November 16, 2024
Beckner Update
Hello Prayer Team,
With a long exhale, I send you this email from the living room of our new house. What a crazy month it has been. Thank you so very much for reaching out to check on us, encourage us and for giving generously to help our family and our TawSaeng families recover from the floods.
Now that we are mostly past the flood and mud, I wanted to share an update with you.
UPDATE:
- We have been in our new house for about two weeks and are loving it. The neighborhood is quiet and peaceful and the neighbors are friendly. (We also have a guest room so if you find yourself in Chiang Mai, give us a call). Our evening walks with our dog Ginger even feel therapeutic. Our current landlady is sweet, helpful and we pray we will be a blessing to her and her family as she is grieving the passing of her husband last month. As for our former landlady, she didn’t give us any of our deposit back as we had hoped, but we aren’t angry. We’re grateful for the many awesome activities and memories we had at that house and we are looking forward to great memories in this new house now.
- Our Ripe For Harvest conference was just what we needed. Restful, refreshing and an opportunity to get out of the mud and just breathe. It was so good to have time to talk and pray with our partners from RFH who are serving throughout Asia and the world.
- Thanks for your prayers for Micah as he has settled into life in America. He is sharing an apartment with Elyssa and has gotten a job at a coffee shop on one of the mountain bike trails in Bentonville. He is still praying about what he wants to do after this gap year.
PRAISES:
- Aaron and I are so excited to get to know the 10 new students who started coming to TawSaeng while we were in the States. Pray that they would feel cared for at TawSaeng and they would know that Jesus loves them.
PRAYER REQUESTS:
- Continued prayers as we settle in to our new house and a new routine as empty-nesters.
- Pray for strength and energy as Aaron and I not only jump back into regular TawSaeng program, but also as we head into end of the year activities, including our Christmas program, youth retreat, etc. We want to finish this year serving our students, families and staff and community well.
In Christ,
Karyn Beckner
Karyn Beckner
October 16, 2024
Mud Update
Dear Ones,
If you follow us on Facebook you may have seen some of the photos of our awesome staff, students and friends who have put in countless hours of work on our behalf to clean, scrape mud, powerwash, etc. We are so thankful, but there is still much work ahead. The city is drying out and bustling with dirty trucks and motorcycles as cleanup is happening but much of it remains a mess, looking like a post-apocalyptic movie scene. There is a layer of dried red mud on everything, constant clouds of dust, and huge mounds of trash and useless furniture everywhere you go. The cleanup will take months. We are amazed by the resilience of the Thai people! They know how to push through the problem of the moment to get to the other side. It encourages us how the families we work with work together to clean each others’ houses and restore life. This was a difficult feat because many, including us, didn’t have any or much city water until Friday, leaving them to carry water from the canal or use muddy water from puddles for cleaning. Although we rested on Sunday, we are exhausted from the continuous cleaning since we returned from America. We, however, thank God that we have options for ourselves and the opportunity to help others.
We are reaching out for your continued prayers for us at this time. Despite cleaning everyday, there is a muddy film that doesn’t want to come off the wood planks of our house, it smells bad, and mold and mildew are spreading in many places in our house. After a lot of cleaning, talking, praying and seeking wise counsel, we feel it is necessary for us to move to a different house. The effort it will take to get this house livable again and replace lost furniture and appliances is beyond what we can afford to do in time, energy and money.
How You Can Pray:
Pray for strength and energy for Karyn and I as we continue the work of cleaning our house and belongings. We are physically and emotionally exhausted. We have found a different house to rent and it is pretty well furnished. It is in the same neighborhood we used to live in and although the drive is far, it is out of the flood zone. Aaron reached out to our former landlady and she connected us with her friend who had a house available to rent. We met the new owner and feel that the Lord has provided a safe, quiet, clean house for Karyn and I (& our dog Ginger) to live in.
Pray for favor and grace from our current landlord, who has not helped with repairs or clean-up, nor is she communicating with us. Pray that she will return at least part of our deposit so we can use it towards the other house. Landlord relationships are tricky in Thailand and we want to represent the Lord well in this.
Pray for TawSaeng families. As I type this from a long line at the immigration office for needed documents pertaining to our visa, our Thai staff are out delivering groceries to TawSaeng families and assessing their greatest needs from the flooding. We hope and plan to help many get lost items from their homes like mattresses, rice cookers, clothing, etc.
Pray for our staff as they serve families. They have worked hard helping us with our house and now they are helping others! We are so thankful for them! We will open normally in a couple of weeks.
Tomorrow, Karyn and I travel to south Thailand for a Ripe for Harvest (our sending organization) conference. This is the first RFH conference we have had the ability to attend in the 10 years we have been with them! We purchased tickets months ago. The timing is unfortunate …and also perfect as we are exhausted physically and could use encouragement from other missionaries who can relate to our situation. It will be short, but hopefully sweet!
Thank you for being in this with us! Our hearts are full of gratitude for you who have given financially and also for praying! May God bless each of you!
Besides deciding what furniture we will replace for our family, we will have moving expenses and a deposit to make for our next house. We will also be buying some household items for our TawSaeng families to help them recover. If you want to give now, here is the link https://ripeforharvest.org/aaron-karyn-beckner/.
In Christ,
Karyn Beckner
Karyn Beckner
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Grace and Peace,
Aaron & Karyn Beckner
Aaron & Karyn Beckner
October 7, 2024
We would appreciate prayers as we have decided to move to a different house. It is complicated, though because we will be breaking our lease. We are praying for grace, favor and compassion from our landlady that she will give us back our deposit (about $2,000). Would love it if you all would pray for God to go before us in navigating this complicated situation. We feel we cannot put a deposit down on a different house, without hearing from our current landlady and she has not returned our messages yet. We know God already has a solution for this situation. We are just exhausted physically and emotionally.
As for empty-nesting, we haven’t even had time to process that yet. But we are at peace that our kids are close together, all working and love Jesus.
Grace and Peace,
Aaron & Karyn Beckner
Aaron & Karyn Beckner
October 7, 2024
Flood Update
Our beloved Prayer Warriors,
I’m sitting in the airport getting ready to start my journey HOME. I have mixed emotions, but I’m resting in the fact that the mission Jesus called our family to has not changed. Only the locations in which we’re serving Jesus is different. My heart is heavy, yet full at the same time. I just said goodbye to all 3 of our kids, but in two days I’ll be back with Aaron.
I wanted to share an update with you; see the attached photos or stay updated through my FaceBook posts. Thankfully, we didn’t have as much damage at TawSaeng as we expected, but we will need to replace some of the furniture, books, games, etc. Our staff and some high school students from the international Christian school were able to pretty much get both buildings of TawSaeng cleaned yesterday. Praise the Lord. And I’ve been seeing posts from our families that many of them have been able to remove the mud from their homes and get moved back in. Many have lost a lot of furniture and possessions, but everyone is safe!
Aaron was finally able to get to our house and assess the damage. We thought there would be about 2 feet of water that filled our house, but Aaron said the waterline was waist-deep. Everything on our second floor is fine and free of mold or mildew. Aaron, TawSaeng staff & students, and friends will start cleaning at our house tomorrow. We know we have lost a lot, but it is all replaceable.
We are going to need a lot in the coming days and weeks. As we wash away the mud and sort through our home, we will know more in detail of the clean-up and replacement costs. Here’s how you can help.
PRAY:
– PRAY for Thai people to come to know Jesus through this destruction. We are all bound together through this situation and we want to point them towards Jesus. He is the provider. He is the protector. He is the Savior.
– PRAY for Aaron and I as we start our empty-nesting season in an unplanned way. Pray that the Lord would bind us together even stronger as we grieve leaving our kids and sort through our house.
– PRAY for Jonas, Elyssa and Micah, that they would cling to one another and to Jesus. We couldn’t be more proud and at peace that our kids follow Jesus and love one another!
– PRAY for Thai people to come to know Jesus through this destruction. We are all bound together through this situation and we want to point them towards Jesus. He is the provider. He is the protector. He is the Savior.
– PRAY for Aaron and I as we start our empty-nesting season in an unplanned way. Pray that the Lord would bind us together even stronger as we grieve leaving our kids and sort through our house.
– PRAY for Jonas, Elyssa and Micah, that they would cling to one another and to Jesus. We couldn’t be more proud and at peace that our kids follow Jesus and love one another!
GIVE:
– GIVE to help us buy food for TawSaeng families and help them replace school supplies, uniforms, beds, etc.
– GIVE to help us replace a lot of our belongings (couch, refrigerator, washing machine, furniture, linens, bedding, etc.). We won’t know the full extent of damage to our house until we can get the mud out. Our house is made of teak and we don’t know how the waters will have affected it.
– GIVE to help us buy food for TawSaeng families and help them replace school supplies, uniforms, beds, etc.
– GIVE to help us replace a lot of our belongings (couch, refrigerator, washing machine, furniture, linens, bedding, etc.). We won’t know the full extent of damage to our house until we can get the mud out. Our house is made of teak and we don’t know how the waters will have affected it.
If you want to give now, here is the link https://ripeforharvest.org/aaron-karyn-beckner/. If you want to know what our specific needs are, we will be updating with specifics soon.
God bless you all. We are so grateful for you and could use your prayers. We would love it if you would take our needs to your church, community group, family, etc.
Grace and Peace,
Aaron & Karyn Beckner
Aaron & Karyn Beckner
Screenshot
September 28, 2024 – Hope in the Floodwaters
As many of you may know, Northern Thailand has experienced catastrophic flooding this week which has affected so many in Chiang Mai. We waited and watched from Arkansas, for posts, videos, messages. Then they came in. The villages where many of our students’ families live had flooded. We learned that our own yard and living room flooded too. We worried about our stuff. How high did the water come up? How bad was the damage?
And then a video was posted on Facebook of one of our students and his dad sitting in ankle deep water and praising Jesus, singing “My hope is in you Lord..”. And like the floodwaters, my tears began to flow. Our rug, furniture and “stuff” didn’t matter; they are replaceable. Our families are safe; although some displaced and some still have standing water in their homes. But they are resilient. They rejoice because they have one another. Many have hope because they have put their faith in Jesus. Pray for those who don’t know Jesus. That they would experience His love through the actions of the believers around them. That His light would shine in Chiang Mai and throughout Thailand.
Floodwaters up to his knees doesn’t keep the smile off the face of one of our students.
The canal near this village overflowed and flooded their homes, but yet they rejoice because they have one another.
The waters have receded and clean-up begins. There is no loss of help within the body of Christ.
With a smile on her face, one of the young adults in our ministry, helps distribute food to the community.
Boy 1 has been looking after our house while we’ve been in America. He took this photo of the street leading to our road. It took a couple of days for the water levels to go down before he was able to finally able to check on our house for us.
The floodwaters did make it into our house, but only into our living room. We are thankful for friends, staff and students who raised up our furniture before the waters came in. Thankfully, we didn’t have too much damage; it could have been worse. “Stuff is just stuff”.
We are so thankful that TawSaeng stayed dry.
(This is the entrance to the TS parking lot)
(This is the entrance to the TS parking lot)