“I felt so good when I woke up this morning,” Joon texted me after our second food demonstration. “Last night, all I had was a green smoothie and a glass of homemade oat milk. My wife also was happy. She liked my new recipes and said she slept so much better.”

It has been over two years since we were blessed to attend a very impactful health immersion program at our home office in Berrien Springs. We were inspired to share what we learned and have done hydrotherapy treatments from time to time, but it wasn’t until this spring that we became really serious about making lifestyle and diet changes and putting the information we learned into practice.

A couple of months ago, the Lord led us to take a stronger stand in our personal lives to apply all eight principles in the NEW START program. We have also embraced a whole foods and plant-based diet more seriously than ever. We are minimizing processed foods and using minimal refined fats and sugars. We are finally losing the weight we could not shed for many years. International travel and living make it challenging to maintain this diet regularly, but we are doing quite well so far.

Two of our Thai members had strokes in April, which prompted us to share this health knowledge with our community. One older lady died after her stroke, and the other lady has embraced the lifestyle and dietary suggestions we made and has rebounded amazingly. Praise God! We continue to coach her and share foods to try, as she is very eager to learn all she can.

Our Sunday afternoon food demonstrations have been well received by many international and Thai members as well as our friends and neighbors. While setting up and preparing for each class takes a lot of work, the Lord has given us wonderful ladies to help us. It is so rewarding to have many people tell us they are trying the recipes we have shared and are happy to learn more. We have shared healthy breakfast recipes and principles, such as “Breakfast Like a King,” and focused on plant-powered proteins and the wide variety of nutritional resources God has given us to maintain optimal health.

Our local missionaries have pitched in their support. Claudette Aleman designed our shirts and is helping with demonstrations. Shannon Sorenson also helps with demonstrations and is interpreting for the Thai participants. Together, we see God’s hand in sharing our vital health message with this community.

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