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
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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岁时参加完一次青年退修会后，我所在的小镇便成立了一个青年团契，带领青年团契的这对夫妇给我留下最深刻的印像是他们言行一致，这促使我想更了解耶稣和圣经，在青年团契的第一年，我向基督敞开了心扉。在青年退修会期间，我们学习旧约中约瑟的故事，回顾起来，我发现从一开始就知道「别人可能是出于恶意，但上帝有一个美好的计划」确实很有帮助和鼓舞人心。（创世记50 :20 从前你们的意思是要害我，但神的意思原是好的，要保全许多人的性命，成就今日的光景 2010年初，我接受了前往泰国的呼召，当时，我们在瑞典Holsby Bible School, the Torchbearer Bible School 事奉，有一位宣教士来探访我们，他与一些学生分享了他在泰国北部的事工，Deborah和我深受感动，在他的推荐下，我们联系了 OMF。三年后（2013 年 2 月），我们被加拿大 OMF 派往泰国北部与湄公河少数民族一起事奉。我们在湄公河工场服事已经超过 11 年了。
Deborah -我在一个基督教家庭长大。我的父母都参与事工，我也经常接触到基督教，但在我七岁那年，上帝让我意识到我的罪和我个人对祂的需要，促使我接受耶稣作为我个人的救主。从那时起，祂就一直如此忠诚地教导我并以真理引导我。 大约14岁时，我知道神正在呼召我去宣教，虽然一开始我有点抗拒，但上帝开始在我心中产生出想要了解更多的渴望，我亦透过阅读许多宣教士的传记、观看宣教电影以及尽我所能地学习其他文化来做到这一点，我参与了卡加利的国际学生事工，也分别参与了前往巴布亚新几内亚和菲律宾的两次短宣，上帝使用这些经历来巩固那日益增长的渴望，就是能参与祂在海外所做的事情。
我目前在 OMF 的角色
我们参与泰北Karen少数民族的植堂和门训事工，特别渴望看到Karen族信徒有能力装备去传福音比Karen族未得之村庄、近文化及超越文化等群体。
我们想要挑战Karen族人扎根于基督和祂的话语，出于与祂密切而充满活力的关系，Karen 个人将会结出果子（约翰福音15:1-5，特别是「常在我里面的，我也常在他里面，这人就多结果子」）。 这将对其他当地人（信徒和非信徒）、其他教会、其他村庄及其他地区带来影响。
由于我们现在驻居在清迈市，Deborah也能够参与该市的一些事工。她是基督教语言顾问团队一员，为本地的医学生和学院提供英语语言服务，这为与学生和学员分享福音打开了许多方使之门。
有关 OMF
海外基督使团(OMF)是一个全球性的对东亚人士有热心的基督徒团契。
我们向东亚人群分享耶稣基督全备的福音，使荣耀归于神。
我们满有热情地将这好消息向数十亿的东亚人群表明和宣讲，他们当中许多人甚至从未看见或听过这好消息。
在许多没有教会或是资源有限的地点，我们带着谦卑和祷告的心进行植堂工作。在已经有教会存在的地点，我们和他们一同并肩来使之坚固，并得以扩展。
我们渴望看见，在东亚人群中兴旺发展的教会，更使他们满怀喜乐地与其他人来分享这好消息。