Dear friends, I wanted to share this blog with you. It's written by my teammate, Amanda Stoesz, about our ministry contacts for this month. PLEASE READ! Thanks a million, aj
This month’s ministry has been all over the place, and of course, nothing like I expected. I was expecting to come into this month working with women enslaved to sex trafficking, a gross reality, but am in a small fishing village sharing Jesus in other ways.
My team and I are working in a village that is on the northern end of Phuket called, Thachatchai. We are living in one half of a duplex with Dana and Cindy Bratton, who have lived here for almost five years now. Dana came on a mission trip to Thailand after the 2004 tsunami and was shocked at the difficulty in finding bibles to share with new believers. After returning to the states, he heard the Lord calling him and his wife to full time missions in Thailand. So they up and moved here, and have been working very hard ever since to learn the language and build relationships with the locals here. Thai is a five tonal language that is very tricky to understand and speak, and with almost five years under their belts… they still have a hard time with communication. The church they have started is Calvary Chapel at the Bridge here in Thachatchai, and their vision is to create permanence with locals involving themselves in the church to sustain it in the future. Their days consist of visiting their neighbors, teaching English at the local school full time, cleaning up the small villages streets and parks, and discipling during home visits, bible studies and church services.
Dana and Cindy have been incredibly obedient to the Lord’s calling on their lives, and have been through thick and thin in these past five years. God has given them blessings to continue their ministry, and the strength to further the work that has been started here in Thachatchai.
Coming here this month has been incredibly humbling for me in more ways than one. My first month not team leading after 4 months of leading has challenged me to be more intentional about my pursuit in relationships with others, especially the locals and our contacts. God has also revealed to me what it looks like to minister and obey him with your everything. The example that Dana and Cindy show is beautiful. They have massive hearts for the Thai people, yet they still need the Lord’s provision as things can start to look impossible from our flesh’s perspective. They do not have reliable transportation here, and between the two small pickup trucks they have, one is usually in the shop, costing more money than it is worth. Dana volunteers twice a week to clean up the village, showing his love, but being limited in his work with the tools that he has to work with. They do not have consistent translation, and with their limited Thai, it is difficult to explain the entirety of the Gospel and God’s truth to the people here. Their desire is for the new believers here in the community to step up in leadership within the church, to potentially lead and run the church while Dana and Cindy transition back home into America. The need for Jesus in Thailand is incredible. 94.6% of the Thai people are Buddhist, 4.6% are Muslim, leaving 0.7% Christian. Some Thai have not even heard the name of Jesus Christ. Dana and Cindy’s submission to God’s call is incredible to me, especially being here, seeing the need, and feeling the darkness trying to enclose around the light that is here.
My prayers this month are for Dana and Cindy. I am praying for perseverance, trust, open doors, the Lord’s provision in this nation, and for him to send his angels to help them in all the ways possible. I am praying for your help too. These fellow believers need our help in this very real battle, and that can be prayer for their ministry, $10 for a rake, or a new car. To donate, you can click on their names above, taking you to their newsletter. There is a paypal link below the items on the left side.
I am asking you to please bless this couple, as they are reaching out to this nation with Jesus’ name. Please ask the Lord and yourself what you can do to help Jesus be known here.
