Winter 2026 Update
- dsmith484
- Jan 10
- 3 min read
We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you for partnering with us through your prayers, financial support and many encouraging notes. Your partnership is a great blessing! A lot has happened in the past few months.
Asia Trip
Dave had the wonderful opportunity of serving in 4 Asian countries over 5+ weeks during October and November. Below is summary of places and ways that he served:
Country | Ministries |
"Land of Carey" | Preached in churches and a Christian college |
"Land of Carey" | Taught a 4-day seminar to train 25 national laborers who serve in remote villages among Unreached People Groups |
"Land of Judson" | Taught another seminar to train over 40 national laborers who serve in towns and villages among Unreached People Groups |
"Land of Judson" | Taught a 5-day Doctor of Ministry course on worship for 28 pastors and church leaders from across the country |
Thailand | Preached at a Burmese church; Met with Asian ministry leaders; Surveyed the needs and opportunities in Bangkok |
Japan | First visit to Japan; Visited our daughter Sydney; Surveyed the needs and opportunities in southern Japan. |
All 4 rank in the top 15 countries of the world with the most unreached peoples. Below are a sampling of photos from the 5+ weeks of preaching, teaching and serving. Many of you may have received short video updates from the trip. We cannot post these videos publicly but if you did not receive them and would like to see them, please email us at dsmith@odbmissions.org, and we will email you private links to view them.
Cancer
Just a few days before Dave left for Asia, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. The oncologist rated it as "intermediate unfavorable" and prostatectomy surgery has been scheduled for January 27th. We're thankful the cancer was discovered early through regular blood tests and that the doctor approved Dave to complete the trip to Asia. Pray with us that God will enable the surgery to go smoothly, that all the cancer will be removed, and that Dave will have a full recovery.
"Unveiled"
We're preparing a new video series, titled Unveiled, to highlight the amazing ways God is using Asian laborers on the front lines to preach the Gospel, make disciples and plant churches in some of the uttermost parts of Asia. We hope these video reports will encourage you to pray specifically for these laborers and the people they are striving to reach with the Gospel. We promise Dave is more pleasant in the videos than in the photo below. Haha!
Praises & Projects from the "Land of Judson"
Praises | Projects |
New believers from 9 People Groups: Burmese, Chin, Enn, Intha, Laho, Myaungzee, Palaung, Shan, Taungyo | A new church building on a mission station among the Shan people: $5,000 is needed to complete the building (see photos below). |
25 Teams conducted evangelistic surveys throughout 2025 presenting the Gospel to over 3,000 individuals in about 1,000 unreached villages | Resources and materials to train and equip Asian Laborers to start pre-schools on mission stations in unreached villages - $4,000 |
135 new Believers baptized in 2025 | Digital audio devices to play Scripture & Gospel song recordings in the local languages of unreached villages - $2,000 |
7 new Churches planted in 2025 | Email us if you are interested in helping with any of the projects listed above. |
Project #1: Photos of mission station and the unfinished church building
2026
Lord willing, we're prayerfully planning ministry trips in the new year to Papua New Guinea, Thailand, the "Land of Carey," and the "Land of Judson." Pray with us about potential opportunities to hopefully train pastors and laborers from the "Land of Hudson Taylor" and in Malaysia. We're waiting and trusting the Lord for His wisdom, leading and provision of Dave's healing and recovery.
Thank you for "holding the ropes" and praying with us!
Praise the Lord with us,
Dave & Shawn
Comments