Grace to Thailand Prayer Letter Paul and Susan Brown

July 16, 2016 Sending Church: Central Baptist Church, Grenada, MS

Email: 241thai@gmail.com; Susan’s Blog: gracetothailand.com “Thank you so much for teaching us the Word of God,” one of the preachers said. “We thank the Lord for the truth becoming clear to us. Pray for us as we preach and teach our people.” It was at the end of the week of preachers’ training last week. His words were a great encouragement to me!

Thai LaHu & LiSu Preachers Laotian LaHu Preachers Burmese LaHu Preachers (Meet on the 1st Week Each mo.) (Meet on the 3rd Week each mo.) (Hope to be with us in September) My primary concern has been for them to be grounded in the foundational truths of the Gospel as laid out in the book of Romans. I gave them an overview of the book and of each section. Then we have traveled over the months verse by verse through the middle of Romans 5. It has been a joy to see the men grasp and rejoice in the Gospel concepts of justification: God’s holy wrath, man’s total depravity, justice, substitution, propitiation, mercy, imputation, grace, faith, etc. Without understanding and believing these truths the members of the churches will be as waves of the sea tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. Pray for these men and others whom the Lord will bring that they will continue to grasp, preach and teach the sound doctrines in love to His people. We also have been going through Hebrews 11. We have been seeing what faith is, and how those heroes of the faith the Lord set before us are examples and encouragements to us to live by faith. Several of the preachers have shown a great zeal for spreading the Gospel. They are already reaching out to villages where there are no churches and starting works there. The men from Laos are doing very well. They have a higher level of education and quickly grasp concepts that the other groups struggle to understand. They face the possibility of persecution for their faith and their preaching, but that doesn’t deter them. We have prayed for some time about he preachers in Myanmar (Burma). Many hindrances have been in their path, but the Lord answers prayers. It looks like they will be able to come for teaching starting in September. The children are growing and progressing well. Each evening Susan faithfully teaches them English. They are learning quickly and some of them speak very well already. We can converse with them now in English. The preachers’ training is my main calling, but traveling so much makes it difficult for the family. I am gone most of two weeks out of the month. We continue to pray for a

(Our children usually sing a (I am preaching in English (Susan nearly always does special song before I preach Lek interpreting in Thai & “medicine” in every village DwangSaWang to LiSu) after I preach & we eat) place here in Thailand where we can have both the preachers’ training and a home for the children. We also are making plans for a learning center, taught in English, for the hill tribes children. They frequently have no school, or their parents are too poor to buy uniforms and send them. Even when there are schools in the mountains, they are often at a very low standard. As a result, the kids drop out early. The girls get married at 13 or 14 and the boys are doomed to a life of hard work in the fields – or they try to get ahead by selling drugs. By providing education and hope, we can make a difference in many lives. If we can reach and teach these young people and send them back to their villages with an education and a thorough knowledge of the Bible, what a difference it will make! We continue to visit the churches in the mountains each week. I preach and Susan dispenses medicine to them, as well as clothes and baby items. We’ve been able to distribute water filters to provide clean water for the church members in many villages. Thank you for your support. Your sacrificial giving and your prayers make it possible for the work here in Thailand to continue. For Christ count everything but loss… Bro. paul JUNE FINANCIAL REPORT 10,234.82 Regular Support 425.00 Travel Expenses 893.75 Food (for children and guests) 416.67 Ministry to needy 208.33 Help to needy children 403.36 Utilities, telephone & internet 849.69 Children’s needs (clothes, education, etc.) 437.12 Office & household supplies 65.53 Maintenance 194.45 Rent of meeting room and office 439.86 Rent of living facilities for the children and us 1,882.31 Rent & Expenses for 2 separate Preacher Training (fd, cooks, travel exp, etc.) 291.67 Salary for cook 437.50 Secretarial 1,111.11 Interpretation & Translation work 1,405.69 Salary for Susan & Me 1,094.31 Insurance & retirement fund