Some 4 hours and counting — our team is heading out to Thailand for the next 2 weeks!
We have been floored by the generosity and prayers of all of our brothers and sisters in the past few days, weeks, and months. It has been an amazing encouragement and blessing to all of the members of our team to know that we have a host of prayer warriors interceding on our behalf as we prepare to go preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of Krabi in Thailand. Please continue to pray unceasingly for us: we’re going to need it. I am confident that no prayer will go unheard or unnoticed by our Almighty God.
Our main prayer requests:
1.] That preaching the Gospel and glorifying God would be our mission above anything else.
-This has been something that God has been convicting our team of in a crazy and undeniable way. Pray that the power of the cross and the gospel would be on our hearts and minds in everything that we say, do, and think. Pray for the hearts of the Thai people, and that every aspect of presenting the Gospel — preaching, hearing, and believing — would be done through the power of God and not of our own words or efforts. Pray for boldness and courage in the face of different cultures, languages, and religions.
2.] That we would have protection from spiritual warfare in every possible way.
-Thailand is a stronghold for the enemy, whether in the form of the prevalent Buddhism or spiritual superstitions. Pray that our team would be prepared and guarded against any attacks from the enemy. Pray against every type of spiritual warfare — spiritual, physical, logistical, mental, emotional — as Satan has already been bringing attacks against members of our team just in the past several days. Pray that we would continue to arm ourselves in prayer, in Scripture, and in immersing ourselves in the Holy Spirit.
3.] That our team would be unified in Christ, in our mission to spread the Gospel, and in love.
-Our team is coming in from all over the place, whether geographically, in age, in spiritual maturity, or just being distracted from this trip in many different ways. Despite this, we are confident that if we offer our burdens and our weaknesses to God, He will make it strength. Pray for our leaders (Josh, Char, Mark, Radt, and our translator) and for God to give them wisdom and guidance in every decision. Pray for our team to do everything in love, and to focus on our task at hand, not allowing spiritual warfare to enter into our group.
We have an amazing opportunity to share the Good News with people that have never heard the name of Jesus before, and we are freaking excited. The anticipation is palpable. We have faith and full confidence that God is going to do crazy things and bring people to Him through Christ. Continue to intercede for us as we go to do the work of God. God is good, and God is love.
All for His Glory,
Steven Chang for the ACC Lighthouse 2009 Thailand Missions Team.
“But get up and stand on your feet; for this purpose I have appeared to you, to appoint you a minister and a witness not only to the things which you have seen, but also to the things in which I will appear to you; rescuing you from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you, to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.” - Acts 26: 16-18
