Ben's Thailand Story

Hello, my name is Benjamin Yang and I had the honor of being the team leader for our 2023 Thailand missions. I would like to spend this time to give a mission report on what we did during our missions.

We left for Thailand at Sunday, night July 30th and arrived first into Incheon, on Tuesday August 1st. We had a day layover prior to flying over to Thailand so we decided to head over to an are in Seoul to do our rockstar ministry. The weather was particularly hot in Seoul this year but it was a blessing to do a practice rockstar ministry before we do our actual performances in Thailand. After our layover, we arrived in Bangkok and first started with our English Camp ministry. We headed over to Watnongtabaek School which is a government sponsored school but the school is held at a Buddhist temple. From there, we spent two days teaching the local kids English from 1st – 6th grade. Thailand has a heavy Buddhist culture but we were thankful because the students and the teachers were receptive to us including the gospel in our English curriculum that we taught. On the last day, we were able to also have a showcase that allowed us to do a showcase of the songs and the skits that showcase Jesus’ love to them. To me, the overall school English ministry was a powerful one because even with the circumstances we were faced with, Thailand being a heavy Buddhist country, to us, we realized there was an opening for the gospel to be shared for the younger generations.

After our English ministry, we invited the local kids there to come to the VBS we planned on hosting the next day. We initially expected a lot of kids to show up but our missionary adviser later told us that the older teachers in the school discouraged the kids from attending and were disapproving of us coming and sharing the gospel. However, we believe God was at work because the director of the school was deeply moved by our worship, skits and sermon and told the older teachers that times were changing and that it was up to the kids to decide if they would like to partake in something outside of Buddhism. Praise the Lord for his open heart to the ministry. Indeed, we ended up having a few students come to our VBS anyways. The next day we had a VBS where we were able to spend time teaching the kids about Jesus through games, crafts, bible study and snacks. Afterwards, we had what we like to call a rice-revival, where in the premise of providing rice, we had an opportunity to share the gospel of Jesus Christ to the local people and the kids. We had this opportunity twice, once during VBS and another one during Sunday. This was a great opportunity for us as missionaries to showcase the love of Jesus and share one who is greater than any other spiritual forces that the locals might believe.

This year, aside from the English camp and VBS, we had an opportunity to go to local members homes and pray for them. For a lot of the Christians in Thailand, they might be the only member who is Christian in the family. They would invite us so we can pray for them, whether it be for healing, whether it be to encourage or also to empower. One of the blessings I want to report is there was one family we prayed for where their daughter was sick and sluggish. We prayed for her so that the power of the Spirit would heal her. We also prayed for her and her husband who’s not Christian so that he would accept Jesus and that he would release any addictions he has to this world. During the VBS, we checked up on the daughter and the mother told us that her sickness and tiredness was gone after the prayer. Also, we received a text from the missionary that the father has accepted Jesus and now goes to church faithfully every week. God is good.

Going to Thailand, I realized that missioning in this nation is particularly difficult. There are a lot of spiritual forces at work and a lot of different gods that the Thai people already believe. However, I was also encouraged knowing that going there, the Spirit was at work through us, as we saw seeds being planted and barriers being broken down. From the testimony and the prayers provided by our missionaries in the field, as well as the prayers of all the missionaries back at home, I truly believe that the future of Thailand looks great and I am thankful to God for using us and our church to continue to further expand His kingdom.