missionary
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LORI IS GOING TO THE NATIONS BUT WHY THAILAND?​
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DID YOU KNOW THERE ARE 500 MILLION BUDDHISTS WORLDWIDE BUT ONLY 2,000 TOTAL MISSIONARIES
WORKING AMONG THEM? THAT'S ONE LABORER FOR EVERY 260,000 BUDDHISTS!
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Thailand’s population is 70 million. One person dies EVERY minute in
Thailand without ever hearing about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (E-Star)
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In the 192 years since the Gospel came to Thailand only 6%
of the villages have been reached with the Gospel. (E-Star)
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Thailand has 113 people groups, 77 of which are 'Unreached' with the gospel. Out of 69 million people, only 1% are Evangelical Christians. My mission agency, Global Frontier Missions (GFM), has trained and sent laborers to Thailand over the years. Two years ago, GFM felt led to open a Southeast Asia hub in Bangkok due to its strategic importance in the 10/40 window, and I’m privileged to be on the launch team.
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Only 1 of every 41,707 Protestant Christians goes as a missionary to the Unreached.
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"Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth." 3 John 1:8
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"Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: 'Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?' Then I said, "Here I am! Send me."
Isaiah 6:8
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MY LIFE VERSE: ​
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"But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned by the Lord Jesus Christ--the work of
telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God."
Acts 20:24
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​GLOBAL FRONTIER MISSION'S BANGKOK HUB'S FOCUS:
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(1) MOBILIZING I have the amazing privilege of serving as the Director of Mobilization. My desire is to be a catalyst—motivating, inspiring, and walking alongside God’s people on the beautiful journey of discovering their role in the Great Commission that Christ Jesus has called them to. I will be planning and overseeing vision trips, short-term mission experiences, conducting educational teachings on lostness, building relationships with other ministries, missionaries, and mission agencies, and building partnerships, all in the hopes of raising up more long-term, cross-cultural missionaries to reach Unreached communities.
(2) TRAINING Did you know 47% of missionaries leave the field before their first term is up? 71% of them for potentially preventable reasons. We want to change that. In the last 25 years, GFM has trained over 500 followers of Christ to be cross-cultural missionaries.
(3) MULTIPLY GFM began with church planters reaching the unreached in Oaxaca, Mexico. While we excel in mobilizing Christians and training missionaries, our core mission is to glorify God by making disciples, just as Christ commanded us. We’re committed to making multiplying disciples—and to planting biblically sound, healthy, and easily reproducible home church communities among the Unreached in Thailand.
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THE POWER OF MULTIPLICATION IN DISCIPLE MAKING
“MISSIONS IS NOT THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THE CHURCH. WORSHIP IS. MISSIONS EXISTS BECAUSE WORSHIP DOESN’T.”
-PASTOR JOHN PIPER-
GO THEREFORE AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF ALL THE NATIONS, BAPTIZING THEM IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER AND OF THE SON AND OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, TEACHING THEM TO OBSERVE ALL THINGS THAT I HAVE COMMANDED YOU; AND LO, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS, EVEN TO THE END OF THE AGE.” AMEN.
MATTHEW 28:19-20
WHAT IS A UPG OR AN UNREACHED PEOPLE GROUP?
It is estimated that of the 8 billion people alive in the world today, 3.4 billion of them live in unreached people groups with little or no access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. According to Joshua Project, there are approximately 17,259 unique people groups in the world with 7,220 of them considered unreached (over 42% of the world’s population!). The vast majority (85%) of these least reached groups exist in the 10/40 window and LESS THAN 10% of missionary work is done among these people!
SOBERING STATISTICS OF GLOBAL MISSIONS
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76% of US churchgoers either have not heard of the "Great Commission" or do not know what it means.
(Joshua Project)
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42% of the world population is in Unreached people groups consisting of 3.4 billion people and 7,220 people groups. (Joshua Project)
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5 out of every 6 Unreached People Groups/UPGs are in the 10/40 window which consists of 67 countries. (Joshua Project)
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The 10/40 Window is a region between 10 and 40 degrees north latitude that includes North Africa, the Middle East, China, India, and Southeast Asia. It’s often called the “Resistance Belt” because most of the world’s major religions—Islam, Hinduism, tribal beliefs, and Buddhism—are found here. This area is a key focus for missionary work, as five out of six Unreached People Groups live here.​
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Only 3% of the world's missionaries go to the 15% of the world's population where 0.1% to 5% identify with Jesus armed with only 1% of foreign missions giving. (Joshua Project)
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The Church has roughly 3,000 times the financial resources and 9,000 times the manpower needed to finish the Great Commission. If every evangelical gave 10% of their income to missions we could easily support 2 million new missionaries. (The Traveling Team)
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Evangelical Christians could provide all the funds needed to plant a church in each of the 7,220 unreached people groups with only 0.03% of their income. (The Traveling Team)
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There are 57,053 Evangelical Christians for every one unreached people group. (The Traveling Team)
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Only 1% of foreign missions giving goes to missions work among UPGs. For every $100,000 that Christians make, they give $1.70 to the unreached. (The Traveling Team)
Background photo: Pasting gold leafs onto statues at pagodas honors the Buddha's teachings. It’s seen as an act of kindness and a way to “transfer good merits.” Gold symbolizes the sun, purity, knowledge, and enlightenment. The Buddhist ONLY hope for true loving kindness is Jesus Christ.***
"Assemble yourselves and come; Draw near together, You who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge, Who carry the wood of their carved image, And pray to a god that cannot save."
Isaiah 45:20
THE STATE OF THE WORLD & THE TASK REMAINING​
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Curious about Global Christianity? Despite Jesus' command to make disciples of all nations, only 2.4% of our missionaries are reaching the nearly 3.4 billion people who have never heard the Good News. PLEASE WATCH this four-minute video on the true task remaining.
WOULD YOU PRAY FOR THE UNREACHED OF THE DAY?
You can visit: >>JoshuaProject.net<<
daily to pray for the Unreached. Each day, a new Unreached People Group is featured, providing insights into their unique challenges, ministry obstacles, outreach strategies, and focused prayer points. You can also see how many
other saints are praying globally in real-time!
"When we work, we work, but when we pray, God works."
-Hudson Taylor, British missionary-
Founder of the China Inland Mission
PRAY THE WORD PODCAST
Listen and pray daily with David Platt's"Pray the Word" devotional series—a short, impactful podcast guiding you through scripture and focused prayer. Each episode invites you to reflect on God’s Word while interceding for the world, including daily opportunities to pray for the Unreached.
LISTEN NOW
All photos were taken by me during my vision trip in April 2022. Buddhists believe human life is a cycle of suffering and rebirth but if one achieves “enlightenment” or nirvana, it is possible to escape this cycle forever. "Merit" is connected to the path to Nirvana and can be gained by "good deeds" such as giving, virtue, and mental development. Offerings lead to the accumulation of merit or good deeds which leads to a better rebirth cycle, contributes towards enlightenment, and is connected to purity and goodness. In addition, merit is also shared with a deceased loved one, in order to "help" the deceased in their new existence.
Typical merit offerings include: lit candles, burning incense, applying gold stickers on statues, and offering flowers, food, fruit, or beverages. Not only can merit be "transferred" mentally to deceased relatives but also to deities, or to all beings, and is a better alternative than mourning. This is why Buddhists are in dire need of the Gospel, and I want to labor to bring it to them and to raise up more long-term missionaries for this Great Commission work.
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