New Evangelism Center Opens
On Saturday, May 27th, I had the priviledge of being present for the opening of a new Evangelism Center in Ditch County, about twenty minutes North of our house in Bee Creek. This is the first attempt by the national church to enter the far Eastern part of the province which is made up of Bee Creek County, Ditch County, Mountain Ring County and White Lotus County. Our teammates live in White Lotus and Mountain Ring, while we live in Bee Creek, leaving only Ditch District without a full time minister.
The Grand Opening
I was impressed by how sincere the opening ceremony was. Thais have a tendency to be very ceremonial but Pastor Victor, who is the new pastor stationed at the Evangelism Center, as well as the main speaker shared how they are just trusting God to accomplish His goals and we need to get behind them.
Our team is excited about this new Evangelism Center. We are also grateful to God for bringing Pastor Victor (more on him below) to our area and the obvious opportunities for partnership that now exist. Victor is the first, full-time minister of the gospel (apart from our team) to live in our ministry target area in East Blackriver Province.
Regular Worship Services Begin
The following week, Lisa and I began attending the first regular worship service. It started small with a couple of families and ourselves. We invited an unbelieving family in Ditch County to come along. Their youngest daughter is a Christian and a close friend of Lisa. Pastor Victor seemed pleasantly surprised that we have local ties and influence despite the fact that we are foreigners.
We have lived in Bee Creek now for five and a half years and have never had a church close enough to our house to make regular attendance of a worship service logistically possible. So it is very exciting that church life with local believers is now a possibility for us. Wes had an opportunity to try out an oral bible storying technique that draws in hearers, originally planned for kids, but the adults wanted to be part of it too.
Pastor Victor
Victor, and his wife Eldest, are in their early sixties and are recently retired. They served for over twenty years, eight years in Blackriver Province and twelve years in a different part of Northeast Thailand, and last year they returned to Blackriver province where their daughter and son-in-law pastor a church in the provincial city, Blackriver Church, of which this new Gospel center is a satellite.
Pastor Happy
Another member of the church is Pastor Happy and his wife, Gentle. They are members of a hill tribe, called the Free Mountain tribe. It is so exciting to have a relationship with them because the Free Mountainers are traditionally even more resistant to the Gospel than the surrounding Isan people. Pastor Happy had left home to work construction in Singapore in his youth and there he came to faith. He has led his wife and sister to the Lord. They are the only believers in their village and have been there quietly following the Lord for the past twenty years. They have three children but their children have not yet believed. His older son claims to be a Christian because of his parents faith but he has not made a personal commitment.
Potential Church Planting Partnership
Our team and Victor are currently discussing the possibilities of partnership together. From one point of view, partnership with locals is essential to accomplishing our task of seeing new churches planted. But depending on Victor's goals, and the manner in which he carries out ministry, we may not be able to partner closely together. We are aware that a close ministry partnership, even within our own culture, is challenging. When that partnership becomes cross-cultural it is especially complex to establish trust, good communication and esprit de corp. We have seen this dynamic play out many times with overseas organizations coming and going over the past five years we have been in Blackriver.
We will be testing out our partnership compatibility with a new ministry outreach near Pastor Happy’s home in Prosper Peak Village. This is the first ministry outreach with Thais that we have attempted. Pastor Victor wants to offer quality English teaching to the students there in order to build relationships with the leaders and adults in the village. He has requested that our team provide the English teaching component while the Thai contigent work on the adult relationships with villagers.
The outreach in Prosper Peak Village will begin on Sunday, July 16th, at 4pm local time.
Please pray:
- God would bless and establish Pastor Victor, and his wife Eldest, in Ditch County.
- We would have clear and productive dialogue together about the nature of partnership.
- That God would bless our efforts in the upcoming outreach in Prosper Peak Village.
