Hey Everyone!
  I've been working with my daughter Becky to make a new website that will be easier for me to use and easy for you to follow.  We just published it today.  You can find us on lifelinestoheaven.weebly.com
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Thank you,
Cheryl

Our children are precious to God, they should be precious to us

    In Mark 9:36   Jesus was trying to teach his disciples what Greatness in the Eyes of God looks like.  They were arguing amongst themselves who would be the greatest in God’s Kingdom.  Then Jesus sat them down and put a young child before them.  He took the child in his arms and said, “Whoever receives  one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me.” 

  In Matthew 19:14 The little children were brought to Him that He might put hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.  But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me for such is the kingdom of heaven.” And He laid  His hands of them and departed from there. 

  Two very interesting encounters the disciples had with Jesus where it would appear their priorities where a little skewed.  He used his love for children to give them a picture of how God’s perspectives are so very different from the worlds views and ideas of the order of things.  Though these scriptures were meant to teach the disciples about God’s perspective in life, for me, it has reiterated what a wonderful Godly women once taught me when I was a mom of 4 little Derby’s. 

  I was fresh from my first four years on the mission field.  Back on states for a year.  My kids at that time were 8, 7, 5 and 3.  I was struggling so with the responsibility of raising my kids overseas , homeschooling and wanting to be a good wife and missionary.  I felt like I was failing miserably. I really didn’t like homeschooling.  I still had a ways to go with my fluency in the language.  I wanted to be doing meaningful Kingdom work.  I was able to attend a seminar taught by a young mom like me, Brenna Stull.  Her seminar was about how to pray for your children.  Not only did she inspire me to pray for my children in a way I had never imagined, something she said gave me the charge I needed to see God’s perspective for me in this season of life as it related to my children.  These precious gifts from God were given to Doug and I to raise and teach about the living God.  The scripture I took with me that was the framework of my every plan for my children and for ministry opportunities came from Deuteronomy 6:5-9

 ⁵ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. ⁷ Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

    After that seminar my whole perspective about parenting changed.  I poured myself into showing my children who God was in everything we did.  I changed my attitude about homeschooling and put it in the perspective I was tryng to learn in my own life, God’s heart for the children. Although I still had some very real worries that my kids may never graduate from college, after December of this year, all my children will have a college degree. 

   We also changed our daily routine so we all got up at 6am to see Dad off to work and have devotions together.  At that time, Doug’s schedule was difficult and we never knew if he would be home for dinner, but we knew he would be there for breakfast on the days he wasn’t on call at the hospital so we adjusted.  Those were some sweet times with the  kids.  When they got older we did family Bible study.  My girls missed it so much that when they went to college, they invited their friends to their dorm room to skype  Bible study with their Dad.  Still today they all come to Dad for help in their spiritual walk.  They constantly  ask him for notes from his personal commentaries.   More sweet times still continue. 

  But more than that my children have blessed me beyond my hopes and dreams.

Gary, who is now married to Rez who through his witness in High School helped lead her to faith.  Gary has been a youth minister since he was 19 years old.  He and Rez are raising 2 of their own precious children Karim and Naima.  Together Gary and Rez make a beautiful team for the cause of Christ.  I love to hear Gary preach.  Parts of his father are in every sermon.  This summer and last summer he brought a team to help us with our church planting efforts.  Both times he preached.  It just makes my heart so happy to see.

Jonathan has had so many opportunities in his 26 years of life I just can’t wait to see what is next.  When he was 14 he was in a full length Thai movie as a main actor, which led him to be interested in mass media.  He got a degree in media production and then served as a journeyman with the IMB for 2 years traveling Asia documenting stories of what God is doing in Asia.  This summer he led 5 Nehemiah teams in Thailand. Mentoring, teaching and guiding their work.  Now he is in his last year of seminary at Southeastern and working as a church planter to Thai/Lao people in North Carolina.  He preaches like a young Billy Graham.  (sorry mom biased inserted here)  and like his brother, parts of his father are seen when he preaches. 

Becky is a woman who loves God’s word like no other young women I know.  She graduated from CBU with a degree in Biblical languages.  Her desire is to do translation work for those who still have no way to know God’s Word.  She is married to a civil engineer Josh Duvall, who also grew up in Southeast Asia.  The two of them are applying as I write to be IMB missionaries wherever the Lord will lead.  Both of them use every opportunity God gives to share their faith at work and they lovingly minister in the church in whatever capacity is needed.  I’m just giddy with excitement for where they will be this time next year in the world. 

Sandi is in her last semester of nursing school at CBU.  What a beautiful women of faith she has become.  She has such a caring sensitive heart in all she does. She has been home every summer of her college years just wanting to work along side her Dad.  It’s a joy to see.  God has used her in  many ways while she has been  at CBU to minister and encourage those the Lord has put in her path.  This summer she worked for a couple of months in Phoenix.  Knowing that I was worried about my mom and dad and not being able to help.  She sought every free moment she had to minister to them.   She is a light wherever she goes.  Whatever job she gets out of nursing school will have to allow her an annual trip to work with her Dad.  I’m sure God will provide. 

These 4 lives the Lord gave me to raise.  No mom could be prouder of each one of them.  More than that the years I spent to be the mom God asked me to be for them has rewarded my heart with the blessings of their faith.  To God be All glory and honor. 

The Ministry of a Son-In-Law

In Mark chapter 1:29-31 we read about Jesus entering the house of Peter and Andrew and being told about Peter’s mother-in-law who was bedridden and very ill.  At that moment everything stopped and Jesus ministered to her need and healed her of her sickness.  The first thing she does is to get up and start taking care of people.  What a great story.  Do you ever wonder, does God still heal like this in our time?  Yes!  He does, I have seen it.  His healing often comes in a different package but God still heals.  I would like to share this story about a mother-in-law who received a marvelous healing just this past year. 

  It was a typical mobile clinic day.  After a long drive the night before and some rest in our hotel rooms, our team gathered for breakfast, ready to begin another day of clinics.  It is our custom to eat, pack and pray.  Then we travel down the road to the next clinic.  We go to bed late, we get up early, each moment is precious and planned.  This particular morning our routine was interrupted by the local pastor, who met us at breakfast and asked for Dr. Doug to please come and see his mother-in-law before we drove out to the clinic site.  This was not planned in our nice little schedule.  It was really inconvenient.  But it was apparent that this pastor was not going anywhere until his mother-in-law was seen.  So, Doug asked me to carry on the preparations, and he went to see the pastor’s mother-in-law. When he returned he told me about his visit. This poor women had been bedridden, unable to walk for several years.  Doctors in her area had told her she had no hope of recovery.  They told her she had a severe stroke and the damage was too bad.  After Doug’s exam he felt strongly that this was not an accurate diagnosis.  He was pretty confident that this woman may only have a benign tumor of the spine that could be removed and possibly give her all her mobility back.  When he returned to the vans he wrote a doctor’s note on a blank piece of paper with the clinic logo on it explaining his suspicions and encouraging the doctors to look again at the spine.  He told the pastor to take the letter to the hospital and perhaps they will be able to get some tests done to confirm his diagnosis and schedule surgery.  It took some time and many tests but a little over a month ago his mother-in-law had the surgery.  Below is a video of her a month after surgery.  She was told she might be able to walk after surgery, though it could take a year or longer to find out.   

  Divine appointments are all around us. In this case, ours came from the diligence of a loving son-in-law who, like Peter, was desperate for his wife’s mother to be healed.   The Lord saw his heart and met his need.  We felt privileged to be a part of it.  Let us not grow weary of doing good. (even when it messes with our schedule) for in doing so, we just might see a miracle. 

  https://vimeo.com/180182937

The Amazing Works of God and Man

 

 

It was an ordinary day at the Bangkla Baptist clinic.   Everyone was in their place. 

 

 

and then, a woman walked in with her 30 year old son. 



                             

"Excuse me" she said.  " I delivered my son here at the Bangkla hospital 30 years ago.  He was born with some serious health problems and the Doctors  prayed for him.  He quickly got better and we were released from the hospital.  I promised God, I would dedicate my son to Him.  It has been on my mind ever since.  I came all the way from Isaan to my son's home and brought him here for you to show us what to do?"

  Our office manager, Oy, share the Gospel with them.  The son gave his life to Christ.  We found out he lives in Ban Pho, the very place we are desperately trying to plant a church.  Please join us in praying for this young man.  He lives very close to the school where we will be doing an English camp in July.  Pray his faith will grow like seeds planted by the rivers of water. 

C to C (Creation to Christ) and Me

 

  It all began about 5 years ago when I attended a conference with many of my missionary co-laborers.  We were taught how to share the Gospel using simply drawn pictures.  It could be done on a napkin, or a scrap piece of paper from my purse or really anything within reach should the opportunity present itself.  We called it, “Drawing C to C”  .

 

  After I learned it well, I taught the Gospel sharing method to my staff at TCT and also the clinic staff.  It became a great tool in our belt for Gospel sharing opportunities we often have and for new Christians it helped them understand the full Gospel message. clearly.   Since that time, we have used this method in many different ways, while talking to our pieceworkers at TCT on our home visits, when the clinic staff has been doing some of the door to door canvasing, when family members of our staff have had questions about Christianity, at our mobile clinics and most recently as a part of our Christmas celebrations. 

  Last year we asked our best artist to draw a progression of pictures from C to C so we could make a flip chart that could be easily used anywhere.  We all liked the fact that we could draw it ourselves, but we wanted to have a more “reverent” depiction of the story we were telling.  ( quite frankly, some of us couldn’t really draw the simplest angel and make it look holy) The chart turned out beautifully.  We also had our new missionaries fresh out of language school learn how to present C to C using our flip chart.   This became a great success and another tool for our Gospel sharing efforts. 

 

 

  Next, I decided I wanted to make a simple English coloring book using the C to C drawing idea to use in our week long English camps that we had scheduled last summer.  I asked my daughter Becky to help me by using her graphic design abilities.  She did an amazing job and again another tool was born. 

 

  This Christmas the wife of our pastor in Bankgla, Khun Wan, decided to take the coloring book, translate it into Thai, and make huge posters with it  teaching the kids at church how to present C to C with the posters at our Christmas programs. 

 

 

It was such a huge success, we decided to use the posters at our TCT Christmas programs and teach C to C with an emphasis on when and why Jesus was born and what Christmas means.  I believe this was the clearest presentation of the Gospel we have had at our Christmas celebrations yet. 

 

  The results….. people are being reached.  In Nan, Bangkla, and Tungmahajaren, we had completely captive audiences while we share the message together. 

 

Never before have we had the responses we have had from this presentation.  In all of those centers, ALL of the hearers said they were interested to understand this story more, and more than 16 said they were ready to pray with our evangelist to make God their Lord and Savior.  We are still following up on all those women.  Just yesterday we saw one whole family changed by the Gospel of Christ as a result of hearing this clear presentation of God's plan for them.   His message will not return void. 

....And that’s the story of C to C and me. 

Merry Christmas Celebration

Bangkla Thai Country Trim

2015 (although celebrated in 2016)

 

 

 

Anticipating the time to share

Teaw leading games

Balloon train

 
Wondering what will happen next!

The perfect evangelism partner.

Mrs. Wan our pastors wife sharing about the beginning of the world

Showing how  and why God made us.

Why God put man on this earth and how sin separated us from fellowship with Him

Then God sent his son to save us.  This is Christmas.  In my family every Christmas we wake up early in the morning, gather around the Christmas tree with all the gifts all around and before we open one present, we read the story of Christmas from the Bible. After I shared the Christmas story I explained that we do this so we can remember the greatest gift ever given. God giving his son Jesus to be a man and to show us the way to be right with God and go to Heaven when we pass from this earth.  .   As an out pouring of our gratitude we prepare gifts to give to each other in celebration of this day. 

Another perfect evangelism partner, Mrs. Nipha sang with me a song I wrote that wraps the whole Christmas story into one song. 

When we finished our presentation, I asked Mrs. Namthan to share what happened to her last year as she sat way in the back row of this same room on this same celebration day and afterword she gave her life to Christ.  She talked about how much God has changed her life and how glad she is to be called a Christian. 

Finally each TCT worker received a gift.  A new jacket with our logo and the words of Jesus, "Come unto me all who are weak and heavy laden and I will give you rest." 

 

  It was a great day!  Today in our sharing time, my staff were all amazed that the ladies were so attentive while we shared the Gospel yesterday. Usually in our evangelism time at the center, they are very disruptive and don't really pay much attention.  But on this day, they were silent.  We know of one person who we will be visiting next week who may be ready to choose Christ.  She lives in an area where we are trying to start a church but still have no believers.    May the Lord bless it. 

  Two days before the program, I woke up very sick with a throat infection. I could hardly swallow, I had a fever, and my voice was strained  I was sure I would not be able to speak.  As I tried to find a replacement and all who I asked refused, I felt the Lord say to me.  "Let me take care of it.  Prepare to be there." 

  When I awoke yesterday morning, my voice was fine and my throat pain was minimal.  Glory be to God. 

 

God placed man in a beautiful garden where He provided everything they needed.

 I am so excited!

In just a few days we will be traveling to Isaan one of the poorest parts of Thailand to do mobile clinics and an English camp at the school where our clinics are.  We have been able to find Jr. High and High Schools that will allow us to come and teach English using the Bible.  We have developed some new tools to use that you see in the pictures here.  Please pray with me for the week ahead that the Lord will use this time to draw many to Him.  Our clinics are September 14-18.  I will post updates on my facebook page. 
For details about each day please click the Prayer Partners tab above.   

Jesus died on the cross to make a way for us to be with God when we die.



God created the Heavens and the earth.

This is a reading book to go along with what they will be taught about
creation and the reason we need God.