Thailand | First time around

Having just come from a fast-paced country, which included a lot of travelling and reflecting, we now arrived in Thailand. Here we met our wonderful host and submitted under the vision God gave him many moons ago.

Our time in Thailand was surrounded by children. We engaged in environmental ministry and a good dose of intercession for the nation. This place has it all… people of all flavours from all over the world, living for all the right and wrong reasons.

Unfortunately, many of Thailand’s issues concerning purity come from the genuine needs of people. The reality is the world is full of people with these same needs who long for freedom. Deep down, there is a void and it can only be satisfied by the One who is greater than all things. The Alpha and Omega who knows exactly what true freedom looks like. This is God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and He knows your name.

The body of Christ is strong and impactful. While we are mostly travelling and planting seeds, there are people who stay and commit to building long-term relationships, where discipleship through love and obedience happens.

Our host’s vision is to help establish 70 000 house churches in Thailand with 100 members attending every house church… that means, 7 million people will hear the Word of God! They can then further what has already been established. Imagine that – 30% of the population of Thailand knowing about the gospel, experiencing true satisfaction and living for the Alpha and Omega. That’s huge!

A common theme for us in Thailand was ‘redemption’. Redeeming what was used for evil and using it for Good. Some of the children come from challenging circumstances and some locals explained to us what happened in their lives. It was beautiful to see how the Lord is and has been using our host to draw people near to Him and redeem them. It’s similar to the satisfaction of seeing a problem and then the solution.

“While visiting a market, the team met a lady coming out of a tent where divination was done. She was told about Jesus and accepted Him that night. She explained how she turned to Buddhism to get peace from her anxiety, but according to what she explained, it didn’t work for her… I could see how hearing the Gospel changed her face, and it looked like hope had come into her eyes and peace came upon her. I believe that she truly accepted Jesus that night. The peace and power of Jesus and His good news was evident that nothing and no one else can satisfy us and give us rest.” – Milan.

“We were walking in a temple market when my eye caught a specific booth, a palm reading booth. In that moment, a young lady sat down for palm reading. And I just knew that I had to talk to her. After waiting a few minutes for her to finish, I approached her.

She told me that she is struggling to sleep at night because she hears voices and footsteps in her head, which gave me an incredible opportunity to share the Gospel with her. She said she does not have peace and is not happy. I could share with her what Jesus has done in my life and about the peace He has given me. She was open to listen and for me to pray for her. As I was praying, tears rolled down her face. Afterwards, she explained how she felt peace in her heart during the prayer.

As we walked together, she kept on asking me to be her friend because she was just so alone and wanted someone to talk to. My heart broke to witness the magnitude of loneliness in the world.

Together, we walked to the local pastor who came with our group and he took the situation further. He explained the full gospel to her again in her language, until she just lifted her hands and gave her heart to Jesus.

While the girls of our team were busy surrounding the young lady with prayer and love, she started to take off all her Buddhism bands and rings that had trapped her for so long. We could witness how Jesus set a captive free and brought new hope.

The lady later confessed that she was about to turn to prostitution that evening out of desperation for finances. Jesus literally had a specific appointment with her that evening and nothing and no one could stand in His way.

We saw in practice how incredible it is when the body of Christ works together and how important the local church is. This would not have been possible if not for the local pastor and the local centre where people will continue to walk alongside her.

Even if we are in some places over the short term, there is a local church that can invest in people long-term. Let’s pray, encourage and strengthen the hands of people in the field and always be expectant of who Jesus wants to encounter.”

Overall, it is important to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and the environment so that we can do ministry accurately. Spiritual sensitivity is something that the Lord has been increasing in our whole team this year and something Niklas testifies to:

“I arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, full of excitement. It was my first time on the East side, the Asian side of the globe. Everything was new. The culture, the people, the food and the whole living situation were new to me. After we arrived, we had a beautiful day in Bangkok and this gave me a “hunger” for more. But as soon as we got to Pattaya, my perception of this place changed from one second to the next.

I could feel something like a dark cloud over Pattaya. It’s one of the biggest sex trafficking cities. It made me really upset to see all this sadness in the women’s eyes and you can’t really do something, because it’s such a big issue. All we can do is pray, pray and pray more that the Lord may save their lives.” – Niklas

“Thailand had a very intense spiritual atmosphere. Our team responded with prayer walks and prayer sessions, proclaiming the name of Jesus over the land. One thing that was made extremely obvious to me during this time, is our dependency on the Holy Spirit and the absolute necessity of living life and walking by the Spirit, continually seeking guidance and asking God to reveal Himself in such a spiritually dark place.

In all this, one of the biggest encouragements I received was in seeing how open the people were to Jesus, and how they were seeking. Many people were interested in the Gospel. One of the main ways it has been shared in Pattaya is through the discipleship of children. These children would go home and tell their parents about Jesus, causing the church to grow.” – Renee

One evening, as our team was walking back from a night food market, Cayla felt quite a bit of pain in her abdomen. Initially, we didn’t think much of it, but after arriving home, she felt the Lord tell her to get on her knees and pray. The Lord then led her to gather the team to go on a prayer walk, back to the place where she initially got the pain.

Now being back at that specific location, our team split up and spread out to pray over that area and proclaim the name of Jesus. In this time, the Holy Spirit gave us visions and feelings of what we should pray over. The Holy Spirit gave us specifics like ‘safety over the area, protection over people in certain buildings and places, righteousness to rise’ and even more detailed prompts to press into and pray over. It was beautiful to see how each team member experienced the situation in a different way and could then bring whatever they were experiencing to the feet of Jesus. Obedience out of surrender… that’s what it means to abide in Him and that is what lead us to an amazing night of intercession.

In times of stress, hardships, uncertainty, and sorrow, we have a key weapon that will allow us to defeat all oppositions… worship.

Worship is more than singing and music, it’s about your obedience to God, and our host is a good example of an obedient man. He is a willing vessel for the Lord. One that steps out in obedience to everything the Lord tells him. Part of the vision the Lord has given our host is to teach the kids who attend his programme how to play instruments and sing, so they can lead worship in the local church. It is amazing to see how incredible the body of Christ works.

The Lord gives everyone gifts to use in the Kingdom, not to keep for ourselves but to share with others, to shine all glory to God, and to encourage others in the body of Christ. So during our stay, some of our team members got to share the gift of worship that the Lord has given them, to teach and encourage the children how to play and sing the song “How great is our God.” The kids spent a week learning it and were able to sing it in the church service the following Sunday.

Something beautiful that came out of this is that now that some of the kids know how to play a few instruments, they are teaching the other kids how to play! What a blessing it is to be able to share the gifts we have.

Thailand truly was a special place to us. While the above is simply a blog, I, Henco, strongly believe that there is truth in what was mentioned. Altogether, we seek truth in life and can only find it in Jesus. Unfortunately, not every person on earth will find it and some are looking for it in the wrong places.

Let’s continue to pray for this nation and the advancement of His kingdom.

Greater things are still to come…