Outreach to villages

The truck bounced along the rutted, twisting mountain road. A mountain closed in on one side and a sheer dropoff on the other. And all the passengers held on tight! Sometimes the roads were impassible with mud and the villages unreachable, but every possible Sunday saw us traveling up the mountains.

Paul was faithful to go whenever he was asked to come and preach in the village churches. After his death, this ministry of outreach and encouragement has continued. When the church was organized, Moses was ordained as assistant pastor and evangelist. He has carried on this ministry of preaching and encouraging.

There are many villages which haven’t yet been reached with the Gospel. It’s our desire to send Moses to them to preach at Gospel meetings and it is his desire to go.

The people of Thailand are overwhelmingly Buddhist. The Hill Tribes are a blend of animism and Buddhism. They are superstitious and very fearful of offending “spirits.” Spirit houses where food and drink and flowers are offered are a common sight. So are the strings tied around wrists. They have been blessed by the priest or by a witchdoctor and are worn for protection from harming spirits.

Some of the villages have a form of Christianity mixed with animism (worship of trees and animals as a place where spirits live.) Early Christian missionaries such as Adoniram Judson and Hudson Taylor had an influence on their ancestors. Over the years as they migrated from Chima and down through Burma and then to Thailand to escape wars and hardships. They brought with them the remnants of teaching handed down to them, but without the clarity of the true Gospel. They sometimes claim to be a “Christian” village because that is their heritage, though they do not understand a personal relationship with Christ and they usually have no church or pastor to guide them.

All these pseudo religions have one thing in common. They are all about works. If your good works outweigh your bad, you will be safe. If your bad weighs in heavier, you are doomed and must give to the monks or the shaman to prevent bad things from happening. How they need Jesus who paid for the sins that separate us from God! The free gift is theirs for believing and trusting in Him.

But how can they believe unless someone goes and tells them? Moses is going and we are happy to send him as our missionary to these precious people who are so dear to our hearts – and to the heart of our God.