Our Calling
After much prayer, we felt that God wanted us to go as Missionaries with Assemblies of God World Missions. Many confuse this organization as a denomination. It originated and has continued to be a Missions organization with the sole mission to spread the gospel to every nation. We chose this organization for their solid belief that the Bible is the whole and complete word of God, their quality training and incredible accountability structure. After a 5 month application and interview process and 6 weeks of field training, we were ready to go. When the approval and training process was over, Troy closed down his companies, we sold our home and moved to Duluth where it was much cheaper to live and began the fund raising process.
Building the Kingdom
For our first term, Troy was asked to be Construction Supervisor/Short-term Team Facilitator for Thailand. Troy worked on a diverse range of projects allowing him to work with the Thai people on a daily basis. Over the last 2 1/2 years we worked with 4 teams, built and/or restored 3 Churches, built a coffee shop (for ministry) built 2 dorm rooms for a Bible School and a boys dorm at an Orphanage.
As the missions teams facilitators, we have seen the impact it has on everyone's lives. These teams excite us, because we know that those who go on these trips not only make an impact on the community that they go to help, but people who come and the community they go home to. Their eyes are open in a much greater way and it causes them to come back to their homes and churches, excited to share what God has done in and through them, causing them to want to pray, give and go more - thus having a greater impact on churches and missions as a whole.
We are also called to Build the Kingdom of God - our greatest and most exciting role. Learning the language and building relationships with the Thai people was our top priority and know that this is the gateway to bringing people into the Kingdom. Thai is a very difficult language, so we will continue to learn over the next year.
During our first term, Cheryl had several opportunities to minister. The first year, she spent starting a Sunday School program for children in our Thai home church (TLC Center). Once the program was up and running with 12 volunteers, she chose a Thai leader to continue the ministry. After handing off the Sunday School program, God led her to begin an Coffee Shop ministry also at the TLC Center. This church is located just blocks away from Chiang Mai University. This ministry created a way to invite many more people into the the church (which looks more like a community center) allowing opportunities to share the gospel. It took several months of research and planning. With a generous donation from a Minnesota church team bringing the funds and manpower for the project, as well as the funds for all the supplies this, in March of 2009, Cheryl's vision became a reality. A year later - the coffee shop, running in the black, had 1 full-time staff member and 8 volunteers on a regular basis. Once the coffee shop was showing stability, Cheryl found a Thai leader to take over the coffee shop. After a year, the coffee shop is fully staffed by volunteers. It is open 10 hours a day, 6 days a week. Thus far, in conjunction with an ESL program, the TLC Center has seen several college students come to Christ. Praise the Lord!
God has called our family as a team.
When we felt called to Thailand, we prayed that God would speak to our children and that they too would feel called as well. We received a resounding YES from our children, creating an incredible unity of purpose. Our family had many opportunities to minister. Our favorite times as a family were going to the Tribal villages or orphanages to play and build relationships with the children. We are excited for our return to Thailand. to continue our ministry to the Thais.
With God as our leader, we make an incredible team - so we like to call ourselves Team Possible, knowing that with Christ, All things are possible! PRAISE GOD!!!
