SCHEDULE OF SERVICES

Dear Brethren,
Please forgive me for getting out this report later than usual. This last month has been very unusual. It has been a month filled with illness. I had what I thought was allergies the first week and a half. I continued working, but everything went very slow.  On Friday the 8th I had a coughing attack in the car and my sinuses closed up.  On Sunday, I got up and filled the communion trays, preached, taught my first Bible class… then I told the brethren that I was not feeling well and needed to go rest. I rested through the afternoon and felt worse and worse. So, I got up and went to the doctor… I had covid.  So, I had to stay isolated in my room for the next 10 days.  I thought that I could rest a few days and then begin doing lessons and work on my computer.  After 10 days of not being able to do anything, I still had no energy.  I would try and get up and work… I could work for an hour or so… and then I had to go back to bed for three or four hours. Through out all of this I had a terrible cough.  It started getting worse.  I would cough so hard and so long, I pulled a muscle in my chest. I also coughed so hard that I would get dizzy and my vision would blur. At times I worried I was going to have a stroke because my head heart so much. After many trips to the doctor, a series of shots, and 4 more oral meds and a nose spray and a throat spray… today for the first day I feel better (August 3rd). I have only coughed a few times and they have not been hard or long.  I am continuing on taking it easy, but am getting stronger and hope to be at full strength very soon.
Remember I said I was the one that prepared the communion trays? My wife, daughter and one of my sons also got covid. The kids living in the dormitory got covid. The people I work with every day got covid. Several other members of the church got covid. By the time it was all said and done, there were 28 people who had covid… I needed to take care of 17 of them. I bought medicines and food for those who were unable to buy it for themselves.  Several thousand dollars was spent in taking care of everyone. I am the last one to recover. Those who were not sick at first, those who did not get sick, and as people got well, we helped one another. It was one of the worst things I have ever been through… but it was one of the most amazing things that I have ever seen. The family of Christ working together to take care of one another. Two weeks we were unable to have services because almost everyone was sick. We had services the last Sunday of the month. Passakorn had to preach… I was still coughing too hard. This next week I am giving a lesson I just prepared… The Church: The Greatest Family In The World. I believe that with all my heart.
Since I do not have a lot of news this month, I want to take the time to tell you about our teenagers here. On Sunday we have worship, Bible class, and then a special Bible class just for the teenagers.  We have gone over many subjects in that class:  the plan of salvation, the ages of the earth, what is worship, the acts of worship, ect. We started with memorizing the books of the Bible… many of these young people had never studied the Bible till they met us.  They have memorized the books of the Bible in Thai.  They are now learning them in Karen (their native language). When they master that… on to English. They have also memorized the plan of salvation:
John 3:16-17
Hear                Romans 10:17
Believe            Hebrews 11:6
Repent             Luke 13:3
Confess           Matthew 10:32-33
Baptism           Acts 2:38
Be faithful       Revelation 2:10
They have all of these scriptures memorized and can answer questions about them so that we know they understand what each scripture means. We will be moving on to other great Bible verses.  They do not just say these verses once. They say each one every week… plus the verse/verses we add!  They are truly amazing.
I know that this month has left me behind in many things… especially correspondence.  I plan to correct that in the next few days.  Know that I love you all and you are in my prayers.  Please pray for our continued health and work.  We will be breaking ground for the new church building in Malati in August.
God bless you all,
Michael
P.S. Sorry no pictures this month!!