The Evening Post

Sawadee (hello) and khor thot (sorry) this post is coming out a little bit late.

Here were our two prayer topics from yesterday's meeting:

1. Spiritual Freedom

Thailand means “Land of the Free” because they were never colonized. However, the land is held captive in a complex web of Buddhism, traditional culture, spirit appeasement (even occult practices), and strong social cohesiveness, making it hard for people. For many Thai, their nationality and religious identity are inextricablty linked. Pray for spiritual breakthrough so that, in the Lord Jesus, the Thai may be free indeed.

2. Church Growth

After 400 yrs of Catholic work and 200 yrs of Protestant work, Thailand is still only ~1% Christian. Despite many missionaries and programs, there has been little growth.

a) The Church of Christ in Thailand, the largest Protestant network; pray for renewal

b) The Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand, hub of mission organizations and churches; pray for unity, effective collaboration, and accelerating growth

c) High standards in church life. Thai culture is very tolerant and relaxed, going against holiness in the church. Pastors need to lead by example, and deal with syncretism and high rates of backsliding.

d) Church growth and evangelism. Praise God for lots of vision for the country. Pray for leadership, recent projects (Vision 2010, Love Thailand, TEC), formation of a national prayer network, leadership development, etc.

e) The less-reached areas. Most churches are small and concentrated in Bangkok and the NW. 6,000+ of 7,415 subdistricts have no church.

One of the reasons our team has incorporated these prayer times is so we could have a better understanding of the issues Thai people and (future) Christians face. Our hope is that the more we can learn, the fewer barriers to the gospel there will be and it will be easier it will be to form relationships with people. Keep us in prayer! It's not easy learning Thai!

Also, please pray that we would be able to book our plane tickets soon.

Thanks!

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Missions Monday

Pray for the ongoing relief efforts in Japan; coordinated & cooperative effort would reach the most needed areas and peoples; open doors for the Church in general and the many Christian mission/relief.