Greetings to all of our donors. I want to personally thank you for your continued support of our missions in Thailand. Also, a special thanks to the churches that send funds to support Siami, staff and extra projects. I am writing this letter as I am headed back to the United States with my wife and brother from our recent trip to Thailand. In addition to my wife Mary, and our Vice President Dave Carpenter, I was pleased to have the international outreach pastor and local outreach coordinator from my current church, Sun City, in Spokane, Washington join us for the first time. Sun City has a heart for missions and for planting new churches. I am hoping that they will start sending teams beginning next year. This team spent six days with Siami in the Hilltribes areas. We traveled to numerous villages, five schools and four churches. We had the privilege of visiting one of the two churches built from HANDCLASP funds in the last three years. This church is in a rather remote village of Dong Sam Muen, a three-hour drive from our main center, and is important in reaching new believers, as most of the villagers are not yet Christian. The pastor requested we build it to expand the original small wooden building to allow for the growing congregation. By sponsoring children from the village, the families are introduced to the gospel by the children. This is a village that didn’t allow churches just a few years ago. I hope to visit the other new church on our next trip. It was too far away in a different direction to be able to see on this trip.

Please pray for all our kids over here. We currently have 182 sponsored children and teenagers. Of these kids, 37 are in college in Chiang Mai. Also, of the current students living at the center, 14 are unsponsored. These are children from Myanmar because of the conflict there. Siami makes at least one trip a month to the border to support the refugees and their children. She brings food and supplies to help the children have a little stability by going to school on the Thailand side of the border. Please pray for the families that have been separated by this conflict.

Please know that your donations make a significant difference in the lives of these young people. We have seen it first-hand. If you have had the opportunity to visit, you know what I am talking about. Also, we are working on updating pictures of students and their biographies this year. The loss of Don Fox and Covid has delayed our ability to perform updates. We are looking for someone with tech skills to work on our website updates and pictures in the near future. Please pray the Lord will send us the right person and let me know if you can recommend anyone.

I am happy to announce that we are adding another board member to our current six. Her name is Yada, pronounced “Yama”. She grew up in Musikee at the center and is now living in Nashville, Tennessee with her husband. She visits Musikee every year for at least a month to see family. She will be able to help Siami and staff to update us on the status of the students. They are pretty spread out in the Hilltribes area and border. She will make a great addition to the team.

I hope this update finds you well and that you will keep Siami, her family, the staff at the center and all the kids in your prayers. If you have questions about your student, or about HANDCLASP, please go to our website at handclaspmissions.org.

 

God Bless You,

Robert Carpenter, President