September, 2016 ㅣ Yoon's news letter ㅣ Thailand

Yoons’ news

Sawati Crap (“How are you” in Thai)

By the grace of God, we have arrived in Thailand safely. Chiang Mai is located in northern Thailand and boasts a long history of Lana Kingdom and culture. It was a new call for us to move from Kazakhstan to Thailand, and we will be strategically serving east Asian churches and Christians for missional training and mobilization. 

 

Settling 

We have a quite a different atmosphere here compared with Kazakhstan. Lizard, pretty big cockroaches, and mosquitoes became friendly friend as we see them every day. Driving on the right hand side is a new thing too, with many motorbikes on the street. It should be cooler during this time of the year, yet it is hot and we will not be expecting cold weather in fact no more snowfall! Learning the Thai language is much fun, although it sounds more like a song for us. We need to get used to the curved Thai letters. Reading Thai will be much of a challenge. There are great temptations with delicious Thai street foods. There is no more a Muslim way of calling to pray. Instead there are so many Buddha statues in the corners of streets and houses. God has called us in a new place. We will identify ourselves as strangers of the world. We have our eternal home in heaven. We are happy to share the love of Christ as we make our journey in this new place. We just want to ask for your prayer, that we may follow the footstep of Jesus Christ with the help of our Father. 

 

METC (Mission English Training Course)

We are just about to begin 7th METC from Sep. 28 till Dec. 9. MECT is a missionary training course in English for 3 months, 2 times in a year, and is held in Chiang Mai. We also have CMETC in ‘C’ country 2 time a year for 2 months. This time, we have 19 students from ‘C’ country, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Korea. We have both full time and part time staff from England, New Zealand, USA, and Korea. This is a small community, focused on communal and missional training in English, giving student cross-cultural experience, leadership, and mission studies in English. METC has a vision - to mobilize East Asian churches and serving Christians to prepare for overseas ministry. Please pray for the METC staff and that the students may become a united body of Christ, having the same missionary mind to glorify God.

 

Grace School

Kyum, Jin and Joon are sweating a lot to adjust in the new school, Grace. A month has already passed. Kyum is participating in two afternoon school programs, which are TECH and debate. Jin is playing in a basketball league and getting more involvement at sport activities. Joon has no special activities, yet he is being invited to friends’ home and birthday parties. They all miss Kazakhstan. They were hoping to go back to Kazakhstan after a sabbatical year, yet they are here in the new school with new friends. Please pray for Kyum, Jin, and Joon for their new journey, where they may experience God’s purpose in their lives. 

 

Please pray for us so that…

We may adjust to the new place and people and feel at home, 

We may learn the Thai language and culture with joy, 

We may get 1 year visa without trouble, 

Serving students at MECT 

 

We are grateful for your prayer and support for our service in Kazakhstan. We hope your participation will continue our new lives in Thailand for His Glory. 

 

Sep. 2016

With our deepest love, 

Seokwon, Sunghea, Kyum, Jin, Joon Yoon

           

 

 

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos:

Buddha statues in the mountain and houses, 

Motorbikes as a common transformation for Thai,

Photo of ‘Sontawoo’, a public transportation, 

Seating a the back of pickup truck without seatbelt… look fun but need to be very careful ^^

We will post more pictures of METC next letter.