Your Praying for
God’s work through NTIM Is Making A Difference in Thailand – Special Update #1
– June 17, 2025
We want to take the next several updates and share with you
an area where God is at work in a special way transforming lives. Today is
Special update #1.
We are all familiar with the English version of the heart of
Jesus commission that encourages us to send people into every part of the world
to share the gospel. But there is a short phrase in this commission that was
written in the Greek language that is powerfully clarifying and sheds a new light
on what Jesus was really saying. This phrase is transliterated as “Panta ta
ethne” and is normally understood as “all the nations.” Jesus has sent us to
take the message of our Savior to all the nations. Yes, that is true but what I
want to highlight for you today is the last word in that phrase “Panta ta
ethne.” “Panta” is translated “all.” And “ta” is a particle and is translated as
“the.” And the last word “ethne” is the word I want to focus upon today. It is
the Greek word that we get the word “ethnic” from. It is the equivalent of an
ethnic group or as Linguists would put it, the equivalent of a “people group.”
What is a “people group.”
It is a group of people who have their own separate language and cultural
orientation. So, when Jesus was saying go into “panta ta ethne,” Jesus was not
saying go into all the geopolitical countries in the world. No, He was not
saying that, even thought that is how most English readers have understood this
commission in the past. No, What Jesus was saying with “panta ta ethne” was to
go into all the people and language groups in our world with my gospel.
When our family moved to
Thailand on January 13, 1999, some 26 years ago, we had no idea that Thailand
was made up of over 100 different people and language groups that still have
very different cultural differences as well as a completely different language.
All Thai people are educated in what we call the “central Thai language” but most
people in Thailand grow up in a home where they speak a different language
before they ever begin to go to school and learn Central Thai. This is especially
true in Northern Thailand. I rub shoulders every day with people from the
Mueang people group, with people from the Akha people group, with people from
the Hmong people group, with people from the Lahu people group, with people from
the Central Thai people group and many, many others. I share this background information
with you so that you will know better how to pray for the “panta ta ethne” that
live in and around Northern Thailand. Today like in our last update, we want to
ask you to pray for the 3rd largest unreached people group in
Thailand that primarily live in Northern Thailand and are the old “Lanna People”
who ruled this part of God’s Word as the “Lanna Kingdom” years ago which means
the land of a million rice fields.
Two of my Thai staff – both Ja and Ball – are from this very
large unreached people group made up of about 7 million people. Both Ja and
Ball were the first persons in their entire family to become followers of Jesus
and what a great joy it was just this past Sunday to have Ja’s father both in
my Thai adult Sunday School class that I teach as well as him joining us for
the first time ever in our church service. God is transforming the lives of
people in this unreached people group and God has given NTIM great access and
opportunity to impact this people group with the Gospel of Jesus.
On Easter Sunday, each of our Thai staff shared a personal
testimony of how God was changing their lives. We recently put the video clip together
and posted it on YouTube so that you and all of our other friends could hear
these testimonies for yourselves.
Here is the link to Ja’s testimony from this past Easter
Sunday.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppMsRqtBn2k
Here is the link to Ball’s testimony from this past Easter
Sunday as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CafnKDkDeWk
Here is a picture of a prayer card that gives you some
details on this people group (ethnic group) we are asking you to pray about
today.
Here is an example prayer that you might consider offering
up to God.
“Oh, Heavenly Father, thank You for Your love for all the people
groups of the world. We also recognize that there are still countries in your
world today that still have very little access to the message of the gospel. We
also have heard that Northern Thailand is one of those places where only about
1 in every 100 people have a personal relationship with You which means that 99
out of every 100 people are lost without the gospel. Thank You for raising up an
organization like NTIM that is sending people and resources so that the people
living in and around Northern Thailand can hear about our Savior who offers
salvation and forgiveness of sins. Michael has asked us today to pray specifically
for Ja, for Ball and for the whole Muang People group that you might draw them
to Yourself and build both Ja and Ball into great leaders to make disciples
of their own people group. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen”
Thank you for your partnership in the gospel getting into
Northern Thailand and for sending us this place in such a time as this.
Please remember that your praying matters to NTIM and to all
the people living in and around Northern Thailand. James 5:16 says, “…the
prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.’
Until the people in and around Northern Thailand know Him,
Michael L. Johnson, Vice President and Director of Field
Operations for NTIM