Wednesday 11 January 2017

2016 Mission Report by Sarah Yang

This is the script for Sarah's mission report that she will be sharing at the Covenant Church (Mississauga, ON) on January 15, 2017.



1)      I am very happy today that I have the opportunity to stand here to share God’s work with you all.

2)      Truthfully, I have been back to Canada for six months now, but I was sick for the first four months and my children were working hard to take care of me. Now I am better.

3)      Myself and Pastor Dan are very happy and are thankful to God for your church’s part in supporting our ministry from the beginning until today.

4)      Pastor Dan and I did not choose to go to Thailand on our own. We were praying for God’s will and the leading of the Holy Spirit for many years. When we knew that God wanted us to go back, these were the goals for our ministry:

a.       Evangelism (particularly to the youth and young adults)
b.      Church Planting
c.       Build leaders (leadership training)
d.      Establish student dormitory

5)      We have been back to Thailand for four years. In the first year we visited many churches in different regions of the world, including Kenya, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

6)      In the second year, we decided to settle in Chiang Mai and bought a piece of land to begin our ministry. Pastor Dan became the pastor of the Friendship Church. At that time there were not many members and most of them were students. We also held four leadership trainings at our home. Most of the people that came to attend the training were leaders from Laos and Vietnam.

7)      We worked diligently the past two years and established different groups within the church: the youth group and the family group. The youth group has Bible study every Wednesday night with about 10-20 attendees. The family group meets together once a month.

8)      We taught the church members about tithing, unity, and loving the church.

9)      Our male dormitory is far from the universities, we only have six students staying there. We tried to find funding for students who needs financial assistance. Thank you to your church for helping to sponsor two of our students. These two students are:

a.       Sukulwat – Sukulwat (Nyaj) has been through a lot of hardship and he has many problems. He lost his father and his mother is poor. She could not help him out. Many times he wants to commit suicide. Since he came to stay at the dormitory we tried to get everyone to understand him. Now he is doing better and is helping the church with many things.
b.      Thongchai – Thongchai is a new believer who we have brought to Christ when he came to stay at the dormitory. We help with scholarship because he has no money. Many times his friends feel burdened because they had to share food with him. Thongchai’s faith grew very fast. He is humble and hardworking. He does well in school, always getting 94-97% in his studies. He is almost done with his studies and he has been helping our ministry tremendously. Right now we are playing for him to pursue Bible College with the focus in English. Then we want him to learn the Korean language and to continue Bible studies in Korea. We want him to have a foundation in evangelism. We ask that you continue your support. The money that you are contributing is being for God’s great work.

10)   Aside from teaching our church members to be self-sufficient, to give to God, to love one another, to be united, we also teach them to partner with other churches and to evangelize and help others.

11)   Now God has opened our door wider and we became superintendents to over 44 churches. But there are much work to be done since these churches don’t have enough pastors. There are 44 churches, but only 9 pastors. We cannot do all the work on our own, but thank God that He works with us and shown many miracles:

a.       The sick are healed
b.      The possessed are freed
c.       The bankrupt begin to become successful
d.      The opposed have a change of heart

Through prayers the church and its members become more eager for God’s work. We believe that God will lead us step by step until his work and mission are done.

12)   Lastly, please think about why you came to Canada. Maybe God allowed you to come here so that you would love God more, have more opportunities or expand God’s work throughout the world. Please continue to pray for our ministry. God has promised in Galatians 6:9 that if we not become weary in doing good and do not give up, at the proper time we will reap a harvest.


Prayer Requests

1)      We received a monthly support of $1000 from the church in Thailand. However, this amount is enough to do all of God’s work.

2)      We need a helper because we have a lot of work and we don’t have any help.

3)      We have stopped holding leadership training for one year because we don’t have the budget for it, which also include transportation costs for the attendees.

4)      We are still praying for funding for the female dormitory. If possible, we would like to build one in our property so we can minister to young female students.

5)      We would like to build a retreat centre for God’s workers who are burnt out or discouraged. This retreat will be called Hannah’s House. This is a place dedicated to God workers to come rest, recuperate, a quiet place to pray and be encouraged. We need about $15,000 to build this retreat. Right now we have received $3000 dedicated to building Hannah’s house.

6)      We are in the process of applying to become missionaries sent from Canada.

2016 Ministry Summary and 2017 Prayer Requests



Dear Church Members,  
I have some updates to share with your congregation. During the past three years, I see that the Lord has been working on the Remnant South East Asia Ministry, which I have started at the Friendship Church in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The church is now growing spiritually and in numbers. Although some university and college students have graduated and left the church, there are new students who started to attend the church. Moreover, there are new young couples that also started to attend the church. Now we have at least 15 families of young couples. Because of the increase in church members, the church space is getting too small for our growing congregation; particularly we don’t have enough parking spaces and Sunday school classrooms.
At the Friendship church, we usually have Bible study (The Book of Genesis) and prayer every Wednesday night.  We have family fellowship once a month at one of the church members’ house. We also gather together to spend time in prayer for the whole night every last Friday of the month. We have a plan for the church’s future, which is to purchase a piece of land to build a new church building. My strategy is to encourage the young couples who came to Chiang Mai to start their own business and build them to become strong church leaders.  Now there are five young couples that have started their own business.
I wish to build the Friendship Church to become the mother church of the Hmong Christians in Thailand.  It will be the center for Hmong ministry in South East Asia. As the ministry at the Friendship church grows, it will gradually extend to the Hmong in other regions of Thailand, as well as Laos and Vietnam. There are many churches that would like to join us. On February 16, 2016, I was selected to be the superintendent of the Hmong Associated Churches in Thailand, which oversees 45 Hmong churches in the association. Among the 45 churches, there are only nine churches that have their own pastor. The rest of the churches do not have their own pastor. The Hmong Associated Churches in Thailand has five regions. Once a month I spend a weekend traveling and visiting some of these regional Hmong churches.
I have learned that most of these churches do not understand the True Gospel Message. Their spiritual lives are dead and they live in sins. They are in need of a spiritual revival. At the same time, there are several false cults that are spreading among the Hmong people. These cults are persuading the Hmong Christians to lose their faith. Moreover, there are still many unreached people that do not know the True Gospel Message.
During the past two years, some Hmong church leaders from Laos and Vietnam came to learn about the True Gospel Message and attended Leadership Training at my place in Chiang Mai. However, we were short of funds and future training sessions were put on hold. It is apparent that there is still much work to be done for the Hmong people in South East Asia.
Every year the Hmong Associated Churches in Thailand arranges an annual retreat for the youth. There are around 500-700 Hmong youth who usually attend the retreat camp. At this retreat, I saw many young people accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior and committed themselves to the Lord. Some of them want to go to Bible school, but they do not have enough financial support to pursue Bible College.
The Lord has put this heavy burden in my heart and I have spent a lot of time fasting and praying. Currently, I am still in the planning phase for 2017 ministry. I believe that the most important thing is to share the True Gospel Message with the Hmong people, train them in discipleship and leadership, proclaim the Gospel to the unreached people, and plant new churches. I am praying and planning to equip some of the church’s young people to go to Bible school. 
Thongchai Sae Lao Thao is one of the students who have been receiving your help for school tuition. I spend a fair amount of time with him on a regular basis and he faithfully accompanies me in most of my visits to the regional churches. He is growing in his Christian spiritual life. He is currently doing his internship in electrical engineering and he will graduate from college in March 2017. However, he has made a decision to go to Bible school next year. I am encouraging Thongchai to also pursue languages, including English and Korean so that he may have opportunities to attend the Remnant Theological Seminary in South Korea. I’ve committed him to the Lord so please continue to pray and support him as well as this ministry.
Overall, 2016 has been a year full of many blessings and opportunities. I can see the members of the Friendship Church growing in numbers as well as in spirit. With my new position as the superintendent of the Hmong Associated Churches in Thailand, I am given new opportunities to reach out to the Hmong communities in various regions of Thailand. I hope to be able to expand this opportunity to reach out to the Hmong Christians in neighbouring countries including Laos and Vietnam. As 2016 has come to an end, on top of our current ongoing projects, I can see that there are much more work to be done for the upcoming year. I ask that your congregation help me pray for the Lord’s guidance in the following areas:

1)      The Friendship Church
a.       Spiritual growth for the church members
b.      New gathering space for the congregation
c.       Equipping the church members to serve within the church as well as outreach ministry
d.      Business successes for the young entrepreneurs

2)      Hmong Associated Churches of Thailand
a.       Funding for travel costs to visit regional churches ($1500/year)
b.      Spiritual growth and revival for the 45 associated churches ; building up leaders to lead these churches
c.       Outreach ministry to regions of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam
d.      Leadership and discipleship training ($6000/year, including outreach and leadership training)

3)      Remnant Ministry & Headquarter
a.       Funding to build Hannah’s House on our current property as a prayer retreat for God’s servants ($12000)
b.      Funding to develop the land into meeting space for future discipleship and leadership trainings
c.       Funding for a helper/intern to assist with our ministerial work
d.      Application process to become official missionaries sent from Canada (through Interserve www.interservecanada.org) for logistic purpose

4)      Scholarships and Sponsored Students (See 2016 Ministry Overview & Mission Projects for more details)
a.       Sukulwat Sae Vang – spiritual growth, health, academic success
b.      Thongchai Sae Lao-Thao– opportunity to attend Bible College and language schools
c.       Financial assistance and mentorship for students interested in pursuing Bible College

5)      Dormitory Project (See 2016 Dormitory Project Proposal for more project details)
a.       Spiritual growth and academic success for the students currently residing at the male dormitory
b.      Funding for female dormitory ($7880)

The Lord’s work is ever growing. Sarah and I are excited to be given the opportunities to continue to serve Him. We are thankful for His guidance and provision as we move forward into our fourth year of ministry in Thailand. We are also thankful to your congregation for your prayers, generosity, and interests in being a part of our ministry. Lastly, I would like to encourage each one of you to hold on to God’s promise in Galatians 6:9: “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”


Sincerely,

Rev. Dan Yang

Monday 25 January 2016

2015 The Year In Review


"Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him." 
Psalm 98:1 (NIV)

Thank you for your support and friendship. Wishing you and your family a Happy New Year! With God as our Leader, may we be prepared to live another year under His guidance.

Remnant Ministry Southeast Asia - Rev. Dan & Sarah Yang