On of our Thai friends received Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. It was her natural birthday today and now it is her spiritual one as well! She was water baptized by my wife at a friend’s back yard pool and is starting down a new path that God has for her.
Here is a glimpse into the process she went through to come to this point. Let it encourage you to know that God is always working and He invites us to join in that work. What a privledge. Continue Reading…
Since I work in Thailand, I will frame the question more personally for my nation. You can do the same for the unreached/unengaged nation that is on your heart.
So, why don’t the Thai people reach their own people?
Good question.
The answer is that there ARE God fearing and God loving Thai people who do seek to reach their own people for Jesus, but their numbers compared to the population who don’t know God are very small, less than 1% of a population of 65 million!
Of that 1%, not all are evangelical which means not all are active in sharing their faith with others.
Many are working hard every day but they need help!
The harvest is still plentiful and the laborers still few in most places in the world outside of the West (Matt 9:37, Luke 10:2). Continue Reading…
Facebook membership has been soaring in Thailand and is currently up over 4 million people. Other social networking sites like Hi5 are very popular as well with ages 14-35 and number in the millions as well. Most college students are using their own laptops and are accessing the net on a regular basis.
With this in mind, we have completed our newly redesigned Thai site for seekers. It is called KWAMRAK.org.
Kwamrak is the phonetic spelling for “Love” in the Thai language. Continue Reading…
This is part of our Q & A Series. If you have a question you would like for us to try to answer, contact us!
Q: Why don’t you stay here in America and reach people here?
There are plenty of people who need Jesus in this country.
A: First let me say, that we as the church should always be looking out for where God is working, wherever we are in the world, and join Him in that work.
We have all been called as ambassadors of Jesus Christ calling men everywhere to be reconciled to God because of what Jesus has done.
This is step one. Continue Reading…
Finding a good and honest mechanic is a valuable find anywhere in the world.
But when you are a foreigner in a country far from home it is even more valuable. We recently needed some extensive upkeep and repairs done on our little car.
The first couple of places I got quotes from were larger and more established “chain” shops.
They drew me in with the nice buildings and slick marketing, but the prices were way too high. I had to find an alternative. I had seen a lot of “shade tree” shops around town but I didn’t know which one would be trustworthy. Continue Reading…
I believe that in God’s mind, building His Church or those people called out from among the nations, is the main priority of missions work needed today.
Jesus told us that He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matt 16:18).
In order to do this, God has given gifts to redeemed men to prepare His people for “works of service.” These gifts of service or ministry can be found in the Bible in places like I Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. One of these gifts is the gift of the apostle, or “sent one.” Continue Reading…
Take a moment to learn more about the precious Isaan people of Northeast Thailand. If you are coming to live and work in Thailand, you should definitely know about the Isaan. They make up a third of the population of this nation and are the back bone of farming and service industries in Thailand.
From a missionary’s perspective: If we know, we can understand. If we understand, we can pray more effectively. Continue Reading…
What does the word “missionary” mean? Is it in the Bible?
The word “mission” comes from the Latin word “mitto”, which was derived from the Greek word apostello. This latter word means “to send” and from it we get the English word “apostle.”
Though the actual word “mission” is not used widely in the Bible though the fact that God is on a mission is the main theme of all of scripture.
The last words of Jesus to his disciples, what many call “The Great Commission” is found in Matt 28:18-20. This passage of scriptures is the most common text for going and making disciples of the nations.
However it is not the only text that gives the biblical basis for missions. In fact, from the book of Genesis to Revelation, we see God on a mission and calling others to join Him.
Take out the theme of mission from the Bible you have nothing left. Mission is what makes the Bible make sense.
This Mission shown forth in scripture is sometimes called the “Missio Dei” in Latin or the Mission of God. The idea is that God is the initiator and sustainer of mission, not men.
God calls us, His church, to participate in what He is doing in the world. We, as the Church, are the instrument that He has chosen to get the message out to the nations.
This calling was originally given to Israel as a nation (see Isa 42) and still stands although it has been expanded to include us as non-Jews, also referred to in the Bible as “Gentiles”. (see Romans 11).
Where is missions in the Bible? The Question should be, “Where is missions not in the Bible”? Below you will find references from both the Old and New Testaments texts: Continue Reading…
The Missionary Call
By Oswald J. Smith
What constitutes a Call? Is there any way of knowing the will of God? How can one be sure?
I think there is. In fact, I am certain. God would not leave His servants in darkness.
But let me give you James Gilmour’s experience. It is well worth quoting. How was he called, and why did he go to the Mongols? This is how he puts it:
“Is the Kingdom a harvest field? Then I thought it reasonable that I should seek to work where the work was most abundant and the workers fewest. Laborers say they are overtaxed at home; what, then, must be the case abroad, where there are wide-stretching plains already white to harvest with scarcely here and there a solitary reaper?
“To me the soul of an Indian seemed as precious as the soul of an Englishman, and the Gospel as much for the Chinese as for the European; and the band of missionaries was few compared with the company of ministers at home, it seemed to me clearly to be my duty to go abroad.
“But I go out as a missionary, not that I may follow the dictates of common sense, but that I may obey that command of Christ, ‘Go into all the world and preach.’ This command seems to be strictly a missionary injunction; so that, apart altogether from choice and other lower reason, my going forth is a matter of obedience to a plain command: and in place of seeking to assign a reason for going abroad, I would prefer to say that I have failed to discover any reason why I should stay at home.”
Gilmour went in response to the Great Commission. His Captain ordered him to “go” and he went. He went because he could find no adequate reason for staying at home. He went to the foreign field because, as he says, there the workers were fewest. What a heroic decision!
What was Charles T. Studd’s reason for going? Studd, you remember, gave away a fortune—$145,000. He could have lived at home in great luxury, but he chose rather to give away all that he had and go to China as a missionary. Why? Strange as it may seem, it was the statement of an atheist that started him on his way. It so gripped him when he read it that he felt he must leave all and follow Jesus Christ. Here it is: Continue Reading…
There is a price…
The Physical Price
Early missionaries who evangelized the coasts of West Africa rarely lived long enough to learn the local languages – let alone long enough to return for a second term. A coffin was an essential part of their equipment.
The 20th century has been more peaceful and healthy for missionaries in many parts of the world, but this is now changing. International terrorists, drug runners, robbers and even humanistic anthropologists have found missionaries soft targets. And the health risks have increased as well. Missionaries face virulent and resistant strains of malaria and hepatitis and the deadly AIDS virus. They have no supernatural guarantee of a healthy old age if they serve the Lord in another climate and land.
The Mental Price Continue Reading…
Sometimes I wonder, just like anyone, “Is my work necessary?” As someone whose job is to motivate people into just getting involved in world evangelization, I find myself reflecting and learning and adapting to many different audiences, needs, perspectives – whether it’s one person or a thousand. Specifically with missions, there are many motivations that God uses to spark interest in people and move them into some kind of involvement. Here are fourteen (just because I haven’t thought of # fifteen…yet).
1) The Promise (Gen 12:1-3) – Because God has promised to bless all nations (or people groups) on the earth. What better motivation and encouragement can we have than the understanding that missions (blessing the nations with the Gospel) is in the sure purposes of God.
2) The Purchase (Rev 5:9) – Because Jesus has already purchased people from every tribe and nation with His blood. Like the Moravians motivated by this purchase we should repeat what two Moravians missionaries said as they set sail for India, “May the Lamb receive the reward of His suffering!” In other words, He has already purchased them, our job is only to gather in what is His.
3) Because the Harvest is plentiful (Matt 9:37) – Now this is for all the numbers gurus out there who are motivated by sheer statistics. Today, out of the 6.5 billion people on the planet, over 4 billion are without a saving relationship with Christ. More tragic is that 2.4 billion of these who are lost have no means to hear the message of salvation through Christ – they are cut off from the gospel through lack of missionaries, lack of resources, etc. If you lined them up in a single file line they would wrap around the earth 25 times. The majority of these people are located in the area of the world known as the 10/40 Window (see map). The harvest is plentiful! Continue Reading…
What, then, shall we call this discovery that can change us so radically and yet make us so healthy? And, what shall we call those who have experienced it?
By now it should be obvious that all Christians are born again into the Gap between God’s world-wide purpose and the fulfillment of it. But there’s more than one kind of response to that Gap.
Some are asleep, some are on retreat, and some are determined to stand in the Gap particularly at it’s widest end where billions await the opportunity to hear of Christ for the first time. Some are heading into the “sunrise of missions” while others huddle in the shadows. Many move along at a sluggish pace, changing little in the Gap because of their own internal gap-of-unbelief. Others run the race before them setting no limits on how, where, or among whom God will use them.
Some are trapped in boxes or pea-sized Christianity full of myths about missions that rob them of incentive to care about the unreached. Continue Reading…
Why must the 10/40 Window be a strategic target for world missions in the 21st Century? The 10/40 Window is a rectangular shaped window which extends from 10 degrees north latitude to 40 degrees north latitude containing 2/3 of the world’s total population, and spans from the northern part of Africa’s west coast, through the Middle East to the far east of the Orient. The 10/40 Window contains…
Revelation 7:9 – After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the Lamb.
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