BLESSED CHRISTMAS

1ST YEAR SPRING VALLEY COMMUNITY CHURCH

Shalom all,

Greetings in the name of our Lord!

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heaven! Praise him for his mighty works; praise his unequaled greatness! Praise him with a blast of the ram’s horn; praise him with the lyre and harp! Praise him with the tambourine and dancing; praise him with strings and flutes! Praise him with a clash of cymbals; praise him with loud clanging cymbals. Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! - Psalms 150 verses 1 - 6.

It is our first anniversary of the Spring Valley Community Church since we started on 2 June 2013 in Saphan Mai, Bangkok. God has worked amazingly in our Church, as it is a blessing Church, equipping Church and community Church. Our Church started with 3 worshippers and now we have more than 60 congregation members. 

For the past few months, we were extremely busy with visitors (local and abroad) visiting our Church.

Many of them expressed “thanks to the Lord” for the work we are doing, knowing it is not an easy task. When they saw the Christian refugees, they were moved and even shed tears seeing their impoverished condition and their children obedient and cheerful despite religious prosecution and poverty. The visitors so touched often will share their story with their friends, finding ways to help them.

On 22 May 2014, the Thai military declared martial law and imposed curfew in the whole Thailand, following the political deadlock over the past 7 months. There are many restrictions such as the media, internet and communication access. Since then, the situation in Bangkok looks better and the people feel safer moving around than before. Do continue to pray for peace and stability to return to Thailand and for a peaceful resolution to the political situation. 

Next week, Jenny will be going to the Chulabhorn Hospital to do a bone scan (finding cancer cells) after 7 months respite from radiotherapy. The following week, she also needs to go to the Thammasat University Hospital to follow up with doctors after 9 months' thyroid surgery. Do continue to pray for her full recovery.

The report.

Our Church Schedule of Services and activities have been changed starting 1 June 2014. 

• Tuesday       (5.30pm - 7.30pm)     - Teaching Thai Bible for Children

• Wednesday  (5.30pm - 6.30pm)     - Teaching English Class

• Thursday     (7.30pm - 9.30pm)     - Teaching Diploma in Theological Studies

• Saturday      (7.30pm - 8.30pm)     - Prayer Meeting

• Sunday        (9.30am - 11.30am)    - First Church Service (Thai)

• Sunday        (2.30pm - 4.30pm)     - Second Church Service (Refugees)

The latest update, The Basketball Mission Church’s activities will cease and will instead be integrated with the  general activities of the Spring Valley Community Church, starting 1 June 2014. They will no longer use another house for worship but move to our premises for worship from 9.30am - 11.30am every Sunday. The Basketball Mission’s activity is a sports evangelism outreach but it will now come directly under Spring Valley Community Church. 

Originally, we planned to hold a Church Camp from 24 - 25 May 2014 in Pattaya and to conduct water baptism for teenagers and adults, there as well. However, we have decided to postpone the Church Camp date, due to the present political situation. The new date will be 11 - 12 July 2014.

On 18 April 2014 we started a Refugee Fund to help meet some of the needs of Christian refugees, with the help of Sister Kathleen Mak and others. The Fund helps supply food (5 - 10 kg rice, cooking oil, eggs), hygiene needs (toothpaste, body soap, shampoo, powder) to those who attend our Church regularly. We also help with their basic medical needs(less than THB 500) and materials for Children’s Education (books, transportation allowance, uniform, and stationery).

We have earlier proposed to start a mini “handicrafts training project”. However due to poor response from sponsors for the project, we have to delay this project for the time being. Meantime, most of the refugees are able to secure some temporary jobs in car wash, sewing shop and construction site since last April 2014. 

We welcome all visitors to our place. There is a lot that can be explored and done together for the Lord.

With love and thanks, for your wonderful partnership in Christ Jesus!

Blessings,

Rev. Steve Peter H S Kok

HAPPY PASSOVER

OUR LIFE IS A MISSION

Shalom All,

Greetings in the name of our Lord!

"Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done" - Philippians 4 verse 6.

When faced with a tragedy or a storm of any kind, it can be a trying experienced, as well as extremely difficult for us to understand why such happenings have struck us. We may even feel apprehensive, frightened and lost. We may even be angry and try to play the blame game. In moments like this, a consoling voice will be very helpful and much needed. But from where? But our God works in mysterious ways, ways we may never know!

In the midst of our deepest heartache and pain, we will find hope and courage to carry on with our brokenness. And find Him, our eventual source of hope and strength. With God's help and the help of our caring Family of Christ and the encouragement through his Word and much prayer, we will surely receive the necessary strength to be an overcomer. And be blessed by Him!

Yes, one may be thinking, "I don't know how I could ever get through this." Or one may be battling powerful feelings of despair, suffering, confusion, fear, worry, and even anger. These are all normal responses to tragedy. But as difficult as the life storm maybe you and I in the Lord are not walking alone. God is with us always. He loves us and cares about what is going on in our life.

We must keep our faith and rebuild our lives after a tragedy or difficult situation.

In life we will encounter many challenges including some that may shake our faith to its core and leave us hurting. However, the most important thing when facing those times is to rise up with courage and strength!

The same challenges are faced in starting and building up a church. It is not easy at all to run a Church. We face many challenges. But we must press on even during difficult, or very difficult times.

Let me here share our burden with you so that you can continue to pray for us, as we pray for you too.

For the past 3 months, we received not much offering from abroad compared with last year and our Church receives tithes less than THB 300/per week (RM 32/USD 10) from congregations, mostly Christian refugees. This is just enough to cover fellowship meals on Saturday Church Service.

But we have so many expenditure needs to cover, such as for rental, property tax and other expenses related to the Church. My wife and I are not paid any salary as we commit to serve as volunteers in His service as we surrender our lives to serve our Great God. We pray that we can continue to sustain the Church and keep on serving our Mighty God. 

On 7th February 2014, we started the Diploma in Theological Studies program in our Church that is affiliated to Evangelical Seminary, Canada. Many students have enrolled and are attending the course. Among them are Christian refugees as well as one local Thai pastor. The reasons why they are taking the course are;

1. They want to know more about the Bible.
2. To improve their English.

To help them in their progress, I appoint a leader among them who is ahead of the class to explain to the rest of the class in their own language what I have taught. We hold the classes every Thursday and Friday from 7.00pm to 10.00pm. By helping the refugees in this way, we hope that when they migrate to a third country with the paper qualifications and basic English, they will be able to work for a Church or start a Church planting to serve their own community later on. This is one way to expand the Kingdom of God. 

Let me briefly describe here the plight of the refugees I have come to know being in contact with them.

1. They are not allowed to work by law but many did work illegally to survive.
2. If they are caught for this, they will be imprisoned and then sent back to their home country.
3. Visiting them, I saw them eating rice only without meat, sauce and salt.
4. So I decided to buy them some nicer food in my next visiting trip, treating them a meal once a week.
5. During the school holidays, their children will find work and they work very hard to earn more money so that they will have money to study.
6. One orphan has to work very hard to support himself.

We hope to start a 'handicrafts and bags' projects next 2 months and have had discussion with a few Malaysia Christians last 2 weeks ago in regard to seed funding and marketing. On seed funding, we still need to raise more funds to start the project. For sales, we are able to secure a few Christian friends to help out on the marketing. Praise the Lord!

The Christian refugees will do the production side and our team will focus on the logistics of sales. On design, we welcome suggestions.

How do we pay the Christian refugees for work done?

An example to illustrates.

If we sell a bag at THB 200 and we will pay the worker THB 70 for his bag and THB 100 for the other expenses (materials, logistics and administration) while the balance of THB 30 will go into a pool fund. We will use the pool fund to help the Christian refugees needing financial assistance such as for medical treatment, shortage of food, children's education and etc. In this way, we teach them how to fish instead of giving them fish. Also, there is less need to raise funds to help them for the long term. 

Dubbed "Basketball Mission" Church, we launched this on 2^nd February 2014 attended by many enthusiasts, many of whom would otherwise spend their time on computer games, social chatting and watching movies. Our ideas are to teach and train the young to be more active in sports activities. It is good for their physical health and mental health also. Many parents allow their children to come and learn basketball. This gives us an opportunity to share the gospel with them. Even the older ones are drawn to watch the game. We have a professional coach to train them for free. Every Sunday evening, we have inter-district Basketball tournament and I was given an opportunity to share 10 minutes of the Gospel to the Basketball teams and crowd. Many of them have taken the first step to accept Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. Thus, God has opened the door, but it takes time to let the seed grow towards maturity.

In God, we trust His mighty hand in the spread of His Kingdom.

Many blessings to all in the Lord.

Blessings,
Rev. Steve Peter H S Kok

GOD"S PLAN FOR OUR CHURCH

Shalom All,

Greetings in the Lord!

But you are near, O LORD and all your commands are true - Psalm 119 verse 151. 

I believe that one of the areas in which God is calling us the Church  to do today is to set our hearts firmly and finally in the right direction, that is, to get  ever closer or nearer to Him! Friend, I believe God desires to share an intimate relationship with you and He will go to any length to attain that closeness with you! However, there is a barrier called sin that separates us from Him. He must deal with this! For you must understand that God cannot and will not tolerate sin! That’s why He sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross! He who is sinless suffers and bears your sins so that you and I will be made righteous before GOD.

Towards New Year Eve, my Notebook failed me and so I could not type my reports nor do any work on it. However, I want to give thanks to God that some big hearted brothers and sisters came to my aid with some funds for me to buy a new Notebook. 

On 26 December 2013, I sent out a video clip on Jenny’s testimony. Currently, her health is still weak due to radium treatment and she lacks hormone in her body. She will see her doctor again this coming mid February 2014. The radium treatment weakens her physically and she often feels cold. With the weather in Bangkok getting colder, she feels the cold more than ever before. 

As most of you who follow the daily news are aware, the political tensions in Bangkok and even the south of Thailand are not getting better and now a state of emergency has been declared. The curfew imposed on Bangkok and surrounding provinces. Our area is not affected, however, even though it is quite close to the protest area, 5km - 6km away. Do continue to pray for sobriety and reconciliation to return to Thailand again. 

It is difficult for us to do God's work without a car. Thank God for a Christian brother who helped us with a down payment to purchase a new pick-up truck, Mazda BT-50 Pro 2.2 Hi-Racer. We took up a hire purchase for 6 years, servicing the loan at THB 8,091 (RM 890/US 275) per month. 

In January 2014, we have so far received less than half in mission contribution compared with the same period last year 2013. In 2013, we received THB 25,000 - 35,000 (RM 2,740 - RM 3,840/USD 847 - USD 1,186) per month. We decided to transfer from Jenny’s medical fund of THB 64,206 (RM7,055/USD 2,176) for use by the Church after getting the approval from the majority contributors on 9 January 2014. You can read this in our financial report. 

In my previous report, I have hoped to offer some help to the Christian refugees in our Church. However, it is not easy to raise funds to help them. So instead, I tried to find a way to start a handicraft project to support them. The refugees will make the handicrafts and we will help to sell  for them. A cell group from Malaysia will help start the handicraft project and buy some of the handicrafts for sale in Malaysia. This is one way to help the refugees. We would appreciate any support you can give to make this project viable. Share each other’s burdens, in this way we obey the law of Christ - Galatians 6 verse 2.

The slideshow shows our Church activities between December 2013 till January 2014 with the captions.

On the 5 January 2014, I was appointed Church Pastor of Basketball Mission Church in Bueng Kum District, Bangkok by their Church committee. The Church is growing rapidly and is almost always full worshippers are mostly Thai. 

Two independent Churches (Minburi, Bangkok and Nakhon Luang, Ayutthuya) are affiliated with our Church since December 2013. 

Let me close with a quote from Mathew 28 verses 18 - 20. “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age” 

Blessings,

Rev. Steve Peter H S Kok

A VIDEO OF SPRING VALLEY COMMUNITY CHURCH - CHRISTMAS EVENT 2013

Blessings,

Rev. Steve Peter H S Kok

BLESS ONE ANOTHER

Shalom All,

Greetings in the Lord!

In the Gospel of Mathew 25 verses 35 - 40 are the following words from Jesus:

“.... I was hungry and you fed me. I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me”. Then the righteous replied, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King replied, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’ 

These indeed are touching words from Jesus, reminding us to extend a helping hand to those that need our help that they may be led to the Kingdom of God. 

Some Christian refugees from a neighboring country have come to our Church since July 2013, We empathized with the suffering they have gone through in their homeland the past few years, Unfortunately, it is quite a sensitive issue for us to share about their plight here but if you want to know more, please drop me an email at faithwithyou@gmail.com.

In my previous reports, I did mention that we have offered them, as well as the local Thais, free language courses in English and Thai. This is a small step to begin with.

Our Church has been approved by an Evangelical Seminary from Canada to conduct a Diploma certificate course in Theological Studies. We plan to start this course in mid January or early February 2014. The Seminary will provide the materials for teaching and the marking of examination papers and the awarding of certificates.

However, there will be some conditions for those wishing to take up the course. They need to attend our Church for more than 3 months, have volunteered to serve in our Church in an area of work and are aged 21 years or older. If they don't meet these conditions, they need to pay a minimum fee for the course. With this training, we hope the trained can use the qualification to find a job or serve the Lord. This is one way to build and equip them with the Word of God.

This course will be conducted in English. We hope the Thai Christians will also avail themselves of this opportunity to take up the course to learn English, as well as the Word of God.

We now have two volunteer teachers and would like to invite more volunteer teachers to come and teach the course.

Next, we plan in a limited way to employ a few refugees ... hiring a lady to clean up the Church twice a week and pay her THB 200/per day (RM 20/USD 6.30) and also some men to help with painting the 3 - 5 floors of the Church, as well as doing some minor repairing jobs. If they do well in the job, we will recommend them to other people who need cleaning or painting. This is one little way to help them.

Thirdly, we plan to teach some of them to do handicraft work, such as cross stitches, souvenir items made from beads and beans, plastic flowers, paintings and etc . However, we need talented volunteers to come and teach various types of handicrafts, as well do the marketing for completed handicrafts.

Lastly, I need to apply for my Thai Visa extension for one year this December 2013 and I pray that there will be funds for the Church to support my application for the visa.

Thank you all for your concern and prayers.

We will have an early Christmas celebration on 14^th December 2013. If you are in Bangkok, please do come and join us in the celebration. 

Below is a slideshow with captions of our Church activities in recent months.

Let us know your thoughts if these will help us improve our work for the Lord.

With blessings and love,

Rev. Steve Peter H S Kok