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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
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 Anns 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 worlds
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 Asias 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. Thomass 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.
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It doesnt 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 May06. 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 Anns 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 Johnnys 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 Gods work through their faith and their daily lives. I know when they visited St. Thomass 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 Asias Billions or visit www.omf.org. The McCleans also now have their own pictures on www.splashbolog.com/mccleanblog
Rosie Welch
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