October to December 2019 Mcclain Family Prayer Letter

Click to download the Mcclain Family October to December 2019 Prayer Letter

Thank you for praying for the Annual Independent Baptist Family Camp from October 21-23. Wiang Ping Baptist Church joined together with Pastor Apisit and Lanna Baptist Church in Lampang in hosting this camp at the church property in Lampang. It was a blessing to see our teens and adults join in with the people of Lanna Baptist Church and helping them with cleaning the property, preparing food, to washing dishes. There were 237 people who attended from 15 churches from north, northeastern and central parts of Thailand and a couple of other churches from a neighboring country. We rejoice from the help that we all received from the preaching of the Word of God and for the 60 year old man that came with one of the churches that was saved. There were others that heard the gospel but were not ready to be saved. Some of these said they were not ready because their families have forbidden them to become a Christian. Please pray for this man’s spiritual growth and for these that were not ready to accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour, that they would see their real need to be saved before they pass into eternity. 

Please continue to pray for the several groups of people that we mentioned in our last prayer letter because the cousins that made professions of faith during our summer camp have not been able to come back yet and a couple of the Lahu teens have not came back but we have been able to communicate with some of them and have tried to get them to realize that living their lives according to the desires and lusts of their flesh has not given them any true happiness and peace in their lives but Jesus Christ has promised that if we sincerely repent of our sins and come to Him that He will forgive us and will make us His child and if we will choose to walk with Him in our daily lives that He will help us have the victory over the desires and lusts of our flesh and will give us true peace and happiness in our lives that no one else can give us.

During the first part of December the husband of a lady that has came several times to the church, made a profession of faith at the end of our Wednesday night prayer meeting and he has came almost every week since then! Please pray for this couple because there are some strong holds in their lives and we are praying that they will fully surrender their lives to Christ so they can get the help they need to have the victory over these strong holds.

We also held our largest Christmas outreach ever, we rented the large community shelter at our local community sports field, where many people play soccer and exercise in the evenings and we did many different things to try to get the gospel and Bible truths to those in our area like passing out invitations with gospel tracts explaining the true meaning of Christmas, making large display boards about creation, the fall of man and how we can receive salvation from Christ that we had at the registration area the night of our Christmas outreach for people to see and read while they were registering, we had Nong Lom Baptist Church in Lamphun bring a choir to play and sing Christmas songs, our teens made a play about the meaning of Christmas, and we had a time of preaching the Word to everyone there. We were bless to see the people of Wiang Ping Baptist Church work together in making this happen and about 100 people from our local community came to this outreach, heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ and everyone left with a gift from the church which included more Gospel material.

This coming Saturday, January 11 will be Thailand’s national children’s day and after seeing our Christmas event, the local city administration has asked the church to have a part in the local children’s day event and we are currently preparing for this by preparing gospel games, tracts and gift bags, and we are expecting about 800 children to come to the event with their parents. Please pray with us for this event as many of these children and their parents will be hearing Bible truths and the gospel for the first time and also pray that these children and their parents will fill out the information cards that we are preparing to help us with following up on them.

Also thank you so much for Ruth’s and Evelyn’s birthday cards and gifts, for our Christmas cards and special Christmas offerings, for your faithful support and prayers for our family and the ministry here in Thailand.

For the Millions of Untold Souls in Thailand,

Brian, Evelyn, Ruth, and Rachel McClain

Prayer Request

Please pray for our community wide Christmas outreach this Friday starting at 6:00 PM Thailand time which will be 6:00 AM Friday morning Eastern Standard Time. This year we have rented a large community shelter which is at the community sports field, where many people exercise in the evenings and we have been going house to house inviting people to come, hanging banners, and advertising online, so we are not sure how many people to expect but we are preparing for around 200 people.

Many of the members of Wiang Ping Baptist Church came to the Wednesday night prayer meeting to pray, practice, and work together packing gifts for the visitors that come on Friday.

Pray with us for the all the people that will come because this will be the first time that many of them have ever heard the true meaning of Christmas because many Thai people think that Christmas is the westerners new year or the birthday of santa claus, therefore we want to introduce them to the Creator of the world and the Saviour of mankind, the Lord Jesus Christ!

We are also having another Christmas Celebration at Wiang Ping Baptist Church this Sunday evening and are praying to get many of the new people that come on Friday to gather with us at the church location on Sunday evening.

Also pray because several of our people are getting over being sick and others are fighting with getting sick, we need each of them this Friday and Sunday.

Thank you so much for your support, time, and prayers for our Christmas Celebrations and continually ministry here in Thailand!

Brian, Evelyn, Ruth, and Rachel McClain

Prayer Request

Please pray for the Independent Baptist Annual Family Camp that Pastor Apisit and Lanna Baptist Church will be hosting from October 21-23. As you know, myself and Pastor Srithone have worked together in training Apisit and his family for the work of the ministry and ordained him as the Pastor of Lanna Baptist Church in Lampang.
Many of the Thai pastored Independent Baptist Churches will come to the camp and we are expecting around 200 people.

Please pray with us for the ones in all the churches that have not yet decided to come to the family camp or not, that they will decide to come and be apart.
Also pray because there will be people that need to be saved, others that need to surrender to walk daily with the Lord in prayer, in reading and studying and obeying the Bible, others that need to surrender to serve the Lord fulltime, and there will be pastors and church workers and their wives and families that need the Lord to encourage and give them strength and wisdom in their ministries.

For the Millions of Untold Souls in Thailand,

Brian, Evelyn, Ruth, and Rachel McClain

July to September 2019 Mcclain Family Prayer Letter

Click to download the Mcclain Family July to September 2019 Prayer Letter

We want to thank all of you once again for praying for our yearly visa extension renewals and work permit renewal. Everything has been renewed and is back in our hands. Unfortunately, Thailand is not like the US in regards to being able to get a multi-year visa, therefore we have to do yearly renewals, along with reporting to immigration every 90 days etc.

It seems like atleast several times a year, we are reminded how much of a strong hold the devil and his angels have here and how they do not want anyone coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and walking with Him in their daily lives. In our last prayer letter, we told you about the 6 people that professions of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ at our full month summer day camp here at Wiang Ping Baptist Church and how two of these are cousins and how they have started bringing some of their friends to the church services. But toward the end of July, one of their parents forbid the both of them to come to any of the activities of the church and to the church services and this is sad because from what we have heard from some of the teens in the church and from these teens is that they want to come back. Pray along with us that the parents of these teens will see that we are trying to help them in developing their teens and that they will let them come back soon.

We also like to ask you to pray for one of the students that from what it seems like was influenced by a relative to leave Samuel’s house Bible & leadership training school. Unfortunately, we have not been able to contact him but we have heard that he is working with his relative that seems to have influenced him to leave the school.

If you remember that once our Thai language ability got up to speed and through the Lord’s leading, our family started for the first time the Sunday morning services here at Wiang Ping Baptist Church in Chiang Mai, because the Thai missionary pastor that we are working with Pastor Srithone was still holding the Sunday morning services at Lanna Baptist Church in Lampang. And we are rejoicing that over the past couple of months that the number of people coming to the Sunday morning services has started to equal the number of people coming to the Sunday evening services. Another thing that is different here than from what I have seen in the US is that for most people it is not traditional or cultural to regularly go to a religious place of worship. Most people here only do any kind of religious activity, when they have a need for something or at the several yearly major religious holidays. Therefore its a blessing to see these first generation Christians growing in their relationship with Jesus Christ and becoming faithful to the church services. Because of the major importance the church has in growing together to join together in serving our Lord Jesus Christ.

We also praise the Lord that several teens from the Lahu neighborhood came back to church a week ago, after not coming for awhile and it seems like they are more open to communicating with us. Plus another family came back last Sunday, after not coming for almost a month. Pray for this neighborhood because the Jehovah witnesses have came into this neighborhood and is giving loans, animals to raise, and other things to people in this neighborhood that will allow them to teach their false doctrine to them. Pray for the people from this neighborhood that come to Wiang Ping Baptist Church because we have personally taught them about the major false doctrines of the Jehovah witnesses and have also took time to teach these to the whole church.

Lastly, we want to ask you to pray for the Annual Independent Baptist Family Camp which Wiang Ping Baptist Church has joined in with helping Lanna Baptist Church to host it there at the church property in Lampang from October 21-23. Most of the Thai Independent Baptist pastored churches will be coming to this camp. We are praying for the preachers that will be preaching and for everyone that will come that the lost will be saved and that the saved will rise up and serve the Lord in their local churches and that there will be ones that fully surrender their lives to the Lord for fulltime service because most Thai churches are lacking in people voluntary faithfully serving the Lord in their local churches and there still are so many places in Thailand that do not have a solid Bible Believing Baptist Church.

Please continue to stay faithful in your local church because you are glorifying our Lord and are making a difference around the world!

For the Millions of Untold Souls in Thailand,

Brian, Evelyn, Ruth, and Rachel McClain

Renewed Visa! Thanks for praying

We want to thank all of you for praying for our visa renewal. We were able to renew our visas for another year. Thanks so much!

March to May 2019 Mcclain Family Prayer Letter

Click to download the Mcclain Family March to May 2019 Prayer Letter

We praise the Lord for your prayers and support for us here in Thailand. We thank all of you that has contacted us within the last couple of months with birthday greetings and letting us know that you are praying for us.

In our last prayer letter, we told you about a girl that started coming with us to church because of our English outreach at the Baan Khai Gai community and how she helped us get other students to come also. And that one of these students has been asking us questions and was learning more about the Gospel but along with this her mom was taking her to the temples and one monk told her mom that she needs to quit letting her child come to church. And then how her mom told us that she does not want her daughter coming to church anymore. Because of your prayers with us, this girl has started coming back to the English classes that we have at the church and we praise the Lord for this because we thought that this door was shut. We also praise the Lord that since the end of the summer vacation for the school that our usual students from this community have started coming back to our evangelistic English classes and to some of the church services also.

Also in our last prayer letter, we told you that we will be having our first full month summer day camp here at Wiang Ping Baptist Church. We praise the Lord that He gave each of us teachers good health and ability in teaching and managing the students. I taught English and also took turns with Pastor Srithone in teaching the Bible. All in all, we had around 28 students and 6 of these made professions of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And 4 of these have came to the church services already, and 3 of them are starting to come often. Two of these are cousins and they have already brought some of their friends to the church services. Please pray with us for these that have made professions of faith that they will grow in the Lord and will allow Him to lead their lives and pray for the others that the truths of the Word of God and the Gospel were planted in their lives. Also one of the students that made a profession of faith is the son of the man with the seventh day adventist background that in our last prayer letter, I asked you to pray for because we have had contact with them for several years and have witnessed to them and invited them to church but he only came one time around March of 2018 but since the beginning of this year he has been coming on and off. Please continue to pray for this family because as we said in our last prayer letter that the father has not accepted that knowing about God and doing good, does not save you and the mother does not seem open to Gospel and has not came to church even though everyone else in their family has came already.

Since the new school year started in May and in follow up to our Summer day camp, we just started a Saturday study program at the church on last Saturday, June the first. One of the church members is a teacher and she has helped us get this started and she is teaching the subjects that are taught in Thai and our family is teaching the English part and the Bible. We had 10 new people from around the church contact us and said they were coming but last Saturday, which was the first day of classes, only 4 these new contacts came. Even though only 4 of the 10 new contacts came, we are still praising the Lord for this because we have never had contact with any of these families before. And we are praying that we will have more first time students come this coming Saturday. Our goal is to use this as another tool to get the Gospel and Bible truths to those around the church.

This is the second year of using this type of outreach at Lanna Baptist Church in Lampang and Pastor Apisit has told us how this has opened doors to some of the families whose children are studying at the church because their children have done better in their school studies and some of the parents are opening up to hearing the Gospel and some are starting to come to the church. And its been a blessing seeing some of the members of Lanna Baptist Church get involved with this ministry.

Please pray with us about this new ministry that the church member that is a regular school teacher will not have anything come up on Saturday mornings that will keep her from teaching the Thai subjects and for each of us in our family that we will have good health to teach these student’s every Saturday afternoon and that all of us can be used of the Lord to get the Gospel and Bible truths to these students and also can encourage them to come join us on Sundays. Because we want to see them get saved and become active members of the church.

During April 15-17 we took our largest group of young people ever to the annual national Teen and Young People’s Camp in Udon Thani, Thailand, there were over 150 people in attendance, and the theme of the camp was: “Is There Not a Cause?” from 1 Samuel 17:29. One of the guys in Samuel’s House Bible and Leadership Training School and another teen guy that comes to the church went forward in one of the services in response to surrendering their lives to the Lord and then the Sunday following the camp one of our teen girls responded to surrendering her life to the Lord. So please pray with us for these young people that they will follow through on their decisions and sincerely seek and follow the Lord Jesus Christ in their daily lives.

Please continue praying for my mother, siblings, and relatives as my grandmother went to be with the Lord on April 17 at 86 years old. Pray for their spiritual needs as many of them have not repented and received the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour and others are not walking with the Lord as they should.

Also pray for some physical ailments in our family as I am trying to find what specific doctors, we should go see etc.

Thank you so much for your prayers, love and care, and partnership with us over these years as we are serving the Lord here in Thailand.

For the Millions of Untold Souls in Thailand,

Brian, Evelyn, Ruth, and Rachel McClain

December to February 2019 Mcclain Family Prayer Letter

Click to download the Mcclain Family December to February 2019 Prayer Letter

We thank each of you for not only supporting us financially but also for taking your time to read our prayer letters and praying for us and the ministry here in Thailand. Without these two things, we could not be here on your behalf and for the Lord’s glory. We also want to thank you for the special Christmas and birthday offerings, Christmas, birthday and anniversary cards, and emails.

If you remember back in 2016 we started teaching English at the Baan Khai Gai community and it took five months before we saw our first student come to a church service, then a month after that we had three other students come. Then around July 2017 the owner of the room decided for us to stop teaching English there. But praise the Lord that there was one student that had already started coming regularly to the church services and she was able to help us get others to start coming regularly also. Then around October 2017 this girl made a profession of faith and she is still coming faithfully to the church services and activities. One of the other girls that she helped us get coming regularly to the church services has been asking us questions and was learning more about the Gospel but along with this her mom was taking her to the temples and one monk told her mom that she needs to quit letting her child come to church. And sadly three weeks ago her mom told us that she does not want her daughter coming to church anymore. Please pray for this family and that their daughter will not harden her soul to the truths she has learned about salvation and the Bible and that she will seek the Lord in prayer and in studying the Bible, even though for now she cannot come to church. We are praying that she will come back to church soon and will be saved.

Also through the English camps that we have had in the past and through teaching English at the Baan Khai Gai community we came into contact with another family and growing up the father went to a Seventh-day Adventists school and has went to a couple of churches off and on. And for years we have invited them to come to church, then around March of last year, he came to church for the first time but he did not come back and has not really communicated with us. But praise the Lord that since the beginning of the year, he has started coming off and on. One Sunday morning when he came, Pastor Srithone took the opportunity to explain the gospel individually to him, while I was teaching Sunday School. Pray for this man because he has not accepted that knowing about God and doing good, does not save you but that you must accept that there is nothing you can do to erase your sin or make yourself holy and righteous in the eyes of God and that you must repent and ask Jesus Christ to forgive and wash away your sins.

This April here at Wiang Ping Baptist Church, we will be having our first full month summer day camp. Last year, Lanna Baptist Church in Lampang started this and has seen many of the students that came to the full month long summer day camp, start coming to the church services and several of them have made professions of faith and are still coming to the church services. This camp will be Monday to Friday from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM and the students will be learning Thai, Science, Math, English, and Bible. If anyone of you would like to come over and help teach English during this camp, please let us know immediately. This would be a good opportunity especially for anyone interested in missions work. Please help us pray that we can at least get each student thinking about eternity and many will open their ears and souls to the Bible truths that they will learn and to hearing the Gospel and that we will see several students respond to the working of the Lord in their soul. Please pray for each of us, teachers that we will have good health and the leading of the Lord in teaching each subject.

Also during April from the 15th to the 17th will be the annual national Teen and Young People’s Camp in Udon Thani, Thailand, which is in the NE part of Thailand. There will be people from churches across Thailand and from a couple of neighboring countries. Please pray as we are already trying to get people signed up to go and are praying for people to respond to the Lord’s working in their lives.

Please also pray for a Thai lady that is praying about moving to Chiang Mai to work with Wiang Ping Baptist Church and Samuel’s House Bible and Leadership Training School and for another Thai family that is making preparations to move up here in April to work with Wiang Ping Baptist Church and Samuel’s House Bible and Leadership Training School.

For the Millions of Untold Souls in Thailand,

Brian, Evelyn, Ruth, and Rachel McClain