Thailand is a nation ripe for revival, and God is on the move! In this episode of the Evangelism Podcast, we hear from Ryan Aitken, a missionary who has experienced firsthand the powerful work of the Holy Spirit in Thailand. Ryan shares his vision for stadiums filled with Thai people running to the feet of Jesus, and how he has been leading gospel outreaches and crusades across the country, seeing thousands come to Christ. Get ready to be inspired and challenged as we explore how God is moving in Thailand, and how you can get involved in reaching this predominantly Buddhist nation for Jesus. The time is now for a great awakening in Thailand!
Support the Ministry of Ryan Aitken: https://www.spiritofrevivalministries.com/
Notes:
- Ryan Aitken is a missionary in Thailand who has a vision to see stadiums filled with Thai people running to the feet of Jesus. He helped organize the “Everyone Thailand” initiative in partnership with the Global Evangelist Alliance.
- The “Evertone Thailand” initiative involves large gospel crusades across Thailand, as well as the use of specialized “gospel trucks” that can be deployed to local events and markets to preach the gospel. Over 1,000 people have responded to the gospel through the gospel truck ministry.
- The goal is to support the Thai church in reaching their nation for Christ, with plans for 21 crusades across the country from November 2022 to April 2023. More gospel trucks are being built to support this effort.
- Donations are being sought to sponsor the gospel trucks, with each one costing $50,000 to build and equip. The vision is to have a gospel truck visit every province in Thailand.
- The ministry is also focused on training and raising up Thai evangelists through schools of evangelism to support the outreach efforts.
Transcript:
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:00):
Welcome to the Evangelism Podcast. I’m Daniel King. I’m very excited about telling people about Jesus. And today I have a very special guest with me, Ryan Aiken from
Ryan Aitken (00:12):
South Africa.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (00:12):
South Africa. Married to an American and now we are together in the nation of Thailand. And so God is moving here. Ryan, tell me a little bit about what brought you here to the nation of Thailand.
Ryan Aitken (00:25):
Yeah, so it was 2018 when I came out and did, I was invited out to do ministry in Thailand, actually at a local church here in Bangkok. We did a healing conference and God really moved and in that time I saw a vision actually of stadiums all across Thailand being filled with Thai people. And then I saw them running to the feet of Jesus, hundreds of thousands of people. And God spoke to my heart and said, I want to bring a move of God in Thailand, which is only 1% Christian about, there’s a debate on that, but I want to bring a move of God to Thailand that would be a witness to the rest of the Southeast Asia, what God can do. And so then, yeah, then we made plans as my family now we then left California and then moved to Thailand and so been here since then.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:14):
And so you are also a graduate of the Christ for All Nations Evangelism Bootcamp. And I was one of the teachers there.
Ryan Aitken (01:22):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (01:23):
So I’m so excited about the fruit that God has given you here. I feel like God will give me one or two little diamonds every time you get someone saved in my crown in heaven. Amen. But it’s just so wonderful to see what God is doing through your ministry. You’ve been starting to do gospel outreaches throughout Thailand. So tell me about that. What have you been seeing God do?
Ryan Aitken (01:46):
Yeah, so I was here before Covid and then I was then stuck in America during Covid and I was like, God, wow, am I stuck in America? And so at that time I was coming across a post on YouTube of the advertisement from C Fan for the bootcamp, and the God said, this is why I brought you back to America during Covid. So that’s when I did the bootcamp and then straight after that I feel like I received a grace then to do these crusades in Thailand. And so I came back to Thailand. We purchased a very large gospel truck, kind of like a transformer truck. And we then started doing these large crusades around Thailand. We’ve done numerous, numerous crusades in different cities all across the nation. Were literally thousands of people receiving the Lord. And at that time we also felt burdened to raise up the next generation of evangelists. So we started a school of evangelism here and we now have right now running our sixth school of evangelism up in the northern part of Thailand. So we are both actively really going for it with the gospel from one-on-one on the streets to the large crusades and raising up the next generation of Thai evangelists.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (02:58):
So it was about 18 months ago, we were together in Jakarta, Indonesia at a meeting of the Global Evangelist Alliance, empower 21. And the goal of the Empower 21 is to reach everyone on earth with authentic encounter with Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit before 2033, the 2000 year anniversary of the first day of Pentecost, and then the resurrection, the ascension of Jesus up into heaven. And so this is a massive initiative to reach people all over the world. And so the Global Evangelist Alliance is like the tip of the spear going into different nations and evangelizing. And every year we’re choosing one or two different countries to focus on. So last year we did El Salvador and saw God do amazing things in El Salvador. El Salvador is a small country, 6 million people, but we had 34% of the nation that was actually in our services face-to-face, 250,000 people that got saved and 4,000 plus churches that participated. So we saw God do amazing things in El Salvador, but we were there in Jakarta, Indonesia, and we started to pray what would be the next nation that God would give us to focus on? And Mattias Vander Stein came, he had just come from Thailand and went and visited so many churches and provinces across this nation and he gave us a report and we started to pray about what God would have us do and we felt like the Holy Spirit gave a resounding shout of yes to Thailand.
(04:38):
And you remember that moment? Yeah. It was really a divine moment. The Holy Spirit came into the room, we started to worship God together and the churches here in Thailand have been praying for God to send revival for so many years. And many missionaries have worked here, many ministries have worked here, but I think it’s a new day for Thailand. There is a new openness for people to hear the gospel and the churches have a project called Love Thailand where they are focused on winning people to Jesus over the next decade. And so we really felt like God called us here an answer to the prayers of the churches of Thailand. And that was wonderful. And so immediately the Global Evangelist Alliance started working to develop relationships throughout the country. And then in February of this year, we had a wonderful conference, everyone, Thailand, and I forget all the numbers, but it’s like 2,500 people who came, about 1200 churches represented at everyone Thailand. And the people were just so enthusiastic. We had such wonderful times of worship and praying for Thailand. And so it’s really beautiful to see what God is doing. And you’re very involved in organizing and the setup of it. Tell us some of kind of the anticipation of what you feel God is going to do during this next season here in Thailand. That’s a long story.
(06:15):
Wanted to get through it so we could just celebrate what God is doing here.
Ryan Aitken (06:18):
So the love Thailand one network has really been burden for to reach Thailand, but up until this point they really didn’t know how to do it. And then all of a sudden God then puts it on our heart of the GA to come and then join hands with the local tar churches to see the vision that ultimately God already impregnated the tar people
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (06:44):
With. Really, I think it’s important to point out that we are coming with a spirit of servanthood and not saying this is what we want to do, but to say God has been putting this on your heart. How can we serve the Thai church and be a part of what God has put on your heart to do?
Ryan Aitken (07:02):
Yeah, God had really been working in their hearts. And so us coming now to join arms with them to see their nation turn to the Lord is really something that many say. This is what we’ve been praying for decades, is this opportunity where the internationals and the nationals join arms to see this harvest. And so we are really excited. Our crusade season begins in November this year going through till next year, April. And as of now we have 21 crusades planned all across the nation, every district of the nation. And we really believe that more and more crusades will be added as we go along, but we really feel
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (07:44):
So if you’re listening and you have a heart to come to Thailand, there is something for you to do here. Amen. We want to get you involved, we want to get you plugged in. And so reach out to my ministry, Daniel King, go to the everyone thailand.com for more information about it. But if you want to be a part of it, we want you to be involved. So we are calling the entire body of Christ. There’s place for pastors to be involved, for evangelists to be involved, for discipleship ministries, for prayer ministries. We are calling the entire body of Christ to focus on Thailand over the course of this next year because we believe God’s going to do something magnificent here.
Ryan Aitken (08:30):
Yeah, definitely. All hands on deck. When God highlights a nation like Thailand, we really want to come and do what God’s doing. So if you’re free and available, join us to see Thailand saved. It really is Thailand’s Tom. Amen.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (08:45):
Okay, so part of the strategy for everyone Thailand is gospel trucks.
(08:51):
So at everyone Thailand conference in February, you had the first gospel truck built and it was parked right out front in front of the conference, and it’s this truck, it’s like the size of a bread truck and it has the side that transforms into a platform. So you just put the side of the truck down and you can preach from that. And then it has a sound system that’s attached to it with a generator. And so this truck can go anywhere across Thailand to preach the gospel. And I saw people coming into the conference and they were so excited. Everybody wanted to take a picture with the truck. They were so excited. And when they heard the vision of using the gospel truck to go out and witness here, everyone was so excited about it. Here in Thailand, there are many night markets.
Ryan Aitken (09:41):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (09:42):
So this truck is the perfect tool to pull up to a night market. Everyone’s out there in the cool of the night shopping, you just put the side down, have a band from one of the local churches begin to minister, and people gather together and then you can share the gospel with them. And so there’s one gospel truck and you have already been using it, but we actually need a fleet of gospel trucks to really impact this nation. So tell us kind of what results you’ve seen with the truck that has already been built and what are you doing with it?
Ryan Aitken (10:18):
Yeah, so the one that we’ve already been built has been going literally every week out doing outreaches in different places around Thailand. And it’s been incredible. Just this month alone, we reached over a thousand people with the gospel and with over 250 people receiving the Lord and then being placed into the local churches. And we really feel the wind of the Holy Spirit on this project because the miracles have been incredible. The first ever gospel truck, there was a gentleman there that had a tumor on his neck and he couldn’t speak. He was in a lot of trouble. He couldn’t eat, couldn’t drink properly. And during the very first gospel truck, the power of God touched him and that tumor shrank. And then we did another gospel truck in a different area and he came on the second gospel truck event to come and testify, saying that now he’s speaking, the tumors has disappeared, he’s eating, he’s drinking, and his life has literally been plucked from death.
(11:20):
So we have then been seen a flood of incredible miracles like gland eyes opening, deaf ears opening, all to point to the authenticity of the gospel message that has been preached from these small gospel truck events. This first truck that we’ve launched has been a massive success, really. It has a lot of the, we don’t need many churches, but we just need a few and we can do it year round during the rainy season, and it’s not a lot of preparation to try and put it up. And I would say the big factor is different from a large crusaders in a large crusade, we are inviting people to come to our event and we put on, musicians are playing, we’re giving away prizes, but with the small gospel trek, we go to them and we need both forms of evangelism to reach this nation.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:13):
And this is a great way for local churches to get involved in evangelism. It gives them a part that they can play.
Ryan Aitken (12:19):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:20):
Then we’re training up evangelists. You’re doing schools of evangelism and training up evangelists, and so we need places to send them. So this gospel truck is going to be a tool that is going to be tremendously effective in reaching people for Jesus here in Thailand. And so you have one, but you have more coming. Tell me about what’s coming.
Ryan Aitken (12:38):
Yeah, so we have another four more, actually there’s four more are being modified right now. So
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (12:45):
The process has
Ryan Aitken (12:46):
Already started. It’s already started. So there will be done by the end of April. And then at the end of April we then we have selected four more evangelists that have a team and strategic places around Thailand to begin to bless that region, those provinces in that region with the gospel truck ministry. So every church in Thailand has the ability to sign up to invite a gospel truck team to come. And as of now, we are in station one in the north of Thailand, the northeast, sorry, the southwest central and then the south of Thailand. So we are spreading out the gospel trucks.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (13:27):
So my province that I’ve been assigned, so for everyone Thailand, we’ve divided the nation up into about 20 different areas where large crusades will take place with evangelists coming. And so I was assigned to the province of piston, did I say that right?
(13:47):
Yeah. We are going to do a gospel truck there. I’m going to be doing an evangelism training school at the end of July. And then we will send a gospel truck there that they will, the churches are going to start using it to evangelize that entire region of Thailand. And so in my province there’s 95, and so I’m going to challenge the local churches to do an outreach in every single one of the 95 Subdistricts between August to February when we’re going to do a big crusade there in that city. And so by the time we do the crusade, we will be able to say that we have done evangelism throughout the entire region, but we don’t have a gospel truck yet built for my region. And so I am praying that God would put it on someone’s heart to sponsor a gospel truck for the region of Pi Lu. And so what does it cost to build and then to run it for equip,
Ryan Aitken (14:53):
Equip
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (14:53):
And equip it.
Ryan Aitken (14:54):
So the cost is $50,000 for the truck and it’s a brand new truck. So there’s longevity that for many years to come, we can use it. And that includes the customizing of the stage and all of the equipment. So obviously you need the sound desks and the musicians need the instruments and everything that needs to the lights, the speakers, everything for the running of the small gospel trucks. So the total is $50,000.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:18):
Okay, so for my district, we’re going to do 95 outreaches and we need $50,000 to build a gospel truck for the province of piston ou.
Ryan Aitken (15:29):
And
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (15:29):
So I want to ask you to pray about being a part of that. Maybe you could do the 50,000, maybe you could do 10,000, maybe you could do a thousand, but if we had 50 people that would do a thousand each, we can build a gospel truck for piston ou. But if you want to do that, go to my website king ministries.com and donate today for the gospel truck in piston loo. But then we also need more. Right now you’re already working on five, but there’s actually 77 provinces here in Thailand. And this is a big faith goal, but I think the faith goal is that we could have a gospel truck for every single province across this nation. And so maybe you could do five gospel trucks or you could sponsor 10 gospel trucks, that’d be half a million dollars. But this is going to have long-term impact because for many years to come, these gospel trucks are going to be going from place to place sharing the gospel, and it’s going to be a tool that the local churches can use to reach out to the nation of Thailand.
Ryan Aitken (16:39):
Exactly.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:40):
And so we need your help. Please help us to send gospel trucks to Thailand. We need a fleet of gospel trucks. Go check out the website everyone thailand.com. You can see the whole vision there of what God is doing here in the nation, but we want to invite you to be a part.
Ryan Aitken (16:57):
Yeah.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (16:59):
Okay. And so tell me more about the plans coming up over the course of this next year. What are some of the outreaches that everyone Thailand is going to be doing
Ryan Aitken (17:11):
From, basically from now until October is the, we’re entering into the rainy season. So we’re not doing any large crusade events, but we are focusing now on the large crusade planning and also the equipping of the saints and really the raising of the evangelists in Thailand. So we are now going into the phase of training and you mentioned that you’re going to be doing the training I think in
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (17:34):
July. In
Ryan Aitken (17:35):
July.
(17:36):
And so that is the phase that we are in. We’re going to do evangelism training, discipleship training, Jean-Luc Skel and his ministries. They’re going to be doing the healing and deliverance training and preparation for all the crusades. And then as soon as we hit November, I believe the first crusade is going to be in the city of brewery room with Pastor Henry Ava and Pastor Henry Ava has done many crusades in the past in Thailand. And we really believe this will be a big, big explosion that would hopefully send ripple effects through the nation of excitement for all the next 20 other crusades that would take place. So that’s what we’re looking at. And for the rest of the year, we are now also parallel with that launching the small gospel truck project continuously.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (18:23):
And so we are so excited about what God is doing here in Thailand and we really feel like this is God’s time for Thailand, that God is opening heaven over this nation and pouring out his glory. And so I want to invite you to be praying for Thailand, pray that God would give us a great harvest of souls here in this place. Pray that many people would be saved, pray for discipleship to happen. Now one of the main questions that evangelists get is what do you do about follow-up? And I really like the follow-up plan with the gospel truck because right on the gospel truck really big, you have a QR code. And when someone scans the QR code, they instantly get access to many resources to help them grow as a new believer, to learn more about the story of Jesus and then will be able to continue to follow up on the people that get saved. And so tell us some about, it’s pretty sophisticated actually, but tell us about the follow-up plan with the QR code.
Ryan Aitken (19:32):
So we have the QR code both at the crusade events and the small gospel trucks. And anybody that’s signs up through it, they go in through a program led by jesus.net. I dunno if you guys are familiar with that ministry, but they’re really focused on then helping people in their new beginnings with Jesus, their first discipleship phrases. But also if the person has not yet made a decision for Jesus, they also facilitate them on a journey till they make the decision for Jesus. And ultimately they link up with a call center where somebody is personally discipling them and then leading them to a local church. So this isn’t addition to the more traditional ways where as soon as the pastors and the churches receive the information, they follow up the new believers. This is an addition to that. So this is something that we are now implementing into the everyone talent project as brand new. Traditionally we only focus on those that receive the Lord, but this actually focusing on those that have not quite ready to receive the Lord. They just need some more information connection and then that would lead them to the Lord. So this is brand new
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (20:43):
In here in Thailand. It’s such a small percentage that are Christian. That is actually a really big decision for someone to decide to follow Jesus. And sometimes it takes a process to get them to that point. And so wherever we are, sometimes we plow the ground, sometimes we sow seeds, sometimes we water the seeds and God is the one who gives the harvest.
Ryan Aitken (21:05):
Yeah, exactly.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:06):
So wherever they are on the journey, we want to take people from step to step until they become a follower of Jesus and know the peace that only Jesus can give.
Ryan Aitken (21:16):
Yeah, exactly.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (21:17):
So Ryan, you are living here as a missionary in Thailand. You need people to support you, to help you with the crusades and the outreaches that you’re doing. If someone wants to support your ministry, what is your website? How can they get more information about you?
Ryan Aitken (21:34):
So we have a website called spirit of revival ministries.com. And if you just go onto that website, it has all the information of what we are doing of the schools that we host for the local people. We have an online school, we do evangelism training in India and other countries. And then if you feel like you want to join the team and partner with us, we would be more than welcome. The more that we have partnership, the more we can do as it is with the ministry.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:03):
Amen. Well, let’s finish by praying together for the nation of Thailand and pray that God would send a great harvest here. Would you like to?
Ryan Aitken (22:11):
Yeah, let’s pray. Father, we want to thank you for Thailand and we thank you yes,
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (22:16):
Lord,
Ryan Aitken (22:16):
That it is Thailand’s time and God that your eyes are on Thailand right now and we thank you for all the preparation that has been taking place that the local churches in Thailand are rising up to the occasion and they’re seeing that it is harvest time in Thailand. And so Lord, we just submit this project that everyone Thailand project into your hands, Lord. And we ask, just like the seed that gets sown in different types of soil, we declare that this seed of the everyone Thailand project in Thailand would produce a crop 60, 80, a hundred fold that Lord at the end of, sorry, next April, that we would see something that would be extraordinary above and beyond what we could think or imagine that we would see a nation turning to you. So Lord, we just thank you for this Lord, and we pray that as pastors and leaders and evangelists from around the world link up arms to form a massive net, that we would see millions receive Jesus over the next 12 months, God we love you and we give you all the glory and we thank you for what you’re doing.
Evangelism Coach Daniel King (23:22):
Amen. Thank you for being on the Evangelism podcast.
Ryan Aitken (23:25):
Yeah, it’s an honor. Thank you, Daniel.
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