Sean & Anne Sanborn

In order to reach the unreached of Thailand we will implement a new 3 year discipleship course in church pioneering. We will form "Harvest Mobilization Teams" to reach out to 4K/Omega Zones where no reported church exists. YWAM ChiangMai will partner with the local church in the recruitment, training, and mobilization of new indigenous frontier missionaries. This new 3 year leadership development program will begin in March 2006.

We hope to partner with churches in other nations who are interested in adopting church plant ministries among unreached people groups in Thailand.

The Big-Picture

When Christians first came to ChiangMai they met with persecution and immediately the gospel flourished. Since then, everything has moved slowly. After over 100 years of valiant efforts, only 1% of the Thai people have accepted Jesus into their lives. The rest of the nation is mostly Buddhist. While the highest concentration of Christians is in the North, some Northern provinces still have as few as 0.1% Christians. There are countless opportunities for sharing the gospel and ministering the love of God to needy people both in Thailand and in the surrounding nations. From our location it is quite easy to send teams to the surrounding nations of Myanmar, China, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam and Thai people are uniquely qualified to go and share about their positive experiences as a Christian.

Thai Churches

Discipleship is needed

We believe that people who respond to the gospel need to be gathered together for mutual encouragement and ongoing instruction in the life of faith. Doing evangelism without bringing believers together in community is too often like sewing without thread. Evangelism without discipleship has historically proven fruitless in Thailand.

Developing Young Leaders

The purpose is to develop young leaders (especially Thais) with a heart for pioneering. We will broaden their vision as we disciple them in strengthening existing ministries, planting new churches and pioneering new ministries throughout the region.

Training Location

Trainees will be based in Chiang Mai, but some training may be in other parts of the country. We believe Chiang Mai is an ideal base with its ready access to the region and growing Thai Christian population. Chiang Mai is a unique hub that we will use to launch-pad out to unreached areas with mobilization teams. Within 1,000 miles radius around Chiang Mai includes the world’s biggest saturation of un-reached peoples and people groups. We believe that ChiangMai is a very strategic city for reaching out to these unreached peoples.

ChiangMai Hub of unreached peoples

Methodology

The training will be broad-based and include staffing DTS (Discipleship Training Schools), School of Biblical studies, leadership training, local church participation and involvement, evangelism, missions exposure, language development, practical work experience as we pioneer new ministries within Thailand and beyond.

We will provide a balance between:
Biblical teaching
Practical training
Opportunities for pioneering ministries as a team.

How can you help?

Support through prayer and finances: young Thai trainees need up to 5000 baht (A$170, US$125) per month per trainee.

Churches in the North

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By the Frontier Missions Regional Leadership Team: North Thailand (John Hall, Sean & Anne Sanborn)