Today, September 11, is the official 10th Anniversary of the
existence of Northern Thailand Impact Ministry. After almost two years of
praying, planning, casting vision, organizing, recruiting, installing board members,
and writing up Articles of Incorporation, God allowed David Howell (the
President of NTIM) and I to go down to the Jefferson County Office in Alabama
to register the Articles of Incorporation for NTIM as a charitable, non-profit
organization. That day was September 11, 2007. We are very thankful to God and
to all of our Board Members and Partners and Supporters who have worked with us
over these last 10+ years as we have embraced God's work to take the gospel and
love of Jesus into some of the least reached people groups in our world today
and to make disciples of these truly 1st generation believers. Thank you Jesus,
for letting me and my family be a part of Your great work of redemption and
discipleship in and around Northern Thailand and for not giving up on this
"work in progress" ordinary person called Michael Johnson.
May Your Name be exalted and Your Kingdom expanded all for the glory of Your
Worthy and Holy Name.
"There is no one like You among the gods; O Lord, nor are
there any works like Yours. All nations whom You have made shall come and
worship before You, O Lord, and they shall glorify Your name. For You are great
and do wondrous deeds; You alone are God. Teach me Your way, O Lord, I will
walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your Name. I will give thanks to
You, O Lord my God, with all my heart; And will glorify Your name forever. For
Your lovingkindness toward me is great, and You have delivered my soul from the
depths of Sheol." Psalm 86:8-13
Here is a video on NTIM’s work….
Your Servants to the Nations in and around Northern Thailand,
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, darkness
is everywhere, and the love and message of Jesus is needed to transform lives.
Reaching, Teaching,
Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving People in God’s World through acts
of love and compassionate is what NTIM and our ministry team is all about.
I genuinely love young people. Yes, I love children
and older people as well but I am wired to connect with young people, especially
young people in Thailand both high schoolers and university students. God has
allowed me and our family to be a part of His work of seeing hundreds of young
Thai people give their hearts to Jesus and most of them are truly first
generation followers of Jesus, meaning they are the first or second person in
their entire family to choose to follow Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Our
Thai staff and our Thai church family at Baan Athitaan Church reflect the
reality that God almighty is at work in amazing ways drawing people to Himself
from some of the least reached people groups on the face of the planet. Our
church represents over 23 different people groups, some of which are the some
of the least reached in the entire world today.
Over the 18 years we have served here in Thailand,
we have seen God use many people and many things to help this new generation of
Thai young people have a chance to hear the greatest story of love and
redemption that could ever be told. But how can they hear unless someone goes
and tells them? How can they understand unless someone goes and lives among
them and invests their lives to making disciples from these people? And how can
those people go and God’s work be sustained unless partners like you pray and
give for the advancement of the great commission?
“ENGLISH FUN DAY” for Young People
As I wrote this update yesterday, I was sitting in
the auditorium of a school in the MaeJan district in the province of Chiangrai
just about 20 minutes North of where we live. We were about 30 minutes South of
the border of Myanmar, and about 30 minutes West of the border of Laos.
We are there at the invitation of this very large
school that asked Grace Language School to come and teach English in the format
of what we call an “English Fun Day” for about 120 8th grade
students. The teacher that initiated the request is a former graduate of
Rajaphat University and is one of my former students at Grace Language School
and a good friend of one of our awesome staff whom you all may know as Boom.
We are here with our NTIM/GLS/Baan Athitaan Church
team, along with several university students that we are discipling, and with a
key partner church team that is here with us from Mississippi. Leading this
team is Beverly Bridges, one of our awesome Board Members of NTIM. This is her
10th consecutive year of coming and serving and joining God in His
work among the Thai people of Northern Thailand. We are so thankful for
volunteers and partners that come out and help us expand the kingdom of our
Lord Jesus.
You have heard me say many times that God is using
English in mighty ways to reach the hearts of young people and build His church
in one of the most needy, yet fascinating places in the world – Northern
Thailand.
“ENGLISH CAMP” for University Students
Several weeks ago, Rajabhat University contacted
Grace Language School and asked us to lead and design an English Camp for about
26 university students that are 1st and 2nd year students
majoring in Public Administration.
That camp took place just last week off campus at a
nice resort North of town that was completely funded by Rajabhat University!!!
The camp was all day Friday, overnight Friday night, and Saturday morning. It
was one of the best camps we have ever experienced and are already seeing fruit
from that camp in terms of good friendships and relationships with both the
students and the faculty at the university. Here is a short video clip from that camp.
Make
no mistake about it, it takes a lots of time, lots of love, lots of energy, and
lots of resources to build relationships of genuine trust with people but oh
what a joy it is when we join God in obedience and see Him working in the lives
of others. We are deeply thankful to God for allowing us to be a small part of
His plans to draw people from this part of God’s World to the cross and to a
personal relationship with Jesus.
Thank you for praying for us as we seek to lead
others to Jesus and disciple them. Thank you for coming on mission trips to
help with God’s work. Thank you for giving through NTIM so that we can serve
here and insure that the gospel reaches into some of the least reached people
groups in the world today.
Thank you for sharing with others about our work
and being an advocate for us and for the unreached people groups that we are
targeting.
Short update on land situation.
Many of you have been praying with us these past
two years as we have been seeking the Lord regarding Phase I of our Building
Project. Phase 1 is buying land for building and Phase 2 is the building
process. We are in the final stages of Phase 1. We have now had a contract on a
piece of land for 1 year. God has provided us enough money to buy a piece of
land and we are in the final stages of getting that land transferred into the
name of our foundation. It is quite a long process. We could put it into the
name of a Thai person that we trust but we have always tried to do things with
integrity, according to the laws of the land, and doing things above board so
it has taken us much longer to do things but we are confident that God is
pleased with us being patient and doing everything according to the laws of the
land.
We are hoping to complete Phase 1 very soon and
begin Phase 2.
Phase 2 is the phase where we begin raising funds
for the building and asking God to both send us the funds for the building
process as well as person to be a “volunteer Construction Team Coordinator” who
will coordinate teams to come out and assist with the construction of our facility.
We still cannot decide on the time to begin construction until we have the
government has finalized our paperwork but we hope to be able to make that
decision very soon.
Short update on Caleb and Calvin College.
As most of you know, our youngest son Caleb has graduated from high school and is now with
Hope in North Carolina visiting with our oldest daughter, Jessica, and her
family. They will be going to the Birmingham area soon for a few weeks before
returning to North Caroline before Hope then heads back to Thailand the end of
this month. Please pray for Caleb as he begins to make the transition of
starting University at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI.
Short update on Finances.
Please remember to pray for us and for our support
levels. I REALLY DO NOT LIKE TO TALK ABOUT MONEY but we are deeply in need of
some additional monthly supporters. Not only does the support go to help our
family stay and serve here on the field, but some of it goes to help Liz &
Dallas, some of it goes to help our awesome Thai staff, some of it goes to help
support of keeping our costs down at Grace Language School, some of it goes to
help toward our awesome soccer outreach to university students, some of it goes
to help toward our outreach and ministry to about 30 children who are infected
and affected by HIV Aids, some of it goes to help toward assisting in all the
discipleship work that goes on through Baan Athitaan Church, and some of it
goes to help toward assisting teams when they come out to help us with the
expansion of God’s work and the focus on reaching several unreached people
groups in a strategic way but NONE OF IT GOES FOR ANY EXECUTIVE ADMINSTRATIVE
SALARY!!!! O! Nada, Nothing. Zip… but all of our board members of NTIM serve as
Volunteers for NTIM and the only board member that receives even 1 penny is our
family as field personnel. What an awesome Board NTIM has. Thank you Board
Members!
We would be very grateful to see our number of
monthly supporters increase from about 13 people (included in this number are 4
churches that support us) to about 25 or 30 people (or churches). No amount is
too small and all donations through NTIM are tax deductible and go for a very
worthy cause of “making disciples of some of the least reached people groups”
in and around Northern Thailand.
Something God is teaching me these days…..
Last but not least I want to share a verse God has
been teaching me over the years. It is a verse written by the Apostle Paul to
Timothy basically saying…. Everything that I have ever taught you has been
aimed at one goal….. teaching you how to love… love with a pure heart…. Love
with a good conscience… and love with a genuine faith. Wow. Listen to this
verse from 1 Timothy 1:5 “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure
heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” Life and success is not about
how much money we have, how much status we have attained in society, how many
possessions we have accumulated, how many things we have done, how many places we have been to, how many things
on our bucket list we have been able to check off…no…. when it is all said and
done…life and success is not about any of those things… rather it is about
love… how well we have learned to love God…. And how well we have learned to
express love to others… our family… our church family…. our friends… our
coworkers, our neighbors…. our enemies… and even to our missionaries who
represent us and God’s love in other parts of the world among people who need
to love of Jesus in their lives. One of the key goals of the teaching of the
Bible is to love.
Your Servants to the Nations in and around NorthernThailand,
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, darkness is everywhere, and the love and message of Jesus is
needed to transform lives.
Reaching, Teaching, Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving
People in God’s World through acts of love and compassionate is what NTIM and
our ministry team is all about.
I love this time of year in Thailand. I love the
“Christmas” time of year in Thailand the most but I also love this time of
year. It is a time when schools in Thailand are in session but it is the Summer
time in the USA making it a great time for volunteer partners and churches to
come for a “summer mission” trip and help us in our work of joining God in His
great work of redemption in Thailand.
One of my favorite Christmas songs as a child was
“Go Tell it On the Mountains.”
I love this song but it has come to have a much
greater meaning to me than I ever thought possible. You see, I am just an ordinary
person just like all of you reading this… but my life the last 18 years here in
Thailand have been nothing along the lines of ordinary not because of who I am
but because of who God is and because we have chosen to join God in His desire
for us to be involved in sharing the gospel of our Lord Jesus in this part of
God’s world where 99 out of every 100 people do not have a personal
relationship with Jesus and many of these people have never even had the chance
to hear the message of our Lord Jesus.
Yesterday was one of those days where our team at
Grace Language School, along with 7 university students from Baan Athitaan
Church, and along with our first “mission team” from a great partner church
from FBC Florence, MS and a volunteer from another great partner church from
our home church at Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL worked
together to “go tell it on the mountains.” Yesterday morning we left the church
at 7:00 and went up to the mountains of Doi Chang to teach English for the
purpose of building bridges to the gospel in a village school that is made up
mostly of people from the Akha Unreached People Group as well as the Lisu Unreached
People Group.
Most of you know Boom who is one of our awesome
staff that we are happy to have on our team. Boom is from the Akha people group
and is the second person in her family to become a follower of Jesus. What many
of you do not know is that her older sister – Bum – was the first person in
their family to become a follower of Jesus. Boom’s older sister Bum gave her
heart to Jesus many years ago when she was a university student at Rajabhat
university studying to be a Teacher and became very active in our church while
she was a student.
Today, Bum is a teacher at the school that we chose
to go and help yesterday. Bum is a light shining in the darkness. There are 22
other teachers at this school and there are a few of them that are Christians
but not very strong in their faith. We would ask for you to join us in praying
for the message of Jesus to be heard by every person and that many of them might
give their hearts to Jesus. Also pray for those who have made a decision for
Jesus but have not yet been discipled and learned how to walk with God. Also
pray specifically for Bum as she is a light shining in the darkness. Pray that
her life would continue to reflect the love of Jesus and that her influence for
the gospel sake would continue to increase. Pray that many will come to know
Jesus through her and that God might open up doors in the future to allow us
the opportunity to help in that work of redemption.
It is a great joy for us to have the privilege to
serve God on the cutting edge of so many unreached people groups and have the
opportunity to disciple and train others on how to reach and disciple others
for the sake of the expansion of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus and for His
glory. Thank you for every prayer you have ever offered up on our behalf. Thank
you for every word of encouragement you have sent our way. Thank you for every
care package you have sent to bless our family and team. Thank you for coming
to help and for sending others from your church to help. Thank you for every
donation and gift you have sent to NTIM so that we can continue to live here
and do all that we believe God wants us to do. May God bless you and may God
bless our partnership as we work together to reach and disciple some of the
least reached peoples in all of the world today. Prayers and Blessings from our
team to you.
Your Servants to the Least Reached People Groups in
and around NorthernThailand,
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, darkness is everywhere, and the love and message of Jesus is
needed to transform lives.
Reaching, Teaching, Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving
People in God’s World through acts of love and kindness and for the sake of the
gospel is what NTIM and our ministry team is all about.
I love Easter and everything leading up to Easter and today for some reason I have been reflecting on Good Friday and wanted to share a few thoughts with you.
Most of us do not realize that it was on Friday that Jesus was both crucified and spoke those famous last words “it is finished” while hanging on the cross right before He gave up His Spirit.
The Greek word that was used while on the Cross was “tetelestai.” It is accurately translated as “it is complete” or “it is finished” but there is another aspect to this word that continues to draw my attention. This Greek word “tetelestai” was also used as an accounting term and when it was used in the accounting realm, it literally meant “paid in full.” The debt is cancelled. The word “tetelestai” was the word that accountants would write on bills when they had been completely paid. No more debt is owed. Tetelestai. When Jesus died on the cross, He paid the penalty for sin and there is no more debt to be paid. Tetelestai.
What great news but dear friends, millions and millions living in and around Northern Thailand in some of the least reached people groups in the world today still have not heard this message. Jesus’ task is TETELESTAI but yours and mine are not even close to being tetelestai. Let us be about our Father’s business of taking this message to the ends of the earth ... until all have heard.
As you gather together with friends for a meal or at your church this Easter Sunday, please voice a prayer for the millions of unreached peoples living with little or no access to the message of “Teteestai” and please say a pray for the NTIM team as we seek to join God in reaching some of the least reached with this message.
God is opening some incredible doors for us here in
Northern Thailand and we are just brave enough and have enough faith and
confidence in God to join God in what He is doing. We are called to be the salt
and light of our Lord Jesus and we are pleased to be a small part of what God
is doing in this part of God’s World.
Today we simply want to thank you for your prayers and
for your support and want to give you and update on an exciting time here at
Grace Language School.
As we have shared with you before, God is using our
primary platform of Grace Language School in a strategic way to reach our
community. As current facility is within a 10 kilometer radius of two
universities that teach over 30,000 students.
Not only do we have a strong outreach ministry to
university students, children in the community, but we are at a tipping point
and becoming known throughout the community. Many of the volunteer teams that
have come out over the past 10+ years have helped us become fairly known in the
community and we are beginning to do training in places we never even thought
about before.
Just last Saturday, we were asked to go and provide Basic
English Conversation training for about 50-60 government officers who work in a
school for children who are disabled here in Chiang Rai. Our daughter Liz & Pii Phet took one station, Our son-in-law Dallas & Pii Boom took another station, and Michael & Pii
Jay took the third station. It was great being in the community helping
our community develop their English language skills and being the light of
Jesus in our community as a team from Grace Language School.
Hope was not able to be with us but was involved
in an orphan/widow community project and Pii Ja was holding down the
fort along with some of our university students teaching at our normal Saturday
ESL program at church. Here are a few more pictures of our Teaching Time.
God is continuing to open doors and allow us the
opportunity to go into and engage our community for the sake of the advancement
of His kingdom. Thank you for praying and supporting us at Grace Language
School and through NTIM as our partners. God is using your partnership with us to
advance of His kingdom in Thailand.
As we have shared with you before, over the last 18 years
of living in Thailand and especially since we moved to Northern Thailand some
16 years ago, we have seen literally hundreds and hundreds of people from this
part of God’s world give their hearts to Jesus and many of them become the
first person in their entire family to be a follower of Jesus. One of the significant
touch points God has used over the years has been “Teaching English.” This is
not a “front” to teach the Bible, no, we genuinely teach English with
integrity. We saw God use “teaching English” through the Lighthouse Language
Center that we helped establish while we were serving with the IMB. We have also seen it on an even greater scale
through Grace Language School which we helped establish while serving with
NTIM. Many of you reading this update have been here and have personally helped
move God’s work forward and we say thank you.
But we believe that we are just barely scratching the
surface of impacting this part of God’s world for Jesus. We need your help to expand
the kingdom of God for the glory of God. Will you join us as we join God in
what He is doing now and what He wants to do in the future?
We need your prayers. We need your advocacy. We need your
gifts and donations. We need you to come and help us. We need to fill the earth
with the glory of God and insure that disciples are made of every unreached
people group. I am convinced that we will be blessed in knowing that one day
around the throne of God there will be people from many tribes and nations and
unreached people groups that will be there because we choose to join God in His
great work of redemption.
Prayer Example: “Lord, we have been reminded today of some of the ways You are at work
building Your kingdom in Northern Thailand. We thank You for allowing us as
partners in ministry to be a part of seeing many young people from various
unreached people groups give their hearts to Jesus. We thank You for allowing
us to see how You are using 1st generation believers to reach and
disciple other 1st generation believers. We thank you for the
partnership You have allowed to happen We thank You for Grace Language School
and how you are using them to reach out not only to various Thai peoples but to
Chinese peoples and Laotian peoples, and Burmese peoples and many others. We
ask that You would send them many new people to study English and help those
students be open and willing to build a relationship with these teachers that
leads to the progress of the gospel and discipleship. Thank You for letting us
be a part of Your great work of redemption in Northern Thailand. We pray this
in Jesus name and for the sake of the expansion of His kingdom. Amen.”
Your Servants to the
Nations in and Around Northern Thailand,
Donations can be sent to:
Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM),
P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham,
AL 35260 USA
or given online at our 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,
darkness is everywhere, and the love and message of Jesus is needed to
transform lives.
Reaching, Teaching,
Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving People in God’s World in the heart
of Southeast Asia through acts of love and compassionate is what NTIM and our
ministry team is all about.
We are so very grateful that God called our family to
love and serve the Thai people. As I shared with you last month, on January 13
we celebrated 18 years of “Staying the Course of obedience.” We have seen
hundreds of Thai people give their hearts to Jesus over the last 18 years and
many of them have been the first person in their entire family to become a
follower of Jesus. Many of them are also representatives of some of the least
reached unreached people groups in our world today. God is up to something huge
and we are honored to join Him in His work among the Thai people. In the context of all of that awesome work, God is also
at work in our family building up followers of Jesus from our own children. Today
I want to ask you to pray for three of the young men in our family that live
here in Chiang Rai, Thailand, Joshua, Caleb, and Dallas. God is at work in each
of their lives and I am asking all of our friends and prayer partners to join
us in praying for them as they make some urgent and critical decisions about
their future.
First let me start
with Joshua or Josh and most of us call him. God opened the door for Josh at
the end of last year to go through some training with an organization called Media
Light. Basically, they are a Christian organization focused on helping train
believers in how to use photography and videography as a tool to evangelize, to
make disciples, and to expand the kingdom of God. That kind of training was “just
what the doctor ordered” so to speak for Josh. He loves media and he has been
able to use some of his skills and talents to assist the work of NTIM here as
well. Media Light has opened up a new branch for training in Vietnam and Josh
was recently asked to go and help them as staff on their first “training”
offered through Media Light Vietnam. This is a temporary volunteer training
opportunity for Josh to help others learn some basic skills and we would like
for you to pray for him as he begins to make preparations to assist in this
training and as He raises support for this 10 week “mission opportunity.”
Because we live so close to Vietnam the total cost for this mission opportunity
only comes to about $1,500 but is much more than we have to give him. Would you
please take a moment and pray for God’s leadership in Josh’s life. If you would
like to help support him in this endeavor, you can send a check to NTIM or go
online at www.gontim.org and make a
donation. If you do give, please write me and let me know so I can designate it
properly on my end once a wire transfer is done from NTIM Birmingham.
Secondly, we would
ask you to pray for Caleb as well. Many of you know that He is graduating from
high school here from Chiang Rai International Christian School in May 2017. He
is still in the decision making process of where he feels the Lord wants him to
go to university. Some of that decision making process has to do with
scholarships and funding. He has narrowed his choices down to Samford University,
Calvin College, and Oklahoma Baptist University. He has almost perfect grades
and has been an exceptional student but because we are no longer with the IMB,
even schools like Samford and OBU do not consider us “Southern Baptist
Missionaries” and do not get the funding so it creates somewhat of a hardship
in making decisions about where to go. Please lift Caleb up in your prayers as
he continues to seek the Lord about where he should go to study this fall 2017.
Finally, we would
ask that you pray for Dallas. Many of you know that Dallas is married to our
daughter Liz and they have recently moved to the field to serve alongside us. Liz
works full time at Chiang Rai International School but also helps in the
ministry here in many ways. Dallas, however, is serving with us full time but
on definitely on a very small “missionary” stipend. Dallas has been thinking a
lot about continuing his education and getting his Master’s Degree through a
program in a Seminary in the U.S. that will allow him to still serve here on
the field. They still do not have children yet so the timing is great for him
to do this but we are hoping that he will be able to receive scholarships and
funding so that he will not have to increase the educational debt he and Liz
already have. Would you please also take a moment and pray for Dallas as he
seeks the Lord’s will regarding getting a Master’s Degree.
Thank you for understanding the importance of not
overlooking the discipleship needs of our family while serving on the Field.
Thank You for praying and loving on us.
Your Servants to the
Nations in and Around Northern Thailand,
Donations can be sent to:
Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM),
P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham,
AL 35260 USA
or given online at our 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,
darkness is everywhere, and the love and message of Jesus is needed to
transform lives.
Reaching, Teaching,
Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving People in God’s World in the heart
of Southeast Asia through acts of love and compassionate is what NTIM and our
ministry team is all about.
As I begin to write these words it is Saturday afternoon
here in the beautiful Northern Part of Thailand in the heart of the South East
Asia where God is doing some amazing things. Today we simply want to ask you
bow your heart and intercede for the future of God’s Work here in Northern
Thailand in two specific areas: 1) TRAINING/DISCIPLESHIP OF 1st
GENERATION BELIEVERS and 2) BUILDING BRIDGES THROUGH TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH
GRACE LANGUAGE SCHOOL.
1) TRAINING/DISCIPLESHIP OF 1st GENERATION
BELIEVERS
The first area we would like to update you in and ask for
your prayers has to do with our desire to equip Thai Nationals who serve alongside
us who are from various unreached people groups with “college/seminary level” courses
on various subjects with the goal of helping them be better equipped to “make
disciples” as they mentor and invest their lives into people here from some of
the least reached people groups in the world. We believe that God seeks to use
us at NTIM as facilitators to model, train, equip, and empower Thai nationals
to be on mission with God. As part of that, we have established a “PARTNERSHIP”
between NTIM and Mississippi Baptist Convention to send folks from Mississippi
to teach these “college/seminary level” courses to our staff and a few selected
people who serve as Christian leaders here.
Our first step of
this “Training” has recently taken place. Mississippi Baptist Convention sent
us a wonderful couple out of Jackson, MS named Doug and Jackie Gunn. Doug is a
practicing attorney who is also going to Seminary and who wanted to be a part
of this PARTNERSHIP. We are so very glad that they came.
The course that Doug taught was “Hermeneutics,” which
stated basically is the study of how to understand and interpret the Bible as
it was intended to be understood and then to learn how to apply it to everyday
life. Each of our Thai Nationals, who are each genuine 1st
Generation followers of Jesus being either the first person or second person in
their entire family to become followers of Jesus, were involved in the teaching
as well as another Thai Adult teacher who happens. Each of these 5 Thai
Nationals are not only 1st Generation believers but they are also
each from a very different unreached people group. One person is a 1st
generation believer from the Muang or Northern Thai UPG. One person is a 1st
generation believer from the Mien or Yao UPG. One person is a 1st
generation believer from the Hmong UPG. One person is a 1st
generation believer from the Akha UPG. And one person is a 1st
generation believer from the Central Thai UPG. I did most of the translation
from English to Thai since there were a lot of “technical” terms like
“hermeneutics” and “exegesis” that our Thai folks who all have great English
skills but are unfamiliar with certain technical terms. Dallas, my son in law
that has joined our NTIM team was also able to sit in through this training as
well.
We share all this
to give you an opportunity to see that God is building up a new generation of
followers of Jesus from many different unreached people groups and we want you
to not only know what God is doing but want to invite you to join God in that
work first and foremost through prayer but also through advocacy (telling
others what God is doing), through giving to NTIM (which allows us as an NTIM
Team to do what we do and helps support many of our outreach ministries) and
through coming on a mission trip to help us. Please do not forget to pray for
God’s Work in this part of God’s World. We need your prayers and your
partnership for the expansion of God’s kingdom on His earth.
2) BUILDING BRIDGES THROUGH TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH
GRACE LANGUAGE SCHOOL
The second area we would like to update you in and ask
for your prayers has to do with our primary platform of reaching into the
community and especially the 30,000 university students that live within a 10
kilometer radius of our “rented” facility. This next week we begin receiving
applications to study at Grace Language School. Next week is our registration
week and then the following week beginning Feb 13, we begin teaching a new term
which will last basically 2 months. We will have 21 hours of “class time” with
each of the students that study with us and our goal is twofold: 1) to help them make improvements in their
ability to listen, to read, to write, and to speak English but 2) the second
goal is to provide us as Christian teachers of English an opportunity to build
the quality kind of relationships with our students that will lead to “conversations”
and “testimonies” outside of the classroom that will help people make a step
closer to following Jesus as their lord and Savior.
Over the last 18 years of
living in Thailand and especially since we moved to Northern Thailand some 16
years ago, we have seen literally hundreds and hundreds of people from this
part of God’s world give their hearts to Jesus and many of them become the
first person in their entire family to be a follower of Jesus. One of the significant
touch points God has used over the years has been “Teaching English.” This is
not a “front” to teach the Bible, no, we genuinely teach English with
integrity. We saw God use “teaching English” through the Lighthouse Language
Center that we helped establish while we were serving with the IMB. We have also seen it on an even greater scale
through Grace Language School which we helped establish while serving with
NTIM. Many of you reading this update have been here and have personally helped
move God’s work forward and we say thank you. Here are a few recent pictures of our classes.
But we believe that we are just barely scratching the
surface of impacting this part of God’s world for Jesus. We need your help to
expand the kingdom of God for the glory of God. Will you join us as we join God
in what He is doing now and what He wants to do in the future?
We need your prayers. We need your advocacy. We need your
gifts and donations. We need you to come and help us. We need to fill the earth
with the glory of God and insure that disciples are made of every unreached
people group. I am convinced that we will be blessed in knowing that one day
around the throne of God there will be people from many tribes and nations and
unreached people groups that will be there because we choose to join God in His
great work of redemption.
Prayer Example: “Lord, we have been reminded today of some of the ways You are at work
building Your kingdom in Northern Thailand. We thank You for calling the
Johnsons to Thailand many years ago and we celebrate with them their 18 years
of serving You there. We thank You for allowing us as partners in ministry to
be a part of seeing many young people from various unreached people groups give
their hearts to Jesus. We thank You for allowing us to see how You are using 1st
generation believers to reach and disciple other 1st generation
believers. We thank you for the partnership You have allowed to happen between
NTIM and the Mississippi Baptist Convention and thank you for people like Doug
and Jackie Gunn for going to help equip these Thai nationals in how to better
understand and apply Your Word. We pray that you would continue to lead this
partnership as they think and plan for future courses. We thank You for Grace
Language School and how you are using them to reach out not only to various Thai
peoples but to Chinese peoples and Laotian peoples, and Burmese peoples and
many others. We ask that You would send them many new people to study English
and help those students be open and willing to build a relationship with these
teachers that leads to the progress of the gospel and discipleship. Thank You
for letting us be a part of Your great work of redemption in Northern Thailand.
We pray this in Jesus name and for the sake of the expansion of His kingdom.
Amen.”
P.S. We started a new sermon series that we believe will
be a blessing to your life as well and wanted to make you aware of it and ask
that you listen and get a feel for one aspect of “church life” at Baan Athitaan
Church. Here is the link to our first sermon on the study of the fruit of the
Spirit….
Your Servants to the
Nations in and Around Northern Thailand,
Michael for the Team
Donations can be sent to:
Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM),
P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham,
AL 35260 USA
or given online at our 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,
darkness is everywhere, and the love and message of Jesus is needed to
transform lives.
Reaching, Teaching,
Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving People in God’s World in the heart
of Southeast Asia through acts of love and compassionate is what NTIM and our
ministry team is all about.
