You are browsing the archives of 2009 May.

“The Metropolitan District has been hit with a powerful flood,” says Bruce Terpstra, district superintendent. “We have a flood of new church plants!” Terpstra, who couldn’t explain why this phenomenon is taking place, reports 20 church-planting proposals submitted to the district during the past six months, with 15 in progress.  
 
“The district has a strong DNA for church planting,” says Terpstra, “and one reason [for the increase] may be a new funding strategy of matching contributions from the local church.”  
 
Regardless of the reason, it is obvious that God is at work in the Metro District. One church started with an Alpha course dinner, attended by 101 people. The following week, 60 adults attended the dinner along with a table full of teens who showed interest in the Lord.  
 
Most new church plants are daughter churches, but one non-Alliance church asked the Metropolitan District for help. “They were planting a daughter church,” says Terpstra, “and had not done it before.” After meeting with district consultants, the mother church decided the daughter church should be an Alliance church, and the unique partnership is bearing fruit. 
 
“It seems like a week doesn’t go by without another opportunity washing up to our door to plant another church,” says Terpstra. “The only explanation that can be given for what is happening is that God has opened the floodgates.”  
 

 ”The Metropolitan District has been hit with a powerful flood,” says Bruce Terpstra, district superintendent. “We have a flood of new church plants!” Terpstra, who couldn’t explain why this phenomenon is taking place, reports 20 church-planting proposals submitted to the district during the past six months, with 15 in progress.  
 ”The district has a strong [...]

By Betsy Blanchard
Serving in Spain
Editor’s note: Excerpts from Betsy’s recent newsletter describe her vision to assist immigrant women in Spain, many of whom are victims of sex-trafficking.   
Great needs and spiritual darkness are a tangible part of life in my adopted home-Spain.
Spain’s Most Vulnerable
According to experts, immigrant women from Eastern Europe, Africa, Arabia, and Latin America [...]

 By Dan and Melody Taube, serving in Argentina
Editor’s note: In their ministry through the Buenos Aries Professional Project (BAPP), Dan and Melody Taube are engaged in the delicate task of building relationships in hopes of introducing professionals to Jesus. The following excerpt from one of the Taubes’ newsletters highlights the spiritual fruit of longsuffering—an essential [...]

 Editor’s note: The Thailand Congress on Evangelism exists to glorify God by facilitating the establishment of a viable and indigenous church among the peoples of Thailand that impacts the world. During its recent gathering, Thai church leaders were inspired and equipped to be more effective in evangelism and church planting throughout the country’s 76 provinces.
Earlier [...]

Christian Solidarity Worldwide CSW is urgently calling for the discharge of two female Christian converts from Islam still being held there without charge

Editor’s note: The Thailand Congress on Evangelism exists to glorify God by facilitating the establishment of a viable and indigenous church among the peoples of Thailand that impacts the world. During its recent gathering, Thai church leaders were inspired and equipped to be more effective in evangelism and church planting throughout the country’s 76 provinces. 
 
Earlier this month 3,000–4,000 Protestant church leaders, laypeople, and missionaries gathered from all over Thailand to consider how they can work together more effectively to see the Great Commission completed in Thailand. The Seventh Thailand Congress on Evangelism drew people from the three main bodies of the Protestant church in Thailand—the Church of Christ in Thailand, The Thailand Baptist Convention, and the Evangelical Fellowship of Thailand—as well as many Alliance missionaries, church leaders, and laypeople.  
 
Two C&MA Bangkok church pastors and leaders, Ajarn Timothy Jeng and Ajarn Nok Yutasak, played key roles in this event and also spoke at the conference. An exhibition hall displayed the church growth and evangelistic tools utilized by various ministries. “These are significant events that galvanize the churches and spur them on,” says Richard Herring, C&MA regional director for Asia Pacific.  
 
A God-Sized Vision 
 
Those in attendance affirmed their vision to see a church established in every district of Thailand and for every village to have an opportunity to hear the gospel by the end of next year. Alliance missionaries are helping to see these goals achieved in the provinces of Nong Khai, Sakorn Nakon, Nakorn Panom, Surin, Bangkok, Mahachai, and Phuket.  
 
The last event of this nature occurred in 2004, which coincided with the 175th anniversary of the establishment of the Protestant Church in Thailand.  
 
Learn More 
 
Check out our Alliance work in Thailand. 
 
What You Can Do 
 
Praise God for the spirit of unity that exists among the various segments of the evangelical church in Thailand. Pray that the Alliance mission and the C&MA national church, the Gospel Church of Thailand, will be used by God to impact the country for His Kingdom.  
 
Pray also that the church will continue to grow in becoming self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing and that God’s Spirit will draw men, women, and children to Himself in greater ways in the days ahead. 
 
Donate now to support Alliance Great Commission Ministries.  
 
 

 By Ed and Sue Danneker, serving in Thailand
 Editor’s note: Excerpts from one of the Dannekers’ newsletters describe their dynamic church-planting and disciplemaking ministry in Thailand, one of the most devoutly Buddhist nations in the world. People young and old continue to trust Jesus through the prayers of Ed and Sue and their fellow believers.   
At [...]

A church in the state of Andhra Pradesh India was set on fire last Tuesday by an antiChristian group in the area

The church needs to be equipping its members to tell their story and that of Jesus Christ says J John