June 2014 Urgent Prayer Letter of John & Christa

Give Thanks

We praise God that in spite the sudden finding that John is bleeding internallyand he needs a surgery and preferably outside Kyrgyzstan, we were able to:

1. Buy a one-way ticket to Taipei on 6/12 and arrive there within 12 hours.

2. Make reasonable arrangements with our team that all works may proceed as planned without too much delays. This is only possible because even though not all team members are believers but the faith we have in our FATHER is sufficient to carry all, knowing He is always in charge.

3. Christa’s cousin sister in Taiwan made the critical contact to a private hospital - Shu-Tien which is well known for Urology Treatment and we could do registration on Sat. 6/14 on John’s birthday. We got to see the head of the hospital in the morning. After a short chat with him with the result of ultrasound, he made a decision for us that he can operate on John’s very enlarged prostate (180+ cc vs. the 25 cc normal size) Monday morning 6/16/2014). He informed us that the surgery may take up to 3 hours and the proper recovery time should be 1 – 1 ½ months. We asked if it is possible for us to return back to Kyrgyzstan in 2-3 weeks.

4. We are most thankful the Sister Fiona again allows us to stay with her on such a short notice, even though she already has quite a few others sisters in Christ staying with her. Her house is very close to the hospital and has easy access to all things. We praise God for putting angels around us for our need. Indeed He is our provider and His provision is more than we can imagine.

5. We praise God for Taiwan’s medical effective services. Even though the laser surgery is not covered by the insurance (told by the surgeon /president), but we can tell he is touched by what we are doing in Kyrgyzstan. Thank God that He gave us an opportunity to talk about Him during the brief check-up.

Prayer Request:

1. May John’s surgery be straight forward without unnecessary complication.

2. May John’s initial recovery be shorter so we may return to our team in 2-3 weeks and may God heal him and forbid additional bleeding in Kyrgyzstan. May our faith grow by leaps and bounds by this experience.

3. May we still be able to witness for Him in Taiwan for the people He put sin front of us.

4. May God personally oversee all work in our team and put all of staff, students and their parents under His wings.

5. May God bless all our supporters, families and friends for their love and concern for us.


Love in Him,
John & Christa

Pray for us

Dear Prayer partners, Families and Friends,

Due to unplanned circumstance we are traveling to Taiwan June 12. I am going there for medical checkup and surgical operation.

Two days ago suddenly I was urinating a lot blood out. There was no symptom of any problem before. Checked with the doctors here and had ultrasound done. They said I have polyps in my bladder and need operation to cut off the polyps in order to stop the bleeding. They recommended me to go to Taiwan for operation because they do not have good equipment here in Kyrgyzstan. They think it is not cancerous. But I need to have thorough check to make sure before operation. Please pray for me. Christa's cousin arranged us to visit 書田診所for check up. We have booked flight to Taiwan on June 12. We give thanks that Fiona will accommodate us in her house that is quite close to the hospital. Pray that everything will go smoothly. 

We only booked one way tickets because not sure how long it will take.

In the meantime there are a lot of issues that need your prayers.

A. We still have not gotten our kindergarten license yet. We were told that we should get it soon. In Kyrgyzstan we can never be sure how things work. Something look simple may take months to complete. We can just patiently wait.

B. We still need more teachers for the kindergarten. They also need training for the Montessori method and will not disrupt our current teachers' teaching.

C. Shirley, our trainer is back in Singapore for the funeral of her mother. Pray for her.

D. Jenny, a trainer from Singapore plans to come, but we will  be in Taiwan. Pray that God will lead to make the right decision and timing.

E. I am attached the pictures of our workers and the eight lovely children. The workers are John, Christa, Sophia (Administrator), Anna (Translator), Kasbek (Building manager),, Shirley (Trainer), Gulmira (Cook), Eleaner (Music teacher), Nurzada (Teacher), Sanura (Teacher). The children are Amil, Aiya, Timur, Lika, Ruffa, Nika, Samat and Islam. May we have opportunity to make a difference in their lives.

In God we pray.

John and Christa

Urgent: Please pray for John

Dear All,

I just receive a letter from John:

This morning I found out I was urinating blood and went to doctor who asked me to have ultrasound done. The ultrasound indicates that I have floating polyp in my bladder that is bleeding and need to be surgically removed. The doctor here recommends me to go to Taiwan for the operation. She also think this is not cancer. 

So we are preparing to go to Taiwan while there are so many things to do here. Pray that God will be in charge of the situation and give us peace. Please ask our prayer partners to pray for us.

In His Name.

 

John P Tsai 

2014蔡柏林, 何長樂夫婦六月禱告信

親愛的禱告夥伴，

迫切需要祈禱的幾件事情：

Shirley Lim
雪莉，我們的首席培訓師，她在2014年4月2日回到Bishkek， 4/15來到Tokmok。可是由於她母親林太太於一天前去世，星期一她必須要飛到新加坡去辦她母親的後事。儘管雪莉沒有機會在新加坡現場跟母親見最後一面，但她已經通過Skype跟母親說過話了。雖然如此，雪莉仍需要回去跟姐姐去辦她母親的後事。我們要為雪莉祈求，祈求上帝給她額外的力量和恩惠去應付這困難的時刻。

執照
卡米拉Camilla已經安排了從教育部來的兒童早期教育主任於週一上午來參觀我們的幼稚園。請為我們祈禱，使她的訪問對我們的申請執照有所幫助，讓我們可以順利得到執照，幼稚園可以開班。

求上帝保護員工的健康 (包括 蔡柏林, 何長樂)
儘管天氣逐漸回暖，但我們似乎輪流生病 - 工作人員，教師和學生。請為我們的健康禱告。

RE：我們的美國護照與應用文件神秘遺失
感謝神，我們的美國護照找到了。我們發現有一個不良的員工在我們申請執照的那一天偷走了所有需要的文件和相關的護照。幸運的是，那些文件和護照幾天後在另一個地方找到了。那些丟失的護照至少覆蓋7個國家。感謝神，牠大大地減少我們的損失！

你們的禱告繼續支持我們度過了過去的挑戰，我們從我們的心底感謝你們，但還有更多我們需要克服的新的障礙。所以，我們指望你們能給我們更多額外的禱告支持。

主內，
柏林, 長樂上

June 2014 Prayer Requests from John & Christa Tsai

Dear Prayer Partners,

Urgent Prayers needed on a few things:

Shirley Lim
Shirley, our chief trainer who returned on 4/2/2014 to Bishkek and came to Tokmok on 4/15 had to leave for Singapore on Monday for her mother, Mrs. Lim died 1 day ago. Even though Shirley did not have a chance to be there to say farewell in person, but they did speak to each other briefly over Skype. Still, Shirley needs to be back to be with older sister to take care of what needs to be arranged. Do pray for Shirley and ask God for additional strength and grace for this difficult time.

Licensing
Camilla has arranged for Director of Early child Education from Ministry of Education to visit our kindergarten Monday morning. Please pray for us that her visit may be helpful towards our application process, so we can be fully official in operation.

God’s Protection of Staff’s Health (including John & Christa)
Even though the weather is getting warmer, but we seem to be taking turns to be sick – staff, teachers as well as students. Pray for our health.

RE: Mysterious Loss of Application Documents & Our U.S. Passports
Praise God that our US passports were recovered. We found out there was an unhappy employee who stole all the application and associated passport on the day of our application. Fortunately, they were all found days later in another location. Those missing passports covered at least 7 countries. We praise God that He minimized the extent of damage!

Your prayers continue to sustain us through the past challenges, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts, but there are many other new obstacles that we need to overcome. So, we are counting for your additional prayer support.

      Love in Him,

Christa & John

2014蔡柏林, 何長樂夫婦四月禱告信

親愛的禱告夥伴，

感謝神雖然我們還有許多困難，但是沒有事能奪去我們心裡的平安喜樂，知道我們的神是掌管一切的，祂的恩典總是超過我們的困難。

培訓老師
Shirley, 我們的培訓老師， 4/2/2014 回到Bishkek， 4/9 來到Tokmok教我們的老師蒙氏教育。雖然我們沒有豐富經驗的老師，但是感謝神，祂帶來有好品德和願意學的老師，這些都是很珍貴的。請為 Sanura, Nurzada 禱告，他們正在Shirley的密集訓練下。很高興神帶領Shirley來到我們當中，成為我們重要的夥伴。請繼續為她的身體和睡眠禱告。

繼續聘請同工
我們還需要繼續聘請老師，廚師和兼職護士，這些都是要收滿學生所需要的。Tokmok人口只有五萬，求神帶來適當的人才來供應我們的需要。

申請執照
我們已經遞進去幼兒園申請書，還有憲章，他們說應該在四月底可以拿到許可，這樣我們可以五月開學。若沒有許可我們就不能開，禱告神的供應及讓我們有耐心等候祂的時間。

介紹我們的學校
4/18/2014晚間我們為有興趣的家長開了一個會，告訴他們我們的宗旨，目標及規章。計劃在5/2開學，先是半個月到5/16的適應期。會議很成功，當我們回答家長的問題時，幾個老師陪著五個孩子們。會議完畢後這些孩子卻不肯回家，還要多留在學校，所以家長都很願意讓孩子來我們學校。

在這兩星期適應期，老師和孩子要彼此建立信心，我們才會正式收他們，然後才和家長簽合同。

4/23我們會邀請更多的家長和孩子來，希望收進16個3-4 ½歲的孩子。求神把適合的學生帶來，並且讓他們的家長與我們一起同工，來朔造他們孩子的一生學習。

莫名其妙的遺失了Visa申請書及我們的美國護照
今年二月我們入境時申請了商業落地簽，這樣我們才能申請3-6個月的延期，我們交進外交部，4/17當Sophia去Bishkek拿回，並且繳費。當她回到Tokmok時非常沮喪，告訴我們這個壞消息，外交部把那天所有的申請書都丟了，包括我們的護照。當時幾乎開始了暴亂Sophia還是蠻冷靜的。辦事人告訴Sophia星期一再來，並沒有提供解釋，大概他們也不清楚來龍去脈。需要迫切的為我們禱告!!

我們還在等著接通天然氣，才能用來煮飯和燒暖爐，6個月前我們已經開始申請了。我們已經付了裝修錢，但是還在排隊，不知哪一天可以裝好。可以看到若沒有神動工，我們實在不能作什麼。只要在一切事上學“信靠順服” 。我們的暖氣爐總算完工，但是還需要煤氣才能完全試車。

還有操場，花園和鄰居圍牆都需要作，天氣不作美，四月中居然又下了雪!

請為我們的社區垃圾管理禱告，原先我們大家都認為是一個很好的意念，我們願意出錢造一個圍牆，把原有倒垃圾的地方圍起來，沒想到這居然讓鄰居起了爭執。禱告神讓我們能榮耀耶穌，不要成為撒旦的工具，引起鄰舍，政府起了糾紛。

再謝謝你們長久的禱告支持我們。為我們的身體！柏林的牙齒問題，長樂的膀胱炎，還有Sophia的長期咳嗽。相信神的恩典是夠我們用的！

主內，
柏林長樂上

CEM Missionaries

April 2014 Prayer Request from John & Christa Tsai

Dear Prayer Partners,

We thank God that even the number of problems remained high, nothing can take away the peace and joy in our hearts knowing our God is in control and His blessings always outnumber troubles.

Teachers Training

Shirley, our chief trainer returned on 4/2/2014 to Bishkek and came to Tokmok on 4/9 to start Montessori training for our teachers. We do not have experienced teachers but we praise God for He brought us people that have good characters and strong desire for learning. These qualities are very precious for teachers.

Do pray for Sanura, Nurzada as they are going through extensive training under Shirley. We are very pleased that God brought Shirley to us to be a very important partner of our team, but do pray for her health and restore her sleep.

Additional Hiring

We are still in need of more teachers, cook and a part-time nurse to prepare for the full capacity of our school. Since Tokmok is a small town of a population of 50,000, pray that God will bring us the right people of His choice to meet our needs.

Licensing

Our application for the licensing for the kindergarten /preschool with the Ministry of Education has been submitted with a charter for our school. We were led to believe that it will be approved by the end of April so we may start the school in early May. We should not start the school without the license, pray for God’s provision and give us patience as we are waiting for His time.

School Introduction at Parental Meetings

On the evening of 4/18/2014, we had the first meeting with interested parents to inform them of our purpose, goals and rules of our new school. We inform them of our plan to start a preparatory class on 5/2 through 5/16. The meeting went very well because while some of us addressed the parents of their questions and concerns, the children (5 of them) stayed with the teachers. At the end of the meeting, all children were ready to come to school and actually were reluctant to go home while the parents felt comfortable to entrust their children in our care.

During this preparatory 2 weeks, we will further find out if there is a good fit between students and school. Only if teachers feel confident with the students and the children feel comfortable and eager to come to school, then we should be ready to take in the children as our official students under a formal “school & parent” contract.

We are planning a second meeting on 4/23 to invite more families to join us so we may have up to 16 children of age 3 – 4 1/2 years at this time. Please pray that God will send suitable students whose parents are willing to partner with us for their children’s life learning.

Mysterious Loss of Application Documents & Our U.S. Passports

In February, we came in through Kyrgyzstan airport, and applied for business visa upon entry so we may later on extend for additional 3 -6 months. The application was sent to Foreign Affair Department and on 4/17 Sophia was supposed to go to Bishkek to pay for the fees and picked up the approved document. However, upon her return to Tokmok, she looked very sad and told us bad news:  that Foreign Affair Department has lost all the documents for application processed on that day, including ours together with ours original passports. That almost started a riot for all the people applying for their visas. Sophia remained quiet and the officials just told Sophia to check back on Monday, not offering any explanation for they too probably had no clear idea of what had happened. We Need Urgent Prayer!!

We are still waiting for gas hook-up for cooking and heating necessary for the kindergarten which we started applying more than 6 months ago. We were told that are in the queue but the gas company cannot give us any firm date, even though we already paid for the installation.  As you can see without God, we can do nothing on our own. We need to learn “Trust & Obey” on everything and for every moment.

Our rebuilding of the furnace for heating was finally completed and tested. The gas furnace we added has yet to be tested since we do not have gas yet.

The work on the playground, landscape and additional fencing were on hold because of the rainy weather. And can you imagine that we still have snow in the middle of April!

Please pray for our community garbage management project which was initially perceived as a good idea by majority but somehow it led to many conflicts between neighbors of ours. Pray for wisdom for us that we may still shine for Jesus and not to become tools for Satan and cause disharmony among community, neighbors and local government.

Again many thanks for your continual support to lift us up during this challenging time. Do pray for all our health! John has teeth problem, Christa’s bladder infection and Sophia’s continuous coughing. May we always remember that God’s grace is sufficient for us!

Love in Him,

Christa & John