Leaving for Thailand

How quickly time has past. I cannot believe that we leave this week to got to Thailand. We are so excited about the work we are going to do there. In Thailand we will be working with IGN partner Pastor Naruethep (Arthur) Teerawutroj. Arthur is a national and from the AKHA tribe. The AKHA are a people group that are without a country of their own. They live primarily within the 5 countries of Thailand, Laos, Myanmar (Burma), China, and Vietnam. Because no country claims them they lack opportunities for education, health benefits, and are suppressed by the government so they lack opportunity as well. Arthur has a great vision to lead his people to a life with Christ as well as to educate them, provide for their physical needs, emotional needs, and teach them skills so they can support themselves and their communities. Arthur has many programs but he also has a network of Pastors (all AKHA) he supports, trains, encourages, and works alongside. Currently funds for Arthur's ministry come through donations as well as he has a pig farm and an orchard. Much of the financial and administrative burden for the ministry falls on Arthur and he is looking for a more sustainable way to support and grow his ministry. While I, and a colleague, are in Thailand we will be utilizing the training we recently had in wholistic community development to help Arthur assess his ministry, the funds he has, the villages and Pastors he supports, etc. and see what he can do to best utilize the resources available, both dollars and people, and help him to identify what he can delegate to the Village Leaders, Pastors and their communities. Also, evaluating options for creating jobs and income. While there I will also be meeting with people from the organization called “LifeWind International”. We hope to connect LifeWind, and other organizations who have good wholistic strategies for community development and training materials, to Arthur so he will have ongoing support and encouragement. We (IGN) believe that it is important to have the leaders take ownership in each of the communities and a goal will be to facilitate to help Arthur empower and educate them so they can not only sustain the ministry but take their communities to the next level. Please keep us and the work we are doing in Thailand in your prayers. We are excited about all that is ahead, and know God will use us in great ways in Thailand, but we also struggled greatly with making the decision to go on this trip or not. Financially this is a challenging time and although we can see the HUGE potential for sustainable life change in the lives of those we will train and work with, concern about our own issues hangs over our head. We are trusting Jesus and lay everything at his feet. Please pray for us in all we do and pray for those we influence and affect along the way. Blessings! Cindie

Chicago Speaking Engagment

Cindie and Tim from IGN will be speaking along with Michele and Brent Gambrel who recently participated in a trip to the Dominican Republic. We will be at Mayfair Presbyterian Church in Chicago at both the 10:00 am Traditional service as well as the 11:30 Contemporary service. Please come join us and share in our recent trip to the Dominican Republic.

Mayfair Presbyterian Church
4358 W. Ainslie
Chicago, IL 60630

Speaking Engagement

IGN will be speaking at Our Lady of Peace Church tomorrow Wed. September 17th from 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm. The discussion will be on "Finding Purpose... Impacting Lives". We will meet in the church basement, light refreshments will be served. We look forward to seeing you there. The address is:

Our Lady Of Peace
701 Plainfield Rd.
Darien, IL 60561

On the Road

We are back in the US and things are busy. Everything went great with our travels home from the Dominican Republic. We are in Northern Michigan now and will be here for the next few weeks. We left the DR the day before hurricane Faye hit the island so we were not affected by the storms that have been hitting Haiti and the Dominican Republic over the last few weeks. We do not believe our partners received any damage as well but we have not heard from them all since our return. Strange thing happened… we managed to not have any major issues while abroad but last Saturday, here in Michigan, Tim was bit by a spider. By Sunday he had a fever, was feeling achy, headache, he had tension in his chest and was feeling weak. On Monday he noticed that several red marks were moving up his arm from the spot the spider had bit him. Turns out he has blood poisoning. He is being treated with antibiotics and feeling much better but please pray for his continued and complete recovery.

Now that we are back our focus has shifted to speaking to groups and individuals about the work we are doing as well as prepare for Thailand and India. We will be speaking on Wed. Sept 17th from 7:30pm to 9:00 pm in the church Hall at Our Lady of Peace Church in Darien Illinois. The title of our presentation is “Finding Purpose… Impacting Lives”. Then on Sunday Sept. 28th Tim, my sister Michele, her husband Brent, and I will be speaking at both the 10:00 am and the 11:30am service at Mayfair Presbyterian church in Chicago IL. We will be sharing stories and pictures of our recent trip to the Dominican Republic. We are working on setting up a few other speaking engagements as well and if anyone else is interested in having us speak to their small group, neighborhood, or other gathering let us know and we can set up a time. We will be in Thailand starting on Oct. 2nd. Please check our blog as we will be keeping our progress updated throughout our work and travels in Thailand as well as India. Many Blessings from IGN to you!