Pastor Richard Sangwien’s father was healed of leprosy and jaundice after attending a crusade led by evangelist T.L. Osborn in Thailand. After his miraculous healing, Richard’s father became a pastor and planted several churches, leading many people to Christ. This miracle has now impacted multiple generations. On this episode of the Evangelism Podcast you will learn how one miracle can have a ripple effect that changes lives for many years to come.
Transcript:
Evangelist Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. My name is Daniel King. I’m excited about telling people about Jesus today. I have a very special guest with me, pastor Richard, thank you for being with me on the Evangelism Podcast.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (00:14):
Thank you so much for inviting me to join with the Evangelism Podcast.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:18):
Now you have been my translator for the last couple of days here at the Jesus camp in Phitsanulok, Thailand.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (00:27):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (00:27):
And I was so happy to meet you because your story is part of the reason that I have come to Thailand. Wow. So many years ago, pastor Richard, I was a student at Victory Bible College in Tulsa, Oklahoma. And the great evangelist, Dr. TL Osborn, he came to teach at the school and I remember that he talked about Thailand and he shared stories about what God had done in Thailand. And one story he told was about a man who was a leper. And this leper came to one of Teal Osborne’s crusades many years ago, late 1950s, early 1960s, somewhere in there. And Jesus healed the leper and then he became a pastor. And when Dr. Osborne came back, he met the man who had been a leper, who is now a pastor. And so he shared this story and I remember that story impacted my life so much and I decided that I would pray and ask God to send me to Thailand to preach the gospel. Now, many years later, I’ve been praying for Thailand and asking God to provide an opportunity for me to preach here and now, here I am, I’m in Thailand. We came to this conference and I discovered that you are the translator
(01:56):
And the leper, the miracle story, the miraculous story of the leper. I found out that story is your father.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (02:06):
Yes.
Evangelist Daniel King (02:06):
And so now tell me the story from your father’s perspective. What did God do in his life?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (02:14):
Yes. When I was young, he told me that he used to be the monk in the Buddhist temple is the monk. And he got saved through something that is very special because he want to kill himself because he very shameful. And then he lost his hope so that he said that because I am got this disease, I cannot be in front of the people. And I lost everything. He lost everything actually, because he want to get healed. That’s why he went to see, that’s long, long time ago. Thailand is medical treatment is not like now this. That’s why he went to many of witch crab doctor and he lost everything until he said that I am going to make a decision that I want to kill myself. So that he tried to kill himself three time. Wow. Yes. And then first time is not success. The second time, not success, but third time almost success,
(03:37):
He went down from my village because my village is in province, northern of Thailand. And he came down from his province and came to city of Xang Mai, one of the city of Xang. They have the big river there across the city and they have bridge. Many people came to that bridge and jumped to the river, kill themselves. And my dad also, he make decision, this is the last time, last choice. So he came down and then he want to jump, but he came from the village late. He arrived the city at night. And then he said, oh, I need to stay overnight here. And then he stay in the market, the market because no hotel, he stay in market. And then in the market, people keep talking about one of the hospital we call Western Hospital that our kings donate, gave the land to the missionary and to set the start hotel there. No, no hospital, special hospital for the labor. And then he also, when he heard this, because at those time Thai people don’t trust the western medicine
Evangelist Daniel King (05:23):
Because
Pastor Richard Sangwien (05:23):
It’s something is news, but it’s something that click, it’s his heart change his mind. What another choice. Maybe my last choice because I went to many doctors, which doctor? Witch graft doctor. And then he said, ah, I might go to western doctor, something like that. In the morning he crossed that bridge, the bridge that he want to jump. And he crossed that. And then he went to the hospital that is a missionary hospital. And then he got saved in that hospital. He gave his life to Jesus at the missionaries,
Evangelist Daniel King (06:10):
Told him about
Pastor Richard Sangwien (06:11):
Jesus. And one of the key, his changes his life is he feel the love of the doctor and nurse who are missionary. They’re not European, but they’re so kind and they’re so gentle and love him and do everything because his hand is like this. And his
Evangelist Daniel King (06:40):
Fingers, the leprosy had caused his fingers to fall off. Yeah, fall off like
Pastor Richard Sangwien (06:44):
This. And then also he got some wool and smell, but the doctor and nurse took care of him very well.
Evangelist Daniel King (06:55):
Wow.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (06:55):
So I said that, wow, why these people, Christian, he heard Christian, but bad name, but why? They are just good person full of love like this. And then it starting open his heart for the gospel. And then the missionary keep continued to share the love in action and also share the gospel. So finally he opened his heart to receive Jesus
Evangelist Daniel King (07:27):
Christ. So then at what point did he go to the Tal Osborne? C.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:32):
And then after that he still have lepers and then
Evangelist Daniel King (07:38):
He still had leprosy, still have.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:43):
And also he have another disease. He have jaundice.
Evangelist Daniel King (07:46):
Jaundice. It makes your skin to become very yellow.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:48):
Very yellow.
Evangelist Daniel King (07:50):
Even
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:50):
Your eyes turned
Evangelist Daniel King (07:51):
Yellow. Yes.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (07:52):
His eye. And he got very serious until he’s so weak and he almost died. So that’s why he made one of missionary over there send him down to T Osborne far away from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Yeah. That’s a lovely way by train. And also because he’s sick, my mom have to come together with him. And so that my mom and my dad have to brought me together with them and with my brothers. And we came down as a family. This is the first time that I met t Osborn and also,
Evangelist Daniel King (08:33):
Wow. How old were you at that time?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (08:36):
About seven
Evangelist Daniel King (08:37):
Years old. A little boy.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (08:38):
Little boy. A little boy.
Evangelist Daniel King (08:39):
And so you came with your father down to the crusade. And at crusade Jesus
Pastor Richard Sangwien (08:45):
Did a miracle. That is the first miracle in our family. And the Lord is saved his life. He almost died very weak. And then my wife carried him to the crusade. And then at that first night in the crusade, his Steve yellow have lepers. And that night, the Lord is did a great miracle in his life and my family.
Evangelist Daniel King (09:17):
Wow.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (09:18):
Yeah. Because when he finished the crusade and he stay in that area, and then when he woke up in the morning, my mom just turned her face to see his face. Saw his face. She surprised. Wow, what’s happening? You look like not yellow. You’re not yellow, and you’re not yellow. The jaundice has been healed, be healed. And she checked with his eye and because his guilt is come back normal, it’s totally, completely healed. And he get the strain come back. And then the leprosy also, the Lord healed him. Totally. And he checked because they have to check the blood. Right. Normal. And so
Evangelist Daniel King (10:08):
After your father was healed of leprosy, he became a pastor.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (10:12):
Then he became a pastor, and actually he became the pastor. And he worked among the leprosy people, the lepers.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:25):
And he planted several churches
Pastor Richard Sangwien (10:27):
Through working with them and then take care of them. And then at that time, he worked with the Finnish mission, full Gospel Finn Mission. And then he shared the gospel and he, whatever, that he got the love from the visionary he learns. And he very impressed at that moment. He did the same thing with all the lepers.
Evangelist Daniel King (10:55):
That’s
Pastor Richard Sangwien (10:55):
Why he planned more than seven churches in two district in northern of Chiang Mai.
Evangelist Daniel King (11:03):
And now you continue the legacy
Pastor Richard Sangwien (11:06):
And
Evangelist Daniel King (11:06):
You are a pastor. What’s the name of your church?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (11:10):
My church name is
Evangelist Daniel King (11:12):
The Be a Blessing church. And tell me about your family because now God is blessing the entire family because of what God did in your father’s life.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (11:20):
Wow. That is great blessing. When I look back, because my dad, his labors, he’s poor, but he have heart for God and he very faithful to serve the Lord. And he has the man of faith and he plant the churches and he keep telling us and toss us about Jesus because we are just only one family in our village to be Christian. Sometime I feel that I am stranger among the friends, but I have seen his faith and his faithfulness to the Lord Jesus and his love is impressed me so much. Well, one day I come and pray to the Lord because I want to see Jesus. I said, I still believe, I still remember that I was 11 years old. I said that, Jesus, if you are real, if you are God, could you please show yourself to me? I can see if I see you.
(12:25):
And now I know that Jesus the same. You’re the God that my father believe I can have experience. So that at that night he don’t show me as I expect, but the holy spirits come to me. I feel with the love of the Lord, and I feel with peace and I totally surrender my life to him. And then I cry and I said that, yes, no, now I know you are real. And then I submit my life to serve the Lord. Because my dad, he always pray that all his kids should be serving God to be the God’s servants. So the Lord answer his prayer.
(13:18):
And from that day until now, more than 50 years ago, I follow Christ and serve the Lord. My church. We have organization. I am taking care about 30 more than 30 churches in Thailand now. And also my family, one of my brother, he’s a pastor, one of the church in my organization and also my dad before he became to be Christian, he have a wife already, but he, because he want to commit himself to die, he want to make the suicide and he throw everything out from his life. So he have one daughter there, daughter with that’s wife. And then when he got saved, he come back and try to converse his ex-wife and his daughter. And finally his daughter got saved. Wow. And then he tried to pray. He told me that he prayed for his daughter seven years. Wow. He prayed for his son-in-law altogether nine year. And then whole family got saved. And this family have one son now. He’s one of the pastor. He’s a great pastor. I think he have one big church here in Thailand. Pastor Liberty Church. At Liberty Church. Yeah. We were there
Evangelist Daniel King (15:12):
For the everyone Thailand conference Conference in February. And it was so beautiful to see what God is doing there. They have such a beautiful building, beautiful facility. God has blessed them in a great
Pastor Richard Sangwien (15:23):
Way.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:24):
And so the miracle that God did in the life of your father has continued down through the generations. Even his story impacting my life. And so I think it’s so neat that now you and I are here together and you are translating when I get to preach the gospel in Thailand, and I believe that this generation that we will see many miracles that will continue for many years to come. Now you also lead a team of intercessors for Thailand. What’s the name of the team?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (15:54):
This team we call intercessor for Thailand.
Evangelist Daniel King (15:58):
Okay. So on my evangelism podcast, I’m asking people to pray for Thailand. Oh,
Pastor Richard Sangwien (16:03):
Wonderful.
Evangelist Daniel King (16:04):
Can you give us some of the key things that people should be praying for as we pray for Thailand?
Pastor Richard Sangwien (16:12):
As everyone know around the word that Christians came, URI came to Thailand for a long, long time. Somebody said, that is a great yacht, the graveyard of missionaries. Yeah. I know that. You pay the price everything. Almost 200 years next on the year of 2028 Easter 200 year, we will celebrate that. But we have just only less than 1% Christianity here in Thailand. So the main key, and we would like every one of you to pray for us in Thailand, is we want to see this nation change. Actually, we have national goal together among the Christian in Protestant in the year of 2028. We want to see 1 million Christians and one and 10,000 churches and 10,000 pastor. Now we have about 600 something plus Christian here. So we need you to pray for us, and we want to see by the year of 2030 2030, we want to see more than 10% of the Thai people become to be Christian.
Evangelist Daniel King (17:36):
Amen.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (17:36):
This is the intercessor in Thailand. We mobilize and we teach them. We encourage them to pray for our nation that the Lord will do. Great thing among us is we want to see that the great revival and Thailand shall be saved and many people will come back to the Lord. So we put our heart and food of faith, we pray for our nation. This is, we want you to order intercessor everywhere in the world. You can pray for us of our national goal. And we want to see, it’s not just only Taal, but we want to see that we break through.
Evangelist Daniel King (18:22):
Amen. Yeah. Well, let’s finish the interview with a prayer for Thailand. Wonderful. We have just one minute left, but can you pray in the Thai language for Thailand to come to
Pastor Richard Sangwien (18:34):
Jesus? Yes. Shall we pray to generation out? Amen. Amen. Hallelujah.
Evangelist Daniel King (20:01):
Thank you Pastor Richard for being on the Evangelism podcast.
Pastor Richard Sangwien (20:04):
You’re welcome. Thank you so much. God bless you.
