2025年10月更新
Dear friends,
This past Monday was the monthly meeting of the Karen leaders in Omkoi. It is a growing group of Karen church leaders that share, pray, plan in the morning and then finish with having lunch together. The devotion was on Jonah and challenged me in the following way (see questions below):
Among missionaries we sometimes talk about the 4 fields of ministry:
1st Field - the people group / area that God has called you to. No church or believers yet. The empty or entry field.
2nd Field - abundant gospel seed sowing to your target people. The sowing field.
3rd Field - some people respond and grow. This field needs discipleship/watering, etc. The growing field.
4th Field - the harvest field, believers are gathered together as a church. The maturing or harvest field (see an illustration of the four fields in the Mekong prayer guide on p. 6).
Do you know your Nineveh? The place or people that God wants you to go and share the Good News with? From Jonah’s example: If you do, you better follow through! Are you abundantly sowing God’s word with them? Are you coming back to water and nurture your ‘seedlings’? And do you help them to form a church with leaders that will look for the next empty field? These questions are for ourselves as much as they might apply to you as well!
This encouraging group of leaders shared about hard things and about things that are going well. The last two months the sharing has been along the lines of how God uses suffering or hard times in our lives to accomplish His purposes (or in things that we don’t want to do, see Jonah). This is encouraging for me to hear from this group since at other times God's (material!) blessings can take a bit too much of a front row seat. Pray that they will keep their eyes on the giver of blessings (God Himself!) and not get derailed or distracted by the blessings themselves.
Pray for one Karen man who shared the gospel and as result there are now seven new Christians in nearby villages. Pray as he goes back to ‘water and nurture’ these new believers. Pray for those who responded that they will get grounded and rooted in Christ. That, eventually, they will gather together as a new little group of believers, as a church of their own.
Pray for an opportunity later this month to take one or two Karen from Omkoi to a refugee camp where other OMF workers have found that there are a good number of Karen that need to hear and have the Gospel explained in their own language.
To follow-up from the last letter: Noah has just this month (Sep 1) officially started his apprenticeship. He had been working for this company over the last six weeks already so he is actually quite familiar with his work. Praise: He has recently started a small group in his town and it has been beneficial for many as they study the book of Galatians together.
Praise: Luke is getting a good dose of what work life looks like as he often works heavy physical work each day from 7:15am to 5/6pm, or sometimes later. Before this summer my cousin, who Luke works for, wasn’t sure how much work he would have for Luke but now it looks like there is plenty of plastering and construction work for him. Pray for Luke as he will start Bible School in Albania on September 20!
Continue to pray for Selah and her schooling. We decided to switch her schooling from English to German which is a big learning curve for her as she had done grade 1-7 in English so far and has only fairly limited knowledge of the German language. Now she attends the German school in Chiang Mai and has to read and write in German! It is not an easy switch at the age of 13 but she has been a trooper so far.
Pray for Deborah's health. She has had many ear infections this rainy season. As one side heals up the other side seems to start with a new infection.
Thank you everyone for your continued faithful support! We don't take it for granted but appreciate it a lot.
Thank you for standing with us and praying!
In Him,
Oliver for the Mayers
Serving in Thailand with OMF International, Mekong Field
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