This update will be a little bit different
than our regular updates. Today, I want to share some thoughts with you that I
have been reflecting upon regarding what I believe is on God’s heart and how
that relates to us and God’s work here in Northern Thailand.
Many of you reading this email do not get
Facebook and that is fine, but those of you who do have Facebook are much more
aware of what great things God has been doing in this part of His world. We
have chosen to use Facebook primarily for ministry purposes so that you will
better know what is going on here and how you can join God in what He is doing
in this part of His world.
A couple of days ago, I shared some of
these thoughts on Facebook as I do quite often but realized that many of you do
not use Facebook and thought these thoughts would be a blessing and an encouragement
to you. Our Great God is alive and well transforming people’s lives in Northern
Thailand. Many of these new followers of Jesus are the first persons in their
entire family to follow Jesus.
Words cannot express the great joy I have
in my heart when I reflect upon the last 20+ years our family has lived in
Thailand and the awesome experiences we have had. We have had so many
opportunities to learn how to walk with God in obedience in the work He has put
in our hands to do.
I want to ask that you would stop reading
and take a moment and click on this video clip and watch it first. Then come
back and read the rest of my comments.
Please watch the video before reading on if
you can.
This video also reminds me that
God is currently at work, and He will continue to be at work in reaching some
of the least reached people and people groups in our world today until the Lord
Jesus comes again. But at this time, in this place, at this moment, God is at
work changing lives in Northern Thailand and invites ordinary people like you
and me to join Him in His great work whether that is through praying, through
giving, through advocacy and mobilization, through going short term, or like
us….going for as long as God wants you to go.
This
video reminds me of the strategic nature of teaching English through a
legitimate platform like Grace Language School and how teachers and volunteers
play such a vital role in being the hands and feet of Jesus. During this time
this video was produced, we had a team from our home church - Shades Mountain
Baptist in Birmingham, AL and another team from Hunter Street Baptist in
Birmingham, AL working together with us for the glory of God.
PRAY
FOR 2 VOLUNTEER TEAMS THAT ARE PREPARING TO COME IN THE NEXT TWO WEEKS
Please
pray for the team from our home church – Shades Mountain Baptist Church from
Birmingham, AL - and the team from another partner Church in Mississippi from
Gulfport named Crosspoint Church. Both of these teams will be with us in less
than 2 weeks. We love volunteer teams from churches. They help us in so many
tremendous ways.
This
video also reminds me that God has been calling people from all over the world
to join hands together with us - originally through the IMB, but after 2005
through the formation of NTIM, Grace Language School (previously the Lighthouse
Language Center), and through the establishment of a new type of church in
Northern Thailand called Baan Athitaan Church. God is truly transforming lives
and we want to thank you for your faithful partnership with us.
This
video reminds me that God is in the business of making disciples and transforming
lives every day like Nong Faa and Nong Ao as the first followers of Jesus in
their entire families. Both of them are from the third largest unreached people
group in Thailand, the Khon Mueang, where not even 1 in 100 people know Jesus
as their personal Savior. This 3rd largest unreached people group has
7 million people living in Northern Thailand.
This
video was shot on March 16, 2008 - during a time of great growth and expansion
of God's Kingdom here in Northern Thailand. A few years earlier, we went
through a very difficult transition time of leadership and direction and great
uncertainty about the future, but we had a confident faith that we were being
obedient and faithful to God’s call to pour out our lives into the people here
in and around ChiangRai and stay the course God had set for us. One of our life
verses has been Proverbs 3:5-6 which says, "Trust in the Lord with all
your heart, do not lean on your own understanding but in all your ways
acknowledge Him, and HE WILL DIRECT YOUR PATHS." God has truly directed
our paths.
GOD
HAS DONE GREAT THINGS. We consider it a great honor that the Lord has allowed
ordinary people like us to join Him in what He is doing. We are very excited
about the great things our Lord is doing and will be doing in the days ahead
for the expansion of His great kingdom.
As many of you reading this email know,
we here at NTIM are in the process of saying to the darkness here in Northern
Thailand that "God's work is here to stay." We started making that
statement after we purchased land in 2017 and are currently making that
statement as we have begun the construction process of a permanent multi-purpose
building called the Lighthouse Learning Center. Here are a few pictures that we
just taken this morning as I walked and prayed around the property.
We
are still in need of raising about $300,000 USD to complete the building. We
thought we might be able to be in the building before Christmas but looks like
it will be the first of next year if things go with the current plan and the
Lord provides us with the additional needed resources. Please pray for us as we
seek to expand God’s Kingdom among the Unreached In greater ways in the days
ahead and say to the darkness very clearly “God’s work is here to stay.”
Thank
you for your love and partnership with us over the years. Some of you reading
this have prayed for us every day since before we arrived in Thailand on
January 13, 1999. This has been God's idea and vision and He deserves all the
praise for the hundreds of lives that have been transformed by the cross of
Jesus in this very unreached part of God’s world. We are so thankful we didn’t
quit when times were difficult, but by the grace of God we have stayed the
course and tried to be faithful to obey all of God's directions for our lives.
May God be honored and pleased with both our lives and the work He is doing in
and around Northern Thailand.
To
God be the glory for the great things He has done.... and is doing.... and will
do in the days ahead! Not for the glory of a man or of men, nor for the glory
of an organization, but for the glory of the One who chose to leave His throne
in heaven and become a man, to go to the cross and pay the ultimate penalty for
the sins of all men, and then to empower His followers to go to all the
unreached people groups of the world today with the message of our Savior,
remembering that "all authority has been given to Jesus" and that
Jesus said He will build His church "and the gates of Hell will not be
able to stop it."
May
God continue to be pleased to use broken vessels like us for His glory and the
advancement of His Kingdom.
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
-----------------------------------------------------------
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 reaching some of the least reached people groups in our world
today and are focused in the heart of Southeast Asia where poverty is high, educational
needs are great, unreached people groups (UPGs) are all around us, and the love
and message of Jesus is needed to transform lives.
