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 over 1 month ago on November 1 as we partnered with the Christian Club at Mae Fah Luang University and had a very large outreach to the university community.
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. Some have already happened and some are in process.
 November 1 – Christmas Outreach at Mae Fah Luang University – We are blessed to be located very close to two universities in our city. We have always had a huge heart for reaching these young people and we recently had a chance to bless them in a special way this year. We worked in partnership with the Christian Club at MFLU as well as with various churches to reach out to the university students at MFLU on November 1. There were skits, dramas, music, a time to share the message of Christmas, and several church booths.
 December 02 – Youth & University Student Christmas Celebration – We are blessed to be located very close to two universities in our city. We have always had a huge heart for reaching these young people and we will have a chance to bless them in a special way this year. We have also always had a special place in our hearts for young people and are happy for a couple of children’s homes to be a part of our church family. This evening all of our young people from grade 7 up to being a university student will be celebrating Christmas together. Pray that God would bless these future leaders of Thailand. Pray for all of us who are involved in discipleship of these future leaders as well.
 December 9 – Christmas Caroling in Chiangrai God has given us great favor with our community. We love to gather at the church as a large group and walk down the streets to various homes and shops and sing Christmas carols to our neighbors. Then when we are done with our neighbors, we all pile into various trucks and then go singing Christmas Carols at various businesses that we frequent and then go carol at various people’s homes. We love to sing praises to God and lift up His name in this place where the message of Jesus needs to be heard and the transformation of lives is on God’s heart. Please pray for listening hearts as we sing Christmas carols to our neighbors in Thailand.
 December 14 – English Fun Day with Christmas theme in a School in our New Neighborhood. 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 14, we will be going into a school in our new neighborhood where we live and putting on an English Fun Day with Christmas as our main theme. Pray for the hundreds of students that we will be around this day.
 December 15 – 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.
 December 15 – Christmas Outreach at Chiangrai Rajabhat University. We are blessed to be located very close to two universities in our city. We have also been invited by the Christian Club at Rajabhat University Chiangrai to join them in helping with their Christmas Outreach following our Coffee House Outreach. This is the first year will have been involved in this Christmas outreach and grateful for the opportunity to reach out this evening with the message of our great Savior.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgHt8bxxhzA&t=7s
 December 17 – 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.
 December 19 – English Fun Day with Christmas theme in a School in the Province of Payao. Through our English language platform called Grace Language School, God continues to gives us great access to millions of people who live in and around Northern Thailand from many different unreached people groups. On December 19, we will be driving South for about 1 hours into the next province and putting on an English Fun Day with Christmas as our main theme. Pray for the hundreds of students that we will be around this day. This is an intentional effort to plow the ground in a province where we are sensing God’s leadership to consider planting an extension of GLS in connection with a possible church plant in the future. Pray for God to lead and to bless all of our efforts. December 22 – Michael & Thai Staff Christmas Outing – God has provided us with some awesome Thai partners in ministry over the years that love the Lord and want to join God in His great work of redemption. It is Michael’s great privilege each year to take some time away from our busy Christmas outreaches and spend a few hours in quality time celebrating Christmas with these Thai partners. Please pray for our 6 full time Thai national partners (Jay, Ball, Ja, Boom, Bee, and Pat) and for Michael as they spend some time away celebrating Christmas together probably somewhere in the mountains for a few hours. Here is a very short video clip of our last Staff Outing. It was awesome.
As most of you know, God has given Hope a very special role at the Chiangrai International School (CRIS) as Head of School. Both Liz and Dallas have also been involved in part-time teaching at CRIS as well and they are also preparing several Christmas events and would ask you to remember to pray for God’s blessings on them and their outreach at CRIS. 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 Telling Others Of This Opportunity To Help. 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 —————————————————————————————————————————————— |
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