Sherri and I have now begun our nineteenth year of service as missionaries and Executive Directors in Thailand. God has blessed the mission tremendously and we give praise to the Lord that we work with wonderful servants of God in Thailand.
Although now there are many different ministries with Thailand NOW, including the Blessing Home Centers, the Abundant Life Financial Training Program, and Global Theological Institute, our first and primary ministry which we were appointed to do was to plant churches in unreached parts of Thailand. The Pioneer Pastor Program (one of our ministries with Thailand NOW) seeks to work with Thai pastors and Christian leaders to plant churches in unreached counties (sub-districts) in Thailand. 75% of the counties in Thailand remain unreached, having no Christian churches. We believe that EVERYONE needs Jesus, and our life goal is to strive to have at least one Christian church in every county in Thailand, so that all Thai people will have a chance to hear the Good News of Jesus.
During our time of service here in Thailand, we have been blessed to work with Thai leaders to plant 48 churches in unreached counties, and over 50 other churches in under-reached counties.
"I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth."
The Thai leaders planted, we watered, but ALL of the growth was a result of the Power of God at work. And you prayers and generosity have made it possible for the planting and watering to take place. We and the Thai leaders are blessed by your faithfulness!
Usually when a Pioneer Pastor Church is planted, within 3-6 years, they will go on to plant another church. Planting churches is built into the DNA of these churches. Sherri and I have served here long enough that we are now on our fourth generation of Pioneer Pastor churches! God is GREAT!
We request that you pray for one of these fourth generation Pioneer Pastor Churches that was planted last year. Rattana Wapi Church is a fourth generation Pioneer Pastor Church. When we came to Thailand, we served at Pradumri Church in Chonburi. We helped them to plant our first Pioneer Pastor Church in Bowin (a city of 150,000 people with NO church!). The leaders that helped plant that church then went on to plant their own church, God is Good Church in Ban Bueng. Then God is Good Church planted a church in Buengkan under the leadership of Pastor Awee. Now Pastor Awee and the members of God is Good Buengkan church planted a new church last year in Rattana Wapi in Nong Khai province.
Pastor Awee is training a local church leader at Rattana Wapi to become the pastor there. Her name is Pastor Mamuang (seen in the picture above with Sherri), and she is truly a dedicated servant of God and a hard worker. Through your donations, a full scholarship has been given to Pastor Mamuang and Somsri (Pastor Awee's wife) for seminary studies with Thailand Theological Seminary to earn Bachelor of Ministry degrees, and Pastor Awee has been given a full scholarship for seminary studies for a Master of Divinity degree. Every six weeks, these three travel for 12 hours one-way to go to Chonburi province to take one-week block classes, and they are doing well.
Two months ago, we worshipped at Rattana Wapi Church. They have built a shelter between two homes, and there were over 90 people attending worship on that Sunday (many more than in the picture below, which was taken about 9 months ago - the church has really grown!). Many of those who came to worship had to stand because there were not enough chairs. Your donations helped to buy 50 more chairs and a new drum set as well.
One of the ministries that this church has is a school of music for youth. The youth come to learn to play guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano, and singing. The Sunday that we were at Rattana Wapi church, the youth were leading worship and everyone was encouraged to see young people serving the Lord.
Pastors Awee, Somsri, and Mamuang spend much of their time visiting those who do not yet know Christ to share the Good News. Every week, they send pictures and reports to us of people receiving Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Both Rattana Wapi Church and God is Good Church of Buengkan are growing rapidly because of the efforts of these pastors and their church members to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Below is a picture of Pastors Awee and Somsri sharing the gospel of Jesus with a Buddhist monk in their town. When they sent this picture to us, they said, "Share the Good News with ALL PEOPLE". We say, "AMEN!!"
If the Lord leads you to donate:
You can give online at https://thailandnow.org/donate-2/
OR send a check to:
Thailand NOW, P.O. Box 56, Mannsville, KY 42758
