“I want my life to be changed completely, I want to follow Jesus and get baptized”- said a young lady, who comes from a very strict Buddhist family. A few months ago, she started to come to our church by driving on a bicycle a long distance. She was having a strong desire to be with Christians. I wrote about her before, thank you for keeping her in prayer.
As Noon shared her story, we learned that when she was in the first grade, that this was the first time when she met a Christian, who became her friend. From that time, she saw that Christians are different people and she liked it. Now attending high school, God sent her another Christian man in her class, who shared the Gospel with her and other friends and invited her to church. When Noon came to Church she asked for a Bible, she likes to learn about God and wants to know more and more. One day she asked if she can help in Sunday school because she wants to hear more Bible stories. “I want to change my life; I want to be Christian! I see that Christians are very special people, I feel accepted and loved, I want to be Christian so that other people around me feel the same way!” When we shared the Gospel and as soon as she prayed and accepted Jesus, she wanted to share the gospel with her friends and family. Now Noon and two other young men are expressed their desire to be baptized and show family and friends their decision to follow Jesus. We are very thankful for your prayers and God’s work in the hearts of young people. None of the family members support Noon in her decision. But we pray that God will open their hearts for the Gospel. One Saturday, Noon wrote that her grandparents don’t let her go to church on that Sunday. We prayed and asked God what we can do in this situation. Next week we visited Noon and her grandparents, with whom she lives. We didn’t know what to expect, will they accept us, or will be angry. God answered, they were not just glad to meet us and we’re very kind that invited us again for a dinner with all extended family.
Even though they are not supporting Noon to change their religion and be Christian, but they are not against her going to Church, even to be in one of our worship groups. she loves to play musical instruments and sing for God. Please keep Noon and her family in your prayers that her kind grandparents would believe and come to Christ!
We really believe in the power of prayer
and experienced many answered prayers! Thank you for being a part of this
ministry. May God richly bless every one of you.
Dear Church, thank you very much for your
participation by prayer and financially. By God’s grace, we had an opportunity
to make a youth camp with a mission in the South of Thailand. It was a blessing
for our youth, from two of our “Avoda” projects, to have a fellowship and serve
together through children camp and mercy ministry, helping local people in the
South. The church where we had our camp, doesn’t have children ministry
because there is no one who can lead it. We expected not a big number of
children to come, especially because it’s a Muslim area. The first day was
beyond our expectations because God brought more than 50 children and young
people, some came with their Muslim parents, two of them continued to come for the
next few days. Children were happy to participate in all the camp activities
and learn together how we can see God through creation, listen to Him, and talk
to Him. When we asked at the end who has ever been in a camp like this, and who
has ever heard about God and Jesus before, guess how many hands were up? Only
one. One boy, out of 56 children and teens said that he heard about God before.
What about the other 55 children, what about their families?
We realized, that God brought us to the right place, these
people need Jesus! Now we have a burden to pray for God to send the right
people to serve there and might be for us to visit that place more often.
Besides kids camp, we had an opportunity to serve the elderly in this church.
Most of them came to Christ after the tsunami that happened here many years
ago, some don’t have any family members who would take care of them. Thank God,
we could give some food packages to families, share about God’s love and help
some in repairing some houses. Some of our youth members also come from needy
families, but it was so nice to see them giving caring for others. When we were
leaving, we didn’t promise, but we said we hope to come again at least next
year. They are waiting. Please pray for us to do this and also for the faithful
people to come and serve there.
Our God is great! We have very good news: The new generation is not interested in drugs anymore, because most of the young people go to church!
The area where our church is located is called the “Golden Triangle”, and famous for its opium-growing past. Almost every family is affected by drugs, whether selling, using, or having someone in prison for this cause. Recently one of the families was reunited with their father after 11 years of being in prison. But the good news is: in this particular village, the new generation is not that interested in drugs anymore, because most of them go to Church! Yes, you heard this right: Most young people in our village go to church. Praise God for such a big change! A few years ago our church had only girls and ladies, and a few small boys. If you visit us now on Sunday you will see that more than half of the congregation is now boys and young men. Some are very interested in learning about God, some come with their friends, some even helping in leading worship time on Sunday’s. One of our Sunday school groups is only boys! Praise God! It’s a big field to raise these young people for God’s kingdom, who will faithfully serve Him and do His will. We can witness God’s great work and answer the prayers of many. Please continue to pray for God to lead us and give us wisdom.
Another blessing is that God brings people from different tribes. One Saturday, when we had a school at our church, one lady came and asked us to pray for her. She was willing to stay the whole time, till we finished with the children. Her request was about her health. As we talked, she said that long ago her family was Christian and then because of social pressure in the village, they turned to worship spirits. But now they decided to come back to God and leave the village where they lived. We prayed with her and invited her for Sunday Service, and she accepted an invitation. On the next day more than 10 people, that are close to her and her extended family, came to church! Some of them continue coming, we pray that God would give them courage and strength to stay strong in faith.
Thank you again for your faithful support and prayers, may God richly bless every one of you!
Ps.22:27 “All the ends of the earth will remember and
turn to the Lord,”
Dear Church, thank you very much for your faithfulness
in your prayers and support. We are glad to see God’s work here.
It was Sunday morning when we saw a new face at our church. We noticed her interest in reading the Bible and participating in worship with all her heart. She introduced herself and said that she was very happy to be here. As we learned later, Ching* comes from a Buddhist family. She heard about God from her friend and was very interested to learn more, now, when she started high school, one of her classmates was a Christian who invited her to come to church. Ching rode her bicycle for a few kilometers on hot days to get to church. One day we were taking her home after evening Bible study and she asked: What does it mean to be a real Christian? I want to be a Christian! What do I need to do? We had a good talk before we arrived at her home. She asked us to stop next to one of the houses, where she secured the bicycle and happily went home. The bicycle she was using was not hers, she borrowed it. Ching continues coming to church and Bible study. Today she asked if she could have a Bible and read it at home. She is happy to come and help with children in Sunday school. Ching wants to learn more about who God is and she hopes by helping to teach children she would learn more. It’s only God who works in the hearts of people, changing them from the inside. We also thank God for another lady, who comes with her son. She said that she learned about God before and for some reason, was not going to church for a long time. She brings her son to Saturday school and comes together on Sunday. She wants her son to know God and glad to spend time with Christians and pray together.
Praise God we started a new school year, every Saturday more than 40 children come to learn English and the Bible. We are very grateful for our local helpers who are helping in teaching and growing in service for God! We would like to tell you that every
15 $ – would be spent for a small daily snack for
children
30$ – for small monthly prizes for children
30$ – to equip teachers and helpers monthly
We appreciate
any amount of your investment! We can surely say: God provides!
Thank you
very much for being co-workers in God’s work. May God richly bless you and give
you strength and wisdom!
The Life of elderly people in our village is not easy, especially with the language barrier. Even though they live in Thailand they speak their tribal language. Some of them come to our church with their grandchildren. God put a desire on our hearts to organize a group for the elderly, where we can study the Bible in their language. This is a spoken language and doesn’t have its own alphabet. Thank God that we can use audio Bibles, listen together, and discuss what the Word says. We often use pictures for better understanding.
At this point, we have 3-5 elderly women who come every week. In the beginning, they were too shy to pray out loud, but later two of them encouraged others. As we talked about God’s love, we asked them how they see that God loves them. One of the ladies gladly answered: “I was going to Church, but it was so hard for me to hear and understand and I felt sad about it. But now God told you to come and have time with us, where we can study the Bible, Thank God, He really loves me!”
When they come and share about their life of the past week, we hear from them how other people react to them when they speak about God. “Oh, I don’t think you can go to Heaven, because I remember you worshipped the strong spirit, he will not let you go.” – and our sister answered: “My God is the strongest Spirit, and will easily take me!” These 70-year-old and older ladies are full of energy, happy, and glad to share about God with their generation and people younger than their age. Please pray for their faith to grow and be bolder in reaching others. Please pray for us to have wisdom in continuing this ministry.
Tong* was born into a big family where everything went well until his parents divorced. His parents moved to different cities. At a young age, Tong moved to live with his aunt and cousins, hoping to find acceptance there. For a few years, it was a good time, till one of his cousins got married and before moving to the house with his wife, he asked Tong to leave and to move somewhere else.
It was not easy for him to accept the new reality with all these changes. Tong was in middle school when he started to live with his relatives in a big city. During all this chaos, God was there! Not far from the place where Tong stayed, was a Church. Tong started to attend the Church and learned about the One who loves him. Tong learned to play guitar and made new friends. But it didn’t last long. After a year he needed to move and he started to live with his grandparents, where the whole family stayed in one room. His sleeping place was under the TV. God didn’t make a mistake this time either. That was the place we met Tong. He started coming to Church and made new friends. Despite all rejection in his life, God accepts him and he tries to live his life for Him. Since he loves to play guitar and joined our worship team. He shines when he plays for God. God gave him the talent to write songs. His biggest dream is that one day his family will be together.
Your prayers and support help young people like Tong, Few, Tiew, and many others, to see the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, to accept Him and grow in knowing Him more and more. When we talked with our youth we asked: How do you see your life in 5, 10, 15 years? Tong answered that he would like to be a policeman, learn the law, protect Christians and support the Church, that Og (our other young men) wants to open up in the mountains, where there are not many Christians.
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During this time when young people have a lot of free time, we were able to purchase some digital learning programs, and they can come to church and learn guitar, piano, ukulele, typing on the computer, and more. They also learn the Word of God and find wisdom for the Christian life.
Thank you very much for your prayers and support, we
can see God’s hand in it.
Please pray for every young person in our church to grow in the faith and make the right decisions and for the project “letters from God” which has been created for every child to learn about the bible through the mail. Please pray for us as leaders, we need God’s wisdom and guidance.
