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 and Baan Athitaan Church takes special effort and care 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 begins tomorrow November 9. We will tell you about that in just a moment.
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 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:
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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. 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 9 – University Students 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 will have a chance to bless them in a special way this year. We will be working with the Christian Club at MFLU as well as with various churches to reach out to the university students at MFLU on November 9. Please pray for a special touch from God on this very important outreach to university students. There will be skits, dramas, music, Baan Athitaan Church Choir, a time to share the message of Christmas, and several church booths. We want to be used of God to bring people closer to God and lead some even to the throne of Grace during this outreach. Please pray for us.
November 25-28 – Youth Camp (“Love Seeds 3”) and Christmas Outreach to AKHA Village
 We are blessed to have an awesome Youth Ministry that seeks to reach out to others and seeks to reach out into the community. Please pray specifically for Boom and Bee as they have been putting the most effort into planning and preparing for this camp. It will be a camp for 7th – 12th graders with a specific service project of decorating the church building for the Christmas season as well as having a specific evangelistic Christmas outreach into an Akha village where both Boom and Bee grew up in. Please pray for both the campers as well as for the outreach into this Akha Village and all the children, teenagers, and adults who will be hearing about Christmas for the first time ever. Please remember to pray for family members from both Boom’s family and Bee’s family who will be at the Christmas Outreach event.
December 4 – 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 (Ja, Phet, Jay, Boom, Ball, and Bee) and for Michael as they spend some time away celebrating Christmas together probably somewhere in the mountains for a few hours.
December 7 – 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. On Friday night, once a month, GLS hosts a coffee house for our students and friends in the community. We normally pick a theme that is both fun, informational, and has significant meaning. We are so thankful to have Alexa and several other partners from Canada (from Crave International) that help us in our outreaches. Alexa is in charge of our “Coffee houses” this year. Dec 7 the theme is “CHRISTMAS.” 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 8 – Children’s ESL Christmas Outreach
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 about 40 children grades 1-6 every Saturday morning and we had an awesome time helping these precious ones celebrate Christmas. Pray that God would draw these little hearts to Him.
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 in 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 12 – 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 14 – Soccer Ministry Christmas Program & Arrival Of Volunteers from Crosspoint Church in Gulfport, MS – We are very happy for the partner churches that God has bonded our hearts with and that are committed to helping us reach the various UPGS here in Northern Thailand. Please pray for this team from Mississippi that will be with us for about a week helping us as we seek to reach the nations for Jesus. One of the first Christmas event that Crosspoint will help us with is our Soccer Ministry Christmas Program. Pii Jay, Pii Ball, and Pii Glen lead our Soccer Outreach Ministry. Our main target are men who are university students at Rajabhat University. We rent a couple of fields every Sunday night and we normally have somewhere around 20 to 30 guys and it is a very natural way to build relationships and share the message of Christ. But this night – Dec. 14 – will also be a very intentional time to share the message of Christ with these young men. Thank you Crosspoint for your love and support especially for this ministry. We look forward to serving the Lord together while you are here.
December 15 – Baan Athitaan Church’s Main Christmas Evangelistic Program In my 19 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. We will have hundreds of people at this event on this evening and some will be hearing the message of Christmas for the first time. Please pray for a special touch from God. We will have skits, dramas, music, food, fun and a time to share the message of Christmas, and an evangelism booth. During the message time I will be sharing about “the warmth and hope of Christmas.” We want to be used of God to bring people to the throne of Grace tonight. Please pray for us. December 16 – Wiangchai Village Christmas Celebration – Muang UPG Village
 We have invited to come again to celebrate Christmas in a Muang UPG village where Pii Ja was raised. We have had a couple of outreaches in this village over the years but this those were all at our initiative and this is the first time we have been asked to do this so we are super excited about that. Pray that we will share the love of Jesus not only through our words but also through everything that we do that some may be drawn closer to Jesus. Please especially pray for Pii Ja’s mother, father and many relatives who will be there this night. December 18 – English Fun Day in MaeJai School – Muang UPG
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. Today we will be going into a school about 1 hour south of 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 today.
December 19 – English Fun Day in Buddhist Temple School – Muang UPG
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. Today we will be going into a Buddhist Temple school where there are hundreds of young boys studying and preparing for the role of being a monk. It is a unique opportunity that God has given us to be salt and light and to help these young boys grow in their English skills while learning about the most important story ever told to man. Most of these boys are from the Muang UPG. Pray for the hundreds of students that we will be around today.
December 22 – HIV/AIDS Christmas Outreach – There are 30 young children and their families that are HIV i
nfected that we try to minister to in a special way. The hospital that we work with has asked us again this year to host a Christmas celebration for them at the hospital. We are expecting to share the love and message of Jesus with over 100 people who are either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS. Please pray that many would open their hearts to Jesus this year. |
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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.
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3) Please Help By Telling Others Of This Opportunity To Help.
Many want to give in a special way at Christmas to a special 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.
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 family and the NTIM 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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What is NTIM?
Northern Thailand Impact Ministry (NTIM), a non-profit charitable organization with 501(C)(3) in the USA, is committed to connecting people in need with people who care. We are committed to being salt and light in the heart of Southeast Asia where poverty is high, education is low, needs are great, darkness is everywhere, and the love and message of Jesus are needed to transform lives.
There are 7 key things that NTIM Does: 1) build bridges to the lost through teaching English, 2) sending “laborers” into the heart of the 10-40 window, 3) reaching the unreached people groups, 4) making disciples by training up nationals, 5) facilitating in church planting, 6) providing humanitarian aid, and 7) mobilizing volunteers around the world to join God in reaching the unreached in and around Northern Thailand.
We believe in this generation and in their capacity to respond to the challenges that cripple hope and dignity for people. On our own, we each can make a difference in the world, but collectively as a team, we are a force for good that exponentially surpasses what we can do alone.
Will you join God and work together with us to make a difference among some of the least reached people in our world today? You can make a difference by sending your donations to NTIM, P.O. Box 26115, Birmingham, AL 35260 USA or by giving online at www.gontim.org or by contacting our NTIM VP and Director of Field Operations at pray4ntim@gmail.com
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