July Ministry Update from Mattias

The past month has continued with a focus on outreach to help less privileged communities with donations of dry food and baby milk. We are amazed about how God is using these new ways of ministry opportunities to help with a very urgent need due to COVID to also be able to present the Gospel of Christ. Until last week 12 people have surrendered their lives to Jesus!

We have established good connections with village committees to be able to see how we can help over the long term. In one of those areas (the Sea gypsy village), we had the first initial planning meeting together with the committee and the local church to see how we can join together to fight, drug abuse, gambling, unemployment, teenage marriages, teenage pregnancies, child abuse, etc.

Due to the C-19 situation, this is the kind of outreach we are doing for the moment and will be doing for the rest of the year as the need is vast. We are in 2 weeks launching a “milk” outreach to 120 families of migrant workers and other very poor Thai families without means to feed their infants properly. As this is a vast area, we also cooperate with the local Thai church to be able to cover all the families, the infants will be fed, and the Gospel will be preached! There is an estimate of 400 families in need of help, we would like to be able to help more of them, so this could be an area where you could help us to support the marginalized.

Behind the scene, there is also an increase in suffering when it comes to trafficking and women and child abuse. This is an area where law enforcement and government offices had limited resources before COVID, already and now there are simply not enough resources to deal with the increase of victims. This realization has made us launch a project that we have been planning to launch for a couple of years already. The reason that we have not started it before is a lack of resources, this is still not covered by any donor, but we chose to take a step of faith and begin to develop our own “investigative/intelligence team.” We aim to hire (which we have) our own analyst and investigator/surveillance team, to help law enforcement in their efforts to battle trafficking in the south of Thailand. We are launching this project in cooperation with a partner organization that has a long track record of supporting Thai law enforcement with outstanding results when it comes to the prosecution of offenders and the rescue and support of trafficking victims. We have already employed our own analyst who will start her education with our partner as she also will develop relations in the south of Thailand to be able to battle the issues of trafficking more effectively. Next, we will look to hire 1 additional investigator to strengthen the efforts further. We believe that we will be able to make a significant impact by developing this, especially as we are the only NGO in the South having permission to create programming to work against trafficking. We are looking for support to be able to develop this team, and this is another excellent opportunity for you to come beside us to help us to achieve our God-given vision to “break chains of oppression, so that people can encounter Christ, live in freedom and change the world.”

Meanwhile, while reading in 2 Tess 2:13-17, God reminded me of how important it is to stand firm on the truth of His word. Hold fast to what is written and taught (the tradition/truths delivered or transmitted orally or in writing). Not to add or subtract anything. What was true for the Thessalonians is true for us, one God, one mediator, one Gospel, unchangeable. We are to transform the age and culture not being transformed by it but being noticeably different from the unbelievers and their passions. Why is that? He chose us to be saved, called us to sanctification by the Spirit and belief in THE TRUTH, the gospel so that we might obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus! We have a great responsibility to protect, guard, and spread the truth of Jesus Christ to the nations, an undefiled and clear Gospel which will pierce people’s hearts, lead to the conviction of sin, repentance, and surrendered lives to Christ Jesus.

Stand Firm!