Thailand 2012
Peggy and Linda Easton (Secretary of TAN’s board of directors) spent two weeks ministering in the Buddhist nation of Thailand (less than one percent are Christians) during the fall of 2012. Dr. Buakab Ronghanam, National Director for Every Home for Christ for the country of Thailand had set up meetings for them with the leaders of the Christian women in not only Thailand, but also Laos and Burma. During their stay in Thailand, the two ladies ministered in twenty-two meetings, including women’s conferences and Sunday services. In addition they experienced many individual ministry opportunities that they call “divine appointments” because only the Lord could have arranged these unique ministry opportunities.
Their journey began in Chiang Mai, the city with the highest concentration of Christian churches in Thailand. Because of the number of Christians in the area, it is a strategic city for ministries like ours that focus more on raising up Christian leadership than on evangelism. If we can impact the leadership in this area, they will eventually pass on the teachings throughout the country. Their first meeting was in a church where the pastor confided that the majority of all the evangelistic ministry, teaching, etc. is done by the women. Peggy spoke to these ladies about the need for the baptism of the Holy Spirit and was delighted when almost everyone came forward to receive it.
Next, the ladies traveled to a city in Nongkai Province on the border of Laos and Thailand. Because of the restrictions on ministry in the communist country, the Christian leaders of Laos decided to pick fifty of their lady leaders and send them across the border rather than to try to hold a conference for them in their own country. This meeting with the Laotian women was a real breakthrough as all of them wanted the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the freedom and boldness to go preach even though they would face persecution. They were hungry to be fed the Word of God and flooded the altars where the Holy Spirit met them. In one of the meetings, almost the entire group fell to their knees to receive prayer.
The ladies shared with them that they could have the same power that raised Jesus from the dead, to cast out devils, the laying on of hands and to share other teachings. Many of the Laotian women were moved to tears as they moved into a new level. Peggy and Linda encouraged them to go out and do the Great Commission. Many were set free from the bondage of the past. In one of the meetings there was a word of knowledge about a disease in the breast. Five ladies came forward to be healed, then there was laying on of hands for healing for the whole congregation.
The next meeting was among the Lahu tribe outside of Chiang Mai. These former animists were still suffering from fear of demons and their power until Peggy taught them about the power that they now have in Christ and explained to them that Satan is now under their feet instead of having control over them. The pastors among this tribal group had never heard that women can serve in all of the five-fold ministries in the Bible. They were excited and said that they would use their women more.
Back in Chaing Mai, Peggy and Linda witnessed a great outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit at Creator’s Church Annual Seminar in which a number of different churches and tribal groups participated. On their our last day, the ladies took some time off to relax by visiting a botanical garden. But God was not yet finished with their assignments in Thailand. In the park, they happened to get acquainted with a couple who were Christians. They came back to the hotel with the ladies and asked for prayer to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit touched them, they fell to the floor and lay there for almost an hour, flowing in tongues. By the time that Peggy and Linda were back in the US, the couple had already sent an email telling how they have gone back to their village with more boldness and were using the gifts of the Spirit with results.
Thailand 2011
One week before Peggy and Linda Easton (one of the TAN board members) were scheduled to leave for Thailand, the country was struck by devastating floods. The city of Chiang Mai where they were to be headquartered during their visit was inundated, with the hotel where they were to stay under three feet of water, the hall where the conference was to be held rendered unusable, and the road to the other city where they were to minister blocked by a landslide. With at least two hundred people dead from the raging waters and the resulting landslides, we were concerned as to whether is would be feasible for them to go and, even if they were able to get in and hold the meetings, whether the local women would be able to attend the conferences due to the losses they had suffered and the clean up they would need to be doing at home. Many of our Teach All Nations friends and prayer partners emailed us and assured us that they were praying with us that the rain would stop, the sun would come out, and the anticipated round of new rains would just go away. Though the floods tried to stop the mission, we stood on the scripture from Isaiah 59:19, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” And that is actually what happened! Just before Peggy and Linda arrived, the weather dried up and the rivers began to subside. Of course, they had to make an adjustment in their hotel accommodation and change the venue for the meeting in Chiang Mai. Since the new location was much smaller than the original one, the meeting had to be limited to only the top female leadership rather than to the several hundred ladies who had been invited.
The ministry was under the leadership of Dr. Buakaub, the director of Every Home for Christ in the country. After she read Peggy’s Women for the Harvest book, Dr. Buakaub contacted Peggy, saying that not only did she want to personally translate both the book and syllabus into Thai, but she also wanted Peggy to come teach it with her as the interpreter. For two days, they taught and encouraged the top leaders in the city who will in turn take it back to their churches.
The second conference, which was to minister to the women of the Karen tribe who live several hours away from the city, had to be shifted to an entirely different town because of the landslide; however, the meeting was a great success with a packed auditorium of ladies even at the short notice. Since this was a very primitive area, Peggy and Linda slept in what they described as a tree house and had all kinds of other new “missionary” adventures, including learned how to brush their teeth and spit out the window. The women in the conference were former animists who are determined to learn how to minister and save the rest of their entire tribe. Peggy remarked that it was awesome to see the Holy Spirit come down on them, slaying them in the Spirit without anyone touching them but Himself.
Dr. Buakaub is already making plans for the ladies to return for more ministry throughout the entire nation of Thailand and into the neighboring countries of Cambodia and Laos.
2010
Although Peggy had never ministered in Thailand before, Dr. Buakab (the Every Home for Christ national director) had heard about her book, which was being translated into the Thai language, and asked her to come speak at the women’s conference. Peggy found that the thousand women present were really eager to learn and to do the work of the Lord. Every day, the Lord woke her up early to study and pray–and the next thing she knew, she was up preaching. Even though Peggy thought that she would be lonely without a traveling companion or even any friends among nationals like she had in Burma, she soon discovered that she felt totally secure and had no need to talk to anyone other than to the Lord Himself. She repeatedly thanked the Lord that He knew that she would be just fine by herself with lots of time to spend with just Jesus.
The response in Thailand was as incredible. There was a great spiritual hunger and willingness in the women; they were so open to the Lord and so ready to receive from Him. On the first night of the conference, the Holy Spirit told Peggy that there were many women present who needed the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moved on the ladies as they came forward. At one of the last meetings, she felt led to minister to the women who had experienced abuse. To illustrate my point, Peggy took a handful of flowers out of a vase on the podium and threw them down and then stepped on them. She then explained that God had showed her that each of them was like these beautiful flowers, full of God’s fragrance and beauty; however, man and their culture had taken them and crushed and hurt them. As a result, they felt like they had no value or potential for service for the Lord. I then picked up the flowers, blew on them, and put them back into the vase to show the women how God wanted to restore them. Peggy then asked the women to come forward who had been crushed (abused). She was not surprised to see the whole room come forward. As she told them to put up their hands for a healing touch from God, Peggy broke out into tears and a prophecy proclaiming how the Lord said they never deserved how they had been treated and how He came to take their hurt and shame. The entire group of women began to cry, which you may not think of as unusual for women; however in Asian cultures–and particularly in Thailand–women never cry in public. It was a breakthrough that really set these women free! You will never be able to imagine how happy and free they looked at the end of the conference.
2009
Delron was in Thailand to meet with the national directors of Every Home for Christ from twenty-two nations in Asia and the islands of the Pacific. The purpose of this trip was specifically to work with the leaders from ten of these nations in developing a discipleship program for the new converts in their nations. In addition, he distributed his latest book, So, You Wanna Be A Preacher, to the leaders of all the nations represented at the conference and discussed with all who were interested the possibilities of having some of his books translated and printed in their languages.
