Our plan was to visit and encourage the few believers in this village of Shan people group. But God wrecked our hearts instead.

The Shan are found across China, Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand with less than 2% evangelical Christians.

Sinowen, a follower of Christ in her 50s invited us into her home. We took off our shoes before we sat down on the floor around her as she told the story of how she came to faith. She had been sick for a year, spending close to $3,000 on hospital bills without getting any better. She tried going to several witch doctors and did everything she was told, sacrificing sheep, pigs, chickens, but nothing worked. Until one day a visiting missionary learned about her turmoil and sent a pastor to pray for her. In that instant, God healed her.

It’s been 30 years now since she was healed and received Christ as her Savior, but her heart still has a longing, not to be healed or to be blessed, but to be taught. To be taught about God and His Word. She shared with us that there are a few believers in this village but they are all scattered. Only 5-10 people come to church every Sunday but they have no one to teach them. They want to know more about God and for their faith to grow but there is no one to disciple them.

As she continued sharing her desire for discipleship our hearts were wrecked and tears started to flow down our cheeks. We felt her desperate hunger and thirst for God’s word. In that moment God gave us the compassion of Christ when He saw the multitudes, “they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Matthew 9:36).

I realized that this is exactly what God has been preparing me for. He had sent me to Impact 195 to be discipled so that I can disciple others. How easy it is for us living in the United States to download sermon podcasts from churches around the nation. At the click of a button we can find out the Greek root of words in the Bible we don’t understand or look up 5 different versions of the Bible. While these people, earnestly desiring to learn just a little bit more, have no way to obtain it. How can we keep our knowledge to ourselves?

In the Gospel of John, Jesus asked Peter three times if he loved Him and at the end Jesus told him, “Feed My Sheep” (John 21:15-17). And that's what we plan to do; teaching and discipling His followers is an expression of our love for our Lord.

Would you keep the people of Thailand and the laborers in your prayers?