Rowe Family Updates – Thailand

Good News and Great News…

First the ‘good’ news… we have heard from the agent that is overseeing the shipment of the Evangecubes and we have some clarity…. almost too clear as to what is happening.  We have been given 3 ultimatums…. none of which we like!

  1. Keep playing the game of coming up with more documentation… every day/week there are new requests that are being placed upon us.  (Too bad we didn’t know all of these up front before we started… but then again, I suspect they have a list of 100 more things they can throw at us if they want….)  Read on..
  2. Give up on getting these items, they are willing to destroy our shipment and forgive us our debt.
  3. Or… behind “Door #3″…. we can choose to pay an ‘agent’ in BKK to help expedite this process.  Their fee is about Baht 10,000  ($300) and then be prepared to pay a daily storage fee.  [This whole time the process had dragged on they are playing a win-win game.... no matter what happens they get money from you.]  BTW – it is our understanding that much if not all of this ‘agent’ fee is used to pay off someone.

I feel like the wind has been kicked out of me… and all of this in light of the great news we received last week learning that our financial support for December put us over the 100% mark.  I can believe that God is insisting that there are still more lessons of trusting Him that await me.  Please be praying with me so that I can see God perform a ‘miracle.  I don’t like any of the “Doors” listed above… yet I also firmly believe that God is still very much in control and that there are powers of darkness that do not want these EvangeCubes being brought into the country.

The GREAT news is that today, there were another 2,585 decision for Christ.  This now brings the total (after 65% reporting) to 9,462 individuals.  Last night I was preparing some reports and looking at the stats from different perspectives.  The one that excited me the most is seeing what is happening in the different provinces.  (In Thailand there are 76 provinces – similar to the States you would find in the USA or the number of counties in a given State.)  We have 13 provinces that are reporting more than a 20% growth in the local church.  In Phuket, there are 1,148 known Christians and it is projected there are 243 new believers due to this outreach… this is 21% growth.  In another province, there are 4,500 known believers and in the 60 some outreach center, some 4,200 visitors have heard the Gospel of Hope, and of these 1,800 have responded to the invitation.  This represents a growth of 63%  FOLLOW-UP, FOLLOW-UP and FOLLOW-UP – Keep praying!

Bruce Rowe

 

ps.  In the first paragraph, I was tempted to start off with “Good News – Bad News”…. but was reminded that as children of the King, there is no such thing as ‘bad’ news… just Opportunities.

 

pps. Before I sign off… maybe I should share some more news which might qualify at the “BEST”.   Yesterday Mark was asked to be the co-Captain of his JV Basketball Team.  Man I was proud of the way he carried himself on the court and off the court.  He kept his cool, he played with all his heart, and he came out high scorer and helped his team win against a much older Thai team.  Man oh man, I was busting with pride tonight.  That kid has so much potential, if only his parents didn’t get in his way!  Keep praying!

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