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As city-girl turned country-girl, I, Traci, love to watch the crops grow. We have a field at the edge of our yard that is often planted with wheat. There is such joy to walk through it, waist height, and run my hands through the heads of wheat. On a windy day, the breeze blows through the crop, making the wheat shift and flex like waves on the ocean. At harvest when the grain is ripe, I enjoy rubbing the wheat heads between my hands until the wheat seeds come out and I can pop them in my mouth and chew them. In a farmer’s experience, one can sense God nearby throughout the seasons.
Myanmar has struggled for 70 years with civil war and this unrest has allowed the continued growth of opium, making Myanmar the second-largest opium growing country, after Afghanistan. The above-mentioned article declares, “’There is a direct connection between drugs and conflict in the country, with the drug economy supporting the conflict and in-turn the conflict facilitating the drug economy,’ the UNODC said…The agency noted that economic problems, including a lack of job opportunities and income inequality, also contributed to the resilience of the drug trade amid increasing efforts by traffickers and organised criminals to diversify the market.” Furthermore, this area is also the hub for the global trade in crystal methamphetamine, otherwise knows as ice.
Children walking through opium fields to get to village where they would share the gospel.
So it is that several of the children living with Steve* and April* with our Myanmar ministry Uncountable Grace, have come from areas as described above. Steve has a heart for those living in these areas and combines that with his gift of evangelism. During the kids’ summer break from school, Steve and April took all the children on an evangelism trip, walking three and a half hours at a time, often through field after field of opium. They brought the gift of hope and love as they encouraged the people in a variety of ways. They brought physical gifts, such as cooking oil, salt or noodles, to each house. They cut hair and worshipped together. Some of the children were able to visit family members, reconnect and share their faith.
Please pray for Myanmar and the challenges they face. Pray for the harvest of souls and that there will be other job opportunities, a hope and a future for this country.
Tammy is another one of our board members who is full of
energy and enthusiasm for the work of GNI and helping to organize past galas. Today she shares what motivates her to be
involved and how she has been inspired by our leaders. Welcome, Tammy!
Thank you. Let me
begin by saying that I am involved in GNI because of Rob and Judy and their
family. They are truly amazing people and I trust their hearts and their
direction as being led by the Holy Spirit. They bring so much energy,
life and love of Jesus in everything that they do.
I have known Rob and Judy for over 20 years as I was a
youth sponsor when Rob was a youth pastor.
At that time, their daughters, Amber and Amanda, were teens in the youth
group. I often think about the first
mission trip that I took with them, which was also Rob’s first time out of
North America. We were driving from California to Mexico and down the
Baja. Rob was so worried about making the crossing at the border that he
was using his radio to contact me as I was driving the van ahead of him.
He wanted to stop and defer, but I just kept on going despite his calls,
and drove right up to the Mexican border where I pushed the button and
thankfully got green. As Rob’s van pulled up, I was aware of the
ramification of my decision if he got the red light! Thankfully he got
green as well and we went through with our vans full of kids with no check at
all! I like to think that this moment was monumental in making Rob a
travelling world changer.
I am excited for the future of GNI because I know that
God’s heart is to heal the broken-hearted and set the captive free and Rob and
Judy exemplify this will in their life mission and purpose as they lead GNI.
I have seen how they have stewarded God’s favour and resources well and
how, as a result, GNI has grown throughout the years.
I am thankful for the focus on the Golden Triangle and
think that the result will be multiplied because of the focused efforts in one
area. I love how GNI empowers national leaders who understand the issues
at hand and the culture around them and are passionate to bring positive life
change to their people.
What excites me most is to see the kids’ lives that have
been impacted in Thailand and Myanmar and to see how they will take the mission
of GNI to the next level.
Thanks, Tammy, for sharing with us. I like the story about travelling to Mexico and the beginning of Rob being a travelling world changer.
You, dear supporters, can be a world changer, too, both in your own postal code and as you support our ministries!
It is the one-year anniversary, June 23 – July 10, of the
rescue of the Wild Boars soccer coach and twelve players from the Tham Luang
Nang Non Cave in Thailand. With Good News International’s ministry being
located near the cave, Rob and Judy have taken the opportunity to visit the
cave and remember the rescue, possibly one of the greatest
rescue efforts ever to have taken place during their lifetime, with people from
many nations (even Canada) involved in the extremely difficult extraction.
I, Traci, recently read an article by Shannon Gormley entitled “Into the Dark” (https://www.macleans.ca/thai-cave-rescue-heroes/), and learned many things I had not heard a year ago and, as a certified diver myself, I found it fascinating what the divers faced. Shannon explained that during the rescue “there would be children’s lifeless bodies yanked through paralyzing water; fingernails digging into rock walls and human skin; a cable wrapped around a neck; a strap binding a pair of wrists; a needle stabbed into a thigh; a skull smashed into rock; a lifeline drifting out of reach, out of sight, into the black…The cave’s currents were impossible. Visibility was also impossible…The constricted sumps—submerged underwater passages—were worse than impossible: they were deadly.” With divers who had only been trained in open-water diving and carrying oxygen tanks on their backs that were too large to fit through the small spaces in the cave, the diving experts had to be called in. And they flooded in from all over Thailand, Europe, Australia and Canada and finally made contact with the soccer team. The experts began to discuss options for those trapped in the cave. Shannon lays out the options and what they mean:
“Option One: Believe the children’s claims that they
heard roosters crowing. Assume there is a chimney in the mountaintop leading to
the kids and their coach. Find it, somehow. Pull the team out, somehow.
Option two: Assume there is no chimney. Make one. Drill
through the rock—700 m. Pull the team out—700 m.
Option three: Leave the kids and their coach in the cave.
In the dark. For four months. Send in food, letters and medical support. Wait
for the rain to stop. For four months. Bring the team out the way they came in.
Option four: Do what no one has ever done before. Bring a
dozen children and one adult, none of whom know how to dive or probably even
swim, through a few kilometres of flooded cave in almost zero visibility and
torrid currents.
Option one is unrealistic: the kids are probably
hallucinating about the roosters. Option two is deadly: drilling could crush
the children under falling rocks. Option three is torture: stuck on that small
patch of dirt in the dark, surviving on water dripping off stalactites, the
kids hadn’t lasted a few days before trying to claw their way out by scratching
at the rock face with their bare hands; four months would be unendurable. And
option four is madness. No one has ever tried anything like it before. Divers
might die. The ones who don’t die might have to carry out a dozen dead
children.
Tonight, the men choose madness. They want to dive the
kids out.”
So, the rescuers began the drills: pool drills to try on
the full face diving masks on the children to make sure they wouldn’t leak;
rock drills to lay out the miniature mock-up cave on the parking lot and
determine where the rescue stations will be in the cave and what everyone’s
role will be; sedation drills to practice topping up the children’s sedation
along the way so they won’t panic and drown themselves and their rescuers.
So, the rescue began and, although it didn’t all go according to plan and there were times of terror, the world rejoiced as the last boy, coach and rescuer emerged from the cave.
Today there is a gold colored statue raised to honor Saman Gunan, a former Thai navy diver, who died while taking part in the rescue efforts. The boars around his feet represent the football (soccer) team members he gave his life to try to rescue.
Bus loads of Thai and foreigners visit the site to pay
homage to the spirit of the mountain, a mythological princess named Nang Non,
thanking her for protecting the boys and facilitating their rescue. The entire
mountain is named after this woman, who reportedly committed suicide at this
site centuries ago after learning that her boyfriend, a stable boy, had been
found and killed by her father’s army. The surrounding mountain is said to look
like a sleeping woman and the water flowing in the cave is claimed to be her
blood. Hence the name Jao Nai Nang Non (the sleeping goddess). Thais make much
of such myths and are held captive in fear of such spirits.
As Christians, we have Good News to share and set these people free from fear of the spirits. Rob Griffioen, GNI president, writes, “As amazing as the cave rescue was, when one compares it to what God’s only Son, Jesus, did by coming on his rescue mission to save the human race from the penalty of sin, it simply can’t compare. Christ came to make us right with God, to restore us to our full inheritance as children of God (John 1:12). Most of the boys who were rescued still need Jesus (apparently one is a follower already). Most of the people who participated in the cave rescue still need Jesus. We all need Jesus, and praise God that this offer of rescue still remains today. It’s why we are here in Thailand. We want to help people break out of the darkness of sin and come into Christ’s marvellous light (1 Peter 2:9).
While we praise God for the amazing rescue of twelve boys
and their coach, we also are struck by the persistent problem of lost souls and
spiritual darkness in this land. This region is home to unchecked production of
heroin and methamphetamines. The carnage this brings is an addicted generation
of young men and women, who, if they live long enough to have children, end up
in prison or die from their addictions. Parallel to this, children are sold
into human trafficking chains at an alarming rate by parents who are incapable
of or unwilling to run the race of raising their own young. For Judy and I,
having two frontline ministries in this area (one in Thailand and one in
Myanmar), fits our calling. It’s why we are here. It’s why we are investing the
best we have (our own children) and why we are delighted that you have joined
our cause in prayer and support to see this through.
Please pray that God uses our ministry (GNIM), our
amazing daughters (with family) and our partners to make a big spiritual impact
in this land. It’s a bit of David and Goliath story here. But we know how that
story ends!”
John 1:5 says, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
Please pray for our ministries in the Golden Triangle. There are many moments when it seems like the task is so large and when our ministry partners are not sure what to do to help all those in need. Pray that God will give them wisdom as to how they should respond to the situations around them. Pray that God will show them where He is working and preparing hearts for transformation. Pray for protection as they step into situations of rescue and prevention of human trafficking. Pray for them that they will boldly declare the Word of the Lord.
And praise God that Jesus is the Light of the World and can dispel the darkness!
