President’s Letter
A closer look at the projects we shared about last week: the Love for Asia Studio and a new aviation program in Indonesia!
The new Love for Asia Studio in Thailand
This photo was taken from the same angle as the photo showing the miracle of the Lam Yai Trees!
The New Love for Asia Studio
We praise God from the bottom of our hearts for what He has done on the Lam Yai Tree Miracle property!
I’m here in Thailand at what used to be part of a fruit tree orchard. Now it’s our first permanent home office for our Love for Asia Foundation and a new TV studio. The building is nearly complete. We’re just waiting on the windows which have been delayed in shipment. In this hot climate we chose to use double-pane windows, which have to be custom built. They should be here next week and, once installed, we will move the team in.
A picture from last year of the Lam Yai trees before construction started on the new studio. The trees on the right, with all the small brown Lam Yai fruits, were fully laden with fruit. The trees on the left, on the property where the studio was to be built, were completely bare! A precious sign from God that His hands are on this project.
We’ve also talked to two young ladies who have escaped really bad backgrounds and are finding freedom and joy in Christ. One of the biggest challenges for women in Thailand is their sense of worth. Their religion teaches that they are dirty and can’t go to heaven until they reincarnate into a man.
And so they see themselves as discardable; their value is only in their beauty or how they can get a man to value them. But since these women have found their value in Christ, they have found new joy and new liberty and want to share with their Thai sisters. I’ve asked and they are excited about hosting a TV show talking about their experiences and the truth, new value, and hope they now find in Christ alone.
So God is bringing everything together, we just need to buy computers, lights and furniture for the new office. I’m praying for $30,000 to finish it off and get production happening so the message of a soon coming Savior can get out there and save many lives.
The new staff are practicing their filming skills in the new studio!
Indonesia Aviation Program
At the same time, we are considering purchasing an airplane in Indonesia. With 17,508 islands it is a perfect place for a flight program. Ramon Tengkano has his pilots license as well as a friend, Grace, who recently retired from her job as an airline pilot. She wants to serve God with her talents. This plane will be the first step in opening newterritory for the Gospel. Ramon and Shandy told us how they visited a town that used to be all Adventist because an American pilot would fly Bible Workers in and keep nurturing their faith. But that program closed down many years ago, and townspeople lost touch with the church. Now the runway is the town soccer field and another church has taken over.
The plane we are looking at right now would fit the plan for introducing the new program perfectly. It is half the price of a new plane and only has 150 hours on it. The price is $62,000 which seems like a lot, but it is much cheaper than any other plane that has been imported and registered in Indonesia. Please pray for God’s continued guidance and providence for this project.
JFA Office
Finally I’d like to introduce you to a brand new project that is out of the ordinary. Currently JFA is operating out of the basement of a house that God provided back in 2015. The office, in which 7 of us currently work, is about 400 square feet. We are thankful that God's Spirit resides there, and we operate like a big happy family. But there’s no room for expansion.
A couple years ago I took 5 days to pray in south India, and during that prayer time I really sensed God saying that it was time to look at expanding the JFA home base, as in Isaiah 54:2,3:
"Enlarge the place of thy tent,
and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations:
spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left;
and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles,
and make the desolate cities to be inhabited."
So ever since then we’ve been looking for options for office and studio space. There aren’t many options in the small town of Collegedale, Tennessee. We looked at renting in a strip mall, but we would have filled it right away. We almost purchased a professional building, but it sold before we could muster the faith. Then the Lord led us to a perfect piece of property right between the Korean SDA Church and a large retirement home. It’s downtown Collegedale but in a hidden corner that feels peaceful.
The property is an empty lot and the seller is willing to “build to suit” to provide us with a turn-key building that won’t take a lot of our time from the ministry. This project is estimated at about $1.8 million. I’m praying that the home office will be provided for in ways that will not affect the projects in Asia and that it will only happen if more souls will be won to the kingdom because of it. I don’t want to invest a lot of money in the headquarters unless, and only unless, more souls for the kingdom will result from it.
So please join us in prayer for God’s perfect will to be done and that we will all have the courage to go forward in the face of fear!
God bless,
Jon Wood
President
Jesus for Asia