March 2015

 Testing the ladies eyesight ( for confidentiality faces have been covered )

Hello to our all families, friends and supporters, we pray that this Easter season will be a special time for you, a season of renewal and a rebirthing of the dreams and visions that God has given you. We hope you will manage to have a few days of holidays over the Easter break.

Life here is continuing to gather pace. We are still doing Thai lessons for seven sessions a week and have started teaching English three times a week, twice in the prison to the officers and once a week with a group of people from Jump church.

A couple of weeks ago, a lady optometrist came with us to visit the ladies in the prison. She tested the eyesight of many of the ladies and found that eighteen girls needed glasses, eight requiring more specialised glasses and the other ten needing simple reading glasses. After our last post we were very excited and thankful to receive some funds from Grace Yuktanan of  Mubuhai Travel in Bangkok, which will cover the cost of the eight ladies needing the specialised glasses. Grace has been our trusted travel agent here in Thailand for a number of years. The glasses will be fitted this Thursday. There was much excitement when the optometrist came to the prison. Prison routine can be boring so when the optometrist came with a large assortment of glasses for the girls to try on, there was much laughter and chatter and excitement. There were glass frames in pink, purple, red and black and many other colours and designs. When everybody in the prison has to wear the same prison garb, glasses can be an expression of your individuality and femininity – hence there was a long time spent over the choice of colour and style for the frame. It was a real blessing to be a part of the process, the ladies were so very grateful for the glasses and it will mean an improvement in their life. They can now join in on reading books, writing letters and doing crafts and handwork. I praise God for His faithfulness, that he doesn’t forget us in our needs and that He always supplies abundantly. One of the ladies gave her heart to Jesus after hearing the message on that day. There is an ongoing need for toiletries and personal hygiene products for the ladies as these things are not supplied by the prison and many women do not have families and friends outside the prison that can afford to purchase these things for them. One of the officers that we are teaching English with is in charge of the prison welfare and health sectors and he was saying it gets very difficult for the women to obtain monthly supplies when they have no outside assistance.

Last week we attended a Missions Conference in Chiang Mai. It is so exciting to hear what our Lord Jesus is doing in Thailand. Thailand is changing and we believe for a great outpouring of His Holy Spirit. In three weeks time, we hope to catch up with many of you at the ACC National Conference on the Gold Coast.

We thank you for your ongoing prayers and support. Without you none of this would be possible in Thailand. May God richly bless you and yours,

Wolfgang and Dianne