REACHING NORTHERN THAILAND as the salt and light of Jesus -An NTIM Field Update – Update December 03, 2024
Dear Family, Friends, Partners in Ministry,
As I begin writing this update, I am sitting at my desk in Northern Thailand, drinking a cup of coffee, sitting in our new building, and reflecting and thinking about the goodness of God and what God might want me to share with you today.
Since you have not heard from us in quite a while, let me just take a few moments and walk you through certain things that are going on that will help you know how to pray for us.
Let me begin by saying that even though our world may seem to be falling apart, God’s work of redemption, reconciliation and restoration is continuing to flourish here in Northern Thailand. Here are a few things that we see God doing in this part of His world.
* GOD IS AT WORK BUILDING HIS CHURCH
Baan Athitaan Church (House of Prayer Church) started in October of 2001. Which means that God has been building this local church in the heart of lostness for a little over 23 years now. Our first service started as a house church in our home shortly after we had moved from Bangkok to Chiangrai. The first Sunday consisted of 8 people, my family of 6, and two other teachers who had joined us for this new school/church planting effort. Since that day some 23 years ago with 8 people, God has allowed us to join Him in reaching into the families of people from many different unreached people groups who have never, ever had a person in their entire family heritage to become a follower of Jesus, yet…. God has been working. As I reflect on the last 23 years of life in Northern Thailand, God has allowed us to be a part of seeing dozens and dozens of people become the 1st person in their family to become a follower of Jesus. God then radically transforms their lives and they begin to lead their friends and family to Christ and others come and join us in this great word God is doing to build His church and what a joy it has been to God continually lead to grown both in quality of Christlikeness in a very broken world, but not only have we grown in quality, but God has continually led us to grown in quantity and we are yet again at one of those growth stages having had as much as 268 people in our worship service just a couple of Sundays ago. At last count, we have over 23 different language groups represented in our church flock. It is truly a taste of what heaven will be like.
As we grow, we are intentionally trying to put in new things that will help us build up God’s people and prepare them for the future. Here is a short video clip of our “children’s church” group from just a couple of Sundays ago as we celebrated Thanksgiving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGHqPMctpjIMany of the people we see come to Christ are the first person in their entire family to become an authentic follower of Jesus Christ. Please keep us in your prayers as we sense a great move of God during this time and as we begin to approach the Christmas season where Thai people seem to be very open to hearing the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
* GOD IS USING TEACHING ENGLISH CLASSES THROUGH GRACE LANGUAGE SCHOOL TO BUILD BRIDGES TO THE HEART
As many of you know, one of our most effective outreaches into the community here in Northern Thailand is through the avenue of teaching English through a genuine English language school platform called Grace Language School (GLS). It is also our legal platform where we can get a teaching visa
s and work permits and work as English teachers who are “ON MISSION.”GLS was originally designed to target junior high, senior high, and university age students but we also have a number adults that also study with us a couple of evenings each week. There are also a few children’s homes that are a part of our church family that we bless in a special way by giving them scholarships to study at GLS. Over the 20+ years of teaching English, we have seen hundreds of people begin their journey of become genuine authentic followers of Christ by studying English at GLS and what was formerly known as the Lighthouse Language Center. Pray for us as we are always in need of good Native English Teachers who want to build relationships with Thai students for spiritual purposes. Please remember to pray for our current teachers by name: Hope, Michael, Becky, Dallas, Liz, Daniel, Vinnie, Jay, & Ball (and pray for God to send us a few more teachers).
*GOD HAS GIVEN US AN AWESOME ESL OUTREACH FOR CHILDREN ON SATURDAYS
Several years ago we saw the need to open up an ELS outreach to children grades 1-6 in our community. This has been a great way for our church – Baan Athitaan Church – and our school – Grace Language School – to work together in reaching the precious Thai children. This is also a time where we get to train and equip some of our university students in teaching as well. Please pray for us as we continue to grow.
We are running about 70 children every Saturday. Please pray for all of those involved in the Children’s ESL Outreach program on Saturdays.GOD IS USING VOLUNTEERS FROM USA - TEAM FROM SHADES MOUNTAIN BAPTIST CHURCH from Birmingham, AL.
We love 0ur home church of Shades Mountain Baptist Church. They support us though prayer, through giving throuh NTIM, through sending “care packages” to Hope and me several times each year, and by sending volunteer teams to assist in God’s Work on the field. We were blessed to recently have 4 of my very good friends, Tom Boston, Richie Bruce, Donald Wood, and Steve Foster come and spend some time with us and host 3 significant “Seminars” on “Managing Money God’s Way,” incorporating stewardship/leadership and principles in Scripture.
The seminars were done in English and one of my awesome Thai Staff named Ball did all of the translation for this project including both the live seminars as well as all of the booklets and handouts. We were able to do one Seminar here in Chiangrai province, one in Nan province, and the final one in Lampang province which is about a 3 hour drive from Chiangrai. We are so thankful for Tom, Richie, Donald, and Steve for making this trip, for putting together some very helpful material that was thoroughly Biblical and practical.
Here is a picture of the team praying and having a meal with my awesome Thai staff at a local Japanese restaurant.
*GOD IS EQUIPPING THE NEXT GENERATION – Theological Education Through a Parnership with Thailand Baptist Theological Seminary (TBTS) in Bangkok using Our new Building As A Host Extension Center in Northern Thailand
We believe in joining God in equipping Thai leaders and helping them to grow in their ability to lead. Over the last 10 years, we have been very intentional about inviting guest speakers who are very capable Bible teachers to come for a week or two weeks and dedicate that time to equipping our full-time staff with both Biblical knowledge and skills to interpret the Bible as well as equipping our full-time staff with other leadership skill like “time management,” “team building,” and many other topics. But God has opened up a door for us to be a host Extension Center for because of the COVID problems we have not been able to have any volunteers come from out of country and God opened up a door for Theological Education. What a great blessing this has been and we would ask that you specifically pray for Ja, Jay, and Ball as they are studying in this extension center while working full time. Also remember to pray for Pat as she taking two Seminary courses on line this term. Please pray for them and for their growth as a new generation of church leaders.
* OTHER AREAS OF PRAYER WE WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU
I love this time of year. It is a time when Christians all over Thailand will be given numerous natural ways to share the love and message of Jesus with many who have never heard.
Every year NTIM, Grace Language School, and Baan Athitaan Church make intentional efforts to care to reach out to make the most of the time and financial resources that God has given us to share the love and message of Jesus in Northern Thailand.
Many of you know that we live in a part of the world where less than 1 out of every 100 people know Jesus as their personal Savior. Put another way, 99 out of every 100 Thai people are without a personal relationship with Jesus and many have never even heart the message of Jesus. Lost without Jesus? Yes, 99% of almost 70 million people.
There are also over 70 different ethnic unreached people groups that live in this country…some of these UPGs are some of the last reached peoples in our world today. We believe God wants many of these precious people to come to know Jesus this Christmas season, but we need your help to do that. Many of the events that we have been planning require your help and we are asking that each of you help in one or all of 3 ways:
1) Please Help by PRAYING - Pray for our planning process that God would guide us to do what He wants us to do and say what He wants us to say and “love on” the people He wants us to “love on” especially during this Christmas season.
2) Please Help by GIVING - We are asking God to sell a few cows and send $6,000 to $10,000 to NTIM. Please prayerfully consider giving a donation to NTIM to help us cover our Christmas evangelism outreaches. Your financial investments allow us to be your hands and feet 24-7 here in the heart of the 10-40 Window.
3) Please Help By Asking Others To Pray.
We are excited about all that God is doing on this side of the world and thanking God for each of you and your partnership with us for the sake of the gospel.
Your Servants to the Nations in and around Northern Thailand for Jesus sake,
Michael for the team
"...Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:10-11
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Financial support can be given through NTIM....
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.
You can send donations to support God’s work to NTIM. All donations made are tax deductible and can be made either online at www.gontim.org or mailed to NTIM, P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL 35260
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