"The Best Christmas Gift Ever" written by Ozz
We all want to have a present for Christmas: a beautifully wrapped gift, something that our heart desires. However, sometimes our gifts might not be beautifully wrapped gifts, but they still have beautiful, significant meaning in our lives. Noi and Muay are new believers at RimKhan Fellowship Church who are continually motivated to grow in their relationship with God. Noi, Muay and their 13 year old daughter, Ploy, are orginally from Myanmar, from the Thai Yay or Shan tribal group, and have come to Thailand looking for work. They first heard about Jesus from a friend and member of RimKhan Fellowship Church. Their friend, Deng, invited them to come to church and one Sunday evening in October, they prayed and made a confession of faith in Jesus. Shortly after that, they attended the Thai MB Family Camp in October and we celebrated with them as they opened their hearts to commit to Jesus through baptism at Family Camp.
Noi and Muay have been faithfully attending the weekly worship gatherings at RimKhan Fellowship Church. As Christmas Outreach plans were made, we asked if we could have an outreach in the area outside their home (which is a single room they are renting.) They said yes and were very excited for the opportunity to share the good news of Jesus and share their testimonies of faith. On Dec 20, Noi and Muay invited 18 people that they know who are Thai Yay to the Christmas Outreach and seven people responded to the gospel invitation. It was a day of great rejoicing together. We planned for Noi and Muay to visit the new believers together and they were excited to serve God together in this way.
Ephesians 6:11-12 "Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."
Even though there was celebration when seven people believed in Jesus, the spiritual battle was real.
After the Christmas Outreach at their home on Dec 20, they had a big argument on Dec 23 and decided they would seperate. The husband, Noi, decided to move to another place to live. As leaders we did not know that this problem had occurred. On Dec 24 we had another Christmas outreach at the house where our RimKhan Fellowship Church meets. We saw that Muay came to help with the outreach, but Noi was not there. We felt this was strange. But we had a lot to prepare for the outreach, so we didn't ask Muay where Noi was. Toward the end of the outreach we noticed that Noi had come. We thank God for about 40 people who attended this second Christmas Outreach. There were eight people from the RimKhan neighborhood who raised their hands to respond to the gospel and 13 students from HuayKeow School who also raised their hands to respond to the gospel. Hallelujah!!
Cynthia, on our team, went to talk with Muay (the wife) and heard about the conflict in their relationship, that they had seperated and Noi (the husband) was living at a different place already. After the outreach was over, Noi quickly left and didn't talk with anyone. Our team talked together about how to respond to Muay and Noi's conflict and separation and we were very concerned. We decided we didn't want to let Satan be victorious and so we felt it was important to talk with them that night. We called Muay and asked Muay to take us to where Noi was staying. When we got to the place where Noi was staying, Muay pointed to the room where he was staying. Ozz called to him, and he opened the door and and turned on the light. Noi said that he felt very sad that this conflict had happened and that is why he came to the Christmas outreach on Dec 24. That night in his room he had listened to Scripture and looked at the certifate he had been given when he was baptized. He felt sad because he was baptized together with his wife and daughter but now they were seperated. As he listened to the Bible and wondered why this happened, he also prayed to God for help. Then he heard Ozz's voice calling him at the door and he saw his wife who had also come. We all talked together about how to apologize and forgive each other. I said, "Jesus came to let us know that we need to repent and to forgive us, so that we can have reconcilation with God and with each other. This is the best gift that we as humans can receive from God."
After we encouraged Noi and Muay and prayed with them, Noi apologized to Muay and Muay forgave him. We thanked God for this reconcilaition that was possible through Jesus. We felt like it was best for Noi to gather his belongings and to return to the place where Muay was staying too that very night, so we all helped to collect Noi's things and they returned to the place where they lived together. Noi and Muay said they were thankful to God that they had believed in God, because if they didn't have God, they would have seperated and not have had a way or the desire to get back together and experience reconcilation.
This Christmas Eve Noi and Muay received the best present ever; they received reconcilation with each other and were reminded about their reconcilation with God. When they woke up on Christmas morning it was a healthy, whole Christmas because they woke up together, not separated, and could see each other's faces. Merry Christmas to everyone.
Even though it has been a signficant (and difficult at times) transition, we thank God for his faithful provision for our family as we moved to Chiang Mai, Thailand in April 2023. Since arriving in Chiang Mai, our boys have attended two different schools and now God is opening an opportunity for our family to join the Grace International School community. “GIS was founded to provide a high-quality education from a Biblical Worldview to the children of international Christian workers located in SE Asia.” (gisthailand.org)
After much prayer and discernment with Ozz and with Multiply leadership, I applied at GIS for the immediate need of a 9th Grade English teacher. After the interview and then an invitation to join the GIS team, I accepted this opportunity to serve God at GIS for this coming semester, Jan-May 2024. I will teach 9th Grade English and Elijah (grade 6), Zekie (grade 3) and Ezra (grade 1) will be students for no tuition charge since I am a (non-salaried) teacher. We are thankful for this semester during which I can serve at the school where our boys will attend and get to know our boys' teachers and the school environment. We will also be discerning how God is leading us for the following academic year. If our boys attended GIS and I was not a teacher, we would need to trust God for an additional $1500 a month ($18,000/year) to pay the tuition costs for four boys beginning in the Aug 2024-May 2025 school year. Would you consider joining our team through Multiply and becoming a monthly partner to support our boys’ education before Dec 31? Wanchai (Ozz) and Sara Fast Kumrod - Multiply As our boys are receiving a high-quality Christian education at GIS, this frees up Ozz and I to continue serving God through evangelism, discipleship and church planting movements. It takes a team! We can’t do it on our own. We thank God for his faithful provision so far and we believe in faith he will continue to guide and provide for our family, specifically in the area of education for our boys.
Wanchai (Ozz) and Sara Fast Kumrod
Email: saraf@multiply.net
Address: 192/394 Moo Ban Kulaphun Ville 6, T. Mae Hia, A. Muang, Chiang Mai 50100 Thailand
Location: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sara.kumrod
