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 over 1 month ago on
November 1 as we partnered with the Christian Club at Mae Fah Luang University
and had a very large outreach to the university community.
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. Some have already happened and some are in process.
November 1 - Christmas Outreach at Mae Fah Luang University - We are blessed to be located very close to two universities in our city.
We have always had a huge heart for reaching these young people and we recently
had a chance to bless them in a special way this year. We worked in partnership
with the Christian Club at MFLU as well as with various churches to reach out
to the university students at MFLU on November 1. There were skits, dramas,
music, a time to share the message of Christmas, and several church booths.
December 02 – Youth & University Student Christmas Celebration - We are blessed to be located very close to two universities in our city.
We have always had a huge heart for reaching these young people and we will
have a chance to bless them in a special way this year. We have also always
had a special place in our hearts for young people and are happy for a couple
of children’s homes to be a part of our church family. This evening all of
our young people from grade 7 up to being a university student will be
celebrating Christmas together. Pray that God would bless these future
leaders of Thailand. Pray for all of us who are involved in discipleship of
these future leaders as well.
December 9 – Christmas Caroling in Chiangrai God has given us great favor with our community. We love to gather at the
church as a large group and walk down the streets to various homes and shops
and sing Christmas carols to our neighbors. Then when we are done with our
neighbors, we all pile into various trucks and then go singing Christmas
Carols at various businesses that we frequent and then go carol at various
people’s homes. We love to sing praises to God and lift up His name in this
place where the message of Jesus needs to be heard and the transformation of
lives is on God’s heart. Please pray for listening hearts as we sing
Christmas carols to our neighbors in Thailand.
December 12 & December 14 – Awesome Volunteer
Teams Arrive – A team of 3 people from FBC Florence, MS and a team of 5
people from Crosspoint Church in Gulfport, MS will be arriving soon 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 14 – English Fun Day with Christmas theme in a School in our New
Neighborhood. 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 14, we will be going into a school in our new neighborhood
where we live and putting on an English Fun Day with Christmas as our main
theme. Pray for the hundreds of students that we will be around this day.
December 15 – 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.
December 15 - Christmas Outreach at Chiangrai Rajabhat University. We are blessed to be located very close to two universities in our
city. We have also been invited by the Christian Club at Rajabhat University
Chiangrai to join them in helping with their Christmas Outreach following our
Coffee House Outreach. This is the first year will have been involved in this
Christmas outreach and grateful for the opportunity to reach out this evening
with the message of our great Savior.
December 16 - Baan Athitaan Church's Main Christmas Outreach Program - In my 23 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. We will have hundreds of people at
this event on this evening and some will be hearing the message of Christmas
for the first time.Please pray for a
special touch from God. We will have skits, dramas, music, food, fun and a
time to share the message of Christmas, and an evangelism booth. During the
message time I will be sharing about “Christmas is for All People” We want to
be used of God to bring people to the throne of Grace tonight. Please pray
for us. Here is a short video clip from our outreach 3 years ago in 2019.
December 17 – 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.
December 19 – English Fun Day with Christmas theme in a School in the Province
of Payao. Through our English language platform
called Grace Language School, God continues to gives us great access to
millions of people who live in and around Northern Thailand from many
different unreached people groups. On December 19, we will be driving South
for about 1 hours into the next province and putting on an English Fun Day
with Christmas as our main theme. Pray for the hundreds of students that we
will be around this day. This is an intentional effort to plow the ground in
a province where we are sensing God’s leadership to consider planting an
extension of GLS in connection with a possible church plant in the future.
Pray for God to lead and to bless all of our efforts.
December 22 – Michael & Thai Staff Christmas Outing - God has provided us with some awesome Thai partners in ministry over the
years that love the Lord and want to join God in His great work of
redemption. It is Michael’s great privilege each year to take some time away
from our busy Christmas outreaches and spend a few hours in quality time
celebrating Christmas with these Thai partners. Please pray for our 6 full
time Thai national partners (Jay, Ball, Ja, Boom, Bee, and Pat) and for
Michael as they spend some time away celebrating Christmas together probably
somewhere in the mountains for a few hours. Here is a very short video clip of
our last Staff Outing. It was awesome.
As most of you know, God has given Hope a very special role at the Chiangrai
International School (CRIS) as Head of School. Both Liz and Dallas have also
been involved in part-time teaching at CRIS as well and they are also
preparing several Christmas events and would ask you to remember to pray for
God’s blessings on them and their outreach at CRIS.
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 Telling Others Of This Opportunity To Help.
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
