Pointing at a green tree growing roughly thirty meters out in the ocean, I exclaimed to my fellow hikers, “Someone must have had faith in Christ’s promise!” Absorbed in their thoughts, all nodded in agreement as we continued walking silently until excitement over a sea lizard interrupted the calm.

The occasion for this hike was the annual retreat for Adventist Pastors and Bible workers in Southern Thailand. This year, we met in Satun, a predominantly Muslim province with no known Adventists and no current Adventist work.

Besides the bonding hike, which led us through a jungle and over a mountain, we each took turns leading different aspects of morning and evening worship. I took the speaker’s role on the last morning. After reminding everyone of our current situation—only two Adventist churches, three pastors, two Bible workers, and one missionary family working for nine million people in fourteen provinces—I read these promises of Christ:

“And the Lord answered, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you” (Luke 17:6 BSB). “And He told them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest’” (Luke 10:2 BSB). “So He said to them, ‘This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting’” (Mark 9:29 NKJV).

The business meeting after breakfast included several lively discussions and concluded with a unanimous vote—that our Southern Thai Zone secretary would generate a weekly prayer list, and each worker would fast and pray for the list and the work in Southern Thailand one day each week. We look forward to seeing how God will answer these prayers. Will you join us in fasting and praying for Southern Thailand? Will you answer the call for more harvesters? May God hear our prayers and grant us a living faith that will move trees and mountains.

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