Dear Family, Friends, and Partners in Ministry,
First, let us say Merry Christmas from the other side of the
world in Northern Thailand. Hope and I are enjoying all of the festive outreach
activities of Christmas and wanted to wish all of our family, friends, and
partners a very, Merry Christmas and to ask you to join us in a very special
prayer request today on the Christmas Eve.
Here is a picture that was taken two days ago as me and our
NTIM Thai Staff and partners in ministry celebrated our Staff Christmas time
together like we do each year. These are some of the best Thai Christian leaders
in the country that I get a chance to work with every single day. When we had
our “outing,” we played some games and sang some Christmas/worship songs. I then
shared a devotional with them on what it means “to be a servant of God.” We
then reflected on the year and each one shared what God has been teaching them
over 2025. After a great time of sharing, we ate some delicious food and
exchanged gifts and just had a really good time together with the joy of the
Lord in our hearts at the season of Joy.
Today, we are writing this update to ask for your help.
We have a very special prayer request. God has been using
our English language school platform in mighty ways to bless the 1.5 million people
that live in the province of Chiang Rai. This next month on January 13, 2026
will be our 26th anniversary of beginning our journey with God in
Thailand as we landed in Bangkok on January 13, 1999. We studied Central Thai
in Bangkok the first two years before we moved up to Northern Thailand in July
2001 with a sense that God wanted us to use the platform of teaching English to
begin the process of being salt and light in our community and letting our
relationships, not the classroom, be the way to build a bridge to the hearts of
Thai people and begin a new church plant out of those relationships which has
now become known as “Baan Athitaan Church.” God has used our school, our Teachers and
Staff, our church, and lots of volunteers from all over the world to open doors
of opportunity to see hundreds of people from some of the least reached people
groups in our world today, come to know our Lord Jesus as personal Savior and
Lord of All. Many of these former students have become the first person in
their entire family history to be a follower of Jesus. Our church today is
filled with dozens and dozens of genuine 1st Generation followers of
Jesus from many different people groups.
We want to say Thank you for your partnership with us
through NTIM in this journey of joining God in what He is doing and wants to do
in the days ahead in this part of God’s world.
For a little over 3 years, we have sensed God’s leadership
to take a step of faith and reach out into the province of Payao just South of Chiang
Rai to do two things: 1) establish an English education extension of our
language school and 2) to initiate the planting of a new church connected and
seen as a church plant of Baan Athitaan Church from Chiang Rai. After sharing
this vision with a NTIM partner church from Gulfport, where Israel Cox serves
as Pastor, God began working in the hearts of Doug and Paulette Piper, drawing
their hearts to except this invitation through to be the “champion” of this new
NTIM project we are calling “Project Payao.” As a partnership between
Crosspoint church and NTIM, Crosspoint sent the Pipers here a little over 2
years ago. They are in the final phases of their “full-time” language study,
and we are beginning to plan to “commission them” and send them into new
territory sometime in 2026, Lord willing. Doug has recently signed a rental
agreement on a building that we hope will be approved by the ministry of
Education of Payao for use as “Grace Language School – Payao” sometime in this
next year of 2026, as our Lord leads us.
After sensing the time was right to begin the formal
administrative process of opening an extension of our language school in
another province, 5 of our Grace Language School (GLS) leaders (Michael, Doug,
Ja, Jay, and Ball) made our first trip last Friday, December 19th,
down to meet with the Ministry of Education of Payao to introduce ourselves and
tell them of our desire to open an extension of GLS in Payao and asked them for
their guidance and support in this process. Today, we are writing to ask you to
pray for grace and favor from the government in Payao province and to pray for
all of us who are working as a team to do all of the necessary paperwork needed
to complete our English language platform in this new province. These are
exciting days for us as we seek to expand the work that God has already started
here in Thailand. We just want to follow His leadership and do all that God
wants us to do for such a time as this and for the advancement of His kingdom.
Please keep us in your prayers.
I am also asking all of our supporters to consider giving a
“one time Christmas gift” to help us continue reaching and discipling true 1st
generation believers and share with all Thai people that “there is salvation in
no other name than Jesus.”
Many of you already 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 (of which there are 70
million) are without a personal relationship with Jesus and many have never
even heard the message of Jesus. Lost without Jesus? Yes, 99% of almost 70
million people. There are also over 70 different ethnic unreached people/language
groups that live in this country…some of these UPGs are some of the least
reached peoples in our world today. That is why your giving matters, your
praying matters, your going matters. It matters to God, it matters to us at
NTIM, it matters to the Thai people, it matters to the great commission, and it
matters to all of those people whose names will one day be written in the
Lamb’s book of life in the days ahead, in part, because of your partnership
with us and with NTIM.
We are excited about all that God is doing on this side of
the world and we are thanking God for each of you and your partnership with us
for the sake of the gospel. Here is a video clip of another baptism that we
just had a few weeks ago on December 7, 2025
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzmMuNbCLRg
Thank you for sending us and supporting us as we join God in
this great work of reaching what I call the “Last Frontier” of unreached people
groups living in and around Northern Thailand right in the very heart of
Southeast Asia.
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 for online giving: 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 some of the least reached people groups in God’s World, through education,
through acts of love and compassionate as the light of Christ. This is what
NTIM and our ministry team is all about.
