Dear Friends and Encouragers!

Hello. I hope all is going well for you and your church. I have lots of things to share with you this month. It's time to break out the grape juice and celebrate that I recently completed my formal language studies at Union Language School!! Yay! I will continue to work pretty rigorously with a tutor, especially in the areas of Bible and business vocabulary. And I will continue to review what I learned, to pick up the pieces I missed the first time around. I'm certainly not fluent yet. But each day I feel a little more confident in speaking Thai. Continued prayers for my language study would be appreciated.

Also, continued prayers for my friend, Rung and another friend who are asking more questions about Jesus Christ. And next week, I will be making a trip to Uganda for a week of vacation. I would appreciate prayers for safe travel, and a fruitful visit to friends there who knew my mother. Then early in October, I will be attending a weeklong seminar on doing effective evangelism in Thailand. It will be taught by a Thai couple, who are both pastors in a church in Bangkok. Their main thesis is that missions in Thailand has been slow to spread because missionaries have been too aggressive, which is culturally offensive to Thai people. They propose that we need to approach Thais with an attitude of meekness, humility and patience, all Christian virtues, which are also highly valued virtues within Thai culture. Should be very helpful, and I look forward to dialoguing with this fascinating couple.

The New Life Center is happily progressing along, due to very competent leaders, and God's gracious guidance. I have been up to visit them twice since my last journal entry. In fact, I recently attended the special graduation ceremony for New Life Center girls who were graduating from 6th and 9th grade. They invited me to preach for the occasion, so somehow God managed to get me through my first sermon in Thai. I stuck to fairly simple vocabulary, but people seemed to respond well, and it felt good to be preaching again.

For those who have been praying for Shin Woo and the motorcycle taxi driver: Shin Woo recovered miraculously well, and was back in school studying Thai within 3 weeks of his accident! He continues to go for physical rehab, but his complete healing is progressing well. Monies were gathered at school and given to the motorcycle taxi driver who was deeply moved by the gift, and I think a good bridge was built between him and the Gospel. Praise God.

Last week, I attended a seminar in neighboring Burma, taught by International Ministries Global Specialist, Dan Buttry. He is based in Michigan and does global work in the area of peace and justice. The topic of the seminar was on conflict transformation and reconciliation. Dan also graciously did some special leadership training with me. I was familiar with some of the material he used, but it was helpful to see how he taught the group, and I also learned lots of new ideas and teaching tools. We looked at concepts such as "win-win", brainstorming, a Biblical view of anger, mainstream versus marginalized people, and taking creative transforming initiatives to address conflict. And I got to meet some fascinating Burmese Christian leaders. I went to this seminar because I continue to observe a need for this kind of training in Thailand. I have talked to many Thai people who express a desire to learn new ways to deal with conflict. They seem to be finding that the tools they have to address conflict are inadequate, especially as they encounter people from other countries with increasing frequency. And these wretched foreigners don't seem to do things "the Thai way!" I hope to eventually be able to lead conflict transformation seminars in both Thai and English, so this trip to the seminar in Burma was very fruitful. Dan Buttry has already taught some of these seminars in Thailand, but said that he's happy to have someone here in the field doing this work. He offered to help me prepare, and is even willing to co teach the first few seminars with me, when I am ready. I wish to express my gratitude to Kenwood Baptist Church in Cincinnati, and my good friends, Pete and Myra in California, whose gifts made this trip possible.

Thank you also to the many individuals and churches who have been supporting my ministry through the World Mission Offering, United Mission and individual gifts. Your generosity and kindness are much appreciated. God has blessed and continues to bless the global work of International Ministries.But as you may know, the weak U.S. economy and poor investment returns for the third year in a row have presented International Ministries with a real financial crisis.We have trimmed the budget and reorganized job responsibilities at our mission center in Valley Forge, PA to the bare minimum.Every effort is being made to avoid bringing missionaries back from the field.But we continue to act in faith that God will fulfill the "Go Global" vision He has given us.So your gifts are really making a difference.

Many American Baptist Churches are now preparing to take the World Mission Offering this October. If your church is one of those, please consider speaking up to encourage your church members to give generously. If your church does not participate in World Mission Offering, you can still send a gift directly to IM if you want. Please think about what changes you can make in your household budget to reflect your heartfelt desire that everyone should have a chance to respond to the Gospel.I know that every gift you give reflects a lifestyle sacrifice you have made because of your love for Jesus Christ.And it gives me such encouragement to see your love manifest in your financial gifts, and to know that the church is behind me, cheering me on!So please pray carefully about what God is asking you to give now and in the future, because your gift will have a huge impact on the lives of people around the world.Also note that if you would like your World Mission Offering to go towards the support of me or another particular IM missionary that you know, your gift can be directed to a particular person.Just ask your church secretary to include the amount of your gift on "line 5" of their report, but note in the chart on the left that the specific amount of your gift should go "towards the support of Kit Ripley" (or your other missionary superhero! J).

Thanks again for your continued love and prayers.

Your Sister in Christ,

Kit