We wish you a Happy New Year and for God's Blessings to pour down upon you. God is Good! All the time! And when we look back on 2019, we see that God has blessed us and the Thai people through your prayers and support.
As of today, January 1, 2020, Thailand Methodist Mission has a new name, THAILAND NOW. Our new website is now open at this URL >>
thailandnow.org and our old website will soon be re-directing everyone to the new site.
Our new name reflects that we work with Christians of all denominations and groups in Thailand. Cooperation among Christian groups was an important value of John Wesley and it is also in the same Spirit with the cooperative culture of Thai Christians, who all work together to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
CHRISTMAS WAS A MIRACULOUS TIME IN THAILAND
Thai Christians focus on proclaiming the Gospel to their neighbors throughout the month of December. Most churches have multiple outreach events in the towns that surround their church as well as new church plants that they have initiated throughout Thailand. Since most Thai Christians are first-generation believers, Christmas is celebrated with fellow believers at and through church rather than being a family-centered event.
This year we have seen well over 600 people receive Jesus as their Savior and Lord through the Christmas events of all of the Pioneer Pastor Churches (there are probably many more, this is just from the reports we have received so far). Christmas evangelism events were held at churches, community centers, schools, factories, and public parks. There were so many events that we and the other Thailand Now missionaries could only attend a fraction of them. Let us tell you a few Hallelujah Praise stories.
PRASIRI UMC OF BANGKOK
In October, the Kentucky VIM Team led by Dr. John Kalz came to this church and led them in their first Prayer Walk. Prayer Walking is when believers walk up and down the streets of the neighborhood praying for blessings, especially the blessing of salvation, for every household. While praying, neighbors are greeted, and many times neighbors ask them what they are doing. And when the Thai Christians tell them they are praying for every neighbor, many of the neighbors (who are Buddhist and Muslim) ask for personal prayer.
Pastors Sila and Wassana and the members of Prasiri UMC were deeply moved by the Kentucky VIM Team, and they started to Prayer Walk in their neighborhood every day of the week except Sunday. Each time they would prayer walk, they would be walking for almost 2 hours. They have now done this for 10 straight weeks. Every week they had multiple opportunities to pray with people, to share the Gospel of Jesus with them, and to invite their neighbors to church.
Every Sunday, new people would come to church and become Christians. And they kept coming and worshiping and learning more about Jesus. AMEN! Now this church is packed on Sunday morning and it was all through the power of prayer.
Sherri and I went Prayer Walking with Pastors Sila and Wassana and some of the members of the church a few weeks ago. It was powerful to see the lay people greeting and praying with neighbors. The love of Jesus just flowed down from them upon their neighbors. One of the laypeople was a new Christian whose name is Aunt Buem. Buem was the first of the neighbors to come to Jesus and start attending church through the Prayer Walks. (In the picture is Aunt Buem on the right, holding her new Gideon Bible as she prayer walks with Pastor Sila and others behind us).
Aunt Buem is totally in love with Jesus. She loves to read her Bible, and she is always visiting with people and sharing about Jesus with them. It is always inspiring to see the "first love" of new Christians. She has been a Christian only 2 months and has already helped to lead many others to faith in Jesus. God is amazing!
LAHAN SAI CHURCH - THE NEWEST PIONEER PASTOR CHURCH
An outreach team from Fire of Glory Church traveled for 7 hours one way to help Pastor Namporn of Lahan Sai Church put on the first Christmas outreach of this new church plant. The outreach was at the Community Center and many other churches from Buriram and Nakhon Ratchasima provinces helped to prepare and serve food, lead in worship songs, do setup and take down, and all of the myriad things that need to be done to put on a large scale event.
Pastor Somsri and the members of Fire of Glory church stood out on the streets and flagged people down as they were heading home from work to let invite them to eat dinner for free at the Christmas celebration and to register so they could participate in the games where they receive gifts. There were over 240 people registered, and by my estimation at least another 50 or so that did not register but attended. Pastor Somsri preached a powerful gospel message and the people were hearing the Good News of Jesus for the first time. And they were fully engaged as Pastor Somsri preached. (Above is a picture taken from behind the stage as Pastor Somsri leads people to Christ at the altar call.) We know you are praying for this mission when we see people responding to the Gospel message in large numbers. Now Pastor Namporn has a lot of work to follow up on all of the people who registered at this Christmas event.
BLESSING HOME ISAN
Thailand Now missionary, Shelby Gillespie, sent us picture of the baptisms of new believers from Nonsomboon Church, which is where Blessing Home Isan is located. Two Blessing Home kids were baptized at this Christmas-time Baptism service. Blessing Home kids not only receive help with after-school classes, school uniforms, food and transportation.... the missionaries, staff, and church members share Jesus with these children. And there is nothing, absolutely nothing, more rewarding then seeing the Lord transform the lives of the children who become followers of Jesus.
We also have a HUGE PRAISE. One of the Blessing Home kids, her name is Boe, graduated from university with her BSN degree and is now a registered nurse.
Boe had to wait for a full year before the school had a graduation ceremony. Boe comes from a hard working family of subsistence farmers and she is the first one in her family to go to college. She is pictured here with her Mom and Dad. They were all so excited, they did not get much sleep for several days. Boe's life and her family as well is now changed forever because your generosity made university studies possible for her. We send this picture to you to say THANK YOU. It would not have been possible without you.
FIRE OF GLORY CHURCH GOES TO SCHOOL TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS
Many of the Pioneer Pastor Church went to the public schools to share the Lord Jesus with the students and teachers. The picture on the left is one of the school events led by Fire of Glory Church.
We wish we could tell you all of the wonderful stories of Thai people coming to Christ, but it would make too long of an article for this blog.
By the way, we will send out another blog in a week or two to update you on the progress for receiving funds for Phase One of the Training Center. We wanted to give time for the Christmas offerings to come in first so we can give an updated total.
Yours in Christ,
Mike and Sherri Morrissey
Thailand Now
