March 17, 2010
By Kathy Sappia, serving in Thailand with Team Isaan
Editor’s Note: Team Isaan, an Alliance church-planting initiative among the Isaan people of northeast Thailand, was mobilized to help bring Christ’s message of salvation to the 2.5 million people among this group who have not yet heard. A prison ministry has introduced many incarcerated people to the gospel-including Montri and EQ—and they are evangelizing their home villages upon their release.
Over a year ago, Montri began sharing the story of God with a family in the village of Baan That (pronounced “Bon Tot”). After hearing God’s truth, they all believed and prayed to ask Jesus to be the Lord of their lives. One member of the family had been known as the “village drunk.” Through the transforming power of God, she is slowly winning the battle over alcoholism but still needs prayers for true victory.
Fishers of Men
Now, two more families within this village received Jesus after studying the story of God. When Montri asked them if they were ready to accept Him, they responded, “We were ready last week!”
Boon, the son in the first family, is being trained to share the story with these new families. It is our desire to have Montri and EQ train others who can then lead the groups without their help-to make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. It is beginning!
Praise God with us that He is moving and bringing more and more people to Him. Pray that these families will continue to grow in their faith and meet as a church together.
A Life Transformed
Saa, who received Christ in the Sawang Daen Din women’s prison, was released recently. She called me as soon as she left the courthouse, saying “You were the first person I wanted to talk to!” Saa was once very shy and had also struggled with being easily angered. But over the year and a half that she studied God’s Word with the women’s group, she became bolder in sharing her insights about the passages with us.
Saa was so excited to share how God had enabled her to forgive some people in her life and how she now has patience. Pray for her as she transitions to life outside of prison. Please pray for her to be able to mend past relationships, for her family to see how God truly has transformed her-and that they will desire to know this God who has changed her life. Pray for restoration between Saa and her family.
Learn More
Check out our Alliance work in Thailand.
Read more about Team Isaan in the article “Prisoners of Hope” in the July 2008 issue of Alliance Life magazine.
What You Can Do
Join Team Isaan on April 18, 2010, for the sixth annual International Day of Prayer (IDOP) for the Isaan people. For more information or to download IDOP resources, click here. (Note: Clicking this link will take you off of the Alliance Web site.)
Impact your world: Give to Alliance Great Commission Ministries to ensure that dedicated workers like the Sappias can remain on the field introducing lost people to Jesus.