Grateful for God's Goodness

Greetings once again from Thailand. I am excited to share with you some highlights and pictures from the past few months. Since our last post, God has been doing some amazing things here and we are grateful for the opportunity our family has to play a small part in the wonderful workings of God. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words and so I decided to help keep this post short by posting a lot of pictures which will we hope will help you gain a greater understanding of what our family has been involved with over the past few months.
The first set of pictures are from the month of August in which we celebrated Kyle's 4th birthday and also the opening of the school year for the university students. Our church held a three day camp at the start of school and the theme verse was from Philippians 1:6 which says, "For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." This verse was chosen because we wanted to focus on the sanctifying work of Christ in the lives of the students and that He Who saved them by His grace, is also the one Who is sanctifying them and will not stop until He has completed His work. During the camp we had over 100 students attend and we closed the camp with the celebration of 5 students demonstrating their commitment to the lordship of Christ through their public display of baptism. The day of the baptism it rained non stop, but we were all able to rejoice in this special day with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Following a very busy August, the month of September was filled with lots of school work for me and the kids. I was working hard to finish up a few research papers for my classes and the kids were busy preparing for end of the semester testing. We were all busy with school, but we were also keeping active in ministry with the local church and the college students which attend there. For me this included meeting weekly for discipleship and biblical training with the four interns who are currently working at the church. I also was continuing my preaching once a month as well as teaching an adult Sunday school class every Sunday before worship service. On top of these opportunities to serve the church, I was also leading two small group Bible studies for the college students.

Mam was also busy serving the church, as she is leading the children's church every Sunday and is currently training some of the young ladies in the church to help teach the children during different Sundays of each month. The month of September flew by, and I am guessing that is because of the blessing of being busy serving the Lord and the local church body. On top of all these opportunities to serve with the church, I was also busy putting into practice the truths I have been learning during my studies by offering biblical counsel to some missionaries who were seeking help and hope during their trials. I am grateful that I have been able to serve them and am also grateful that as a family we are able to minister to the Thai and missionary community with the redeeming truths of God's Word. The following pictures are from one of our small group Bible studies which we have on Thursday night.

Now that we are in the month of October, our family is finally finding some time to rest and relax together. The children are out of school for two weeks, and I have completed all my class work and am able to rest until my last project for my Masters degree is to begin in November. Lord willing I should be finished with my degree in biblical counseling in March 2015. Our whole family is counting down the months to that completion date, especially Mam who is excited to have her husband back and not have to share him with late night homework assignments anymore. Someone asked if I would consider going on for my Doctorate, to which I calmly looked at my wife and assured them that a Masters degree was enough for now. I am ready to be done with schooling and to be able to focus full-time on family and ministry.

During this break in our lives, we were able to take a couple of days and get away for a short vacation as a family. It was a very relaxing time of just hanging out in the hotel and also letting the kids do some fun events. We went ice-skating, to the night safari zoo and kids play area. Kyle really enjoyed the zoo, since this was his first time ever going here in Thailand. He ran from animal to animal and had so much fun. It was such a blessing to be able to rest as a family and we wish we could have stayed longer than 2 days but due to lack of finances we had to come back home. We have had fun here at home though as well. We are playing UNO at night as well as reading lots of books. There are bike rides and walks with the dogs. It has been so nice just to relax as a family and reconnect with each other once again. Next week school starts again for the kids and so we are trying to enjoy every day off with them as much as we can.

Even though the kids are out of school, our ministry with the church and biblical counseling are still going. This Sunday I will be preaching and so I have been spending time preparing for not only that Sunday morning service but also the Adult Sunday school class I will be teaching before and also the small group Bible study I will be teaching that afternoon. For one Sunday a month I end up having to teach or preach around 5 hours and that is in the Thai language, so needless to say, on those days I am truly wiped and ready to rest in the evening. Even though it is hard work, I am grateful for the opportunity to serve the body of Christ by instructing them in the Word of God.
Please continue to remember our family in your prayers as we finish up the month of October and get ready for the busy months of November and December. Already there are multiple Thanksgiving and Christmas outreaches scheduled for our church, and we are excited for the chance to use these two months to share with others the joy of Christ and the blessings of being thankful. Please also pray for our ministry in offering biblical counseling not only for the missionary community but also among the Thai believers. Starting in November Mam and I will be doing pre-marital counseling with a young lady from our church and her fiance from China. It should be interesting, but we are grateful to offer this young couple the truths of God's Word upon which they can build their marriage upon. Another prayer request is in regards to our families finances. The past few months, our financial support has been low, but by God's grace we have been able to pay for all our needs and even have some extra money to help out others and spend time away as a family. The concern I have is that if our support does not pick up, then come the New Year, I may have to look for part time work to help cover our living expenses. I am not concerned about having to work, but rather that it takes me away from other things, such as ministry, schooling, and family. For almost 19 years I have been blessed to be able to serve in full-time ministry and live by the faithful giving of so many wonderful people. Both as a single and now as a family of six, every month God has faithfully provided for all of our needs through the gifts of our supporters. So I am thankful for the past 18 years I have been able serve in full-time ministry and I am asking God to grant us many more years of full-time ministry for Him. So please pray that our financial needs will be provided for and that we will have wisdom as we evaluate and make plans for the year 2015. (Information about ways to help support our family is located on the side bar of this post).
Thank you for your willingness to take time to read this post and also for all of your prayers. If you would please take a moment and email me at dan.rutledge@gmail.com and let me know if this post was both informative and encouraging to you. Thank you and God bless you.

Here are some pictures from our family's 2 day vacation last week.