Jonathan and Joy Chase

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Prayer Letter/Ministry Update

Dear Prayer Partners,

Just took this picture today at the prison. Here's my current group of women whom I meet with weekly. We're standing in front of one of the cells which serves as the bedroom for about 50 women (4 long beds where about 12 or 13 must sleep side by side.) They must be in their cell from 3:45 p.m. til morning. For our worship meetings, we just sit on the floor here beside the cell. All the other women prisoners are sitting and working in close vicinity. From left to right: Jun (Thai from Udon), Tong (Thai from Sisaket), Jeab (Thai from Nong Kai province), myself, Maw Law and Ayewangsong (Hmong from Laos). There is an additional person whom I've never met before. She just wanted to be in the picture I guess. Today I showed them a video of Jesus' life (though not the "Jesus" video by Campus Crusade). This one I showed is simply called "Matthew" and is based on the book of Matthew. The women really liked it. I had to do some explaining about the scene where Jesus overturns the moneychangers tables. In Buddhism and Thai culture, showing anger is a sin. They were also pretty excited to find out that someday, Jesus is coming back. You'd think I would have mentioned that before this, but there is so much to teach them, and so very little time to do it. So today they learned that and were quite thrilled. In these pictures, I want you to know that they took special efforts to "dress up" for the camera. Two women aren't wearing their prison uniforms at all. Sometimes they don't, and I don't know why that's allowed. The woman in the yellow t-shirt quickly threw that on as soon as she saw I'd brought my camera. (They had requested that I bring it last week.) Sample prayer requests: Maw Law and Jun complaining of hearing loss since insects crawled into their ears at night. One of them lost hearing in her left ear, the other in her right. The prison makes no provision for them to see a doctor for that problem. Tong lost her 8 year old son to a drowning accident last August. (the accident happened just two days before he was to come and visit her for Mother's Day. She hadn't seen him in a year.) She asks for continual prayer for safety for her other 6 children. Her sentence is 12 more years. (She has served 6 already). Jeab never asks for prayer very much, except she suffers terribly with spiritual oppression and has seizure-like attacks on a daily basis. Sometimes it is during our Bible study. Jeab is supposed to be released in the near future. Ayewangsong praises God that she only got 12 years at her recent sentencing. (apparently, it could have been 30 years). She has four children, the youngest of whom is one year old. They are staying with various relatives. She always asks prayer for their welfare. Jun and MawLaw like to tell me their dreams which are always strange and extraordinary. Mawlaw told me how two men in red underwear came to her at night and told her to clean up. She took this to mean that this meant she would be released soon and asked me if God's angels wear red underwear. I could honestly respond that I have no idea what God's angels wear. In another dream two other men (not necessarily in red underwear) came and touched her back. When she woke up in the morning, her back pain was gone, and she praises God for the healing. So these are some of the wild and wonderful things I encounter in my ministry to these women each Thursday morning at the prison in Nong Kai.

Just to let you know. The big event just took place here is that Montri (our leader from the men's group in Sawang Daen Din) has been released as of Sunday and is currently living at our mission office, 5 minutes from our place. EQ, another Christian former prisoner is also staying there and we are still working on details, but they may very well start working with our team full-time. We asked Montri over for supper last night. It was really incredible to actually have him in our home as our guest and I'm sure it felt strange for him, too. But we didn't feel uncomfortable. He's very easy to talk to. EQ didn't come because he was still in another town with his family at the time. Anyway, please pray for these men as they adjust to "life on the outside", and more importantly, as they figure out what it means to live for Christ "on the outside".

Field Forum - our yearly mission conference for C&MA missionaries in Thailand, (which already feels like it has been long over with) was wonderful. We were challenged and refreshed by the speakers and the company of our colleagues. Unfortunately, Cam was sick the whole week so that aspect of our time was tiring. The week following our return home, Nolan and I (Joy) also came down with cold and flu. But we're all better now.

Last week we hosted a short-term team from Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. They helped us with teaching English in the Sakhon Nakorn prison, where we hope to start a new ministry in the near future. They also helped with English teaching in Nakhon Panom in connection with a local church there. We were very happy for their time with us and the new doors they helped to open particularly in Sakhon Nakorn.

So, you see we are keeping busy. Please keep praying for our sons, Nolan and Cameron. They are VERY happy in our new neighborhood with the close proximity to play mates and opportunities to see them more frequently. Please pray that they could make some Thai friends, too.

Love in Christ,

Jon & Joy Chase

Prayer Requests/Answers to Prayer

see prayer letter above

Thailand

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