Thank you for your prayers and generosities during our times of healing and repair over the last months. With joy, thankfulness, and a surrendered mindset, we arrived in Thailand in the late morning of Saturday, January 11. The flights were smooth and the food plentiful. (My weight has gone from an unhealthy 165 pounds to north of 190 pounds in the last six months). We slept well and awoke to our church’s annual celebration of Children’s Day, a special day for the kids, complete with school-supply giveaways and bouncy castles. New visitors of all ages were given the Gospel. I was asked to lead the afternoon services, while Bro. Jon Beil preached an excellent sermon on grace and faith. The Beil family arrived to serve full-time in Thailand two weeks before our return. We are very glad to be working alongside the Beil family, continuing service alongside our team leader, Bro. Tim Shook, and fellow missionary, Ms. Shari House, as well as all of our dear Thailand staff, team, and church families. The reunion and reconnection with everyone was a joyous time, while internally was a constant thankfulness to God for healing and reentry into the mission field.
Within the next week, the Lord allowed Sarah and me to lead souls to Jesus. I preached the next Sunday afternoon service, taught an adult Sunday school class, and also gave a discipleship lesson to a group of 25 in Nong Plap, home of a growing church plant 30 minutes outside of town, which was started in 2017. Star and I started visiting at 5 p.m. for the service and invited many to attend at a nearby recycling factory. Many church members have stipulations put upon them at work, and Sunday attendance can be difficult for them. This Tuesday evening service at 7 p.m. allows many under those stipulations the opportunity to attend a church service. We had happy, saved, first-time attendees. Several of the attendees had to go to work in the fields at midnight, farming turnips, aloe vera, and pineapples. One segment of the Teaching All Nations discipleship series was relayed in the Karen and Burmese languages. There is also a time of singing and prayer. What a blessing it was to reach people in remote areas as they deal with present hardships and difficult work environments. They attentively soak up the foundational truths of God and His Word.
As we take on new responsibilities in the ministry and press on with the old, Sarah and I are encouraged and motivated with the direction, pace, and friendship foundations of our team leader, fellow missionaries, and churches. The future is very bright, especially with the recent, successful church purchase of land, a Lord’s answer to years of prayer by many. This newly owned land will set forth a Gospel-driven foundation to reach Thailand long after our years of service here. Tremendous! Much work has been done already, but there is so much more that waits to be done for the Lord Jesus.
Working in Thailand over the last 11 years, these thoughts came about while reading Chapter 22 of Job: I notice myself falling into the category of “extreme joy and optimism,” but then come times of “a cloud of difficulty.” I’m learning more and more that missionaries, and perhaps every person in Thailand, go through this up-and-down cycle at different levels, more erratic than if living in the USA, but I have the Lord. I have His truth, His eyes, His ears, and His heart, which I need to constantly seek. When that next mountaintop of “extreme joy and optimism” comes, I can thank and praise God, teaching others to handle the “clouds of difficulty” the way God handles my clouds. He is my source and answer in all matters of life. Thank you all so very, very much for your prayers of healing, strength, and drive in returning to Thailand.
Grateful to serve,
Bro. Chad Inman
