2025年10月更新
Dear friends,
This past Monday was the monthly meeting of the Karen leaders in Omkoi. It is a growing group of Karen church leaders that share, pray, plan in the morning and then finish with having lunch together. The devotion was on Jonah and challenged me in the following way (see questions below):
Among missionaries we sometimes talk about the 4 fields of ministry:
1st Field - the people group / area that God has called you to. No church or believers yet. The empty or entry field.
2nd Field - abundant gospel seed sowing to your target people. The sowing field.
3rd Field - some people respond and grow. This field needs discipleship/watering, etc. The growing field.
4th Field - the harvest field, believers are gathered together as a church. The maturing or harvest field (see an illustration of the four fields in the Mekong prayer guide on p. 6).
Do you know your Nineveh? The place or people that God wants you to go and share the Good News with? From Jonah’s example: If you do, you better follow through! Are you abundantly sowing God’s word with them? Are you coming back to water and nurture your ‘seedlings’? And do you help them to form a church with leaders that will look for the next empty field? These questions are for ourselves as much as they might apply to you as well!
This encouraging group of leaders shared about hard things and about things that are going well. The last two months the sharing has been along the lines of how God uses suffering or hard times in our lives to accomplish His purposes (or in things that we don’t want to do, see Jonah). This is encouraging for me to hear from this group since at other times God's (material!) blessings can take a bit too much of a front row seat. Pray that they will keep their eyes on the giver of blessings (God Himself!) and not get derailed or distracted by the blessings themselves.
Pray for one Karen man who shared the gospel and as result there are now seven new Christians in nearby villages. Pray as he goes back to ‘water and nurture’ these new believers. Pray for those who responded that they will get grounded and rooted in Christ. That, eventually, they will gather together as a new little group of believers, as a church of their own.
Pray for an opportunity later this month to take one or two Karen from Omkoi to a refugee camp where other OMF workers have found that there are a good number of Karen that need to hear and have the Gospel explained in their own language.
To follow-up from the last letter: Noah has just this month (Sep 1) officially started his apprenticeship. He had been working for this company over the last six weeks already so he is actually quite familiar with his work. Praise: He has recently started a small group in his town and it has been beneficial for many as they study the book of Galatians together.
Praise: Luke is getting a good dose of what work life looks like as he often works heavy physical work each day from 7:15am to 5/6pm, or sometimes later. Before this summer my cousin, who Luke works for, wasn’t sure how much work he would have for Luke but now it looks like there is plenty of plastering and construction work for him. Pray for Luke as he will start Bible School in Albania on September 20!
Continue to pray for Selah and her schooling. We decided to switch her schooling from English to German which is a big learning curve for her as she had done grade 1-7 in English so far and has only fairly limited knowledge of the German language. Now she attends the German school in Chiang Mai and has to read and write in German! It is not an easy switch at the age of 13 but she has been a trooper so far.
Pray for Deborah's health. She has had many ear infections this rainy season. As one side heals up the other side seems to start with a new infection.
Thank you everyone for your continued faithful support! We don't take it for granted but appreciate it a lot.
Thank you for standing with us and praying!
In Him,
Oliver for the Mayers
Serving in Thailand with OMF International, Mekong Field
OMF International - Canada
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Leaders' meeting in Omkoi
About 30 leaders gather regularly on the last day of the month
It's a time of encouragement, sharing from God's word, looking ahead, singing, praying together!
Oliver - 我16歲時參加完次青年退修會後，我所在的小鎮便成立了一個青年團契，帶領青年團契的這對夫婦給我留下最深刻的印像是他們言行一致，這促使我想更了解耶穌和聖經，在青年團契的第一年，我向基督敞開了心扉。在青年退修會期間，我們學習舊約中約瑟的故事，回顧起來，我發現從一開始就知道「別人可能是出於惡意，但上帝有一個美好的計劃」確實很有幫助和鼓舞人心。（創世記50 :20 從前你們的意思是要害我，但神的意思原是好的，要保全許多人的性命，成就今日的光景）2010年初，我接受了前往泰國的呼召，當時，我們在瑞典Holsby Bible School, the Torchbearer Bible School 事奉，有一位宣教士來探訪我們，他與一些學生分享了他在泰國北部的事工，Deborah和我深受感動，在他的推薦下，我們聯繫了 OMF。三年後（2013 年 2 月），我們被加拿大 OMF 派往泰國北部與湄公河少數民族一起事奉。我們在湄公河工場服事已經超過 11 年了。
Deborah - 我在一個基督教家庭長大。我的父母都參與事工，我也經常接觸到基督教，但在我七歲那年，上帝讓我意識到我的罪和我個人對祂的需要，促使我接受耶穌作為我個人的救主。從那時起，祂就一直如此忠誠地教導我並以真理引導我。 大約14歲時，我知道神正在呼召我去宣教，雖然一開始我有點抗拒，但上帝開始在我心中產生出想要了解更多的渴望，我亦透過閱讀許多宣教士的傳記、觀看宣教電影以及盡我所能地學習其他文化來做到這一點，我參與了卡加利的國際學生事工，也分別參與了前往巴布亞新幾內亞和菲律賓的兩次短宣，上帝使用這些經歷來鞏固那日益增長的渴望，就是能參與祂在海外所做的事情。
我目前在 OMF 的角色
我們參與泰北Karen少數民族的植堂和門訓事工，特別渴望看到Karen族信徒有能力裝備去傳福音比Karen族未得之村莊、近文化及超越文化等群體。
我們想要挑戰Karen族人紮根於基督和祂的話語，出於與祂密切而充滿活力的關係，Karen 個人將會結出果子（約翰福音15:1-5，特別是「常在我裡面的，我也常在他裡面，這人就多結果子）。 這將對其他當地人（信徒和非信徒）、其他教會、其他村莊及其他地區帶來影響。
由於我們現在駐居在清邁市，Deborah也能夠參與該市的一些事工。她是基督教語言顧問團隊一員，為本地的醫學生和學院提供英語語言服務，這為與學生和學員分享福音打開了許多方使之門。
有關 OMF
海外基督使團(OMF)是一個全球性的對東亞人士有熱心的基督徒團契。
我們向東亞人群分享耶穌基督全備的福音，使榮耀歸於神。
我們滿有熱情地將這好消息向數十億的東亞人群表明和宣講，他們當中許多人甚至從未看見或聽過這好消息。
在許多沒有教會或是資源有限的地點，我們帶著謙卑和禱告的心進行植堂工作。在已經有教會存在的地點，我們和他們一同並肩來使之堅固，並得以擴展。
我們渴望看見，在東亞人群中興旺發展的教會，更使他們滿懷喜樂地與其他人來分享這好消息。