“Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
(Matthew 9:38)
To God be the glory; great things He hath done! These last few months have been filled with many blessings. Many have come to Christ and been baptized, and the new church plant has been steadily growing. We had a big surprise on Christmas Eve. We had planned for a big day, hoping to break 100, and did we ever get surprised. We had 126 chairs, and they were all full, with around 90 people standing, plus 90 children upstairs sitting on the floor. In Sunday school, we taught of the birth of Christ, and in the main service, the Gospel rang out as we told why He came. Praise the Lord, around 80 precious souls said they put their faith in Jesus Christ that day. What a day!
For several weeks now, there have been two Chinese ladies who have been saved and are faithfully coming to church. They want to learn all they can about God. They come every week, and during the main service, the Painters’ daughter Debbie sits between them and types the sermon into a translation app as it is being preached, and they read it. We are praying God will make a way for us to help these precious people in a greater way. There are many Chinese who live in this area, and others have come and said they want to come to our services if we can get someone who can speak their language. Pray with us that God would provide an interpreter or that God would provide the right person who knows their language to lead them.
Our son Joseph is doing well in India. God provided enough funds to buy a vehicle and to build temporary housing for the orphans. They still have many needs, such as an electricity stabilizer, a good well and filtration system, and permanent housing that could also hold more orphans. He has already been asked to take in more orphans, but there is nowhere to put them yet. He is paying for families to look after them until he has a proper place for them. Please keep him and them in your prayers. He needs some big answers from God.
These last few months have been slow going for my wife and me, as we both had to have surgery, requiring several months of recovery. Praise the Lord, my wife is doing very well, and the severe pain she had in her lower back is gone. I still have a few more weeks of recovery, but I am improving every day. Gai, my interpreter, says he knows I’m doing better because I’m getting hard to keep up with again.
Please keep us in your prayers this new year as we attempt great things for God. We believe God would have us preach the Gospel in every province (state) in Thailand this year, as well as in every district and subdistrict in our province. Please pray also for wisdom, for God’s timing, and for direction as we look to go into some of the other countries round about us with the Gospel.
May God bless you and your work for Him there as we work for Him here! Thank you for your faithful prayers and support!
Yours for His harvest,
Andrew & Denise Long
Romans 10:14