Hi everybody! The Mitchells have had a busy and very encouraging month. I can legally say the Mitchells now because Air has changed her ID card name to Benjamat Mitchell at the local Amper Office.
I got over my illness well but then Air came down with a similar thing but not quite as strong. She has recovered from that now and she is really beginning to put on weight, which we are very happy about because she is now about 5 months pregnant. We have started to feel the baby moving - which is very exciting because now we know that there really is a baby.
This month our relationships with many students really deepened. We had been praying for this to happen for many months and it all came together this month. A YWAM (Youth With A Mission) team from Canada, US, UK and Germany came to visit us and we arranged for them to do an English Camp at a local High School with some of my students providing help. Two days before the Camp the school decided that it wanted to reduce the camp to one day so Air had to find other things to do. It turned out to be a real blessing. The YWAM team came to a YWAM meeting in Rajamonkon College and some of my students attended that meeting and really enjoyed it. Then that night we took the YWAM team and 16 of my students out to dinner. The next day we had the teaching day at the school and about a dozen of the Rajamonkon students came to help. They were all very disappointed when they had to go back to class and one girl told us that she would like to come to Church when she had a free weekend. That night some of the team went sightseeing with us and two of the students. It was great to see the students' attitudes changing from shy and wary to being really enthusiastic and trusting.
The next Sunday Air and I went with my third year students on a tour of the Khon Kaen area - another great chance to strengthen our relationships. Then during the following week the girl who said she would like to come to Church said again that she would like to come. And she did come that Sunday! In fact she was so enthusiastic to come that she waited for us to pick her up on Saturday because she thought I had said Saturday. So please pray for Um. She is about 20 years old, a hard working and enthusiastic student. Her family lives about an hour away from Khon Kaen so we don't know if she will come to Church again but we definitely want to tell her more about Jesus.
That week we also had a visit from Andrew, Katrina and Bronwyn - friends from my Church in Australia. They met Um and helped Air teach her English children. Then for the rest of the week, which was my students' exam week, we did tourist stuff, which is hard in Khon Kaen because there isn't much to see, but we all had lots of fun doing it.
So please pray for the students of Rajamonkon. In the next term we want to help the YWAM group that meets in the college to become a very strong group. We really want to see lots of my students getting involved in that group too. In two weeks time a team from Singapore will come to Khon Kaen and about 15 of my students will meet them and will go to two orphanages - one for children with AIDS/HIV - and to a Drug Rehabilitation Centre. Please pray that my students will come and that they will see the love that these Christians have for people who are worse off than themselves. I'm sure that this will make a big impact on their hearts.
On the 20 March I will go back to Australia for one month. Air cannot go because she doesn't have a temporary/permanent visa yet so she would not be covered medically if anything happened. In Australia I will be gathering all the evidence that we need for Air to get the temporary/permanent visa - i.e. statutory declarations from lots of people.
Then our plan is going to be to apply for the visa when I come back so that we can travel to Australia in October. We will probably stay in Australia for one year - because it is not possible financially for us to come back before then. While we are in Australia our house will be being built in Khon Kaen with Air's father and great uncle watching over the building process. Then we will return in October 2006 (or thereabouts) ready to start full on ministry.
That's all for now. Australians - I will see you in Australia.
Pra jao wee porn and thank you everybody for your prayers.
James and Air and baby.