Going to the Regions Beyond

One of the first things we did when we arrived in Thailand (see our post "To Go or Not to Go") was to design several "Bookshop Bicycles". We fitted aluminium boxes with shelves to hold Gospel tracts and Bible portions and attached these to the back of the bicycles. The boxes were cut in such a way they would fold down to make a little stall, displaying the precious goods. This was fun and workers were soon out on the job getting the Gospel out in this way.

We longed, however, to see people experiencing the same miraculous power of God we had seen in New Zealand (see our post "Entering a New World"). We had formed a real friendship with the missionaries from the Finnish Free Mission and later would join together with them for a number of training schools in Moobarn Setaket, just out of Bangkok. One day I expressed to them my desire to minister where the Gospel had never been heard, so they invited me to go to Phetchaboon where they were working. Thus the day came when, with great excitement and anticipation, I ventured out into the middle of Thailand, to the Phetchaboon province.

The Finns offered one their key workers, Sombat, to be my interpreter. Sombat was to become a great friend over many years and is to this day. His story is a wonderful account of God's salvation. He came to the Lord at fourteen years of age as one of the first converts in the Phetchaboon province. As a result he was thrown out of home by his father and was made to stand up in front of his whole school to be publically ridiculed. "This silly boy has become a Christian" the headmaster accused. Sombat went to Brother Pekonen. "I don't think I can make it" he told him. Brother Pekonen went up into the mountains where he fasted and prayed for seven days that Sombat would stand strong in the Lord. He did.

Because I wanted to go where the Gospel had never been, the Finnish missionaries took me to a remote, previously unreached, village. There they erected a large tent, composed of just the top canopy, and then, with loud speakers, drove around inviting people to the meeting. That night I watched with great excitement as people, holding blankets over their shoulders and carrying torches, streamed from all directions towards the tent. 800 in all! Little did I know I was about to learn a big lesson.

I ministered my "best" message that night. As I, animatedly, indicated a point with my hand, Sombat would do the same as he interpreted. To my amazement the people burst out laughing. Apparently it was because they had never heard English before and Sombat and I looked like we were having a fight. Not to be put off, I continued and at the end gave an invitation for anyone who wanted to receive the Lord as their Saviour to indicate by raising their hands. Not one response. I thought, "Ah, the answer is to show them the Lord is real". I invited anyone who was sick to come forward for prayer and the Lord Jesus would heal them. Again, not one response. I felt deflated and such a failure. But the Lord was teaching me a very important lesson and preparing me for His plan and purpose for us in Thailand.

There were four people who came to the Lord during those four nights of meetings. Although I was very happy for those four precious people, I was so disappointed that there had been so few. But all during those four nights the Lord had been speaking to me. Here I was - a foreigner in their land...someone they had never seen before. If I preached on John 3:16..."God so loved the world..."...Who is God? And what is love? Is God a buddha on the shelf, a spirit in a tree, or a photo of an ancestor on the wall of their house? I began to realise the importance of the Lord's commission to go into all the world and teach all nations (Matthew 28:19-20).

Thoughts were coming into my heart from the Lord. If I could reach the same number of people who were in the tent that night, every night for a year, how many would I reach? I quickly calculated it up in my mind. About 292,000. Well, came the thought, the population would have grown by a million or so in that time. We would always be running behind. (At the time of writing this post the population of Thailand has grown from the 26 million in 1963 to around 65 million now). I had seen how the Thai team could communicate with their own people. I knew that 75% of the nation could read [in 1963]. What if we got the Gospel message the way the team communicated it down onto the printed page? That way, we could reach millions of people.

Thus, that night, was the birthing of a ministry we had not planned but which was literally going to reach millions and personally impact multitudes.