Committed to Jesus

Ann was the first Thai to accept Jesus when we started English classes for Thai people over 4 years ago. She was baptised just before she returned to Thailand for a time. A couple of months ago she came back to Sydney and is going as strong as ever. I heard yesterday that she would catch a bus 60km to church every Sunday from her home village in rural Thailand. That's commitment!  

City Thai Christian Fellowship (Sydney)
The City Thai Christian Fellowship on Monday evenings is attracting more people. It has been great to be joined by a number of Aussie people who have a heart for mission in general and Thai people in particular. These last few weeks we have been encouraging our new Thai believers to be spending time alone with God through prayer and reading His Word.  

Trip to Western China with National Council
Our National Council acts as our Board of Directors. Next week 13-23rd May I will be travelling with three of them to Western China where we will have the opportunity to see the work of our company there. We will be there for 10 days and I am looking forward to spending some quality time with Jim, Stewart and Ken as we travel together.

For more OMF news, please see my OMF Australia Executive Director's newsletter at: http://tinyurl.com/12MayOzlink
We especially would like to invite you to our National Conference this year at Lane Cove from August 31-September 2. You will find the flyer at: http://tinyurl.com/12NatConf 
If you are interested in helping with childcare for the conference there is information about that at: http://tinyurl.com/12NatConfChild

Family News
Debbie and I are adjusting to having three teens in the house. Julie is only 12, but now that she is in year 7 she has grown up all of a sudden. Friends are suddenly more important and there is more driving to do getting the kids to parties, movies and friends houses. Alex is enjoying Rugby Union this year- he is usually in a good mood after a game or a practice session!  Ben is working hard at Year 12, and thinking of working next year before launching into Uni.

Please pray:
• Thanking God for Ann’s faith and the encouragement it is to see her again.
• For our new Thai believers, that they will desire to spend time alone with God each day.
• For the China trip 13-23rd May as we interact with people working alongside many different ethnic groups and faiths.
• For Debbie and the family as they cope with everyday life while Johan is jaunting around Asia.

The Value of People

Last week we went on an outing with a group on Thai people. We spent the whole day together and travelled on trains and ferries to a beach where we had lunch. On the way home I was talking to a couple of young men from Thailand and Burma who are currently studying in Australia. One of them will return to Thailand after he completes his studies and the other one comes from Burma and wants to stay in Australia. His father was a property developer in Burma and now wants to leave. He made an interesting comment which caught my attention. He was comparing life in Burma (and Thailand, where he studied for a few years) with life in Australia.

I was thinking that the main difference that made Australia attractive to him would be the high standard of living that we enjoy as one of the richest countries in the world. But he didn't. The main thing that made Australia attractive to him was the value that we place on human life. He said that when someone dies in Burma it's no big deal, even if the person was murdered. It happens all the time and people just accept that justice will not be done. But he said that when someone dies in Australia it is news, and alot of effort is made to catch the killer, or to correct the cause of the accident. I was very interested to hear that from a bright young man who is not a Christian, but yet he appreciates the value that we put on a human life. This value is something that comes from our Christian heritage. We believe that we are valuable because God created us in his image. Even more than that he gave his own son over to death to set us free. Since God sees people as valuable, our society also should reflect that if we believe and trust in him.

Reaching the unreached for Jesus

When I applied to become a missionary to unreached people groups I never thought that I would be doing that work in my home town. My wife and I worked in Thailand for 14 years among Thai Buddhist people, both in a country town and in the capital city of Bangkok. We learned the language, lived among the people and adapted to many aspects of Thai culture. 

When we needed to return 4 years ago I expected that our time of reaching out to the Thai had come to an end. That was until I discovered that in my home city there are over 30,000 Thai people, and I saw that there was great potential to reach out to them. So when I returned home I teamed up with other Christians who were keen on reaching out to the Thai expats in Sydney. We taught English classes, went on outings together, organised parties and get-togethers. It was not long before some of the Thai responded to Christ and gave their lives to him. At this point we decided to start a Thai Christian Fellowship on Monday evenings to disciple and encourage these new believers, as well as other Thai people who were already followers of Jesus. It has been a privilege and a joy to continue on from the ministry we had over many years in Thailand.

Ministering to the Thai expats (or Diaspora) in Australia has had some unique advantages:

1. The Thai expats are more responsive. In Australia they are out of their comfort zone and they feel vulnerable. Some have many problems with money and families, which they are more ready to accept help from Christians. As a result we are seeing more fruit than we did from similar work in Thailand.

2. Missionaries have more help. In our outreach we have used many volunteers from our supporting churches who help us in our ministry and this has enabled us to build many contacts and friendships with them.

3. It is a lot easier. Living in Australia I'm at home with all my family and friends. I can use all the experience that I have gained working in Thailand but I don't have to put up with the oppressive heat, pollution, noisy shopping centres and temples and everyday cross-cultural stress which saps my energy. And I still get to eat yummy Thai food at least once a week! While I do not want to teach that ministry should be easy, it certainly helps me to be more effective when I am less stressed.

Jesus commanded us to go and teach all nations. Now we can do that in our home towns. As Christians we have an obligation to take up the opportunity that God presents to us. Who are the key expat groups in your home town? What can you do to reach them for Jesus?

Recently, at the annual Reachout Missions conference in Katoomba we did something different with our display. Instead of a generic display covering all the countries we work in, Steve (our NSW state rep) prepared a display that looked like a Mosque and invited people to come in. He took them through a Muslim prayer ritual: washing their hands, taking off shoes, bowing down and lifting hands.  He showed how these rituals can help us to appreciate the holiness of God. However they cannot communicate the love of Christ, and this is what Muslims need to hear to be liberated from fear, sin and death. We hope that it would help in understanding and raising awareness of reaching out to Muslims full-time in South-East Asia.