Going to America and visiting fellow brothers and sisters in Christ around the country was an honor and blessing. Thank you so much to everyone who welcomed us at their church, as well as some who welcomed us into their homes. My wife and I arrived in America not having much, and from the beginning, God provided for us exactly what we needed when we needed it, whether it was a spiritual, physical, or financial need. In addition to visiting current supporting churches, family, and friends, we had several meetings in new churches. One church increased our support; a couple decided to personally take us on for support; two churches took us on for support; and five churches showed interest in wanting to take us on for support in the future. God put the right people in our paths. We were able to raise a little more than $2,000 to go towards buying a truck. Please pray that God will give us the truck He wants us to have and that the rest of the money needed for the vehicle will be raised.
Visiting churches wasn’t our only purpose for going to America. Since our wedding was held in Thailand, we had a small second wedding to legalize our marriage in the U.S. Afterwards we began the process of changing all of Tiffany’s documents into her new name of Phaisarnpiwat. Amazingly, all of this went rather smoothly and quickly, including her passport, which came back less than two weeks after sending it out.
Soul Winning in America
After being in America for a couple of weeks, I learned how blessed America really is. Everywhere we went, I saw many churches. About as many churches you will see in America, you will see temples and pagodas in Thailand. Nearly everyone knows a little bit about Jesus, and soul winning is a lot simpler than in Thailand.
My wife and I really enjoyed being a part of the ministries in the different churches we went to. In August, we were with Pastor John Horn at a church-planters’ meeting in New York City. Pastors and some of their members from different places gathered to encourage a new church plant and go soul winning. While my wife was sharing the Gospel with a couple of people on a bench, I walked down to another bench. A young man was sitting there by himself. I asked him if he knew about God—and he did! Maybe 10 minutes later, he trusted Christ and promised to visit the new church. Every chance we got, we joined the weekend ministries and soul-winning programs of the churches that we were visiting. We are praising God for the souls saved and the many seeds planted!
Back in Thailand
In between traveling, our last two weeks were filled with preparation for returning back to Thailand. On October 19, we landed safely back in Bangkok, and that night we took a seven-hour bus trip up the mountain to MaeSot—our home. We returned just in time to partake in the last week of the mourning of the death of the Thai King. After one year of mourning, the King was cremated on October 26. Please keep Thailand in prayer, as the King’s son will be put on the throne.
Many of our church members are afraid to go to church because of the law requiring certain IDs for the Burmese people. Gospel Baptist Church still holds services on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights on the church property. On Wednesday nights, we now rotate between different church members’ homes, holding services with them since they are afraid to go out. We are also asking prayer for this situation.
Thank you for partnering with us, whether in prayer, finances, or both.
Your servants in Christ,
Teerapat and Tiffany Phaisarnpiwat
