First, forgive me for the much delayed response. Please let my lateness be no indication of my gratitude for your support or the impact of this trip. As I’m sure that you are experiencing with me, life is busy.
Thank you so much for your support of our trip to Thailand in September. I am happy to report back that God is doing and will continue to do incredible things in Thailand, and specifically, through the ministry of Barnabas’ network of churches.
During our first week, we spent day and night preaching and teaching during a pastors’ conference titled “The Five Stones of David”. It was called this because during each of the five days we taught on a particular theme (stone) covering salvation, scripture application, prayer, stewardship, and evangelism. Each of the four of us teachers had six to eight 1-hour lessons covering this wide and deep range of topics. We even had a special request from the women there for two additional lessons focused on how they can serve their families and the church – Praise God!
The reason that this conference was requested by Barnabas was to provide Bible training to his network of pastors that typically receive very little formal Bible education before going into ministry. I can testify that these 50 to 60 men and women were hungry for God’s Word and were diligently writing nearly every word we said all week long. Additionally, this conference served as one of the first opportunities for this network to fellowship and worship together – and they definitely did that whole-heartedly! We loved eating with and singing with them, and were greatly moved by their passion and generosity.
I should say that there were some challenges along the way – first and foremost being the language barrier. In all of our lessons, we taught through a translator (both of whom were excellent). But the additional complication was that every sentence that we spoke was translated from English into Thai and then immediately translated into Lisu (a hill tribe language) back to back. This required much precision with our words and calculated simplification. In the end the response was fantastic, we formed strong bonds of affection and connection with these people and plan to continue to partner with them going forward.
During our second week, which was kind of a whirl-wind, we drove for hours over the northern hills of Thailand visiting the village churches. This was very humbling and insightful. We saw first-hand the difficulties these churches faced as a result of the sinful world in which we live. We prayed over many people and situations. While seeing how sin is the same no matter where you go, also, God is the mightiest even on the other side of the planet. Additionally, we visited one of the three children’s homes under the ministry umbrella. Here we saw 60 boys and girls loved and cared for with the heart of God. The children’s homes allow village kids attend schools in the city because otherwise they would receive no formal education. At the children’s home, they are also taught the Bible, many worship songs (these kids are talented beyond description!), and Chinese to provide them the best opportunity for future employment.
On the last day, we were just tourists, as we visited two “zoos” that definitely wouldn’t have legal backing in the States. The Elephant park was first, where we saw elephants trained to paint, play soccer, throw darts, and give rides. You could just walk right up to them and touch them! The second place was Tiger Kingdom, where we were in a cage with two live white tigers, who while huge, were not yet at their max size. I have to ask myself sometimes, “Did this all really happen?”
Thank you again for your support in all of this. Financially, we had every need met and were able to leave a sizable gift to the ministry. That money will go unimaginably far in that part of the world and under Barnabas’ stewardship. He is definitely modeling Jesus’ command to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves”. Spiritually, I testify to you that we daily felt the prayers from you and all of our friends back home. We needed God in every way and in line with the prayers of His saints, He exceeded every need. This short letter barely scratches the surface of what we saw in those two weeks and how I am forever changed by God calling me to this trip.
In everything God gets the Glory; may His name be praised forever! In Christ alone,
Dan Thompson