Author: Tom Schumacher

Just an update with concerning the project with the land. We have done quite a bit of landscaping...and will have to do some more especially with water drainage, and the filling in with some dirt on the front side of the property. The project has taken more finances than I would have thought. Of course this is all a learning process for me. I have been getting some good advice from some of my friends here in Thailand who have developed their own properties. The property is roughly about 2 acres in size. Thank you for helping us in this endeavor.

This past month was quite a busy month for us. I had the honor of ministering again at "Kingdom Bible School" which is made up of mostly Burmese student. The subject was on servant leadership and it gave me the opportunity to review this subject from another viewpoint. Also I crossed into Burma with my father in-law and brother in-law Samuel. We ministered in a couple of different Ahka Baptist Churches in the Shan State. The churches have a wonderful heritage and I look forward to ministering again in their churches. On the third Saturday of the month we crossed again to minister in another church. But the message was on "thanksgiving" as they were celebrating their "thanksgiving." Their holiday resembled ours at home in America as they gave thanks…

This past month delivered me some good news. The news is that I have a new visa here in Thailand. This visa allows me to stay here without leaving the country but also allows me to leave at least once a month with a multi-entries. Having to leave the country every three months can be quite expensive. Now I will be allowed to cross to the Burmese side of the border. This past month my wife and I ministered in a local Burmese fellowship. I am really proud how my wife has stepped up and is preaching the gospel. God has great things for Elizabeth. Also in the first month of September I attended our Asia Summit meetings. It was a great success...lots of good preaching and inspiration. Dr. Al…

This past month my wife Elizabeth and myself for the first time taught together. We taught on the subject of faith at a local Bible School with mostly Burmese students. This is the also the first time that my wife had the opportunity to interpret for me for an extended period of time. The founder of the school has asked me if we could come back and do a couple more classes for him. I know that as I sow into other ministries God will have others sow into ours. My wife has also had the opportunity to minister over on the Myanmar side the past couple of weekends. Unfortunately I will have to wait for about 2 months as my being reviewed for a 3 month period. After the…

Just wanted to update you on the family. We are still located in Mae Sai Thailand and we truly like the area that we are in. As for Jeremiah we have him in Kingdom Kids Childrens Care during the day. They have a wonderful staff and I am truly grateful for that (hopefully they are also teaching him Burmese). Jeremiah is really growing fast. Most people when they see him think he is 5 or 6 years old. In reality he will be 3 years and 9 months at the end of June. Because of some of the new visa laws in Thailand numerous families have left the country. So some of the young children that played with Jeremiah are now gone. We are believing that God will bring in…

While the land was being leveled, I took a trip to Kathmandu, Nepal. Prem and Lalita were former Bible students of mine and I promised that if they started a school that I would come and teach and minister for them. Wow what a great trip. I flew from Bangkok to New Delhi and then on to Katmandu on the 4th of May. For the next two weeks I ministered on the Gifts of the Spirit. Prem said this would be a perfect class to end the school year as the students were getting ready to go back to the villages that they had come from. Along with the daily classes I was able to go with the students on the outskirts of Kathmandu and witness with them to the…

During the month of April I was able to cross into Myanmar and attend the 50th anniversary of a Christian Village. This was a great experience for me. The village was settled by the Ahka in 1964 as a Christian village and people came from all over Myanmar to attend the celebration. Two weeks later I was able to minister in the Church and as the first missionary to ever attend the church! The people from the congregation said, "we have never heard these things before." I ministered on your connection to God, your connection to people and your connection to the church. I trust they were blessed by the message as my brother-in law translated the message for me.

Here are some pictures of the land that we had leveled this past May. It turned out to be a bigger project than originally expected but God was faithful. Actually the land looks very good and we feel blessed to have this land for future use. The next step will be putting some fill in dirt on the south side of the Land. The step after this will be getting a wall put up around the property. The proper paper work with the government also took a little longer than expects (al more money) but that has also been accomplished. Thank you so much.

This past March I had the opportunity again to minister at Victory Church the Philippines in Fairview Metro Manila. Wow...what a great time. Pastor Rich and Pastor Ning Conte have done such an outstanding job building this local church and others like it in the Philippines. During my time their I ministered in the local church and two other churches as well as the night bible school on Mondays and Tuesday evenings. The thought kept going through my mind that God wants His Glory in the local churches. As we believers allow ourselves to be transformed by His power, God's strength and power will be poured our in the our midst. I also had the opportunity and I should say most of my time was ministering at the VCA Bible…

This past Christmas season was the coldest that I could ever remember here in Thailand. We live on the border in the north of Thailand so it usually has cooler evenings and mornings, but this was really cold. We have no heaters so we used charcoal in a big clay pot in the evenings and mornings. This was our first Christmas here and we are looking for many more in the future on the Burmese side. In the evenings we had groups of local Ahka people come to the house and sing Christmas carols (usually a little late around 9:00PM). Singing sounded great, but I did not understand what they were saying. After struggling for about three months we did find a good day care for Jeremiah. Although we do…