Greetings from Asia! The bulk of the celebration from the Chinese New Year holiday has now passed and I wanted to update you all on the work going on in the region.

God has opened some doors to possible involvement in a couple of new countries. Pray for wisdom as we seek the right way to be involved.

In a meeting recently we were talking about issue impacting the spread of the Gospel in Thailand. In the years and years that God has been sending workers there are still fewer than 2% who are followers of Christ. It was sobering to look at some maps that had been created which showed how many districts of the country currently have no church (the threshold for what is considered a 'church' is a regular meeting of 3 believers). This is why we are so passionate about serving here.

Our partners in Thailand have been working through what seems to be endless changes to the rules for radio stations. These started happening even before the coup a couple years ago but the current military-influenced government has been adding on new rules to broadcasters. Most of these rules have been beneficial and have removed pirate radio stations from the air and others who have equipment that does not meet standards to avoid interfering with others. A new change that was mandated recently was the testing of all stations on a yearly basis to prove that they are not interfering with other stations and the aviation band used by pilots and airports. This testing is expected to cost about $200/each which may be too much for a number of stations which are already being run through the provision of local churches. To help with this one of our Thai national coordinators has been certified to administer the tests at a reduced cost to stations and Reach Beyond has helped to provide for the necessary testing equipment. The radio planters on our team hope to be able to spend some time in Thailand soon understanding the process of the testing but schedules have not allowed for it yet.

Another smaller challenge facing our Thai partners soon is an office move. The two main coordinators we have worked with in Thailand have office space that has been provided to store and repair equipment. The current space is not going to be available much longer but a new space elsewhere in town is going to be provided. Please pray that we can work out scheduling to help them get things packed an moved in the needed timeframe.

Changes are coming for our radio planting side of the Asia Pacific team. Our engineering director is set to retire in May which leaves us with two full time radio planters. He has been extremely valuable to the work out here and has a wealth of cultural and engineering knowledge. We are trying to drink in as much of that knowledge as we can during the remaining time before they switch to a much more limited availability.

As part of the transitions that are coming I expect to be in the US for about a week in late April in order to take a certification exam administered by the Society of Broadcast Engineers during an upcoming broadcasters convention. Please pray for the time of study for the 3 of us taking the exam (me, the other radio planter, and one of our Thai partners) and the long journey there and back.

Thanks for praying for us as we serve with Reach Beyond here in Asia. Thanks for your heart to see unreached and unengaged people groups impacted with the Gospel.!

Toffer and Becky