Paul and I got to spend some time with the boys at the youth service to do a special Bible study and pray with each one individually. It was an awesome time! They really opened up to us and we were able to pray fro them specifically. Some were concerned about their family, others wanted help with struggles in their lives. It was so nice to see teenagers share their heart and seek prayer and support.
Our girls are making some great friends here in Thailand. I think the kids here would adopt our kids in a heart beat. They love them! It is so much fun to watch how the interact and how much the kids here light up when they see our girls show up. The come and grab their hands and run off and play. They want to sit with them and eat with them. It is such a beautiful thing. Here are some pictures from tonight as we had a special youth service.
You may remember from two years ago the story I posted about a boy with no known language. The picture above is of him on my shoulders when I was in Mae Sot in 2014. He came to the orphanage from a remote area of Burma and nobody knew what language he spoke. He didn’t understand Burmese or Thai and it was difficult to find a way to communicate with him. As Paul Harvey would say, here is the rest of the story.
Today he is speaking and thriving in his new environment. The children at the school love him and he is really doing great. It was wonderful to see him again. Here is a video of him playing catch with a football with our group. I know the Lord has great plans for him. We now know that his name is Paulus. I love to get to watch kids like this grow over time and see their stories unfold.
The first day at our project is in the books. Kim and the girls, and the team from First Baptist, Lexington had a great time and they were able to pour into the over 200 children there. It is such a joy to be able to watch your children being used in ministry. Our girls were able to connect with the children really well. A group of students had signs for each person in the team. They waved the signs as the team arrived in the bus.
We went across the river to Burma (Myanmar) today to visit a potential new ministry location. It was a great experience for our girls. It was a great opportunity to share with them a different culture and way of life. There are so many opportunities for us to serve others. We are truly blessed as a family.
We had a great trip with a wonderful church in Guatemala just before Thanksgiving. It was a blessing to me, and I know it was a blessing to those in Guatemala. We were able to visit multiple projects, and perform 8 home visits where we delivered food to a family in need and shared the Gospel with them. We were able to see around 10 people get saved during the week! On one of the visits we went to a family that had 3 children with muscular dystrophy. And, they had lost a son to MD recently. The food was a great blessing to them, but the greater blessing was when 2 of the family members came to trust the Lord with their salvation.
We had a special Thanksgiving dinner with the orphans at our orphanage also. They had never celebrated Thanksgiving since it is an American holiday, so we treated them to a great meal. They asked if we could all eat with them and pass the food like they had seen in the movies. How touching! The things we take for granted.
The final two days were spent in a Mayan village performing a Vacation Bible School and a lice and foot washing outreach. We had a Christian clown as part of the event and it was a great way to reach the children and the parents that came. We are excited for the church to have their first ever service on Christmas Eve this year.
Here are some pictures of the trip.
This may be the most beautiful picture I have seen of my time in Nepal. To be able to visit a local church in Nepal and see this Nepalese man worshiping the same Savior that we worship, in the middle of a land devastated by the earthquake says more than any words could express.
My second trip to Nepal was much different than my last trip this year. The last trip was just before the earthquake. Many things look different this time. It is amazing the doors that are opening after the earth shook. The first day on the ground this time, we were helping to build a permanent home for a family. In the pictures below you can see some of the earthquake damage and what the temporary shelters look like that people donated through MANNA to build. Now, we are in our second phase of relief in helping to build some permanent shelters. It was a great opportunity to interact with the villagers.
The second half of our time in Mongolia was spent in Ulaan Baatar. It is the capital of Mongolia. We were able to visit one of our feeding centers and spend time at our orphanage. The orphanage was the top rated orphanage for Mongolia several years ago. Typically they require a yearly license, but because of the quality of care we offer, they have given us a lifetime license to operate in Mongolia. In fact, the government brings other groups that are starting orphanages over to visit and show them how to run a quality orphanage. Please be in prayer for the orphanage. We have funding for it for the next year, but we need a church or business that would be willing to partner with us to help support it going forward.
While we were at church on Sunday, we met a lady that had travelled 1,400 km through Mongolia, just to meet us at church. That is humbling. While spending time at our feeding center, we met Moogii. She started coming to the center when she was 8. Now she is 15 and helping to lead worship at a local church. She and her siblings were basically abandoned by their mother and our center has helped sustain her through the years. One of the children we rescued was found in a ditch with his umbilical chord still attached and barely alive. Words cannot describe the overwhelming emotions that come with hearing testimony after testimony of children being rescued, ministered to, led to the Lord, discipled, and now serving.
We have had an amazing time thus far in Mongolia. The first part of our time was in the Gobi Desert. We visited one of our feeding centers and got to really engage the community. It really is amazing where people can live. We drove 10 hours, one way, from Ulaan Baatar to a village on the edge of the Gobi named Erdene Dalai. There were stretches of an hour or more where we did not see a single person or animal. For 1/2 of the trip we were on a paved road, then we ventured off onto a trail that wandered through the desert. The youth in the village had us play them in volleyball one night, then the next day a Mongolian champion wrestler wanted to wrestle us. Needless to say we lost. But, he told us how grateful he was for what we are doing for the children in the community. We met a girl named Boldmaa who began coming to our center as a small child. She is now 19 years old, learning Korean so that she can teach in the schools in Mongolia. She was saved at our feeding program and she is now leading a discipleship program in the city college. It is an honor to see how the Lord is moving in lives and to be able to play a small part of it.
Jones Family - MANNA Missionaries 