One of the most difficult issues in church planting is discipline. People come to the Lord from a non-Christian background. They have areas in their lives where they are not living according to what God tells us in the Bible. The lives of many were characterized by idolatry, debauchery, drunkenness, and dishonesty. Though they have become new creatures in Christ, the old man has not disappeared all of a sudden.

So what do you do when people do not live according to God’s commandments? (more…)

Last month we got a picture of a woman being baptized. It was Oy, who came to me the last Sunday that we were in the church in Waeng Yai to tell me she wanted to be baptized. It is fantastic to see that it really happened  now. I was glad for four different reasons. (more…)

How do you know whether you have a call to be a missionary? People often ask me this, especially young people. My best answer is: the question is wrong.

The Bible does not teach us that God reveals His children His plan for their lives. That is also true for missionaries, (more…)

In what kind of church do many outsiders come to faith in Christ? My research among Thai churches, had a surprising outcome. There are two things that tell you about everthing you need to know about the growth potential of a church. Only two things. (more…)

In my research how people come to the Lord in Thailand, I also looked at the role of the various media. That gave rise to some surprises.

30% of all new Christians said that no media played any role in their conversion. This shows that personal relationships are the driving force in evangelism, and that media can only play a supporting role.

10% said that radio (3%) or television (7%) played a role. This is remarkable for two reasons. First of all, it’s a low percentage. And second, there is much more Christian radio than Christian television. Yet television is influencing more people.

The big surprise however was that 60% of the converts said that printed media played a role in their conversion. 17% mentioned an evangelistic tract. For every positive mention I ever heard about the evangelistic value of tracts, I am sure I heard at least ten negative ones in my life. Yet in Thailand evangelistic tracts were influential in the conversion of almost twice as many people as radio and television combined!

The other 43% mentioned a book. This consisted of three equally large subgroups. The first group meant the Bible. The second a Christian book. And the third group mentioned both the Bible and a Christian book.

Why would printed media be so much more effective in evangelism than broadcast media? Radio and television are much more intense, aren’t they? I do not know what the answer is. But I have two pretty good guesses. First, radio and television are literally broadcast. But Christian books are precision casted. They are mainly given in interactions between people. So they are better suited to support evangelism in personal relationships- and that is the main way that the Gospel spreads.

Secondly, printed media offer the opportunity to re-read something that grabbed your attention. You can lay it down and come back to it later. That is another significant advantage while thinking about the important question whether or not to follow God. What an eye-opener! Even in a country like Thailand, where reading is not all that popular, printed media prove to be the most effective media in evangelism by far. It would be interesting to know how it is in other countries.

Does anybody know?

A church member chatted with a woman in a village about ten kilometers from where we live. In the past she had visited a church, and she wanted to know more about God.

With four people from church we went to her village. We found the woman under a corrugated iron roof next to the main road. That was her shop. Her husband was at home as well. He was winding yarn onto a bobbin. Ten finished sets were hanging in the shop. It probably is a way to make some money, but it certainly won’t make him rich.

Tuk, the wife, told us (more…)

We are living in a house without windows. Well, at least partially: our kitchen and home and living room do not have walls. So we are always outside. We don’t see walls, we see the world. We enjoy the nature around us. Birds and insects fly through our house. We see the woodpecker in the tree at the other side of the road and hear its pecking. The scent of jasmine is everywhere. (more…)

“I do not remember my father. Not long after I was born, he left the family. My mother tried to take care of me as good as possible. She had some land, that she sold bit by bit. But her debts kept growing.

Much of her debt was with one lady in the village. In that family they needed someone to help in the house and in the shop. My mother took me to her to pay her debt. She told me: “She will make sure you have enough to eat. (more…)

How do you work yourself out of a job as missionary? By making sure local Christians can lead the church as soon as possible, and are taking responsibility for further church planting. But how do you do that? It is one of the big questions almost all missionaries struggle with.  Daniel McGilvary, the apostle of Thailand, has the following suggestions in his almost 100 year old autobiography. (more…)

Thai people have beautiful names. Only they are seldomly used. They are written in documents and said at official occasions. But in everyday life, only the nickname is used.

To outsiders, the nicknames can have a funny ring. ‘Bird’ is the most common name, followed by ‘Small one’. From a western perspective, that is quite accurate to describe most Thai, yet something doesn’t seem quite all right when a sturdy guy with a beer belly is called ‘Small one’. Yet it is as common as hearing a teeny-weeny woman being addressed as ‘Fatty’. (more…)

For six years I lived among the Thai, and now since 3 years I am living among the Isaan. Isaan is a region of Thailand, the northeast, but it is much more than that. The Isaan have an identity that can clearly be distinguised from the Thai.
Of course, the first question is: Should you write about Thai and Isaan as two different ethnic groups? Or are the Isaan a subgroup of the Thai? The Isaan themselves are clearly talking about it as two groups. They are talking about the Thai (so not the Central-Thai) language and the Isaan language. And you can hear things like: “My mother will not allow me to marry a Thai.” (more…)

A while ago I did research on how Protestant churches in Thailand grow. I wrote about this in Conversion Growth of Protestant Churches in Thailand (printed version, online version). In the coming weeks I am going to give a summary of some of my findings.

1. Buddhists are less likely to become Christians than adherents of traditional religions. Everywhere in the world, adherents of traditional religions are becoming Christians in greater numbers than adherents of world religions. The same is seen in Thailand. Christianity grows very fast among the tribes (8% a year), and only moderately fast among the ethnic Thai (4% a year).

2. There is no difference in openness for the Gospel between (more…)

In the middle of Isaan is a university. It is located in the provincial town of Mahasarakham, and it still is a young university. It was only founded in 1994. Yet by now there are 42,000 students, almost as many as the official number of inhabitants of the town.

A while ago I walked around on the campus of the university. (more…)

I have an extra free evening. That’s not a reason to be glad, by the way. Since a few months I was teaching the Bible in a neighbouring village. It was a nice group. Often around 10 people showed up to hear the Bible stories. We had our meetings in the village shop, a corrugated iron shed. All passers-by could see what we were doing, and could easily join in.

But it’s over now. Why? Because I’m rumoured to have bought votes in the village head election. (more…)

A team member asked me: what are the most common mistakes starting church planters make? It wasn’t totally clear to me why he considered me a particularly good source for information of that sort. However, here is my recipe to fail as a missionary church planter:

1. Start ministry in an area where you know nobody, where your friends don’t know anybody, and where there is no opening for the Gospel that you know of. Then you can start with absolutely nothing, and do ministry exactly the way you like. It is also nicely slowly paced, so you won’t be too busy.
2. Make sure your friends are mainly in your home country. Because of Skype, your weblog, and Twitter there is no need at all to know your neighbours. (more…)

Mong lies on a tiny bamboo bed for 24 hours a day. His head has a normal size, but for the rest he has a miniature body that he can hardly use.  So it is not miraculous that for years on end Mong was depressed. But the miracle is that this is no longer the case! Mong lives in Kaeng Khro, an Isaan district with over 90.000 people. A Thai YwaM team shared the Gospel with him, and he came to the Lord. Recently during an evangelistic outreach in his village some other people also expressed interest in the Gospel.

This week I visited Mong and his relatives. I explored whether (more…)

“The church building is half-full, we’re not doing too bad”, pessimists say. Optimists think: “The building is half-empty, so there’s lots of room to grow!” At the beginning of this year there were conflicts in the church we planted in Bangkok. About half of the members left. “It’s like a tsunami”, one of the remaining members told me. “You look around, and all of a sudden this one is gone and that one is gone.” Experiences like these in a church are always sad and dishonour God’s name. Yet after half a year I also see the other side of the medal. (more…)

foto: partsnpieces

We always limited ourselves to proclaiming the Gospel. So far we’ve done little in the way of social work. In a rather prosperous country like Thailand social work is possible, but certainly not always necessary. Now we have found something that helps people, is easy to do, does not create dependency and directly suppports evangelism: (more…)

Would you ever have thought it would be possible for a cow to drown in a drum? Neither would I. But it happened. Outside the stable at the farm of a friend’s are a few drums with water for the cows. A young cow enthusiastically put both her  forelegs and her head in the drum- and never got them out again! She drowned while her entire body was out of the water.

So what happened? (more…)

Last week an Isaan Christian I baptized last year died. Until his death he was sharing the Gospel with his relatives. They were listening with interest. He also clearly said he wanted a Christian funeral, and no Buddhist monks present. But after he died, his relatives immediately arranged for a Buddhist funeral. At the same time, they were very happy for the church to take part in the ceremonies as well. After the monks finished their chanting, and just before the body was cremated, a brother of the deceased invited me to the front. “My brother was a Buddhist. But in the last few years, he added a religion. He also believed in Jesus. And therefore we invite a leader of the church to come and share with us.” Right in front of the monks with their sign ‘There is no resurrection’ I shared the Christian hope of eternal life and resurrection. At the end, everybody applauded.

What happened here? (more…)

Getting to know a different culture is difficult. I’m living in Thailand for nine years now, and I still get amazed.

Es, a crippled man from our church, had shared the Gospel by phone with his sister in Japan. She came to the Lord and asked him to visit Deng, a friend of hers, so that she would hear the Good News as well. In times gone by Es had met Deng one or two times, so he was willing to go.

I accompany Es to Deng’s village. When we arrive there, we ask the first person we meet (more…)

I was on the way to teach an evangelistic home group, when I was told the people would not be at home. Instead, I ended up chatting with a man who did not stop asking questions. Why do Dutch cows give so much milk? What (more…)

Serving God brings great joy. I would not want to exchange it for anything in the world. But sometimes the old man rears his ugly head. A few years back I had a moment like that (well, actually, I have these moments daily, but (more…)

Should missionaries teach English? Many of them do, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. This is why:

1. It is the wrong kind of ministry.

Only 6% of new believers in Thailand (more…)