Don't miss the Filbeck Family Personal Newsletter at CMOThailand.org

Lanna Theological Center NEWS - Special Spring 2010 Update!

LTC Graduates Reach Out to Neighboring Country
Graduates of LTC serving in a neighboring country organized a church youth camp during the hot season break in April. Over 130  from registered to attend. However, due to the political unrest in Bangkok, border officials only allowed 50 to cross over into Thailand. The LTC graduates and interns quickly organized a camp on the other side. They were not able to openly announce the change of venue. Information was given out by word of mouth. Even so over 80 youth attended the camp at the new location.

	LTC alumni VP of Christian Association, evangelist, minister	LTC alumni Director of Christian Association, 700 churches in the Association	LTC alumni evangelist, minister	LTC alumni Vice-director Women’s Minstry, over 700 Women’s groups

On the Thai side, of the 50 who attended, 20 made commitments to serve. They indicated they would attend LTC. During the camp we listened to great reports of what our graduates are doing among the churches in this country. It was reported that among all church leaders from all language groups, the ones most respected and accepted across language groups are these leaders. Villagers have noticed their high standard of preaching, teaching, and serving the community. When there are intergroup functions, the leaders are often the ones asked to organize and run the event. The Khmu leaders are alumni of LTC.

The director of the mission in this country, reported that since LTC was established, the church has experienced tremendous growth. Alumni of LTC have established and are serving in over 100 churches with 7,000 plus members. LTC was established in 2003-2004! The Director emphasized the blessing LTC has been to the Khmu church in training, equipping, and sending workers.

	Youth attend an LTC sponsored church camp		LTC students and interns lead worship at church camp

Growth Continues...Your Help is Needed!
The church is expecting to send 5 more students for the start of the 2010 school year in June. We are not sure where to place these students. We have another great recruiting year. If all students who applied actually enroll we will exceed 40 students. The problem is we don’t have room on campus to house this many. Some will be living off campus. The students, however, will have to live on campus. This highlights the need to complete our new campus as expeditiously as possible. Our next need is $8,000 to build a retaining wall to keep our land fill dirt from eroding away into our neighbor’s fields. The land fill is not complete, but we need to start on the wall before the rains start in June. Send your donations to Christian Mission to the Orient, 1810 Georgia St. Cape Girardeau, MO 63701 or CLICK HERE to donate online
 

Lanna Theological Center NEWS - 2009 Year-End Summary

"Simply the Story..."
On February 9th - 13th, Lanna Theological Center hosted a seminar titled Simply the Story. Over 40 people, including LTC students and area ministers attended the 3 day event. Simply the Story is an evangelistic method that has proved successful in many non-literate societies. The design of Simply the Story encourages presenters of Bible information to use the whole story as God gave it, and then to go back and find the spiritual information the story contains. As well, the presenter learns how to form questions for a discussion forum that will lead listeners to that information. Dr. Larry Dinkins led a team from the US to teach us this method. For more information please visit the Simply the Story website.

LTC Offers Courses to Deaf Student
This is a first for any Bible school in Thailand that we know of. For many years we have wanted to offer leadership training courses to deaf Christians living in Thailand. Our largest obstacle was finding someone who could sign for deaf students. This fall a young lady was found who could come and sign for a deaf student. In November, Mr. Pongsak, enrolled in two classes at LTC. This is very much a pilot project. Our goal and hope is to be able to expand this to include other members of the deaf community who want to be equipped for ministry. We need to expand our class rooms, provide more interpreters, and develop special visual materials for potential deaf students. We also need a full time coordinator who specializes in deaf issues who can help us adapt or develop a curriculum for deaf students. Pray with us that God provides the extra funding and personnel needed for this new ministry.

New Church Plant Started
Mr. Boonlert (LTC Academic Dean) has formed a team of LTC faculty and students to begin a second church plant. We have chosen the village of Mae Faek, about 20 minutes outside of Chiang Mai. The Mae Faek project is a continuation of ministry started there by the LIFE program. Teaming with Light of San Sai Christian Church, the LIFE program began offering weekend English classes (ESL) to children in this village. Because of the relationships built during the ESL phase of ministry we are now able to begin the evangelistic phase of ministry.

Life Encounters Eye Clinic
Life Encounters Program, part of the LTC community outreach, hosted an eye glass clinic in three villages near Chiang Mai. (January 3-6) A team of volunteers came from Australia and the United States. They provided both free eye exams and health checkups for impoverished neighborhoods on January 3-5th, 2010. This clinic helps to open doors for building relationships with the people of these communities. Hopefully will lead to opportunities to further share Christ. Life encounters program offers short term mission trips and internships for English camps and eye clinics.

If you are interested in participating in these outreach programs please Contact Us.

Mini Concert!
Lanna Theological Center hosted a concert given by celebrity singer Beam Jaruwan for children from Daughters of Ruth. Vernon and Moi Yin Theide came to visit and encourage both LTC and Daughters of Ruth. DOR is an organization that provides housing and care for girls (5-18 years) whose parents are in prison. This young girls are easy prey for human traffickers. Please continue to pray for the ministry at DOR. We have 2 graduates from LTC working with them. Please pray for Beam as she gets to know us and hears about Christ’s love for her, and as she gets involved in helping these young people.

Land Fill Started
The next phase of the new campus construction has commenced. Before we can add buildings we need to fill in the property with a meter (one yard) of dirt. The current cost of filling in the property is $60,000. Our strategy is to fill in the property in $6,000 increments. The first $6,000 will be completed by February 15, 2010. After that we will raise another $6,000 to fill in the next section. We will continue this until our land is filled. Pray with us God provides the funds to complete this phase by the end of 2010.

Archives