Celebrating 26 Years of Serving God and Serving Thai People in Thailand

Just five days ago, on January 13, 2025, was a very special and significant day for Michael, Hope, Jessica, Liz, Joshua, and Caleb because it was on this 13th day of January that we all landed in Thailand 26 years ago. It was the 26th year anniversary of living and serving God in Thailand. When we got off that plane 26 years ago in Bangkok, we had never heard of this awesome city called Chiangrai located in the Northern most part of Thailand. We had no idea that Northern Thailand was filled with enormous natural beauty and filled with dozens and dozens of some of the least reached people groups in our world today, each people group with a rich cultural heritage and language of its own. This is a  picture was taken 26 years ago with our very good friends David and Janie Howell sometime right before we got on the plane in Birmingham, Al headed for Thailand.

Below is a picture 2 months after we arrived in Thailand 26 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. Also in the picture was our very first Thai helper named Jit who became a part of our family for many, many years.

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” and 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. We believed this language school would be a tool in the future that God could use to facilitate church planting not only in Chiangrai but in other places in Northern Thailand.

26 years ago we did not see the future very clearly at all but we loved God, trusted God, and knew God well enough to place our future in His hands and 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 26 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. Please take a couple of minutes and be encouraged by one of my favorite songs. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0FBb6hnwTo

Let me be perfectly clear: Your life matters. 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 26 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 26 years. I pray that God has been pleased with our service and that He will be pleased to allow us to continue 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 knowing that our lives really do matter.

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.

The last thing we would ask that you pray for is a very short trip back to the USA. Because of Covid and the construction of this new facility God has graciously given to us, I have not been able to visit in the USA for over 5 years now. One of my awesome Thai staff – Ball – and I will begin our trip tomorrow after our church service here at Baan Athitaan to begin the long journey and will arrive in Birmingham, Al late Monday evening. We will be traveling to see our adult children living in the States as well as trying to visit as many people as we can and would appreciate your prayers. We will be a part of our home church’s Global Impact Conference at Shades Mountain Baptist Church in BHM from January 25-29^th. We have “A Taste of Thailand” scheduled at Crosspoint Church in Gulport, MS on Feb 1 and will be speaking in one of the morning services on Feb 2. We have another “Taste of Thailand” scheduled at FBC Florence, MS on Feb 8 and will be speaking in the morning service on Feb 9. These are our confirmations so far.

Until the People in and around Northern Thailand know Him,

Michael for the NTIM, GLS, and BAC teams

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Donations can be given through NTIM, P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL 35260 USA  Online giving can be done at our 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