…in case you were wondering.

We are unbelievably amazed at how well Lance’s Chiang Mai, Thailand trip went! Seriously, it couldn’t have gone better. When was the last time we had a blog post like that?! The goals in going were to interview and choose a language school for us, start processing our visas through the school, find a language school for Amanda with a light class schedule that still provides a visa, get her visa application started, visit multiple churches to make connections and see what assistance they could offer, view rental housing with the hopes of at least seeing what was viable if not choosing one, and check out housing options for Amanda. All of that was accomplished and more – it’s amazing what can be done in one week on the right side of the world compared to months of work from the other side. By God’s grace, Lance didn’t spend a week doing a lot but unable to get anything done.

​After the first 24 hours of being over there, Lance told me that even if he had only had that one day it was worth it to come over. He had multiple meetings with a few of our friends and learned so much about the tenor of the different sections of town, the more affordable areas to live, where the schools were in relation to those areas, which schools/churches functioned in which ways, and a thousand other intangibles that aren’t discovered through an email or webpage. 

So many things were solved in conjunction with or because of other things that I’m going to have a hard time relating everything as it happened without being excessively wordy – so I’ll skip that (your welcome) and jump to the results. After multiple recommendations that led to multiple interviews, Lance found a language school that we’re rather excited about and started the visa application for us through them. He found another school for Amanda that requires a surprisingly small amount of class time/week and started her visa paperwork. He connected with a pastor at one of the churches he visited who offered to assist us in finding a roommate for Amanda. The owner of a realty company that was recommended to us cleared his schedule to show Lance places when he heard our story and Lance’s hope of finding a place to rent before the end of the week. That was such a blessing because from that Lance was indeed able to rent us a place that we don’t need to start payments on until we actually get there in March. From the pictures he sent it looks perfect, including an extra room on the ground floor for homeschooling. You might think it would be rather stressful for a wife to have her husband rent a place sight-unseen by said wife, but I was surprisingly unconcerned (for the most part) and from what I can tell he did a marvelous job. Apparently, necessity is also the mother of trust, not just invention – that and knowing someone for 22 years. The realty company was created specifically to help expats who don’t know Thai or the legalities of renting in Thailand, and consequently was a huge asset for us. Not only do they help you and the landlord (who often also doesn’t know the legalities of renting in Thailand) solve everything that needs done, they continue to be a liaison for the renter in regards to helping them pay bills, navigating any repairs that need done, and multiple other things that require the use of Thai before we know it. 

While in Thailand, Lance stayed with a family that we were blessed to meet and encourage while living in our last host country. Jenny use to live in the city we lived in and we walked with her while she was going through a hard time. Jack and Jonathan are her boys and Lance looks forward to being involved with them since they now live in Chiang Mai. 

Our plan is to leave mid-March and we’re hoping to book tickets as soon as we have definite word about the status of our visas from the Thai government. Pray for us as we prepare to go and as we sort out all the slew of details associated. Pray also for us, especially our kids, as we say good-bye and transition to Asia again. Simultaneously sad and exciting. 

As always,
– Ruth, for the Baker family.

It’s time for my summary-of-the-year post. If you want an overview of our ministry, you can get a synopsis of each year in our December posts starting in 2015.

This year we’ve been home raising support to head back to Asia, specifically Thailand. We had planned to be here for 3 months but obviously we underestimated how long it would take to raise support and iron out partnerships and logistics. Thankfully we’ve had missionary housing to stay in rent and utilities free for the whole year, allowing us to save most of our support for when we return to the field. While we’re disappointed to not have been able to go back sooner, we’re resting in the fact that God had a different plan. We’ve been blessed to see old friends and make new ones and we’ve been able to talk to many different groups including new and ongoing supporting churches, Sunday school classes, small groups and people’s homes.

​In January we attended a missionary debriefing seminar called Interlude by Barnabas International. This was a phenomenal few days of encouragement, processing, and fellowship with others from similar backgrounds. We highly recommend it for any missionary needing to process whether on home leave, in transition, or coming back to the States to live. 

​In March and April we were back in Asia to move our home from our previous country to storage in Thailand for when we return. We were glad to be able to sell our furniture and many other things to a family we know from New Zealand who are returning from support raising to continue their work in our previous country. Moving was a lot of work with a lot of glitches (as usual) but thankfully everything worked out in the end and our belongings are safely in storage at Bangkok. We (sadly) said good-bye to our community and church family there and hope we’ll see a few of them again when they visit Thailand for medical care, counseling or respite. Once our belongings were safely out of our previous country, we switched our posts to be password free.

​While in Asia we were also able to speak to an organization we had hoped to partner with and see their language school. Unfortunately this opportunity has fallen through, but we still hope to leave within the next month to start language at a school our friends in Thailand recommended to us where they live. (More details in January – this is a summary of 2019 after all.)

​One of our big prayer requests this year has been to find someone to help us homeschool our boys while we’re learning language. Homeschool and language learning are both full-time jobs and doing both prolongs the time it takes for both. By God’s grace we were connected with a young lady, Amanda King, from Northfield Christian Fellowship who is excited to come and work with our kids for a year. This was such an answer to prayer and we look forward to spending the year with her.

We have full funding for the first year at language school. During this upcoming year, we will be able to get a better feel for the cost of living and how much support we’ll need in subsequent years. We also look forward to interacting with the various ministries to missionaries in Thailand to see how God would have us minister. We’d appreciate your prayer support for all of this.

Lance wrote a blog post detailing the vision for our work in Thailand. You can read his post from July 2019 here: Supporting Missionaries

– Ruth, for the Baker family

​Support Update: We have a huge praise! A church that we spoke at in D.C this past July has decided to cover the rest of our up front costs, as well as the expenses at the language school for our first year! This was unexpected and such phenomenal news. Because of this generous gift, we are now 100% funded for our first year! However, we are still $1,800 away from our monthly support level being met for our subsequent years. Breaking that down, that’s 18 people at $100/month or 36 people at $50/month. If you have any room in your missions giving, please pray about supporting our ministry for any amount. 

Thank you for continually praying for us. If you know of any venue that would be interested in hearing about our mission and possibly interested in supporting us, or if you would be willing to host an evening at your home with mission-minded friends, we would love to come present our ministry. Please call or text Lance at 814-873-7382 or email us at lanceandruth(at)psmail.net. (Also, our contact info is at the bottom of the “Partner With Us” page).

Working to trust in God’s plan,
Ruth, for the Baker family.

There have so much news to tell you! The most important of which is that we have a new home church, Lakeside Christian Church. While we loved our church family in Pennsylvania, they’ve made a policy change this past year to focus on reaching the Americas where it’s easier to send short-term teams and have decided to no longer be a sending church for anyone. This left us with the need to find a new home church who will support us in our ministry in Asia. Thankfully, God already had plans in motion to provide us a new church family church. When our missionary housing fell through in Pennsylvania, we were blessed to find housing in Ohio about 10 minutes from our old home church from when we used to live there. They thoroughly welcomed us back into fellowship with them, which has been such a blessing while we’ve been raising support. After talking with their leadership and recognizing the amazing support they were already giving us without being a part of their church family, we were excited that this was the next step where God was leading us. They are excited to support us and our ministry in Asia by being our sending church. As such, becoming members of their congregation was the next natural step. We praise God for their partnership and look forward to what God has for us with them in the future. If you’re interested in knowing more about them, their website is: lakesidechristianchurch.org and you can watch a live stream of their Sunday morning service here: lakesidechristianchurch.org/media.

​In other news, we’ve been traveling and sharing non-stop lately. We spent a week in August at a family summer camp our church helps organize. There we were able to share at one of the adult classes about our ministry and need for monthly support. Through this week we were also able to develop many relationships that will support us through prayer and friendship while overseas. From these new and renewed friendships, we were encouraged to visit a church in Tremont, Illinois, Northfield Christian Fellowship, who also helps plan the camp.

​A few weeks later we were able to visit Northfield and were so blessed by our reception. We were able to speak to 5 different groups at their church. Two couples had us to their homes in the evening and had invited others to come, as well as announced the meetings in their church bulletin. We also spoke at their youth meeting Saturday night and 2 of their Sunday school groups Sunday morning. All in all it was a wonderful week of fellowship and encouragement. 

We also traveled to D.C. again for 5 days to meet with a missionary committee there at one of my cousin’s church, and to present to a group at another cousin’s house in the evening. It was another time of encouragement and hopefully further support will come from those connections. 

Homeschool teacher update: Praise God we have two possibilities for a homeschool teacher to come with us. One, a couple whose family goes to our sending church and the second, a young lady who is from Northfield Christian Fellowship. Please pray with us as we pursue these two possibilities.

Also, another prayer request is for Lance. He has been suffering from extreme headaches, called cluster headaches, resulting from nerve pain. Sort of like sciatic nerve pain, only spider webbing over his head. It is related somehow to his hypothalamus, and they come about every hour and a half all night and last about 45 minutes. Obviously, besides the excruciating pain, this leads to very little sleep as well as residual pain most of the morning. We hope to get an MRI for him soon. Meanwhile, please keep him in prayer as well.

If you are interested in helping us by having us to your home to present our ministry to a group of people interested in missions, please contact Lance at 814-873-7382 or email us lanceandruth(at)psmail.net and we’d be happy to come. Sharing our ministry and raising support is becoming more urgent as we get closer to leaving, please pray about how you can help us. 

​Thank you for your continued prayer,
– Ruth, for the Baker family.

I love how the Bible talks about our ministry. “Our ministry” as in your’s and mine. I’ll show you specifically where I’m talking about in a minute, but let me tell you why I’m so excited about how succinctly this is written. People sometimes say to me, “I could never do what you’re doing.” My first thought is usually, “Great! Praise God He calls most people to stay home so that I can go!” 

I realize that I am only able to go, because God calls most people to stay. Without the prayer and financial support of those who stay, we could never go. My brother once preached a sermon on missions (it was phenomenal) and used the illustration of the army. For every soldier on the front line, nine are needed as support personnel, in order for the front line to be effective. That stuck with me as I could see how true it was for missionaries. And, while I know it wouldn’t be possible to go without the financial support, and I recognize the huge value of logistical support, what we crave most is the prayer support. 

Now for the coolest part. Look how the Bible states it in II Corinthians 1:8-11 (emphasis added) 
“8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; 9 indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; 10 who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us, 11 you also joining in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf for the favor bestowed on us through the prayers of many.” 
Did you catch that? You join us in our ministry and help us through prayer. Then we all get to thank God together for the answer and corresponding work. I love it! (Not to mention the wonderful lesson on deliverance and hope in the first half.) 

Meanwhile, think of the benefits on your part – while we get to be “burdened excessively, beyond our strength” (thank God for our hope in Him!), you get to pray for us. Then you’re credited with the ministry too. Not a bad deal. Because we know we can’t do this without God’s strength and guidance, we are SO thankful for our prayer partners; we can’t express it enough. 

We list our current prayer requests in the margin to the right and an extended version of the same on our our “Partner With Us” page. Please join with us in our prayers and our ministry.

Thank you,
Ruth, for our family.​

This is a barely modified post that I previously wrote in April 2015. I wanted to post it again, not only for the good reminder but also to get it out from behind the password protected area of the site. 

​Our vision is to support and encourage missionaries, and we’re pursuing the goal of operating a guest house specifically for pastors and missionaries in these closed fields. There are a few such ministries in place in Thailand, and historically they’ve had trouble filling the director roles since most people coming to the field want to do so in a church planting or direct relief role with the nationals. Upon completion of an intensive language course in Thai, we intend to step into the role of director at one of these. Our goal is to offer a listening ear, compassion and encouragement along with the practical solution of an inexpensive and safe place for families to stay while getting to interact with other missionaries. Just being able to talk with other missionaries and share each other’s stories can go really far in mitigating the loneliness and isolation that most missionaries struggle with. 

Please pray with us as we pursue this new direction in ministry. Our two greatest needs at the moment are increased monthly funding, and a volunteer “homeschool tutor” to accompany us during our first year while we make the transition to Thailand, which will allow Ruth and I to both study full-time. 

-Lance, for the Baker family

​Here are the details for those interested: 
We have 3 boys: Josiah (7th grade), Micah (4th grade), and Alex (2nd grade). Our homeschool style is relaxed as is conducive to my boys, mostly done on the couch or floor (or in a tent) as opposed to sitting at a table or desk. I’m not as concerned with how fast they learn as I am with their progressively learning in an amicable atmosphere that inspires an eagerness to learn more. I have all the curriculum picked out and most of it they’re used to already. You would be responsible to have the lessons figured out each day (5 days a week) using the supplies and curriculum I have available. Josiah is largely self-regulating, he usually just needs occasional questions answered. Some classes can be taught together (history, science, bible) and some of Josiah and Micah’s classes are taught from an on-line instructor. Once their school is done for the day, you would be in charge of the boys until we return home from school, however, they play very well together and that wouldn’t always require active involvement with them.

Our school year is from November 2019 to November 2020. The school will find furnished housing for you separate from our living space and they also recommend language classes for you once a week, so you can start to navigate Thailand apart from us for the year (market, restaurants, etc.). We are able to pay for your housing and language classes but you would need to raise support for your other expenses such as air fare, food, household supplies, medical needs, weekends away or any other expenses that come up. (We can give you approx. estimates.) There are other families and homeschool helpers at the school for the year which would round out your social circle apart from us. 

We are looking for someone who is college age or older. If a couple is interested in coming, or even a family with children of their own to get a glimpse of what the mission field is like, we’re open to multiple options as long as you can also school and watch our kids. Our first priority is that you are a follower of Christ and enjoy children. After that, flexibility is immensely helpful for living overseas. (For example; it once took us, much to our involved boys’ dismay, 4 hours to find and purchase saline solution.) Being willing to try new things, from food to adventures (planned and otherwise), will be an integral part to an easier and interesting year. Being relaxed about catastrophes, from monkeys to ants, will be helpful for your sanity. 

Medical care in Thailand is very good and on par with practices in the States and other Western countries. We will be two hours from Bangkok in Lopburi. That’s all the basics I can think of. Obviously there are a lot of details. If you’re interested in knowing more, please email us at lanceandruth@psmail.net, or call/text/WhatsApp Lance at (814) 873-7382.

​​Please keep this need in your prayers and feel free to pass on this information to anyone who can help spread the word or would be interested in this opportunity.

– Ruth, for the Baker family.

Hello! Surprise! Since we have finished working in our last host country and our belongings are safely out of that country and in a storage unit in Thailand, we are moving our blog, from this entry forward, to be un-password protected. Our time spent before this will remain behind the password to protect our friends, national and foreign, so if you’d like to read about that time and don’t have the password, please contact us via email.

​We are excited to share that we gained two new churches right before we left for Asia, Draketown Christian Church of Edinboro, PA and Hope Junction Church of Union City, PA. We were blessed to visit both of these churches and share our ministry with them, past and hopeful future. It is beyond a blessing to go into a church for the first time and to leave feeling like you’ve had a treasured time with family, which indeed we did. Our hearts swell when God adds more people and congregations to partner in His work with us in Asia, committed to supporting us and walking with us, as we support those on the field in closed countries. What a privilege to be involved in such a ministry.

We have multiple speaking engagements and commitments coming up in the next few months including time in Washington, D.C, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. If you are in those areas and would like us to speak at your church or group to share what we’ve seen God doing in Asia, please contact us so we can put you on the schedule. Although we don’t go back to Asia until this fall, our weekends are starting to fill up.

Please continue to pray with us as we ask God to bring us those He would have partner with us, so we can return to Asia this fall fully funded for the start of the fall language term at the Lopburi Learning Center.

God’s got it – I constantly need to remember,
– Ruth, for the Baker family.