Today is not a normal newsletter update we do
have to make an announcement and ask you to pray with us about a few things. As
all of you know, we are finally through the Covid 19 pandemic even though we
still are getting a few cases from time to time here in Northern Thailand. But
for the most part we are through the tough time. No more. What you did not know
is that neither Hope or myself have been on a plane and able to travel now for
about 3 years.
We truly have felt some isolation and God has
opened a door for Hope to be able to make a fairly quick trip to the USA. I
would like to be on this trip as well but it is not good timing for me at all. But
Hope will be arriving in Birmingham, AL on June 13, in just two weeks, in the
early evening and will be traveling to visit family, friends, and partners for
about 5 weeks and will be leaving out of Birmingham, AL headed back to Thailand
on July 18.
Please pray for Hope as she makes the plans for
traveling to a few states in the South. We have family that she needs to visit in
Jackson, TN, Atlanta, GA, Raliegh, NC, and she needs to see her Dad and sisters
and family in Tuscaloosa, AL. Also, if you know of anyone who has a vehicle
that she might be able to use during this time, please let us know. She will be
flying in and out of Birmingham, AL. Also, if anyone would like for Hope to
come and speak to any group about God’s work here in Thailand, please let us
know and we will see if we can work something out.
May our Lord bless you. Praying that God opens
the doors for Hope to be able to connect with many of you while she is there.
Love and prayers from Northern Thailand.
Until the
People in and around Northern Thailand know Him,
Michael for the team
“Look
at the nations and watch— and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something
in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” Habakkuk 1:5
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.
All donations made to NTIM are tax deductible
and can be made either online at www.gontim.org or mailed to NTIM, P.O. Box
26115, Birmingham, AL 35260
If you would like to get on our email update
listing, please send me an email at pray4ntim@gmail.com
Today is not a normal newsletter update but more
of a life story of how God is mightily at work changing lives and I just felt led
from God to challenge each of you to learn to listen more intently to God’s
invitations to where He invites you to join Him in other people’s lives.
I am convinced that God often invites us to join
Him in His great work of redemption in the lives of others but for a number of
reasons, including just being overly busy, most of us do not respond by joining
God but just keep doing what we have always been doing. The result is that
because we did not join God, we will not experience that absolute joy and happiness
that comes into our hearts when we are obedient to God’s invitation and when we
realize that God has allowed us the honor of using our life to count for Jesus
for all eternity.
Most of us believe with our heads that “God has a wonderful plan for our lives,”
but living out that wonderful plan for our life involves choices that we make
about how we spend our time and whether we respond appropriately to God’s
invitations to “interrupt” our normal schedule.
As Henry Blackaby once pointed out, “We don’t
choose what we will do for God; He invites us to join Him where He wants to
involve us.”
Anyone who knows me, knows that I am normally a
very busy person. I enjoy doing what God has called me to do here in Northern
Thailand and I want to do it with excellence and to the best of my ability so
that it brings honor to Christ. I am involved in lots and lots of things and I really
do have lots of things on my plate. However, I am also one of those followers
of Jesus that understands that sometimes God wants to “interrupt” my schedule
for something significant that He wants me to be involved in.
A little over a year ago, I sensed God inviting
me to begin meeting every Saturday morning for about two hours with a Thai man
who had lots of questions about God and about the Bible. Quite frankly some of
the questions were very good questions that I tried to answer as best I could. It
became very clear to me that God was moving in the heart of this man and so I
asked all three of my previous Thai Staff that knew him to begin praying for
him. This man’s wife had recently become a believer through the witness of
several people in our church and the whole family, including their precious
little boy, began coming to church quite regularly and I sensed God saying to my
heart that God was at work in this family in a special way and wanted me to
spend time with this family.
After I began meeting with this man and getting
to know him better, it became very clear that this man was deeply connected with
several of my previous Thai staff members (Gae, Lek, and Phet). He had seen the
huge transformation in the lives of two of them who had become followers of
Jesus over the last 15 or so years and this sparked a deep desire in His heart
to know more about this person named Jesus who was transforming peoples’ lives
at this place called Baan Athitaan Church. Sometimes we believers do not
realize how powerful our lives impact others when they see how God has
radically changed our lives.
What a great joy it was for me when the day
finally came, where his heart was ready to become the first person in his entire
family to be a follower of Jesus. God had been preparing this man’s heart and
shortly after that, God gave me the opportunity to lead this young man into the
arms of our Savior through faith in Jesus Christ. On September 24 of last year,
God gave us the opportunity to baptize his wife. Here is the link to the day
that the “wife” was baptized:
Then 3 months later on December 11, just 3
months later, we baptized both the “husband” and their son were baptized as
well as another couple in our church.
Since the baptisms, I have been enjoying spending
about 2 hours every Saturday morning with this husband and wife while one of
our awesome Staff, Pii Ja, normally spends time with their son teaching him the
Bible and the ways of God as well.
We are pouring our lives into these new
believers helping them to grow in the grace and knowledge of our great Savior. Please
pray for this family. This husband and wife are the first persons in their
entire families on both sides to become followers of Jesus. Without giving out
too many personal details, they are also both Professors at Mae Fah Luang
University here in Chiangrai and have great influence in the lives of thousands
of university students from several countries in this area including the big “C”
country.
Please pray for all of us here
in the heart of South East Asia where God is moving in mighty ways. Pray that
we would continue to join God in helping others come to faith in Jesus Christ
and then to help them grow into becoming authentic followers of Jesus Christ by
learning how love God more and more each day, learning how to love our
neighbors more and more each day, and learning how to walk humbly with our God
in this broken and confused world.
We are now going through an excellent
discipleship book that encourages us to memorize and reflect upon God's Word.
This week's memory verse is John 1:12 which says, "But as many as received
Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who
believe in His name."
Here is another picture that I wanted to share
with you that was taken last Saturday morning, May 20, as this new follower of
Christ worked with me in preparation for translating my message to our Church
the following day. He also did a great job of translating for the first time in
his life.
I deeply thank God for the relationships God has
given me and the opportunity God has given me to use this life to count for Him
in one of the places where 99% of the people around me are living in darkness
and in need of our Savior Jesus Christ.
The fields truly are ripe for the harvest and
let me affirm that the workers are few, just as Jesus said. Jesus also turned
to His disciples and He said, “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out
workers into His harvest field.”
God has allowed us to establish and incredible
legal platform of Teaching English in Chiangrai that has been instrumental if seeing
hundreds of Thai people surrender their hearts to the Lordship of Jesus. But
let me be clear. We are in great need of teachers. Several teachers had to go
home during the covid season and we are very short handed.
I interview new students almost every day who want to study English at our
school. We have government schools who call us all the time wanting us to come
and put on English camps. We are asking you to pray that God would send us 3 or
4 more Americans who would be willing to give God at least 1 or 2 years of
their life and come to serve Him here in Northern Thailand with us and join God
in His great work of redemption. The minimum requirement for an English teacher
in our school is a Bachelor’s degree in any subject. Would you please take a moment
and pray and ask for God to send some laborers for Grace Language School to
Chiangrai, Thailand?
Who will Go? Please take 4 minutes and listen to
this wonderful music video we call “Who Will Go?”
Today we wanted to update you on God’s work here
and we wanted to thank you for your prayers and for your financial support as
we together join God in His great work of Redemption of the Nations, especially
here in the heart of lostness in Southeast Asia.
May God richly bless you.
Thank you for your generosity and for sending us to Thailand. Any gift you would
like to make to our normal, everyday ministry, no matter how small or how large,
helps us reach and disciple people whom many are the first persons in their entire
families to know Jesus Christ.
Until the
People in and around Northern Thailand know Him,
Michael for the team
“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.
