I love this time of year. It is a time when
Christians all over Thailand will be given numerous natural ways to share the
love and message of Jesus with many who have never heard. Every year NTIM,
Grace Language School, and Baan Athitaan Church make intentional efforts to care
to reach out to make the most of the time and financial resources that God has
given us to share the love and message of Jesus in Northern Thailand. Believe
it or not, our first Christmas Outreach event began several weeks ago when we
had an awesome team from a Partner church in Australia with us for a week. We
did several English Fun Day outreaches where we shared about Christmas and we
were able to put on a Chrismtas Program in an area where they had never ever
had anyone do a presentation of Christmas. This was a good partnership with
some of the IMB folks that live in this part of God’s world as well.
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. Put another way, 99 out of every 100 Thai people are without a
personal relationship with Jesus and many have never even heart the message of
Jesus. Lost without Jesus? Yes, 99% of almost 70 million people.
There are also over 70 different ethnic
unreached people groups that live in this country…some of these UPGs are some
of the last reached peoples in our world today. 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. Many of the events that we have been planning require
your help and we are asking that each of you help in one or all of 3 ways:
1) Please Help By Praying . . .
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 and “love on” the people He wants us to “love on.” 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. Here are some of our planned events.
December 13 & December 14 – Awesome
Volunteer Teams Arrive – A team of 8
people from Crosspoint Church of Gulfport, MS arrived on December 13 along
with a team of 3 people from FBC Florence, MS arrived on December 14 to help
us with our Christmas outreaches. Praise God that the covid pandemic it now
behind us and God has opened up the doors for partner churches to come and
help us reach Thailand again. Please pray that all of us would be the light
that lights up the darkness with the love of our great Savior.
December 15 – Baan Athitaan Church’s Main Christmas Outreach Program – In my almost 25 years of living and serving in Thailand, I have found
that the most natural time to share the message of Jesus is the Christmas
season. It has also been my experience that many people open their hearts to
Jesus during this season and become the first follower of Christ in their
entire family. Let that sink in for a moment. Last night we had over 500
people at this event and some were hearing the message of Christmas for the
first time and several of then it was the first time they had even been to a
church. We hqe skits, dramas, music, food, fun and a time to share the
message of Christmas, and an evangelism booth. During the message time I shared
about “Christmas is for All People.” Thank you for praying for us. Please continue
to pray for those who heard the message of Jesus for the first time to
continue to be drawn to wanting to know more about Jesus.
December 16 – Children’s ESL Christmas Outreach (Grades 1-6) – God has given us great access into our community through teaching
English. We teach English to not only
young people and adults but also to children. We teach children grades 1-6
every Saturday morning and we will have an awesome time helping these
precious ones celebrate Christmas. Pray that God would draw these little
hearts to Him as we have a special program for these children this Saturday
morning.
December 17 – Christmas Outreach to Akha
Village where Boom’s mom lives. God has given
us great access to many different people groups. One of those people groups
is the Akha people group of which one of our Thai staff is from. Please pray
for us as we do this outreach this coming Sunday night. Pray that God would
draw the heart of the Akha people group to Jesus.
December 18 & 19 – English Fun Days with
Christmas theme in two Different Government Schools. We have an English language platform called Grace Language School that
gives us great access to millions of people who live in and around Northern
Thailand from many different unreached people groups. On December 18 &
December 19, we will be going into two different schools and putting on an
English Fun Day with Christmas as our main theme. Pray for the hundreds of
students that we will be around these two days.
December 19 – Coffee House Christmas – Teaching English at Grace Language School is one of the natural ways
that we build relationships with our students with an intentional commitment
to sharing the message of Jesus. We love to do these Coffee Houses in the
context of fun activities. We are so thankful to have the Volunteer Teams
from the US with us to help us in our outreaches. This will be a natural time
for us to share the good news in the context of warm relationships with our
students. We want our students to understand that the one who created them
loves them deeply and has a wonderful plan for their life. Pray for God’s
working through this coffee house to draw some of the least reached peoples
in our world today into a relationship with their Savior.
1) Please Help By Praying . . .
2) Please Help By Giving . . .
We are wanting to provide good quality evangelistic programs that touch
the heart. We do not consider these “expenses” per se but rather
“investments” into the lives of people for the Kingdom and glory of
God. We are asking God to sell a few cows and send $6,000 to $10,000 to NTIM.
Please prayerfully consider giving a donation to NTIM to help us cover our Christmas
evangelism outreaches. Your financial investments allow us to be your hands
and feet 24-7 here in the heart of the 10-40 Window.
3) Please Help By Asking Others To Pray.
Many people want to give in a special way at Christmas to a good cause
that will really make a difference in people’s lives. However, they just
don’t know where there is a need. This may be an opportunity for you to help
your family and your friends know where their donation can make a huge
difference for Jesus among some of the least reached people in our world
today.
We are excited about all that God is doing on this side of the world and
thanking God for each of you and your partnership with us for the sake of the
gospel.
Your Servants to the Nations in and around Northern Thailand for Jesus
sake,
Michael for the team
“…Behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which shall be for
all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a
Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:10-11
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Financial support can be given through
NTIM….
Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM), P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL
35260 USA Main Website: www.gontim.org
NTIM is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization based in the USA. We
are committed to connecting people in need with people who care and are focused
in the heart of Southeast Asia where poverty is high, education is low, needs
are great, unreached people groups (UPGs) are all around us, and the love and
message of Jesus is needed to transform lives.
You can send donations to support God’s work to NTIM. All donations made to
NTIM are tax deductible and can be made either online at www.gontim.org or
mailed to NTIM, P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL
35260
If you would like to get on our email
update listing, please send me an email at pray4ntim@gmail.com