well hello everyone!
it's been a little while, so i thought it would be good to update you all on the situation here. God continues to be faithful (duh) as dave and i work and prepare for the move to galasin. we have been blessed with abundant opportunity to share the gospel with all kinds of people here in chiang mai, and have been mutually encouraged as we strive for a closer walk with Christ. your prayers are so coveted, so needed, and i thank you so much for continually making mention of us to God. it is a big deal, prayer causes things to happen.
just this last weekend, we were able to take a trip down to galasin to prepare things for the move down. after a twelve hour drive through winding jungle roads, we arrived safe and tired, but excited to see what lies ahead. and it looks to be quite an awesome, fruitful, difficult season we're jumping into. as far as the area goes, i fell in love with the place immediately. it is a little town, covered in lush jungle and fruit trees and rivers. a half hour drive outside of town brought us to a reservoir that is, i think, one of the most beautiful places i've ever seen. everything from the food to the weather to the topography is just great. i am very blessed to be able to not only enjoy the work God has prepared, but also to enjoy the place He has
prepared. but more importantly, the people are wonderful. we met a portion of the Body in galasin whom we will be working with and serving when once we've moved there, and they are such dear believers. ninety percent of the church in galasin are believers within one year, and have come from strictly buddhist families. keep them in your prayers as they strive to grow in the sweet knowledge of our Savior. the enemy would love to destroy what God is building there.
seeing the situation in galasin first hand was quite a thing. there are (as i may have told you before) fifteen hundred villages surrounding galasin, composed of around one million people, all unreached with the gospel. the isan province (of which galasin is a part) is considered to be zero percent christian. there are only a few hundred believers out of the million, and that is just overwhelming. continually pray for a radical movement of Christ in this area. pray that workers would be sent, and that the called would answer the call to come out here and serve. it is a dire situation, there's really no other way to put it. we found out that there is absolutely no youth/high school/college outreach whatsoever in galasin, but there are thousands and thousands of students. with that, the resident pastor wenai has made it available for dave and i to focus on this specific kind of outreach. we are very excited, albeit nervous, to be able to reach these kids with something greater than anything else they could ever know. beyond that, we have made ourselves available to serve as the Lord leads and puts different needs heavy on our hearts, as well as the heart of pastor wenai. for example, i learned that the church in galasin has virtually no music education, but musical worship is very important to the thai people. as a result, the church needs a teacher to help them learn keyboard, bass, guitar, and music theory in general. so as part of the mission work in thailand, i will be teaching and raising up worship pastors within the church, which, i hope, will then be passed on to others and others until the surrounding villages begin to see a trickle of resident believers leading their home groups in praise. hallelujah! dave, as many of you know, is a phenomenal skateboarder (though he'd tell you he's just ok), and he and i will hopefully be able to start a skate ministry near where we'll be living. (i am not good at skateboarding at all, but i have one, and will most likely be instructor dave's example of what not to do.) anyways, as we are so stoked to be able to work so much with youth, so we are excited to be able to disciple/be discipled by the body in galasin, and to help with church-planting throughout isan. besides youth outreach, church-planting is our main focus.
all in all, things are progressing both splendidly and rapidly, though the time here has been difficult already. please pray for both dave and i as we battle oppression in a hundred little forms. though God is very much at work and present, we remember that this battle is not against flesh and blood but principalities and powers, and friends, there is a raging battle out here. discouragement, loneliness, even doubt have all been hurled at us already--and we are just getting started out in galasin. but we know that God is faithful, and He has already shown Himself to be so in a dozen different ways, and so we pray to stand firm, in the full armor, knowing that we have absolutely nothing to be afraid of because we are the children of God. so we say,
'onward!' and pray for grace to serve humbly, faithfully, selflessly. thank you all for praying.
as far as provision goes, God has been so faithful to meet needs and open doors, from housing to transportation to visa issues. i am still seeking financial support and trusting God to put this on whose heart it must be, and i do thank you for considering sponsoring this work. there is so much need out here, so many lost people, and so few laborers, and any support you can send this way is an overwhelming blessing. to give you some stats, there are approximately 200,000 Christians in all of thailand, and there are 67,000,000 people here. 200,000/67,000,000. this means there are at least 66,800,000 lost people just in thailand, and roughly one million of these live in the galasin area, where dave and i will be living long-term.
so that is about the sum of the update for now. if i had more time right now i could ramble, but i hope this suffices for the moment. thank you all, i love you all, and i do praise the Lord for the strength you have been and are to me. i am blessed to be able to be on the frontline with an army of brothers and sisters back home interceding for this mission. God bless and keep you.
in Christ alone,
derrick