Missionaries
Jim & Kathi Hayes
P.O. Box 1
32000 Surin, Thailand
011-66-44-514-216
www.surinbaptistchurch.blogspot.com
E-Mail: The Hayes Family
The Hayes have been in Thailand since
1979. They planted two churches in the province of Surin
and are currently focusing on reaching the Thai-Khmer unreached
people group in Surin Province. The Thai-Khmer Bible has
just been published and the Hayes are putting it into oral
forms for illiterate Christians and for evangelistic seed
among this people. They are currently living in a Khmer
village in an unevangelized district of Surin, Thailand.
They have three grown children serving Christ in the States
at present.
October
2008 - Mission Update
Dear Praying
Friends,
What a great anniversary weekend! Things went so well
for Surin Baptist Church's 26th anniversary starting
with a great banquet Saturday night at a local restaurant.
Everyone who signed up came, and all of our invited
unsaved guests came, too. A number of those were first-time
visitors to a church function. Even our church's next-door
neighbors came. Please pray for continued contact
with these neighbors. They, of course, are in love
with little Tyler Jones (Matt and Courtney's youngest son).
They rush out to grab him as soon as they see their
truck show up in front of the church. How well we
remember when our own kids were that age, and the wonderful
witnessing magnets they were in making friends with Thais
for us.
Sunday was another great day. Guests showed up, and
we had another great crowd for the services. This
year we invited Pastor Santisuk to preach
the services, and God really used him. When we first
met Santisuk (over 20 years ago) he was a young policeman
who had been recently saved in Bangkok, and since that time
he has grown spiritually into one of the finest Thai pastors
that I know anywhere in the country. Over 10 years
ago he started his own church in the city of Korat 225 kilometers
to the west of Surin.
We would ask you to pray for two men who are showing signs
of God's Word bringing them to life. Anan
is the son of one of our faithful members Grandma
Poy . He had come to special church functions
before, and this year he was eager to come again. After
being witnessed to on Sunday, Anan said, “I think I believe
50%. I'm reading the Bible at home, and I have peace
in my heart when I come to the services.” This month
Poy noticed that her son did not worship the Khmer spirits
in the biggest spirit festival of the year. Please
pray that God will use His word and our witness to bring
Anan to full trust in Jesus Christ. Poy, who is a
strong witness, has been praying for years for someone else
in her family to believe.
Pray for another man named Waan . Waan
has been coming to services now for a number of months.
At first it was just to escort his girlfriend, but
God's Word had been chipping away at his heart. His
girlfriend is the youngest sister in a family that we led
to the Lord many years ago. Plai
has lived a very sinful life. She is HIV positive
and is living out her broken down life off the charity of
her sisters. She comes to church to please her family for
financial benefit. Because of her continual contact
with Christianity, she has become immune to the Gospel.
Her boyfriend, on the other hand, has been grabbed by the
power of God's word and the testimonies of the other believers.
Waan listened very closely to a personal witness on
Sunday, but Plai is a huge barrier in his way. Pray
that he will make the right choice and that Plai will finally
get serious about her sin and turn to our gracious Savior.
Please pray as we make final preparations for our return
to the States later this month. There's much that
we need to get done before our departure.
Serving in Surin,
Jim & Kathi Hayes
Jim
& Kathi Hayes