Video Transcript:
Well, Merry Christmas. I’ve just been thinking about so many of you and reflections on this last year, thinking about all the ways you have given and you have prayed for us. There have been times where we've needed lots of prayer and I've communicated to so many of you about lifting us up for various needs and all the generosity of those of you who partner with us.
I wish I could sit down with each one of you whenever I'm back in the US on my short little visits and encourage you and say thank you. I often will when we go out to get a meal or we go to the market to buy food or when I'm buying plane tickets or just paying different fees and expenses that enable us to live here and to serve here.
Probably not a day goes by that I don't think about those of you who partner with us regularly and I wish you could see some of the things that the Lord is using you for to provide for us. Just even today, we're buying a hot water heater for the Hill Tribe Mission Center, things like that. Or we’re going to go to the town on Saturday and buy some fans for the mission center or just buying books for the boys for homeschool or bigger sized jeans or shoes for them. Being able to pay a little bit extra for hot chocolate for them at a nice foreigner restaurant that we could go to once in a while. Little things like that just make a difference for us, so that we can be free to serve the Lord here.
I'm so grateful. Every night at dinner, we pray and thank the Lord for supporters like you who just stand with us faithfully in the gospel, trusting us with the commission and the purpose and the cause of God here in Southeast Asia and Northern Thailand. I am so thankful for you. I just wanted to share a little devotional in light of Christmas.
Last night when our family was having family worship, I just read through the genealogy in Matthew of the Birth of Christ. I was reminded of a quote in my book, Great Commission Spirituality, from an Anglican bishop from the 18th century. His name was Thomas Fuller—not Andrew Fuller, but a different Fuller. He says this about the genealogy of Christ, and I thought it was actually really appropriate as I reflect and wrap up the various teachings of this year and some of my publications. I've thought about how what Fuller says here is really appropriate for the kind of ministry, as the Lord wills, we would like to develop out and build out here in the village.
Regarding the Lord's genealogy, Fuller says this in a prayer: "Lord, I find the genealogy of my savior strangely checkered with four remarkable changes in four immediate generations. First, Rehoboam begat Abijah; that is a bad father begat a bad son. Number two, Abijah begat Asa; that is a bad father begat a good son. And three, Asa begat Jehoshaphat; that is a good father, a good son. And number four, Jehoshaphat begat Jehoram; that is a good father, a bad son." Fuller says this: "I see Lord from hints that my father's piety cannot be entailed," or what he means is cannot be generated to me by hereditary passing on. And he says, "and that is bad news for me." In other words, I'm not going to just automatically inherit my dad's piety. But then he says this: "But I see also that actual impiety is not always hereditary." And then in very tender words, he says, "and that is good news for my son."
I think about the passing on of the faith to the generations and the work we're doing here in the village with so many children who are functionally orphans because their parents work in different factories in Asia and they don't get to come home except maybe for one week every five to seven years. So those kids grow up with grandma and grandpa, kind of doing whatever they want in the village. My wife and I and the boys, we have a real heart for generational discipleship.
In the book of Judges, you're probably familiar with at least what is considered to be the key verse. It says, "and in those days, there was no king in Israel. Everybody did what was right in their own eyes." Well, a lot of people think that's the key verse, but a few verses before that, in Judges 2:10-12, there's this passage which really sets up the transition from Joshua to Judges and sets up the whole plot and conflict of the book. It says this: "And there arose a generation after them... who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel and the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals and they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers who had brought them out of Egypt."
The key is that there arose a generation who did not know the ways of the Lord. And so then the question is, well, whose fault was that? It wasn't their fault; they grew up not knowing the ways of the Lord, implying the parents who witnessed all of the great triumph under the leadership of Joshua failed to pass on the faith to the next generation. And so then you have the dilemma and the catastrophe throughout the book of Judges.
I think about faithfully discipling the generations and thinking in terms of long term. Like the Book of Proverbs says, "A wise man leaves an inheritance for his children's children." Well, I don't think that necessarily means purely economic inheritance, purely money in the bank or investments, but I think it also means an inheritance of the faith. I mean even an inheritance of land and property and having assets to build upon in order to build a life in faith with families down the road.
So, here in the village, one of the things is that there's enough Christianity introduced into the Lahu language that there is what I call a plausibility structure. In other words, Christianity is plausible. It's been around enough; they understand there's a church here. They may not know what goes on in that church or what that church believes, but there is enough of a presence of church life. But even the people who are walking to church every Sunday, my guess is that most don't even know the true gospel. They go because their family goes and they've been converted into Christianity as a family—not by regeneration, but by just group conversion, which is not necessarily a problem. It doesn't mean that they're saved, it just means that they're really close to the kingdom and they have this framework through which to understand reality. And so when the gospel is explicated and it is clarified for them and contended for, it connects; it makes sense to them.
So my prayer for the Hill Tribe Mission Center is that God would use it to bring clarity to the gospel to the already existing plausibility of Christianity in so many of the various hill tribes around here. I thank you for your support for the Hill Tribe Mission Center. It was just last January that I started asking people for donations, and within the first few months, I had nearly all the money I needed to build it. And now it's virtually built. We're putting in the hot water heater this weekend and the lights are in, and we're hoping, as the Lord wills, to have it done by just around Christmas time.
So thank you for your gifts. And one other thing—I know I'm going long, but this is kind of my Christmas message to you all. I talked to you about these audio Bibles that I was deciding which one I was going to use. Today I finally went with this one. It's called KULUMI X. I decided on that and a handful of you have emailed me and I told you I'd get back to you. I think each one is $29.99 US dollars. What I'll probably do is order a bunch of these from the company and have them preload them with Lahu or Thai or Hmong or Akha or Lisu or whatever language group I'm going to be working with, but most likely just Lahu for now.
When either I go back to the States in 2026 or when I know of a missionary or guests coming, I'll preorder them and have them come with them. I can't have them shipped here very easily because there's a big customs tax on electronics into Thailand. So it's easier if I just bring them in myself or I have them come with a visitor. So if any of you want to give to that, like I said, it's each one is $29.99. I don't need them urgently, so it's not an emergency, but it's just something I'm going to start accumulating in 2026.
So, from our family to those of you who support us and pray for us, thank you so much for standing with us in the gospel and just your kind words, your Christmas cards and your emails, and just being faithful to partner with us. I'm so thankful to God for you. Have a Merry Christmas and may the joy of Christ refresh you this Christmas and may the God of peace, may his countenance rest upon you, and may you know the love of God in the face of Jesus Christ. God bless you. Merry Christmas.