I (Tan was born in a village in the Northeast of Thailand on the Laotian border very close to the Mekhong River. Everyone in my village was Buddhist and when I was young, I believed very deeply in the power of magical Buddhist amulets. These were usually images of monks or my ancestors that I wore around my neck for protection.
After I finished high school, I went with a friend to Bangkok to enroll at Ram 2 University. He arranged for us to stay at a dorm near the campus. I didn’t realize that it was a Christian dorm run by YWAM called House of One Heart (BJD). I wasn’t too happy about it being a Christian place but I didn’t have anywhere else to go. I decided to look for somewhere else to stay but, soon after getting there, I got sick with a high fever. I was very impressed with the way the Christian guys took care of me. I chose to stay at BJD and after some of the Christians told me about Jesus, I decided to pray to accept Him as my Saviour. I still had my amulets and kept them hidden away. Then, as I learned more about God, I began to realize that I didn’t need them anymore and I got rid of them.
During my Discipleship Training School (DTS), I learned how to play guitar and keyboards and was trained in sound engineering. Afterwards, I joined the staff of YWAM Thailand’s new Performing Arts and Worship Ministry. I then took a break to attend the first YWAM School of Worship in Bangkok in February 2004.
Now I am working on recording new Thai music and videos that will spread the Gospel in Thailand and will encourage Thai Christians. It is a privilege to serve the Lord in Thailand. Thank you for your prayers and support!
Dear Friends,
It's been so long since I sent out my last newsletter. In our area it's been so dusty because of the construction on the roads. Praise God that it's been raining the last few weeks because it helps keep the dust down. Hopefully they'll be finished at the beginning of next year.
I have a lot of news this time. First of all I will update you on Taksin. Earlier in the year I had written about him breaking his leg. He has been back in Bangkok with us for about four months. He's walking ok now but is still working on running since they had to put a metal piece in his leg to help it heal.
Please continue to pray for Gai's health. We have been wanting to have a child for three years now and she is still not able to get pregnant. Pray for God's healing and wisdom in this situation.... also, she has a cough that won't go away. She's not sick anymore but because of the dust in the air she can't get rid of the cough. We think when the construction is done that it will help a lot....
Since I've been leading Performing Arts my vision has been to go out to the provinces to bless them with the worship music that the Lord has given our team. The rest of this year we are planning on going out to the North, Northeast, South, and Central of Thailand to share the Thai worship songs that we have composed and worship through dance. Most of the churches still use a lot of translated older music. We will share the music we use so they can begin to use it in their worship times as well as challenge the musicians in their church to improve their worship leading skills. The dance team will spend time with people that have a heart to see dance used in worship in the churches as well. We will be doing a lot of traveling to minister from now until the first of December.
We would love you to pray for us as we prepare the details with the different people putting together the events. Please pray for our transportation, housing, sound systems, and all the finances we'll need during the ministry time. Some of the places have some budget to help but others will not have as much money to help out so we will need to see the Lord's provision in many ways. Thank you for keeping us in prayer about these opportunities to minister.
In December we have the opportunity to travel to the states with Danny Brown. We will have the opportunity to share about ministry as well as some of our music and dance. We will also see many of our supporters in the states. Please keep us in prayer for visas as that is the first step to being able to go. We're planning on going from the beginning of December to the beginning of February. Also pray for the traveling while we're in the states and finances that we'll need...
In the next week or so we'll finish the recording for Shine's worship cd. Then we'll be able to mix and master the cd. Please keep us in prayer that God will anoint us as we finish and that the cd will bring many people to know Him better. After we finish Shine's project I will be working on another Isaan project as well as finishing an Akha project we started many years ago (Akha is a hill tribe in the North of Thailand..they have their own language).
We are hoping to start building in our studio so we can record drums and have an isolation booth. Thank God for his provision as we have money for a new iMac which we will start using after we finish Shine's cd. Our PC is about 7 years old so it's given us it's best years:) We bought an interface that we use for putting the sound in the computer. It's in Canada right now with a friend that was supposed to come on outreach a few months back. The outreach was cancelled when Thailand had political problems. Our friend is coming in October but we would like to get it before then if possible. Please keep this in prayer as well.
Thanks so much for your prayers and support. We would love to hear from you as well.
God bless,
Mixtan and Gai
If you wish to support our ministry through tax deductible donations, please send checks payable to "YWAM Montana" to:
"YWAM Montana, 501 Blacktail Rd., Lakeside, MT 59922, U.S.A.".
Please write "Project 3109" on the memo line and include a separate note indicating that your donation is for "Tan & Gai Srisombat".