March News letter

Hi everyone,

I trust that you all had a great Easter and that all is well with you!

It has been a very busy 2 months since I wrote last. I have been to Austria and back and now we are facing some crazy weather problems in Chiang Mai.

Well, let me first share about my trip to Vienna. It was a wonderful time with the students and staff at YWAM Vienna and they asked me to mainly share stories as I was speaking on Missions. As most of you know, I'm not a preacher but I love teaching and telling stories. I had to tell stories every single day for 5 days. My throat started to become very sore, it could be from so much talking or the cold or both, but I had many people praying for me and it helped me until I had to leave. Thank you Jesus. My time there was great and it was so nice just to be in a colder place again and I had one free day that I could go do some sight-seeing.


We are facing immense heat in Chiang Mai and it is the hottest time in more than 50 years. It's an average of 40-42 Celsius. I'm sure everybody knows how much I "love" the heat!!! If I could have my way then I will rather live in the snow. If that was not enough, we are facing the worst time of air pollution again. This is caused by man-made forest fires from every nation around Thailand as well as Thailand burning everything in nature. The haze pollution in Chiang Mai has now exceeded the safety limit of 120 micro-grams per cubic meter to a staggering 288 today. There has been already 64 000 people hospitalized a month ago and I don't know what the present stats are! The government said: "people living in these areas must wear face masks and avoiding leaving home" ....what? ...rather enforce the laws to stop the fires!!!


There have been quite a few teams from South Africa, US and Australia these past 2 months and we had amazing feedback about Thai's that became followers of Jesus. Many teams are also helping to build a mission house and school for a particular Thai evangelist and others are working in the red light area and also in a couple of orphanages. Some of the teams gave us feedback about how many children and adults are reading the comic Bibles that we supply to every team. So much so that the Bibles became full of wear and tear! The teams also told us that many people committed their lives to Jesus when they watched the DVDs of Thai people's testimonies that we give to them. These testimonies are 24 different stories that are dramatized about how Thai's met Jesus and then they will have a chat to the real people in concern. To be honest, all glory is to Him and humbly I thank Him for giving me the opportunity to be part in such a small way for His Kingdom's sake.


We are a month away from leaving Thailand for Seattle where Jono and Sara will get married and then it is time to visit my beloved country, SA! Lately I'm going through some serious withdrawal symptoms and would love to be for a few months in South Africa. Unfortunately this trip will be a little longer than 3 weeks but I'm praying for some special "off-time" in the near future!


Jono is currently doing one day outreaches and getting people to join and they are working with the Thai churches to be in unity to be part of these outreaches. We had a festival, Songkran festival, or also called the water festival, for the last week. This is when everybody is throwing water at each other. This was a great time like every year to be participating and handing DVDs that are totally covered with a plastic. Jono led the charge in handing out Evangelistic DVDs.


WHAT IS NEXT:

MAY

Preparation for Jono and Sara's wedding in Seattle, USA.

JUNE

Wedding Bells!!!

Visiting South Africa and ceremony in Cape Town

JULY

Will spend the month in South Africa.

AUGUST
Planning and preparing motorcycle outreaches and still coordinate teams...

PRAYER LIST

Agree that the Lord will help us to be part of bringing in the lost souls of whom there are so many!

For an off-road motorcycle to be used for outreaches.

Thank Him for the Evangelistic material that He has provided and for the amazing results

For our protection against the terrible pollution and related sicknesses.


For a off-road motorcycle (See other below) Photo - doing some test driving on different bikes.

OTHER

I’m busy planning a motorcycle outreach to zig-zag through Mongolia and other remote places in Asia. We will be visiting nomads and isolated people that will be very difficult to reach by any other means than on off-road bikes and show them the Jesus movie in their language and we will be using Christian translators etc. I will share more on this in future!
 

We now have PayPal working on the side tab and our bank details in South Africa is:

Account Name: New Hope Ministries International
Bank: Absa bank
Account no: 9106492455
Branch: Parow
Bank Code: 632005
Swift Code: ABSA ZAJJ


Thank you for love, care and prayers.


God bless
Len and Jono