| This blog was written last month while serving in Thailand. Our team had limited access to WiFi.|
This month, my team and I are serving in a province in western Thailand called Kanchanaburi [Can-chan-a-bury]. We are working with Youth With a Mission (YWAM) Kanchanaburi, a project started by Thai couple, Arun and Jairak “Pang” Phummarin in 2003.
One of Arun and Pang’s initial goals for YWAM Kanchanaburi, was to start a community development project to teach people farming and handicraft skills. Now, seven years and acres of land later, they have built a sustainable farm where they grow beans, eggplant, bananas, tapioca, and other crop to be sold at local markets.
In addition to the farm, Arun and Pang have created a small church community which includes Pang’s parents and a few other members who live in the Kanchanaburi village. This Christian community is a dream fulfilled for Arun who became a Christian in 1996. Born into a Buddhist family, he is the first person from his family, village and district to believe in Jesus.
Pang was also born into a Buddhist family and first heard about Jesus when she was 15 years old. But it wasn’t until she became a student at a university in Bangkok and heard the Gospel again that she believed. This is also where the couple met.
After years of leadership training and going through YWAM’s University Discipleship Training School (UDTS) in Bangkok, the couple felt God’s calling to return to Arun’s home village and bring the Gospel to his family.
Their long-term vision for Kanchanaburi and beyond is to see missionaries from the village flow into neighboring villages, expand ministry throughout western Thailand, open YWAM training schools in western Thailand and send Thai missionaries to Burma. Eventually, Arun and Pang also hope to move from the village into the city to support local churches and new ministries.
Though it is a beautiful place, there are approximately 800,000 people of Kanchanaburi who are still waiting to experience the beauty and the love of God that is in Jesus Christ. Out of Thailand’s population of 60 million, only about 1% have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. The majority of Thailand’s believers live in Bangkok and in northern Thailand. Western Thailand is a place that has been unreached by the Gospel and many people have never heard about Jesus.
In the ministry’s initial newsletter Arun states, “ I used to be embarrassed about growing up in financial poverty. Now Jesus is showing me not only that he used my circumstances to draw me to Him, but also that true wealth is in knowing Him.”
Please keep Arun and Pang in your prayers as they follow God’s leading to reach the people of their country who are longing to experience the saving power of Jesus Christ. 60: 1-3
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.” Isaiah:1-3
