Who are we?

  • We are a ministry that wants to see the Good News spread to the Shan people and other people groups from the Shan State from and in Myanmar.
    We are located in Northern Thailand.
  • We started up this ministry February 2017 and it is run by a Norwegian-Shan couple.
  • We are cooperating with and get some support from MissionPlus, Switzerland.
  • We are also connected with Youth With A Mission and some churches, both locally and in Norway

Who are the Shan people? And what is their situation?

We mainly work among a people group called the Shan people (lately we have also included other people groups from the Shan State, but they all speak Shan), this is one of over 130 ethnic people groups from Myanmar (Burma). They are also the largest people group in Myanmar, and there are over 6 million of them.

They have their own state called the Shan State.

They are ethnically related to Thai, and the language also has similarities with Thai.
Shan people are strongly Buddhist and animistic, and there are only about 0.04 percent Christians among them.

In Myanmar, there has been local civil wars going on and has been ruled military regime for more than 70 years, and the country is strongly affected by this.
It was a free election in 2015, and an elected government ruled until February 2021, but then there was a new military coup and the country is again under a brutal military regime.

Due to poverty and war, many seek for a better future in neighboring Thailand, where they often find poorly paid jobs and difficult living and working conditions.

A major problem, especially among men, is alcohol and drug abuse. Many families and individuals experience, and have experienced, a broken life and a difficult life, and it is often the children and women who suffer the most.

This is where we come in, and we want to help the poor, the children and those who have experienced a broken life. Most of those we reach out to are in this category.

What we do

  • We have Saturday and Sunday school every week.
  • During the week we have several house visits and house meetings.
  • We are visiting people and make connections.
  • Train new and mature believers.
  • Helping and teaching languages like: Thai and English and also Shan and Burmese
  • We also teach from the Bible at our rented land.
  • We follow up and visit some children and young adults whom we have known for a while.

  • Sunday meetings
    Weekly we are reaching out to around 40-70 people (including children). We also sometimes have special meetings, outreaches and arrangements like Christmas parties. We can gather from 70-150 people on this occasions.
  • Reaching out on social media
    We are recording video with teachings in Shan both for Christian and evangelical messages and post it on our website and social media. (Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, websites etc.) We are reaching out to a lot of Shan in this way and we even have had people contacting us that need encouragement. We will continue to develop and make this. We have a website and a Facebook page called Good News for the Shan: www.goodnewsforshan.com

Vision

  • Build relationships and friendships with the Shan where they live and work.
  • When people become Christians, start house churches/fellowship.
  • Have Sunday meetings one place where the we can gather and have fellowship with each other.
    Many people work every day, so the house fellowships are still important. The Sunday meetings are a place where we can do more teaching, training and discipleship.
    We meet most Sunday mornings, but once a month we conduct a gathering in the evening.
  • Teach and train new believers.
  • Train and disciple local leaders and key persons who can disciple others.
  • Lead, oversee, encourage, cover, help and guide local evangelists, teachers, key persons and leaders.
  • Help to find sponsors/support, or part time work for local evangelists, teachers, key persons and leaders (short term/long term).
  • We also want to be able to assist, help and train Shan, and also other people groups from Thailand and Myanmar, who want to reach out to the Shan people. Like: How to reach out to the Shan people? Help the locals to start house fellowship, start simple schools/day care, etc. (this is still a few years in the future, and just on our hearts for the moment).
  • We also want to see more people sent out among the Shan and people from the Shan State, and we believe that if we are to reach the Shan people and people from the Shan state, the most effective way is to do this together. We believe in team work. We want to facilitate and help people to do this, short or long term.

More text under video..


Rent or buy a land

At the moment we rent a land, but we have a vision to buy one in the future.

Use of this property

For now we use it for our Saturday and Sunday school for children. We teach English, Shan, Thai, Burmese and from the Bible. We also want the children to know about God, so we teach them about the gospel, read the Bible and prayer. Sunday meetings for adults.

Future vision for a land (we might change location in the future)

  • Build a church.
  • Run discipleship training short term/long term.
  • Run a farm, and disciple the people we employ for a period of time (we need help from a local Thai to this). This property or properties can also be used to get income for local workers.
  • Do more to help children that are not able to go to school (like teaching Thai), or help them with homework.
  • Youth ministry.
  • Different activities like learning language, dance, handcraft or playing an instrument.

Get local income for staff

In our vision we also want to find ways for the locals to get income locally, by businesses.
For some of this we need people that have a heart to do this, and can help us in this area, especially if they should start up a business (we need a local Thai at least).

Fang is in a rural area, and it is possible to find land where they can grow crops themselves or provide (but not all are farmers and know farming well) and facilitate a part time job for them.

We also still believe in the need to find financial supporters for key persons/leaders!

Plant Churches in other places

We also in the future want to see the Shan and people from the Shan State plant fellowships and new churches in other villages and cities and even inside Myanmar (This is more a 5-15 years vision, but it is in our plan and thoughts now when we prepare for the future).

We are not able to do this by ourselves,
and we need people to stand with us both in prayer and donation.
Think about if you would like to partner with us.

Feel free to contact us if you have any question, are interested in or Ministry or want to Donate.