Dear Friends and Family,

I just don’t understand how it is that it’s almost the end of April.  Didn’t we just get through the Christmas Season?  We enjoyed the cool weather but the hot season came almost overnight.

After our family came into 2015, we saw a bit of a change for our ministry here in Chiang Rai.

Tan has continued to work as a bookkeeper in Envisage, a business/ministry enterprise that seeks to bring about reform in Myanmar through providing a mapping service of important social, economic, and political information for concerned international organizations.  The ministry, headed by another IM worker, Joel Hoefle, is growing with several new staff and a move to a new facility. Tan is enjoying the multi-cultural team. Please pray for a new co-worker of Tan’s, Gift, a young Thai woman.  Gift, a Buddhist from Northeastern Thailand, has begun going to church with us and shows real interest in becoming a believer.

As of January, I (Scott) moved over to work more fully to focus on enabling nationals with heart to serve in Eastern Shan State.  Much of my current energy is going into helping the Bala Foundation.  They are trying to simultaneously pursue three initiatives:  a ministry to at-risk young people in Eastern Shan State, a counseling program in Chiang Rai, and an Akha Food and Coffee Shop.

But in this letter I wanted to share about a prayer need at the International Christian School.  As you may know, our wonderful school campus, the latest building of which we only just completed in 2013, has to be almost entirely rebuilt due to the announcement that the Thai Highway Department will be constructing a bypass which will encroach on our school property and take 4 of our current 5 building structures.  Since I was so heavily involved in getting the current campus built, it seems a waste not to use that experience to help the school with this REbuilding process. So for the past year, except for the Summer break, I have been rather heavily involved once again as we work together to come up with a new campus design and negotiate with the authorities on a settlement package.  We are still a long ways from being ready to build, nor have we received word back from the authorities on our latest compensation request.  Building costs have risen dramatically over the past few years, so we need favor from the government to compensate us generously.  We are asking them for over $1 million!  Please pray that we will trust the Lord and allow Him to lead us and give us strength to do all that has yet to be done.  And most importantly, that we will stay united as we work together.  It’s easy to get frustrated with each other.

Blessings and Thanks,

Scott and Tan