UPDATE THAILAND
February 2007 Newsletter from the Hilderbrand's

CHECK OUT YOSO TRAVEL at www.yosotravel.com

ALSO PLEASE VISIT OUR NEW WOLRDBASE THAILAND WEBSITE DESIGNED BY MATTHEW HILDERBRAND
www.worldbasethailand.org

NEEDED:
Native English speakers willing to be trained as language teachers. Come for 3 months, 6 months, 1 year or more!

THE FOUNDATION:
For literally years, we have been trying to start a non-profit foundation as a covering for our churches, properties, schools, orphanages and other ministries. At this time, churches cannot own property. They cannot purchase vehicles. They cannot open bank accounts. There are only five organizations that represent churches to the government and we work through one of these to register our churches legally, but we must own property under the names of individuals and this can be dangerous. We protect the Foursquare Church by putting everything under at least three names so no one person has power to completely control church property.

The foundation would allow us to own property, open bank accounts, and operate orphanages under the Foursquare name. A foundation would also allow us to issue visas to foreigners who come to volunteer or work with Foursquare. But it is almost entirely impossible to open a new foundation that promotes religion. No new Christian foundations have been allowed in many decades. Only five exist that I know of in the whole country.

That is until now! During the tsunami crisis, we decided to try again to apply for a Foundation in the south of Thailand. Because of all the work going on in the tsunami affected area, we were advised that it would be easier to open a foundation through government offices there.

But our pastor in the south is a little stubborn. Pastor Borvorn (Simon) refused to pay any bribes to government officials. He insisted on putting the support of Christian religion as a tenant of our foundation and he would not budge on these conditions.

I must admit I was very frustrated as we really needed to start a foundation so that we could issue visas for our English teachers, especially after the visa law changes of last year. I didn’t care whether we had a religious foundation or not. I just wanted a foundation. But after almost two years of trying and one outright rejection from the government, the Thai government has approved our Thai Foursquare Foundation! A major tenant of our foundation is also the support of the Christian religion in Thailand. We can praise God for this miracle.

INTRODUCING YOSO TRAVEL:
www.yosotravel.com
Good News Church in Bangkok in cooperation with Mr. Kritpad Inkphad (also known as Khun Yo) has started a travel agency at the Good News Study Center! YoSo travel is part of our Evangelism through Church Business project.

We are creating businesses that do outreach and provide funds for starting and supporting churches. If you are traveling in Asia, please consider using our services. The website is still being completed, but once up it will provide a full range of services from international airplane reservations, domestic plane travel in Thailand, train and bus tickets, hotel reservations to personal tours in Thailand.  

PRAYER REQUESTS
Please pray for several new English teachers to come soon. We are actually below our minimum number of teachers now. We have had to consolidate some classes which is not bad, but it makes it hard for us open new classes for new students.

We have applied for a building permit to begin construction on our new facility. The permit will be issued to us this month and we will break ground soon. We still need to raise $550,000 to build a seven story facility that will house two churches, WorldBase, Language school and several social ministries and offices.

Please pray for our language teachers by name: Anna, Mike, Carol, Evan, Gary, Paula, Sarah (from Australia), Kelly, and Angie.  Pray that our teachers would develop friendships quickly and be effective in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Pray that these “seekers” and new believers can be discipled in the Thai church.

Continue to pray for everyone’s health. Also pray for our continued protection, especially as we travel.

Let us know how we can pray for you.