew and his wife Erling's health and ministry as they increasingly devote themselves to sharing this desperately needed message.