Dear Friends and Supporters,
Hello! I am finally sitting down long enough to write you a note to thank you for your support and to let you know how my two trips went last month. I am especially excited to tell you about my trip to Asia but let me start with my Bolivia trip first.
Our trip to Bolivia was kind of a last minute decision. Heather and I found out that we both needed extensive dental work done. Together it would have been $3,000-$4,000. So, I decided we might as well fly to Bolivia, get the dental work done, visit friends and the missionary work being done there an enjoy spending the money instead of just letting the dentist here enjoy our money. We were hoping to save some money in the deal, as well. Heather had her four wisdom teeth cut out, plus a few fillings (for only $373 total) and I had 2 root canals, 3 crowns, 5 fillings and my teeth cleaned for $399! I think with our room, food and airline tickets we still saved some money and had fun doing it!! What a blessing from the Lord! We, also,enjoyed shopping and visiting friends. I was a little disappointed that we weren’t able to fly out to the jungle to visit the Yuqui work where we worked for over 16 years. Due to the political situation in the area our mission felt that it was unwise to go out there at that time. We praise the Lord for a good trip and, though there was some political unrest in the country during the time we were there, we were still able to get everything done that we wanted to do and were able to get out of the country without having strikes to contend with or the airport shutting down as it does from time to time.
Our Christmas was very different this year as I was only home 3 days before leaving again to go on the Asia mission trip with our church. Cody arrived from Bible School while Heather and I were in Bolivia so he was with us for Christmas. We didn’t have a big family get together like we normally do since my mom is no longer here, my sister was out west, and I was traveling.
Now, to tell you about my trip to Asia. We were AMAZED at the opportunities we had to share with folks there. We went over as teachers for the English college classes and gave talks in many classes to help the students with their English. The English department was kind enough to provide us college-aged guides for almost everywhere we went. We made a lot of wonderful friends with many of the students and were able to freely answer their questions about how we celebrate Christmas and to generally talk to them about our beliefs. They were very open and seemed eager to hear whatever we had to share with them. One night we presented the Christmas story in drama. It was so exciting to see 50-100 college students singing and doing the motions to the "Wave Song" about the Lord. They loved it! And the most exciting part was that afterward, one of the girls trusted the Lord! We were also able to visit and speak in a high school and elementary school. We were given gifts and treated royally. Before leaving the country, another one of our ‘friends’ trusted the Lord and was excited about reading the Bible. Please pray for these two girls and for the others we came in contact with.
I took LOTS of pictures of our trip but will only be able to download a few of them here. I wanted to say ‘thank you’ again to those who gave financially and prayed so that this trip was so fruitful and exciting. The seeds of the Gospel were planted in many lives and we trust that the Lord will continue to work in their lives so that others will come to know Him!
I guess most of you heard the other exciting news! While I was traveling to Bolivia, our first grandchild, Jaxon, was born to our son, Jason and his wife, Tiffany. He looks like a real cutie and I can’t wait to be able to go out and visit and hold him. I’m guess I’ll should stay here in Sanford for a while, though, so a trip out west will have to wait awhile.
Please pray for folks in Bolivia – tribal people and missionaries. There is unrest in the country and, also, they are having flooding all over the country because of the heavy rains. Many of the roads are closed because of landslides and bridges out and many of the people, especially tribal people, are suffering because of their crops being destroyed.
Thank you again for your prayers – it seems like we can never get enough of them! Please pray for Heather and decisions she has to make real soon about her future and for Cody as he continues to search for a job while at Bible School. We praise the Lord for extra side jobs (construction and ‘fix-it-man’) that Phil has been able to get from time to time to help meet the monthly expenses. And we thank you for your sacrificial giving on our behalf! May the Lord bless you real good as you continue to live for Him! Thanks for partnering with us to help reach the tribal people with the Gospel.
Your missionaries to the tribes,
Phil & Jackie Burns
Serving with New Tribes Mission in Sanford, Florida
email: phil_burns@ntm.org
other personal webpage: www.mmol.org/Burns
mission webpage: www.ntm.org
Leave a Reply