To Thailand With Love from Mississippi - 2025 - 11 - 25

As I sit here in the cool weather at the very top of one of the most beautiful mountains in Northern Thailand called Doi Mae Salong. I am sitting at a desk at a community school listening to one of my Thai team members assisting one of my Friends from Mississippi teach English in one of our projects we call “English Fun Day.” As I sit here and write this update, my heart is overflowing with love and thankfulness to God for allowing this normal, ordinary man, who has been touched by an extra ordinary God, to experience love and grace of our wonderful God who loves us and wants us, as followers of Jesus, to join Him in His work of taking the love and message of Jesus into all the unreached people groups of our world today as Jesus commissioned us in Matthew 28.

Today we simply and clearly testify and to say that there is great indescribably joy and peace knowing that you are living exactly where God wants you to live and doing what God wants you to do. God gives us many wonderful ways that we can serve and honor God with our lives. One of those ways that God has led us to join Him in what He is doing in our world is that we have joined God through the 501c from the USA called NTIM. www.gonitm.org  NTIM is one of the tools God is using to facilitate the gospel of our Lord Jesus and those who want to take that gospel and go into the heart of the Buddhist world through a very intentional strategy of teaching English.

We teach English as a platform to build relationships with people who do not know Jesus and we “Build Bridges” to their hearts by loving and blessing their lives with helping develop their English language skills. We don’t just teach English well, but we do it with integrity and with legitimacy and not as a front or pretense for evangelism. We believe that it honors God when we work with integrity as English teachers to teach English as our “work permits” give us permission to do. We do not use the “English classroom” to preach the gospel but we use the “English classroom” to teach English with integrity and build relationships of love and mutual respect. As we build these relationships, these relationships naturally lead to discussions of beliefs, values, and discussions of the meaning of life. It is in this context of relationships, not the classroom, that God often opens natural doors to share the love and message of our great Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. 

Thank you for your continued prayers and financial support for this amazing work that God is doing in one of the least reached areas in our world today. Even in the midst of millions who have still yet to hear the message of Jesus clearly and where there are still thousands and thousands of families where there have never, ever had anyone in their whole family heritage become a follower of Jesus. But God is at work changing people’s lives. God has raised up an English language platform to build a bridge to the hearts of our students and many of our students begin or complete their journey toward becoming followers of Jesus. Because teaching English is so relationship intensive, God has given us a great platform to build healthy relationships that lead us down the road to not just teaching English skills but sharing our very lives and the values that we hold dearly and what a joy it is for us when some of our students want to hear more about Jesus and How God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their lives. So, please remember to pray for Grace Language School and for all of our teachers including: Becky, Daniel, Paulette, Doug, Hope, Michael, Ball, Jay, Boom, Ja, and Pat. Please also remember to pray for Liz, Dallas, and their two children Mary Ella and Theo who also live here in Chiangrai. Here is a picture of our NTIM Grace Language School team that was taken at the beginning of this year.

One of the greatest ways people from the USA and other parts of our world can help us is to bring a team of native English speakers to come and help us go into one of the Thai schools and give them a chance to interact and enjoy speaking English with native English speakers.

We love receiving volunteer teams and what a great joy it is when friends bring a team to help us reach out into our community from the great state of Mississippi. All 5 members on this mission team are all members of FBC in Florence, Ms where Bro. Sam Taylor serves as Pastor. One of the members of this team, Joshua, came out for the first time about 10 years ago as best I can remember. This is the first time for 3 of the other team members to come and serve with us: Kellie, Darlene, and Melanie. The last member of this team and the team leader Beverly Bridges, has become one of my closest friends and also serves as a Board member of our NTIM Board. This is not her first trip, or her second or third trip. No, This is her 18^th time to come and serve with us on this side of the pond. Beverly has been coming almost every year since 2008. She loves the Thai people almost as much as I do. Let me be clear: WE LOVE IT WHEN OUR FRIENDS AND PARTNERS COME and help us reach the various Thai unreached people groups living in and around Northern Thailand.

When I started writing this update yesterday, we had just arrived at a school and did an English Fun Day at a school in Doi Maesalong. Here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Please keep us in your prayers as we seek to live out Galatians 2:20 which says, “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me and the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loves me and gave Himself for me.”

May God bless each of you for your prayers and your gifts given in the name of our great Savior Jesus Christ so that all Thai people have a chance to become followers of Jesus Christ.

Until all the people living in and around Northern Thailand have a chance to become followers of the One True God and His Son Jesus Christ.

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.

Reaching, Teaching, Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving some of the least reached people groups in God’s World, through acts of love and compassionate as the light of Christ. This what NTIM and our ministry team is all about.

PRAYER REQUEST for FREEDOM in Christ for Thai people - July 5, 2025

Dear Family, Friends, and Partners in Ministry,

I am sitting in my office on Saturday afternoon, July 5, reflecting on the wonderful outreach yesterday as we helped all of our friends and neighbors celebrate God’s hand in bring the great nation of the USA into existence.

We started cooking, yes, hamburgers and hotdogs, in the early afternoon and brother Doug and brother Gary cooked until about 6:00 in the evening. They cooked about 300 hotdogs, and about 300 hamburgers.

We also have an awesome partner church, Crosspoint Church, from Gulfport, MS that has a team of 9 people with us and they all managed the Carnival games yesterday that started and 4:00 PM and lasted until about 6:00 PM. Here are a few pictures from our Carnival games time and food time.

We love it when volunteer teams come from churches to help us reach into some of the least reached people groups in our world today. Here is a picture of the team that is with us at this very moment along with Doug and Paulette Piper who have been sent from this church and serve along side us through NTIM and are in language school preparing to help us launch “Project Payao” likely in the early part of Next Year. More on “Project Payao” in a future update.

We just wanted to thank you for praying for us on a regular basis and for praying for our wonderful outreach on the 4^th of July from the other side of the world.

Please pray for our Grace Language School team and the Crosspoint team as they did an English camp this morning with about 60 Thai children grades 1-6 that study English with us every Saturday morning. Here are a couple of pictures from today.

Then on Monday we will do an English Fun Day outreach at a school in Payao, which is the province south of Chiangrai. And then on Wednesday, we will be doing another English Fun Day outreach in Ball’s home town of Tueng. Pray for us as we go into our community as salt and light and with the greatest message the world could ever hear.

Thank you for your prayers and financial support to be able to reach into the darkness personally with the message of our great Savior.

May God bless each of you for your prayers and your gifts given in the name of our great Savior Jesus Christ.

Until all the people living in and around Northern Thailand have a chance to become followers of the One True God and His Son Jesus Christ.

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 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. 

Reaching, Teaching, Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving some of the least reached people groups in God’s World, through acts of love and compassionate as the light of Christ. This what NTIM and our ministry team is all about.

Your Praying for God’s work through NTIM Is Making A Difference in Thailand – Special Update #1 - June 17, 2025

We want to take the next several updates and share with you an area where God is at work in a special way transforming lives. Today is Special update #1.

We are all familiar with the English version of the heart of Jesus commission that encourages us to send people into every part of the world to share the gospel. But there is a short phrase in this commission that was written in the Greek language that is powerfully clarifying and sheds a new light on what Jesus was really saying. This phrase is transliterated as “Panta ta ethne” and is normally understood as “all the nations.” Jesus has sent us to take the message of our Savior to all the nations. Yes, that is true but what I want to highlight for you today is the last word in that phrase “Panta ta ethne.” “Panta” is translated “all.” And “ta” is a particle and is translated as “the.” And the last word “ethne” is the word I want to focus upon today. It is the Greek word that we get the word “ethnic” from. It is the equivalent of an ethnic group or as Linguists would put it, the equivalent of a “people group.”

What is a “people group.” It is a group of people who have their own separate language and cultural orientation. So, when Jesus was saying go into “panta ta ethne,” Jesus was not saying go into all the geopolitical countries in the world. No, He was not saying that, even thought that is how most English readers have understood this commission in the past. No, What Jesus was saying with “panta ta ethne” was to go into all the people and language groups in our world with my gospel.

When our family moved to Thailand on January 13, 1999, some 26 years ago, we had no idea that Thailand was made up of over 100 different people and language groups that still have very different cultural differences as well as a completely different language. All Thai people are educated in what we call the “central Thai language” but most people in Thailand grow up in a home where they speak a different language before they ever begin to go to school and learn Central Thai. This is especially true in Northern Thailand. I rub shoulders every day with people from the Mueang people group, with people from the Akha people group, with people from the Hmong people group, with people from the Lahu people group, with people from the Central Thai people group and many, many others. I share this background information with you so that you will know better how to pray for the “panta ta ethne” that live in and around Northern Thailand. Today like in our last update, we want to ask you to pray for the 3^rd largest unreached people group in Thailand that primarily live in Northern Thailand and are the old “Lanna People” who ruled this part of God’s Word as the “Lanna Kingdom” years ago which means the land of a million rice fields.

Two of my Thai staff – both Ja and Ball – are from this very large unreached people group made up of about 7 million people. Both Ja and Ball were the first persons in their entire family to become followers of Jesus and what a great joy it was just this past Sunday to have Ja’s father both in my Thai adult Sunday School class that I teach as well as him joining us for the first time ever in our church service. God is transforming the lives of people in this unreached people group and God has given NTIM great access and opportunity to impact this people group with the Gospel of Jesus.

On Easter Sunday, each of our Thai staff shared a personal testimony of how God was changing their lives. We recently put the video clip together and posted it on YouTube so that you and all of our other friends could hear these testimonies for yourselves.

Here is the link to Ja’s testimony from this past Easter Sunday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppMsRqtBn2k

Here is the link to Ball’s testimony from this past Easter Sunday as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CafnKDkDeWk

Here is a picture of a prayer card that gives you some details on this people group (ethnic group) we are asking you to pray about today.

Here is an example prayer that you might consider offering up to God.

“Oh, Heavenly Father, thank You for Your love for all the people groups of the world. We also recognize that there are still countries in your world today that still have very little access to the message of the gospel. We also have heard that Northern Thailand is one of those places where only about 1 in every 100 people have a personal relationship with You which means that 99 out of every 100 people are lost without the gospel. Thank You for raising up an organization like NTIM that is sending people and resources so that the people living in and around Northern Thailand can hear about our Savior who offers salvation and forgiveness of sins. Michael has asked us today to pray specifically for Ja, for Ball and for the whole Muang People group that you might draw them to Yourself and build both Ja and Ball into great leaders to make disciples of their own people group. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen”

Thank you for your partnership in the gospel getting into Northern Thailand and for sending us this place in such a time as this.

Please remember that your praying matters to NTIM and to all the people living in and around Northern Thailand. James 5:16 says, “…the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.’

Until the people in and around Northern Thailand know Him,

 

Michael L. Johnson, Vice President and Director of Field Operations for NTIM

www.gontim.org