1 year ago today Derek & Jodi May had come out from Mississippi, where Derek was serving as a Pastor, and were here in Chiangrai with us on a
"vision trip" to further explore the possibility of them bringing
their family (they have 3 young children - Jack, Grant, and Casey) to Chiangrai to be our volunteer team coordinators for our building
project. The picture below was taken on January 25, 2018 as we were in a boat
in Chiang Saen on the famous Mekong River headed back to Thailand from a short
excursion over into Laos, which is so close to us it is only 45 minutes from
where our new piece of land that God has given us is located.
Today we are praising God for this trip 1
year ago and for the May's sensing God's leadership to come and join God in His
work here. We are so thankful that the May family were obedient to God's call and are now here with us in Chiangrai and doing well. We
also want to thank all of the churches in Mississippi and the awesome friends and leaders at the convention in the great state of Mississippi for
supporting and sending the May family here as our Construction Volunteer Team
Coordinators.
As I write this praise/prayer update, Derek
and Jodi are in a classroom here at Grace Language School with Kru Ball who is
teaching them the Thai language mixed in with a little cultural learning. Please continue to pray for Derek and Jodi, as
well as the rest of us, as we are planning and looking to begin the construction
process on our new multipurpose facility very soon as our Lord leads.
We are
still waiting for the “municipality” to approve our construction plans and expect
to hear from them any day now. This new multipurpose facility, once it is completed, will be our new home
for the NTIM Field office, the Channel of Blessing Foundation of Thailand office,
and Grace Language School. It will also be where Baan Athitaan Church meets and
has offices and will be a place where partners in ministry like Crave International
will have an office as well.
Much evangelism, discipleship, equipping,
training, outreaches, and other types of activities that are intended to expand
the kingdom of God in the heart of 100s of UPGs, will be taking place in this
new building in the days ahead. Our project is called “Lighting up the
Darkness.”
We have lived in Thailand now 20 years, and in Chiangrai for almost 18 of those years. For the last 18 years, we have been in rented facilities which have been the bulk of our overhead costs that we are trying to eliminate. We also believe it is God's timing for us to say to
the darkness in and around Northern Thailand that "God's work is here to
stay."
Please keep us in your prayers. If you
haven't given and would like to give to our building project, we still need
about $200,000 U.S. dollars to complete the project for the glory of God. You
can give online or send a check – all of which are tax deductible - to the
address on our website at: www.gontim.org.
Either way, please pray for us as we seek
to reach people who become the first persons in their entire family to be followers of Jesus and then to equip these genuine 1st generation believers from some of
the least reached people groups in our world today. All for the glory of God and the advancement of His kingdom. Our desire is motivated by this thought: "As God's will is done in heaven, so too, may God's will be done in and around Northern Thailand."
Much Love & Prayers from Northern
Thailand. Michael
“For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord,
and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5
Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM), P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL 35260 USA Main
Website: www.gontim.org
NTIM is a non-profit 501(c)(3)charitable
organization based in the USA. We are committed to connecting people in need
with people who care and are focused in the heart of Southeast Asia where
poverty is high, education is low, needs are great, unreached people groups
(UPGs) are all around us, and the love and message of Jesus is needed to
transform lives.
Reaching, Teaching, Discipling, Equipping,
Training, and Serving People in God’s World through acts of love and
compassionate is what NTIM and our ministry team is all about.
Dear
Friends, Family, Supporters, Partners, and Prayer Warriors,
Please
take a moment and look at this picture that was taken sometime in January 2015. This picture was taken 4 years ago with my “level 5” class at Grace Language School where I have the privilege of serving as both a teacher and the Director of this awesome school.
When I
look at this picture I am reminded of several very important things that I want
to tell you about today.
The
first thing that I want to say is that when this picture was taken 4 years ago,
I was the only follower of Jesus in that room on that day.
We live in a place
in God’s world where only 1 out of every 100 people know Jesus as their
personal Savior.
I didn’t really know it on the day that pictures was taken,
but God was at work in a mighty way in the lives of at least two of the four
students in that classroom. God was using many different people, some through
our language school and others not related to our language school, but all to
play a part in helping two of these four students take steps
closer to Christ.
Little
did I know that 5 months after this picture was taken, that the young man on my
right – Nong Ball – would give his heart to Jesus and become the first person
in his entire family to become a follower of Jesus.
Not only that, out of the
100+ people groups that make up the people of Thailand, Nong Ball is from the 3
largest Unreached People Group (UPG) – The Khon Muang or Northern Thai. This
UPG is made up of about 7 million people mostly living in Northern Thailand but
some also in Laos and in Burma and possibly in Southern China.
Since
Ball graduated from Rajabhat University over a year ago, he has been serving on
my staff and is growing deeply in his walk with our great Savior and is
learning how to serve the Lord with all his heart and we are very glad to have
him as part of our team.
Not only was God at work in Nong Ball’s
life when this picture was taken, but God was at work in the life of another
university student that was sitting on my left.
About 7 months after this
picture was taken, the young lady on my left – Nong Nok – would give her heart
to Jesus and become the first person in her entire family to become a follower
of Jesus. Similar to Nong Ball, out of the 100+ people groups that make up the
people of Thailand, Nong Nok is from another unreached people group called the Lu
Mien or the Yao. This UPG is made up of about 1.6 million people primarily
located in China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.
Nong Nok
has since graduated from Rajabhat University and became a teacher and last year
spent her first year after graduation teaching at the school she went to as a child in her home village. She is
continuing to grow in her relationship with the Lord and is active in sharing
her faith with her family and with those around her.
God is
using Grace Language School in a very powerful way to truly reach into some of
the least reached people groups in our world today and to make an impact in the
lives of young people especially those studying at one of the two universities
that are near our work.
Please
remember to pray for us and for our team as we seek to be used by God in greater
ways in the days ahead and pray for all the Thai and international students
that we come in contact with that their hearts will be open to hear the
greatest message which is “good news for all the people.”
Until the People in and
around Northern Thailand know Him,
Yesterday, January 13, 2019, was a very special and
significant day for Hope, Jessica, Liz, Joshua, Caleb and myself because it was
on this 13th day of January that we all landed for the first time as
a family in Thailand 20 years ago. For all practical purposes yesterday was
Hope and I’s 20th year anniversary of living and serving God in Thailand. When
we got off that plane 20 years ago in Bangkok, we had never heard of this
awesome city called Chiangrai in the Northern most part of Thailand filled with
enormous natural beauty and filled with dozens of unreached people groups, each
with a rich cultural heritage and language but some of the least reached people
groups in the world today. Below is a picture of our family 2 months after we
arrived in Thailand 20 years ago as Caleb made his appearance on the day of his
birth in Bangkok on March 10, 1999. When we landed in Bangkok Jessica was 9, Liz
was 6, Joshua was 1&1/2 and Caleb had been in mommy’s tummy 7 months.
We had yet to discover that after we would spend 2 years in
language and culture learning in Bangkok, that we would sense God’s leadership
to move our family of 6 at that time to Chiangrai and begin what we then called
“OPERATION CHAINGRAI.” “Operation Chiangrai” was a “vision” a “dream put in our
hearts” to join God in establishing an English language platform that God might
be pleased to use as a tool to reach hundreds and possibly thousands of Thai
young people and be the starting point for planting this church that we now
call Baan Athitaan Church, and a tool in the future that could be used to
facilitate church planting not only in Thailand but in neighboring “closed
countries” as well and still be “under the radar” of a legitimate legally registered English language
school.
20 years ago we did not see the future very clearly at all but
we loved, trusted, and knew God well enough to trust Him with all of our heart
and not to lean on our own understanding and to acknowledge Him in all of our
ways and we believed that God would guide and direct our steps just as His Word
promises us in Proverbs 3:5-6.
Today, we want to honor God and give
thanks to Him for His mercy and His goodness these past 20 years. We also want to
take this opportunity to encourage each of you to walk with God, to trust God, to
give you lives to God, to seek after His kingdom and His righteousness first
and foremost in your life, and then…. enjoy the adventure of following Him and
seeing How He allows you to be a part of as He is doing in His world as He seeks
to save that which has been lost.
Let me be perfectly clear: Your life does matter. What
you do and what you do not do has an effect on other people and on eternity.
May God help each of us better sanctify Christ as Lord in our lives and to
learn better what it means to seek God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness in our
lives first above all other people and things. Let us resist the temptation to
be driven by those things that drive the rest of the world but instead be
driven by the love and purposes of God and the desire to honor him with all of
our lives and to joyfully do our part in assuring that the message of Jesus
Christ gets to every person in the world, even to those is some of the least
reached people groups living here in and around Northern Thailand.
It has been our honor to serve God and to serve Thai people
in a special way these last 20 years…. We have tried to do it all for His glory
and for the advancement of His Kingdom. One of our life verses is 2 Corinthians
4:5, which says, "For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake."
We thank God and we thank you for letting us be your
representatives to the Thai people these last 20 years. I pray that God has
been pleased with our service and that He will be pleased to allow us to serve Him
here many more years to come for His glory and for the advancement of His
kingdom in and around Northern Thailand.
There is still so much work to be done. The fields are ripe,
ready for the harvest but the workers are truly few. This is not work for the
fainthearted! Let us be faithful to find the course God has for us and then to stay
on that course regardless of the difficulties and hardships that come into our
lives.
Our lives do matter and as we truly
reflect on the meaning of Galatians 2:20, we realize that God desires to live
in and through us to reach the lost, to help the broken and the distressed much
like we see our Lord Jesus doing in Matthew 9:36. The various unreached Thai
people groups, the various unreached Burmese people groups, the various unreached
Laotian people groups,and the various unreached
Chinese people groups, simply to name a few, are some of the least reached
people groups in our world today living in darkness without the light of
Christ.
These precious people have been in darkness far too long
now and it is time for God’s people to take the light and message of Jesus into
every village and to every people group living in this part of God’s world….
and may it begin…. with us. “Here we are Lord, send us” is our prayer.
Here is one very practical and urgent way you can help. Most
of you know that we sensed God’s leadership around 3 years ago to move in the
direction of saying to the darkness in Thailand that God’s work of redemption
is here to stay. We shared our vision for what we have called “Project: Lighting
Up The Darkness.” We have been in “rented facilities” for the last 17+ years we
have lived in Chiangrai and we believe it is God’s time to establish a more
permanent platform for NTIM to reach the nations for Jesus with the home base
being here in Chiangrai.
God has blessed us greatly and we are somewhere between
Phase 2 and Phase 3 of our project. Phase 1 was completed when we purchased
land in a very good location just 2 minutes from our current rented location.
Phase 2 started the day we began raising support for the building process. God’s
people and several of His churches have been generous but we are still in need
of about $190,000 so that we can begin this building project with all the funds
needed to complete the building phase of the project.
We are looking at doing a “running/walking fund raiser”
here in Thailand, in the USA, and in Canada (and in any other countries where
someone is willing to coordinate this effort) in the days ahead and will
provide more information on that soon.
But for now, in honor of our2O
YEARS OF SERVING GOD IN THAILAND, we want to ask each of you reading this
to consider giving $20, or $200, or $2,000, or $20,000, or even $200,000 (as
the Lord prompts your heart) and send it to NTIM designated to go to the
completion of our building project of “Lighting Up The Darkness.” Please
remember that this is not for our sakes…but for the sake of the millions of
people living here in and around Northern Thailand who have yet to hear the “good
news which shall be for all people” much like the Angel said to the Shepherds
in the fields watching over their flocks when our great Savior was born. Believe
it or not, after 2,000 years of the great commission, there are still areas
like where we live where 99 out of 100 people do not yet have their names
written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. In Thailand alone there are 66 million of those
people! For the last 20 years we have had to honor of joined God in seeing that
alarming number change for the glory of God.
We have “in faith” submitted our paperwork to
the government for the approval of our building project and according to our
Architect as of yesterday, we expect to gain the approval to begin the building
process this week. Please PRAY. If we can begin soon, we will be at a stage in
the process where by June 1, we will need volunteers. We hope to have some of
you come out this Summer on a mission team and help us put up walls for our
classrooms and finish the painting. Derek & Jodie May are here from
Mississippi serving as NTIM’s volunteer team coordinators for our building
project and would love to hear from you. Again, let me say thank you in advance
for any financial donation you feel that you are able to make toward this
project at this time. We want each of you to be “invested” in God’s work here
in Thailand because as Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there you heart will
be also.” We want your heart to be in Thailand. Please open your heart along
with us to love these precious people enough to join God in His work of
redemption here.
Until the People in and around Northern Thailand know Him,
To all my
friends, family, and partners in ministry, please take a moment and read this
prayer request and then we would ask that you pray for me in a special way as I
finish preparing to share God’s Word with our church family here in Northern
Thailand on the subject of “sanctifying Christ as Lord in our hearts” from 1
Peter 3:15-16. The whole passage reads this way, “but sanctify Christ as Lord
in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you
to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and
reverence; 16 and keep a good conscience so that in the thing in which you are
slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.”
This Sunday
is the first Sunday of the new year and I deeply desire to be more intentional
in this new year to join God in what He is doing here in people’s lives in and
around Northern Thailand where there is great darkness regarding the knowledge
of God. But even in the midst of millions who have never heard the message of
Jesus Christ, God is at work transforming peoples’ lives and equipping them to
join God in His great work of redemption and transformation.
As I am
writing this prayer request, I have taken a short break from my preparation of
the message I will share this Sunday from God’s Word. We want to ask you to go
before the throne of grace on our behalf and on behalf of all of those here in
Chiangrai, Thailand who will gather together as Baan Athitaan Church family
this Sunday. Our church family and the “audience” that will be hearing this
message is a very culturally diverse group of people from many different ethnic
people groups and countries. We can identify over 23 different people and
language groups that make up our church family, most of them from UPGs here in
Northern Thailand. Many of the people in our church family are the first
persons in their entire families to become followers of Jesus.
These new
followers of Jesus need to know what it means to “sanctify Christ as Lord in
their hearts.”
There are
many - do I dare say “all” = in our church who struggle with the pressure they
get from trying to live a God honoring life in the midst of a community where
99% of the people do not know Jesus as their personal Savior and who live out a
very different set of values and priorities in their lives and who come from a
very different religious framework of thinking than we who call ourselves
“followers of Jesus.”
Since we
are deeply committed to being a “community church,” welcoming everyone in our
community into the family of God, we also have a good number of missionaries
and expats who are involved in various ministries in Chaingrai who love Thai
people and want to be a part of helping them grow in the grace and knowledge of
our Lord Jesus. They also need to be encouraged and strengthened as well to
“sanctify Christ as Lord in their hearts” and to be encouraged to continue to
improve their walk with God and their partnership with God in His work in
Thailand and in neighboring countries.
I share all
this background to help you know how to better pray for us because we really
believe the Bible when it says, “the effective prayer of a righteous person
accomplishes much.” We also believe that part of our role before God is to encourage,
invite, and provide opportunities for you to join God in what He wants to do in
this part of His world.
God is
doing some amazing things here in Chiangrai and using your prayers, your
donations, your missionaries, and many, many different people... but we,
specifically as a Baan Athitaan Church family, desire to honor God and join Him
in what He is doing in this part of His world.
Please also
remember to pray for my translator this Sunday whom we all know here as Nong
“Bas” Marut
Thapthimthed Bas. He is currently a student from Mae Fah Luang
University and is from the largest unreached people group in Thailand, the
Central Thai people. He is the first person in his entire family to become a
follower of Jesus. We have been intentionally mentoring and investing our lives
in him for over 2 years now and he loves the Lord deeply and has become one of
our most respected and capable translators we have ever had.
He has now
grown to the place where we ask him to translate for our services about two
times a month. He does not get paid for this but sees this as one of the ways
he serves God and use his gifting and abilities to honor God and serve his
church family. This is what we call “natural Christian leadership training.” Please
remember to pray for this godly young man named “Bas” who will be translating
for me this Sunday.
Thank you
for your faithful prayers for us and for God’s work in and through Baan
Athitaan Church.
Until all
the people living in and around Northern Thailand have a chance to become
followers of the One True God and His Son Jesus Christ.
Michael
“For we do
not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your
bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5
Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM), P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL 35260 USA Main
Website: www.gontim.org
NTIM is a non-profit 501(c)(3)charitable organization based in the
USA. We are committed to connecting people in need with people who care and are
focused in the heart of Southeast Asia where poverty is high, education is low,
needs are great, unreached people groups (UPGs) are all around us, and the love
and message of Jesus is needed to transform lives.
Reaching, Teaching, Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving
People in God’s World through acts of love and compassionate is what NTIM and
our ministry team is all about.
