“Let’s swing by and see the Bang Khan church,” Duang suggested as we drove home from visiting Phuket during our early months of ministry in southern Thailand. What we found surprised us—tall weeds choked the property, and a rusty padlock secured the gate. The church appeared to have been abandoned for years. Standing before the locked entrance, we bowed our heads and prayed, then quietly drove away.

Last year, a church member from Phuket was near Bang Khan on a Sabbath and decided to attend church there, only to find the gate locked and the church looking as abandoned as described above. The man prayed, “Oh God, please revive your work here. May your church once again be a beacon of light amidst the surrounding darkness.”

God has answered those prayers! The Thailand Adventist Mission has assigned a pastor to the Bang Khan district. In July 2025, they organized a series of evangelistic meetings at a nearby government building. When the meetings finished, the pastor announced that the church would be open for worship the following Sabbath.

Reopening Bang Khan Seventh-day Adventist Church might be compared to a single mom giving birth to quintuplets—so many mouths to feed, but the pastor only has two hands. Those attendees who have been baptized are inexperienced. Those attending out of curiosity do not yet have faith. The opening of the church has left the pastor both overjoyed and overwhelmed.

Duang and I decided to assist the pastor on that first Sabbath. The church member from Phuket also joined, and together we have formed a team. Now on Sabbath mornings, we regularly make the two-and-a-half-hour journey to Bang Khan, often picking up Uncle Somneuk along the way. The member from Phuket also joins when he can.

Three years ago, we stopped to pray outside an abandoned church. Last year, the member from Phuket also stopped there to pray. Now we find ourselves part of the ministry team seeking to disciple believers in that very location. Perhaps God is calling you to pray for a dark corner of the world, and then He may call you to be part of a team that answers those prayers.

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