I genuinely love young people. Yes, I love children
and older people as well but I am wired to connect with young people, especially
young people in Thailand both high schoolers and university students. God has
allowed me and our family to be a part of His work of seeing hundreds of young
Thai people give their hearts to Jesus and most of them are truly first
generation followers of Jesus, meaning they are the first or second person in
their entire family to choose to follow Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Our
Thai staff and our Thai church family at Baan Athitaan Church reflect the
reality that God almighty is at work in amazing ways drawing people to Himself
from some of the least reached people groups on the face of the planet. Our
church represents over 23 different people groups, some of which are the some
of the least reached in the entire world today.
Over the 18 years we have served here in Thailand,
we have seen God use many people and many things to help this new generation of
Thai young people have a chance to hear the greatest story of love and
redemption that could ever be told. But how can they hear unless someone goes
and tells them? How can they understand unless someone goes and lives among
them and invests their lives to making disciples from these people? And how can
those people go and God’s work be sustained unless partners like you pray and
give for the advancement of the great commission?
“ENGLISH FUN DAY” for Young People
As I wrote this update yesterday, I was sitting in
the auditorium of a school in the MaeJan district in the province of Chiangrai
just about 20 minutes North of where we live. We were about 30 minutes South of
the border of Myanmar, and about 30 minutes West of the border of Laos.
We are there at the invitation of this very large
school that asked Grace Language School to come and teach English in the format
of what we call an “English Fun Day” for about 120 8th grade
students. The teacher that initiated the request is a former graduate of
Rajaphat University and is one of my former students at Grace Language School
and a good friend of one of our awesome staff whom you all may know as Boom.
We are here with our NTIM/GLS/Baan Athitaan Church
team, along with several university students that we are discipling, and with a
key partner church team that is here with us from Mississippi. Leading this
team is Beverly Bridges, one of our awesome Board Members of NTIM. This is her
10th consecutive year of coming and serving and joining God in His
work among the Thai people of Northern Thailand. We are so thankful for
volunteers and partners that come out and help us expand the kingdom of our
Lord Jesus.
You have heard me say many times that God is using
English in mighty ways to reach the hearts of young people and build His church
in one of the most needy, yet fascinating places in the world – Northern
Thailand.
“ENGLISH CAMP” for University Students
Several weeks ago, Rajabhat University contacted
Grace Language School and asked us to lead and design an English Camp for about
26 university students that are 1st and 2nd year students
majoring in Public Administration.
That camp took place just last week off campus at a
nice resort North of town that was completely funded by Rajabhat University!!!
The camp was all day Friday, overnight Friday night, and Saturday morning. It
was one of the best camps we have ever experienced and are already seeing fruit
from that camp in terms of good friendships and relationships with both the
students and the faculty at the university. Here is a short video clip from that camp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OE4bI13X74&feature=youtu.be
Make
no mistake about it, it takes a lots of time, lots of love, lots of energy, and
lots of resources to build relationships of genuine trust with people but oh
what a joy it is when we join God in obedience and see Him working in the lives
of others. We are deeply thankful to God for allowing us to be a small part of
His plans to draw people from this part of God’s World to the cross and to a
personal relationship with Jesus.
Thank you for praying for us as we seek to lead
others to Jesus and disciple them. Thank you for coming on mission trips to
help with God’s work. Thank you for giving through NTIM so that we can serve
here and insure that the gospel reaches into some of the least reached people
groups in the world today.
Thank you for sharing with others about our work
and being an advocate for us and for the unreached people groups that we are
targeting.
Short update on land situation.
Many of you have been praying with us these past
two years as we have been seeking the Lord regarding Phase I of our Building
Project. Phase 1 is buying land for building and Phase 2 is the building
process. We are in the final stages of Phase 1. We have now had a contract on a
piece of land for 1 year. God has provided us enough money to buy a piece of
land and we are in the final stages of getting that land transferred into the
name of our foundation. It is quite a long process. We could put it into the
name of a Thai person that we trust but we have always tried to do things with
integrity, according to the laws of the land, and doing things above board so
it has taken us much longer to do things but we are confident that God is
pleased with us being patient and doing everything according to the laws of the
land.
We are hoping to complete Phase 1 very soon and
begin Phase 2.
Phase 2 is the phase where we begin raising funds
for the building and asking God to both send us the funds for the building
process as well as person to be a “volunteer Construction Team Coordinator” who
will coordinate teams to come out and assist with the construction of our facility.
We still cannot decide on the time to begin construction until we have the
government has finalized our paperwork but we hope to be able to make that
decision very soon.
Short update on Caleb and Calvin College.
As most of you know, our youngest son Caleb has graduated from high school and is now with
Hope in North Carolina visiting with our oldest daughter, Jessica, and her
family. They will be going to the Birmingham area soon for a few weeks before
returning to North Caroline before Hope then heads back to Thailand the end of
this month. Please pray for Caleb as he begins to make the transition of
starting University at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.
Short update on Finances.
Please remember to pray for us and for our support
levels. I REALLY DO NOT LIKE TO TALK ABOUT MONEY but we are deeply in need of
some additional monthly supporters. Not only does the support go to help our
family stay and serve here on the field, but some of it goes to help Liz &
Dallas, some of it goes to help our awesome Thai staff, some of it goes to help
support of keeping our costs down at Grace Language School, some of it goes to
help toward our awesome soccer outreach to university students, some of it goes
to help toward our outreach and ministry to about 30 children who are infected
and affected by HIV Aids, some of it goes to help toward assisting in all the
discipleship work that goes on through Baan Athitaan Church, and some of it
goes to help toward assisting teams when they come out to help us with the
expansion of God’s work and the focus on reaching several unreached people
groups in a strategic way but NONE OF IT GOES FOR ANY EXECUTIVE ADMINSTRATIVE
SALARY!!!! O! Nada, Nothing. Zip… but all of our board members of NTIM serve as
Volunteers for NTIM and the only board member that receives even 1 penny is our
family as field personnel. What an awesome Board NTIM has. Thank you Board
Members!
We would be very grateful to see our number of
monthly supporters increase from about 13 people (included in this number are 4
churches that support us) to about 25 or 30 people (or churches). No amount is
too small and all donations through NTIM are tax deductible and go for a very
worthy cause of “making disciples of some of the least reached people groups”
in and around Northern Thailand.
Something God is teaching me these days…..
Last but not least I want to share a verse God has
been teaching me over the years. It is a verse written by the Apostle Paul to
Timothy basically saying…. Everything that I have ever taught you has been
aimed at one goal….. teaching you how to love… love with a pure heart…. Love
with a good conscience… and love with a genuine faith. Wow. Listen to this
verse from 1 Timothy 1:5 “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure
heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Life and success is not about
how much money we have, how much status we have attained in society, how many
possessions we have accumulated, how many things we have done, how many places we have been to, how many things
on our bucket list we have been able to check off…no…. when it is all said and
done…life and success is not about any of those things… rather it is about
love… how well we have learned to love God…. And how well we have learned to
express love to others… our family… our church family…. our friends… our
coworkers, our neighbors…. our enemies… and even to our missionaries who
represent us and God’s love in other parts of the world among people who need
to love of Jesus in their lives. One of the key goals of the teaching of the
Bible is to love.
Your Servants to the Nations in and around Northern Thailand,
Michael for the team
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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, darkness is everywhere, and the love and message of Jesus is
needed to transform lives.
Reaching, Teaching, Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving
People in God’s World through acts of love and compassionate is what NTIM and
our ministry team is all about.
