Oaks of Righteousness (Children & Sponsors)
Isaiah 61 Office (MOT Foundation)
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Mighty Oak Tree Foundation monthly update (Sept 2011)
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ, we started off the month of September with games, games and more games! The MOT staff wanted to focus on relationship building and fellowship within the MOT foundation itself and with member of the Good News Church. They children had lots of fun playing tons of games with other MOT students on the weekends at the church, and we can feel the children becoming united as a family. Also during our Sunday afternoon youth sessions we have switched up our afternoon programs and replaced them with learning new songs and dramas that we will be using during the Holiday season coming up soon. The children also learned how to sing a song from the scripture 2nd Corinthians 4:16-18 which reads “Therefore we do not lose heart though outwardly we are wasting away yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we can fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal”. AMEN! Also, Sunday mornings our children have been splitting into 2 groups, group 1 is new believers which is taught by Pastor Manop & his wife Maem. The 2nd group is children who have not yet accepted Christ into their hearts… please be praying for both groups as we want those that believe in Christ already to become stronger and those who do not yet know Christ come to know Him and all He has done for them and their lives! Project manager Gan Griffith also went down south to see her mother who was in a motorbike accident earlier in September, and she also had the chance to see our new accountant in Phuket, Mrs Maem who is pictured below with Gan.
On the 16th of September we all welcomed a new member to our body of Christ as Mr. Sompong’s (MOT staff) wife gave birth to their daughter “Grace” early in the morning. Grace was 2.6 Kilograms at birth and was a healthy baby, she had to stay in the hospital for a few days but is now home safe and sound with her parents. We thank God for all of the thoughts and prayers that went out to Sompong and his family during this month. A week after Grace was born, Sompong’s father in law passed away and our MOT staff helped out with funeral preparations as they had a 3 day long funeral for his father in Law, both Woot & Bank (our oldest MOT boys) were able to help out all 3 days of the funeral and be extra hands to Sompong. So once again on behalf of Sompong and his family, thank you so much for all of your prayers and thoughts during this month as they brought life into this world yet seen a family member pass away as well.
We ended the month of September with a MOT committee board meeting here in Thailand. The committee discussed all of the work that has been going on through the MOT foundation (Isaiah 61 Project) and also discussed future visions that the foundation has with things like the Agape MOT safe house which we are planning on opening early 2012 and will house up to 6 teenagers. Pastor Opas also stepped down from being a MOT board member as he has started another ministry in a different area and is very busy this year but the MOT members have nominated Pastor Manop to step up and take part as MOT committee member.
Prayer requests…
- Pray for a heart for all of our kids to continue coming to the church every week
- Pray for our scholarship celebration coming up end of October 2011
- Pray for Isaiah 61 Staff in both Canada & Thailand
- Pray for Isaiah 61 childrens exams coming up and for good grades all around
- Pray for our youth camp coming up during the end of October 2011
Mighty Oak Tree Foundation Monthly Update (August 2011)
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ, Our first big even of this month was on the 14th of August where we had our mothers day celebration, it was a great event where all of our children were able to bless their mothers and show love and respect to them as well. Weeks before the mother’s day celebration we had the kids write letters about their mothers (short essays) and we chose 3 winners from each grade class (grade classes were 1st-6th / 7th – 9th / 10th – Univ). 1st place essay winners were Kua (University level), Ownen (7th – 9th grade level) and Guitar (1st-6th grade level)… We also had Teang Jumpa read a letter she wrote on behalf of all of the MOT children on a “mothers love”, we could feel the love and the care that both the children had for their mothers and the mothers had for their children as tears of past memories and tears of joy rolled down their faces during the mothers day celebration.
On the 7th of August we had the chance to go to a youth meeting in Chaiprakarn with our youth at the “Corner Stone” orphanage home. It was a 2 hour youth revival meeting to prepare the youth for a big youth camp that is coming up in October of 2011. The kids had a great time worshipping God together with youth groups from all over the Fang / Chaiprakarn / Mae Ai areas and enjoyed the teaching from Pastor Steve Widden who has come to serve up in this area with his wife Anne and they have a passion to see this youth on fire for God. On the 14th after our mothers day celebration at the Good News Church we brought our MOT children to the “Bless Thailand” meeting at Kids Life children’s home in Fang, there were 800 plus Christians (Including both adults & youth) that joined together to pray for their country and for their cities here in this area, prayer makes everything possible!
After a month of preparation our MOT staff along with student intern Marisa Hamtook (Am) & Pastor Jaroon drove down to Bangkok for the “League of foundation of Thailand under the royal patronage of H.M the king”. It was a great event to go to, we were able to set up a booth where we able to explain what the Isaiah 61 Project is all about and inform them on our goals for the children in this area, we also brought translations of both the Isaiah 61 brochures & promo video CD’s that we were able to give away to those that were interested in the MOT foundation, 1 of our university girls that studies in Bangkok (Ning) was able to come and help us out setting up our booth and taking some video & pictures for our foundation, we are so blessed to see our older children trying to give back what they can towards the Isaiah 61 project and towards their sponsors every chance that they can get, we pray that God continues to lead them though out their whole lives. The event also held a 1 day seminar where our staff was informed on foundation procedures and other foundational needs according to the Thai law. Besides the long drive down and long drive back up our staff came back excited for the blessings of this meeting and the chance to meet tons of people and other foundations all over Thailand, their were over 2,000 people that attended this event.
Prayer requests…
1. Pray for the preparations of the future Isaiah 61 “Safe house” and for the children that will stay at the safe house and the “mother” that will come and stay with the children.
2. Pray for the final stages of David’s work permit & Visa under the MOT foundation, David along with MOT staff will be heading down to Chiang Mai to finish the procedures at the end of August.
3. Pray for the fundraising for both future development projects & Thai instruments that the foundation is looking forward to buying and teaching our children.
Last, thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers, your prayers has given us the strength to carry on in the ministries that God is doing in the MOT foundation & Isaiah 61 Project.
With love, MOT STAFF (Fang)
The Mighty Oak Tree Monthly Update July 2011
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
We started off the beginning of July by bringing the children in the Isaiah 61 Project (MOT foundation) to a afternoon seminar on the 3rd of July at the Tangerine hotel conference room where they had a chance to worship God with other youth groups from the 3 neighboring cities of Fang, Mae Ai & Chaiprakarn, along with listening to teachings from an Australian speaker Steve Widden, who taught about a generation of change. We all believe that God will use this generation to impact their country in positive ways as Christ leads the way for them. Also at the beginning of the month, Ling received a brand new bike for the Isaiah 61 Project that she will be able to ride back and forth to school which will help her family save money on paying for transportation back and forth to school everyday. MOT staff David Griffith also started teaching English at Sareephap Church on the 7th of July, the goal of these English classes are that members at Sareephap church will be able to communicate with English speaking foreigners and impact / outreach to English speakers.
During July the MOT staff put in development projects at 3 homes in Chaiprakarn city, all 3 families decided to raise frogs, MOT staff went to help put in the tanks and donated 300 frogs to each home along with pellet food for the frogs. MOT staff also went to the annual presidential voting conference in Chiang Mai where the foundation committee of the entire Chiang Mai province came together to vote for a new president for the Chiang Mai foundation board… Thank God 2 of the 3 person(s) were Christian who were voted as President and Vice president to watch over the foundations in the Chiang Mai provience!
On the 17th Fa was able to lead worship for the first time for our afternoon youth session, all of the children were very excited and worshipped God with all of their heart. Pastor Mem (Pastor Manops wife) also started a series worship that she will be teaching during our afternoon session, so far she has taught on different styles of worshipping God, 1 way would be a personal worship time with God, quiet, by yourself… another way she taught was expressing your love to God through your actions, dancing, jumping, singing. We are very excited for this series on worship and pray that the children get a lot out of it and that they will get closer and closer to God through their worship in their every day lives.
At the end of the month we received a huge blessing as one of our very own sponsored children “Am” has started a 6 week internship at the MOT foundation office where she will be helping with administration work at the office through her school, she is in her 3rd year at her career school and all students have to practice working somewhere for 6 weeks which will be counted as credits towards their education, we thank God that He opened up this opportunity for our children to come back and bless our foundation and bless the Isaiah 61 Project, and we thank God for Am and her eagerness to help and give back what she can to the Isaiah 61 Project. Also the last Sunday of the month the youth group elected a new Youth president and youth committee, Am was elected as president by the youth group and Woot was elected as Vice president, along with 6-7 others in the youth group were elected as committee members. This puts a little responsibility on the youth themselves as they can pass around ideas for coming youth events along with join in on the bless Thailand youth meetings and be a part of the fellowship of the churches in this area.
Prayer requests…
1. Pray for the vision from God for the new youth committee
2. Pray for our children as many are taking exams during this time
3. Pray for MOT staff as they are preparing for a big conference in BKK in August
4. Pray for the health of all sponsors and supporters in Canada
5. Pray for all of the members of the Good news church and their services to God
The Mighty Oak Tree foundation monthly update (June 2011)
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
We started off the beginning of the month with the Griffiths returning back to Thailand in June 2nd after spending 3 months in the USA, they told us the stories of their trip to the States and also gave everyone snacks and gifts that they brought back from the states as well. On the 5th of June we had our scholarship celebration event where all the students in the MOT foundation received their semester support from their sponsors, the families told us how much this support helps their families and how it lifts such big burdens off of their households, MOT staff along with MOT board members and Pastor Manop (New pastor of Good News) all attended the celebration.
On the 7th of June MOT staff joined in on the celebration of a new church building opening, its always great to see God work and bless other churches and their ministries and to use those blessings to bring more people into the kingdom of heaven. On the 21st of June the Good News Church held a ceremony to anoint Pastor Manop as pastor of the good news church along with anointing 3 other Good News Church board members as deacons, and had a ceremony to pray over all of the Good News Church board members. Their were 6 elders from the Full Gospel Church of Thailand in BKK & in CM that came up to Fang to lead this ceremony. It is a true blessing to have Pastor Manop as head pastor at the Good News Church and we are excited to see how God is going to use him to lead the church and the body of Christ here in Fang.
On the 22nd of June, MOT staff members (David Griffith & Sompong Chaiya) along with Pastor Manop drove down to BKK to pick up an entire brand new sound system that was donated to the Good News Church by a friend of Pastor Manops in BKK, he is a Chinese business man named Pastor David who owns his own sound system business, he is a Christian man who has the heart to donate sound systems to churches in need, a great ministry here in Thailand and we pray that God blesses his ministry a hundred times over for the blessing he has given us. MOT staff was also able to go to the funeral of one of an aunt of one of our children in the MOT foundation, they passed away at a young age of 40 and we were able to go pray with the family at the funeral in Chiang Mai. Also one of our children “New”, the construction on her house was finished and she has now moved into her new home, we were able to see the family move into their new home.
The mighty oak tree foundation staff have applied to be a part of the “Bless Thailand” staff meetings every month at various churches, usually from morning to noon, it’s a great time to fellowship with other organization and pastors from many different churches in the area along with pray for the country and the Thai people that we long to see come know God as their Lord and Savior. This month we went to the Bless Thailand meeting as the Apostle Paul church in Fang. During the month of June, the MOT youth group has started studying bible school in the mornings with Gan Griffith along with worshiping in the afternoons, last week Tdun lead worship for our afternoon worship session and Pastor Meam (Pastor Manops wife) is going to start a afternoon bible study session with our kids as well, to bring our new believers to a new & personal level with God.
Prayer requests…
- Pray for our children in the MOT foundation to have a new passion to serve Christ daily at home and at their schools.
- Pray for the construction at the Good News Church, we are remodeling the guest room and pastors home at the church, pray for construction to go smoothly and quickly as we are a little behind on our finish date.
- Pray for the health and service to God for all of our MOT (IS.61) supporters in both Canada & in the States.
- Pray for all of the administration work going on in Thailand, lots of paperwork needed for the foundation here in Thailand, pray for the wisdom from God for the staff here as well.
- Pray for Aom’s mother Air, she was recently in a motorbike accident and has asked for prayers from everyone, pray that she recovers quickly and is returned back to good health.
With love in Christ, MOT staff (Fang)
The Mighty Oak Tree foundation Monthly Update (May 2011)
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
The month of May started off with all of our kids going back to school for their new school years. And we have collected the grades from last school year and are preparing to send them off along with letters to each child’s sponsor.
Right now at the good news church we are doing some remodeling on the pastors
boarding home which will most likely be done at the end of June or early July if everything goes according to plan, but in the mean time our new intern pastor at the Good News Church, Pastor Manop and his family are staying at the Mighty Oak Tree foundation until the construction at the Good News Church is complete. We are glad that God had opened up this opportunity to house the pastor and his family and be a blessing to them until the construction is finished. Also the entire month of May we had our afternoon youth services at the good news church with the MOT children where we worshiped together and listened to Gods word, we can see that God is using these kids more and more each week as they lead worship and encourage each other with Gods word.
On the 10th-13th of May Pastor Jaroon (MOT Committee Chair Person) went to a conference at Thammasat University on behalf of the MOT foundation, it was a meeting held by Grace international and the goal of the meeting was to discuss, pray and lean on God on how to bring over 1 million Thai citizens to know Christ our Lord & savior. Their were Christians from all over Thailand that came together for this conference.
Toward the end of May our MOT staff gave computers that we received early march of 2011 to our university students that were in need of computers at school for their studies at university.
At the very end of the month our kids from the MOT foundation were all able to join together and help wash some old shingles that we are going to use for the contruction going on at the Good News Church, so now our old shingles have turned into new shingles! We are thankful that over the years our kids have enjoyed coming together and helping out serving at the church no matter what the ministry is or how dirty it gets! We pray a blessing over every child in the MOT foundation and ask that the Lord gives them all the wisdom they need for their studies and for this new school year.
Prayer requests…
-Pray for the children in their new school year studies
-Pray for the contruction at the Good News Church
-Pray for our children to continue to have a heart that desires to serve the Lord
-Pray for the health and lives of all of our MOT sponsors in Canada and in the USA.
With love in Christ,
MOT Staff (Is.61)
The Mighty Oak Tree monthly update (April 2011)
We started off the month of April with the coming Thai new year along with Easter and what Jesus had done for us upon that cross, the entire month was packed full of blessings for both the children in the MOT foundation & those at the Good News Church of Fang. The first Sunday of the month we brought the children to the water hole where they had a chance to relax & have fun in the afternoon. And on the 12th we brought the children in the MOT foundation to Thaton city where they celebrated the Thai New year together by splashing water on those that passed by and eachother, we thank God so much for this fun Thai holiday as it is a good chance for our children to have fun fellowship together and with others, and we also thank God that all of our children stayed safe this Thai New year during the water festivities.
Also on the 20th of April Pastor Jaroon & MOT staff Mr. Sompong brought about 30 of the MOT children on a trip to Chiang Rai & Mae Sai where they were able to see some of the beautiful sites in the areas along with going to some of the big markets in the area to walk around and enjoy the northern parts of Thailand along with seeing the markets on the edge of Burma.
We ended the month with an amazing revival night as we gave thanks to our God in heaven for giving his son to die for us at the cross, it was a powerful evening as the good news church members along with the MOT children came together to remember all that Jesus Christ has done for us. Both the children in the adults felt God lighting the fire in all of our hearts and giving us all the strength to continue to sever Him with new power for our works & new passions for our ministries as we remembered what Jesus Christ had done for us on the cross & the price he paid for us all. On the 24th the children came together and worshiped God Sunday morning and also put on a dance in honor of our Lord Jesus Christ for our Easter Sunday celebrations.
During the afternoon of Easter Sunday our kids had an Easter egg hunt & we had some time together a some fellowship time together as a church. We also prayed blessings over our seniors & elders at the church and poured water over their hands as a symbol of blessings being poured over their lives. We are so grateful for all the blessings that God had in store for us over this month of April.
Prayer Requests… -Pray for our kids as many will start up School this coming month at new & different schools -Pray for our kids in the MOT foundation that want to serve God to their fullest to give them strength at both school and at home as they serve the Lord. Pray for the new construction happening at the Good News Church as they are putting up a new house for the pastor & their family.
MOT Foundation monthly update {March 2011}
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ, At the beginning of this month our directors from Canada headed back home to Canada after spending 2 months here in Thailand with us, we had a great time with this year as they were able to give the gifts from the sponsors to each child at the annual celebration party, and they managed to video tape interviews of every child in the foundation even though our number of children keeps rising every year. The children in the foundation along with all the Thai people that the team worked with were really blessed by the teams love & joy this year as they blessed everyone by coming out to Thailand and serving the Thai people. Also on the 4th of March along with the Isaiah 61 team from Canada, David, Gan & Beulah Griffith also headed back to the United States until the end of May. At the beginning of the month we also had an officer come and do an annual check up on the MOT foundation so we had a few members from the MOT committee come and greet the officer as he came to inspect and check up on the MOT foundation, everything checked out OK so praise God for that as we are still a new foundation and still learning a lot, but God has given us the wisdom that we need for keeping the MOT foundation up and running. On the first Sunday of the month Am lead worship for the afternoon youth worship session and Pastor Jaroon was a big blessing to the kids as he shared from God’s word in the afternoon.
Right now all of our children are on summer break until the end of May. Lots of our older teenaged kids have picked up part time jobs over the summer to help out with financial burdens in their homes. We just pray that God will keep all of our children safe over this long summer break from School and that he will bless them all as they work to help out their families. Below are pictures of our kids at their work places (Pang & Koy at Mr. Donut / Kua at Tesco Lotus / Bank at an electrical shop)
During March the MOT foundation was invited to a “Bless Thailand” meeting, and at that meeting their was 4 persons that accepted Jesus Christ into their lives. On the 27th we had a speaker come and talk on the earthquake / Tsunami that recently happened in Japan and they also spoke on the end times before our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ comes back.
We just ask once again that God will bless all of our children in the MOT foundation and continue to watch over them during this summer break, a special thanks to Albert & Carolyn Hudson along with every sponsor that has been helping out the MOT foundation, your sponsorship means so much to these children and you have really been a true blessing in each of their lives and in the lives of everyone that serves here at the Good News church and here in Thailand.
Prayer requests…
- The safety of our children during summer break
- Strength for all of our MOT sponsors work & ministries
- Pray for the Good news church in finding a new leader for the church
- Pray for the Griffiths as they are in America
May God continue to give you the strength you need in all you do.
With love in Christ, MOT staff (Fang)
The Mighty Oak Tree Foundation Monthly Update (Jan-Feb 2011)
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
God’s hand has guided us all in the MOT foundation over the last couple months and has poured out tons of blessings over us all! Towards the start of January David & Gan Griffith drove down to Bangkok where they picked up the Isaiah 61 team which consisted of Albert & Carolyn Hudson, Mike & Laura Devine and Sandy Mccoll. The team spent a few days in Bangkok before heading up to Chiang Mai for a night and then to Fang for a couple of weeks where they were able to serve with the MOT foundation. The team was able to take part in the MOT foundations youth camp “Fan the flame” where they taught different English workshops, Linda Bowden from World Impact bible school in Chiang Mai came up as a guest speaker for our Fan the flame youth camp. The Isaiah 61 team also had the chance to go up into some Lahu hill tribes where they did some relief work handing out some medicines and had Laura Devine (Who is a nurse back in Canada) explain what all of the different kinds of medicines were used for. Laura & Mike Devine were also able to visit the child they sponsored through the MOT Foundation at her home and were able to spend time talking and gave her some personal gifts as well. The team also had the chance to teach English at 2 different schools in the Fang area as they were visiting some of their friends who were teachers in the areas. And at the end of the teams visit they had the chance to visit some other ministries in the Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai areas where they had the chance to pray for and encourage those ministries.
On the 25th of January Mike & Laura Devine traveled back to Canada after their 3 weeks in Thailand, Albert & Carolyn Hudson along with Sandy McColl stayed in Thailand until March 4th. In February the team along with the MOT staff had a big job on their hands as they had to interview 87 Children within a month time frame, but by God’s mercy they were able to interview all 87 MOT sponsored children along with interviewing many more that were interested in receiving sponsorship through the MOT foundation. Sandy McColl decided towards the end of her trip in Thailand to sponsor a new prospect child in Chaiprakarn city as she felt God had led her to do so, both child & Sandy were very happy as they were able to meet & talk with each other and take pictures together to remember the time they spent together.
On the 13th of February the Isaiah 61 Project had its annual celebration service at the Good News Church in Fang where each of the MOT foundation sponsored children are given gifts from the Isaiah 61 project and also from their sponsors as sponsors send packages, letters & gifts along with the team that comes over from Canada every year. All of the children were very excited as they received letters and gifts from their sponsors, we also used this time to go over some of the project goals and project rules with all the parents & families in the Isaiah 61 Project (MOT foundation).
February also consisted of many meetings as the MOT foundation had to elect a new president, vice president and project manager after Sumit Wophapho stepped down from the position of president / project manager during the end of 2010 due to personal reasons. Pastor Jaroon Somsee was elected as new president of the MOT foundation and Mrs. Thatsanee Limpadung (Principle at Rangsee Christian school) was elected as vice president of the MOT foundation and Mrs. Puangchan Griffith was elected as Project Manager for the Isaiah 61 Project, the MOT foundation also had added 2 new members to the MOT committee board as well this includes Mr. Khemphet Yangthonglang as MOT advisor and Mr. Youtajak Khlomkhliang as MOT committee member.
As most know MOT staff Puangchan Griffith and her husband David Griffith along with their little girl Beulah will be traveling back to the states during the time frame of March 4th – May 31st 2011. During this time Mr. Sompong Chaiya will be working temporary as child worker for the MOT foundation and will be watching over the MOT office while Gan & David are away. Mr. Sompong & his wife Reed along with other volunteers from the Good News Church will continue to work with the MOT children on the weekends and are planning on putting on a 1 day camp and joining in on another youth camp that the “Bless Thailand” ministry is putting on while the Griffith’s are away. Mr. Sompong will continue to write monthly updates so don’t worry about not getting these monthly updates, Sompong will be sending them to the Griffiths in the states and they will be translated into English for all to enjoy! Go d bless you all!
-MOT Staff (Fang)
The mighty oak tree foundation monthly update (November 2010)
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ, How are you all doing? On the 3rd of November we started off the month with a meeting which was on Christian ministries holistic developments which was held at Grace church in Fang. Ton of different Christian ministries came together to suggest different and better ways to help develop church ministries as a whole; The following ministries were a part of this meeting, MOT foundation, CBN, UHDP, World Vision, World matter network, New sky foundation and many different churches in the area.
During the beginning of the month we also have finally received answer to many years of prayer from people all over the world who have been praying for Gan’s VISA to America. Her VISA was accepted and she picked her VISA up on the 12th of November. Gan, David & their daughter Beulah will be traveling back to America for a few months in March of 2011.
Now that it is getting closer to the holiday season, the kids in the foundation have been taking extra time in the afternoons on Sundays to prepare & practice different dramas, songs & dances that they will be performing at the Good News Church Christmas celebration which will be on the 25th (Christmas day) this year. They will also get the chance to perform their dramas / songs & dances at different churches and places as we go on outreach and join to together for other churches Christmas celebrations during the holiday season as well.
On the 17th of November the foundation was blessed as a small team from England came to the MOT foundation office and donated blankets & jackets to families in the foundation and also families in the church as well, So during our holiday celebrations we will be warm both inside and out! The MOT foundation along with the families from both the MOT foundation & the church would like to give a big thanks to the team from England once again for the blessings that have poured out on us.
We closed off this month with a big outreach event which was held in front of the Fang district office off the main road in Fang, The Good News Church joined together with Freedom church along with inviting a well known Pastor from Bangkok (Pastor Wirachai Khowaar). Pastor Wirchai also had teachings at the Freedom church in the mornings / afternoons and in the evenings on the 26th / 27th we joined together to put on our big outreaches from 6pm-9pm where we seen many give their lives to Christ.
Prayer requests… Please be praying for all of the activities & events that will be going on during this coming holiday season and continue to pray for all of the children in the MOT foundation, we want to see them all live lives that are honoring to God. May God bless all of you and be with each and every one of you every day & every second of the day. Continue to put all of our worries in God’s hands because he is faithful and He will never let us down.
With love in Christ, David & Gan Griffith (MOT staff)
The Mighty Oak Tree foundation Monthly Update (October 2010)
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ, We would like to start off this update with some good news that we had this month, on the 17th of Oct 2010, we had our joyful 2nd semester scholarship celebration where all of the children / families from the Isaiah 61 Project came together at the Good News Church of Fang to receive their scholarships for their 2nd semester of School, we all had a great time seeing all of the families come together again, and it is always fun to see all involved in the foundation come together as we are growing larger and larger each celebration, this celebration we had around 200 people attend including both pastors from Chiang Mai (Pastor Peter & Pastor Somsak), Pastor Jaroon (From Chaiprakarn) and Mr. Satheet who is the principle from Baan Ton Phueng Primary School (A school which a lot of our children attend and also the school that Mrs. Pam Whophapho teaches at). We would like to thank God for a smooth celebration with no problems, and also thank God for our large Isaiah 61 family (MOT family!).
The highlight of this month would have to be the youth camp “One body by the cross” which was held at Rangsee Christian School here in Fang. It was held on the 18th – 20th of Oct and had youth groups for the surround 3 cities of Chaiprakarn, Mae Ai & Fang join together for a youth camp of fellowship & unity. The MOT foundation (Isaiah 61 project) brought 80 of our children to this camp. 2 of our MOT staff members were able to teach workshops at this camp (Mr. Sumit Whophapho & Mrs. Gan Griffith). And our MOT family was about to lead worship for 2 different session during the camp (Gan Griffith leading the first morning & Saay from Chiang Mai leading the 2nd morning). During the evening worship sessions we loved seeing the kids from the MOT foundation worship with a fire in their hearts and after the teachings they gave alter calls for those who wanted to give their life in service to the Lord, and we seen tons of MOT children go forth which brought us so much joy to see these young teenagers give their lives in service to our Lord Jesus Christ, we know God has a plan for these children and we can’t wait to see where God will bring them. AMEN.
On the 21st of October, Gan & David Griffith took a short trip to Chaiprakarn city to interview 4 new prospect children from Pastor Jaroons village. We had a good time with Pastor Jaroon and his family and after visiting the children’s homes we knew that these children needed sponsorship for their educations as each family was in very poor conditions, and on the 29th of October we found out from the Canadian side that all 4 children have now received sponsors after their big celebration in Canada, so praise the LORD for his faithfulness! We ended the month of Oct with a revival day at the Good News Church which was on the 31st. We have been fasting and praying as a church body and are looking forward to the work that God will do threw us as he uses all of us in his service. Our children from the MOT foundation ended our revival day by a youth lead worship session for the entire body of the Good News Church. We want to thank God for all that he has done and all that he is going to do here at the Good News Church, here in Fang and here in Thailand through the MOT foundation AMEN.
Prayer requests…
1. Pray for guidance for our MOT children, that they will stay close to God every day, all day
2. Pray for the Griffith family as they will be interviewed for Gans VISA on the 8th of Nov.
3. Pray for the Holy Spirit to continue to pour down on the Good News Church of Fang.
May God bless all of you,
MOT staff (David & Gan Griffith, Sumit & Pam Whophapho)
The Mighty Oak Tree Foundation
Monthly Update (September 2010)
Dear brothers & sisters in Christ,
We hope the month of September had been good for all of you as it was for us here in Fang. September has been a very rainy month here in Thailand and because of that many children & adults in both the MOT foundation and in the Good News Church have had colds or flu’s so we had been visiting many people that had been sick, but thank God for his faithfulness and for quick recoveries for all that had been sick including Chain (Sumit & Pam’s son) who was having pain in his muscles and was in the hospital for almost a week, but threw lots of prayers Chain is now back and home and back in School. We also celebrated many MOT birthdays this month including Mos & Am (pictured below), we had very good times with the families as we were able to visit them at their homes and spend time with them on their birthdays & join in on their birthday parties.
The MOT staff started off this month with a meeting on the youth camp that will be in October here at the Christian School in Fang. The camps goal is to have kids from the cities of Fang, Chaiprakarn & Mae Ai to come together in unity & fellowship and to worship Jesus Christ our Lord & savior along with praying for their 3 cities and the people there in to come to know Jesus as their Lord and savior as well. All of the children from the MOT foundation will be going to this camp along with staff & members of the Good News Church, the MOT foundation will also be helping out with leading worship & other activities during the camp too. There will be around 500 children / teenagers that will come to this camp.
On the 19th for our Sunday afternoon youth worship session we had guest speaker pastor Tum come and speak to our children (Pastor Tum works with the Burmese people in the Fang area). He spoke on how to live a life with Jesus by your side, the children really enjoyed the teaching from pastor Tum and they always love it when we have guest speakers come and teach for our Sunday afternoons.
Our highlight of this month was our Revival Sunday which was on the 26th. We took a break from our normal Sunday afternoon worship session and had the entire church body including the MOT children join together in a afternoon of worship & revival, we had over 4 different sessions of worship in the afternoon and ended our revival Sunday with the MOT children leading worship for the entire congregation, our goal for having our “revival Sundays” once a month is to see God bring together the Good News Church in unity & fellowship, and to have an afternoon where we don’t have to worry about anything in any of our lives but just to spend a few hours focusing on nothing but God and worshiping his precious name. We also had a short time of games for about 20 minutes before we started our afternoon of revival which was lead by Sumit & Nuk, the games let the church laugh and have fun together along with also helping all of us remove any worldly thoughts out of our mind and get ready to focus only on God. During that Sunday morning we also had Pastor Jaroon along with the children from the MOT foundation that live in his city come and join together with us for our Sunday morning service, and our kids from the MOT foundation sang a special song that morning which is from the scripture Isaian 61:1-3.
Lastly, Mr. Sumit also had the chance to go to Chiang Mai where he plans to put up another development project at Pastor Peters place in Chiang Mai (father of Saay) where he will be raising catfish and planting many different kinds of Vegetables, this will be the first development project in Chiang Mai, so lets pray that God will multiply these projects as needed.
Prayer Requests…
1. Pray for the preparations of the “Unity” youth camp (Oct 18-20)
2. Continue to pray for those that have the flu and other sicknesses here in Fang
3. Pray for the continuing fire in the hearts of the body of the Good News Church & MOT children
“Therefore we do not despair, but even if our physical body is wearing away, our inner person is being renewed day by day.” *2 Cor. 4:16*
May God continue to bless you each and every day.
With love in Christ,
David & Gan Griffith – Sumit & Pam Wophapho
(MOT Staff)
The Mighty Oak Tree Foundation Monthly Update August 2010
To all of our brothers and sisters in Christ,
The month of August is always a very long month because of the big 5 weeks, all which were packed full of God’s blessings for us here in Thailand! On the 6th of August we had the chance to bring our kids to a big prayer meeting in Fang called “Bless Thailand” which is a prayer meeting that brings together people from different hill tribes and Thai people from the surrounding cities in the Fang area. Our kid’s sang a special song at the meeting called “God of this city” (which they sang in English) along with performing a brand new drama that they kids had been practicing over the last month or so. On the 8th of August we had a big mother’s day celebration here at the Good News Church (which is celebration nationwide on the 12th of August which is the Queens birthday), after our normal Sunday service we took our afternoon to bless all of the mothers in the foundation, we had a total of around 200 people come to this celebration (including both children & their mothers). About 2 weeks before our mothers day celebration we had the children write about “A mother’s love” for a contest we were having, and we revealed the 6 winners during our mothers day contest (splitting them into 2 groups, 1st-6th graders and 7th – university). Our winners from 1st – 6th grade were: Art (3rd), NaamPhueng (2nd) and Diw (1st) our winners from 7th – Univ. were: Pang (3rd), Tdun (2nd) and Aom (1st), each were given an honorarium along with a certificate and the 1st place winners from both groups read their essays for all the mothers to listen to during our mothers day celebration. This was a very touching celebration as the kids had the chance to show their mothers how much they meant to them and we had tears of joy from both the children and the mothers. And on the 12th, MOT Director Mr. Sumit along with MOT staff helped watch over the children that were involved in mother’s activities for “Compassion”. The children planted almost 1,000 different kinds of plants near a river in Fang for the queens birthday, around 500 children helped with the planting.
On the 20th of August David & Gan Griffith (MOT Staff) had the chance to visit the children in Chiang Mai along with Pastor Somsak and his family as well as presenting new MOT shirts to Pastor Peter and the new children from the MOT foundation that are involved at his church.
During the entire month of August the MOT foundation (both children & staff) along with the members from the Good News Church of Fang spent time praying and fasting for a revival in both the church and throughout Thailand. And on the 29th of August we had a service from 10am – 4pm focusing on revival, we had guest speaker Dr.Paisaan along with his wife come and encourage the church and we had 3 sessions of worship. We could feel God making some major breakthroughs in the church itself and towards the end of the service at about 4pm the congregation did not want to stop worshipping God as they were jumping and dancing up and down in the name of the Lord!
Prayer requests…
1. Pray for the fire that God has put into each one of us to continue to burn bright!
2. Pray for strength for the MOT staff here in Thailand along with the Isaiah 61 staff in Canada
3. Pray for the continual revival of the Good News Church and for Thailand!
May God fill each and every one of your lives with so many blessings that your cup will be full and spilling all over those around you.
With Love in Christ,
David & Gan Griffith, Sumit & Pam Vophapho (MOT Staff)
The Mighty Oak Tree Foundation Monthly Update (July 2010)
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We hope that you all have had a great month of July. Time has went by so quickly as we are already at the end of yet another month. At the beginning of this month we had the kids from the MOT foundation present what they had learned in the workshops that they had been in the last months, in front of the rest of the youth group:
- Writing loves songs to God
- Dancing for God, and
- Dramas for outreach
It was an amazing time as the kids that wrote their very first songs to God were able to sing them for the entire youth group and the dance and dramas that were preformed were great The kids will be able to use them for future outreaches. Month after month we are seeing more and more spiritual gifts come out from each one of the kids. This month the MOT kids also sang a special song at a Sunday morning service called “the God of this city” which is an English song that was written by a band from Belfast. It is a powerful song that we can sing to declare that God is the God of the city of Fang and the God of Thailand. He gives hope to the hopeless and peace to the restless, there is no one like our God!
Besides our youth service, we had many opportunities to visit families of the children in the MOT foundation. Our focus this month was visiting the families that work in the markets around Fang. It can be very hard to visit them as they work at the markets during the evenings when the children come home from school. We had the chance to visit Naan N and Naan P whose parents sell different vegetables at the markets and also to visit Pangs mother who sells fried chicken and other fried meats at the market. After the kids get off school they go right to the markets to help their parents sell vegetables and meats. Going to the markets is also a great opportunity to do prayer walks and just pray over all the people in the markets, as they are usually packed full of people, and people are always willing to have a conversation and are always friendly. Continue to pray for those families that are part of the foundation in the markets that they will come to know Christ and then be a light for all of those in their markets. Pastor Jaroon who takes care of the MOT children in Chaiprakarn city also had the chance to bring the children from his area to come together for our Sunday service where he had the chance to preach as well. We had a great time with him and the children as it is always a blessing to come together with more children from the foundation and we can see that the children from Chaiprakarn city are so eager to learn more about God and love coming to church. Also during our last Sunday of the month, one of our older girls in the foundation named Kua gave a testimony that encouraged all of us on spiritual warfare and how God protected her during some spiritual warfare in her life recently, so praise God for His faithfulness and protection in Kuas life and all of our lives.
Also during the last week of July, Thailand had a 5 day weekend for a religious holiday, and 3 of our university girls had the chance to come back and spend some time with the youth group on Sunday. They also gave testimonies of how God has been taking care of them while they have been away at University and He has provided for all of their needs.
Last, please be praying for our preparation for our mothers day celebration coming up on the 8th of August. Our children have been preparing songs and dramas to perform for their mothers during our celebration. We will also be having a dinner in honor of all of the mothers here in Thailand where all of the mothers from the foundation along with their families will come together and eat together for our big mothers day celebration. Also on the 6th of August our kids will be going to the “Bless Thailand” Meeting where they will also be performing a song and drama. We pray that many that do not yet know Christ are able to come to this event and God will move powerfully in the three neighboring cities of Fang, Chaiprakarn and Mae Ai and that everyone in these cities will receive the free gift of salvation.
God bless you
(David, Gan, Sumit & Pam – MOT Staff – Fang)