History
In 1998 We began reaching out into nearby regions with the gospel. We traveled West towards the Burmese border and found a small town called Bossalee nearby Hot and Om Koi. In the town of Bossalee we met with much resistance from the local Budhist monks who instigated a very intensive campaign of persecution against us and the new Christians including threats, beating up, throwing stones at us and even attempted to poison one of our evangelists.The Christians were denied electricity, plumbing, paved roads and other amenities provided to everyone else in the village.

The new church responded with humility and grace. They decided that if they could not reach their neighbors with the gospel then they would reach out into the neighboring villages. Together with these new converts we heard of a poor village that was a 3 hour walk from there into the jungle. It was a Po Karen village named HoiDeTop. The Po Karen are not as evangelized as the Skaw Karen, and most are animist, or worship their ancestors, with only a small percentage that are Christian or Buddhist. We journeyed through rice paddies, across rivers and through the jungle. Without a guide, we would surely have gotten lost.

Hoi De Top
When we first discovered them, the villagers lived in extremely dire conditions. There was an intense feeling of fear towards demons that kept them in their misery. We were told that the demons had ordered them to live in this very awkward location to appease them. This meant that they had to walk a long way to a stream to bathe, and retrieve drinking water from a brown river. They had minimal concept of hygiene and many of them were sick, partly due their open toilets, which the pigs ate from. They had no access to medical attention (The Spirit Doctor was often amazed and grateful at the special powers that we brought with us in the form of pain killers (Tylenol), stomach medicine (Tums), and other strange “magic”.) They had no access to education and therefore only a few of them could communicate with us in Thai. Their houses were build with the wood, bamboo, leaves, and other materials that they found around them in the woods. The 65 people living in 17 houses each grew their own rice and vegetables, supplemented with whatever they could find in the jungle around them. Some of them also raised chickens and pigs.

When we share with them about the power and love of Jesus most of the village was quick to respond and received deliverance from bondage to evil demons.

One boy for example had been tormented by evils spirits since his birth. The parents had taken him to a temple to be cleansed of these attacks, and since that time he had suffered from intense seizures. When our staff prayed for him and burned the amulets given him during that ceremony he was immediately healed.

There were several other people healed that day such as BaLa who was on the verge of obeying the demon voices she heard in a tree that was compelling her to come and hang herself to death.

Upon receiving Jesus and leaving their demon tormenters behind they felt the freedom to relocate. With the help of skillful engineers, carpenters, and outreach teams, we relocated the village 1km away to a beautiful hillside and supplied them with clean stream water from PVC faucets right to the front of their homes. Over the years with the generous assistance of various mission outreach teams we built toilets, a garbage pit, a church, a parsonage for the pastors family, fish ponds, vegetable garden, and even planted 300+ coffee plants with a trickle watering system. A later team planted 500 coffee plants and we plan to roast and sell this coffee in ChaingMai.

A few years ago after we surprised them with traveling there on the dirt roads by motorbike, we inspired them to build their own connecting road to the outside world. As a result they are now able to get a better price for their produce, and several of them now own motorbikes and the chief has a truck. Many of them are now blessed with an increase of livestock including buffaloes, cows, pigs, and chickens. The government even came and installed solar power for every house.

For 8 long years the Spirit doctor Boo Ngeun and his wife were anxious about converting for fear that the demons that he served would harm him, the village, or his unsaved relatives. Finally, in February 2007, he decided that he could no longer for happiness and continue to wait for his family to receive Jesus first. He invited Sean, Sombaht, Prayoon and Tongkham to come and pray with him to accept Christ. He was immediately healed of a long term pain in his knee. He also was able to sleep peacefully for the first time in ages. In the night the demon had called to him but he told it to go away. Our team was given permission to burn the altars and fetishes, and so the next day many of the villagers went up the hill at the top of the village to gather for worship as they burned the 'demon house' to the ground. Even the few (4?) non-Christians of the village celebrated this event. (For more details see www.sanborns.org/seananne/march07.html) Please pray for his son named Ah Jae who is the chief, who even though he has agreed with Christianity in principle, he hasn’t yet made a full commitment with his heart.

There is such an intense joy that permeates the village because of all that God has blessed them with. Before they had to borrow food from neighboring villages and now they generously provide their neighbors with their bountiful crops. When you walk down the street adorned with orchids you are bound to encounter many smiling faces wanting to talk to you.

Our ministry:

• Teaching the new believers the basic principles of the bible
• Raise local evangelists and disciple for leadership
• Relief and development: provision with medical treatment and health education, donations of blankets and clothing particular during the cold season, project of building a dormitory for the children to attend school in the closest village (Which is still a three to four hour hike from there), building more fishponds for better nutrition, starting a handicraft industry.
• Someday we’d love to build a school in the village for other neighboring village children to attend.

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Site last Updated: January 2009

Email the Pastor at : Pastor Gampon Kumdee
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