Unfortunately, due to Covid related travel restrictions I have been unable to visit Thailand recently but have been in email contact with John and Nok.
.jpg)
Over the last year the situation in Thailand has been turbulent, with another wave of Covid-related illness sweeping the country. There have been numerous lockdowns which have prevented partners from carrying out their normal work and John and Nok’s church was closed for much of 2021 before reopening September.
They have been developing their online based ministry, which was begun before the pandemic, and have been running Making Disciples through social media. Nok reports that every day there are 10-20 people contacting them online and says, “It makes me remember about the Bible verse which says the fields are ready to harvest but there are not enough workers”.
“Every day I have the chance to introduce people to know Jesus as their saviour. And most of these people open their hearts. They say the prayer of accepting salvation on their own. I use the Facebook Live stream as a kind of Sunday service. We have a lot of testimonies every week about miracles in health, family, income, etc.”
They have around 2,000 people following Jesus spread throughout Thailand, and Nok feels that from that number there are about 50 that she is continually nurturing to become disciples. There are obvious challenges to this kind of ministry, especially when travel is severely limited, and Nok made the point that “you have to trust the Holy Spirit entirely… because they can’t come to church, and they don’t have Bibles. We teach them to trust in the Holy Spirit every day.”
Many have changed the habits of a lifetime and wish to get their own Bibles, with some wanting to get baptised in their church.
“One of the biggest reasons that we are able to focus most of our efforts on this ministry is because of your financial support and prayers throughout the years. Instead of us having to worry about our financial situation we can put all of our focus on the work that the Lord has intended for us to do.”
And as an extra answer to prayer, John and Nok’s daughter Nana graduated from university last month with her Master’s degree in Missiology and outstanding marks!