The Olivers In Thailand

We were privileged to have Heather Thompson from Powerpack visit us from 14th - 30th Jan. Heather's visit last year was very fruitful and we were keen to see how God would further use her return visit. Jill Woodcock from our home church (Arun Community Church) and Pat Herridge, both friends of Heather, were also with us during this time.

Night Market Evangelism:

On Sat 17th we accompanied the Grace students to the night market where the evangelism team would be talking to tourists and handing out tracts. Our children: Tom, David and Jessica are all involved and very enthusiastic about this work.

Hoay Maw: On Tues 20th we visited Hoay Maw. During the summer, the children's offering at Powerpack at Kingdom Faith was allocated to Hoay Maw. In August we had a Powerpack family visit us. Heather also brought £80 raised by children from Powerpack Romania which was very special. We love to see children being used to impact the nations! We didn't have a translator but spent a good time with the children after school. We taught them a couple of Powerpack songs that have been translated into Thai and prayed for them. Jill and Pat gave the children some treats. Heather commented that she could see significant improvements since her visit last year.

Mae Sai:

On Weds 21st, Heather led a mini-conference at Mae Sai. She gave 3 hours children's ministry training to ~25 Bible students, followed in the afternoon by a Children's conference with ~60 children. Thomas and Esther strongly encouraged Heather about the value of her teaching and urged her to return for longer next year. It was very difficult to finish and leave at the end when the Holy Spirit was moving powerfully in the students and children alike, but we had to return in time for the Oliver children to come home to bed! As Solomon highlighted last year, this is an significant opportunity to input into these students who will be involved in evangelism and church planting into remote areas. In new villages they often begin by reaching out to the children. A problem has been that by not continuing to engage the children, churches have not been sustained to the next generation.

Ignite Children's Ministry Conference, Chiang Mai: This Ignite Conference was the culmination of significant planning and preparation and exceeded our expectations. The previous year Heather had led a one day training conference for 50 leaders. This year the conference started with leaders training on the Fri evening 23rd and Sat am 24th continuing with a children's conference on Sat 24th afternoon and evening. 93 leaders and 127 children attended. The vision of the leaders was expanded as to how God can work in and through children. The children attended a chosen workshop on one of Dance, Drama, Worship, Preaching, Prayer or the Prophetic. In the evening celebration, the children demonstrated what they had learned. The Holy Spirit was moving in leaders and children.

The relationship that we have developed with Ban San Faan came into play as the children formed a bi-lingual worship team. Phii Dtaa, one of the staff, helped support Jenny with Thai vocals. Malee, the manager of Ban San Faan, did an excellent job translating.

There has been significant positive feedback including how churches and ministries have been envisioned to develop their children's work in the coming year. There is a feeling that a children's ministry network will develop from this and that further events will be forthcoming. The event felt more like a launch-pad than an end itself.

13 yr old boy: “I felt like honey was pouring into my heart, I saw a light on the ceiling, it was like a door to heaven".

A leader: “Thanks so much for having Heather come again and minister not only to the children, but also to us. It was such a blessing! God made me see and understand a lot of things about the prophetic that I did not know or understand before. I believe He wants me to be less timid in this area, which is new for me! I also received a fresh vision of what we should be doing with the children on Sundays and I'm excited about that.“

COC 10th Anniversary and transformers: On Sun 25th was the 10th anniversary of the COC church that we attend in Chiang Mai. This turned out to be timely as the Thai and international congregations joined together to celebrate. As there was limited space, the children were encouraged to use the carpet area at the front. Still excited and full of what they had experienced at the Ignite conference, and not noticing the stately adult congregation behind them, they worshipped enthusiastically leaping around and raising their hands. This was noted. When the children went out for a brief time, they again worshipped enthusiastically. Heather shared with them and again they eagerly responded in prayer for “more fire”.

Ban San Faan:

On Mon 26th, Heather, Jill & Pat joined us for a last visit. The adults prayed for the children and then the children prayed for the adults, including praying fervently for Tony Woodcock.

Om Koi: On Tues 27th, Heather and Jenny visited Om Koi returning on Weds. Om Koi is a region where we have heard of an amazing move of God over the past 2 years. Starting when a pillar of fire came into a village and a voice saying “the blood of Jesus will cleanse this village from their sins”. Children were especially impacted, praying through the night and fasting as well as still going to school. Having visions of heaven and hell and dreams and words of knowledge for neighbours who would repent in tears. A whole village turned to Christ and has been transformed.

Heather and Jenny were keen to learn more and hoped to “catch some of the fire”. As we talked with our host, she really seemed quite low key and referred to some things had happened in this village or that. We decided that maybe things weren't happening in this place and so resigned ourselves to lead our sessions and return home for a rest. It was a beautiful setting in the remote mountains and so we consoled ourselves that Heather could count this as a bit of a holiday as she had been working so hard before.

Heather taught the Bible students in the afternoon for 2 hrs. In the evening, we led a 2hr session for students and children together. To finish, we got the children to line up to make a fire tunnel. The students walked through whilst the children prayed for them. Then we asked the students to stand behind the children to pray. It was then that “the fire fell”. Several children, mainly girls, began sobbing and wailing. Some shaking violently, shaking and blowing on their hands as if they were burning. Some fell to the floor, some writhed on the floor. We could only stand back and observe as this was outside our experience. After about 40 mins, students and children who weren't so affected went to bed and we had an opportunity to interview the children about what they had experienced. Each story was individual but common threads included visions of heaven and of hell, receiving God's fire and being asked to pass on the fire. We enquired whether this was common. Our host said that occasionally if they really pressed in, but not to that intensity or with so many children affected.

After the children had shared with us, they went to bed and we spent further time praying for some of the Bible students who wanted prayer and really opened up to us. We hope that we can be “fire carriers” to spread this move of God further especially as Heather travels the nations.

Spring Harvest Children's Offering Focus:

We are amazed and delighted that Hoay Maw has been selected as the children's offering focus at Spring Harvest this year (5-7 & 8-11 age groups). This was at the instigation of Nick Jackson of Powerpack. Nick will assist us in the coming 1-2 months to prepare the presentation material required to support this.

Powerpack Asia:

At the end of this time, we felt a realisation that the vision we have, of equipping children to be God Chasers and Nation Shakers and equipping children's leaders, is one and the same as the heart and vision of Powerpack. Although our involvement at Hoay Maw has been primarily development work, our heart is to equip a new generation according to God's economy where the weak become strong and the poor become rich in Him. We have already intentionally shifted our focus to input to the children spiritually and emotionally in addition to practical support. Hoay Maw is strategically located with potential to become a training centre.

One of the Christmas outreach events where Ban San Faan presented was organised by Pastors Ron and Mon, (staff at the COC church here). Four hundred children attended from surrounding villages and 70 responded to the gospel. We have been asked by Ron and Mon to help establish a regular children's work to help disciple the new believers as well as continue to impact other children. The aim is to train up a team of Thai workers (we have 4 already).

There is much to do to follow up and run with all that may open up following the Ignite conference here in the Chiang Mai area. Relationships have been forged between different churches and organisations during the planning phase and through the event itself. We hope to continue to develop this networking and cooperation with separate focus groups for children's work in different settings, e.g. churches, children's homes, etc. We will continue with the translation of Powerpack resources and songs into Thai which is being requested as existing resources are meagre and out-dated.

Our friends along with our Thai co-worker, are involved in leadership training in various locations. We are already inputting with the children at MS. It had been hoped that Heather could have visited the Eastern believers as they specifically requested children's ministry training for the growing house church. When Heather didn't have time, it was suggested that we could follow this up ourselves. In the South, a small children's work has been started with half a dozen children forming a choir to reach out to their community. They would like to develop this children's ministry-team and learn from our experience with Ban San Faan. To that end, we are thinking that we will explore shadowing the leadership training team with complementary input on children's ministry.

Talking further with Heather, we have agreed to explore the formation of Powerpack Asia which would give us an identity and partnership for this work. We would envisage a complementary benefit to Powerpackers in the UK as they are encouraged to engage with what God is doing in the Nations. Powerpack is already involved in Romania, Armenia, Italy, Czech Republic, Argentina, Mozambique, USA and Thailand. Through our Thailand base there is potential to influence surrounding regions of Chiang Mai, and into other surrounding regions.

We are extremely grateful to Heather for giving her time and very hard work during this trip, and also to Powerpack for funding her trip. At every turn, people were urging Heather to return again and for longer. Heather's time is extremely pressed and the financial resources of Powerpack are quite limited even with respect to the work in the UK. We pray that this won't be a limitation and that God will open the way for Heather to return to Thailand.