Today is Day 20 of our 36 Day Spiritual Adventure of getting to know and then actively praying for Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM) and all of the various unreached people groups in and around Northern Thailand. Thank you for joining us for this great time of seeking the face of God on behalf of millions who have never heard the message of our Lord Jesus.
I continue to be amazed at how many people in Thailand have never heard the story of Jesus. I mean really never, ever, ever having heard the gospel or anything close to the gospel in your entire life.
One of the students at the University of Rachaphat that has been coming to our church named Kaewtha asked Grace Language School if we would go to her home village and former school in Payao province and speak to a small group of high school students about Christmas.
That is just what we did this morning. This morning at 7:00 ten of us from Baan Athitaan Church & Grace Language School got in my truck and Josh’s car and drove over an hour from where we live to a Khon Muang Village in the next province. We have been making plans for this “Christmas Coffee House” event for a couple of weeks now. But as I write this portion of the prayer devotional, I am sitting at this high school in the room where we have 30 students and 7 adult teachers from this school listening to the real meaning of Christmas. As Josh began to share the story of Christmas he got to the point where he was sharing that Joseph and Mary had to travel to Bethlehem to register and Josh stopped and ask who in the room had ever heard this story and heard of the city Bethlehem. Out of 30 high school students and 7 adult teachers, not one person had heard this story before today.
Sometimes we just do not realize how many people in Thailand have not even one time ever heard that Jesus came to sacrifice his life as our payment for sin. Think about this. In a group of 37 adults and high schoolers, NOT ONE PERSON HAD EVER HEARD THE MESSAGE OF JESUS until Josh Grammer – an ordinary believer but submitted to the leadership of an extraordinary God – travels thousands of miles to a place in the heart of some of the least reached peoples in the world, and is given the awesome honor to share Jesus with this small group for the very first time on Tuesday morning, December 16, 2014 at Baan Dong Buun Naag School in Maijai, Payao in Northern Thailand.
Think about this: In this picture above no one on the first two rows had ever heard the message of Jesus until today!!!!!! Who will come and tell them? Who will go for the Lord? May our hearts respond to His Call with the words…. “Here I am. Send me.”
Pray for these unreached people groups living all around us. Pray that God would touch the hearts of these 30 high schoolers and 7 teaches that heard the message of Jesus for the first time. Pray that God would speak to their hearts and draw them to want to know more of our awesome Savior. Pray that God would continue to allow all of us here at NTIM to be the hands and feet of Jesus during this Christmas season.
Prayer Example:“Heavenly Father, our hearts are touched when we hear of so many people in Thailand who have truly never had the chance to hear the message of our Savior. Thank you for sending laborers into the fields of Northern Thailand so that they may share your great love with these people. We thank you for how you are already using NTIM in that part of Your world and we ask You to be pleased to expand the impact of NTIM to these various unreached peoples and to give NTIM an opportunity to be a vessel that You are pleased to use to reach many of the unreached ethnic people groups in this part of your world. We pray that You would burden the hearts of Your people all over the world to pray fervently, to give generously, and to go intentionally to where Your Message is needed most. We pray specifically for those 30 young people and 7 adults that heard the story of Jesus today that you would draw them to yourself and cause them to want to know You more. We pray this in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.”