Folks – from time to time I like to give you an update from some of our missionaries. I just got this recent email from the Miskimen’s in Thailand. It’s exciting to see how God is working around the world and how we are involved as a church in supporting the work. Enjoy reading this update from them and pray for them today!
Dear Friends,
It seems as if we have arrived in Thailand at an incredible time in the history of the Church in Thailand. Jim Blumenstock (another professor) and Tim went to an informational meeting last Friday that really surprised us. We knew the Church in Thailand was growing but we had no idea how much.
A group of several hundred churches from across Thailand have been working together since 2003 to systematically reach their own people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Since that time, they have seen churches planted in 75% of Thailand’s 926 provinces and at least cell groups started in nearly half of Thailand’s 7,415 districts. In 2008 alone, a new church was planted every 2.5 days. This same group of churches has just 40 seminaries and Bible colleges to teach pastors to lead these groups. And the goal of these churches is to plant at least one church in every one of those provinces and have at least a cell group in every one of the districts. There is great spiritual hunger in Thailand and recent studies have indicated a softening among Thais toward discussing God, Jesus, and Christianity. A recent campaign by one Christian group was overwhelmed by requests for literature – over 60,000 each day of the campaign; by the end of the campaign, over 3 million Thais had requested literature! And this in a country where Buddhism is the state religion.
What an opportunity for our school to have its base in a country where churches are effectively working together to make disciples and to plant churches all over Thailand. There will be tremendous pressure on the current schools to provide pastors for these churches. We can both help prepare pastors at our two teaching sites in Thailand and we can improve the education of professors at the national schools already present in Thailand. We will be sending a representative from ABTS to attend in May the national meeting organized by these churches. They are planning for 4,000 Thai pastors and lay leaders to attend the meeting. And in the midst of all this, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association is planning a campaign for Thailand which is set to climax in December 2009. Please pray that we will have wisdom in seeking out the best contacts through whom we can arrange strategic partnerships to shape the theology of Thailand.
On a personal note, we were very encouraged a couple weeks ago when our next door neighbor showed up outside our gate with a pot of green chili chicken curry. We have sensed that Thais tend to be private and stay inside their gates as much as possible. But here she was with a pot of some of the best Thai food we have had since we arrived here and outside our gate. Tim used the only Thai he knew (Hello, thank you very much!) and accept the pot and she retreated back to her home. It was a tremendous gesture of welcome on her part and we were thrilled to see her. We just need more Thai to be able to say more.
We met another neighbor who speaks another foreign tongue that we can decipher a little easier. He is originally from England and lives in a house near ours with his 6 year-old daughter, Elody. He originally made our children’s acquaintance when they were paddling in the river behind his house – he jokingly warned his daughter that pirates were approaching! He invited Ellie to play with Elody some time and we will be sure to follow up on the offer.
Thank you all for your prayers on our behalf. We still feel overwhelmed from time to time but it’s less and less. Charlene had her first dose of food poisoning Friday night and slept all day Saturday and half the day Sunday recovering from it. Ironically, it was probably from the western restaurant we visited for our Valentine’s Day celebration. Thankfully, our children have so far been spared the awful effects of unsanitary food preparations.
From Chiang Mai,
Tim and Charlene Miskimen
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