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

Your Giving to God’s work through NTIM Is Making A Difference - Update June 3, 2025

As I sit down to write this thank you letter, I am reminded of the awesome reality that GOD IS AT WORK changing lives and allowing us to join Him in reaching into some of the least reached people groups in the entire world. Your partnership in giving is what allows us do make a difference for the Kingdom of God in a very dark part of God’s world. Every day is a new day to join God in what He is doing in drawing people to Jesus who are from some of the least reached people groups in our world today. Many of the new believers are what we call 1^st generation believers and the first person in their entire family to become a follower of Jesus. One of the people groups that we would ask you to pray for are the 3^rd largest and unreached people group in Thailand with over 7 million living in Northern Thailand and 99 out of every 100 people are still lost without a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Below is a prayer card that you can print out and put on your refrigerator or in your Bible to remind you to pray for the unreached people group we encounter every single day of our lives here in Northern Thailand. Below in the prayer card is a picture of Ja who just reached her 22 year of serving the Lord with us on June 1^st. Please read the Bio on the prayer card. Your giving to NTIM goes to support us as we build up leaders like this as well as reach the least of the reached here in Northern Thailand. Your giving really does matter.

I can confidently say to each donor that gives to NTIM that when you give to NTIM, you are giving to an organization that God is using in extra ordinary ways to make disciples of some of the least reached people groups in our world today. I can confidently assure you that NTIM is committed to using the donations you entrust to us to go directly to the work on the field. Not even one percent of your donation goes to administrative office type expenses in the USA or any executive salary in the USA but 99+% of your donation is sent directly to the field and the field missionaries and nationals handle both the actual work of the field and most administrative issues. I am pleased to inform you that none of our board members neither wish to receive a salary nor do they receive a salary for their services given to NTIM but all of our Board Member services are voluntarily given because it is one way that we can serve the Lord and join God in doing our part of the great commission. Even though my family personally receives support on the field, all of my services as the Vice President and Director of Field Operations are done as a volunteer just like the rest of our Board Members.

We know that each of you are concerned about the integrity of funds for your donations and with all the bad news out there these days, we don’t want you to lose heart in giving because there are good non-profit organizations out there like NTIM that are doing tremendously good work for Jesus and for His Kingdom and they need your support. Our Lord Jesus encourages us to store up treasures for ourselves in heaven and giving to NTIM is one of those ways you can do that. Thank you for partnering with us and trusting us enough to freely give so that God can continue to use NTIM, Grace Language School, Baan Athitaan Church, and other partners to reach some of the least reached people groups in the world.  If you have internet access and want to see a short summary of the work of NTIM, here is a link to our work:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIgWaSlFo64&t=167s It is a little old, and we will be working on a new video soon, but it helps you see some of what we do.

When God called us to Thailand, He was calling us to a ministry that is committed to taking the gospel of our Lord Jesus to where millions have never heard. Some of the least reached people groups in our world today. God has called us to invest our lives in making disciples of all the nations, and we are beginning to see God move in mighty ways.  We are writing you today to say thank you for the donations you have already made. Thank you. We are also writing you to ask if you would consider becoming one of our monthly key financial ministry partners through Northern Thailand Impact Ministry, if you are not already giving. Your giving matters to the expansion of God’s kingdom in and around Northern Thailand.

If you would like to know more about what it means to reach the least of the least, you can check on this link: https://gontim.org/understanding-the-task-of-reaching-unreached-people-groups-2

Giving through NTIM is one way that you can store up treasures in heaven and allow us to be your representatives to the nations in and around Northern Thailand. Thank you for your investment in the past and thank you for considering giving in a greater way in the future. As some of you know we are in the middle of expanding God’s work here in Northern Thailand and have started a new church planting project called “Project Payao” which I will write a separate update on here in the next week or so.

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