High Five (Part 2)

"Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods." 

Psalm 96:2-4

  

Kyle is enjoying life in Thailand, especially since he gets to stay home with Mommy while his sisters have to go to school. He loves riding his bike, helping Mam around the house, and watching Thomas the Train videos while he plays with his train tracks and trains. He is not as fond of the Thai food as his sisters are, but he loves the Thai fruits. Every chance he has to eat fruit, he devours it. His favorite is pineapple and he also loves bananas and NGA which is rambutan fruit. He misses Grammy and Papa and his cousin Elias, but he is also making good friends here in Thailand. Actually everywhere we go he is the center of attention. All the Thai girls want to hug him and kiss him and buy him snacks. He acts shy around them and I hope that continues throughout his teenage years as well. He understands Thai but is content in speaking English and that is good. We wanted him to be grounded in English before he starts school next year and so the fact that he only wants to speak English right now is ok for us. He will pick up Thai from his sisters and the other kids at school next year. Every time he sees anything shaped like a cross he says, “Jesus got hurt on that”. Wow what an amazing observation and a great way to share the gospel with this precious 3yr old. He also refuses to eat before praying for the food by himself and will not go to bed until I pray with him as he prays for his friends Zoe and Phoebe. He really wants to ride an airplane again and to also ride a train, but his favorite thing to do is to ride the motorcycle with Daddy to the market to buy ice cream.

Mam is doing well and is really enjoying the wonderful Thai food. She too misses Pocatello, especially this time of year. She loved to watch the leaves change colors and really enjoyed going to family camp. She is happy to be back closer to her family but misses her friends she made while in the States. She really misses attending University Bible Church and helping out with Cubbies. She has been working overtime to help make the house we are renting into a home. I feel bad because there are many things which would make her job easier but we just do not have the finances right not to buy them, so we are making do with what we have. She is really thankful for the oven we were able to buy with the special gifts some of you sent. We were able to find a second hand oven which some missionaries were selling for a good price and she is enjoying using it. We made cookies in it for Kyle’s birthday last month and she is looking at doing some more cooking once life slows down. The house we rented came partially furnished and we have been slowly trying to get the things we need. We did get a bed for Mam and I, and also some storage cabinets for the kitchen to help hold the dishes and cooking supplies, but we are still looking for a kitchen table and some more pots and pans to help her with her cooking. We are grateful for what we have and are trusting that God will provide the finances to buys these items when it is needed.

If keeping up on house hold chores and watching Kyle were not enough to keep her busy, she has also been going to the girls school and spending the whole day with them helping them understand their school work. The teachers are really thankful she is willing to come and help and often times the other students ask her for help with their assignments as well. She is also developing a relationship with some college students who she is going to start a Bible study with next month. If being an amazing mom and an awesome wife were not enough she is also teaching Sunday school at the Thai church we are ministering with. During the month of July I had to return to the States for four weeks to attend classes for my studies. She was able to keep everything going during that time without missing a beat. I truly did marry way above myself and am grateful for such a wonderful partner to enjoy life with. She sends a special greeting to all of her friends at UBC and to her sisters in laws Dawna and Catherine. She also misses Pocatello and would love to take a drive through the mountains to see the autumn leaves while drinking a strawberry shake from Sonic, so if anyone can arrange that for her, she would be appreciative.

 

What have I been doing you ask? I covered the rest of the family first because they are the ones people ask me about most of the time. I too have been busy and until the past week it seemed like I was treading water and working as hard as possible to keep my head above the drowning point. Since returning back to Thailand I have been continuing my studies for a Masters in Biblical Counseling degree. I have also been trying to reconnect with a local Thai pastor and have become involved in helping his church grow. Another area where my time and energy has been focused is in getting Hearts Redeemed Ministries (the ministry Mam and I started) up and running. The aim of HRM is to connect the hearts of the Thai people to the redeeming truths of Scripture. We aim to use the information I am learning in my classes to begin to offer biblical counseling and discipleship to the local Thai churches and the families which attend them. In order to accomplish this, we have been focusing on evangelism and discipleship with college students attending the two universities located in Chiang Rai.  

Some of the college students who attended the "First Step" Camp our church held at the start of the school year. These are some of the young men and women our family is reaching out to.

The Streams of Blessing Church which we have been attending over the past five months is made up of mostly college students from these two universities. On top of preaching one Sunday a month at the church and translating for other speakers, Mam and I have been busy getting to know the college students and beginning to invite them into our home as a way to mentor and instruct them in the ways of God through a family setting. We have also started pre-marital counseling with two couples within the church and are looking at doing a dating and relationship conference early next year. My class work load has been really heavy over the past five months and that included a mandatory 2 weeks in-class study during the month of July in California which I traveled back for. The class work is hard but oh so practical. Almost all the stuff I am learning I have been applying to my own life and my own family as well as with the students we have been ministering with at our church. I am so thankful for the sufficiency of Scripture and that the truths of God’s Word are all we need in order to live a life that is pleasing to God and a blessing to others. In order to help those I counsel live a godly life I do not have to first translate a book for them to read, rather I must first know the Scriptures and then take the counselee to God’s Word and let His truth instruct them and sanctify them by producing lasting change in their heart and life. I am 2/3 of the way through the program and have one more year of classes along with my Thesis to write in order to complete the degree. God has been so good and I am grateful for this chance to study and to become better equipped to accurately handle the Word of God as I desire to minister to fellow sinners who have been saved by God’s amazing grace so that we can live lives that glorify Him and honor one another.

I too miss Pocatello and all my friends and family in the States. It was nice to visit with some of you during my short visit in July and please know that we are so grateful for everyone who helped make our family’s two year stay in the States a wonderful blessing. We also are thankful for your prayers and financial support. Your special gifts for the truck cover and the oven for Mam came at the perfect time and we were able to purchase both upon my return from the States. I would like to send a special thank you to everyone who helped me during my four week visit to the States in July. From Boise to California I am grateful for those who picked me up at the airport, transported me around the cities, provided places to sleep at night, and most importantly blessed me with friendly fellowship and Christlike love.

Here is the new black back on our truck which your financial gifts paid for. We are now able to carry up to 15 people in the back without them worrying about falling out or getting wet during rainy season. It has been a huge blessing as we are able to pick up college students and transport them to church on Sundays. Thank you for your gifts!

The truck we are using every day and on Sunday we are able to use it to transport some of the college students to and from church during the rainy season. We are finally getting settled into the house we are renting and have two extra rooms ready for guests to come and visit. If you would be interested, then please let me know, there is so much we could put you to work doing, but if you just want to come and visit then know you are welcome as well.

It is hard to believe that our family has been back in Thailand for five months now. Time does fly when you are having fun and are busy and that is true for us. We are thankful for the chance of not only being a child of God, but to also being vessels used by Him to help show His love to others. I want to close this update with a few prayer requests from some specific needs and also offer you a chance to partner with our family and Hearts Redeemed Ministries as we aim to connect the hearts of the Thai people with the lasting and redeeming truths of God’s Word.

Your prayers and financial support along with God’s mighty hand are what makes it possible for our family to live and minister here in Thailand. We ask you to please continue to partner with our family by committing to give a financial gift to help meet our need of $2500 in monthly support. We have been blessed to have received close to $1700 monthly over the past five months, but we are still short of our goal of $2500 a month. Would you prayerfully consider committing to give to help raise the remaining $800 of support our family is in need of to cover our daily living expenses. God has always and will continue to be faithful and provide for all our needs, and it is in Him we place our hope, but we also know that this is a great way for the body of Christ to minister to others by giving of their finances. If you would like to join our support team then please email me at dan.rutledge@gmail.com so I can contact you personally and give you some more information about the work we are doing through Hearts Redeemed Ministries. You can also send your checks made payable to UBC Worldwide Ministries and send them to UBC Worldwide Ministries 4700 N Philbin Road, Chubbuck, Idaho, 83202. (All gifts are tax deductible and 100 percent of the amount given goes directly to our family as we serve here in Thailand).

Thank you for taking the time to read this update and I want to make you aware of some specific needs our family has and also some prayer requests which we ask you to pray for.

1. Please pray for the two young couples Mam and I are meeting with for pre-marital counseling? This is an exciting opportunity because it is not common for the Thai people to seek pre-marital counseling, they would most likely go to a palm reader before seeking counsel from their pastor and that is why we are grateful these two couples are seeking biblical counsel from Mam and me.  It also challenging because this is the first time I have ever done this and I also have to do it in Thai. Again I am thankful for the sufficiency of the Scriptures and the truths of God’s Word which are valid in all languages and cultures. The two couples names are Click and Wahn and then there is Pahn and Suu.

2. Please continue to pray for Gracie, Joy, Hope, and Kyle as they adjust to life here in Thailand. Pray especially for Gracie and Joy and that they will become more comfortable at their school and will be able to make good friends which will aide them as they adjust to life in a Thailand. Pray for all of our children that they will be able to not only hear the gospel taught in our home but they will also see the gospel message lived out in the lives of their parents. We are praying that God will work in their hearts leading them to a realization of the seriousness of their sins and their personal need for a savior the same way all of us are in need of a savior. I do desire to see my children succeed in their new life in Thailand, but more than that I long to watch them grow through the saving and sanctifying work of Christ in their lives.

3. Please pray for Mam as she tries to balance family, home, and ministry in a way that is glorifying to God. Pray that as she ministers to the young college ladies that God will be able to work through her to instruct them how a woman of God should live according to the Scriptures. Also pray that we will be blessed with some extra finances so that we can by purchase a kitchen table, a toaster, some more storage cabinets for the kitchen, some larger pots and pans for cooking, so that she can be blessed with a kitchen where she can minister to our family and those we invite into our house through her gift of cooking. She is looking at starting to teach some of the younger women how to cook and so some of these things for the kitchen would be a huge blessing for her.

4. Please pray for me as I continue my studies and begin using the truths I am learning in a way to minister to others. The local Thai church we are attending is full of young believers and I ask for wisdom on how best to minister to them and to the church as a whole. Also I am asking for wisdom on how to handle some counseling cases which I am currently dealing with and I need God’s guidance more than ever. Please pray that I will not look past the mission field of the hearts of my own family and that I will be diligent to live out at home that which I am teaching in public.

5. Please pray for Thailand. I ask you to pray the prayer recorded by Paul in the book of Philippians chapter 1. Starting in verse 9 we read, “And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.” Thailand is in need of the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ. There are plenty of churchs and missionaries here but very little fruit of righteousness is being produced. The Thai church and believers need to grow in three things: love for one another and non-believers, real knowledge of God’s Word, and discernment in order to reject the false teachings found in many churches and search out the true gospel message recorded for them in the Scriptures. Please join with me as we continue to pray for God’s mercy on this country and that He will work in the hearts and minds of the Thai people for His glory.

6. Specific needs our family currently has.

a. Our camera died last week and when I took it to the shop to see about fixing it, they said it would cost around $300. We really enjoyed our camera and were looking at starting to do a monthly video update introducing our supporters to the sights and people of Thailand. We do not have an extra $300 lying around and so we are asking for anyone who would like to give a special gift to help cover the cost of repairing our old camera or buying a new one.

b. Dinner time is a special time and one thing I really enjoyed about our family while growing up. We always had dinner together as a family around the kitchen table and the table was also used every time we had guests over to visit. It was the place for meals, for games, for family discussions, for birthday parties, and even homework projects. Since moving back to Thailand we have not been able to afford a dinner table large enough for our family to sit around. I am shocked at how expensive tables are here in Thailand and have been looking for second hand ones that we could afford but have not found one yet. We are asking people to consider giving a special financial gift to help purchase a dinner table for our family. Currently we are sitting on the floor which is not bad, but it just seems like something is missing when you do not have a dinner table.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this update and I pray that it was not only informative but also encouraging for you as you read how God has been working in and through the Rutledge family during our first 5 months back in Thailand. We look forward to sharing with you more in the future and please know that we are eternally thankful for everyone who supports our family through prayers and financial giving. If you are ever heading to Thailand, please let us know, we will have a room ready for you and some of Mam’s amazing cooking prepared to help welcome you to Amazing Thailand. Until next time we pray that, “our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17) Amen and Amen. God bless and Good night.

High Five (part 1)

"God be gracious to us and bless us, And cause His face to shine 
upon us--  That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; Let all the peoples praise You." 
Psalm 67:1-3
Hello again from the beautiful countryside of Chiang Rai. Our family is grateful for all of your prayers and support which makes it possible for us to live and work here in Thailand. Since our move back here last April, both personal and ministry life for the Rutledge family has been busy but also extremely blessed. God is so amazing and we are so thankful that we can partner with Him as well as with you our supporters to help connect the hearts of the Thai people to the redeeming truths of God’s Word. We would like to take some time to update you on how God has been working in and through our family over the past few weeks and also share with you some ways you can be praying for our family and our work with Hearts Redeemed Ministry here in Thailand. 

God has been so good to our family during the past five months we have been here in Thailand. The first three months were packed full of excitement and also many challenges. Trying to relocate a family of six to a foreign country is not an easy thing to do and we are grateful for everyone whose prayers and financial support helped our family be able to return back to Thailand. Mam and I knew it was going to be difficult to get our family back into the Thai way of life, but God has been gracious and we are seeing amazing growth in our children’s ability to not only speak the Thai language but to also adjust comfortably to the Thai culture and food. One of the most challenging parts of the move back was getting the girls registered for school and helping them to be able to communicate well enough in Thai to attend a Thai school. It has been a long five months, and we are thankful that we are seeing some major breakthroughs. 

Gracie was having a hard time talking with anyone in her class, but after a few months she began speaking with her teacher and over the past few weeks has started to make friends with her classmates. She still misses her good friend Amaya in Pocatello, but we are thankful that she is talking with her classmates. Her ability to learn languages amazes me, and she is already better at the Thai language than I am. She is reading and writing in Thai, she is learning Chinese and Japanese at school, and she is also able to speak Northern Thai. Her teacher is amazed because she is progressing faster than all the other kids in the 3^rd grade class. She misses her old school in Pocatello, and really misses Awanas and she wants to tell all of her friends “hello”. She would like to return to Pocatello one day, but she is really enjoying Thailand and especially the Thai food. Gracie would like to send a special thank you to Abigail for writing her a letter; she really enjoyed getting mail from America.

Joy, like Gracie, was having a hard time at school. She was not talking with her teachers and was really struggling doing her homework at night. Thankfully she has an amazing mom, who was willing to go to 1^st grade with her twice a week and help her become comfortable with the Thai schooling system. She is doing so much better now, and really loves buying snacks after school. She enjoys her teacher and her class, but has been having problems with three girls who have been picking on her and stealing her pencils. Mam has talked to the kids and to the teacher and things are better now, but please pray for Joy. She loves going to school, but does not like it when the girls pick on her. We are proud of her and she is learning to handle the situation in the right way by telling the teacher and not fighting back. She really misses America and especially Awanas and her friend Gaby. She wishes she could ride her bike to school like she did in Pocatello, but our house is too far away from her school here in Thailand. She is driving me to the poor house due to her frequent tooth loss lately. In the past three weeks, she has lost 3 teeth and she has another one ready to come out this week. I warned her that she would not be able to eat food if she keeps losing teeth, to which she smiled and replied, “Daddy, it will not be a problem, because in Thailand we eat rice and you do not need teeth to eat rice.” I guess she is right there. She would like to send a special greeting to her friends at Sunday school and to her favorite teacher Mrs. Miles. 

Hope is a different challenge for us; she unlike her sisters does not have a problem with being too quiet at school and afraid to talk with others. She is so excited to be going to school and everyday her teacher and her friends are amazed at how much energy she has and how much she talks. Her Thai is not as clear as her sisters, but that is not stopping her. She talks with everyone all the time and loves going to school every day. Her favorite day is on Friday though and that is because she gets to wear her special Friday uniform and also has swimming at school. She enjoys Thailand but at least once a week she tells us that she misses Pocatello and wants to move back to her old house. She really misses her two friends from Awana Daniel and Lizzy and is always asking when we can see them again. This past month was really hard for her because she really enjoyed going to our churches family camp and also attending the fair with Grammy and Papa. She misses Pocatello, but is growing to enjoy Thailand as well. She would like to send a special hello to Lizzy and Daniel and also ask you to please pray that she will not miss Pocatello too much?

To be continued in Part 2 coming later this week.