If you ask us what main outcome we are working towards, the answer would be to see churches planted. But to actually announce to the community that we would begin worship meetings in our home was a step I felt unprepared to take. It took a Thai Pastor basically saying, “ What’s taking you so long?”, to get us moving.
One of the difficulties of church planting is raising up quality new leaders. New believers often would like the status of being a leader, but many are unwilling to put the time and effort in to the training and practice required to be a good leader. Our solution? Project Joshua!
When Moses grew old and it was time for him to pass on, he appointed Joshua as his successor. However, the training and mentoring had been going on for years before this. In the ACT Churches (Associated Churches Thailand – those churches started by or connected to OMF) in South Thailand, we realized that this is very important, so as we as we started our new church leaders’ training scheme, we knew that this would have to be an important part of the process.
But the best part of Project Joshua? The fun that we have at the two-monthly training seminars!
August 1st marked 2 years since I came to serve in Nakhon Si Thammarat province with the OMF team. It has been a time in which have learned many things. I have learned about cultures of different missionaries through the experience of working with them. I have even learned about Thai culture, seeing things I had never noticed about my own culture before. But how did I actually get here?
Last year, Angel and myself were at a church camp where the speaker talked about turning your everyday celebrations into evangelistic events, whether that be birthday parties or New Years. Or how about a wedding? I’ve certainly known others that have made their wedding evangelistic, so Angel and myself decided we would try it out as well.
Back in the United States, the sight of leaves changing colors signal that it’s the beginning of Autumn. In Phrom Khiri, the sights of multiple large crates signal that it’s the season of harvesting mangosteen. Mangosteen (‘mang-gut’ in Thai) can be described as a fruit with a hard, dark purple outershell and a sweet, tangy white pulp in the inside. It’s one of our family’s favorite fruit here in Thailand.
Phrom Khiri is a mountainous town with many fruit orchards. It is a major grower of mangosteen as well. It seems everyone in town has a farm somewhere, and so now they all are harvesting them and putting them in crates to distribute and sell. Every house and store seem to have crates stacked high in front of them. Trucks big and small are driving around carrying mangosteen. There were also some Chinese visitors who have come to supervise the delivery of the fruit out of country. Relatives and friends come from out of town to help quickly collect all the fruit. It’s really a community effort!
A reading of the book of Acts can often lead the reader to believe that the series of events recorded occur over a period of a few months, not more than a few years. As much as this letter captures the account of the first century church, it is largely based around the lifetime of a man named Saul of Tarsus (Paul) and includes the accounts of his three missionary journeys and the spread of “The Way” within the Roman Empire.
Through the sovereign will of God, history moulded itself so that the climate of the times suited the spread of the good news, divinely and perfectly orchestrated.
For over 150 years, the freedom to preach and proclaim the gospel in Thailand has been enjoyed by mission agencies and missionaries from all over the world. The fruits of their labour in church planting, Bible translation and raising up a generation of Thai Christians is evident today to the glory of God. However, there are only around 500,000 Christians (0.74%) among Thailand's population of over 65 million people.
Praise God for opportunities to share about God in schools in Phrom Khiri. Usually our team here has just shared in schools in the context of Christmas. But recently another missionary gave me the idea to ask schools in the area about sharing about the love God other times of the year as well, starting from the story of creation. With the coming of a Thai YWAM team, I decided to ask permission to share in 2 schools in which I teach English. The YWAM team was great, fitting in to lead Christian Thai kids songs on the spot, helping organize kids and costumes in the impromptu creation skits we did and the kids loved them.