Burgess Road Baptist Church

June 2023

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for your faithful prayers for our family. Many of you may have seen the Facebook post that Cori made a couple of days ago, but it truly is hard to believe that it has already been 5 years since we arrived in Honduras. We are so thankful for God’s faithfulness in these five years. We are thankful for the opportunity to serve alongside such wonderful teammates (Matt and Dallita Goins, John and Rachelle Gardner and Kristen Dow) and with such great ministries of Iglesia Bautista El Faro, Medical Missions Outreach and Hope Children’s Home. What God is doing in, and through, the partnerships of Team Honduras is very humbling and it is just a privilege to advance His Kingdom together. We are also so thankful for all of you who are partnered together with us for the cause of Christ, both prayerfully and financially. God is so good.

Summer time here in Honduras is a busy time in ministry, and we would desire your prayers for many different outreach opportunities that we will have. Some will be large events like the MMO evangelistic medical clinic or the annual youth conference. Some will be smaller scale, like weekly Bible clubs or tract distributions. But all require God’s blessing and for Him to work in hearts.

But speaking of the larger events, we are just a couple of weeks from the MMO clinic (June 12th-15th) and we will be receiving both a team for general medicine and vision clinics, as well as a surgical team for the surgical center. Needless to say we desire to make a difference medically for many needy people, but our greatest desire is to present the gospel to each patient. Please be praying for the final details of planning as well as for the week specifically. Please also be praying for the upcoming youth conference (June 29th-July 1st). We normally have good attendance from our teens as well as from other church teen groups within a couple of hours drive of us. This year’s special speaker will be Pastor Sammy Robertson, III from Liberty Baptist Church in California.

Prayer & Praise

• Pray for God’s blessing on the upcoming MMO Medical clinic.  We hope to share the Gospel will a couple thousand patients.
• Pray for the teen conference at the end of the month.  That God would grow the faith of each teen that comes, and that any unsaved would trust Christ.
• Pray for God to continue to bless our Bible clubs and that more kids would grasp the good news of the gospel.
• Pray for continued healing of grieving hearts (Jadon Goins was very loved by many as he lived 18 of his 19 years here in Honduras).
• Continue to pray for wisdom as we grow in our understanding of Type 1 diabetes, and how to best help Blake.

Thank you again for your faithful prayers.

From Honduras,
Nate and Cori, with Mykenzie, Grant, Blake and Savanna

May 2023

Greetings in the name of our wonderful Lord.

Well, the day has finally come. As of 1 June, we are resigning from the mission field. No, we are not quitting! Please allow me the space to explain:

Mission Accomplished: A little over twenty years ago we arrived in Thailand with the goal of planting a local indigenous church among the Thai people. By Indigenous, we mean, a locally led, locally maintained, outward (evangelistic) looking church. This describes New Life Baptist Church. While not a large church, the church body is led by a Thai man that was saved and trained in our church. He is competent and forward looking, not just someone maintaining the status quo. Thanks to the generous gifts of so many, we were able to purchase a building which allows New Life to be self-sustaining concerning their regular budget and the pastor’s salary. Therefore, except for my pride, there is no need for me to remain at New Life Baptist Church. We praise the Lord for this day. There were many times we weren’t sure it would ever arrive. We can say with great certainty that the mission is in fact accomplished.

Starting Another Church: We considered the idea of starting another church in Thailand for a long time. After much prayer and counsel, we have decided that we will not try to start another church primarily because the time-line for a church plant in Thailand is at least 20-30 years. I don’t have peace about starting another work knowing that I cannot see it to a likely conclusion. We therefore believe that the responsible course of action is to not try to remain on the field, just to be here. We feel it is better to open opportunities for our supporters to use their mission support more effectively by supporting other missionaries. This is a very difficult decision as Thailand is our home and has captured a part of our heart that we can never take back to the States with us. No matter the difficulty, we firmly believe this is the most responsible and prudent course of action. While this is a heart wrenching decision, the Lord has given us peace about it.

What about the Future? We will be returning to the states where Mike desires to transition to the pastorate. The challenges will be different but we believe that our mission background makes us a great fit for a stateside ministry. What is most important is that we continue to follow the Lord as we make this difficult but necessary transition.

Other Factors: There are mitigating factors that we considered. First, we weren’t able to see the church move into the new building yet as there is a hang-up concerning the property getting an address. I know, it sounds bizarre and I won’t pretend that I understand it, but bureaucracy is alive and well in Thailand. Without an address we can’t get the electricity turned on and cannot start substantive repairs. Lord willing they will get the address at the end of May and will be able to move forward with the needed repairs and move in shortly thereafter. We wanted to wait until after they moved in, but realized that it was not responsible to just hang around for what “might” be. I have worked with the church’s pastor and there is a great plan in place for the repairs and move.

Another unexpected factor was shortly after returning to the US, I (Mike) had a stroke while taking out the trash. Fortunately, Frances got me to the hospital within a few minutes and, thanks be to God, I am doing fine with no residual problems. However, while doing the workup for the stroke the doctors noticed another issue which they are investigating as well. They seem to think that I may have either prostate cancer or Multiple Myeloma. Nothing is for sure yet. The doctors seem pretty confident there is some sort of cancer, the Myeloma being the most likely suspect. I share this, not for sympathy, but as a testimony of the Lord’s providence and confirmation concerning His timing. After two cardiac events (a heart attack two years ago and a stroke now) and the possibility of cancer, it is best that we are in the States at this time.

Conclusions: There is much I would like to share with you, space is limited however. I am so grateful for each of you and your participation in our ministry to the Thai people. I know it seems cliché, but because of your faithfulness and partnership, there is today a mission minded local church in Hang Dong, Thailand! Lives have truly been changed. This is no small feat. We count it a privilege to have been a part of your missions program. I hope we have represented each of you and especially our Savior well. As we make this transition, I hope that you would consider supporting us for 1-3 months beyond 1 June to help us pay for our move and transition expenses. As we move our separate ways, I would like to recommend Thomas Britten, our missionary in England, sent from New Life Baptist in Chiang Mai as more than worthy of your support. He is very under supported (less than 50% of what a typical missionary would require) and is doing a fantastic job in England. I would be happy to forward his information to you if you’d like. As I close this letter, again, thank you for your participation in world missions. The members of New Life Baptist Church asked me to send their thanks for your participation as well. They are very much aware of your participation and are very thankful. I will conclude as I have for so many previous prayer letters by saying…

For the Lord’s glory,
Michael & Francisca Frederick
Missionaries to Thailand

mike@thaimissions.org

856-285-4192

Qué está pasando

May 2023

Praises

• Witness opportunities
• Safe Travels
• Building started

Prayer Requests

• Wisdom and discernment
• Upcoming trip
• Training in churches

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

GO – WIN – TRAIN – SEND. That’s the command for every born again child of God. What that looks like in shoe leather might vary little here and there depending on where we are and what our gifts are. We can all use what we have where we are and be difference makers in the lives of those in our reach. You and I all have a mission field of our own and it begins outside the doors of our local church. To make disciples we have to first be disciples. The laborers or those willing to get in the fight are needed more now than ever. See those around us as souls with an eternity either in heaven or hell and determine with the Lord’s help to get involved. God is not willing that any should perish and you or I could be just the one that gives them the gospel!!!

April was packed full. We received the last shipment of steel parts for the new church building and got that unloaded. After all the construction plans were updated to the newest building code edition I was able to get the permit and the building is underway. Subcontractors have installed the forms, the plumbing and electrical and fire sprinkler have all been roughed in and inspected, and the concrete man is scheduled to get the foundation poured. It’s been a long time coming and hopefully we have no more delays or setbacks.

Our missionary family and partners, the Whites, were in the U S from Costa Rica on furlough and we got to spend several days with them. We’ve not seen them in over a year so was good to get caught up and to firm up some dates for our planned visit to Costa Rica. We are working on some additional training for the training center instructors for more in person instruction and new methods and materials now available. We are working with an attorney on our residency status and the training center documents to make sure everything is in order and we don’t have any surprises on our visit. We also plan to have training for several churches on disaster resilience and relief efforts for their surrounding communities.

Kevin had the opportunity to be part of a work team that went to Freeport Bahamas. We flew private with Emission-Air Inc. missionary pilot AJ James. We went down to do work on a mission house that is being remodeled and added on to for housing missionaries, work teams, evangelists, and relief workers. Our main job was to install the ceramic floor tile and grout it. We did get that done and a couple extras. While there we had several witness opportunities and handed out tracts and shared the gospel. We also had a lunch meeting with a pastor that has been there over 50 years and learned much about the churches there and their ongoing needs for laborers and building needs too. They continue to recover and rebuild from hurricane Dora in 2019. Lord willing we will have more work to do there and on other islands in the future.

We enjoyed teaching nursery and youth workers a basic life support class required to be a worker. Fifteen ladies learned CPR, first aid, and AED techniques then got to perform what they learned and will get their cert cards. Kevin renewed his instructor certification in BLS and Avert this month so will be able to teach both of these as the need arises for another year.

Lots of excitement  in our family this month. Bethany got her appointment with University of Florida orthodontics and began her braces. She will get them on soon and hopefully only wear them 1-1/2 years. We got a blessing from the Lord on March 28th and finally got to see new granddaughter Mckenzie Grace. What a cutie. I can hardly wait to tell her about Jesus. We got to spend a couple days with them and then back to it. The very next weekend it was a huge privilege to baptize our son-in-law and other two grandkids. They attend Fishermens Baptist, one of our partner churches, and the pastor allowed Kevin to baptize them. There is no greater joy than to take part in the spiritual growth of our kids and now grandkids. Our prayer is for them to not only follow Jesus but go to work for Him too. God is good all the time.

We are so thankful for the many that support us through partnerships and prayers and giving. The parts you play, coupled together with Gods power, makes all these things possible.

In Christ,
Kevin , Sonya ,Bethany,and Jon McCoy
Training Center International

Email: Mccoysincostarica@yahoo.com

Kevin 850 777-0097
Sonya 850 698-1694