“Urgent
Call To Prayer” - A NTIM Field Update - March 16, 2024
Dear
Family, Friends, Partners in Ministry,
This will not be long but very important. As I begin
writing this prayer request, we have a large rented bus out front waiting to
load about 30 children and 11 adults to go from our “KIDS ESL PROGRAM” field
trip outing today.
Please pray for an extra measure of grace and God’s
blessing on this awesome opportunity to take the kids and a fun filled morning
to Singha Park and interact in English with these 30 or so Thai children. Pray
that God would open the hearts of these children as we have fun together and
explore some of God’s creation including a small zoo inside Singha Park.
As I begin writing
this update, I am sitting at my desk in Northern Thailand, drinking a cup of
coffee, and thinking about the goodness of God and what God might want me to
share with you today.
Since you have not heard about our children’s
English Outreach in quite a while, let me take 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.
Jesus loves children.
And children love Jesus. It is amazing how children seem to have this “6th
sense” about people and they respond well to people that they sense are “safe”
people.
One of the ways we
serve God here in Northern Thailand and reach out into our community is through
a partnership with Grace Language School and Baan Athitaan Church. It has been
my honor a privilege to lead both of these organizations from the time we founded
them 23 years ago.
*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. Before Covid we were running about 70 children every
Saturday. However, since covid those numbers have dropped to somewhere around
50. Please pray for all of those involved in the Children’s ESL Outreach
program on Saturdays. As I write this update, there are 6 different groups of
Children studying English in our new – multi-purpose facility called the
Lighthouse Learning Center. Our Thai Staff, under Ball’s leadership, along with
several of our church’s awesome university students, lead this ESL Children’s
outreach. Please pray for Ball, Ja, Jay, Pat, Boom, Pa, April, Mrs. Becky and Paulette
as they help with our ESL Outreach to Children.
Please pray for us
and for this outreach. Please pray for our special children’s ESL outing to
Singha Park on Saturday March 16, 2024.
Please pray for what
God is doing right here in the heart of Southeast Asia. As Henry Blackaby has
said many times, God it truly at work all around us and He invites us to join
Him in what He is doing.
We love you and miss you, but at the same time, are very happy to serve our
Lord Jesus in this place, among these people, at this season in life, and for
God’s redemptive purposes.
May God richly bless
you. Thank you for your kindness and generosity and for sending us to Thailand.
Any gift you would like to make toward our normal, everyday ministry, no matter
how small or how large, helps us reach people who are the first persons in
their entire families to know Jesus.
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.
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, AL35260
If you would like to get on our email update
listing, please send me an email at pray4ntim@gmail.com
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. Believe
it or not, our first Christmas Outreach event began several weeks ago when we
had an awesome team from a Partner church in Australia with us for a week. We
did several English Fun Day outreaches where we shared about Christmas and we
were able to put on a Chrismtas Program in an area where they had never ever
had anyone do a presentation of Christmas. This was a good partnership with
some of the IMB folks that live in this part of God’s world as well.
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 usto do and say
what He wants us to say and “love on” the people He wants us to “love on.” Pray
that we would "seize the day" as the Christmas season is the most
natural time of the year for us to talk about the message of our great
Savior. Pray for our awesome staff and team. Pray for those who we partner
with in ministry. Pray for the thousands of people who will hear the message
through our very words this year. Here are some of our planned events.
December 13 & December 14 – Awesome
Volunteer Teams Arrive – A team of 8
people from Crosspoint Church of Gulfport, MS arrived on December 13 along
with a team of 3 people from FBC Florence, MS arrived on December 14 to help
us with our Christmas outreaches. Praise God that the covid pandemic it now
behind us and God has opened up the doors for partner churches to come and
help us reach Thailand again. Please pray that all of us would be the light
that lights up the darkness with the love of our great Savior.
December 15 - Baan Athitaan Church's Main Christmas Outreach Program - In my almost 25 years of living and serving in Thailand, I have found
that the most natural time to share the message of Jesus is the Christmas
season. It has also been my experience that many people open their hearts to
Jesus during this season and become the first follower of Christ in their
entire family. Let that sink in for a moment. Last night we had over 500
people at this event and some were hearing the message of Christmas for the
first time and several of then it was the first time they had even been to a
church. We hqe skits, dramas, music, food, fun and a time to share the
message of Christmas, and an evangelism booth. During the message time I shared
about “Christmas is for All People.” Thank you for praying for us. Please continue
to pray for those who heard the message of Jesus for the first time to
continue to be drawn to wanting to know more about Jesus.
December 16 – Children’s ESL Christmas Outreach (Grades 1-6) - God has given us great access into our community through teaching
English.We teach English to not only
young people and adults but also to children. We teach children grades 1-6
every Saturday morning and we will have an awesome time helping these
precious ones celebrate Christmas. Pray that God would draw these little
hearts to Him as we have a special program for these children this Saturday
morning.
December 17 – Christmas Outreach to Akha
Village where Boom’s mom lives. God has given
us great access to many different people groups. One of those people groups
is the Akha people group of which one of our Thai staff is from. Please pray
for us as we do this outreach this coming Sunday night. Pray that God would
draw the heart of the Akha people group to Jesus.
December 18 & 19 – English Fun Days with
Christmas theme in two Different Government Schools. We have an English language platform called Grace Language School that
gives us great access to millions of people who live in and around Northern
Thailand from many different unreached people groups. On December 18 &
December 19, we will be going into two different schools and putting on an
English Fun Day with Christmas as our main theme. Pray for the hundreds of
students that we will be around these two days.
December 19 – Coffee House Christmas - Teaching English at Grace Language School is one of the natural ways
that we build relationships with our students with an intentional commitment
to sharing the message of Jesus. We love to do these Coffee Houses in the
context of fun activities. We are so thankful to have the Volunteer Teams
from the US with us to help us in our outreaches. This will be a natural time
for us to share the good news in the context of warm relationships with our
students. We want our students to understand that the one who created them
loves them deeply and has a wonderful plan for their life. Pray for God’s
working through this coffee house to draw some of the least reached peoples
in our world today into a relationship with their Savior.
1) Please Help By Praying . . .
2) Please Help By Giving . . .
We are wanting to provide good quality evangelistic programs that touch
the heart. We do not consider these "expenses" per se but rather
"investments" into the lives of people for the Kingdom and glory of
God. 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.
Many people want to give in a special way at Christmas to a good cause
that will really make a difference in people's lives. However, they just
don't know where there is a need. This may be an opportunity for you to help
your family and your friends know where their donation can make a huge
difference for Jesus among some of the least reached people in our world
today.
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
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 to
NTIM are tax deductible and can be made either online at www.gontim.org or
mailed to NTIM, P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL35260
If you would like to get on our email
update listing, please send me an email at pray4ntim@gmail.com
As I am sitting here writing this update, it is
still Thanksgiving in the USA and we are wanting to simply wish all of our Friends,
Family, and Partners in ministry a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Here is a link to the Thanksgiving message that
I shared with our church family here in Northern Thailand. It is a short
encouragement where I walk us through Psalm 92 where God’s Word says it is good
to give thanks to our Great God.
We also had a very wonderful time with our Annual
“Night of Giving Thanks” through music. We have not yet finished editing the
one from this past Wednesday but thought we would give you a change to listen
to the one we did just a year ago. Here is the link for that:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvrZlOn6x2A&t=2965s
Please pray for us as we have already begun our
Christmas outreaches and will be celebrating a Christmas program in an area where
there are no churches in several villages and tonight will be the first time
hundreds of people will hear the gospel for the very first time ever.
Closing Personal Thoughts from Michael.
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.
This
coming January 13, 2024 will be our 25th anniversary of arriving in
Thailand and joining God in His work in Thailand. What an awesome journey these
last 25 years has been.
Happy
Thanksgiving.
Until all
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.
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
I am sitting here at my desk this morning and thinking
about this very important Prayer Request that we are asking all of you to pray
about. We live in a broken world that is filled with grumbling, complaining,
bad attitudes and just flat-out negative propaganda leads us down the path of discouragement
in many areas of life if we are not careful.
One of the ways that we try and offset that
negative trajectory here in Thailand is to provide “camps” from time to time
that are intentionally designed to put us back on the paths God has for us and
to rekindle the flame in our heart for both continuing to walk with the Lord
and helping train others how to walk with the Lord.
God has blessed us with an awesome facility that
we use as an English Language School, a ministry headquarters for our two
foundations, and as our place to meet as a church family called Baan Athitaan Church.
But God has also entrusted this facility to us to be used to bless the larger Christian
community including the Northern Thailand Baptist Church Association (NTBCA),
of which we are an active member. The
NTBCA has asked for us to host what we are calling a “Camp” for all of the churches
in our association. The Camp begins tomorrow (Thursday) at noon and goes until
Saturday at noon.
We are expecting somewhere between 200 – 300 to
be in attendance with some traveling as long as 4-5 hours to be with us. Some
people will be staying in our classrooms that have been converted into bedrooms
for the camp and others will be staying in surrounding hotels. Here is a picture
taken just a few moments ago before we begin tomorrow.
It is a big event for us and our Thai staff have
been very busy getting us ready for this camp that we hope provides strong encouragement
to our Baptist brothers and sisters all over the Northern Part of Thailand to
live out this verse found in 1 Corinthians 15:58 that says, “Therefore my
beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the
Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
I give you all this background so that you may
know how to pray. Please pray for us over these next few days.
Soon I will give you a more thorough update on
the ministry but it was important for me to ask you to pray specifically for
this “Camp” in this update.
God is truly moving in the hearts of people in
Northern Thailand and we here at Baan Athitaan Church in Chiangrai Thailand
have said to our Lord, “Here we are, Lord, use us. We want to join you in what
you are doing in the lives of people.”
As you think about missions, please remember
Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM) and all the Christian organizations that
are connected with NTIM.
Please also remember to pray for me as a Bible
teacher. One of
the most important things that I do as the Pastor of Baan Athitaan Church is to
seek God’s counsel about what God wants us to Study together on Sunday
mornings. I have about 30 minutes every week to speak to our church family.
Sometimes we study through a book of the Bible. Sometimes we might take a theme
and look at that. We are now looking at 17 of most often taught about topics of
Jesus.
Here is the youtube link of a message that I
shared with our church a few weeks ago on “What Jesus Taught on the subject of
love”
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.
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
I am sitting here at my desk this morning and
reflecting on the peace and joy that has filled my heart as I reflect on this
past Sunday and I have felt compelled to write this newsletter update and give
you a chance to rejoice with us knowing that God is using your donations and
your prayers and your partnership with us to truly make an impact on people’s
lives here in Northern Thailand. Not only does your gifts and donations go to
help support us but they also go to support our Thai national staff who serve
the Lord with all their heart.
Most of you know Ja and know of her loving and
caring heart. We just celebrated her serving God with us for the last 20 years
on June 1st.
Ja is more than our finance/accounting person
even though she does that role well. She also serves as one of our key “mentors”
for the first generation of believers that come to know Jesus here and also
serves as an excellent children’s teacher and helps us head up our Thai Children’s
church.
This last Sunday July 16, Ja had around 40
children (grades 1-6) in Thai children’s church. She was teaching on the
subject of the Kingdom of God and how Jesus instructed His disciples to not
forbid the children from coming to Jesus but that the Kingdom of God welcomes
the little children to come to Jesus. It was in this context that Ja felt the
presence of God and felt an urge in her heart to explain the gospel and invite
any of these children that wanted to accept Jesus as Savior and come into the
Kingdom of God. God was truly moving in the hearts of these children and eleven
(11) of the forty (40) children repented of their sins and trusted in Jesus as
their Savior. Wow. The Bible tells us that the angels in heaven rejoice over 1
person who repents and turns to Jesus. Well, it is with great joy that we share
with you that not 1, not 2, not 3, but 11 children repented and turned to Jesus
and had their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life this past Sunday.
God is truly moving in the hearts of people in
Northern Thailand and we here at Baan Athitaan Church in Chiangrai Thailand
have said to our Lord, “Here we are, Lord, use us. We want to join you in what
you are doing in the lives of people.”
As you think about missions, please remember
Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM) and all the Christian organizations that
are connected with NTIM.
Please also remember to pray for me as a Bible
teacher. One of the most important things that I do as the Pastor of Baan
Athitaan Church is to seek God’s counsel about what God wants us to Study
together on Sunday mornings. I have about 30 minutes every week to speak to our
church family. Sometimes we study through a book like we just finished studying
through Proverbs. Sometimes we might take a theme and look at that. About 10
years ago, A Bible teacher went through and counted the different subjects
Jesus taught on and the counted how often Jesus taught on those subjects. Then
he published this information on a post that we are going to use simply to
identify the top 16 topics we are going to look at over the next 16 weeks.
Please pray for us as we started this 16 Topic
series this last Sunday. Here is a link to the message from this last Sunday
which was on the most often taught on subject by Jesus: God.
“My heart is full today as I have taken some
time to reflect over the last 47 years that I have been a follower of Jesus
Christ and I just want to say to the Lord in this public setting "Great is
thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me. Thank you for letting me be a child of God and
letting me be an ambassador for You to this great country of Thailand for the
last 24 years of my life. I can truly say from my heart along with the writer
of Lamentations that "The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease and
His mercy never fails. They are new every morning and great is His
faithfulness." Lamentations 3:22-23. I can also affirm what Jeremiah said
in Jeremiah 17:7 that "Blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose
confidence is in Him."
Please remember to pray for us as we continue in
obedience to seek to join God in what He is doing and wants to do here in
Northern Thailand.
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.
