Thank you to all my brothers and sisters in Christ who have given to this cause that God has placed upon my heart. I have served with many of you in one way or another over the past eight years and have seen God’s hand and heart at work in so many lives. I call you friends not only to fill up facebook but because I truly consider you all to be a friend. I have many friends who are Mien and roughly the same amount of non-Mien (from Forefront) who have made a commitment to do whatever we can do to seek and save the lost among the Mien.
The upcoming holiday season brings great opportunity and great challenge. We become more generous around the end of the year but we are also faced with commercial and social pressure to spend more than our means. My prayer is that we all can look beyond the American Dream and remember those who could not even conceive of the lifestyles we attempt to maintain. On average each American will spend over $700 on Christmas. That same amount would send several children to school for an entire year. In most of the South East Asian countries if the family is not well off then they will have to choose which child get to go to school and which child will work. This lack of opportunity is a major cause of generational poverty. We need to help break that cycle.
Mien Support Network Thailand is here to support and encourage salvation, education, and Mien cultural preservation. This is no small task and it will take support (financial and prayer) to make this happen. One way we intend to support education is by helping to provide money and resources for schools and students in Thailand. Without assistance many children will never see a school at all. Even those lucky enough to go to public school will never see secondary education or university as a possibility and will end up joining the work force at age 12.
MSNT splits our online donation between MSNT, Mien Christian Youth Association, and Mien Radio.
MCYA’s goal is to be the role model for thousand of Mienh youth all over the West Coast of United States of America. Each year, we make an effort to attract 300 to 350 campers. In the past these campers have come from as north as Vancouver, Canada and as far south as Long Beach, California. We have an average of 300 campers per year. The majority of the campers are from the San Francisco/Bay Area. Nearly 80% of the campers live in impoverished inner-city situations. Many of our campers are from non-Christian homes and as a result, many of them turn to the streets seeking attention and support from wherever they can find it. Gangs are a very typical alternative form of family structure. Once into the gangs, many kids get caught in a web of crime, drugs, fornication, etc.. Whatever the “crack” in society they have fallen through; there is little hope for them unless we bring them into the family of Jesus Christ. That is the primary purpose of MCYA-USA.
Mien Radio is touching lives. Radio knows no boundaries. It crosses religious, political, natural and man-made barriers-entering the homes of people who may not be reached in any other way. Radio is personal. It speaks to the deepest spiritual needs of each listener. Radio uses your resources efficiently. A few dollars pays for one minute of airtime to touch the lives of those living in areas so remote that most have never seen a pastor, teacher or missionary. And the skills of just a few workers can reach thousands who have never heard the name of Jesus. There are over 1,000,000 Mien in China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Over 99% of these Mien are not Christians. Many have never heard of Jesus! But they can now hear the Gospel on their short wave radios.
For those who can I would ask that you dedicate one day’s work a year to the Mien. This would entail dividing your annual income by 3120. This amount would be your monthly donation. Automatic monthly contributions are easy to set up through our web site MSNT.ORG on the donate now tab.
If that is not for you we are also working on getting 100 people to set up an automatic monthly contribution of just $5. Just imagine if 100 of your brothers and sisters in Christ put forth only $5 per month then that would provide $2000 per year for MSNT, MCYA, and Mien Radio.
I encourage you to share this with your friends and loved ones. Many hands make light work.
Please visit MSNT.org and consider taking part in God’s Great Commission.
Matthew 28:16-20
The Great Commission
16Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
What if? That is a big leap.
What if those sacrificing their time and effort to bring Christ Message to South East Asia (Mien Radio) could spend more time doing God’s work and less time trying to raise funds?
What if MCYA did not have to look at the checkbook every time a need or an opportunity arose?
What if MSNT could help alleviate these worries for those we know that have dedicated themselves to reaching the Mien in Thailand?
On facebook causes MSNT has 264 members. If only 38% (that’s only 100 people) decided to support (this amount most likely would not even be a sacrifice) MSNT on a monthly basis with a $5 donations we would be able to provide Mien Radio with $2000 in support, MCYA with $2000 in support, and MSNT with $2000 in support annually.
So if a small percentage donates a small amount we can alleviate a large amount of time and effort spent by these ministries trying to raise funds to do God’s work.
Can You Imagine!
Those who attended youth camp this year will remember one of our campers had a cardiac emergency that had all of us on our knees praying for healing. Thank God for hearing our prayers and letting the episode pass.
The camp nurse later stated that the only way she could have helped this camper was with an AED (Automated external defibrillator). An automated external defibrillator or AED is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the potentially life threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in a patient, and is able to treat them through defibrillation, the application of electrical therapy which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to reestablish an effective rhythm.
The camp clinic nor MCYA currently own an AED. With the youth camp, family camp, adult camp, and all the other group activities throughout the year I believe it would be prudent and warranted to purchase an AED unit for MCYA use. They run between $1200 and $1500 for a portable device.
MSNT would like to start a fundraising campaign specifically for the AED device. If you would like to donate to this campaign please type AED in the designation section on the donation web page or write it on the memo section of the check.
Thank you
Charles Mills
President MSNT
Missing all my camp friends (more like family). As always it was the best year ever. It really has me on fire for moving to Thailand.
Thanks to all those who help make this trip possible. We raised enough to pay for the airfare. I would love to also help raise funds for Mien Radio (broadcast Gods word into Laos, Vietnam and China) , Mien Christian Youth Association (Puts on the camp among other amazing things) and MSNT. What we need is partners who can donate monthly. (For example) If you donated $30 monthly that would be $10 for Mien radio, $10 MCYA, and $10 MSNT. That would help greatly. If you donated $10 a month that would be $3.33 each and would add up.
One of my favorite quotes is from Edward Everett Hale “I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do”.
God Bless and Thanks
This year was amazing. We had more Mien counselors than ever before. Most of the male Mien counselors I have had as campers over the years.
Only 3 or 4 of the counselors have ever been counselors before.
Have you ever had a friend or loved one receive a gift that you knew about before hand, and you were so excited for them you could hardly contain yourself. That is how I felt watching all these first time counselors unwrap what God had for them. As camp approached you could see the excitement and the nervousness growing almost to a boil. As the week progressed the campers opened up and the nervousness changed to humility. Just as I felt my first few years I am sure they were felling “wow, I am so honored that the campers find me worthy of sharing their innermost thoughts with me”. Trust is one of the best feelings you can ever experience. Not only the trust from camper to counselor but counselor to counselor. We will all miss the kids but the bond of serving together, leaning on each other, and praying for each other is a life lesson we all needed. We are brothers and sisters in Christ and as a family we need to act like it.
I proposed a thought on face book. “what if the entire trip was training? not only what we called training in the bay area but also the time at camp.” These campers knew they were coming to a Christian camp. No one at camp was surprised by that. We now have to (get to) take God’s word to the world. Many will be surprised by, offended by, and resistant to this message. This should not keep us from Proclaiming God’s Kingdom.
As the camp skits attempted to say, “we all dream of being a superhero, God is more than capable of Being a Superhero in our lives and thru our lives if we let Him”
Thanks to all those who Forward God’s Kingdom by working with, for, or in support of MCYA.
We did raise enough to cover the airfare but not the camp and training fees. This trip was amazing and God smiled upon the camp and 30 campers and 1 counselor was baptized.
Thanks again to all those who helped this become a reality.
Getting ready for camp. Bags packed and repacked, got a ride to the airport set up, working on the evangelism class i get to present at the counselor training. Looking forward to 4 days of cool weather in the Bay area. hope to see former counselors return and hope to make new friends. I do love the kids at camp but I really miss the counselors more when camp is over. You bond so quickly during the training. We need too, God has put us together to show the kids at camp His love but also to be examples of what grownup brothers and sister act like. not in a prideful way but by showing we all need to lean on each other as well and on Him.
As you may or may not know Forefront church has dedicated themselves reaching the Mien people. Over the past eight years we have made great strides but still have a lot of work to do. Each year from 2004 to 2008 I have served as a youth counselor in California at the Mien Christian Youth Association summer camp. This camp was created to seek and save the lost and to provide a venue to inspire the youth to become interested in preserving their language and culture.
The majority of the campers are either children or grandchildren of Mien refugees from Thailand. The grandparents only speak Mien, the parents are bilingual and the youth for the most part only speak enough Mien to politely speak to their grandparents. If this trend keeps up then the Mien in the United States will lose their language and culture within the next one or two generations. As an outsider who has been privileged to witness the Mien culture I do not want to see this proud, peaceful, and loving culture fade away.
Each year people from all over this country and from all corners of the globe give up their vacation time to be a part of the solution to this dilemma. I also wish to participate in this multi cultural effort to preserve the Mien culture and for this I need your help. The cost to attend camp is around $300 and the airfare will run around $500. I currently have a very limited income and could not accomplish this on my own. If you feel lead to assist in this undertaking it would be greatly appreciated.
You contributions will be tax deductible and can be made easily online at MSNT.org
thanks
Hello everyone, if anyone is out there. I know I have not updated the blog in a long time. I have been diligently working on fund-raising and praying for guidance. In these tough economic times most people do not think of others needs, let alone those of people on the other side of the world. A friend of mine asked me the other day “how can you justify raising money for your non profit when there are all these natural disasters going on” (in reference to Haiti ) and I told him “these highly publicized disasters are going to receive allot of help. They offer those who do nothing else a chance to step up and support the cause of the day. The plight of the Mien will never make the front page or headline news. Those of us who have dedicated ourselves to a specific cause should stand firm and not be thrown back and forth by ever-changing public sympathy”.
If it takes the rest of my life so be it, I will stand firm and complete the task the God has put before me. To support and encourage Salvation, education, and Mien Cultural Preservation.
thanks for listening
Charles
