We hope it has been a good new year for you thus far. We don’t know about you, but we have felt like January has lasted forever! Here are a few recent updates about our live and ministry here in Bangkok, Thailan:
• Ouan’s first sermon — I mentioned last time that there were a few people from our church that have been given opportunities to practice preaching. This month, it was Ouan’s turn to preach. This was his very first sermon! He preached from Col. 2:6-10 and we thought he did a good job, especially with it being his first time preaching. After the service, some of us men got to debrief and give him some feedback on the sermon. To be honest, as a pastor and someone who has been helping these guys prepare their sermon, I was probably more nervous than they were! I praise God for these men. Please pray for them.
• Pray for Ann — Ann has come to our church a few times now. She is friends with the guy in the picture, who is a member of our church. We invited them to our home one day. I gave her a Bible with a piece of paper (that I created for those who have never read the Bible before as an initial guideline) titled, “Where should I start reading?” I encouraged her to read according to that list and ask any questions that she may have.
To my surprise, she came back a week later saying she had read every day and finished everything on the list! It’s a lot because it consists of the birth, death and resurrection of Christ from the Gospel accounts, plus the book of John, Acts and the sermon on the mount! We hope to continue talking to her and sharing the gospel with her. Please pray for Ann’s salvation.
• Our neighbor at church — We haven’t seen our neighbor — her name is hard to spell in English because you don’t have that sound and the closest would be pronounced “Dom” — in some time, so Jessie went to check on her on a Saturday and invited her to church. We were thrilled to see her and her son at our church the next day! That was their very first time to attend a church service. They heard us sing, read the Scripture, pray and preach the gospel. We don’t know if/when they will come back again but pray that God will continue to give us the opportunity to be a good witness to her.
• New book (2nd Edition) — We recently received some copies of my book as a gift from the publisher. It’s the second edition of my devotional book. There are minor changes as far as the content inside, but the outside cover is completely different now. We already gave some away to people from our church and the publisher will work on distributing it to various bookstores. In this book, each day the readers will be meditating on scripture from both the Old Testament and New Testament, while understanding the meaning as well its application. Please pray that the Lord will use this book to draw readers closer to him through His Word.
• New member(s) — We rejoiced to welcome a few new members to our church family. They have been coming to our church for some time now, so we are glad they officially decided to be a part of the body. They are still several people that have been attending but haven’t joined due to different circumstances. Please pray for them. For a lot of Christians here, church membership and the thought about seriously committing to a church is still relatively new.
• New Worship Team — Last month, a member of our church who helped lead worship suddenly left our church to go a different one. In a small church plant like ours, it makes a big impact when things like this happen. So, in the past month or so, we’ve been seeking out and encouraging others from our body to fill in these roles. By God’s grace, we have not only one, but two new guys that have stepped up and have been helping us lead worship — one guy plays the guitar and the other sings. Both are doing a wonderful job. I’m thankful for them. Though it’s not completely the same context, it reminds me of a Thai saying that goes, “Tough situations can create heroes.” There are still other roles and responsibilities in the church that we need help with, so please pray that God will raise up people for those tasks.
• New Ministry — It has always been my passion to not only preach and teach faithfully, but also to train other Thai pastors to do the same. So, we are excited to announce that we are planning on launching a new ministry called “Thai Expositor Ministries” to equip, encourage and energize Thai preachers to faithfully preach the Word of God. (The name, the logo and other details are still a work in progress).
One main thing I plan to do through this ministry is to host preaching seminars/trainings, both at our church in Bangkok and different parts of Thailand. Moreover, I hope to assist Thai pastors/preachers I have met through these trainings and help them to fulfill their calling in any way I can.
We are currently looking at some dates to host the first preaching seminar under this new ministry. We were going to host one within the first few months of this year, but there are several changes at the church at the moment that need special attention, so we are looking at pushing it back a few more months. We will keep you posted. Please pray for the effort of this new ministry, alongside other responsibilities that we already have going on.
• Visitor/Ephesians 4 feedback — As I preach each Sunday, it’s not very often that people will want to keep talking to me and other members about the sermon they just heard. But since I started Ephesians 4, I praise God to see that He is doing some great work in the hearts of several people. The last few times I have preached, at least a few people have come up and shared how God has worked in their heart. A lady who lives nine hours south of where we are joined us one Sunday because she was in town for work. She told me, almost in tears, that she has been struggling in the areas that the sermon addressed that day. I’m excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in the rest of Ephesians 4 and the rest of the book. Please pray both for me and all those who will hear His Word.
• Visitors — Due to the distance, it’s very rare that any of our supporters from the US happen to be in this part of globe, but we rejoice whenever it happens. Recently we got to see and spend some time with Sean and his family while they are visiting Thailand. They got to join us for worship and met several of our people. We are grateful for them, and all of you who are standing beside us in our lives and ministry. May the Lord bring some of you our way in the future!
• Children’s Day — Children’s Day in Thailand always falls on the second Saturday of January. The schools will not have teaching on that particular day, but provide a full day of fun activities and give away gifts for the kids. Our church was able to go to a school that one of our member’s sons is attending and give some gifts to the kids on behalf of “North Bangkok Church,” as well as play some games with the students there.
