Providing Hope In Northern Thailand - Update April 23, 2021

 PROVIDING HOPE IN NORTHERN THAILAND -An Update on the Building and Capital Campaign– Update Apr 23, 2021

So many of you have written and asked about our “Capital Campaign called “Building Hope in Northern Thailand” and our multi-purpose building progress. We sent out a rather detailed update on February 6, and this update will be similar to that one but with some updated progress on the building.

As I shared with you in February, we must first confess that we are totally blown away by both the mighty hand of God to provide resources and we are also blown away by the generosity of the people whom God has surrounded us with who have generously given more than we could ever ask or think. We are overwhelmed with gratitude and humbled when we think of the generosity of our friends and partners in ministry through NTIM even in the midst of a horrible world-wide health pandemic that our world has not seen since World War 2.

As we shared with you in our update in February, “As of an email I received on January 29, 2021 from NTIM’s Treasurer and good friend Donald Wood, we have not only reached the $300K goal but have exceeded that goal and have received $320,350 designated for this building. Wow. Words cannot express the gratefulness in our hearts to each and every contributor and to the God who not only gives us vision and His direction for advancing His kingdom, but who also moves in the hearts of His people to give toward that vision that will advance the message of Jesus in some of the darkest corners of God’s World today.”

Our God, who is rich in love and mercy and in lovingkindness, has not forgotten some of the least reached people groups in our world today and we believe that this mighty show of provision affirms that the Lord is clearly leading and guiding us forward to finish this strategic building project.

The building progress is coming along well. We are in the final stages of designing the stage and internal props. We are very busy with paining and finishing touches. We have finished the huge concrete handicapped access ramp. We have put up a retaining wall in a portion of our land that was more like a “ditch” and today finished filling in 41 truckloads of new dirt giving us a much larger area of usable land. After the rainy season and the land settles, we will be working on a few projects like “Thai style Outside Kitchen,” “a Sala and eating area,” “an extra restroom and shower facility,” “an extra guest Housing quarters,” “Landscaping” and some small projects that can be done after our initial move in time frame.

Many have asked about our “move in date” and we are planning on moving everything in July and that looks like a very probable date.

Here are a few recent pictures taken today – April 23, 2021.

Here is our Facebook link to all the pictures taken on Apr 23, 2021 –

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=www.gontim.org&set=a.4472297716119344

Please keep us in your prayers. These are very busy days and things in Thailand were getting back to normal so to speak but recently we have been hit with our 3^rd wave of Covid 19 infections and all educational institutions in Chiangrai, including Grace Language School and Chiangrai International School (CRIS) where Hope serves as the Head of School, have been closed to person to person teaching at least until April 30. We have now gone back to online services on Sunday and hope that this does not last very long but we here in Chiangrai still do not have access to any of the vaccines but they will be here soon as I understand it.

Please also pray for us and our normal operating expenses. We are doing fine with all the building expenses but we have gotten really tight with our everyday operating expenses and would just ask for you to keep us in your prayers.

Also, as we shared with you last time, please also remember to pray for our multi-purpose facility. We believe that through this facility, we will establish permanent roots that will continue to allow us to share God's Word with some of the world’s least-reached people groups for years and years to come and to continue to see people become the first persons in their entire families to become followers of Jesus. Just over the last 6 or so weeks we have seen two more Thai people become the first persons in their entire families to become followers of Jesus. One is a nurse at a local hospital and the other of a professor at one of the local universities. Praise the Lord that these two new followers of Jesus now have their names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Again, let me say that this multi-purpose building will speak clearly to the darkness that God's Work of redemption in Northern Thailand is here to stay. It will be the home for NTIM Thailand (Channel of Blessings Foundation). It will be the home for Grace Language School. It will be the home of Baan Athitaan Church.

Additionally, it will allow us to take training and the expansion of God's Kingdom through evangelism, discipleship, and theological education to the next level of impact. We are even praying about the possibility of partnering with a possible Seminary in the USA (maybe one of our 7 SBC ones) that would like to partner with us and open an extension of their seminary here in Northern Thailand in order to provide some solid bi-lingual (English/Thai) theological education. We don’t have any seminary in mind but maybe some of you might know of one that might be a good fit for partnership. Keep us in your prayers as we seek to be the salt and light of Jesus here in Northern Thailand. 

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 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

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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, unreached people groups (UPGs) are all around us, and the love and message of Jesus is needed to transform lives.