Psalm 92:1-2
“It is good to give thanks to the
LORD
And to sing praises to Your name, O
Most High;
To declare Your loving-kindness in
the morning
And your faithfulness
by night,”
It is good to give thanks to God, and to praise Him for all
of His wondrous deeds. In this update, I am going to share with you how God has
been blessing our family over the past few weeks and invite you to join with us
as we declare His greatness and faithfulness daily.
The best place to start is with the last few weeks our
family spent in America. During the two years we called Pocatello home, our
family was blessed in many ways and are eternally grateful for everyone who
helped us during our time in the States. Our kids still talk about their
friends that they made during Sunday school class, Awanas, and also in our life
groups. Today in the car they were singing a wonderful song talking about once
having a heart of darkness, but being able to praise God because Jesus had
washed away their sin and made them white as snow. I had never heard the song
before and they told me that they learned in in Awanas. My heart was greatly
touched and I am so grateful for the two years we got to spend in America. The
last two months of our time in the States was crazy and I know that there are
some of our friends who we did not get a chance to say a proper good bye to, for
that I am sorry but please know we do miss everyone and are looking forward to
returning for a visit in about 3 years’ time. We would like to offer a special thank-you to the Lovelace family for
letting us use your home for the time we were in Pocatello; also Grant and
Cathy for letting us use the van to transport our family. We are also grateful
for everyone at University Bible Church who ministered to our family and helped
us during the last few days before our move. You will be greatly missed and
continually in our prayers. There are so many people to thank, and we are so
blessed to have so many wonderful people helping our family. Your prayers,
financial support, and friendships are so vital to our family and we are truly
grateful for all that God has done to bless our family through your lives.
Thank you and please know that we truly do thank God for all of you. 
Praise God for His faithfulness does not end, and we have
already seen His hand at work during our travels back to Thailand. The flights
were long, but God was merciful and the kids did an amazing job traveling, even
though I caused us to miss our connecting flight from Bangkok to Chiang Rai
because I kept going in the wrong direction in the airport, my family was so
gracious with me and everyone kept a good attitude during the extra 5 hours
they had to wait in the Bangkok airport. We were tired by the time we arrived
in Chiang Rai but were also so excited to see some very good friends who met us
at the airport. Our bags missed the flight but we were grateful to finally be
here and to be able to lay down for a much needed sleep. God’s faithfulness was
again seen the next day when we were able to visit some other deer friends and
to also get our luggage back. I know Mam was thankful for this because I was
still wearing the same clothes I had on when I left America three days earlier.
She and the kids had changes of clothes but I did not and was spelling kind of
funky by the time we got our luggage. Since our arrival, God has been blessing
our family with opportunities to reconnect with friends and family and to also
begin ministering with the local Thai church we were worshipping with before we
moved to the States two years ago. The pastor and his wife are excited to have
us back and we are already looking at how we can partner together to help
connect the hearts of the Thai families with the redeeming truths of scripture.
There are 4 young couples who are dating and are talking about marriage who are
currently attending the church, and this is exactly the people we want to begin
ministering to with the truths of God’s Word. We are excited to begin working to
help the families in Thailand through Hearts Redeemed Ministries by applying the
truths I am learning in my classes to help disciple and counsel fellow
believers with the scriptures. I am
looking forward to sharing with you more about the work of Hearts Redeemed
Ministries in future posts and ask you to please continue to pray for our
family as we minister in the lives of other families. 
God is so good, and His faithfulness is never ending. When
we first arrived in America we were facing many of the same needs which we are
currently. We were in need of a house suitable for our family to rent at an
affordable price which God provided. We were in need of a car to drive which
was large enough to transport our family, again God provided. We were seeking
wisdom on which school to put our children in, and God was gracious and
provided a wonderful classroom experience at Greenacres for both of our
daughters. We were also looking for stuff to furnish our house, and yet again
God provided abundantly. God is good, and we know that He will provide for all
of our needs. We ask you to please be praying for us as over the next few weeks
we have a lot of decisions to make and needs that need to be meet, and we are
totally dependent on Gods wisdom and provision. Here are the top five prayer requests for our family:
1. Pray for a house to rent which is located close to the
church we will be ministering with (Ban Du area of Chiang Rai), will be large
enough for our family and to host bible studies (4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a
large kitchen for Mam, and a large living room area to host bible studies), and
will be affordable (10,000 baht or less).
2. Pray for wisdom on which school to send our children. (A
Thai School is cheaper, but Gracie needs to relearn Thai before she can go. Joy
and Hope will be alright in their age group but Gracie would be behind) (An
English school would be easier for the girls but would also be expensive. Some
as high as 20,000 a semester for tuition which is $725 per kid per semester and
we do not have that kind of money to spend)
3. Pray for furniture and appliances to furnish the house we
will be renting. Most houses in Thailand come unfurnished and so we must buy
everything: refrigerator, stove, couches, beds, dressers, etc. We are praying
for some good second hand things which we can purchase cheap and use a long
time.
4. Pray for a car to transport our family. We still have my
truck and we are so grateful for it, but it is getting older and currently just
barely fits our family. We are praying for
a small four door SUV or van that we could use to safely transport our family
and visitors around in. This will cost money and so we are starting to set
aside some to try and save up for a vehicle soon. (If you would like to
donate special towards us being able to purchase a vehicle big enough for our
family, please email me and let me know).
5. Ministry with Hearts Redeemed Ministry. We have already made
some good contacts and we are ask for your prayers that we will be able to
settled in quickly as a family and begin ministry to the young singles and soon
to be marrieds in the church we are attending.
6. I know I said 5 prayer requests, but this one is important
as well. We are grateful for everyone who is supporting us financially and we
currently have $1800 in monthly support committed. Our goal is to have $2500 in monthly support and so we ask you to
please pray that God will lead us to people who will be willing to help support
us so that we can raise the remaining $700 needed to reach our goal.
Thank you again for taking the time to read this post and I
pray that you will continue to sing with me God’s praises and share with others
His faithfulness towards His children. God is so good and we are blessed to be
able to serve in fulltime ministry as a family here in Chiang Rai, Thailand.
Thank you for your prayers, your support, and your friendships. We are
eternally grateful for what others have done to bless our family.
Have a great day and may God continue to work in and through
you for His glory.
God bless and love always from your fellow servants of God.
Dan, Mam, Gracie, Joy, Hope, and Kyle Rutledge
