Hope Brisbane and Hope Gold Coast Centre sent a mission team to Thailand for two weeks (31st December till 10th January 2008). The mission team ministered in an orphanage called Bann Fan Sighy, a two hour drive from Chiang Mai. They also conducted healing meetings at a Karen refugee camp called Maelaoon in the mountains, near the Thai and Myanmar border.
[Photo: Thailand Mission Team]
Pastor Lance and Belle Wolter were leading a multicultural team of 12 people born in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Malaysia. The mission team worked with Effective Aid organisation in the refugee camp. .
[View Mission Photos Website] Preaching Good News at Refugee Camp
The whole team preached at the refugee camp; some members preached for the very first time! We were all captivated by 1000 people who came to the meeting place at the refugee camp. Some sessions saw the whole meeting place full and overflowing!
Renee (an Australian university student) and Ngoc (a Vietnamese physiotherapist) made everybody cry with their real stories that the Karen refugees could really connect with. Renee’s shared how God helped her trust him through the sudden and tragic death of her parents two years ago. 38 orphans who had lost parents in the war responded with many tears to ask God to heal them. Ngoc, a former refugee from Vietnam and now serving God as a physiotherapist, shared how the Lord helped her forgive the Vietnamese government for the hardships they caused her family. She also shared the hope that was made possible by God to succeed in a second country.
The Power of God came down
According to Pastor Ian, we were apparently the first team ever to come to the camp where none of the team got sick: we created HISTORY! Apparently, it has been many years since the meeting place was this full and the children had never worshipped that passionately.
There were two, three year olds who were in tears as they worshipped Jesus with all their hearts! This camp had never seen so many miracles and neither had we!
The miracles at refugee camp
Many people’s bad/partial hearing was restored and we saw people who were completely deafness fully healed!
- Chest pains were healed!
- Skin rashes, infections, irritations were healed!
- Sore joints, backs, ankles, knees, bones were no longer sore
- Kidney pains gone!
- Hips back in place allowing people to stand upright!
- Countless headaches disappeared!
- An Animist gave his heart to the Lord!
- Feeling and nerves were restored so people could feel again!
- Ear infections or water ears were healed
- Eye infections/diseases healed
- Lumps/tumours removed
- Various swollen joints and lumps were removed
- Stomach and pelvis pain healed.
There was one man with severe burn marks on his face and pus-filled sores on his head. Lance felt challenged to place his hands on him and show Christ’s love and pray for him. Praise God that the man’s face was healed from the scars and the sores dried up.
We prayed for a blind animist, who has yet to be healed, but he received Christ as his Lord and Saviour! We also prayed for an ex-Karen soldier who lost his leg in the war. His leg is still missing, but by faith, we gave him a pair of shoes to try on each day he prays!
Many refugees responding to Jesus
Furthermore, the alter call was so big in the first session that we actually broke half the stage!
Elise cut her foot but amazingly the people were so desperate for God, they stayed on the terribly slanted stage as if nothing had happened! Apparently they didn’t want to lose their place in the crowd of people waiting to receive prayer.
On the last session, Lance held an alter call for people wanting to be trained as
missionaries, evangelists, leaders and to go back to Burma, or sacrifice their lives for Christ. Over 130 people dedicated their lives for service. And God is still blowing us away with the testimonies from the team.
A fulfilled Prophecy
Ps Lance and I recieved a prophecy confirming we would get a breakthrough in miracles and healing at the Prophetic Conference a year ago.
In fact one of the team leaders called Julie played me a tape of prophecy she had received in 1997. The prophet John Jack stated that he saw her serving in a village with children and people who had faced turmoil and hardship. He even described her going up a hill on a mountain and described in detail the colour of their clothes. She did not plan for the mission trip to fulfil this prophecy and in fact she only remembered the prophecy while she was at the camp. When she went home to find the tape she was completely overwhelmed with God’s sovereignty and grace for her life.
The grace of God
God is sovereign; I am constantly amazed by God’s grace. The journey and stories we shared has had a wonderful ripple effect: telling our bosses, our workplaces, and people on the street, and telling of the wonders that God has done to friends and family.
Pastor Lance & Belle Wolter
Hope Gold Coast, Australia
[Photo: Thailand Mission Team]
