Expectations met, exceeded on Thailand mission trip

“Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”

This quote from missionary William Carey was employed by Keith Eitel, dean of the Roy Fish School of Evangelism and Missions, as an encouragement to this year’s Thailand mission team, July 7-25. He explained, “We tend to go into these experiences full of ‘attempting,’ but we fail to be adequate in full expectation. So let’s go expecting to be surprised; to see what God is going to do.”

With this as their prayer, the team of 16 students and faculty went forth in Chiang Mai, Thailand, as ambassadors of Jesus Christ, faithfully expecting God to greatly bless their efforts. These expectations were met and, in some cases, exceeded by the trip’s end, as the team members personally saw 24 come to know the Lord.

Master of Divinity student J. Amy Shin participated in the trip this year, and she says God used the experience to both humble and challenge her. “I have always thought I had the confidence to speak to anyone about Jesus,” Shin says, “but during this trip, I felt very scared and ashamed to speak to the people. This really created a huge burden in my heart where I had to seek after God and ask Him to give me boldness and strength.”

“Through the encouragement of my teammates and seeing the boldness of our local Thai translators,” she continues, “the Lord truly gave me the strength and the confidence to share the Gospel. Through this trip, I had such great spiritual conversations with the local Thai, as well as foreigners who were on vacation in the country.”

The team’s efforts were channeled primarily through spiritual conversations on college campuses and showing the “Jesus” film to mountain villages. They engaged in some street evangelism as well. In the midst of these evangelistic labors, God surprised the team with numerous divine appointments.

One afternoon, as night market vendors were just beginning to set up their kiosks, the mission team prayer-walked the community around a mosque near their hotel. Eitel walked by himself roughly a block behind his wife and a translator. This latter pair was handing out Thai-language Gospel tracts, and one man, after receiving a tract, became confused by it.

As they later learned, the man is from Nepal and had only come to Chiang Mai for business; he, therefore, could not read Thai. When Eitel reached him, the man noticed that Eitel had the same kind of tract, and so the man asked him a question: “Do you know what these are?”

Eitel gladly explained the Gospel to him, and after the man asked a few questions, Eitel asked if he wanted to respond. The man spent a few more moments examining the tracts, which contained diagrams illustrating the Gospel message. He then looked up and said, “I need to do this.”

“Who would have thought?” Eitel reflects. “I was just walking down the street, and I was alone, and somehow he associated me with [my wife and the translator] because they had just handed him a tract three minutes earlier, and just in clear speech, he said, ‘Do you know what these are?’”

“What we never know about cold-call evangelism is what dynamics have been at work by the Holy Spirit before we meet them that day,” Eitel continues. “[People who speak ill of this type of evangelism] think it’s all about what I’ve said in that moment, and they wonder how anybody can come to the Lord just having heard it. But what we don’t know until later are ways in which God had already been working to turn their attention to Christian things, and then that day is the right day that they are willing and want to make a decision and have enough information to do so.”

Another surprise came as a result of Southwestern’s relationship with a local church. Southwestern connected with the church two years ago, and since then, whenever Southwesterners have led people to the Lord, they have put them in touch with the church. The follow-up and connectivity by this local ministry, Eitel says, “makes a big difference.”

A good illustration of this concept is a local believer named Ben.* Ben was led to the Lord by Eitel and Ph.D. student Beau Brewer during Southwestern’s 2014 mission trip. Then a college student, Ben was put in touch with the pastor of Southwestern’s partner church, and in the ensuing two years, his faith has grown tremendously.

Ben is now in the Thai army, but he was home on leave during the Southwestern team’s visit this year. So, during an outreach event hosted by the church, Ben surprised Eitel by showing up and sharing his testimony before the group. “It’s neat to see that growth in him; that journey,” Eitel says. “Praise God!”

Regarding the local church’s commitment to nurture the faith of those whom the Southwestern team led to the Lord (as well as the members of their own flock), Shin says this is crucial for carrying out the Great Commission mandate to “make disciples.” She explains, “This was such a blessing to see, and it challenged me so much to see firsthand how Matthew 28 should be played out in our lives.”

This impact on her faith, which Shin observed not only in herself but in all of her teammates, constituted a final exceeded expectation of God. “This trip was a time where we all reflected about our own lives and about what it means to live for Christ,” she says.

“I saw each and every team member go through a transition of sorts in their own individual ways, which brought us all together as one body of Christ. … Praise the Lord and His faithfulness and love, always!”

*Name changed to protect mission work.