About Our Ministry
By way of introduction, since we haven’t had a chance to be with the SCCEFC church body in Calgary yet:
Oliver is from the Black Forest in southern Germany. He received Christ through a YMCA youth retreat at the age of 17 and later attended Capernwray Hall Bible School, part of Torchbearers International, in England. He then returned to Germany to study to become a teacher.
Deborah grew up in a pastor/missionary home in the southern States and Canada. In her early teens, God put on her heart a burden for missions. She attended His Hill Bible School in Texas. A year later, Oliver & Deborah met through a Torchbearers reunion and were married in 2003.
Oliver was on the pastoral staff at Deborah’s home church in Calgary, Parkdale Grace Fellowship, for five years before they moved to Sweden, where they served at Holsby Torchbearers Bible School. By the end of their 3-year commitment there, God had put a growing interest in their hearts to work with OMF in Thailand, where they have now been serving since 2013.
God has blessed us with three children: Noah (2005), Luke (2007) and Selah (2012).
Current ministry:
Our ministry is among the Karen people in Northern Thailand. The Karen are the largest of the hilltribe minority groups in the country. We have a special desire to see Karen believers equipped to share the Gospel with unreached Karen villages, near-culture people groups, and beyond. We hope to see this accomplished through discipleship, Bible teaching in villages, and evangelism training. We also currently have a project underway to translate and record a set of 40 audio Bible stories for use in the Karen church and in evangelism. Your prayer support is greatly appreciated, as it is clear that only God can change hearts and build His church.
What are your current needs?
Thank you for praying for the translation of the devotional book into Thai. The translation has now been completed and is in the hands of a Thai editor. It’s been a challenge since the original English uses fairly complex language, but we’re wanting it to be translated into easy-to-understand Thai. As far as content, both the translator and the editor have repeatedly told us that they’re being blessed by the message of the book and that they think it will very helpful for Thai Christians. So please continue to pray that the end product will be a faithful translation that communicates the truths from God’s word clearly and in a way that speaks to Thais.
Thank you also for praying for the older lady we mentioned earlier, who was open to the gospel but hadn’t yet responded. Praise God, in July she accepted Jesus as her savior! She has also brought her grandson along with her on her journey so far. One challenge she faces is that she is very busy with work and family responsibilities, and finds it difficult to make time to read the Bible. Please pray that she will make it a priority to feed herself and her family spiritually, at least as much as she has been making it a priority to provide physically for them. Pray that she will be a gateway for the gospel in her family and community.
Pray for a small group for parents that we’ve started. We’re using a book about apologetics for families. Please pray that God will use our times together to equip parents to help their children form biblical beliefs about what is true and what is false, and to think through and address cultural issues head-on, yet with gentleness and respect.
Please pray that Karen believers will be grounded in truth, and not led astray by false teachers who want to lead them into other doctrines apart from Jesus and the truth of the gospel.
Financial needs:
Funding for a 4-wheel vehicle; approximately $5000 needed.
Funding for devotional book; approximately $3,000 CAD for translation and printing of the book. We have not finalized the cost for editing of the translation.
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Connect with us today
[email protected]; [email protected]
Website / Ministry Updates
https://omf.org/ca/; https://omf.org/asia/mekong-minorities/