As I write this update, I am sitting at my desk in Northern Thailand, drinking a cup of coffee, and thinking about all that God is doing here in Northern Thailand and all that we desire to do this Christmas season to make the name of Jesus famous here and to touch God’s World with the love of Jesus.
*GOD IS AT WORK CHANGING LIVES
It is always a joy to share the experience of Baptism with a new believer. Here is a picture of Pii Pete who followed the Lord in believer’s baptism last week.
Please remember to pray for Pii Pete. He has become a very dear friend and is learning to walk with God and lead His family in God’s ways. God has opened a door for him to go back to his home town of Nakorn Sawan and work. Pray that he would continue to follow Jesus and become a great “fisher of men.” Jesus said in Matthew 4:19, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”
*GOD IS OPENING DOORS TO PLOW NEW GROUND IN LAOS
I shared with you in our last update that God was opening doors to go into a new neighboring country to teach English. What a great opportunity that was just a last month. We are so grateful for an awesome team from a partner church in Tuscaloosa, Al – my place of birth – that came in October to work with our language platform and go into Laos, yes, that is right, the closed country of Laos.
We put on a 3 day teacher training program for the ministry of education of Laos in their top teacher’s college in the nation. We see this as a first step of being salt and light in that very needy country. Please know that your prayers and your financial support are being used to take the light of Jesus into many very dark places. But the economy has seriously affected our resources and we are getting ready for our largest evangelistic events of the season – CHRISTMAS OUTREACH
*THE U.S. ECONOMY HAS SERIOUSLY AFFECTED OUR CONTRIBUTIONS
As our NTIM board met together many weeks ago, our treasurer shared an alarming statistic with our board members that I feel strongly that I should share with you. He shared that just two years ago in 2011 we had 103 individual or church supporters that gave financially to NTIM. In 2012 that number dropped from 103 to 73 supporters. And for 2013 that number has dropped now to 3 0. Wow. This is NOT a good thing. The Bible clearly teaches that God is in control of all the affairs of men and that sometimes He allows bad things to happen to get our attention and to all us the opportunity to experience God’s provisions in a special way. We believe this is one of those times. We do not want to simply maintain the ministry God has put in our charge, but we want to expand the kingdom of our awesome Lord into many countries in this part of God’s World. Would you join us in praying for God’s provisions for NTIM during this critical time? We do not believe that what we are experiencing is an accident and we want to see the mighty hand of our Lord. So, we are asking all of our friends and supporters to join us in seeking God for 35 consecutive days of Prayer beginning this Thursday, November 28, 2013.
*THE PLEASE JOIN US IN A 35 DAY SPIRITUAL ADVENTURE of getting to know and praying for N.T.I.M. and the various unreached peoples of Southeast Asia – Nov 28 to Dec 31, 2013
We are in the final stages of planning a 35 Days of Prayer (A Season of Prayer) of getting to know the work of NTIM and joining God in praying for millions of people from many different unreached people groups all over Southeast Asia. We are planning to begin on November 28 (Thanksgiving in the USA) and will pray through the end of this year with our last prayer request/update on December 31, 2013. Let’s close this year out right…. ON OUR KNEES PRAYING FOR WHAT IS ON GOD’S HEART.
*UPCOMING CHRISTMAS OUTREACH PLANS
Many of you know that we live in a part of the world where less than 1 out of every 100 people know Jesus as their personal Savior. We believe God wants many of these precious people to come to know Jesus this Christmas season, but we need your help to do that.
Pray for our planning process that God would guide us to do what He wants us to do and say what He wants us to say. Pray that we would “seize the day” as the Christmas season is the most natural time of the year for us to talk about the message of our great Savior. Pray for our awesome staff and team. Pray for those who we partner with in ministry. Pray for the thousands of people who will hear the message through our very words this year.
Reaching, Teaching, Discipling, Equipping, Training, and Serving people in the heart of South East Asia through acts of love and compassionate and through the teaching of God’s Word is what NTIM and our ministry team is all about.
Jesus said, “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19
Your Servants to the Nations in and around Northern Thailand, Michael for the team
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You can send donations to support God’s work to NTIM. All donations made are tax deductible and can be made either online at www.gontim.org or mailed to NTIM, P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL 35260