“Whose life is it anyways?” -Sermon on Human Trafficking in Thailand

On September 26, I was able to address our church family on what I sense should be our perspective on the human trafficking situation in Thailand based on our vision trip there. I thank Pastor Cory for the opportunity to share what the Lord has been putting on my heart for the past year. You can download the message here or listen below.

Here is the video I linked to at the end of the message:

*Be sure to hear Pastor Kenny Wada share on his impressions of Thailand on October 17.

Thailand Vision Trip Day 5

Sawadeekap! The more I am in this country, the more I’m falling in love with the country and the people. It truly is a “land of smiles” and I love seeing the children play and laugh. So watch out Ron, Ju and Mike, I’m coming back speaking Thai kop kum kap very much!

Today we left Chiang Mai and set out for Chiang Rai. We met with Seurang and her brother Jack from Bangkok. They are our guides for the next two days in Chiang Rai and surrounding areas. George met them at church in Bangkok when he introduced himself as embarking on a church trip to see what we could do in Thailand. Seurang and Jack volunteered to be our guides and show us what their church is doing. Seurang is an architect by trade and Jack, a former businessman. They are our two new friends in Thailand!

Jack is part of the Maitrichit mother church in Bangkok and Seurang, the daughter church. The congregation is Chinese and so a lot of their outreach is to the Thai Lue, a Chinese tribe that immigrated from the Yunan province in China during WWII (look them up as well as the other hill tribes here). It was neat hearing the people speak in Thai and Chinese and I was able to put my Chinese (or lack thereof) to use.

Thailand Vision Trip Day 3

Early morning today, we read Numbers 14 and prayed that we would know the right timing for our ministry in Thailand because if God is not with us, we’ll fall flat on our face. That may mean waiting until God calls us or acting quickly if God is prompting us. In praying, we felt that we should be seeking spiritual fruit in the ministries we observe and also that we should see spiritually clean waters conducive to spiritual growth in these ministries rather than murky waters. Also, I felt we should look into the eyes of the people, especially the children and see if there is hope in their eyes and also if God was there.

Becky Mann picked us up and brought us to the Integrated Tribal Development Program (ITDP) office. Becky is a strong woman, supportive of her husband’s ministry and displays a strong mother’s love to her children and my sense, is to the teams that come through. Mike and Becky have a neat story with Mike waiting seven years before being able to go to the missions field. His heart was for Thailand. Becky’s for Hong Kong. They got on their knees and surrendered their desires and asked for God’s will. The next day, they got a call telling them that they were able to go to Thailand. They had to make a difficult decision staying in Thailand despite raising a special needs child. Their story is a great testimony of faith.

The Mann’s have been in Thailand as missionaries for 21 years now. It was amazing seeing how their ministry has really exploded. Their vision is to bring people to Christ through development. Their target are the hill tribe people and their work is to bring clean water, toilets, schools, clinics, evangelism and micro-credit enterprises to these people so that they would break out of the cycle of poverty that leads to drug addiction and being exploited for human trafficking. Their ministry is holistic, what Mike calls a ministry of “presence”, meaning that they are there with the villagers for the long haul. The have done projects with multiple villages and with various hill tribe people. There is not really another ministry that does what they do.

They create schools with Christian teachers and send evangelists to these villages to evangelize to the parents and families. They also have a sponsorship program to sponsor the kids to go to these schools. Their clinics are staffed by Christians. Their staff is comprised of hill tribe people who are Christian with many living in the villages to be with the people.