Mike and Sherri Morrissey: Kentucky Annual Conference Volunteers in Mission Team

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Kentucky Annual Conference Volunteers in Mission Team

We want to thank all who sponsored members of the Kentucky Annual Conference Volunteer In Mission Team. They were a great blessing to us and the Thai people and it was your prayers and support that made it all possible. The Kentucky VIM Team worked hard to get the new expansion of Blessing Home Ground Zero completed for the arrival of our new missionaries, the Johnston Family.
We think we wore as much paint on our bodies as we applied to the walls!

The team also did English Mini-camps at Blessing Home Isan and at Ta Phraya, one of our Pioneer Pastor church plant locations.

Pastor Banya, the director of Blessing Home, has opened a new branch location of Blessing Home in Ta Phraya. Every weekend, Pastor Banya and Elder Nopadon take turns making the 6 hour drive to Ta Phraya to preach at two church locations and conduct children's Bible clubs and English mini-camps.

Ta Phraya contains some of the most crushing poverty we have seen. There are many families here that consist of seniors in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who are caring for toddlers and children. They do not have enough money to buy food and they and the children go hungry. Malnutrition is rampant. A very high percentage of the children cannot go to school. There were also many seniors who were shut-ins that did not have financial support. These shut-ins were not only lonely, but suffered from malnutrition because they depended upon the generosity of impoverished neighbors for food and water, and these neighbors were also deprived of adequate food. Many of the shut-ins told the Kentucky VIM team that they go for many days without food because no one can help them.

The church at Ta Phraya has set up a relief program to help these starving families and seniors, but they do not have enough resources on their own. The Christians of Life Center UMC in Pattaya as well as the Thailand Methodist Mission are now providing funds to provide food and potable water to these desperate people. The village chief in this town expressed his great appreciate for the compassion in action of Christians.

We are in the process of making detailed plans with Pastor Banya for opening a new Blessing Home center here in Ta Phraya and planting multiple churches in this unreached region.