Dear all,
Happy Blessed New Year of 2025 to everyone. We hope you are well.
We are extremely doing well by the Grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. As we said goodbye to the year 2024 and entered into a new year of 2025, there are many reasons we are so thankful to the Lord for His guidance and provision over the past year. As I spent New Year’s Day (1st JAN), looking back on the year 2024. It gave me great confidence, encouragement and joy for the upcoming year of 2025. Our God is so faithful and great.
Here are reasons why I am so thankful for the past year!
Translation; In terms of Bible Translation, we were able to work on the books of 1st and 2nd Corinthians and also on the first few chapters of 1st Peter. We were able to Adviser-checked 1 and 2 Corinthians and the first two Chapters of 1st Peter. We were able to consultant-checked the book of 1st Corinthians. After we do the final step- which is a community review this book should be ready for publication. Up to this point we have already completed [15] books; Matthew, Mark, Acts, 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, James, 1, 2 and 3 John. We are so thankful to the Lord, in spite of many challenges, civil unrest and internet blackout etc, we are able to continue the work of Translation.
For the year 2025, we plan to work on the book of Luke and then move onto the book of Revelation. The team also completed translation, recording, video animation, and review of 50 Bible stories this year. Just before the end of the year, the team (all four of them) went back to their homeland, Nongmong and distributed audio players and also 25 video screens to local churches. It is such joy and blessings to see the Duru community and churches are already using God’s in their daily lives.
Healing the wounds of Trauma; We continue to equip more Christian leaders and engage with many churches through Trauma healing ministry. We are now providing Adults (started in 2012), Teens (2023), and Children Trauma healing (2018) programs to many parts of Myanmar.
In 2024, we were able to launch this ministry to two new language groups- Hakha and Chin languages. We have translated Adults/classic trauma healing course material to these languages and we hope to publish them in the year 2025.
Trauma healing planning FY 2024-2025 and Current completion Status
[Workshops record for MAY to DEC 2024]
| Type | Workshop types | Goals | Completed | Remain | Reached |
| Adult | Master Facilitators retreat | 1 | 1 | 0 | 16 |
| Advanced equipping | 5 | 2 | 3 | 26 | |
| TH equipping workshops | 15 | 9 | 6 | 144 | |
| Healing sessions | 165 | 55 | 110 | 830 | |
| Teens | Facilitators equipping workshops | 2 | 4 | -2 | 51 |
| Healing sessions | 10 | 18 | -8 | 238 | |
| Children | Facilitators equipping workshops | 2 | 2 | 0 | 46 |
| Healing sessions | 20 | 12 | 8 | 148 | |
| Total workshops | 220 | 103 | 117 | 1499 | |
We saw God continue to heal many individuals through Trauma Healing ministry. For the year 2024, we were able to expand the ministry to the Western and southern parts of the country. Looking at the record of the numbers of Trauma healing workshops we conducted since May to DEC, we conducted 103 (Adult, Teens and children) workshops reaching out to 1499 individuals. Running 103 workshops in 32 weeks, we were able to run 3.2 workshops per week. We praise the Lord for such an opportunity to serve Him.
New Master Facilitators; Another important step we did was developing 16 New Master facilitators from various mission organizations and churches in Myanmar, including two Catholic Trainers. It was so special and of great encouragement to meet up via zoom with the authors of the book and other key leaders during the time we spent with new master facilitators in Thailand. We were blessed by the teaching of Pastor Lou and Gail from Australia and also by the teaching of Dr. Cindy Perry from DAI during the week in Thailand. During the week, we also learned about the Strengthening Christian Families program from the author herself, it was extra special for us. The training was conducted at the NTC training center in Maesai. The week went really well, because of the generous support we received from many individuals. We thank God, and our funders and leadership from S## international.
Family quality time in Thailand; After spending one week with Master facilitators in Maesai, we were able to have family time in Chiangmai; a time to recharge and refresh. The kids love their time in Chiangmai. They ate Mcdonald burger for the first time in their lives. We spent time with Pastor Lou and Gail, staying at a large guest house together was so special. Sharing and prayer time were special.
