Dear Friends and Family, I hope this finds you all doing well and enjoying the summer. Since the Family Learning Center, the school where our children attend has moved to a US calendar school year, our kids are now out of school and have the summer off - just like US kids. Unfortunately, their dad is still busy at work with meetings and travel. I did take the boys with me on a village trip a couple weeks ago. They had a good time flopping around in a stream, but it was not easy getting them to go. It involved a combination of bribery and coercion. A lot going on these days, but I will try to relate just three highlights and prayer needs: Miss Manna One of the girls in a scholarship program that the MMF operates has become very important in our lives. Manna, an orphan from the red Lahu group, was hospitalized over a year ago with serious pain in her side only to find out that the steroid medication she’d been given for allergies had caused liver and kidney damage as well as osteoporosis. Manna was 16 at the time and she was unable to walk. After several months her internal organs began to recover and we helped her to go see a specialist about her bones in Chiang Mai. The specialists agreed that though her bones were brittle, if she had double hip replacement, she’d be able to walk again. The cost was to be over $5,000. Two very sweet people in the US gave a combined gift of $3,500 and Manna had the first of 2 hip replacement operations over 2 weeks ago. Last week she was discharged and she is already walking with no pain in her new hip. Manna is ready for the second operation, but the doctors want her to have a little more time. The other good news is that the government hospital also waived most of her inpatient costs bringing the total cost down to around $4,000. I’ve had a chance to get to know Manna over the last couple months. What a sweet spirited young lady as you can see in the picture. It was really nice to go visit her the other day in the hospital. She loves and trusts God and she’s amazingly strong –emotionally and physically. MMF Building Project: Most of you have received a DVD of the MMF work in the mail and a letter from our missionary support team (MPT) appealing for support towards a building program that the MMF has embarked on this year. Just as an update, $10,200 of the $35,000 that remains to enable us to finish the building, fencing, and grounds - and thus allow us to move in - has been generously provided by three of you. The two main buildings are almost complete. We are installing the electrical poles and water system now. The next project will be to complete at least a rudimentary fence and gate to keep the cows out. After that, a little more landfill will allow us to start putting in some trees and grass. I’m thankful to God for both the gifts of those of you who have contributed as well as to the MMF staff and their dedication. They have worked very hard to pitch in with hard labor in the hot sun. Today is a scorcher yet 1 staff and 4 of our young volunteers are out there working. We also have fasted and prayed as a team over these last few weeks. Sub-Regional Involvement The last little bit of news has to do with a very important part of our vision for the MMF. As I write this, a group of 13 ethnic minority church leaders from the Myanmar Baptist Convention (in Burma) are traveling overland from Eastern Shan State into Southwestern China. God willing, they will reach Jinghong, Xishangbanna of Southern Yunnan Province tonight. Meanwhile, right after I send this off (Sunday morning), another nine of us from ethnic churches and the MMF will travel the 100 miles to Chiang Mai and fly from there into Jinghong in the afternoon to meet the first group. This big team of over 20 ethnic minority church leaders from Thailand and Myanmar will converge on several Akha, Lahu, and Tai villages in the area for a five-day tour. The purpose is to come together, visit communities, learn from each other and see what God has in store for bringing cooperation between the ethnic peoples of Faith in the immediate cross border sub-region. This is the area known historically as the Golden Triangle, once the heaviest opium and heroin production center of the world. Today, the mountainous area, coupled with the closed policies of the local and national governments of China and Myanmar makes it very difficult for outsiders to come in and work. It may just be that the small local ethnic minority church themselves will be the one to bring about change and the Good News. Please pray for this trip and for all those traveling through somewhat risky areas. Thank you for your support and partnership in our ministry here. Blessings on each and every one of you, Scott Coats Chiang Rai, Thailand