That’s the big news lately and the vision for the next 5 years. Currently, Thailand is by the most generous estimate, about .6% Christian. Generous in that this figure of 400,000 Christians out of a population of 70 million includes an vast unknown number of those such as – names on the membership rolls of churches, but who are never actually in church, those going to churches from time to time, (and also continuing with old religious practices and without a saving faith in Christ), and those who call themselves Christian in the villages of the north because their great grandfather converted with missionaries a few generations ago…
With this in mind, the goal and vision for the next several years is to see 100,000 Christians in Thailand united in sharing the Gospel and united in faith – expecting God to work as never before in Thailand – converting mass numbers of Thais to break through and see 1 million Thai believers by 2015. This is completely unprecedented and is of such stature that the the theme of the Conference, (in the video above), acknowledge the utter impossibility of achieving this goal. Each leader/speaker at the conference echoed these same words – this is completely impossible. Only if God does this – we will see anything even close to this goal – thus the theme – “With Him, We Can.”
Our group, Thailand CCC, was responsible for hosting, planning, and staffing this conference. What was my job in this history-making event as everyone else was working feverishly from 6 am to midnight?…
There I am. In a seat. Talking. Being OK in English definitely has advantages. I’m not DJ-ing, but translating. That seems to be my regular job at any event nowadays, (even Sunday morning church services). I enjoy it, it’s fun. Just listen and repeat in another language.
So, when you think of us here in Thailand – pray that the leaders and believers here would not get lost in these big numbers, that they would take the time to preach and teach effectively and faithfully focusing on one person at a time. Who cares about numbers if the numbers you produce are a bunch of confused false converts? Pray that all would know the Person who had the biggest vision for God, the greatest number of people who would come to know Him, the vision truest to God’s heart – was Jesus Himself. And how did Jesus go about reaching such numbers?
By focusing on 12 people – and loving and teaching each person He came across – one at a time.