As I get closer to my trip to Thailand, I wanted to share a few more of the details and also ask you to join me in praying over it in several areas. For security, I want to be cautious in getting into too many specifics, but we will be leaving on the 16th of September and spending most of two weeks there. We will start in Bangkok but we will be flying both north and south inside the country during the trip.
The purpose of the trip is to make contact with several different missionaries and ministries already in place in Thailand, including a hospital and a women’s ministry that makes and sells hand crafts. We will meet with both a theological education team and a church planting team in our time there. Our main prayer is that we would make some connections that we can build upon to support evangelistic missions in that country whether that comes in the form of supporting current missionaries and ministries and/or sending future teams or, of course, whatever else God might reveal.
The Thai people are considered an “unreached” people group, which is generally defined as a group made up of less than 2% evangelical Christians and less than 5% total Christians. According to the Joshua Project, only 0.3% of Thais are Christian (0.27% evangelical) among a population of over 50 million. The vast majority of Thailand is Buddhist although there are some growing pockets of Islam, especially in the southern region. It is our prayer that this trip might open a door for our church to start reaching the Thai with the gospel. I hope that you will partner with us, especially in prayer, as we take these first steps.
Specifically at this time, I would ask for your prayers in three areas:
- Please pray for our preparations as we get ready for the trip. There are vaccinations to get, passports to renew, and perhaps most difficult is getting everything ready here so that we can be out of the country for two weeks. Making sure our family has everything that they might need when we are away is a priority. In addition, the jobs we leave behind don’t stop while we are gone, so there are some logistical things to consider to make sure everything runs smoothly in our absence.
- Would you pray for a Thai national traveling with us who will see his family in Thailand for the first time since becoming a believer? He is excited about the chance to share Christ with his family face to face. Pray that this meeting would go well and his family would also come to faith.
- Finally, here are the first names of many of the people we will meet who are already involved in the work of reaching the Thai: C.J., Doug, Cheryl, David, Tom, and Quinton. It would be great if you could pray for them and their respective ministries in Thailand.
Thank you for your support through prayers and encouragement as we prepare for this exciting opportunity! Some of you have asked me how you might support us financially for which I’m grateful. If you are moved to give financial support to this trip, you may send a check made out to Pleasant Garden Baptist Church, P.O. Box 157, Pleasant Garden, NC 27313 with “Thailand Mission” on the memo line. For tax reasons, do not put my name on the check, but you can include a note with my name on it if you would like. Thank you!
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