We have spent the last two weeks here in Thailand with a team of about 20 people, all who are interested in staying longterm here with us. They spent their two weeks in Thailand learning about what God is doing here and trying to listen to His voice whether He wants them to move here permanently or not. These two weeks were very exciting for us as we really enjoyed the company of our friends, most of whom were on the same Harvest School in Mozambique that we attended last year. The majority of them are young married couples like us and while some of them are still undecided of what to do, a few have already committed to coming back to Thailand later this year to stay. Three couples besides us have committed to move here longterm, so altogether there will be at least nine International people living here at the end of 2012. It could go up to 13 or even more as others make their final decisions to stay or go elsewhere. It is very encouraging to us that God is calling so many likeminded/hearted people to the same thing here at the same time. It is such a blessing to have community of friends that we trust dearly to share this crazy life with!

ISAAN.

Since we moved to Thailand in December, we have had the opportunity to go visit Isaan two times (3 for Robert), a large region in the northeast of the country. This is the place where about 95% of the prostitutes found in the sex industry hot spots in Thailand come from and it is the country’s poorest region. It is also a beautiful place. Rice fields and small villages. Both times we have loved being there and we have returned to Bangkok so rested and energized each time after being out on the country side away from the busy city life.

We are both very interested in reaching this region as a way of preventing the sex industry from growing, and to prevent individual girls from such a devastating lifestyle. Why not rescue the people that are most likely going to end up in a brothel before they even get there? Before their dignity is trampled on, before both their souls and bodies get wounds hard to heal, before they are trapped in an downward spiral which they can’t get out of easily. It doesn’t sound as glamorous as pulling girls straight out of the bars and brothels but it’s probably the most needed action to save these girls.
The first time we visited Isaan we went with the Thai family that we live with in Bangkok. They have many relatives there and we went to visit them and to give out Christmas gifts to a group of children. Christmas in February! Our second visit was with the longterm team and the purpose that time was to learn about the region to understand why this place supplies the brothels with all the girls they could ever want. Two very different trips to the same place but both very insightful and fun. Why a lot of girls come from here to work in the red light districts makes perfect sense after a visit to Isaan. You’ll see people doing hard manual labour under a hot sun in the rice fields all day long. You’ll drive through small villages and scattered among the traditional wooden Thai houses and then suddenly you’ll see a big clean, modern concrete house with nice cars in front of it. These houses are built by foreign men who have married a local girl they met in the bars of Bangkok, Pattaya or Phuket. From this point of view it looks like a very tempting option to just go and work in a bar so that you don’t have to suffer in the rice field and so that you family also can have a big nice house. And like in any other country around the world, if not even more, money is worshiped here.
If you want to learn more about Isaan and why so many women here turn to the sex industry to provide for themselves you can read this thesis that one of our friends here have written about precisely that.
Cori’s Thesis: FROM RICE FIELDS TO RED LIGHT DISTRICTS

A LIFE CHANGED.

Isaan is commonly titled a graveyard for missionaries, so naturally you cannot find many of that kind in this region. It is one of the most unreached places in the country and it is the poorest region of Thailand. However, though churches and/or believing communities are scarce in Isaan we sensed a deep hunger for Jesus. It felt like this place is very ready to receive the message of the gospel. It almost feels like they are just waiting for someone to tell them who Jesus is, as most haven’t ever heard the simple gospel. We get the sense that as soon as they hear and feel the love of the Father, it will land in their hearts and they will receive it and it will forever change their lives to the depths.


Even though church planting hasn’t been in the top of our list of what we want to do in Thailand we feel that like what is happening in Mozambique with the rapid church growth and revival will spread here in Thailand and in Isaan specifically. We specifically got to see this modeled by a church plant near Bangkok that we got to participate in.

CHURCH PLANT IN PHATHUMTHANI WITH LOCAL CHURCH.
We want to share briefly about a church plant that a local church here is doing and that Iris has been a small part of. We want to share about it because we personally feel that this church plant is a prophetic sign of what is to come for our ministry here in Thailand. After the floods in Bangkok last year an Iris team that went here to help out joined up with a local Thai church called Living Streams. Together they went to a rural area outside of Bangkok that was badly affected by the floods to provide whatever help the villagers there needed. Since God is amazing and wants to show His love lots of miracles broke out during that time and almost everyone that needed physical healing was healed, over 100 people. And even better than that, the village chief gave His life to Jesus along with several other villagers. The church has since then been going back to this village every week to start a church there on the village chiefs property. When our longterm team was here with us we returned with the church one Saturday to this village, Phathumthani, to assist in praying for people and showing God’s love. Also this time we saw many people getting healed and there was so much joy released as the church members were sharing about Jesus to the villagers that came to listen. Here is a short slideshow that the church put together.

Seeing this church plant and how God has blessed this village almost feels like looking into the future of what God might do through our team here. It probably won’t look exactly like this, God likes doing creative things, but we do feel like revival is ready to break out here. This seems like a stereotypical thing to say but everyone we have spoken to, even people that have been here for decades without seeing any fruit are all agreeing that now is the time for Thailand. Thailand has never had a revival happen in the land and many missionaries have been plowing the ground for a long time with very little fruit. We honor these people so much for their years of dedication and faithfulness and we feel so blessed that we get to come here at such a time like this. Not that there won’t be hard work for us too, but we literally feel like the heavens are about to burst open and that the Spirit of God is about to pour out here in a powerful way.