Thailand Update - Flooding, Disaster, & Emergency Relief – Sept 13, 2010

Flooding in Thailand affects hundreds of thousands of people every year. It not only destroys lives but destroys houses, farmland and carries bacteria and parasites in the water that cause sickness to hundreds of thousands of people in Thailand.  Floodwaters in Thailand are normally full of parasitic leeches, human waste and bacteria that causes skin infections and fungus.

Attached is a link of pictures that we took this morning of flooding as a result of heavy rains over the past several weeks. All of these pictures were taken within a 15 kilometer radius of Baan Athitaan Church and most of them within 200 yards of the church. Also included are pictures at the Family Learning Center where school was closed today due to flooding.   http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=24338&l=1691966a95&id=141698185871002

God has burdened our hearts to see if we can begin raising funds to help with some of these disasters that happen like this. When we look closely at Jesus’ mission statement and at the way He lived out the Gospel during His 3 years of public ministry, we find that He always expressed His love and devotion to God in compassionate ways that reached out to the downcast, the distressed, the hurting, the sick, the poor, those in bondage, and the needy. As followers of Jesus, our love for God must be expressed in these same compassionate ways.

This Saturday a group of about 14 people from Baan Athitaan Church are going on a mission trip to Huay Khu Village, a Hmong village about 3 hours from the city of Chiang Rai. We are going to help a small church in that village rebuild their church that was destroyed by strong winds just a few months ago. We had hoped to raise enough funds to replace this very weak bamboo structure with a more solid block structure and anticipated spending less than $2,000. That may not sound like much but to those of us who live in this part of the world that is a lot of money.

Our church took up a special offering and tried various ways to help raise these funds here and praise God, we have been able to raise a little over $500. That is not enough to put up a block structure that we had hoped, so we will be putting up a very similar bamboo structure on this trip. It simply reminds me of the truth that because the Christian population in countries like Thailand is so small we still desperately need resources from Christians from other parts of the world that have a heart for missions.
We would like to do so much more and need your partnership to make that happen. Would you please pray about making a donation to NTIM and mark it “For Disaster & Emergency Relief” so that we will be able to use that in the future for assistance with flooding victims, or even for help in rebuilding churches that have been destroyed from strong winds or flooding.
Your Servants to the Nations in and around Northern Thailand,
Michael for the Team
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Your donations to NTIM are making a huge impact in the lives of people. They help us connect people in need with people who care. 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