Brianna Chun

6 min read

January Updates

Dear Friends and Family,

Hello everyone! I hope that you all had a great start to the year.

Here are my January updates!

BAPTISMS BAPTISMS BAPTISMS!! ❤️❤️

Every year, Pastor Danny gives the opportunity for MH kids who are ready to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior to become baptized. 4 more MH kids, David, Latda, Cherry, and Ewa (from left to right), decided to make this commitment. Praise the Lord!!

They took baptism classes in the weeks leading up to the day. They also had the opportunity to share their testimonies to all of MH. Many emotions were present during that moment, as many of the other MH kids also share similar stories and saw how God reveals Himself in others' lives as well.

I'm excited to see their relationship with God grow as they continue their spiritual journey towards a life for Christ.

Here are some more pictures from this beautiful day:

The MH kids had their first Taekwondo competition!

For context, one of the volunteers currently at MH, Wonchang, is a Taekwondo master and is pursuing long-term missions, specifically through business. His goal is to open up a Taekwondo school in Thailand.

In the meantime, after arriving last June, he has been teaching the MH kids Taekwondo every day. They recently tested for their brown belts in early January. On the 27, they went to compete in a real sparring competition!

It was great exposure for them to see how much progress they made since they first started. They have been working so hard, and even though the competition was strong, they never gave up, showing their true strength and perseverance. They will continue to train for their next tournament in February!

Here of some pics of both their testing day and competition day!

On the same note of business as missions, a couple from Chicago, Linda and Sean, came to visit MH. They have been in partnership with MH for a while through their home church, but have never visited Thailand before. They just became empty nesters and want to start a new business together. They felt called to open up a Mango House Cafe, so they could grow their relationship with MH and continue to help support the ministry here.

I was so encouraged about how they responded to this calling from God to start something new, and am so excited to see where their business takes them. Please pray for them as they start this new endeavor!

Story Time!

After reflecting on the weeks of teaching so far, sometimes I ask myself what the kids are really grasping from the content I teach.

But regardless of the academic things that they are learning, I have watched them gain so much more confidence in their abilities to perform, and they get to see with their own eyes the feeling of success.

For example, one of the MH kids, Puma, used to not care when he would fail his tests each week because it was the norm for him. I began consistently sitting down with him to hold him accountable because I knew he had the potential to perform well. Since then, he has shown more effort towards his work. One day, we ran out of time in class, so I told the kids they could stay later if they wanted to review a question we did not finish yet. Puma was one of the kids who stayed behind! I was so excited to see him take initiative and show interest in the material, and he passed his exam that week with a perfect score! He told me that this was the first time he scored a 100%, and I could tell he was so proud of himself, finally knowing for himself that he could do it.

Another example is Cherry was struggling with basic algebra. One day, I stayed with her for an hour after class to help her understand one question, and she ended up crying in frustration because after multiple attempts, she was still unable to work through the problems on her own. I saw how much she wanted to succeed, so I continued to simply encourage her. I explained to her how God has given us different strengths and talents, but we can still try to overcome our weaknesses. Not only did she pass the exam, but more importantly, I saw her resilience and how she never gave up.

These are just two moments where it makes me stand back in awe of God's ability to use me to help bring out these kids' potentials. While these examples may seem like only small moments of adversity, it still allows them to practice how to lean on God, so they will be ready when harder times come. (Hebrews 10:36 says, You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.)

Many of the kids are used to having a lack of confidence, but I can help show them how successful they can be through strength in Christ. (Proverbs 18:10: The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe.)

New Sunday Sermon Series on the Sermon on the Mount

Pastor Danny's new sermon series has been on Matthew 5-7, also known as the Sermon on the Mount. As I mentioned before, I studied and memorized these chapters before I came.

P Danny gave me the opportunity to recite all of the chapters in front of MH! I hope to serve as an encouragement to these kids and show them how my relationship with God grew through this challenge. Memorizing these chapters helped me establish a solid foundation on how to live my life every day to glorify God, or as P Danny likes to say, how to "be different by being a servant leader." It is such a humbling reminder that being a leader is about serving others, not being served!

Many of the kids have already expressed interest in wanting to memorize at least part of Matthew 5-7, and I am SO excited to help keep them accountable in this desire to get closer to God.

I also mentioned back in my November update about the bible verse that was written on a chalkboard at MH. And yes, somehow one of my FAVORITE verses ended up on another board, and yes it is from the Sermon on the Mount, and yes, I really want to share it with you all.😄

Matthew 5:16

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven.

When I shared my testimony in November, I used this verse to show the kids that I want to be an example of a light so that they can be a light to others as well. Because even with all my sins and imperfections, I can still do my part to carry out God’s plan and serve others for His glory.

I'm so glad that I can help make this verse the forefront in the lives of MH kids as well. In the 5 months I have been here, I have seen this light grow in their hearts, in the way they want to memorize parts of the bible, in the way they have become more vulnerable during Small Groups, in the way they take more initiative in caring for the little ones every day, in the way we pray for each other.

I hope to continue to help grow this light so that they can continue on this journey to glorify God, even after I leave.

Prayer Requests:

Prayers for safe travels to Singapore next month as Irene, Izzie, and I will be renewing our visas.
Prayers for the MH kids who were recently baptized that they have the desire to draw even closer to God.
Prayers for all of MH to be a light to each other as a community of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Lastly, a few more pics from this past month: