Mccleans
St Thomas' Brampton and St Peter's Holymoorside, Chesterfield
Johnny and Ann McClean and Family
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Johnny and Ann McClean and their children Matthew, Bethan and Joshua are our link missionary in Thailand. They are working for the Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF). Here are some of the articles about their work taken from the Church Magazine.

2006 Our New OMF Partners: The McClean Family
2006 Thai Tea Party
2007 One Year on from the Thai Tea Party
2009 Thai Ties

Our New OMF Partners: The McClean Family (June 2006 edition of magazine)

By the time you are reading this we will have welcomed our new Overseas Missionary Fellowship link family Johnny and Ann McClean, Matthew (4), Bethan (2) and Joshua (4 months) for a weekend visit on 20th/21st May. See pictures here.

They are about to return to Central Thailand where they work as mission partners for OMF as a Christian witness among 20,000 students on a university campus. Thailand is mainly Buddhist and has several different ethnic groups. Johnny and Ann’s work is in supporting and encouraging the local Christian fellowships and in sharing and explaining the Christian message.

We have supported OMF (formerly China Inland Mission) at St Thomas’ for several years, involved in mission work in SE Asia and the Far East, sometimes in places where there is limited access to Westerners. The organisation was founded in 1865 by James Hudson Taylor who was one of the first missionaries to travel to China. The organisation now has as its aims:
  • Serving the church and bringing the Gospel to some 12 countries in SE Asia
  • Indigenous church planting among all the people-groups
  • Pioneering ministry in other SE Asian countries
  • Placing Christians with professional skills in China and elsewhere
  • Sharing the love of Christ with SE Asians worldwide, including the many thousands of SE Asian students in the UK
As the great commission in Matthew ch.28 was to preach the good news to all nations, we support mission work, in prayer and financially, in all parts of the world.

The Far East represents a massive proportion of the world’s population, with great areas where the gospel has not been heard, as well as considerable areas of poverty.

With greater globalisation, it is also likely to be an increasing economic, cultural and political influence in the world. OMF has over 1300 workers from 30 countries who face big language and cultural challenges and meet some opposition. OMF offers short-term visits and cultural insights as well as longer term opportunities.

The OMF quarterly magazine “East Asia’s Billions” has information on the work of the mission partners and on different issues and countries. A copy is available at the back of St. Thomas’ or visit www.omf.org.

Thai Tea Party (August 2006 edition of magazine)

On May 20th & 21st St. Thomas’s welcomed the McClean family, Johnny and Ann with Matthew (4), Bethan (2), and Joshua (3months), as our new link mission partners working with Overseas Mission Fellowship in Central Thailand.

We had a Thai-theme Tea Party (but English food!) attended by over 40 people, with games including pin the tail on the elephant, quizzes and a Thai story, followed by a bring-andshare tea.

The McClean family were with us at all three services on the Sunday, including joining in Discoverers, sharing about Thailand, Thai people and culture, and their work among the student population in Central Thailand, where, in the city they work in there are only 30 known Christians among 20 000 students.

We heard of some of the challenges of being a Christian in the Thai culture, and some of the challenges of working among people with belief systems which differ fundamentally from our Western ideas, but where the same One True Creator God and the message of salvation through Jesus are still relevant to all.

In July the McClean family return to Thailand for 4 years to continue their work and develop new areas. As a church, we hope to continue our link through news- and prayer letters, and to support them in prayer and practically over the coming years. Look out for updates at the back of St. Thomas'.

Thai Tea Party -One Year On (August 2007 edition of magazine)

Rosie Welch updates us on the McClean family –our OMF link missionaries.
McCleans It doesn’t seem more than a year since we were welcoming our new Overseas Missionary Fellowship (OMF) link family Johnny and Ann McClean, Matthew (now 5), Bethan (3) and Joshua (16months) for a weekend visit and a family Thai Tea Party in May‘06. They were then about to return to Central Thailand where they work as mission partners for OMF (Overseas Mission Fellowship) as a Christian witness among 30,000 students on a university campus. Thailand is mainly Buddhist and has several different ethnic groups. Johnny and Ann’s work is in supporting and encouraging the local Christian fellowships and in sharing and explaining the Christian message.
Since going back to Thailand in July ‘06 they have had a busy time: significant events have included:
• Adjusting to Thai life after 6months in the UK;

• Due to staffing changes, re-locating to Nakhon Sawan, a city from where they can also support the student workers in the cities of Lopburi and Phitsanalok. They moved in and within days opened their home as a Youth House: a base for evangelistic Bible studies, English club, homework club, Christian Union meetings;

• Developing and leading their “Trained 2 Serve” programme for Christian students, some going on to student outreach work;

• Christmas Camp with 55 students including Christian believers, Buddhists and some Chinese exchange students, 3 later coming to faith;

• Matthew starting Thai infant school in mornings as well as English home school in the afternoons, joined by Bethan. Josh gaining teeth and mobility!;

• A calling to a change of direction towards more leadership, training and mentoring (reluctantly reducing face-to-face student work), to equip and sustain Thai workers. They are negotiating to expand the Trained 2 Serve Course nationally in conjunction with Thai International Federation of Evangelical Students (IFES/TCS).

There has also been a coup – thankfully fairly peaceful – as well as major floods. Church groups have visited from Nottingham and from New Zealand and helped with the work, especially at busy times of the new term and the Christmas camp.

They have mourned the death of Johnny’s grandmother in Northern Ireland, and mourned with close Thai friends and co-workers when they lost close family members. They have supported ill friends and people in distress, and been supported through a busy and challenging year by their Christian family, both Thai and other nationalities. They have prayed for more workers, and seen prayers gradually answered; prayed for help with their home, (which is the open Youth House for all the Christian students and anyone wanting to know about their faith), and have been blessed to find Nok, a Christian woman with a small child in need of work, who is now part of their team though from a totally different background to the students.

Johnny and Ann have had a welcome 2-week holiday followed by a retreat with their team, preparing to launch into their new academic year starting in mid-June…..just when we were getting ready to break up! They have many new plans and creative ideas for communicating the Gospel message in a different culture.

So they continue to “talk the talk” and “walk the walk”, witnessing God’s work through their faith and their daily lives. I know when they visited St. Thomas’s many were challenged by their enthusiasm and eagerness to communicate across language and cultural divides. Many remarked that we have similar considerable culture and language barriers in our own country and our daily experience. As they are in Thailand, perhaps we should all be alert for fresh ways to explain and demonstrate our faith in our words and actions every day.

If you would like to keep up with the McClean family and receive their monthly prayer e-mail, please contact me. Updates about their, and other OMF work is available at the back of St. Thomas’ on the world mission notice board – look out for the magazine East Asia’s Billions or visit www.omf.org. The McCleans also now have their own pictures on www.splashbolog.com/mccleanblog

Rosie Welch

Thai Ties -One Year On (February 2009 edition of magazine)

Thailand has been in the news a lot recently. There was the occupation of Bangkok airport by protestors demanding government changes. Then there was the devastating fire in a night-club at New Year.

St Thomas’ church has had more personal links with Thailand over the last two and a half years with our link mission partners Johnny and Ann McClean and their children Matthew, Bethan and Joshua.

Johnny and Ann have been in Thailand for around ten years with OMF International (Overseas Mission Fellowship), a Christian mission organisation working throughout South East Asia.

The family visited us in Chesterfield in May 2006 and we had a wonderful weekend, including a Thai Tea Party with lots of games and quizzes to introduce us to Thai culture, as well as the family taking part in and leading and preaching at our Sunday services and activities. They returned to the universities of central Thailand, where they work with students, introducing the students to the Christian message, sharing and showing them God’s love in action, and encouraging Thai Christian students and churches.

A lot of their work has been in the training of student workers and leaders, in the university cities of Lopburi, Nakhon Sawan and Phitsanalok. However more recently they have been leading ‘Trained2serve’ courses and conferences across Thailand, and liaising with other Christian organisations.

The McClean family currently live in Nakhon Sawan but over the years have moved several times between the university cities. Their home has also served as office, refuge, training school and youth centre.

As a ‘Youth House’ they offered their home and hospitality, welcoming students interested in Christianity, new and mature Christians and those just wanting to improve their English. The family all speak Thai, and the children attend Thai school as well as having home schooling in English. As well as working with teams of local students, Johnny and Ann work with other OMF partners and many visiting short-term partners from many parts of the world (including a link church in Nottingham).

Recent events have included a Christmas camp with over 90 students attending, six two-hour sessions on the meaning of Christmas in the local technical college, each attended by 60-80 students, acquiring a new Youth House building. (The family have some of their home to themselves.) Matthew (7) has started Thai junior school, Bethan (5) is trying to decide if she is Irish or Thai at kindergarten and Joshua (nearly 3) sounds like he is getting into everything.

At the time of writing we are looking forward to a visit from a local OMF representative, Chris Thomas. He is currently based in Doncaster, but has worked in Thailand and Singapore. He hopes to be with us on Sunday 15th February, and we look forward to strengthening St Thomas’ links with OMF, and to hearing about, and being challenged by, the work of OMF and the call to sharing the gospel message.

When the McCleans visited us, many were challenged by Johnny and Ann as they described sharing the Christian message in such a different culture, with all the issues of Buddhist beliefs: what are the essentials of our faith and how do we communicate them –which are actually the same issues we all face every day.

Finally if anyone would like information on short-term mission trips (especially for students/ gap years) it is available from the OMF website: www.omf.org.uk or contact me.

Rosie Welch (link contact for OMF at St Thomas’)