CHRISTMAS WAS A MIRACULOUS TIME IN THAILAND

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

A Thanksgiving Service that Opened Our Eyes

This past month, we celebrated Thanksgiving at Pattaya Akha UMC, an Akha hilltribe church.  Christian Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving here in Thailand is different than in the States, where it is a family celebration.  Here it is a big meal for the whole church and everyone brings produce (or in the cities - people buy groceries) and they give it to the Lord at church.   At the end of the worship service, we have a big meal together and then the produce and groceries are distributed to people in need. 

Many of the members of the Pattaya Akha UMC gave testimonies of Thanksgiving before the whole church.  But there was one testimony of Thanksgiving that opened our eyes, and this testimony was given by the man in the picture above.

Here is his word of thanksgiving to God, He thanked the Lord for the Bible being translated in the Akha language for 66 years now.  He said his grandparents remember a time when there was no Bible in their language, and how the whole Akha Christian community in Southeast Asia rejoiced when they could finally read the Bible for themselves!  Can you imagine?  We take it for granted that we can read the Bible in our own language.  We are so steeped in incredible blessings from God, that we do not even know how good we have it.  Thanks be to God for the Holy Bible.  And we give thanks to the Gideons, and the Thai Bible Society, and the Akha Bible Society for making it possible to have Thai and Akha language Bibles to give to people who could never afford to buy their own Bible.

We and the staff have been busy developing curriculum and video resources for the Abundant Life Savings Group Program, where people learn how to manage their money God's way, according to biblical principles.  Abundant Life Savings Groups are now active in 6 churches and we see families being blessed by God as they apply the Bible to their finances.  Many who were in debt are now debt-free!  Many who have lived their lives in deep poverty are now thriving and moving towards financial peace.  And the churches that have had Abundant Life Savings Groups for more than one year have all begun to see the church finances improve greatly.  Below is a picture of our staff making training videos for the Abundant Life Savings Group Program.

 As the families in the churches become financially stronger, the Thai churches become financially stronger.  And as the Thai churches become financially stronger, they do what Thai churches do so well.  They plant new churches, because it is in their DNA to share the Good News.  Of the four churches that have had Abundant Life Savings Groups for more than one year, three of them are involved in planting churches, and they are doing so without our assistance too.  At this time, those 3 churches are involved with 7 new church plants! We really believe that one of the best way to plant new churches in Thailand is to help the existing churches to become financially strong.  God has been blessing.

Finally, we want to give an update on the progress for fundraising for Phase 1 of the Training Center.  Phase 1 is buying land, building a retainer wall, and raising the land by about 4 feet.  it will cost $80,000 for this first phase, and we are praying that individuals and churches and church groups will give to the Building Fund during this Christmas season. 

So far over $38,000 has been given, and we praise the Lord for this wonderful progress towards the goal.  Please keep praying for this goal.

If the Lord leads you to give towards this project, please be sure to designate to the Building Fund.

You can send a check to:
TMM
P.O. Box 56
Mannsville, KY 42758

OR give ONLINE at https://thailandmethodist.org/donate/

Sherri and I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year.  May the Lord fill your hearts with joy.

Kentucky VIM Team was a blessing from God!

First, many of you asked enjoyed last year's Advent Readings and asked us to do it again, so we have made a new one for 2019 that you can use at home.  This can also be an used to print as an insert for your church bulletin.  Included with the Daily Advent Readings is our latest newsletter.  Please print it out, read it and post it at your church bulletin board or in your Sunday School class..  Here is the link that you can click on to download > https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wyYtr1ZBrMMJf1CIvVTy7D-d8_Knp9S7/view?usp=sharing

Next, we want to thank you for your prayers for the Kentucky VIM Team that served last month.  We traveled long distances, and your prayers kept us all safe.  This was the first VIM team that we have had to focus on the Pioneer Pastor Program. Previous teams focused on Blessing Home centers and locations for future centers.  This is why we had to travel so much, because Thailand is a large nation and this ministry is a nationwide ministry.

This team was here to Prayer Walk together with Thai Christians, to do Mini-English Camps, and to participate in 2 important ceremonies, the 2019 Commencement Event of Global Theological Institute, and the Grand Opening Ceremony of the new church building of Fire of Glory Church.

Prayer Walking was new to the Thai pastors and also new to some of the VIM team members.  This is when you walk the streets of the neighborhood and silently pray for all of the households in that neighborhood.  The Thai pastors were VERY EXCITED about Prayer Walking, and they wanted to make sure that all of the power of prayer could be brought to their neighborhoods as possible.  So when the Thai pastors at two locations organized their prayer walks, we had no idea that they were going to take the team on marathon walks.  We split up into several groups that went different directions.  Then we began to walk and pray, and walk and pray, and walk some more.  We started to think "surely they are going to loop back soon, we have walked for a long time in the heat, but instead the pastors had us keep walking.  We knew this was a real challenge for the team who was not accustomed to the tropical heat, but they were real troopers!  Some had blisters from walking such a long distance, and we knew we had to tell the Thai pastors to please limit the walking next time.  We knew the pastors wanted to have as many households be covered with prayer as possible.

The team held three English mini-camps.  One at Blessing Home Isan, another at Abundant Blessings Church in Sukhothai, and another at Prasiri UMC in Bangkok.  They played games, and did 2 crafts that presented the gospel message.  And one of our Thai staff, Teddy, did a gospel presentation.  The children were touched by the Bible messages presented by the team and they had a blast!  The team had fun with the kids too.

The team also were prayer warriors.  They visited shut-ins and prayed.  They prayed for children at the English Mini-Camps.  They prayed for leaders and church members at the churches.  This ministry of prayer was greatly appreciated by the Thai Christians.  The prayers of God's people move mountains!

The team also participated in the Commencement Ceremony for Global Theological Institute.  Their presence as "dignitaries" provided an international connection and affirmation for the 20 graduates who worked hard to earn their B.Min. and M.Min degrees.  3 of the graduates are Pioneer Pastors.  Pastors Det and Dao serve at Life Center Church at TaPhraya and are also Directors of the Blessing Home TaPhraya Center.  It took them two days of hard travel by pickup truck to get to Chiang Dao where the ceremony was being held.  On the way home, their left front tire blew out and they lost control of their pickup truck.  They spun out of control and into the trees on the side of the highway.  And your prayers protected them.  No one was harmed.  The pickup had to be repaired, but it is just machinery.

Pastor Dao with Dr. Tanapong, President of Global Theological Institute

Pastor Det with Dr. Tanapong

Dr. James Wafford, Dr. Loletuth Kalz, and Dr. John Kalz pray for the graduates

The other Pioneer Pastor graduate was Pastor Prik of Sawi Church.  Pastor Prik and her husband and family also travelled for two days to arrive at the graduation ceremony.

Pastor Prik receiving her diploma from Dr. Sherri Morrissey

Valedictorian address

The team also participated in the Grand Opening Celebration of the new Fire of Glory Church Building.  It was a joyous occassion, and the team represented all of you who prayed for this project and who gave generously to make it happen.  Your prayers and generosity changes lives in Thailand.  And this church has already helped to plant many other churches.  And they will continue to spread the gospel, not only in their city but also throughout the nation.

Finally, an update on fundraising for Phase One of the Training Center (purchase land, build retainer wall, and fill up land by at least 5 feet).  The goal is $80,000 by the end of the year.  We now have received a little over $23,000!  Praise the Lord!  Keep Praying!

Please pray, and as the Lord leads you, give as well.  Please be sure to designate your gift for the "Building Fund" if you want your donation to go towards the Training Center.

You can give online at https://thailandmethodist.org/donate/

OR

Send a check to:

TMM
Box 56
Mannsville, KY 42758