26 Dec 2021
“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you” (Eph 3:1,2)
Paul was commissioned to be the apostle for the Gentiles. In doing so he had suffered much, including imprisonment. Yet he saw his calling God’s grace for him and he received it with gratitude.
In 2007 Rev Lee De Jun started the “Truth Student Centre” in Baka village for children coming from poor families living on the mountain. The centre provides lodging and school fees for these unfortunate children to continue to receive secondary school education in Baka. More importantly, under the overseeing of a pastor, they learn to read the bible, know Christ and become his disciples. They have daily group devotions at the first dawn light and before lights off at night. They worship the Lord every Sunday without fail. For the past 14 years, the church did not collect a cent from these families but depended on the faithful provision of God. The Lord used the centre to nurture batches of godly youths since then, a few of them even advanced to tertiary education. Rev Lee’s resolution is to take in every child that knocks on the door of the centre. In 2018, there was as many as 23 students. In essence, the centre is the social mandate cum the preparatory work of evangelism of the church in Baka.
Rev Lai and I had witnessed the ground-breaking ceremony of the centre to the completion of the building and were moved to start the Mark Adoption Scheme in 2008. Brothers and sisters were encouraged to participate in this good and beautiful ministry by donating S$ 42/- every month for the school fees and living expenses of one child at that time. In the first year, 15 of you joined the scheme.
The children were very grateful for the support you gave them. They sent us greeting cards with hearty words every year, one of them read as:
“Even though we have not met and are not related in blood, yet God moves you to support us with love…the best gift that we have in life is to know Jesus Christ, we hope you are as happy as we are every day. Thank you for helping me to achieve my goal, I will study even harder. The Lord bless you.”
The Mark Adoption Scheme will soon enter its 15th year in 2022. Due to the Covid-19 situation, most of the children had to go home, leaving 9 children at the centre. However, Rev Lee expects more to return to the centre to resume their education as soon as the situation improves. Our support is still required. Recently the Mission Committee found out directly from Rev Lee that the living and education cost has inflated to ~$110/- per month over the years. Dear brothers and sisters, you may support one child, or you may jointly support one child with another brethren, or your family may support one child. This is the grace that God is giving to us. May the same Spirit that moves Paul, Rev Lai and Rev Lee moves you too! We pray that the offspring of the Chinese minority people living on the mountains in Northern Thailand may become good soldiers of Christ, and the church in Northern Thailand may conquer the “unclaimed land” there!
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