Shane and Kayti Salmon
Missionaries to Thailand
January-March 2023
Starting the Year With Baptisms: This year started off with a huge boost of encouragement to our little church as we hosted the first baptisms of BRBC! June, a new believer who trusted Christ during discipleship last year, and a regular attender named Anne were both interested in baptism. Kayti and I met with Anne to discuss the meaning a purpose of baptism, and during that meeting, Anne trusted Christ as her Savior! On our baptism Sunday, I was able to present the Gospel and the meaning of baptism to some who had never seen a baptism. Anne brought her husband and teenage daughters, and it was a great day of celebration! Please join us in praying for these women, that they will continue to seek the Lord and follow Him!
Another Great Session of English: In February we started our first sessions of English classes this year. We saw new adults in the adult class, and two students in particular told us they are very interested in learning more about God. This session was also our best attended children’s English class, with 18 children attending almost every week! Kayti was so thankful to have the help of fellow missionary Ayla Cottrell, Gabriel Long, a college student interning with us, and two of the ladies at our church, Natt and Aor. Kayti says it was the best and most fun English session we’ve had so far! A few of the kids have indicated their interest in the Gospel as well, so please pray for these! Please pray that we will have more opportunities to talk with them, and that they will come back to the church to hear more about the Lord.
One Year of BTBC: On March 19, we celebrated the first anniversary of Bentai Baptist Church! We almost can’t believe it’s been a year! It has truly been a year of blessings and a lot of learning, and we wouldn’t change a thing! To celebrate, we hosted a special anniversary service with games, testimonies, a Gospel presentation and of course, food! We were so thankful to see adults and children from our English classes attend, as well as several parents, some of whom had never stayed for a service before! Several unsaved friends and even a brand new visitor and her son came after finding our church online! It has been really special to stop and look back at all the Lord has done in our church and in our family over the past year. We are so grateful to you for how you have encouraged us, kept up with our progress, prayed for us and financially supported us through it all! It makes such a difference – in our hearts, our ministering and in our church! We pray that the Lord will bless you as you have blessed us.
Medical Missions Outreach: During the last week of March, we had the incredible opportunity to join with Medical Missions Outreach to host a free health clinic in the province of Surin. I was able to team up with a local pastor, Pastor Sadudee, to plan, coordinate logistics for the trip and to cooperate with the Surin Department of Health in securing medicines, locations for the clinic and volunteers to help. In addition to the 56 health professionals who came with MMO, we were thrilled to have missionaries, church members and college students from all over Thailand come to help with the clinic, bringing us to over 100 people serving during the week. Not only was the medical team able to treat over 1,400 patients, but our evangelism team shared the Gospel with every single person, giving them tracts and the Gospel of John as well. We praise the Lord that many requested visits or more information from Pastor Sadudee’s church, Surin Baptist, and that 5 people accepted Christ as their Savior! Please pray with us that the Lord will continue to work through the seeds that have been planted and that even more will come to Christ because of this amazing outreach.