Heather travelled to Thailand in January 2009 to visit team members Adrian and Jenny Oliver and Andrew and Esther May who are living in Chiang Mai with their families and serving God in various ways.

 

Jenny & Adrian Oliver live in Chaing Mai and among other things co-ordinate Powerpack in south east Asia.  Jenny has been involved with Powerpack since the beginning and she and her family are now actively involved in events and encouraging children in prayer and mission.  A significant project is the Hoay Maw Children's Home for which the Oliver family are encouraging support both in prayer and finance. 

Heather led a mini-conference at a centre in the far north of Thailand. She taught the Bible School students, who are from a hill-tribe group,for 3 hours in the morning giving them a vision for children's ministry which will equip them them to influence their own communities and beyond. This was followed in the afternoon by a Children's conference with about 60 children and the students. It was very difficult to finish and leave at the end when the Holy Spirit was moving powerfully in the students and children alike. opened some amazing doors and significant connections were made.

 

Ignite Children's Ministry Conference, Chiang Mai

This conference was the culmination of significant planning and preparation and exceeded our expectations. The previous year Heather had led a one day training conference for 50 leaders. This year the conference started with leaders training on the Friday evening and Saturday morning and continuing with a children's conference in the afternoon and evening. 93 leaders and 127 children attended. The vision of the leaders was expanded as to how God can work in and through children. The children attended a chosen workshop on one of Dance, Drama, Worship, Preaching, Prayer or the Prophetic and then in the evening celebration, the children demonstrated what they had learned. The Holy Spirit was moving in both leaders and children. The children from Ban San Faan (children's home) formed a bi-lingual worship team.

 

There has been significant positive feedback including how churches and ministries have been envisioned to develop their children's work in the coming year. There is a feeling that a children's ministry network will develop from this and that further events will be forthcoming. The event felt more like a launch-pad than an end itself.

�Thanks so much for having Heather come again and minister not only to the children, but also to us. It was such a blessing! God made me see and understand a lot of things about the prophetic that I did not know or understand before. I believe He wants me to be less timid in this area, which is new for me! I also received a fresh vision of what we should be doing with the children on Sundays and I'm excited about that.�

Visions of Heaven and Hell in Om Koi

Heather and Jenny were keen to learn more and hoped to �catch some of the fire'. As we talked with our host, she really seemed quite low key and referred to some things had happened in this village or that. We decided that maybe things weren't happening in this place and so resigned ourselves to lead our sessions and return home for a rest. It was a beautiful setting in the remote mountains. Heather taught the Bible students in the afternoon for 2 hrs. In the evening, we led a 2hr session for students and children together. To finish, we got the children to line up to make a fire tunnel. The students walked through whilst the children prayed for them. Then we asked the students to stand behind the children to pray. It was then that �the fire fell'�. Several children, mainly girls, began sobbing and wailing. Some shaking violently, shaking and blowing on their hands as if they were burning. Some fell to the floor, some writhed on the floor. We could only stand back and observe as this was outside our experience.

After about 40 minutes, students and children who weren't so affected went to bed and we had an opportunity to interview the children about what they had experienced. Each story was individual but common threads included visions of heaven and of hell, receiving God's fire and being asked to pass on the fire. We enquired whether this was common. Our host said that occasionally if they really pressed in, but not to that intensity or with so many children affected.It was an experience that reminded us of the book 'Visions Beyond the Veil' by H.E. Baker which is available in the book section of our online shop.

 

Resources

There are plans to get some of the Powerpack resources translated into Thai. Please contact us if you would like further information.