Challenged: if there’s a word to describe our first half of 2026, this is it. But it is through challenges where we grow, and have greater clarity to why we do what we do. We learnt that a helpful way to face challenges is to acknowledge it, and also to appreciate the beauty and goodness of God through the challenges. Easier said than done, isn’t it?
This year, with a team of 9 young staff, and a growing number of kids, youths, and adults that come through our gates, we had to learn to multiply ourselves and focus on training leaders. We also had to learn how to empower others, which also means for us to let go of control and reduce our expectations. On top of that, we just found out that one of the married couples in our staff team is expecting a baby!
At the same time, we have youths who are growing in their faith and have expressed interest to go for Discipleship Training School under YWAM. These youths also volunteered to help out with the kids programme, and are excited to be more involved in our work. It’s an exciting time of ministry where we see God is raising up the youths to take lead!
All of these is possible because of the faithfulness of God, expressed through the faithfulness of His children. We are thankful for our staff team, our donors, our prayer warriors, and our ministry partners for serving faithfully together as a body of Christ. Here’s the work of our hands, across the past 6 months of this year.
January
We started off the year with an orientation with the new families that signed up for our programmes. These families got to know about our work through our Christmas outreach event in 2025. Many of them came for our Christmas event by invitation from mothers and children that have been in our programme for awhile. This is but the beginning of growth that we will experience throughout this year!
February
Usually we’ll head back for CNY in February, but this year, my parents decided to visit us in Chiang Mai instead. It was such a memorable and powerful experience to get to serve with my parents, doing home visits and praying for the sick. What a lovely CNY we had!
February was also the month where we hosted our partners in Chiang Mai. These heroes of the faith run a school, boarding home, and church that serve the refugees in a border town that is a 6 hours drive from our office. The pastors themselves are also refugees, and they have given their lives to shelter those that flee from Myanmar.
We are thankful that by the grace of God, we can raise enough funds for them on a yearly basis to fund their school and boarding home, providing care for more than 300 kids! This year, they are also going to move into a co-payment model, where each student will have to pay a small amount of money to commit to the school and boarding home programme.
March
March was a difficult month where we saw the whole city engulfed in toxic haze. Even our photos during that time had a yellow tint to it. Despite the weather, we are so proud of our staff who stepped up in their home visits, distributing masks that were given by generous ministry donors. We also had donors who gave brand new air purifiers so that our kids can study in clean air!
April
We had our first ever youth camp in the month of April! There were so many firsts for our team, yet we are so thankful that the camp turned out well. It was an important milestone in our youth discipleship, where we challenged our youths to commit their lives to the Lord, and step out in faith to serve.
May
Following up from our youth camp, we kickstart our first new believers class, spanning 4 weeks. It was such an encouraging time to see how hungry these youths were for God. They can hear God’s voice, and they can differentiate between God’s truth and the lies of the evil one. They can also read the bible and do their own devotions. We love that we can walk with them and encourage them in their new journey with Christ.
June
Our youth group had a farewell party for two of our youths who will be moving out of Santitham. It was a bittersweet moment, yet it’s because of moments like this that we learn to cherish each other when we can. They are the next generation of leaders and changemakers, and we thank God for the opportunity to invest in them and raise them up and send them out!
Building lives in the likeness of Christ
This is our vision for the year, that God will use us to build others up in His likeness, and that we will walk together as we live our lives according to God’s principles and truth. We see our staff growing in their faith, and we are amazed when we hear the things that our staff are trusting God for:
- For a new church plant and a Shan pastor
- For a new building with many classrooms and big meeting rooms
- For our youths and adults to go for Discipleship Training School (DTS)
- For our staff team to grow and be more aligned and equipped for the work God called us to do
- For a new generation of local Shan people to rise up and join us in the work we do
Without even pursuing active growth in numbers, our pool of kids grew from 80 to 172, with about 100 coming regularly. We know that God is behind all these growth, and we will need to prepare ourselves to receive these kids well. As for you, our prayer warrior and friend, we seek that you continue praying with us in the above faith goals. Prayer is the engine of our work, and the work of missions is accomplished through the full body of Christ.