April Update

By Julie Paden - April 27, 2012

It is the beginning of the Philippine summer here so it is hot and humid, the sky is clear, and the breeze is nowhere! It is crazy busy here ministry wise. We are in the middle of our training for our four short-term teams this year.

Two teams are going to assist the ministry of our church planting field among a tribe of Northern Thailand (this is our newest SEND field to open). They will be involved in creative ministry to reach this particular people group.

One of the teams getting ready to go.

Another team called EVE Team are also going to Thailand and will be doing specialized ministry. They are going to Khon Kaen, and are our Pilot Team working alongside Pathway International Fellowship, teaching conversational English to 100 Department Heads and staff. This team will consist of TESOL (Teaching English as a Second Language) trained teachers and assistants seeking to help build relationships and open doors to the Gospel through English and Values. The ISAN of North East Thailand are one of largest unreached Buddhist People groups in the world. The goal is then to send future teams this year to eventually provide the "EVE" Training for all 4,000 of the regions Primary teachers.

The last team is going to Taiwan to help our SEND team there in church planting. “The team will spend one week serving with the Tanzi Gospel Center, running two three-day English Joy Camps (VBS)–one in a Vision 119 Hakka town (Chupei region) and one in Tanzi. The second week the team will receive training and do community outreach in the same Hakka region.”

Prayer Night to send out the teams leaving this summer.

We are excited about what God has done this year and now we are looking forward to what God is going to do next year. In light of that, I will be traveling to three countries in Asia, along with other co-workers, for two weeks. Our goal is to set-up teams for the next few years, in Cambodia, Myanmar, and Thailand. We will be leaving on May 15-31.

Since this trip was not in our plan when we left the States, or in our ministry budget, I need to raise about $1,500 to cover all my expense. I am asking you to consider praying how you might partner with me financially and prayerfully. You can email (gilmerandjulie@gmail.com) us with more questions or you can send one time gifts directly to SEND or through the website (https://www.send.org/donate/?contributable=270) Make sure that you mark it as ministry travel funds though, not regular support.

A quick family update too!

Nhaya turned 10 years old!!!

Julie’s pregnancy is going well. She is more than half way done and we are looking forward to meeting our new son (yep, it’s a boy) in August. The due date is August 2nd. Please keep Julie and the baby in your prayers during this last trimester. Praise God so far everything has been normal this time and after such a long bed rest during the pregnancy with Josiah, we could not be happier with this one.

The kids are doing well in school as they finish up their last month. I can’t believe they will be in 5th and 3rd grade already next school year. Josiah loves preschool and will continue to go 3 days a week next year.