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…
June Ministry Update from Mattias
FFI programming still adjusts and adapts to the needs of society due to C-19. This means the staff has to be flexible and ready to move outside their comfort zone in many ways. God has opened up new ways for us during this time to show the love of Christ effectively at the same time sharing the Gospel to people we would never meet if it hasn’t been for C-19. We praise the Lord for three new believers that surrendered their hearts to Him during our dry food campaign in the Sea gypsy village! The needs are constantly changing due…
May Update
This update is shared by Mattias. Mattias is the operations director of For Freedom International. The past 2 months have been full of challenges, surprises, and a season of reflection. Challenges and surprises because of the current C-19 situation, where most parts of our ministry programs had to change and be adopted to new needs of the society. The restrictions during lockdown prevented us as a team to help for a while which has been frustrating but it also has been a time of reflection of our personal walk with God, the team, and the ministry God has given us.…
Renting
Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless – cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you; passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, he’ll…
Trust and obey
Trust and obey, For there’s no other way To be happy in Jesus But to trust and obey The word obey has come to mind often. It’s a word that brings some hesitance to me because I question it. “Obey? Just like that? What if the command isn’t good?” But 1 John 5:3 says, “In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” I think it’s easy to read this and say it aloud, but there’s an element of trusting what God says is true, that He does in…
Adventure with Jesus – A GAP Semester in Phuket, Thailand
As long as I can remember, adventure called my name. Not in an extreme sports kind of way, but this intangible pull to try new things, to see new places, and to learn more about how God made me and who He has called me to be. While I couldn’t articulate this early on in my life, it was still present. It was consistently pushing and pulling me to this adventure I knew I was created for and yet didn’t fully understand. I was 12-years-old and sitting on a couch reading a Christian magazine for teens (Breakaway magazine for any…
Fruit of the Spirit
Do you find you go through a passage of scripture or a devotional that you thought you’d learned and mastered before, but it hits you in that moment that a refresher is needed? To be honest, the past couple of months have been terribly busy and as I was reading through old posts and devotionals, hoping that one might be able to fit in this format, I found this. More than it being an easy way to post for For Freedom International, it’s been a reminder that old lessons are still relevant. The post begins with, “the last few weeks…
Seeking God and Fasting
I have been going through waves in my faith. I have been feeling super close to God and then feeling distant. In the past I always took this to be a normal occurrence and accepted the feelings of ‘alone’ as okay. These times of distance were often after experiencing a large amount of God’s presence (often called a “Mountain top experience”). Having a dry spell is something we all go through, in a way it is normal, but I think there is a danger in simply accepting dry spells and doing so in a passive manner – as in expecting…
Pride
I have been thinking a lot about pride the last month. It’s not an easy topic to dwell on or to talk about and I have rewritten and pondered this topic more than any other. We – you and I – are proud. That is as simple as it gets, and we need to call out our pride. Pride says, “I can do it better”, or “This isn’t worth my time”, or “I will look ridiculous or be alone if I do or say________________”. C.S. Lewis wrote, “If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited…
Volunteering Overseas & Success Syndrome
18 months ago we moved to Thailand to join the team of For Freedom International. FFI helps to undertake Gospel-Centered justice and compassion work amongst women who have been sexually exploited. We have been tasked with starting a social foundation in Thailand and establishing a vocational training salon for sexually exploited women getting out of prostitution. We love our new home and we are excited about how God is working in Phuket, and He’s done so much! During our time here FFI has started the country’s third child advocacy center, sent exploited international women back to their home countries and people…