Shalom All,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
Faith comes from trusting the Lord in every way ... for our daily needs ... for the work we do joyfully in His name … that it will bear fruits, and add more to His Kingdom .. How true ... so in Him we Trust and Obey. Hebrews 11 verse 3 says: “By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen”. God called the universe into existence out of nothing, he declared that it was to be and it was. Our faith is in the God who created the entire universe by His Word. God’s Word has awesome power.
During the past 2 ½ months, we were extremely busy with all kinds of Church related activities and so we were unable to update our reports regularly. Most of the time, I was only able to update some of our activities in our Facebook wall.
Recently, my home church, Glad Tidings Assembly of God (GTPJ), Malaysia decided to place us as a mission partner in Bangkok, to help GTPJ to start a community centre, church planting and community outreach. As I prayed and looked for a suitable location to start our work, God answered our prayers in a mysterious way ... in no time at all, God provided us with about 20 local volunteers to help us in our planned ministries. Praise the Lord!
We sense that our Almighty God will bring us bountiful harvests in our planned Bangkok planting. So our vision and prayer theme for the coming year will be “Changing Thailand for God's Glory”. Together with existing local churches, we will strive to work hard in unity with them to bring the Good News to the local people. In John 14 verse 6, Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me”. We will bring this message to save souls. We will also strive to free sinners of the bondage that holds them back, so that the Love of Jesus will set them truly free!
The Christians in Thailand constitute less than 1% out of a population of 67 million. For 180 years, the Christian missionaries and local churches had tried many ways to spread the Good News but have, by and large, failed to find the key to open their hardened hearts. There has been a measure of success elsewhere, many mission workers have focused on the Hill Tribal people from Myanmar, Yunnan and Laos where more than 40% have been saved. Praise the Lord for that. But we need now to concentrate our focus on the majority of the Thai people themselves, where the needs are greatest. So let us together pray diligently for the theme adopted for next year to come to pass, for the greater Glory of God.
The mission reports;
On September 5th, 2010, I was invited by Rev. Dr. Sinchai, the senior pastor of Mahachon Church to preach the Word of God to his congregation, with Jenny as my interpreter. This church, established here only less than a year ago, plans to build a brand new church building next to a river nearby, to be called the Ark's Church. It will be the first such new modern church building to appear in Bangkok in many years.
The church hopes to cooperate with existing local churches in as many of its activities as possible. Currently, I serve as a partner/mentor to the senior pastor and we work together on the same vision.
“Sharing knowledge is not about giving people something, or getting something from them. That is only valid for information sharing. Sharing knowledge occurs when people are genuinely interested in helping one another develop new capacities for action; it is about creating learning processes” ... Peter Senge.
On September 11th, we celebrated the birthday of Bro. Kiert, aged 86, at the Lumpini Park. About 180 people came to celebrate the event. Brother Kiert is one of the founding members of the Lumpini Evangelism Group and Poukey Service Group together with his wife, also a church worker/evangelist originally from Beijing, as well as two other local Thai - Chinese co-founders. He had been unwell and weak after a recent operation. Let us remember him in our prayers for Jesus to strengthen him.
Usually on every Saturday morning, we will be helping out in the Lumpini Park on fellowshipping and sharing the Word of God with the poor to let them know how much God love them. Some of the poor sleep by the road, some in temples, never taking baths for weeks. Many appear to have lost the direction for living and are in deep spiritual emptiness or darkness. So we endeavor to give them hope and light through Jesus Christ, doing whatever we can with gifts of love and encouragement, including verses from the Bible and our frequent prayers and encouraging them to bring their friends to the park as well. We plan to start a pilot "Adopt the poor" project which will mainly focus on giving them simple jobs like polishing shoes, washing cars etc. This will help them to get some income. Let us pray for God's leading in this project.
Early in October 2010, I went on a short trip to Wuhan, China to meet up with Bro. Stone. A year ago, I had baptized him into the faith in Tianjin, China. We have had a good fellowship and reunion.
From October 29th to 30th, Jenny and I were invited to attend the Thailand Prayer Conference which was held for the first time in Thailand, when churches came together to pray. Unfortunately, many ministers of God were unable to come to the event due to the 60th Anniversary Baptist Celebration. During the conference, I was asked to write down what I thought was needed most in Thailand. I wrote on the big board “Change Thailand for the Glory of God”. Many came to ask me explain how to do that. We shared our thoughts sand plans for the coming year. We said a big “Amen” to that dream, hope and trust with God, “anything is possible”.
In early September 2010, a member from The Hymnsmen asked me to invite the Hymnsmen group to come to Bangkok to do some church events. From November 8 to 12, they came to Bangkok to perform. I arranged for them to sing at various churches. At first, we were not too sure of how they would be received in Thailand, singing in English as they do, and whether their CDs would be sought and bought ... so only about 80 CDs were brought in. After their first performance at the Bangkok Christian Hospital, our optimism soared ... all the CDs were sold and we had orders for more! Despite our little faith, God did great things right in front of us, telling us to trust Him more each day. So when I next preached in Mahachon Church about the “Power of Change”. I was emboldened to make an altar call. About nine people came out and accepted Christ ... Praise the Lord!
In Luke 15 verse 7 Jesus says “In the same way, there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and have strayed away!” Hallelujah!
Preaching in House of Christ Church on “Healing through Christ”, with the Hymnsmen playing the music in the background, I again made an altar call. The whole congregation came out to seek Healing. One lady unable to walk, then walked, one lady unable to hear then could hear ... truly miraculous!
In Matthew 9 verse 35, Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness ... Praise the Name of Jesus ... what a Miraculous God we serve! All glory to Him!
From November 10th to 13th, we went to the Province of Surat Thani (South of Thailand) to distribute dried foods to flood victims using own funds. We were also able to fellowship with the local pastors and have had a good time together. We traveled by Airasia paying return ticket at THB 300 (USD 10) for two persons and everyone was surprised how we could travel so cheaply! The Lord provides and takes care of our frugal needs so that we may serve Him joyfully. Hallelujah!
On November 14th, 2010 a few churches joined hands to organize a prayer walk and concert in Bangkok. About 3,000 people attended the event, mostly youths. This was the first such event held in Thailand.
We are praying to buy a new small car, a Chery QQ this month so that we will be able to get to places more conveniently. Currently we are taking the public transport and it is hard and time consuming. Our schedule of work has also increased; we have more commitments such as starting a community centre, outreach centre, church planting, public events and working with other local churches.
May God bless each of you wherever you are.
